Ten Down, You're Next.

The black dress turned her skin white. There was no music. Nothing but deathly silence. There were no flowers around except for the small bunch she was holding in her own hands. She was the only one there, the Reverend had called only a few minutes earlier to apologise and say that something had come up. She knew it was a lie. It was cold and there was a breeze blowing through the dark sky. She wasn’t crying, she had no tears left in her eyes. She stared for the thousandth time at the words carved into the stone, still hoping that the name might change if she looked just once more and the twisting pain in her heart would vanish. No matter how long she looked for, the name didn’t change and the pain didn’t vanish. A dark figure made their way slowly across the grass towards her. She showed no acknowledgement as the figure stopped hesitantly beside her, and then reached out and took her hand.
But that’s not the beginning, and it certainly isn’t the end.
   
    Her feet stopped moving. She stopped shaking. Her body slumped forward and he stumbled back under the weight. Her body went crashing to the ground and lay there, still and lifeless. He stared at her for a minute, wondering if she was going to jump back up and attack him. He waited, and waited some more. When she still didn’t get back up, slowly, it began to dawn on him: She would never get back up. He looked down at his hands, which had started to shake. There was blood under his nails. There was also a streak on the back of his hand. Frantically he began to rub his hands on his jeans but of course that didn’t clean the blood out from under his nails. In fact, it did nothing but make a dark smudge on his leg. There was a crack.
“Emma?” a voice called. He could see flashlights heading their way. He could hear more voices joining in. The girl, Emma, had been camping with her friends and now they had all come looking for her. Well there she was, laying dead on the floor below a boy with shaky hands and blood under his nails.
He turned and ran. He flew through the forest faster than he had ever run before in his life. He stumbled over a few rocks and some branches hit him in the face, but he kept running. He couldn’t let them find him. He had no chance now. He was terrified.
It is a horrifying feeling when you have made a big mistake. But when you make that mistake twice, and then three times, you really start to wonder: am I doing this on purpose? Am I just lying to myself when I say this is a mistake, an accident… or do I enjoy doing this? That’s not even the scary bit about it, he thought as he saw his car and ran for it. No, the truly terrifying thing, is when you have answered all those questions. And your answers were all yes.
You see, Emma made four.
And he had no intention of stopping.

    The music was loud but everyone was sitting awkwardly, nodding to the beat. This party had been an awful flop. It was supposed to be fun, and everyone had been looking forward to it only a few days ago. But then the police had gone public with a four-victim murder case and now everyone felt very awkward about being at a party. The truth was: it was a great party. There were just enough people but not too many, food, alcohol, no nosy parents and neighbours who were all deaf as anything. But you could feel the shared feeling of guilt around the room. We all knew that four girls had been murdered, and two of those girls had been invited to this party. There was only one person having a good time: Eric, the biggest idiot in the world who also happened to be my boyfriend. I don’t really know what I had been thinking when I’d agreed to go out with him. He bounced into the room and shouted something about more beer.
“God Eric, a little sensitivity would be nice,” Violet hissed. He rolled his eyes at her and started dancing on his own. People eyed him disapprovingly. Suddenly he grabbed my wrists and pulled me up to dance with him.
“Eric,” I muttered, trying to sit back down.
“What?” he laughed.
“People died,” I said quietly, and I slipped out of his hold and sat back down next to Violet.
“And did anyone here kill them?” he called, looking around, “No? Then we have nothing to feel guilty about!”
“Eric you’re such a pig, that’s a horrible thing to say!” Violet cried, her cheeks turning red.
“Fine, I’m outta here, this party blows.” He announced, marching off and slamming the door behind him. We all heard the roar of his truck as he pulled away down the road and sped off.
“Crap Vi.” I moaned, “he was our ride,”
“Don’t worry, we can walk from here, it’s not that far,” Violet shrugged. We decided to start heading home now so we could get in before it got pitch black. Safe to say, we were much slower walkers than we’d imagined. It got pitch black very quickly and the temperature dropped a considerable amount. We were on a road surrounded by trees on either side, and I was starting to freak out a little. Vi kept cool, chatting away about her next date with Andrew, who she’d been stalking at the supermarket he worked at.
“I’m so tired,” I sighed, though my sigh turned into a yawn.
“Hold on,” she said. We stopped and she held out her thumb.
“Vi what the hell are you doing?” I asked, alarmed.
“We’re getting a ride back home,” she said, rolling her eyes like it was obvious.
“I am not hitchhiking!” I cried.
“Don’t be a wuss,”
“Do you even know how many people get murdered by hitchhiking every year?”
“Are you still thinking about that?”
“About what? Oh… no I wasn’t actually. But that too! Don’t make us five and six for God’s sake, those murders happened pantscrappingly close by!” I warned her, rubbing my arms to try and keep warm. For a second her thumb wavered, but then she shook her head and stuck it out further into the road.
“Those girls were all alone and had walked into ridiculously dangers places, I mean, who wanders off into the middle of the woods on their own after three murders?” she muttered.
“Vi… we have.” I said, staring around us at the layers of thick trees lining the road.
“But… but there are two of us.” She said determinedly. We kept walking, a bit faster now, and Vi kept her thumb out just in case.
Suddenly headlights flashed over a hill I hadn’t noticed us walk over before. We turned around and squinted in the glare. The car sped past, and then stopped… and reversed. My heart began to beat faster. Despite the chill I started to sweat. The car pulled up beside us and Vi wiggled her thumb at the dark window.
“Vi,” I muttered, “I think wiggling your thumb means something different,”
“Oh, well I’d rather that than be killed. Depends on who’s inside,” she grinned at me. I would have rolled my eyes but I was too scared. The door opened and Vi climbed straight into the car. I couldn’t just leave her there and I wasn’t going to walk back in the dark on my own. Hesitantly I walked towards the car and peeked inside. Vi had climbed past the front seat and into the back. I suppose that would be sort of okay, if we sat in the back together. I got in and shut the door behind me, climbing swiftly around the passenger seat and into the back.
“Um…where… where to?” the guy behind the wheel asked. Vi gave him direction to her house and he nodded and started the car. I was clutching the seat tightly with both hands as we drove down the road.
“Thanks for the ride by the way, we were getting cold,” Vi smiled brightly.
“No… no problem,” he said quietly. He seemed kind of shy. It made me relax a little to see that he seemed to be just as nervous about us as we were of him… or at least I was of him.
Vi leaned forward in her seat and started asking all kinds of questions. She had that blatant flirting tone in her voice that seemed to switch on automatically whenever she spoke to guys. It even came on when she talked to my dad. I stared out of the dark window as tree after tree passed us and then started to thin out. The moon was high and bright in the dark sky. It seemed like forever before he eventually pulled up… and then something horrible happened.
“Well thanks for the ride Eddie, see you tomorrow Mol,” she said brightly. Then she climbed quickly out of the car and shut the door behind her, leaving me all alone with Eddie. I started clutching the seat again.
“I can just walk from here,” I said, but my voice came out as a whisper. There was sweat on my palms.
“Where do you live?” he asked. I knew that it was only logical he asked that question, but it still had a scary tone about it. I told him my street, but not my house number in case he was the kind of killer who likes to stalk people first.
“I can take you there,” he offered.
“Really, you don’t have to, I don’t mind.” I said, starting to climb over the seat.
“I don’t mind either,” he said, starting to drive. As the car jolted forward I fell back into the seat and realised with horror that I was now in the passenger seat, right next to him. He drove down the road and switched the radio on to some hardly audible country and western song.
“So… so you’re Molly?” he asked, seemed to have that shy edge come back. I panicked and went full stalker alert for a minute until I remembered Vi had said my name about twenty times in front of him.
“Yeah,” I said.
“That’s… a nice name,” he said.
“Thanks,” I said, though I still couldn’t make more than a whisper come out. I looked at him out of the corner of my eye. He had dark hair and matching eyes and there was the lightest covering of stubble on his chin, like he had forgotten to shave this morning. I could feel my heart beating, thumping, in my chest a lot faster than it usually did.
“So… what school you guys at?” he asked.
“James High,” I said, wishing I had lied.
“Oh I know that one,” he said, nodding. I didn’t know how to reply.
“Is it nice?”
“It’s okay I guess,” I said.
“It’s always looked nice to me,” he told me. I could see the effort he was putting in to avoid creeping me out. I appreciated it, but I was still glued to my seat with my fingers digging into the leather. The car shuddered and the engine coughed but we kept going.
“Sorry about this piece of crap,” he muttered, looking embarrassed and slightly annoyed “it’s pretty beat up.”
“I… I like it,” I said, hoping to keep him happy so I could leave this car with my life.
“Really?” he took his eyes right off the road to smile at me and I had a small heart attack as we hurtled though the darkness blind. I just nodded with my back pressed firmly into the seat, like that would save my life if we crashed. He turned back to the road, to my heart rate’s relief, but he continued smiling to himself.
“So… do you like cars?” he asked. This distracted me from the terror of the entire situation for a bit because, yes I did like cars.
“Yeah I do,”
“Me too, wish I had a nice one. This needs a new engine and some good wheels.” He told me. The car spluttered again and dropped down a few centimetres.
“I’d probably have to agree with you,” I said, smiling slightly. He took his eyes right off the road again to smile back at me.
“You could have a look under the hood sometime if you want?” he offered, sounding enthusiastic. As tempting as the offer was- because I was now dying to find the problem with this spluttering, banging, death trap- I couldn’t see us ever seeing each other again.
“Thanks, that’s a nice offer. But I think I’ll have to pass,” I said. If I hadn’t been watching him like a hawk for the entire journey, I wouldn’t have noticed his smile flicker and fade. Slowly, the car came to a stop at the edge of the road. I looked around. This wasn’t where I lived. We still had another two miles to go. He was still holding tightly onto the wheel and he looked kind of… angry. The locks clicked down. I was frozen up against my seat. I couldn’t have moved if I wanted to. Why the hell did Vi have to be such an idiot? He looked like he was finding the will to speak.
“Why?” he asked.
“W…what? Why what?” I stammered, barely whispering.
“Why did you turn me down?” he said, wide grey eyes pinned straight ahead on the road. 
“I… I don’t know… I guess I just thought we probably wouldn’t see each other again,” I tried to explain, hurry and tripping over my words.
“What if we do? Would you still turn me down?” he asked. His hands were shaking slightly and for some reason I noticed that his fingernails weren’t very clean.
“Um… no.” I decided to lie. We wouldn’t ever see each other again so what was the point of telling the truth? He stopped shaking and turned his head towards me.
“Really?”
“Yes.” I breathed, my eyes pinned on him.
“You mean you only said no because you thought we’d never get round to it?”
“Yes.”
“Oh,” he said, and he smiled. The engine started again and we began driving down the road. Neither of us said anything else until the car pulled up at the end of my street and the locks went up.
“So I’ll see you around,” he said. I didn’t dare say no but I couldn’t speak to say yes so I just nodded.
“Great,” he smiled. I opened the door and slammed it behind me, starting a sprint to my house. I ran through my front door and barged up the stairs. I waited until I was in my bedroom to break down in tears.
An hour later, after a shower to wash off the salty tears, I was back in my room. I just went to pull the blinds when I saw it. Eddie’s car was still there. I was horribly aware that I was standing in a brightly lit room in nothing but a towel while he sat below and watched me. I dropped the blind down too fast and got string burn. 

    Over the next few days I pretty much forgot about Eddie and the whole incident. Though that didn’t stop me jumping every time there was a loud noise. I had a math test in two days and an English project that was very overdue. Not to mention a friend who required my constant attention. 
“So the date went great. He’s a total hottie!” Vi was beaming as we rounded a corner our way to Biology.
“Great Vi,” I muttered, trying to remember if I’d put my English notes in my bag this morning.
“I know, I think he could be the one… isn’t that the guy we hitchhiked with?” she stopped and stared out the window. I froze.
“You guys hitchhiked?” Eric laughed, looking like I was the funniest thing in the world.
“Yeah,” I muttered quietly.
“I think it is,” Vi nodded, squinting, “yeah it definitely is. He’s with the same car,”
“That beaten up piece of crap?” Eric laughed again, “I’m surprised you got out of that thing alive Mol,” He had no idea how true that was. I turned my head to the window. Yeah, it was him alright. Eddie was standing in the parking lot, leaning against his car. It was drizzly outside but he wore no coat, just a dark green T-shirt, jeans and boots. I had only seen him in the dark before, but now that he was in the daylight I noticed for the first time that he was incredibly attractive. He was the kind of guy you see girls turning their heads to look at when they walk by. Violet, who seemed to have noticed this too, raised her eyebrows. 
“Dam Mol, I wish I’d had him all alone in that car!” Vi grinned at me. I grinned back automatically, though I was still freaking out on the inside.
“What?” Eric scoffed, “he looks about twelve. And he dresses poor.” I had no idea what this last comment meant, or how anyone could dress poor short of wearing a sleeping bag and a ripped trucker’s cap to keep change in.
I decided to make Eddie wait. After all, he didn’t even know I’d seen him yet and I had classes to be in. I couldn’t just walk out. Maybe I had already programmed my brain to forget anything about Eddie, or maybe I just had an abnormally busy day, but I completely forgot about him within two hours. I was just leaving school with Vi when Eric approached us.
“So baby, have you told your parents about camping yet?” he asked.
“Bye,” Vi muttered, and she walked off. Eric rolled his eyes at her back then turned back to me.
“So?”
“Um, listen Eric. I don’t think it’s such a good idea to go camping now.” I said.
“What? Why?”
“Because two of those girls got killed in the woods. The police are telling people to stay away from isolated areas,”
“Isolated? What are you a news reporter?” he laughed.
“Eric,” I sighed.
“Yeah, yeah. I know, you have better things to do.”
“No, that’s not it at all. You know I love camping. I just don’t think we should go sleep at a crime scene, that’s all,” I said, getting annoyed at his lack of appreciation for such a serious situation.
“Wow baby, don’t get crabby. Geez!” he laughed, putting his hands up.
“I’m not crabby!” I cried. We looked at each other for a minute and then he laughed. I smiled and he put his arms around me.
“I’m sorry,” he said, “we can do something else okay? I just don’t think talking about what happened is a good idea. It’ll only get everyone scared.”
“Okay, thanks,” I smiled and he bent down and kissed me.
“Right, I have to go. See you tomorrow,” he said, and he pulled away. I waved as he walked away. I turned back towards where my car sat waiting for me. I started walking towards it when suddenly there was someone in my way. I jumped back in surprise.
“Sorry,” I muttered automatically, though it had been their fault.
“Hi,” he said. I blinked a few times and then saw Eddie standing in front of me. Suddenly I remembered he had been here all day, waiting for me.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, stepping away from him.
“I came to apologise,” he said, surprising me.
“What?”
“I acted so stupidly the other night. I just kept thinking about how rude I was.” He said, “I’m sorry if I scared you.”
“Why were you rude?” I asked suspiciously. He sighed and ran a hand through his dark hair.
“When I picked you up, I was on the way back from my girlfriend’s house. I’d just caught her at it with my best friend… I wasn’t thinking straight. I don’t normally pick up drifters at all,”
“I’m not a drifter,”
“Of course, sorry. I meant… I don’t normally pick up anyone at all,” he amended, “here, I got these for you. For being such a bastard.” He said, holding out a bunch of flowers I hadn’t noticed before.
“Oh,” I took them from him, “thank you,” he stared at me for a minute while I looked at the yellow flowers.
“I know it might seem weird because I don’t even know you. But you see, that’s just the thing… I want to get to know you, if you’d let me,” he said. My eyes flicked up to his. He was already looking at me, his dark gaze locked on me. His face really was rather distracting. Every time I tried to remember what I had been trying to say, he would make some slight movement and I would get lose in his eyes again.
“That’s really nice of you Eddie,” I said.
“It’s the least I could do. I know I scared you.”
“Well it’s kind of what to expect when you’re hitchhiking,” I smiled. He smiled back.
“So how about you come look at my car sometime?”

He pressed the picture up to the wall until it stuck, then he stood back. The wall was slowly being filled. There were about thirty photos all together. In each one her grey eyes and dark chocolate hair stood out better than anything. Sometimes the girl with the curly purple hair was stood next to her, never in the focus of course, his spotlight was reserved only for the grey eyes and the dark chocolate hair. Gently, he pulled one down from the wall and stroked the edges. It was his favourite. She was just bending to get into her little red car. It was windy so her hair was whipping wildly about and her grey eyes had just caught the sun and shone almost silver. It hadn’t used to be his favourite because there was a boy in it too. But he had just ripped off the part with the strange boy and burnt it. She was the only one he wanted. And now he had her so close. It was only a matter of time before she was his. He caught sight of his fingernails and looked down at his boots, there was still blood on the toe.
Hannah made five.
And he had no intention of stopping.

I lay on the grass, my hair spilling out behind me. Eric had taken me to the beach and Vi had bought Andrew along too. Her curly purple hair stood out as she leaned against my baby. The only thing my parents had ever bought me was my little red car, it was way past second-hand (probably into double digits by now), but it was my pride and joy.  Eric was in the water, trying to pretend he wasn’t freezing. Andrew wasn’t the swimming type so he was sitting on the grass bank with me. Vi wondered down the grass and onto the sand, holding her shoes in her hand. She was the only person I knew who wore heels to the beach.
“So Violet says you like science?” Andrew tried to talk to me.
“Yeah I do,” I smiled, appreciating his attempt to break the awkward silence.
“Cool. I’m more of an art guy myself,” he said.
“Yeah, you seem more that type,” I nodded at his spikey red hair and nose ring. He had the lyrics to a song tattooed up one arm and the guitar chords down the other.
“Molly! You have to come down here!” Vi called, “It’s actually warm!” I smiled and headed towards the water. She was exaggerating, of course, the water was in fact nearer to the temperature of a cup of water if you leave it between your legs for too long. It wasn’t really perfect beach weather, but it was the first amount of sun we’d seen in months and we were putting it to use. I had been glad to finally meet Andrew too. Vi talked about him so much and I felt like I couldn’t really make any useful judgements until I had met him for myself. He seemed nice so far, but he definitely wasn’t what I’d call a total hottie. We splashed about in the water for a while, occasionally checking that we weren’t the only ones on the beach so we wouldn’t get dragged off and murdered.
At the end of the day we packed up and I dropped Vi back at her house. When we’d left the beach the sun had started going in, and by the time I got home, it was dark outside. I unlocked the door and went inside to find a note on the fridge. It was from dad, telling me he was out looking for mom. My mom was the artsy type, she floated around the house in bangle bracelets and billowy dresses, but she always had her head stuck in the clouds and sometimes she forgot where we lived. She would just wonder off into town and forget where she parked the car, and then forget how to get home. Dad often had to go off and look for her when he wasn’t at work. My dad worked for a local museum that doubled as a gallery. Sometimes mum put her paintings up in the gallery, but mostly she preferred to just hang them all over the house.
I went upstairs and got changed into my pyjamas. I was just pulling on my cardigan when headlights flooded through the window. I hurried downstairs and opened the door quickly so the lights wouldn’t wake the neighbours.
“Eric what are you doing here?” I called across the drive as he jumped out of his truck.
“I drove past your dad wandering around town so I figured you’d be by yourself, I came to see you,” he said, walking across the grass to me. He hopped up onto the porch and grinned at me.
“Well he’ll be back soon so…”
“I know,” he said, going passed me and into the house. I followed him in and shut the door behind me. I stood by the window and, holding my elbows. He sat down on the couch and stared at me for a while.
“What’s the matter baby?” he asked, “why are you so jumpy lately?”
“I’m not jumpy,” I said, surprised he’s noticed anything like that. He opened his arms wide and smiled. Slowly I went and sat with him and he put his arms around me.
“Is it these girls?” he asked, “are you worried you’ll be next or something?” I looked at him and then gave a small nod. He sighed and kissed my cheek.
“Well you don’t need to be worried, you know I’ll never let anything like that happen to you,” he told me.
“Now tell me what else is bothering you?” he said. He may have been an idiot most of the time, but he really did know me. I told him about the whole hitchhiking incident and how Eddie had pulled the car over and locked us in. I told him how he had sat outside my house for a few hours.  I told him how Eddie had come to school the next day to apologise to me and explain his behaviour. When I finished, Eric was silent for a few moments.
“I don’t like this guy, giving my girlfriend flowers,” he muttered, making me smile.
“I don’t like the sound of him much, to be honest.” He said.
“Why’s that?” I asked.
“Well, his story has holes in it. This guy, Eddie, just seems a little off to me, I’d stay away if I were you,” he advised. I didn’t tell Eric I had agreed to meet Eddie to look at his car because I knew he’d think it was a bad idea, and also he wouldn’t be too happy I was spending one-on-one time alone with another guy. We switched the TV on at just the wrong time. It was the news channel, saying there had been a fifth victim, Hannah O’Lauren, only two days ago.

His hands shook as he fumbled with the light switch.  The light flickered slowly on and he thumped down the stairs to the basement.  He stopped at the bottom of the stairs to stare at the wall. Her face was staring back at him, glowing in every picture. She was everything to him. He had been with her, right in front of her just days ago. He had heard her voice, felt her warmth. Gently, he stroked one of the pictures nearest to him, and then he pulled off his blood-stained T-shirt and threw it in the washing machine. He had seen her with another boy, so near to her. He was outraged that this other boy, whoever he was, felt that he could be that close to her. She belonged to him. He kicked off his boots one by one. Pieces of dried blood chipped off and fell to the floor.
Ella made six.
And he had no intention of stopping.