Haunted

XXIII

I stood outside in the chilly air. Emily's house was closer to the edge of the mountains than mine was, meaning the weather dropped twenty degrees compared to the other parts of the town. I wrapped the blanket the EMTs had given me tighter around myself. I had a Band-Aid on my chin from where Emily cut me, a bruise on my head from when she kidnapped me, and a huge amount of shock, but otherwise I had no injuries that needed to be treated by a hospital.

The red and blue flashing lights made the relatively nice neighborhood seem somehow more sinister. The midday light was already covered by the dark clouds in the sky, making the police lights the brightest form of illumination for the small houses.

News vans were also lined up and down the street. Though there was police tape flowing in the wind, blocking off the Sanders residence and the surrounding areas, the news sites were as close as they could get to the scene. They didn't have a good view of anything interesting besides the house itself, but their story was still eye-catching. I didn't know who had broken the story to them, but it was a small town and yellow police tape and red and blue lights in the middle of the day caught attention.

Rachel Porter's local news van was the closest to the scene. I could just barely hear her voice carrying through the wind. There was no doubt that her account of the events of the day would appear on repeat for hours as citizens of Elk Springs tuned in to the news. They would all hear what happened today.

"As we all know, there has been a series of rash serial murders in our small town of Elk Springs since the end of June. The media dubbed this killer as the Prince of Terror because their killings were modeled after the infamous murders of Willy Woods, otherwise known as The King of Terror. Willy Woods would kill people in the spirit of common fears and his body count spread from coast to coast, spilling over into triple digits. Willy was born and raised in this very town, only a couple of blocks from where I'm standing now. This new killer took up his mantel and most of their kills were centered on the same town their inspiration was from. The Prince of Terror's victims were killed in some of the same ways as Willy Woods's victims, placed in public places. The victims were all sons and daughters of people involved in the Willy Woods case in some way or another.

"This afternoon, local teenager Emily Sanders was arrested at this residence in suspicion with the Prince of Terror killings. After an anonymous tip, the authorities visited the house and, after hearing suspicious activity in the shed out back, decided to investigate. What they found was an unidentified teenage female and another teenage male subduing Emily Sanders. We are told that the girl was the daughter of a consultant on the legal team fighting against an appeal by the lawyers of Willy Woods. She was most likely the next victim.

"Why Emily Sanders would take up the mantel of the Prince of Terror is unknown, though sources have confirmed that she is in the same grade in school as Cade Woods, the son of the man who Emily was killing for. It is not known whether or not this bears any significance, but as of now everything is up for speculation."

I was glad my name had not yet been released to the public. I wasn't known in town, but that didn't mean reporters and conspiracy theorists wouldn't still be able to find me. I was an almost victim of the Prince of Terror, and that warranted some public attention.

My dad was notified of the situation as soon as the police questioned me. He was on his way from the police station, along with Grace. When Grace found me missing, she and my father had gone to the station to report me missing. It wasn't until they found out that I could've been a possible victim of the Prince of Terror with my father's involvement in the Willy Woods case that they starting treating my disappearance with priority instead of thinking I'd just run away like most missing teenagers.