The Serial Killers (Complete)

River04/05 6:25 PM

"Are you okay?" Raelyn nodded, lips tightening into a false smile as I handed her a mug of coffee.

"Just fine. You?"

I huffed, not without exasperation. "Just peachy. Kate's another story."

Raelyn pulled her feet up onto the couch, hugging her knees to her chest. "Jericho says she's just in shock." We were quiet for a while we listened to the wind whipping the sides of Jericho's cabin. "What do you think about all of this?"

"I don't know what I think, I just know someone's fucking with us and I'm about ready to kill."

Raelyn leveled me with a blank stare. "Unless he kills us first."

I didn't say anything, just stared back. The image of the horrifying figure sung through my blood.

"It's kind of strange."

"What?"

She bit her lip, rubbing the couch with her free hand. "That he'd know the one thing Kate can't do and use it to kill her."

"But he didn't kill her."

"Oh jeez, why the hell are we talking like this?"

"You brought it up," I snapped, curling up into a ball.

We lapsed back into silence. Raelyn stood and systematically checked the boarded windows.

"Where the hell is Alex? He's been gone for what, an hour now?"

My eyes snapped back to where Raelyn was now standing, close to the window, peering through the slats. "Do you think something happened to him?"

"I don't want to think about that." She turned slowly, a look of resignation etched on her face. "Just let me hope."

"Why wouldn't he have just killed you in the woods if that was his end game? I mean, he almost killed Kate."

"I don't know, that's what hasn't added up yet. I think he would have killed her if he could have."

"Jericho scared him off before he could finish," I supplied, picking at the dirt wedged under my nails.

She sat on the chair opposite me. "Lucky Jericho showed up."

"Yeah, lucky," I agreed.

Raelyn tapped at her phone before setting on the coffee table and reaching to hold her head in her hands.

"There is no cell reception in the butt crack of nowhere. Alexander is a big boy, he can take care of himself."

Raelyn grunted seemingly lost in thought for a moment, her eyes slightly glazed. There was a loud clap of lightning, and I felt my hair stand on end. She jerked to attention. "Did you hear that?"

The sound of shattering glass ricocheted from the back room. Raelyn jumped, while my body tensed into motion. "Jericho!"

"What?" Her suddenly wild eyes landed on me. "Kate!"

Raelyn drunkenly stood, sprinting to the back bedroom; I almost stumbled into her as she came to a halt in the doorway. "It's locked, what the hell?! Why is this door locked?"

"Kate!" I banged my fist against the wood.

Kate let out a blood curdling scream before being suddenly cut off. I threw myself against the door as a body thunked to the floor. Just then Jericho came barreling around the corner, ax in hand.

"Out of the way!" He swung it into the door, the wood splintering down the middle. He hacked again and again, until finally there was a hole large enough for his hand to fit through.

It swung open and Raelyn ducked under his arm then stopped short. "No." She crumpled to the floor as if her strings had been cut, landing heavily on her knees.

The unmade bed lay opened haphazardly, the sheets were pulled back to expose a scarlet pool of blood, slowly staining the white sheets as it leached out of Alexander's macerated body. Presented as if it were a gift.

His trachea was missing from his throat and a trail of innards traced burgundy patterns across the bed. Blood was spattered across the walls, like a deranged painting. Raelyn threw up in the middle of the floor.

I pushed past her, my feet slipping over the stained carpet in my attempt to reach the imploded window. Two bloody handprints were etched into wood, shapeless and lean.

"River," Raelyn whispered.

Slowly, I turned away from the night outside the window to the nightmare behind me. Raelyn stood with her fingers pressed firmly to her side. "He's dead, isn't he?"

A sob, trapped in her throat, sent a violent tremor through her body. I closed the distance between the two of us and pulled her to met. Raelyn buried her face into my chest. "He's gone."

"I was wrong about him," I whispered.

"The sick bastard. He took her, didn't he?" Raelyn shoved off of me and ran to the window. "You sick bastard! WE WILL FIND YOU!"

"We need to go for help," I insisted, moving to pull her away from the broken glass.

"I'm with River here," Jericho nodded. "You both aren't qualified to handle this."

I spun on him. "And you are?"

He hefted the ax, uncomfortable. "Yes."

Raelyn groaned and reached for her fiance. "No, no, no. I'm so sorry Alexander." Her sobs were broken and pained.

"Raelyn, hey. We need to get the police so they can start looking for Kate and I'm not leaving you here alone."

"Ju- just go," she moaned.

I glanced at Jericho and he pursed his lips. "I'm going to carry you Raelyn."

"NO, NOOO. Stop, I need to stay with him!"

Jericho swung her legs up into his arms and she crumpled to his chest. "Let's find Kate."