Short Stories

She Knows

Lisa looked up from her book as the teacher started talking. Noticing it was unimportant she went back to reading. Soon there was someone tapping on her desk with a pen. She turned her head slightly and glanced back at them.
   It was Jacklin. She wasn't that bad of a person. She was the best student, so it was surprising that she was bothering Lisa.
   "Yes" Lisa said in a barely audible voice.
   Jacklin smirked. She looked around before leaning forward. Her lips brushed against Lisa's ear as she spoke. "I know how it ends. Of course I know. I just forgot how it began." With that she leaned back and she went back to her usual business.
   Lisa looked back to her book, confused and somewhat fearful. Jacklin had never acted like that before. Nobody else seemed to have noticed. She looked back at Jacklin, all she did was wink.
   Lisa quickly looked back to the front. Closing her book, she suddenly found the teacher interesting.

   At the end of the day, Lisa was walking home. She hadn't at all forgotten what Jacklin had said. She had stopped by Lisa throughout the day saying the exact same thing. "I know how it ends. Of course I know. I just forgot how it began."
   She was almost home. Just a few more blocks. She didn't know why. But for some reason she looked behind her. What she saw could have scared the devil himself. To some it would have seemed normal. Unless someone looked directly into her eyes. They were pure white with tiny flecks of red.
   Lisa didn't remember when she started running. All she knew is that she made it to her house and every way in was locked. That thing wasn't Jacklin. Lisa didn't know what it was. But she knew for a fact that it was not the well behaved girl at her school.

   She didn't tell her parents for the fear of them thinking she was crazy. But she kept her light on when she went to bed that night. It didn't help much. She woke up in the middle of the night to a pitch black darkness. The only light was a slip of moonlight coming through her blinds.
   As she looked around she noticed her light switch was still on. Every hair on her body stood on end when she heard tapping on her window. She looked over and saw that thing standing there. She wanted to scream for her parents. But she'd seen enough horror movies to know that whatever it was outside would leave if she called for anyone. She would look psychotic. So she watched it, and it watched her. It would occasionally say "I know how it ends. Of course I know. I just forgot how it began." When it said that, it seemed to look like the actual Jacklin. Then it would flick back to that blood lust creature.

   She was kept awake all night. She didn't want to go to sleep while it was still there she was afraid it would kill her. So she stayed up.
   It left at the break of dawn. Lisa was about to go back to sleep. But her alarm rang. She slowly got out of bed and got dressed. She felt way weaker than usual. She then went to finish her other morning duties.
When she wandered down to the kitchen, both her parents noticed.
"Are you alright?" Her mother asked taking her hand.
"You look terrible" her father said putting a hand on her shoulder.
Lisa looked at them both and smiled. She was faking, but they didn't have to know that. "I'm fine" she lied. "I just went to the library after school yesterday and read a scary book. I kept waking up from nightmares."
Her parents looked at her for a few more moments before sighing and telling her not to read anything creepy or spooky.
Lisa had decided to eat a quick breakfast and ride her bike to school. She usually walked. But with that thing watching her, she wanted to get to school as soon as possible.
To her horror, nobody was there when she showed up. The doors were still locked. And she had shown up around the time the bell would ring. She went to the back to see if anyone was there.
Yep. People were there. Everyone from her school. But they were soaked in blood. Piled up on each other. She felt her stomach flip flop before she threw up. It smelled and looked awful. She knew she had to leave and tell the police.
When she turned around she expected to see Jacklin. But she thankfully wasn't there. Lisa peaked around the corner. Still not seeing anyone she continued to go towards her bike. She looked around the next corner and her heart jumped into her throat.
Jacklin was leaning against a pole with her hands in her pockets. She didn't have those weird eyes and she seemed almost normal. She started looking around. Then she saw Lisa.
This is the end, Lisa thought, I'm about to die.
But Jacklin raised her eyebrows and stayed where she was. "Hey Lisa" she said waving. "Have you seen anyone? I feel like I might have missed a memo or something, you know, being absent and all."
Absent? Jacklin hadn't been absent. "What do you mean absent? You were here yesterday."
Jacklin squinted her eyes and blinked a couple times. "No I wasn't. I was dehydrated yesterday and vomiting. You can ask my mum."
Lisa for half a second believed her. But in every horror movie she had watched, the killer would try and trick the target. No way was she gonna let that happen to her. "You were here" Lisa said glaring and shaking. "You killed all those people!" Lisa was fully visible now and coming towards Jacklin.
For a split second Jacklin looked confused. Then she was terrified. She was stepping back shoving her hands out in front of her. "Stay away from me!" She screamed.
"Stay away from you? I'm risking my life by coming near you!"
Jacklin turned to run but Lisa was quicker. She grabbed the back of Jacklin's ponytail and threw her to the ground. Jacklin grabbed her chest as the breath was knocked out of her. Lisa pinned her down with one hand and repeatedly began punching her. Blood started pouring out of her nose and some from her mouth.
This monster had killed everyone in the school and it was gonna pay dearly.
Jacklin pushed Lisa off and began running. But Lisa had been anticipating that and thrusted her foot out just in time. Jacklin fell and Lisa was on her back. She grabbed one of the creature's arms and straightened it out. Then, without warning, she bent it as hard as possible and as quick as possible in the wrong direction. There was a loud snap and Jacklin screamed out in pain.
"You're going to suffer for what you did to those poor people!"
She grabbed Jacklin by her hair and pulled her up. She grabbed her head with both her hands and said quietly. "I hope you rot in h*ll." Then snapped her neck.
The body fell like a bag of potatoes to the ground. It felt like a giant weight had been lifted off her shoulders. She turned around and stopped dead. That thing was right behind her. It got so close that it's lips brushed against Lisa's ear. "Look at yourself" it whispered.
Lisa obliged and noticed she was covered in blood. It couldn't have all been caused by Jacklin.
"You were my puppet. I had you kill them. Jacklin did nothing. Your parents couldn't see it thanks to me. But everyone else could." The blood drained from her face when something cold penetrated her stomach. "I know how it ends. Of course I know. I just forgot how it began." The blade was withdrawn and Lisa fell to the ground. A pool of blood started forming and that thing watched, smiling.
Yes that thing knew how her work would end. It was the same every time. She would haunt one person. She would hypnotize them one night. Have them kill everyone in their school. Then think it was the student she was posing as. She would finish the job by killing her own puppet then move on. But she didn't remember how any of it had begun.