tanathophobia • ethan landry

03

moon

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ghost face inched closer to the counter, the man who i just yelled at stepped in front of us, he stepped right in front of ghost face who tilted its head at the man. struggled gasps left our lips as we stumbled backwards.

"you got a problem here guy?" the man asked, ghost face tilted his head at the man in front of him, not seconds later a knife plunged into his stomach making the green fabric of his shirt turn red in a matter of seconds.

a loud grunt the mans my lips as he fell to the ground. another man threw himself at ghost face just to be thrown to the floor with a knife in his neck in a quick second.

the people in the store started to gather and ran out towards the exit as we inched backwards. ghost face's gaze shifted towards us, the loading of a gun was heard. "hey!" the cashier yelled as he cocked his gun and pointed it at ghost face before pulling the trigger.

we all crouched to the floor, the man reloaded his gun and walked over to the path. his gaze turned one with confusion as he was met with nothing but a messy path. "go out the back!" the man motioned towards the back door for us to go through.

"thank you!" tara yelled as sam pushed us towards the back of the store, i lunged towards the handle shaking aggressively as a cry left my lips. "fuck!" i said tears staining my cheeks. "It's locked!"

"keys!" tara said lunging back so she was in the vision of the man. "we need the keys!" the man went for his pocket trying to pry the keys of his pants, a black figure came up behind him. "behind you!" tara sam and i all yelled in sync, the man glanced up as his face filled with horror.

he turned around grabbing onto the masked figure's arm, being too late as a knife was plunged into his chest. i cried out as sam placed her hand on top of my mouth and pulled us behind a shelf. we stared at ghost face as he aimed the man's gun at the man himself.

"no no no, wait!" the man yelled sticking his hand out in surrender, but it was too late as a bullet was launched into his head. my eyes widened as i leaned back placing my back against the shelf.

we crouched down in the last aisle as we heard the gun reload. "shh" sam said as we all stopped in our crouched position. sam nodded slowly as we started crouching forward, we grabbed our heads and ducked down as a shot rang above our head knocking a few things down.

we crouched faster just for another bullet to fly past our heads, we crouched down again. we quickly scattered back towards our previous hiding spot sandwiching sam as me and Tara held our cries.

my lip trembled as the steps grew closer, my eyes shot anxiously over the place before they landed on a crunched up tin can. my hand slowly inched towards it as my fingers wrapped around it Lifting it slowly off the floor. i threw it to the other side of the store without looking.

sam nudged her head for us to return to the aisle we just tried our escape at,
tara went first followed by me.
we crouched down again as we inched closer to the door. the sound of crunched up glass echoed through the store, my hand accidentally moved it stinging prying the glass inside from the movement.

we all stopped in our tracks, my eyes pried shut before i opened them again. Sam glanced in between the shelves getting a clean look if ghost face, she lunged forward throwing the shelf over making me and tara follow her actions. a shot rang in the air of ghost face his gun before we stood up.

"go!" sam yelled as we took a run for the exit, police sirens were heard. as soon as my skin touched the cold air a breath if relief escaped my lips.
my cousin's stopped in there tracks turning around in confusion at the store. i followed their gaze to be met with nothing but a mask.

~

i sighned heavily as sam tara and i were sitting down on three chairs in the police department. pictures of blood and dead people were scattered on the table in front of us. the door opened making my gaze shoot up, detective bailey walked in closing the door behind him.

"this was found next to the body at the apartment crime scene" bailey said holding up a mask as he sat down. "DNA says it belongs to someone named, richie Kirsch" he spoke throwing the mask on top of the pictures.

"does that ring a bell?" he asked glancing in between us all. "we're familiar with him..." sam said not glancing at me nor tara.

"but the one that attacked us had a different mask on" i said looking up at bailey. "yeah it was kinda more beat up, like it was older" tara said.

"ah" bailey said rubbing his chin. "gotta ask, do you have alibis for earlier tonight?" he asked making me scoff.

"moon and i were at a party with our friends" tara said leaning back in her chair.

"i was at my therapist" sam answered with a simple shrug. "i can give you his information, you can call to check if you want, and then i met them at the party where i tased someone" she continued making me pinch the bridge of my nose. "I'm related"

"was that before or after this happened." bailey said grabbing his phone which is the video of the girl who threw a drink at sam. i followed with a punch where you could clearly see my face on camera. i pursed my lips as i stared at the screen in defeat.

"before" sam awsnered.
"more important is, we were with people all night" tara said motioning her hand towards the phone.

"so our roommates dad, just happened to pull our case." i asked shaking my head at bailey. "that'd would be a crazy coincidence right?" he asked staring at me. "yeah" i whispered sarcastically.

"the Detective who had the case offered it to me as it, involves quinn" he said making me lift my head up. "but i can totally give it back if you're, uncomfortable, its up to you" he asked glancing in between us.
"its fine" sam answered as we all shared a glance.

"so if the man who attacked you did steak your licence and planted it next to the body, than it probably is someone's close to you" he said making me sigh.

"well we moved here with mindy and chad for summer semester like six months ago" tara said turning towards bailey. "so, quinn uhm ethan anika"

"i think i can vouch for quinn so that is one less thing we have to worry about" bailey said making an uncomfortable knot form in my stomach. i glanced at tara who was already glancing at me.

"does one of you have someone that might wanna target you?" detective bailey asked looking at all of us. "not anyone who is still alive" i answered making bailey lift his eyebrows at me. "yikes"

"FBI's here" a deputy said as he opened the door. "claiming the restriction"

bailey scoffed as he got up and walked out, the deputy told us we could leave a few minuted after. we walked through the halls the deputy in fronf of us as sam spoke up. "kirby?" she asked as a woman with short blond hair walked over. "hey sam" she said hugging sam. "tara, moon"

"you're working for the fbi?" sam asked earning a nod from kirby. "you guys know each other?" bailey asked confused. "yeah, we went to woodsburrow high together" sam said. "she was a senior when i was a freshman"

"we share an certain history, yeah"