Page 66 of False Idols

“Thanks,” I say and take the phone from her before I shove it into my pocket. I readjust my grip on my axe and head back to the windows. “Is there another way in here?” I ask her.

“W-what?” She sounds dazed. I look at her over my shoulder and a pang of sympathy hits me.

“Hey, look, we’re going to be okay because the cops are coming, right?” When she nods, I point at the door with my axe, “And we know that he can’t come through there. But is there anywhere else that he can?”

She thinks for a minute but then she points behind her. “There’s the door where we take the garbage out and get supplies through. It’s around the back.”

Around the back. That’s where I saw The Reaper heading before I lost sight of him. “Fuck. That’s where he’s going. Where is it?”

“It’s through those doors at the end of the hall,” she says and I take off at a jog to the door. I’m surprised when she follows me down the hallway, but it’s nice to have someone else there. I feel inhuman right now. My jaw is throbbing from where I landed earlier and I know I busted my lip back open again from a week ago. My arm feels like it’s on fire and every time I move, blood drips from my arm onto the floor. I have to wipe my hand on my jeans to keep my grip on the axe I’m holding. “You really think he’s going back there?”

“Yeah, I do.”

“Why?”

“Because he’s a fucking psycho rapist killer and he’s angry that I got away. He’s going to find a way in.” We’re standing in the middle of the hallway, the door she’s talking about is just a few feet away. There’s a thud on the other side of it and I raise my axe. Motherfucker is out there all right.

“I knew it.”

She starts to cry. “Oh my god. I have to get out of here. I have to go hide.”

I nod, my eyes on the door. “Do what you have to, but tell everyone else so they know what’s happening.”

“What? You’re not hiding?” She asks and grabs my shirt. “You’re already so bloody. He’s going to kill you. You know that, right?”

I grip my axe tighter and keep watching the door, whose handle is starting to jiggle. “He can try, but I’m going to kill him first.”

“You can’t kill The Reaper. No one can!”

“I will.”

“You’re crazy!”

“Definitely,” I agree, but she doesn’t hear it. She’s running down the hallway and on her way to the upper floors. I hope whatever happens happens before anyone comes down. I don’t want them to see this. Seeing something like this marks you. It changes you, even if you’re a college kid and not a scared fourteen year old. Violence, anger and trauma don’t care how old you are. They take their fill, hollow and empty out everyone no matter when they come to you.

Even if the people in this dorm hate me and one of them even attacked me, I don’t want them marked like me. I take a step towards the door. When it opens, I’m going to rush him. I’m going to slam the handle of the axe into their face and go from there. It’s not a great plan, but it’s a plan. So I hold steady and I wait. I watch the door handle that stops jiggling until finally, it turns.

The door clicks as it releases and when it swings open, I’m ready. I see the outline of the man in front of me and I leap forward and swing the butt of the axe up as hard as I can. It makes contact and The Reaper goes down.

“Fuck you, you psycho!” I scream and turn the axe in my hands so that I can bring it down on them. But when I heave it over my head, a light shines in my eyes.

“Freeze! Bloom PD! Drop your weapon!”

I freeze. I drop my weapon and hold my hands up as red and blue lights fill the night sky.

“Fuck,” I whisper. It’s just the cops.

25

BEAU

I’m on my way to campus when my mother calls. “Good morning, mother.”

“Don’t you good morning me,” she snaps. I look around at the day. It’s a beautiful, crisp, late September morning in Kansas and the leaves on the trees lining the street to campus are changing colors. A bird chirps nearby and when a breeze ruffles my hair, I clear my throat.

“Listen, it’s a good morning where I am, so you’re going to have to be more specific in your brooding.”

“Jesus, Mary and Joseph, Beau. Did you not hear the news?” she asks.

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