Killing Chris

From The Ashes, We Rise

Lake was still alive. I couldn't even begin to explain to you how someone survives being stabbed twenty-seven times but still... Here we are. I guess most of the stab wounds were actually cuts but either way there was almost no chance of coming back from that.

After we both recuperated from our wounds lake paid me a visit to my house. With no knowledge of his rage, I greeted him like normal. I was met by a shove and a cold look in his eyes. The conversation was pretty quick lake did most of the talking. I can't even explain what I felt, anger, fear, guilty all at the same time. 

I knew Lake was right but still, that didn't make it hurt any less. So when Lake called me I didn't know what I was. He was right and I resented him for that but I missed him with all my heart. The day he was coming to campus I decided to tell Dane the truth. I told him that I knew it was shitty to lie to him but it hurt less to tell that version of the story than the true story. He said he understood but I think it was only because he was in his slump.

I waited outside my dorm that day for him all day in the brittle air. the trees gave way to their fall colors and a strong fall wind swept the campus. It was overall a dark day, the sun hid behind the clouds causing the temperature to be a low fifty degrees. I saw Lake approaching from a distance he looked different. More...rugged than he used to. I guess that's just a side effect of intense trauma or maybe it's just age. I got all nervous like it was a first date or something.

"Hey...Chris..I" Lake said looking down.

"Hey, Lake... look if you're here to tell me how shitty of a person I am save it! You could never hate me more than I hate myself. I don't think there is a word for how much hate I have for myself."  I responded cutting him off.

"Please just listen that's not why I'm here. I came to tell you that I understand you and I'm sorry for pushing you away. I was just so..."

"Ya Lake, I was just so in pain too but I didn't blame you for it. I know your right and you've already done the damage you hoped for so you just give it a fucking rest." I cut in once more.

"I don't know what to say to you," Lake said, tears in his eyes.

My anger faded and I only felt love for him, remember when I said we shouldn't be judged in our worst moment...that was his. I walked toward him slowly. When I got up next to him I stared him in the face for a few seconds and then I hugged him.

"I forgive you," I said as he hugged me back crying.

Lake had a limp in his right leg from that night so he wasn't good with walking long distances or standing for long periods of time. We sat down on a bench outside the dorm and we just talked, like the old days. Lake and I walked to a diner right off campus and ate breakfast for dinner as we used to at his house. I decided that I was gonna wait to break the news the killer was back until later that night.

We left the diner headed for the dorm so that I could introduce Lake and Dane would have been very compatible friends given different circumstances. As we walked Lake told me that his mom had fallen ill. That she had stage four colon cancer. I was shocked...but, more angry. Angry at a world that would let a good person's friends die in front of them then turn around and take his mother away. There is no justice in this world, there is no luck in this world, there are only shitty things that happen to non-shitty people.

The killer had turned us all into people we didn't wanna be, we were broken into pieces. Waiting for the day we find someone who can piece us back together. I opened the door to my room to find o trace of Dane. This was specifically odd because he hadn't left the room since the night of the party. It was nine pm which also added to my suspicion so I grabbed my phone and called him. I heard the buzz coming from the bathroom. 

"Hey, Dane... you in here!" I called outputting my ear against the door.

I took a deep breath scared of what I might see, I swung the door open to find a phone laying all by itself on the bathroom sink. I picked up his phone and looked at it confused.

"He must have just forgotten his phone right?" Lake asked behind me 

"Ya, maybe he went to get food at the dining hall or do a load of laundry," I answered convinced that's what really happened.

Lake and I watched our all-time favorite Halloween movie and ate snacks we found in Danes stash. As we watched Monster House the longer the movie went on the sicker I felt that Dane wasn't here. I texted two of his friends on campus and his girlfriend to see if he was with any of them but he hadn't been seen by them either.

I paused the movie sitting up.

"Lake there's something I need to tell you," I said to him closing my eyes

"He's back isn't he?" Lake asked looking like he was about to puke.

I nodded and told him about the club deaths and how he stared me down as he dropped the syringes over the ledge. 

"What is with you and this killer?" He asked me seriously

"Trust me if I knew I would fucking end him," I said defensively.

After that Danes phone started buzzing from the bathroom. When I answered the phone I'd be falling right into a trap set by the killer as a way to kill another person. I answered the phone concerned that it was Dane trying to call and let me know he was okay.

"Hello again," Someone said clearly talking through a voice modifier

The voice was raspier and sounded a lot like whispering. When I put the pieces together I turned to Lake and put speakerphone on

"Good speakerphone... so the one that got away can hear me too." The killer said again almost as if he could see us.

"What do you want with us?...Huh?...What the fuck have we ever done that's made us worth torturing?" Lake said enraged.

"Why don't you come meet me and find out." The killer replied almost laughing at the end. 

"There's no fucking way we are meeting you anywhere," I replied.

"Chr...Chris? It's Dane what the fuck is going on. he...he... stabbed me in the leg and I cant pull the knife out, my hands are tied to this chair."

My face lit up and Lake stared at me waiting for me to decide what we were going to do.

"Where...?" I asked with a defeated tone.

As the killer rattled off an address he explained that if we called the police Dane would be dead when we got there. He explained we were not to bring our phones and most importantly we both had to come. The phone call ended and I dropped the phone on the ground shattering it.

"Are we really going to go?" Lake asked absolutely terrified.

"We have to... We cant get someone else tied up in our mess...my mess" I said

"Our mess," he said grabbing my shoulder

We left the dorm a quarter after eleven pm running towards Lake's car. The brittle air gave way to an even icier night. There were no stars and the moon was locked behind a wall of clouds. lake jumped in the car and popped the trunk. Puzzled I walked back there to see what he was doing. Lake pulled a box out of the floor of the trunk where the spare tire goes. He popped the lid of the box and it revealed a gun.

I nodded at Lake and we sped toward the destination in a race against the time it takes a person to bleed out from a knife lodged in your leg. 

"If I die tell my mom..." Lake started but before he could finish I said

"No. Don't. No one is dying tonight. You wanna tell your mom something tell her yourself when you get home."

Lake looked at me and nodded. Not wavering in the face of death.  He kept his cool somehow as we arrived at the abandoned plant. Lake and I looked at each other

"Lets end this" Lake said

"For Margo" I replied

Chris Logged Off