GOLD RUSH : a good girl's guide to murder oneshots

I THOUGHT I LOST YOU

HEAVY TRIGGER WARNING : MENTIONS OF RAPE.
if this topic is sensitive to you, please don't read this and take care of yourself. 🫶🏻

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Jason had returned, yes, and Pip had considered it.

Going back for that glint of metal in the grass, going back to ensure that the DT Killer would never lay his hands on another girl again. End the circle, end the ring of dead and dead eyed girls.

But, no, she picked up her feet from that grass, and she ran.

Pip ran hard against the wind, through the trees and their branches, and through her own mind.

She just had to find a house. Somebody that would let her in. Somebody that would listen to her.

The trees thinned, and they were thinning, still, when it caught her eye.

A house, a car, a mother and her two children. Pip inhaled sharply, because a mother would listen, and a mother would help.

She checked the road once, twice, and kept running against time, against the asphalt, and across the street.

Pip's foot caught on the curb and she stumbled, slipped to the ground, and tumbled onto the grassy lawn of the home.

"Ow," she hissed, grabbing her knee as the mother's head whipped around.

"Oh, god," the woman said, ushering her kids inside before hurrying to Pip's side, gasping as she examined Pip and her scuffed up face. "Are you -"

"I'm not safe, I - I need help," Pip's voice came fast, her panicked breaths coming faster. "I was - I need to call the police, please."

"Yes, yes, okay. Come on, sweetheart; what's your name?"

"Pippa Fitz-Amobi," she breathed. "Pip."

"I've heard your name before, Pip," the woman told her. "I'm Laura. Here, sit, I'll grab my phone."

"I have a podcast, maybe that's where you know my name from." Pip said, voice shaky and uncertain, unhappy with the normality of this scene.

She had just been nearly murdered, she had seen death and she had been reborn, and here she was, telling a stranger where she knew her name from.

This was all right and it was all wrong, because she should be dead, but she needed to do this. For the five before, and for the sixth who'd survived him.

For Andie and for Becca, and for the girls who may come next.

Pips hands quavered as Laura handed her the phone, open to a dial.

Her lip quivered, because she didn't know who to call. 911? Detective Hawkins, directly? She didn't know. She was so scared.

Pip looked up at the woman in front of her, maybe for direction, maybe to find something in her eyes to urge her on.

There was nothing there. She turned back to the phone, and with shaking thumbs, dialed 9-1-1.

"My - My name is Pip," she told the operator after she asked the classic what's your emergency? "I... I need you to believe me. Something bad has happened to me, and I need you -" Pip hiccuped, eyes brimming with salty tears. "I need you to believe me."

"Okay, what's happened to you, Pip? Are you safe?" The operator asked, fingers against a keyboard in the background.

"I'm safe now, but I don't know how long I'll be safe for, he - he could be looking for me, I think." Laura watched Pip with worried eyes, not daring to leave this scared girl's side. "This afternoon, I was kidnapped. Do - Do you need the full story?"