You had just finished eating dinner with some of your friends at the newly opened restaurant in town. The food had been delicious, and you kept smiling and giggling the whole dinner, enjoying your friends' presence. You split the bill and exited the restaurant, feeling warm despite the cold and foggy weather. Aware that it was too late in the night to walk home, you decided to call a taxi. You guys were six in total, so your friends agreed on calling two cabs.
The chilling night air gave you goosebumps, and you adjusted your hoodie to stop the freezing air from sliding into it. It was way too cold for October; your jeans alone were not able to keep your poor legs warm. That made you make a mental note to wear tights underneath them the next time you go out.
You and your bestfriend Christine decided to ride the second cab together; after all, you guys were neighbours. She was the sweetest girl you knew, and her presence was always enough to cheer you up. Her shy, crooked smile and her adorable giggle could melt your heart in an instant. She was sociable and overall very likeable, but for some reason, her luminous personality didn't seem to phase the driver at all.
Once you got in the cab, an awkward silence filled the air. She tried to strike up a conversation a few times, but the man remained silent, not sparing her a glance. You were in the backseat, behind Christine's seat, looking out the window. If not even your friend could have a conversation with him, you had no chance.
You glanced at the passing, blurry, lit-up buildings and sighed. The streets were completely empty, not a single car or person out; the sight made you feel weirdly calm. Living in a small town like this had its perks, I guess.
Finally, your friend sparing some glances at you through the rear-view mirror caught your attention. She seemed agitated, looking around the car often and fidgeting with her fingers. The cab took an unusual turn and was heading towards the forest, slowing down a little. Now, just as agitated as Christine, you kept looking out the window, trying to pin point where you guys were exactly, but the fog made your efforts meaningless.
What happened next was fast and a blur of motions. The driver's sudden movements grabbed both of your guys' attention. He turned towards Christine, who was sitting in the front seat, and yanked her by her hair, slamming her face with great force into the dashboard repeatedly.
Thunk, thunk, thunk! Crack!
She was thrashing her body around, trying to grab onto the man, and digging her nails into his arms. Her muffled screams and pleads were silenced as your ears started ringing violently. You were breathing heavily and staring at the scene in front of you with your eyes wide. The man suddenly let go of your friend to search for something in his puff vest.
Time seemed to slow down as Christine turned to you, screaming and trying to grab onto you for help. Her smile wasn't the only crooked thing about her face now. Her nose was eerily turned to the right, bleeding violently, and as you further inspected her, you noticed a small dent on her forehead. The sight gave you shivers.
The man took a knife out of his vest, turning his attention to your friend again. You watch in horror as he directs the knife towards her throat. Your fight or flight immediately came into action, and without a second to spare, you opened the moving car's door and jumped out of it, your body tumbling on the ground.
Your back hit the concrete brutally, getting the wind knocked out of you. The repulsive sound of your bone breaking made your stomach turn, and as you kept tumbling, you felt your hoodie ripping, exposing your bare skin to the asphalt, resulting in stinging road rashes on your back.
In the car, Christine was now fighting against the attacker. She grabbed the arm that was holding the knife and redirected it, making the man stab the car seat. Seeing this as an opportunity, she suddenly jumped on him, this movement turning the steering wheel and making the car go off-road, crashing into a nearby tree with force.
You watched all of this from a distance, your mouth slightly parted, not moving your body an inch. Not able to hear anything except for the uncomfortable ringing in your ears and your laboured breath. You dragged your body off the road to the opposite part of the car crash and sat in silence for what felt like years.
A sudden scream erupted from the car and echoed through the forest, making your skin crawl. You got up in shock when you realised that the scream didn't sound like Christine's.
Tears threatened to spill down your face as you saw your friend getting out of the car. She turned to you, huffing and shaking, giving you the same crooked smile. It looked disturbing. Christine opens her mouth and tries to say something between shaky breaths. But her struggle is ended as a flying hatchet buries itself into her skull with a loud slippery thunk!.
Confusion and shock fogs your mind as you watch your friend's lifeless body hit the ground with a thud. It makes a disgusting gurgling sound, shiny crimson blood pooling around her head. You gag and place one trembling hand on your mouth to silence the broken sobs that escape your lips. Adrenaline pumps into your bloodstream, and you make a run for it into the forest, forgetting about every injury your body has sustained tonight. A man's rugged voice echoes behind you.
"Bullseye!" He says, softly giggling to himself.
His voice amplifies the ringing in your ears; now sprinting for your life, panting, and trying to ignore the stinging feeling in your legs. A hatchet flies at you from your left and buries itself slightly into your thigh, making you stumble and hit the ground. The pain shooting up your leg made you audibly wail in pain and clutch your hands around the wound, taking the hatchet out. You roll over, trying to get up. Slipping on the wet leaves towards a steep incline wasn't part of your plan though.
"Fucking hell-," you groan as you begin to roll downhill, fast.
Everything is a spinning mess full of panic as you almost bite your tongue. Your body is mercilessly being thrown around by gravity, the random pebbles and branches not helping ease the fall. You hit the forest ground harshly with a loud pop and crunch. Curiously, you look at your limbs. Analysing each one, when you notice your right hand bent backwards. "Hah- holy fuck."
You hold back a laugh, splaying your body on the ground. Everything was stinging. Your body felt like it was burning; you were sweaty and close to passing out. Angry, hot tears slide down your cheeks as your mind begins wandering. Could you make it out alive? Was Christine still alive? You doubt it.
Shik, shik, shik
The sound of footsteps breaks you out of your trance, and you glance back at the spot you just tumbled down from. Your breath hitches. Damn, that's tall.
A figure appears and looks down at you from there. laughing.
"Wow! Need a huh-hand?" He chirps happily.
You stare at it between your eyelashes, trying to make out some features, but the ringing in your ears make concentrating impossible.
The sounds stop abruptly as a knife is thrown at you, landing between your neck and your shoulder.
The figure sneaks one more glance at you from the top of the hillside, proud after seeing blood gushing and pooling near your neck.
You slowly begin to lose consciousness as he walks away, a sick pop echoing through the forest.
YOU ARE READING
Bittersweet | Ticci Toby
Fanfiction◤━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◥ Bittersweet /ˈbɪt̬.ɚˌswiːt/ (adj.) "containing a mixture of happiness and sadness" ◣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◢ A series of unfortunate events determine...
