About Last Night

The First Victim

The sun is coming up, and The Paperboy is starting to see that this street has more houses than he initially thought. The house Alice's father is set to be in is on the left side of the road, her mom's on the right. The two places are identical in every way, except for the people living in them. The Paperboy waits outside of the house, perched up on a treetop for Alice to emerge from her basement window. The sun is coming up, and he doesn't want to miss his chance.

After waiting for an hour, The Paperboy finally sees Alice's head pop out of the window. He checks his scope and loads the rifle, moving the crosshairs from her head to her heart. It would be so easy. He knows where she's going to emerge. It's an exact distance from the side of the window. All he'd need to do is fire off a shot where she's going to be, and he'd never miss. He sees Alice pull her knees up to her chest and then push off into the air, out of sight.

"Damn it." The Paperboy says to himself before jumping off his branch and landing silently on the grass.

He follows her up the street and makes sure to keep a reasonable distance. He doesn't want her to notice him, at least not yet. He keeps his eyes on her as she makes her way up the street. She stops by a neighbor's house and grabs a newspaper from the owner. He's laughing and thinks about how paperboys have to get up at the ass crack of dawn just to throw the paper into yards. His own job is much easier.

Alice makes her way up to the main street. The Paperboy follows behind, careful not to lose her. He can see that she's headed towards town. This early in the morning, there won't be too many people around. It should be effortless to catch her off guard and abduct her. Alice continues up the street and turns onto a side road; this is it. Once she hits that road, there's nowhere to hide. He crosses his fingers for luck and sees that she hasn't noticed him at all. She's completely clueless. The Paperboy checks his knife and puts it behind his back.

As he approaches Alice, she spots him and says, "T--" is all she can get out before The Paperboy stabs her in the chest. She falls over, not screaming but instead just making a pained grunt as the blade pierces her skin. She writhes on the ground for a moment, blood pouring out of her chest.

"Sorry about this, but I need to make sure you stay quiet."

The Paperboy watches as Alice tries to get up but realizes she won't be able to. He closes the gap between them and presses the silencer onto his pistol. Pulling the trigger, watching her brains splatter all over the ground. It sort of reminds him of when he was a kid and smashed ants with rocks.

The Paperboy pulls out his knife and starts cutting into her arm, dragging the blade while blood runs down her arm. The Paperboy walks over to a sewer drain and drops the arm down the chute. He pulls off his bloody gloves and throws them down as well.

He pushes down the street, trying to keep his head on a swivel. Even though there's little to no chance of being seen, you can never be too careful. He walks down the street, past a few buildings, some of which have lights on. Most places are dark at this time, though. He walks down the road, staying close to the shadows and checking around corners before he makes any movements.

He goes back to the spot he and Alice left Ben to die. He hoped that he might be a bit more advanced in the death process, but he's still sitting there. Walking back to where Ben was left, he calls out to him. Getting no response back, even when kicking the body. He's dead for sure now.

"You should have stayed away from her," The Paperboy says out loud, kicking Ben's body again.

He realizes that he needs to cover his tracks. He drags the body behind a nearby building, onto some grass and bushes. He gets on his hands and knees and crawls around behind the building, making it look like there was a scuffle in the long grass. He walks back to the main road, sweat dripping down his back. He needs to find someplace secluded, to wash the blood off his clothes. He finds a park close by and goes into the bathroom.

He walks into the bathroom and locks the door behind him. He takes off his jacket, shirt, pants, shoes, and everything else. Just then, he hears someone approaching on what sounds like a dirtbike. He looks out the door and sees a paperboy delivering his typical rounds.

He laughs to himself, "paperboys, always up before everyone else prowling in the night."

He gets into the shower and lets the water wash over his body. The water turns a dark color, but he doesn't care. He just keeps scrubbing his clothes and hair with the bar of soap he found in this stall.