Killer Child

Chapter 1 - Otto

I stared at the picture of the person who I was meant to kill. It was a girl - about my age - with medium length black hair in ringlets and bright green eyes. Her name was River Isaacs.

"She lives at 75 Eastland Road and goes to William's High School. With any luck she will be in her room alone. There is a building opposite her house so if I were you I would sniper her from up there." Gary said, fishing a key from his pocket and wandering over to the gun cupboard. "An LA2A1 should do the trick."

"And what if she's not alone?" I asked, stuffing the picture in my pocket.

"What else? Wait 'till she's alone. The person who sent this picture wants it to be done tonight." Gary replied, unlocking the cupboard and peering inside. Gary never let me look inside the cupboard so I don't actually know what guns he had in there.

"Ah, here we are." He grinned, pulling out the LA2A1. He then brought out some bullets and handed the lot to me.

"Remember Otto, it's bolt action. Now go." Then Gary locked the cupboard and walked away, leaving me alone.

10 minutes later, I was standing up on the top of the building facing River's house. There was no sign of her yet. I rubbed my hands together and shivered. It was a chilly October night and I only had on jeans and a long-sleeve top. I didn't even think about bringing gloves or a jumper. Suddenly, River burst into her room, with what looked like a very fat ginger cat cradled in her arms. I crouched down and quickly loaded my rifle, my fingers numb with cold. I managed to get one bullet in so I brought the scope to my eye and peeked through. She was sitting on her bed with her back to me, cooing to her cat. I smirked. It seemed incredibly baby-ish to me. I was just about to pull the trigger when River's parents walked into the room. They both seemed to be smiling about something and told something to River. I squinted into the scope but unfortunately I couldn't lip read. Suddenly, River burst out laughing, jumped up and hugged her parents.

My breath caught in my throat. Even from where I was I could see the happiness on their faces as they embraced. I lowered the rifle. Ever since I could remember, I had always wanted a proper family. Sure, I had Gary but he has never been a father figure to me. As I watched, the parents walked out and River started dancing around her room. I grinned as she suddenly lost her footing and fell over, making the cat hiss and jump out the way. The stunned expression on her face caused me to burst out laughing before slapping my hands to my mouth in alarm, but it was too late.

She had already heard me.

I ducked as she looked out the window, my heart pounding against my chest. Ever so slowly, I looked in through her window and was relieved to see she was distracted by her cat playing with a toy mouse. I picked my rifle back up but as I did, pictures started formed in my head.

It was a funeral. There was lots of people were dressed in black and I saw River's parents sobbing quietly. Leaves swept across the ground and as I watched, a coffin was slowly lowered into the ground, with a picture of River on the top. When the pictures faded I dropped the rifle and listened to it clatter to the floor. There was no way I could do this. I stared at my hands, shaking and blue with cold. I could lie to Gary, say that I had done it.

He would never find out.

Making my decision, I grabbed the rifle and ran across the roof. The girl would live to see another day.