Seizing Kisses

The green rooster.

Gran was unwell. I hadn't seen her since she had visited us last Christmas. So when mom decided to leave for Granna's house, I tagged along. I had nothing left to do except waiting for my acceptance letters from the universities I had applied to, anyway.

Granna's home was a lovely country cottage, with a bigger garden than the house itself. The back of the lot had a corn field, belonging to my mom's cousin, Uncle Will. But the lane on the side of Granna's home was like a suburban, houses lined up neatly, even though a few of them had their own farm animals.

We hadn't told Granna that we would be coming so she was surprised to see us. I left mom talking to her while I ran upstairs to freshen up. The rooms were filled with dust, yet the same as we'd seen them the last time. Granna couldn't climb the stairs easily and had long since shifted her bedroom downstairs. I laughed, looking at the crude drawing of Mrs. Mosby, who lived across this street. Archer, my childhood friend had drawn it right on the wall. I traced it, remembering the lanky redhead, he sure was one hell of an artist. Too bad he was persuing business and not arts. Being two years older than me, he was right now in New York University.

"Vivian! Come down!" My mom hollered from downstairs. Her hollering capacity was one of the few indications that she had been a country bumpkin. The rest, well, that was distorted in her years of living with my father.
"Coming, mom!" I rushed down the stairs only to find her searching through the cabinets.

"Yes, mom?" I asked her.
"Oh, Vivian, wait a second please." She turned around, looking all flushed. That was the thing about both of us, even the most smallest of movement could make us go all pink in the cheeks and the tip of nose. Dad always said that it was the first thing that had attracted him towards mom, he said that she looked all cute with her face all pink and her wild red mane. But I didn't believe it for two reasons. First, I had been bullied through first two years of my high school for my so called 'country looks', and the second, well, because if mum had been so cute then I had no clue why father forced her to put up makeup on her face and hair in a bun.
"Ok, we have all the other stuff except the eggs." Mom said, "Can you get some eggs from Mrs. Drake's please?"

I nodded. "It's the farm behind the home opposite to us, right?"
"Yeah, behind Mrs. Mosby's. Tell her I said Hi."
"Ok, mom."

I exited the home, wearing the pyjamas I had changed into upstairs. That was the thing about this place. You could wear feathers on your head and people won't mind, but you dress fancy and they treat you as an outsider.
I walked along Granna's lane, looking at the minor or no changes in the houses I loved so much. Moving along the turn, to the lane parallel to ours, I saw the new solar plates that Gran had told us Mr. Engle on the corner had installed.
Still looking at them, I reached the small crooked gate of the farm. I didn't recognize it, but the hens were clucking out in the open, right in front of me so I realized it must be the place. The door creaked loudly when I pushed it open.

I walked ahead, looking around for Mrs. Drake.
"Hello? Is anyone here?" I called out, nearing the home. "Mrs. Drake?"
There was no reply and no sound from the home. So I turned around to leave and maybe come back later, when I saw a weird handwritten warning in red, right on a huge plank, attached to a wodden stick embedded in the ground.

"If you leave the door open and my chickens leave, hunt them or I'll hunt YOU."

Instinctively, I looked at the small crooked gate and felt my heartbeat quicken. One small hen was already by the gate.
I swear I sucked at PE, but if my gym teacher could see me today, he would've assigned me to the sprint team.

"Gotcha!" I cried in victory as I caught her just as she went beyond the gate. I brought her in, carefully closing the door this time. I walked over to where the other hens were, when I heard a noise from the poultry shed.
I softly let the hen down and decided to check the shed out, in case Mrs. Drake was there and hadn't heard me calling her.

"Mrs. Drake?" I called out again, entering the shed.
There was no one. Just hay and racks for eggs. Truthfully, I felt as if there was no one here except the chickens. I turned around to leave, when someone entered the shed from the side door which I had somehow missed.

One look at him and my heart started pounding in my chest. He was covered in blood from head to toe. And he had a long butcher knife in his hand, with blood on it.
I stepped back, the urge to run away guiding all my senses. I had seen enough TV to know that serial killers resided in some completely normal areas, usually small towns like this one, who butchered young girls like me and hid them in forests.

He didn't move or speak as I continued stepping back, without moving my eyes away from him. I didn't want to get butchered without my even noticing it. Well, I didn't want to get butchered at all, but I think you get it. I don't know what it was that I hit, but the next thing I knew, I was falling behind. I landed on the hay and the man stepped forward, the knife in his hand taking all my attention. That was when I couldn't hold it in anymore.

I screamed loudly, slipping backwards into the haystack. The next thing I knew, something moved behind me. I didn't dare to look back as the man in front of me had started walking closer.

"Stay where you are, girl." He began saying, looking as dangerous as his voice was. "You shouldn't have entered this shed. You've already spoiled everything, so don't you dare move now or else-"

Or else...?

I don't know about you peeps, but I took those words as my cue to get up and run. Just as I moved, a huge rooster jumped from behind me, in a blur of green. He began flapping his green wings at me, spraying something liquid all over me. I scrambled to get away from the attacking green rooster. As I turned away and finally got up, I came face to face with the man dripping with blood.

I felt my breathing stop, my brain going numb, yet thinking on high speed about how gruesomely he must've killed someone to be drenched in so much blood like this.
He took one step closer and I screamed on the top of my lungs, pushing him with all my might and ran away.

A/N: This is going to be fun!!!