"Are you fucking kidding me?!" Gabriel screamed, the whole neighborhood could probably hear him from the way he was reacting. He paced his bedroom, the smell of old spice with a hint of used socks filled my nose, the room was set up the same way from the last time I step foot in here- which was two years ago by accident. The only difference is the lack of comic books and playboy posters, I guess he grew out of that some point in time. However he did pick up a habit, a deadly one that'll weigh on him in the long one- the old pack of cigarettes were a sore to old eyes, the urge to pick one up and place it in between his lips were strong; but he kept from doing so with me around.
Courtney sat in the edge of his messy bed, obviously trying to avoid the pile of laundry and his clean boxers that was practically under her thigh. After telling her that could catch the killer, I had to make up a plan; so I came to the one person that always had a head full of sinister acts. Unfortunately Gabriel didn't take it as easily like Courtney.
"This is crazy, I do realize..."
"Idiotic. Foolish. Insane. Stupid. Questionable..."
"Actually, idiotic and stupid are the same thing, just two different words." Courtney interrupted, however Gabriel's cold gaze made her shut up immediately.
Gabriel huffed while turning his attention on me, his cold gaze became warm and soft. "You're emotional, distress. You just saw your best friend die, going out on a hunting spree right now is not reasonable. It's like a gazelle hunting a lion."
"That's why we're asking a you for help. Two gazelles and a tiger. Two baits and a sneaky predator with a lot of weapons and skills." I stated. "Don't start some bullshit about breaking the laws on anything, you're the last person who should be speaking to me about that."
"Then you know what you're about to do is wrong." Gabriel snapped back, making a good point- which he has done for the past three days.
"Sometimes doing the wrong thing is the right thing. Remember you said that to me back when you stole Malcolm Rey's car keys at the party last year."
"That's car keys, this is a psychopath."
"Gabriel has a point, Z. What you're trying to do is suicide." She cringed at the word, it made us all buckle down to a short period of silence. The wound to Yolanda's death was still nasty, large and bleeding heavily to the point of us blacking out- for now I tried to put tape over it so it wouldn't kill me off so quickly, at least until I do what I need to do to make things right. "However, what else can we do? No offense, Gabriel. But your father isn't a detective and he stands out like a cold sore, at least with us the killer wouldn't notice."
Gabriel pinched the bridge of his nose, "What if the killer is not caught? Now he'll be after the both of you, hell! He'll be after the three of us."
"We would have to move smart then. Now what do we know so far?"
"Well his main targets were teenage girls." Courtney pointed all. "He likes tormenting his victims."
"Veronica wasn't tormented." Gabriel also pointed out. "She was a quick kill, a panic action. So what else do we have that others don't? How do they all connect?"
I looked at Courtney before taking a deep breath. I need to tell her, if she's going to help she needs to be in the loop. "You're right, there's something I do know that no one else do. Before Naomi went missing, she had a stalker- of course- but then she was also pregnant but not by Bow. It was by someone else but I don't know who, apparently it wasn't on purpose nor willingly. While Naomi was pregnant, she told Veronica because she needed money from Veronica's loan shark uncle. Then Yolanda came in, she noticed her distress but did not know about the pregnancy." I turned to Gabriel, my stars soft and glossy as I push the words out. "When Yolanda saw the killer in the park, it was after Samson.... he raped her that night."
"Bullshit!" Courtney blurted out. "No, you're lying."
"Why would I lie about that? Why would I lie on my best friend?" I spat.
Gabriel only turned his back on us, rubbing the side of his face as he tried to collect his thoughts. "Fuck," He mumbled while running his fingers through his hair. "I'm going to kill that son of a bitch." He charged towards the door but I stopped him.
My hands were planted on his chest, eyes grew softer as his became red with rage. Gabriel chest rose and fell hard as he panted, his fair skin became red as the monster inside emerged. "That comes later, now we need to take down the huge monster here."
Courtney stood to her feet, her glossy eyes were worse from earlier; the news weighed on her twice as much than I expected. Then again, I weighed on me too, I just knew how to handle it better. "First we take down that psychopath, then we take down the rapist."
Removing my hands from his chest, Gabriel held my wrist- his thumb glide along my palms. "If we do this, you follow by my rules and orders. Between the three of us, I have more experience."
Courtney chuckled at his statement, "Dude, sitting in your father's squad car is not what you call experience."
"Trust me when I say Gabriel has handled more weapons than an average person." I said. "Also with his father being the Sheriff, he has access to all the files and information we need. For the meantime, keep your head down and be safe. We'll make up a plan by sundown."
Courtney looked between the both of us before nodding her head, "Alright. Call me as soon as you can." Grabbing her belongings, she dashed out the room and soon the house by a slam of the door and the old engine of her car reviving.
Gabriel pulled me into a kiss, hungry for affection and touch; it wasn't out of lust or sex, more for relief of our survival through the tough and crazy week. "Once we do this, we can't go back."
"I know," I mumbled against his lips, my hands rubbed up and down his chest slowly. "After everything I want this asshole to jump into a shark tank with raw meat."
He chuckled, it was a distant sound full of sorrow. The news of Yolanda only made things worse from her death, I knew Gabriel was thinking of going back into the past; to see what he would of done differently to change things. Unfortunately, we didn't have that power, even if we could go back we wouldn't know what to do exactly.
"I should get going," I announced. "I have..."
Before I could finish my excuse to leave, a loud crash filled the thick silence in the small neighborhood. My heart jumped in my throat as I though the worse, Courtney was the only one on the road; could I be her who'd crashed. Gabriel and I ran outside immediately to see the damage, a silver SUV crashed into the telephone pole; the drivers door were opened along with the windshield.
Courtney's car. Her parents would usually never let the cheerleader burrow her car unless it's for emergencies, now she was in a emergency. Gabriel immediately could his father to bring down an ambulance, I- on the other hand- looked around the scene to find blood tracks along the grass going down the small hill to a backyard. It was little drops of blood that was highly noticeable upon the forest green grass, but the route to the backyard would be tricky since it were thick woods and the sun is about to go down. Half of my brain was telling me not to follow, to wait from Gabriel' s father, but the other half was pushing me forward.
The woods were thick with a lot of traps to trip you up; branches, roots, and long twigs. I tried to keep my balance and still search for the blood. I found nothing, only the darkness of the tree line when I grew further away from civilization; silence filled the ear, as well as the fog that would make this adventure twice as suspenseful. If only my life were a movie, at least I would know what to expect.
Pulling out my phone, I turned on the flashlight to guide my way. The sun was almost down, I only had a little bit of daylight left before I'm swallowed up by darkness; still I kept going, this time I kept my mouth shut instead of screaming out Courtney's name.
It was completely dark, fig rose from the ground and the sound of roads near the stream filled my ears. I shivered, not from the chill in the air or the horror movie scene that suddenly appeared, but I felt that cold glare- the same one I felt mostly every other day. But this time... this time it screamed death. With my family phone, I couldn't see far (even with the flashlight at the max)- the fog was too thick. Still, I kept going. I already lost my best friend to this bastard, I can't lose another.
The smell of blood was faint, the copper stench that brought tears to my eyes from the haunting memory of Yolanda's death. I wiped the tears away, along with the memory so I could focus. Growing closer and closer to the stench, drops of blood became noticeable among the dead autumn leaves; the dark red color stood out easily among brown and orange, the drops soon turned into a puddle by a tree. It ended there, a large pool of blood in the middle of no where.
Warm liquid dropped to my forehead, it was thick and moved slowly down the bridge of my nose. I slowly spooked up to be hit again by the liquid, but this time hitting my chin. My throat clenched, breathing stopped and heart pounded fast; Courtney was found, but was not alive. The beer I had spilled next to her pool of blood, I stumbled back into another tree to catch myself, to not faint in an open space where the killer could be watching. The sick bastard would still be here, to watch his victims bleed out or their prey to become hysterical.
Looking up at Courtney, her face covered in blood, eyes still opened, mouth was gagged with a black cloth, hands tied behind her back as her feet was tired to the thick branch. Then her stomach was gutted like a fish, her intestines hung out as if they were decorations. How can one kill so fast? How can they take an innocent girl's life? How can they track their victims so fast? Why... why do they do this?
I screamed, the blunt force with someone's arm wrapped around my waist made me release the fear and horror inside my throat.
"Zaire!" Aunt Joyce screamed out my name while shaking my shoulders so I could come to my scenes. I stared at her, horror in my face as my eyes turned red, lips open as I tried to find my words- but nothing came. Aunt Joyce looked up to see Courtney, the fourth known victim of the Reaper's Game. "Fuck," She grew pale, eyes wide in fear and hands clenched in anger.
"He's still here," I spoke up, the cold glare on my spine was still there... he was still watching. "In the trees, watching us."
"What?" Aunt Joyce stared at me if I've lost my mind. Hell, I would believe anyone if they said I did. However, she believed me by calling for backup and the K-9 unit. "Come on." She practically pulled me away, dragged me out of the forest and into civilization where three cop cars were blocking the street, the news crew was doing their report, and Gabriel was giving a statement to his father.
"Zaire! Zaire!" Tanya's sister managed to weave past the crowd of cops with the camera man hot on her heels. "Zaire, did you find the body of Courtney Ebbs." Tracie practically smacked with the mic as she focused on the camera.
Aunt Joyce immediately stepped in before I could answer by pulling me away, "No comment." She walked me all the way home, even though the crowd was trying to get their own statements to know what was going on.
****
"Another tragic death in Ladin, right on Mable street. Here we found Courtney Ebbs, a student at Ladin's High and cheerleader, dead in these woods. Police say it was gruesome murder and another teen, Zaire Holmes found the body. Of course we could not receive a statement from Zaire as shock took over. The sheriff has stationed a much stricter set of guidelines threw out the investigation. Teens must go to and from school by being picked up and dropped off by parents, no teen should leave the house at anytime with another, curfew has been kicked down to eight o'clock, and all parents and guardians should check into their children at least three times a day if they are working late. Back to you..."
The tv turned off by Aunt Joyce hand, she stood in the middle of the sitting room with a bowl of soup in her hands. "You don't need to be watching that. Eat," She places the clam chowder on the coffee table with the spoon sticking out.
"Not hungry," I simply said while turning the tv back on with the remote.
Aunt Joyce took it out of my hands and turned it off again. Face stern, brows furrowed and lips thin; she was either frustrated, scared or even both. "Eat, Zaire."
I look at her head on, usually I wold be scared- followed her commands and fill my stomach with whatever she served. But what's the point, I was going to be the next victim; I was going to die soon. "No,"
Aunt Joyce eyes went wide slightly from my retaliation, "What the fuck did you just say?"
"I said, no." I stormed past her and ran upstairs into my room, slamming the door behind me like a white teenage brat. I at least deserve a small tantrum, to release a little amount of anger at a time before I go over my limit.
A dull knock on her door tile me Aunt Joyce didn't give a shit about what happened earlier, she never did put her personal life into the deaths- even if it was so close to home. She walked in without me answering and stood at the door way. "Listen, it's hard- I know. But don't lose yourself because of the deaths."
"They killed two of my friends, they died right before my eyes." I said to the ceiling. "Can I just get a little character change for once? Not everyone is strong like you, Aunt Joyce."
"I know, honey. But you're stronger. Go cry, scream, fight, do whatever you need to do to release your anger; but don't forget all those things won't bring your friends back."
"I know." The words were a whisper from my mouth as reality smacked me in the face. After this... after the killer is dead, even if the town would be celebrating in victory; the psycho would still have won because he took the people close to our hearts.
Aunt Joyce walked deeper into the room and kissed my forehead, the same spot were Courtney's blood dropped on me. Only this time the spot turned into warmth instead cold. "I love you, Z."
"Love you too, Aunt Joyce."