I can’t see his face. It’s hidden from the shadow the hood throws over his face. I stare into the black void where his eyes should be. How many girls looked at his face before he died? Did they see him or was it only shadows that stared at them while they gasped their last breath? I’m frozen in place, too scared to move. I’m so scared that I can barely breathe as I stare at death incarnate. There isn’t a person alive in Bloom that’s laid eyes on The Reaper and made it out. I escaped him, but I didn’t see him the night he killed Carrie. I was too scared to look. And then when I thought it was Beau, I ran. Until now, I didn’t know what he wore. No one did. If I don’t get away, no one might ever know. My eyes drop to his hands. Gloves. He has black leather gloves on. That’s why no matter how gory the scene, there’s never been any fingerprints.
One second goes by and then another. Or maybe it’s a minute. Every tense moment that passes feels like an eternity. Finally The Reaper moves and I’m glad. I was too scared to do it first, but seeing him move unlocks my body. I leap to my feet, but I don’t move yet. I can’t, not when I see what he’s holding. The Reaper jerks one hand to the side and the unmistakable flash of steel shines beneath the streetlights. The knife he has in his hand is big. It looks like a hunting knife, the edge of it cruel and sharp, serrated at its wicked tip. It’s perfect for cutting and tearing, ripping flesh. He’s killed countless girls with that knife and now he wants me.
I’m not ready. I refuse to let him end me like this, on a street I barely recognize, in the town I grew up in. Not on the night I told Beau my secret regrets. Not when I confessed my love for him. No matter what happens tonight, I’m getting back to Beau.
“Fuck The Reaper,” I spit out into the night and he growls. The sound is low and sharp, like steel on stone. I don’t know if he answers me aside from that, because I’m gone. I run as fast as I can, blindly sprinting down the street. The sound of my ragged breathing is the only thing I can hear over the heavy soles of The Reaper’s boots pounding on the pavement behind me. I have to get off the street or he’s going to catch me. I know that. He’s fast, faster than me. I can hear him gaining on me while I run. I cut left and head across someone’s lawn. There’s a fence in front of me, but I throw myself over it and somehow manage to land on my feet. I sprint to the back of the person’s lawn and round their house. Up ahead I see an above ground pool and a playhouse. There’s nothing else in the yard, so my choices are limited. I hesitate and then decide on the playhouse. I throw myself at it, crawling on my hands and knees until I’m able to get inside. I have to be silent. I have to be quiet. I clamp a hand over my mouth and squeeze my eyes shut while I force myself to breathe evenly. All the while I listen for sounds of The Reaper.
For a minute there’s nothing and I start to wonder if I really saw him. Was he standing there? Am I finally going crazy? It would explain why I told Beau what I did. Is any of this real? How can it be real? Why would he come for me now? If he wanted to kill me, he had all the time in the world while Beau was in prison.
Why now?
Another minute creeps by and then another, but then I hear the footfall. It’s soft. Barely there. I only hear it because I’m listening as hard as I am. There’s a rustle of a robe nearby. He’s close. I’m not crazy. Not about this. The Reaper is here and this is really happening. It’s not one of my nightmares. Not this time.
I shuffle forward, just an inch so that I can look between the two pink plastic shutters of the playhouse and I see him. He’s in front of me and he’s lifting the cover of the pool looking for me. Oh god. There’s nowhere else to go but the playhouse once he realizes that I’m not in the pool. I have to move now, or he’ll find me. I back up slowly. The wet grass beneath me sticks to my knees and palms as I move out of the playhouse. Once I’m out of the playhouse, I rise to my knees and look over the playhouse’s plastic roof to see The Reaper is still by the pool. He’s moved to the opposite side of the pool and looks like he’s considering the black water beneath the pool cover. He’ll realize that I’m not there in a second or two. I know it. I back up, rising to my feet and head off in a crouch towards the front of the house. It’s only when I get past the corner of the house that I stand and start to run at full speed.
Oh my god. The Reaper is here and he’s after me. I pump my arms and run faster down the street. I take a left and then a right. I’ll pass Jordan’s frat house and be going down the hill in a few minutes if he doesn’t catch me. Oh my god, he’s going to catch me. He catches everyone. Knowing that I’m done, that realistically The Reaper will win and that I’ve been dead since he decided on me, doesn’t stop me from trying.
I have to make it out of this alive. I have to get back to Beau. I will get back to Beau.
Beau is the only thought on my mind as I run until my side hurts and I feel like I’m going to throw up. He’s what keeps me going when I hear the steady thud thud of someone running behind me. Beau is what keeps me calm even as those footsteps get closer and closer. Up ahead, I see the frat house I was at with Beau and Sunny, even Dean. It’s bright and happy. Music spills out and there’s people in the front yard, but I don’t stop there. I veer to the right and go down the hill. Maybe it’s the scared fourteen year old in me that sees The Reaper as so much more than a man. He’s a monster, a living demon. I’m sure that if I went for the party, The Reaper wouldn’t just kill me. He’d kill the people at the party. It wouldn’t be all of them, but it would be some. I can’t do that. I ruined Beau’s life when I sent him to prison. I refuse to ruin one more. Whatever is happening is between me and the psycho fucking killer demon chasing me down. So I run on and when I hit the hill I get faster. I think my choice surprises The Reaper because he slows, almost as if he was sure of what I was going to do and now I’ve forced him to change direction and lose momentum.
The lights overhead are bright and pass in a blur. I don’t see anything but the pavement as I sprint. My muscles burn and my lungs scream for air, but I don’t slow down. I get faster and when I hit the bottom of the hill, I’m moving so fast that I nearly fall. I keep my feet and stumble on towards the sidewalk that leads to my dorm, but I only get a step down the way when I’m tackled from behind.
I scream and go flying face first into the pavement with The Reaper’s heavy weight on top of me. I turn and pull them towards me and manage to flip us so that when we hit the ground it’s with The Reaper hitting the ground first. I’m lucky he takes the full impact of the ground but I still slam my jaw against the pavement and blood fills my mouth. I’m disoriented and everything spins around me while I struggle to sit up. I roll onto my back and see a flash of steel.
“No!” I scream and kick. My foot connects with The Reaper’s stomach and I hear them grunt, but that doesn’t stop them from swinging the knife down at me. I roll to the side and the blade grazes my forearm before it slams into the ground with a screech. I kick again, but miss this time and roll onto my side. My arm is bleeding and it’s hot, almost like a sunburn where The Reaper’s blade cut me. I don’t know if it’s deep, but there’s no time to look now. Not if I want to make it out of this alive. My decision not to stop at the frat party suddenly feels dumb.
What the hell was I thinking?
I’m going to die trying to save people that don’t care about me. People that would bully me and hurt me before they so much as asked me if I was okay. I should have stopped at the party and brought The Reaper down on them.
I try to get to my feet but The Reaper grabs my ankle with one gloved hand and jerks me back with yank. I scream as I hit the ground with a thud and land on my wounded arm. I can feel blood smearing over my skin and sticking to my shirt. Oh my god. There’s so much blood. Just like Carrie. The world flickers and the memory of that night rushes over me. I can see her laying there, butchered and taken apart, barely clinging to life.
He wants to do that to me too. He wants to hurt me like he did Carrie.
“Fuck you, you psycho!” I scream and brace my hands on the ground and kick back as hard as I can. My foot connects with the hand still wrapped around my ankle. I kick him again and barely manage to avoid a swing of The Reaper’s knife. Adrenaline and anger rush through me in equal parts and I know I have to get his knife away from him. If I do then I have a chance. Not much, but I’ll take a chance over nothing. I can’t just let him win. He brings the knife up and when I kick this time, I aim straight for the hand wielding the knife and a miracle happens. I hit his hand just right and send the knife flying. It lands a foot away from us, but I don’t stop to see The Reaper go for it. I leap to my feet and run. I’m hurt, but I have to be faster than I was before. If I’m not, he’ll catch me. There’s not going to be a second chance.
If he catches me again, I’m dead.
“Help me!” I scream, finally finding my voice. Earlier I was so scared, I couldn’t make a sound, not even when I ran past the party. It was like I was underwater and everything was happening just above the surface. My brain wouldn’t even process screaming for help.
“Help me! The Reaper is here! Help me, please!” I scream again and my voice bounces off the sidewalk and buildings around me. Up ahead is my dorm. It’s maybe three hundred feet away. That’s nothing when you think about the grand scheme of things. How can three hundred feet be the decider between life and death? But if you think about it, lives have been decided by so much less.
“Help me! He’s going to kill me! Someone!”
I can’t hear the heavy steps of The Reaper, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t there. I heard how quiet he can be when he searched earlier. I didn’t even notice him on the street until he kicked the rocks at me. If he hadn’t warned me then, he could have killed me easily. He wants to stretch this out though and play with me. He wants to enjoy the kill and it’s hard not to feel like he’s going to slam his knife into my back any second as I run. Even as I run up the steps of my dorm and slam into the wall beside the keypad that lets me in. I can see the brightly lit lobby of the building with the student worker on duty at their computer.
“Help me!” I scream and slam my fists against the glass door, but they don’t look up. They have headphones in and whatever they’re watching on their laptop has their full attention. They aren’t going to see me in time. I have to get in on my own. I tense, wait for the sharp bite of The Reaper’s knife, but it doesn’t come.
My hands shake as I punch in the code. Blood smears over the keys and I sob when the code flashes red, telling me it’s wrong. “Nonono!” I scream and punch it in again, but I must miss a number because it flashes red another time. “Come on, come on!” I punch in the code again and look over my shoulder. I hear the telltale ping letting me know I put the right code in but I don’t move, because there’s no one there. Behind me the night is calm and quiet, just like it was when I was walking earlier.
The lock to the door clicks open and I grab the door without looking and yank it open to step inside. It’s only when I’m crossing the threshold that I see him. He must have been off to the side, just beyond the steps, but now he’s rushing up at me with his knife in his hand. I scream and pull the door shut a second before The Reaper slams their fist against the glass of the door. Behind me, I hear the student worker scream and their computer crashes to the ground.
“Oh my god!” They scream when The Reaper hits the door again, this time with the butt of the knife handle. The knife bounces off and I turn to run to the worker who is staring at me like they’re about to faint.
“Is that going to hold?” I ask them.
“Oh my god, he’s real! He’s REAL!” She screams and I reach out and grab her, giving her a shake. Her eyes come to me and her mouth drops open. “Oh my god. He got you. H-he got you!”