~Chapter Eleven - Back-room of a Toy-Store. Who Knew We'd End Up Here?~
Jason and I raced back to the food court, our feet slapping against the tile harshly as we made our way through stores and around stalls and down stairs.
My arms pumped and my legs screamed in protest, but I pushed myself forward. My breaths made my chest heave up and down, and I struggled to push myself further onwards. Just a few more steps…
The food court came into sight, and Jason and I rushed there.
When we made it, everyone looked up with matching expressions of surprise, and the breaths left me in a whoosh.
River sat up straight. “What’s up?” he asked. “Are Jess and Steve okay?”
I looked to Jason, and he immediately filled them in on what had happened when we had made it into the gym. About the blood and the message and the missing bodies. He was barely breathless, whereas I was keeled over, sucking in deep breaths and trying to still my fast-beating heart.
River’s eyes were shrouded and he stood up. “We need to find them,” he told everybody.
“We can’t all go,” Drella pointed out, speaking for once. “Brad can’t move. And we can’t leave him.”
“Fine. Jason, Raine, you’re coming with me. Donovan, stay with Drella and Brad,” River instructed, his voice emotionless, leaving no room for discussion or argument.
Donovan looked down at his long, slender hands. I could tell he wanted to come, but he also knew that he had to stay behind and protect Drella and Brad. The group was getting agonizingly smaller as time wore on, and the thought worried me immensely. But I had to push those negative thoughts to the back of mind and focus on getting Steve and Jess back… if we could.
We set out, and Jason and I flanked River, as if we were true soldiers in a war. Even though we were just a bookworm, a bad boy and a jock that never would’ve talked to each other before this event, we were relying and protecting each other. It was almost comical. My best friend, Daisy, would’ve been shocked had she been here.
First we headed back to the gym, where River surveyed the area with shifting eyes. Without a word, he exited the gym and back into the mall. He stopped and looked around, and I stared at him with worried eyes.
A game of hide-and-seek, the message said. A game of hide-and-seek…
I took off running, not bothering to look behind me. Seconds later footsteps began to pound behind me as River and Jason took off after me. It wasn’t long before they caught up, because, hey, Jason was a jock and was very fit, and River had to be since he was running from the cops most of the time. I didn’t know if that was judgmental of me or not, but I knew who River was, and I knew how notorious he was. He was always getting arrested for one thing or another.
I almost tripped down the escalators in my haste to get to the bottom, and took off in the opposite direction of the food court. Down here there were groceries stores, the pharmacy, a couple clothes stores.
And a child’s toy store called Hide And Seek.
River breathed out as he neared the store, and read the sign. “It was a clue,” he muttered. “The message was a clue.”
I stepped toward the entrance, but River grabbed my wrist quickly. “Raine,” he said. “Are you sure you want to go into the store?”
I nodded. “I have to go, River. I need to see.”
He let me go, and River, Jason and I made our way into the store. I smelt something tangy, and knew we had hit the right place. This was where would find the bodies—dead or alive, I was still unsure of. I didn’t really want to know, though. Part of me wanted to run away and never look back, but I owed it to Jess and Steve to make sure they were okay. Even if Jess and I hadn’t been on good terms when she left.
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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