~The Beast~
Teigan was distressfully close to getting spotted and caught by the police when he went after Ryan Daniels. Ever since then, he figured he wouldn’t be pursuing any criminals until Bethany was safely returned home. However, there he was reading some concerning posts from Josh, the high school boy who followed Columbine shooting accounts.
The post that had set off alarms in his head was the picture of a rifle captioned “My dad finally showed me his gun.” Teigan prayed that the kids' dad kept it locked up. The post that followed that one was put up only a few hours later at 5 am. It was a picture of the high school captioned “The madness ends today.”
Perhaps the two weren’t related. Perhaps the spike in school shootings were making him extra sensitive to these things. Nevertheless, he didn’t want to risk it. He flagged all of the kids social media accounts and pulled up the file where he kept all the information he accumulated on him. He knew what high school he went to. It only took a few taps of his keyboard to get it’s address and the time the first bell went off. Josh’s school wasn’t in the city but an hour upstate. If he drove fast enough, he could make it right at the start of homeroom.
Teigan snatched up his signature black mask and raced out of the house. He caught a snippet of Carina’s exasperated sigh at the sight of him. “He can’t sit still for long, can he?”
He wanted to. He really did. He blocked his mind from thinking about what Bethany would think about it. She had advised him to keep an eye on the account and report it if he grew suspicious, not find him and add a new rose to his sadistic garden. She didn’t hate the rose phenomenon as much as she would if he actually murdered people but it still disturbed her.
She had brought up questions he never considered before. The criminals were technically alive but how alive? They couldn’t walk around, talk - could they think? Feel? It was a weird limbo they’d stay in for eternity. Was that worse than death?
He gripped the steering wheel of his car harder and accelerated. He had more important things to worry about.
The school had a small parking lot that was full of cars but not many students. Teigan had left his car some ways a way from the school. He was used to working in the nighttime where the darkness acted as a cloak and the city where there was too much going on to notice the shadows. He was out of his element and feared he’d be spotted. A hooded figure hiding behind some trees spying at students at a high school would definitely be further investigated if noticed. He thought of what Bethany would have told him to do. She’d probably tell him to call the police if he was that concerned, to let them take care of it.
He removed his mask and took out his phone. He’d taken the cap he kept in his car and placed it on under his hood. The new goal was to blend in, hope that he could pass as a student and no one would survey him too closely. Was it stupid for him to think his mask was more remarkable than his face?
He kept a photo of Josh on his phone as he inspected the remainder of students in the parking lot. His chances of finding him there were low yet there he was. Josh was tall and skinny in person. He wore a tight jacket and ripped jeans, shoes covered in dirt. He was leaning against his car’s trunk daydreaming at the building.
Josh turned his head towards Teigan. He ducked and walked past him in a haste. He heard the gravel shift and footsteps follow him. He quickened his pace and headed towards the back of the school. When the footsteps failed to cease, he glanced back. Josh was a step behind him.
“Hey!”
Teigan kept moving.
“Hey! Who are you?”
The back of the school was desolate with no security cameras in sight. Teigan paused with his back facing the kid.
“You don’t go to this school, do you?”
He peered over his shoulder. Josh had his chest puffed out, standing tall and long. His feet were pointed away from Teigan though, his hips angled towards the path they came. Given the option of fight or flight, his was flight.
“Are you . . . are you an undercover cop?”
The assumption confirmed his guilt. Teigan spun around and kicked the boys feet out from under him. He pinned him down and used his forearm to keep him there. Unlike some of the criminals he regularly went after, Josh had no defense skills. He flayed underneath him, huffing and puffing to get him off.
“What are you doing?! Let me go!”
“Is the gun in the car?”
“What?”
“The gun! Your father’s rifle! Is it in the car?”
“I . . . yes. Yes!”
The boy stopped struggling. It was that second that Teigan remembered he didn’t have his mask on and flipped Josh over to his stomach with his arms pinned behind his back. Luckily, he was too preoccupied to notice his face. He never thought that could happen.
He had gotten his confession. The kid was guilty. He was going to do something monstrous if he hadn’t been confronted. This was the part where he clawed him, snapped his neck - did something to turn him into a rose so he wouldn't hurt anyone. However, this kid was a kid. On the journey to becoming wicked? Absolutely. Arguably already so. Was his fascination with shootings and killers a sick phase propelled by trauma? Did he deserve a chance to redeem himself or was he destined for evil? How much of this was his fault? All questions that could be debated on for hours but Teigan could not bring himself to work them out in his head. The only question that he was receptive to was who was he to decide? Who was he to make the call? He didn’t know enough to sentence him to a fate like death.
His fingers dialed 911 on his phone. “I’m calling for backup.”
He addressed the phone operator like a fellow police man through a radio. He relayed the situation and told them the location of the gun, letting the operator know he was detained. Josh whimpered and cried during the few minutes they had to wait for the police to arrive.
Teigan heard the footsteps of the officers and abandoned the boy. He rushed off around the side of the building and went on until he was back to his car.
Teigan drove home with a foreign sensation in his chest. He no longer felt the heaviness he did when he went home with a new rose. In fact, he might have felt lighter.
He wondered what Beth would think of this.
~The Hunter~
The shots rang out, striking their victims with precise accuracy. Blood shot from their wounds as they collapsed onto the ground with thuds. He reloaded his gun.
Dang it.
Even as he completed the motion he knew it was too late for him. From his peripheral vision he saw the man in camouflage raise his own gun at Grayson. Without hesitation, he shot him down.
Game over! The red letters appeared on the screen.
"Come on! You gotta be faster than that!" Carter exclaimed, falling back in the bean bag seat.
"I know, I know." Grayson put down the controller and handed his friend a can of soda. "You weren't much help though."
All of his shooting games and his ax - swinging zombie games were getting much attention these days. There was something satisfying about the violence and chaos. He felt a sense of relief with each shot or swing. The tension he kept in his shoulders and neck left which each strike. He wouldn't say this out loud for fear of someone interrupting as something sinister. They were video games after all. They were made to be a fun release.
Carter rolled his eyes and placed his own controller next to the TV stand. His leg was bobbing up and down like it did before a game. Grayson knew he had something important to say so he waited.
"Uh . . . You coming back to school this Monday?" The last half of the sentence came out in a high-pitched crack - probably from the effort to make it sound casual.
"I'm gonna have to if I want to pass the semester."
"Do you think you'll be able to play next week? Coach has been asking since you haven't answered his calls."
Grayson nodded. Football wasn't floating over his head like a storm cloud anymore. He actually felt relieved he would be able to charge and tackle again. It would be an excuse to knock the wind out of someone.
"That's awesome, man. We've missed you." Carter's leg slowed its bouncing. "I should warn you though. You've developed quite the reputation at school."
"What do you mean?" Grayson was just telling Maris the other day he's remained completely out of the public eye since Beth was taken. The only way he was known at school was because he was on the football team. A lot of people knew of him but they didn't know him - not like Beth or Carter did.
"It's nothing bad. You'll see on Monday."