Psycho Killer

Take 9: Last Confessions & Dead Film Students Walking

Kip's POV:

I'm running toward the sound of screaming blue murder. The dorms are my destination for a completely different reason now. There's a flash of blonde streaming toward me. Kiren.

"Run, Kip." He shouts at me, grabbing me by the arm as he streams past.

"What's happening? Where is everyone?" I ask, but I am silenced as I catch sight of a masked figure in the distance. I turn, running with Kiren faster than I ever have in my life. The lanky figure streams after us. The sound of their footsteps scrapes my spine as if they're breathing down my neck.

We take any and every turn we can to lose this guy, but their persistent pattering steps haunt us all the way back to the cafeteria. We're only just able to shut and lock the door behind us without being backed into our deaths.

"Oh my god, you guys are alive." Jodee's voice fills my ears. She rushes up to me, squeezing me for dear life.

"Where's Afryea?" Tina asks. I look at Kiren just as she is. Kiren shakes his head.
"There's a guy..." He starts.

"In a mask, we know."
"He got hold of her and stabbed her... I had to run. I had to." He explains, but there's doubt in his previous actions.

"Enid, Jesus, I thought you were dead." I move past the others, holding her closer than I have in a long while. "I thought you were dead." It's only now that I can hear that I'm beginning to cry.

"I thought I'd lost you too." Enid's lips draw down in a miserable frown. "Tarek's gone." She barely gets it out in one go. There's nothing I can say or do aside from holding her.

"What about Olivier?" Tina looks at me over Enid's shoulder. "He's locked in the shower room. He'll be fine. I have the only key." I reassure her. There's a slight shift of relief in her eyes, yet the tension remains in her shoulders.

"We found Kyong's body under a teacher's desk in the literature wing. That was his first major. Literature." Jodee whispers. "He was missing his fingers, his tongue, and there were gashes right through his cheeks."
"He must of bleed out." Kiren sinks against the wall, holding his knees. Tina shakes her head.
"He was gutted, his heart sticking out of his mouth," Tina adds. I feel sick, partially because of the words entering my ears, partially because there isn't a single atom of me that is sad he is gone.

"No one deserves that fate," I say and I mean it, but I'm not sad.

"What do we do now?" Enid questions.
"I don't know." Everyone sits down on the outskirts of the room. Thankful that the cafeteria wasn't given windows. I try the light switch, but the room remains covered in shadow, adding to our list of problems.

"We'll have to come up with a plan." Tina breathes deeply.

"What plan Tina?" Kiren shouts. "We're sitting ducks. We can only try to run, and that maniac is probably going to catch us first. He's super-fast."
"No, he's not." Enid murmurs. No one hears but me.
"Something Kiren. Anything. We can't just sit in here and starve to death. The least we can do is try to live for our dead friends, our fucking murdered friends, Kiren. Try to live and if we die, die like them. It's the least we can fucking do." Tina snaps. There's a maniac edge to her eyes.

"Stop," Jodee shouts. "This is not the time. We need to recover for a bit. Just a bit. Even ten minutes. If we don't, we're not going to get anywhere." On the second day, I did my bit, I broke the ice. On the third, Tarek took charge of planning. Today, Jodee, the quietest person I know, is taking charge to keep us safe from a masked killer.

None of this feels real.

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