Little Red

Paranoia

     The next morning, you wake up alone. Kye had already left. You walk downstairs, finding several people on the couch. Three people were watching the news. The blonde girl on the couch was the first to notice you. 

     "Hey. You're Kye's friend, right?" She asked, smiling at you. Her question draws the attention of the other two, both of them looking over at you. 

     You don't hear the question as you watch the news. A reporter was at the park, talking about the murders that had happened a few hours earlier.

     "Are you okay?" The girl asked again, looking at you with concern. 

     "Oh. Uh. Yeah. I'm fine," you said, tearing your gaze from the tv to the people in front of you. 

     "Okay. Anyways, I'm Maria. He's Jamie," Maria said motioning to a guy with long, wavy, bright green hair and gleaming grey eyes. He gave a short wave.

     "They're Ace," Maria continued, pointing to the person next to Jamie. They had short, light blue hair and dull brown eyes. They smiled, also giving a short wave. 

     "It's y/n, right?" Ace said, their voice airy. 

     "Yup. That's me," you said, fiddling with a loose string on the sweatshirt you were wearing. 

     "Kye talks about you all the time," Ace said with a chuckle. At the same time he said that, Kye walked in.

     Ace waved at Kye as he continued to say, "Two other people live here. Onyx and Val. They're constantly out of the house, so you probably won't see them." 

     You nod in response, moving to lean on the couch. From your previous spot, you were visible from the window. You had the strong feeling of being watched.

     After a while of chatting, you went back up to Kye's room. As you walk over to the desk to sit down, you notice Kye's sketchbook lying on his bed. It wasn't there before, was it? You walk over to his bed, grabbing the notebook. You sit at his desk, debating whether or not you should look at it. 

     After a few moments you decide to look at it, opening the sketchbook to a random page. A featureless person was in the middle of the page with the word no lining the sides. You turned through a couple more pages, finding things like, 'Always Watches. No Eyes', 'Can't Run', and 'Help Me'. Most of the pictures have drawings of trees or the person from the first page. You look through his drawings in concern. 

     With every page you turn, you could feel a headache steadily getting worse. The faint sound of static adds to your headache. You turn back to the first page you saw. Looking down at the notebook, a drop falls onto the page, dyeing the head of the figure a crimson red. You curse as you set the sketchbook down, going to the bathroom to grab tissue. You didn't think much of the headache, or sudden bloody nose, but the static was different. All you could think about was how Kye had said he heard a staticky sound when he was in the forest.

     After your nose stopped bleeding, you left the room to get some water. Walking down the stairs, you could hear Kye, Jamie, Maria, and Ace talking. You said hi to Kye as you walked past. Grabbing a water bottle, you walk back upstairs. 

     Opening the room to the door, you muttered, "Dammit. I forgot my water." Closing the door, you walk back downstairs. 

     "Let's go. We gotta get out," you whispered, as you walked past the group to the front door. Confused, everyone got up and followed you to Kye's car. 

     "Someone's in the house," was all you said before getting into the driver's seat. Kye sat in the front seat, leaving the other three to get in the back. As soon as they were in you pulled out of the driveway and started to drive towards the downtown area. 

     "What happened?" Kye asked.

     "Your sketchbook was open on your desk. Then I left. When I came back it was closed on your night stand," you said bluntly. Ever since the three murderers broke into your house, you were more attentive and cautious.

     "We all left because a sketchbook wasn't in the right place?" Jamie asked, exasperated.      

     "Look, I have multiple people trying to kill me right now, three of which have broken into my house before. If I didn't notice small details like that, I'd be dead by now," you said.

     "So you decided to stay with us instead?" Jamie yelled. He was understandably mad. 

     "Oh. You know what. In hindsight, that was a bad move. My bad," you replied, genuinely feeling guilty. Before Jamie could make another remark, Maria interrupted him. 

     "No one else saw him," she muttered, terror clear in her voice. 

     "Who?" You asked.

     "Their face. It- It was terrible. They had a smile cut on their face. There were dark circles around their eyes. I- I don't think they had eyelids," Maria said. You glance at her through the rearview mirror. She looked terrified, staring straight at the road ahead. Her eyes wide, fear clearly visible. Ace, who sat to her right, wrapped their arm around her in an attempt to comfort her. They looked as scared as Maria, but hid it better.

     You think back to the night before, realizing the person that broke into the house was the guy that hid in the bushes with you. You gripped the steering wheel tighter in annoyance. That bastard was fucking with you. He had plenty of chances to kill you, but he didn't. He was messing with you, keeping you on edge in his sick idea of a game.

     "Oh shit. Someone needs to call Onyx and Val, tell them not to go home. And the cops. I don't have my phone," Jamie said. Ace nodded, pulling his phone out his pocket. He called Onyx, who was luckily with Val, and explained the situation to them. At the same time, Kye called the cops. 

     "They're going to check the house out. They want us to head to the station," Kye said after hanging up. You sighed, you didn't want to go back to the police station. 

     By the time everyone left the station, the sun was already setting. A couple of police officers went back to the house, looking through it one last time. Everyone was still on edge, but tried to act calm. As soon as the cops left, everyone locked all windows and doors, double checking none were missed. 

     The next few days were uneventful. Nobody had forgotten the incident that had occurred, but everyone let down their guard a little. 

     You sat on the couch with Jamie and Kye. Maria laid on  Jamie and Kye as she went through different channels. Ace, Onyx, and Val sat on the floor in front of the couch. After watching a couple of movies, Maria was looking for something else to watch. After a few minutes, she settled on the news.

     It was another murder. You gasped as you recognized the person. It was the guy that had approached you at the police station. You felt bad for him. He had managed to survive the attack at the park, only to be killed nearly a week later. Maria was about to change the channel, but you stopped her. You wanted to know more about what happened. Something about it felt off. 

     The reporter went on to mention the correlation to the murders at the park the previous week. Eventually, she mentioned he was shot. You felt worried, paranoid. Were they going after the people that escaped? It couldn't be, could it? You thought back to Hoodie. It couldn't be him. No. It was- it had to be a coincidence.  Kye noticed the nervous look on your face. He reached over, giving your hand a comforting squeeze. 

     The next day, you watched the news again. There was another murder. Another person from the park. You kept telling yourself it was nothing more than a coincidence, even though you knew that wasn't true.

     You checked the news everyday. Two days later there was another murder. That kept happening for the rest of the month. Every couple of days there was another murder. With each murder, you realized there was a greater chance of being the one on the news. You felt more paranoid as time passed. You would go to school then go back home, scared to stay out. You knew they could easily break in, but being at the house gave you a false sense of safety. 

     Ever since the first murder, you realized you weren't the only one on edge. Kye had become more obsessed and paranoid with the faceless being. You were the only one he confided in, the only times he felt somewhat safe was when he was with you. As the days went by, the only thing either of you could do was wait.