Like Petrichor (Random thoughts and Stories)

▪︎ Death's Tag (Original One Shot)

A murderous silence filled the air as Tanya clasped her own mouth shut. She was standing behind a dirty white wall, one hand tightly covering her mouth. In the other hand she was clutching a steel rod that reeked of damp water and torn skin. Her hands trembled as she tried to control herself from screaming. Every little sound made her quiver with fear because even a slight second could cost her life.
I fell down. Someone pushed me. Jason fell down. Her mind shrieked. No one in hell would have known what was waiting for her in the damp night.
Slowly removing her hands from her mouth, she controlled her breathing and nervously peeped behind. It was dark and dingy. She couldn't see properly and could only hear the droplets of water leaking through the pipes.
How did I get here? She tried to reason but her brain ignored.
The smell of the drainage, Tanya and her friend's had found themselves in, made her scrounge. The taste of blood and tears were getting mixed in her mouth. She had seen all her friends being murdered in front of her and she didn't want to be the next victim. Falling from the second floor didn't seem to be as bad as what was happening to her now.
Clasping both her hands on the rod, she let the scene of her friends being brutally cut up and tortured play in front of her eyes. A bulge formed in her throat and she gulped, trying hard not to cry.
I have to get away. She thought. If I get killed here, no one would ever be able to find me- or my dead body.
A sweet melody started being hummed by a voice that she remembered."There is something in your voice" the sound echoed, "that I want. There is something in your face that I need."
Tanya's body started trembling as the voice neared. It was the killer's song. The song that he kept singing all the time. The song that creeped the hell out of Tanya.
"Where are you?!" Tanya cried, pulling herself together. She believed that there was no way that she could escape without confronting the murderer. "I am not scared! Come out." She shouted, hoping that the killer wouldn't sense the imminent fear in her voice.
The killer laughed from the shadows and continued to hum the tune of his favorite song.
Tanya juggled on her feet and turned around again and again, moving in a circle, the rod held ready to be hit anytime.
When she couldn't sense anyone's presence nearby, she started backing up towards the wall once again. All she could think of at that time was a way to escape.
The humming had not yet stopped. The song wasn't this long. The person was just toying with her by stretching the tune of the song and Tanya knew this.
"Misa! Jason? Anyone?!" She called out to her friends. Maybe, just maybe someone was still alive. She called out to them desperately but no one answered. "Jack? Jason!"
The person had stopped singing by that time. Tanya wondered why he didn't complete the lyrics or even, why was he toying with her?
Her strength weakened and so did her grip on the rod. She was about to let it fall when a hand gripped her legs and tried to pull her down. Tanya shrieked roughly and thrust the rod in the direction of the hand.
It penetrated the person's body with a squishy sound and a river of blood bathed her. She heard a grunt and the hand loosened the grip but she still didn't stop.
Tanya took out the rod and thrashed it again and again on the dark silhouette. More blood gushed out and splashed on her face. "Take that. Take that!" She screamed in agony and kept on hitting the body. "You won't be able to kill me!" This time she laughed a cynically. All that had happened was too much for her and she had lost her sanity. The only thought of her defeating the killer made her heart leap and she put more strength in beating up the body, that is, until a light was beamed on her feet from behind.
"N-Nnnn.." Tanya's words were struck in her throat. The song started echoing through her years once again.
"There is something in your voice that I want..."
"No!" she let the rod drop on the ground and clutched her ears to stop the sound. "Stop it! Stop it!" she cried, shutting her eyes tightly. The humming continued and she was forced to open her eyes.
Who? Who was it? The thought shot up her mind. Dread filled up her body as she slowly moved her head to look at her feet. The light was still on and the humming had become louder but what made her heart stop was the scene in front of her.
Tanya's eyes widened as she saw the body with so many holes. She puked and coughed and couldn't stop her tears.
"Ja-" her legs gave up and she slid down on her knees. "Jason!" She managed to say while bringing both her hands up to her face. The one she thought was the killer, the one she killed so brutally was none other than her friend. He was still alive and was asking for help but Tanya killed him. Killed him up to the point that he couldn't even be recognized.
"I won't give up!" His voice rang inside her head again and again. "Won't give up... won't give... give up!"
Tanya was stunned. She couldn't move.
"There is something in your face, that I need..." the footsteps closed in as the sound of the clacking of the boots got louder. She could now feel the presence of the killer just behind her.
She couldn't make her body move. She sat there still like a dead body, paralyzed.
The killer slowly bent down and completed the song by whispering it in her ears. "And, there is something in your soul that I will take."
A silhouette of a tall man caught her eyes. Her head moved from his body to his hair, the familiar black hair. The innocent look, the handsome-pretty face, the cute smile- everything was gone. Vanished. Instead, what painted his face was greed.
Greed. Greed. Greed. Greed for what?
The man took out a silver knife which had a pattern of skull inscribed on it. He looked at it and his eyes turned almost white. He was no longer a human. He had lost his senses and only thrived for killing. He had a horrified grin on his face that would make anyone falter.
Greed for killing. What kind of greed was that?
He bought the knife close to Tanya's back and made a slash right from the base of her neck till her tail bone.
Greed cannot be limited to just money. It can be anything. Even killing.
The shock of the pain made Tanya come out of her trance. She hugged her body and winced.
The cynical man made his next move. He forcefully turned Tanya's face towards himself and licked the blood off her.
I know, she thought, what I experienced earlier wasn't greed. I wanted it but it wasn't greed. This is greed.
"More! More!" he rejoiced. Taking the tip of his knife, he slowly cut up her clothes along with the skin. She resisted but it was futile.
Seeing her bare skin made him more excited. "You are a treasure!" He exclaimed before placing the knife on her breasts and beginning to cut. "Kill...Kill!" He muttered.
"There is something in your voice that I want, there is something in your face that I need." he started yet again, tracing the knife down to her flat wheatish belly, "And, there is something in your soul that I will take!"
With that he thrust the knife right through her navel. "Deeper..." he muttered in a sing song manner, "Deeper! Hahahaha!" he kept pushing the knife inside as Tanya coughed blood.
"Die!" he shouted and gave her a final blow, humming the song.
He stroked her body and painted it wholly with her blood and stood up to leave. "More, I want more..." He turned around, not yet satisfied with his kill. He cleaned his knife with his spare cloth that he kept in his pocket and placed it back.
He was slowly trudging through the dark when he met a blow from behind. Shocked and excited at the same time, he looked at his stomach to find a rod passing through it. "Hehe...huh...heh" He panted as he kept his quivering hands around the rod. A mad man's smile was pasted on his face.
"No!" Tanya's weak voice erupted, "I won't let it end like this." She said, clutching her stomach. Her breath was heavy and she seemed weak but she was nowhere near dead.
"You made me kill my friend," she said in between her short breaths, "now taste the same pain!"
With all her might, she pulled back the rod and thrust it in him again. She did it once, twice, thrice.
"I want to kill..." the man kept on babbling. "I can't die, I am supposed to kill!" he shouted and made an attempt to catch Tanya's arms.
"F*ck you!!!" she cried and this time she thrust the metal rod right through his heart.
"I - have...t- kill..." he said before his death.