Page 24 of False Idols

It’s Nevaeh.

I know it is.

When I open the app, Nevaeh’s name is there at the top of the list and I smile. I knew she wasn’t going to make me wait. I open her message and see her answer. It’s direct and simple.

Yes. I’m home.

Not going to ask if I’m home and safe?

Anyone that would read this is going to think we’re flirting. That’s fine. I know Nevaeh won’t show anyone the messages, just like I know she hasn’t told her roommate about what’s really going on with me. That I’m not kind and gracious or forgiving. I’m brutal, obsessed and vengeful. And this time Nevaeh is going to keep my secret.

10

NEVAEH

I didn’t stop running until I got to my dorm room. I’m not the only one running for cover and I end up running into three other girls. The last time, I fell to my knees and scraped my palms on the stone path leading to my dorm.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” The girl offers, but she doesn’t stop running. I know she didn’t mean to run into me. I understand. This isn’t like when the football team went after me or the psycho that attacked me in the shower. She’s not trying to hurt me. She’s scared the same as me. It’s in the chaos of everyone trying to get indoors that no one notices me. I’m just another scared college kid in a sea of thousands. While The Reaper is on the loose, I’m no one special.

When I throw open the door, Sunny screams and jumps. “What’s going on?”

I don’t say anything, at least not right away. I lock the door before I run to hug her. Everything that’s happened over the past twenty four hours crashes into me and the only thing keeping me on my feet is hugging Sunny. I’m going to have to tell her about The Reaper, but I won’t put more on her than I need to. That means Beau, the football team, my mom, all of that shit stays with me.

“You’re okay?” I ask when we break apart.

She nods and swallows hard. “Yeah, I’m good. I was in class and they just cut us loose. Told us to get to our dorms and to lock the doors. I don’t understand what’s going on. Someone died?”

Sunny wouldn’t understand. She’s not from here. Bloom, Kansas isn’t the kind of place that airs its dark secrets to outsiders. Not even locals talk about The Reaper. We don’t speak of him, we just pray he doesn’t see us. For four years we were safe but now there’s no denying the evil.

“It’s The Reaper, he’s back.”

“Who?”

“Remember Beau?” I start and when Sunny nods I give her a tight smile and step away from her. “The murder that I saw that night wasn’t Beau. It was The Reaper. I got confused that night. I didn’t know what I saw and I said it was Beau, but it wasn’t him. I put Beau away while this monster is out there free and now he’s back.”

I wrap my arms around myself and sink down onto my bed while Sunny lets out a low whistle. “Holy shit. So the man you saw that night is the same one that’s…that’s…” her voice trails off and she points out the window. “He’s the one out there right now?”

I look out the window along with Sunny. “Yeah, he is.” The sun is still shining but it doesn’t feel the same. When I woke up this morning everything felt full of promise, even if I had the majority of town and probably the whole university out to get me, the day still felt fresh and new. Of course, that was before I’d nearly been dragged off and left for dead by the school’s football team or had the boy I’d loved since I knew what love was threatening to make me pay for the biggest mistake of my life.

Sunny goes to the window and puts a hand up against the glass. The sun spills over her, she’s so pretty in the warm glow of the afternoon. “What’s he doing out there?” she asks.

I shiver and pull my blanket up around myself before scooting back across my bed until my back is against the wall. “He’s hunting,” I tell her.

Sunny makes an audible swallow and turns to look at me. The sun is lower now, it slants and shadows play over her face so I can’t see her eyes, but her hair is a brilliant gold. It looks like a halo.

“Hunting?”

I burrow deeper in my blankets like I used to when I was younger and The Reaper appeared yearly. The monster out there hunting kids made my childhood a nightmare. What was the point in growing up if you were going to be next? I think that’s one of the reasons my mom took us to church so much. She felt safer that way.

“Yes, hunting. He does this at the start of the school year and again over winter break. He’ll go quiet again until the summer time, but sometimes Spring Break is enough to bring him out.”

“Oh my fucking god, you’re serious. My grandma shipped me off to get murdered in the middle of Kansas. That bitch!”

I blink in confusion at Sunny who is now pacing around the room. “What?”

“My grandma said she was paying because she went here and just loved the school, but she’s trying to get rid of me!”

“Why would she do that?”

---