A bunch of college students head up to the local national park for a night of fun with friends.
Jennifer Todd is the only one who makes it out alive. The massacre is brutal, and she's lucky to be alive.
Jenni, however, isn't just some survivor. She...
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Red and blue lights flash against a black wall of trees. The cluster of emergency vehicles sat at the opening of a trail into the giant forest that makes up Boulder's Gate National Park, a beacon in the late night darkness.
A college aged girl sits on the back of an ambulance, wrapped in a blanket, watching the passing police, park rangers and paramedics run around. Flashlights bob around in the trees, hunting the forest for a monster.
The girl has a deep cut in her cheek and her head, her hairs a mess, theres blood and tears in her clothes, and she's missing an earring. She looks like she's just survived hell.
Which isn't entirely wrong.
Jenni had talked to a few officers, who had asked her questions. She hadn't said much. She'd clammed up, and they'd written it off as fear. Anyone would be traumatized after what had happened to her.
They'd never find out what she actually knew. And Jennifer Todd knew far more about what would eventually be called the Boulders Gate Massacre than anyone would suspect. ---- Jenni was only half watching the scurrying men and women. She had other things on her mind. Namely, the low, growling voice in the back of her head, complaining constantly.
We should be going home. It hissed, pushing irritably against her thoughts.
She ignored it, keeping silent as another police officer walked up. This one was a woman, her face already wearing that sympathetic mask. Jenni braced herself.
"Jenni? Jenni Todd?" The officer asked. "I'm Officer Slater."
Jenni glared at her, wrapping the blanket tighter around herself. In the back of her skull, something curls irritably and contemplates crushing the older woman's smiling face into pulp. Images of blood and popped eyeballs flash behind her eyes like intrusive thoughts, but they don't belong to her.
Jenni soothes it silently, keeping up the mask of a traumatized young girl.
She says nothing, just nods at Slater and wonders which of the same old questions she'll have to hear.
"I understand you've been through a lot, Jenni" the officer said, "But I need to know, is there anything else you remember about who or what did this to you?"
Jenni shook her head. "I told that other cop everything I know already." She said softly. "I was hoping there was something you may have missed." Said Slater.
Jenni shook her head again.
Please. One, one bite Jen. Please. It curls around her brain, feeds her a scenario. She can feel it's pressure on the back of her neck, waiting and watching and hoping.
Quiet. You're making it hard to focus. She warned it.
It muttered darkly, like a petulant child.
Officer Slater tries a little harder, and Jenni continues to not answer. She feigns ignorance. Wonders vaguely if she'll be a suspect. Probably. Definitely a prime witness, being the only survivor. She bristles, and she feels a trickle of annoyance from the presence.
