Hush Little Hurricane

Chapter 4: Malevolence [Part 2]

Tessa was woken by her body's incessant gyrations as she shivered uncontrollably. She tried to open her eyes only to find they cracked and stung, a sharp pain in her forehead indicated a wound reopening and blood began to trickle into her eye, effectively blinding the girl—if she wasn't already unable to see. She blearily noticed the biting cold most prevalent on her feet and shoulders, which were bare given that she was not wearing her cardigan, jacket, shoes or socks.

With a strain of effort, the girl broke the seal of dried blood and cracked open her eyelids. At a desk on the other side of the room Tessa saw a man. The man who attacked her. He was on a laptop with his back to her, looking at what seemed to be footage of Ashley, Chris and Josh.

The white light of the screen cast an eerie glow around the room and danced in conjunction with the moonlight spilling in that cast shadows of the swaying pines outside onto the floor. It illuminated the stranger in a ghostly halo, his back to her. Tessa observed the overalls he wore and the way that his form seemed to sag, as if he were carrying more weight than he was used to. The curly black hair on his head was so greasy it glimmered in the ethereal light all the way down to his shoulders.

The video on his screen flicked to an image of Josh being torn apart by a rotating saw-blade, which elicited an acute intake of breath in horror from the weak and vulnerable girl.

"Ah, finally, the sleeping fox awakens," said the man in a mechanical voice as he spun on his chair, stood and approached her slowly.

Tess didn't reply; she couldn't. Her body ached and her jaw throbbed and, upon trying to flex it, found a bandage tightly lashed across her lips.

Gradually, as panic began to settle in, Tessa's heart rate increased and her breathing became heavy and shallow and laboured.

"And just like any animal," he taunted cruelly, "when backed into a corner the fight or flight instincts begin to kick in. Only," he reached her and knelt in front of where she was propped into a sitting position, "you can't run... And you can't fight back."

He reached one of his thickly gloved hands up and ran a finger down her cheek, causing Tessa to jerk away and release a muffled cry of disgust. In response, the man took a firm hold of her chin and forced her to look directly at the mask. She cringed at its bared teeth and exposed pink gums, like its lips had crumbled away to nothing. And then there were those stark black eye sockets against the cracked white of the mask.

"No, I knew you would be the most difficult to catch...to trap. I knew you'd put up the most fight."

Tessa's eyes widened, eyebrows raised and head shaking in fearful confusion as she let out a stifled sob. How could he know that? How long had he been watching her, watching all of them? A single tear from each eye was all Tessa allowed herself to release. They tracked a single line of clear skin down each cheek, which were otherwise covered in dust or dirt or blood (fresh, dried and still congealing).

"You see, I have plans for everyone else... But you, you're who I wanted to spend time with the most."

Tessa, who had been rubbing her wrists raw trying desperately to squirm from the bindings that kept her prisoner on the post, was startled when a rough hand yanked down the gag, pushing painfully at her bruised jaw.

"What do you want?" she wheezed through gritted teeth.

She refused to show this psycho any more fear than she could help.

"I want you to understand what you did to your friends."

"What?"

"I want you to understand how you killed Hannah and Beth."