Fallen Raine {Completed}

Chapter Eleven - Back-room of a Toy-Store. Who Knew We'd End Up Here?

We looked around the store, past kites and bikes and play areas and even some baby clothes. The storefront had no signs of life—or death. As we entered and walked towards the counter, the smell got thicker, and I gagged into the sleeve of my arm. I had never smelled it this strong before. It was pungent in the air, salty and coppery and tangy.

I saw a tiny little bloodstain, right in front of the door to the backroom, and knew this was where I would find the body. I don’t know how I knew, it was just like a built-in instinct, or something.

With trembling hands, I reached out and touched the door. It creaked open eerily at my touch, and the smell was so thick that behind me Jason and River burst into coughing fits. But I was too distracted to care, shocked at the sight before me.

The first thing I saw was Jessica sitting upright in a chair, her skin pale and her hair falling in limp tangles around her face. Her cerulean eyes were open wide, and she seemed to be staring straight at me. She had a dirty rag tied over her mouth, and her arms and legs were tied by thick bindings that, upon closer inspection, I saw, were blood-covered ropes that harshly bit into her skin. Her whole body was covered in a thin sheen of blood.

She didn’t move, and I realized after a second why.

Her body was covered in cuts, and blood covered all bare skin—which, if you wore Jessica’s clothing, was a lot of bare skin. But something else drew my attention, and made me fall back into the door.

Her throat had been slit.

“Oh, God,” I whispered, my shaky hand coming up to cover my mouth as I stared at the lifeless teenage girl in front of me.

I heard River gasp, and Jason let out a cry of surprise as they both spotted the body at the exact same time.

“Jess,” River hissed, pushing past me and rushing towards the blonde girl. He leant down beside her, and shook her. It was a fruitless and futile effort, though.

She was dead.

Slowly he untied the gag covering her mouth, and her jaw immediately slacked. Her mouth fell open, and out came a long trail of thick scarlet blood. River cried as a series of other things dropped out of her mouth, splattering onto the concrete floor and spilling more blood onto the floor. River tumbled back in an attempt to not get hit by the falling debris, and scrabbled back until he was far enough away to escape the thin stream of blood.

I stared at the things that had fallen from her slack jaw, and realized with a sickening jolt that underneath the blood was shining metallic.

The person had shoved razors in her mouth and tied a gag around it so that she couldn’t spit them out.

And I knew exactly why they’d done it.

He had put the razors in her mouth, and kept them in with a gag. He then proceeded to torture her. The more she screamed, the more the razors would cut into her mouth and draw blood.

The more pain it caused her.

I had no idea how I knew it. Maybe it was too many late nights on the couch with ice cream watching mindless crime shows, or maybe I had some sick, twisted mind. Either way I knew exactly why they’d done what they did.

Jason let out a choked and horrified sound, and leaned against the door for support. When River turned around, his eyes were filled with tears, his eyes so bright they were almost too blue to look at.

“Um, Jason,” River said quietly, not meeting any of our eyes. “Why don’t you take Raine outside? She doesn’t have to see this.”

Jason nodded and stepped forward, putting an arm on my shoulder and guiding me around. I didn’t fight with him. I had no desire to see anymore than I already had.

Just as we reached the door, a quiet groan made everyone in the room freeze, and I slowly spun around to see what I had obviously missed before, in the initial shock that Jessica’s state had brought on.

Steve lay curled in a ball, his arms around his knees as he lay in a fetal position, rocking back and forth.

“Steve?” I whispered, moving forward and leaning beside him. I tried to ignore everyone else in the room and focus on Steve, but the smell of blood was a reminder of what was merely five feet away from me.

I touched his arm, and he jerked suddenly at my touch, making me gasp and fall back. He looked at me. “Don’t touch me!” he screamed, skirting backwards and scuttling into the wall. “Oh, God, don’t touch me!”

“Steve—” I started but he broke away.

“Don’t!” he said.

“Steve, are you okay?” Jason asked, squatting beside me.

Steve looked at him. “I—I know who the killer is!” he cried out, his voice slicing easily through the silence in the back of the Hide And Seek toy store.

My blood ran cold.

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Sorry for the short chapter.

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