Chapter Four

The day had been short after that. I eventually stopped pounding the tree and collapsed under it, sleeping until dark.

That was when my craving started again.

I opened my eyes, staring straight up at the leaves above. I unfolded my arms from behind my head and stood up, taking in my surroundings, thinking of which way to go tonight.

I inhaled deeply, the cool night air chilling my lungs and making me shudder. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up and I whirled around""and saw my prey.

There was a girl, looking to be around seventeen years old, walking though the forest. Her eyes were cast down and I could see tears staining her cheeks. There was something about her that seemed almost... familiar,.

I looked at her a little more closely. She was wearing dark, baggy pants, a black singlet, and brown sandals. Her long black hair flew freely behind her.

She was perfect. Totally oblivious to the world, she stopped underneath a tree, gazing up at its leaves. I smiled to myself as she grabbed a hold of a branch and hoisted herself up and out of sight.

This was going to be easier than I'd thought.

I cleared my throat silently, and called to her with a weak voice. “Hello?” I called. “Is there someone there?”

True, it was a different tactic than I'd been using over the past couple of night, but knowing that the girl today had thought I'd been injured made me think that this might work. My clothes and skin were still stained and bloody, and my hands were fairly torn up from beating the tree earlier. I figured it was worth a shot.

“H-Hello?” the girl called back, obviously having that stereotypical caring that farm girls were supposed to have. “Who's there?”

She had jumped down from the tree and I saw that her tears had stopped falling. She was looking around, trying to find where my voice was coming from.

“Here,” I called, still feigning weakness. “Help me""please help.”

The girl ran towards me, but stopped a few paces away and called again. “Where are you?”

“Here.”

She looked over at me and gasped. “Oh, god... What happened?” She bent down beside me and began searching for wounds that weren't there.

I smiled faintly.

Before she had time to react, I'd swung a leg over her back and knocked her to the ground. “Don't. Move.” I said, hardly moving my lips as I spoke. “If you make a noise, I'll kill you. If you struggle, I'll kill you. If you make any moves to contact [i]anyone,[/i] I'll kill you. You got that?”

She nodded, her face a ghostly white and her eyes like saucers.

“Now,” I said. “Tell me, what is your name?” She gave me a wary look, as if she thought that this might be a trick question. I sighed. “This is the one time I'm going to let you talk.”

She hesitated a moment before answering, still a little uncertain about my intentions. “Melanie,” she told me, still looking frightened.

I smiled blatantly. “Well, Melanie, you and I are going to go on a little adventure.”

Her eyes went even wider (if that's even possible) and her mouth fell slightly open. “Where are""” I slapped her across the face. Hard. She let out a yelp of surprise and pain.

“I [i]told[/i] you not to make a noise!” I cried. “That was your [i]one[/i] warning.” I'll tell you of there's a question that I want you to answer. Other than that, you'd better be quiet if you want to live.”

Melanie nodded, her lips quivering and her wide eyes going glassy and pink.

“Stand up,” I ordered. She obeyed, getting clumsily to her feet.

This was going to be interestingly fun. I'd never done it quite this way before (similar ways, sure, but never exactly this way) and I could already see an idea forming in my mind. I took a few seconds to try to think of where I could take her.

The corn field was almost instantly ruled out. There would be too much blood""the girl would notice it if she came back, which she most likely would""and I wasn't very good at cleaning up any sort of mess.

Right here might be fine, but I wanted to take her somewhere. I didn't want to kill in a place that I knew I'd be going to regularly. That, and I'd told her that we were going on an adventure, which generally meant that we were going to go somewhere.

Soon, though, I figured that I'd been standing still too long. I didn't want her trying to read me.

“Follow me,” I said, turning, taking a few steps, then turning back to see that the girl was following. She hadn't moved. Her facial expression seemed uncertain.

I looked at her calmly. “I said 'follow me.' Why are you not following?”

She looked around nervously, but followed me nonetheless. Honestly, I had no idea where I was taking this girl. I was just going to wander around until I found the right place""or I got too impatient.

I enjoyed scaring my victims before I killed them. It was amazing how many expected to be returned safely home the next morning. None of them ever were.

We walked through the forest for a good half hour before I stopped. I heard Melanie stop behind me a second later. I could feel the tension in the air as she longed to speak and ask where I was taking her.

Slowly, I turned around to face her.

I knew now where we were. This was where I'd been coming all week; my hatchet was buried in a pile of leaves at the base of a tree nearby.

“Melanie,” I said. She looked at me, so frightened that she looked as if she might vomit at any moment. “Don't be afraid. I won't hurt you.” Mt voice was tantalizingly sweet; I'd perfected the art of false kindness years ago.

For a moment, Melanie looked reassured, like she believed that I wouldn't harm her. But then a dark look crossed her features and she glared at me.

“You really expect me to believe your bull?” she cried, on the verge of shouting. “Where are we? Where the hell have you taken me? And Why?”

I smiled then, my eyes darkening as my brow grew closer to my eyes. “Don't you remember what I said would happen if you spoke out of turn?” I asked (again sweetly) as I walked behind her and fished out my hatchet from the base of the tree where I'd hidden it.

When I stood up and looked over at her, I saw that she was frozen in blessed terror.

I smiled at her, running my finger along the length of my blade. She stared at me, eyes wide with horror, as I spoke, quietly, with a hoarse voice.

“Run.”