Hit and run

Hayley goes out drinking with her friends. On the way home they hit a paedestrian and leave him thinking someone else will go for help. But he's out for revenge killing them one by one.

"Don't you think you had enough" I joked to my boyfriend Damien as he chugged down another bottle of whiskey.

"Nope" he grinned.

"You can never have enough" his friend Jake said from the corner of the bar as he sat next to my best friend Layla.

I shook my head. Damien and Jake were already drunk and Jake was the one driving us home.

"I want to go" I heard Layla whine to Jake.

"Alright just one more then I promise we can go" Jake sighed.

"I'm driving you guys are too drunk" I said.

"No way you're touching my dad's car he'll kill me if anything happens to it" Jake said in an overprotective voice.

I rolled my eyes "if we let you drive we'll be dead anyway" I murmured quietly so he didn't hear me.

"Don't worry me and Jake will look after you girls" Damien grinned putting his arm around me.

We didn't leave till 10 minutes later and then it took another 5 minutes to get out of the car park because Damien was too drunk to put on his seatbelt so I had to help him.

"Put on some music" Damien ordered.

Layla who was sitting in the passenger seat leant over and turned on the radio.

A song blared out from the radio and I vaguely remembered hearing it before but I couldn't remember where I heard it and what it was called.

"Do you remember this song?" Damien asked leaning over so our heads practically touched.

I shrugged.

"It was the song that was playing at Rebecca's birthday party. You remember when I asked you out" Damien said.

I nodded and he leant over to kiss me. I could taste the alcohol on his lips but I didn't care. I returned his kiss and we stayed like that for a minute before Layla shouted for us to get a room.

We pulled away and I could feel the heat rise to my cheeks I usually didn't make out in front of people.

I was so surprised when Damien asked me out. We were friends because I was friends with Layla who was dating Jake. We were talking on the couch and then the song started playing and he asked me if I wanted to go to the movies with him.

I was too stunned to answer but I finally did and I said yes.

He was relieved then he tried to kiss me but I had pushed him away. I don't know why but I was self conscious when it came to kissing in public. I told him and he said we could go outside in a private spot. So we went out and hid behind a bush and made out for 5 minutes. He tried to get me to have sex with him but I promptly refused. I was still a virgin and I wanted it to be at the right time.

He seemed to understand but I have a feeling he really wanted to do it.

Jake started singing way out of tune along with the song. I laughed and joined hm then Layla did too. But then I heard Layla scream and told Jake to look out. I couldn't see but Jake tried swerving the car but I felt the bump. We hit something. Jake slammed on the breaks and we sat there. I saw Jake's face and he looked extremely pale. Layla looked like she was going to throw up and Damien looked confused.

"What happened?" Damien demanded.

"I- I think I-I ran him ov-over" Jake stammered.

"What do you mean? Ran who over?" I asked.

"He appeared out of nowhere" Layla cried tears streaking down her face messing up her mascara.

"What do we do?" Jake asked.

"We should see if he's alright" I said.

The others agreed except Layla. "I don't want to look" she said.

So she stayed in the car while we climbed out.

I looked over and saw a limb body lying less then 5 feet away from us. He wasn't moving and he was only wearing a long black coat.

"Stay here" Damien said. I nodded and stood by the car as I watched him and Jake walk over to the body.

I saw Jake kneel down and grabbed a pale wrinkly arm and pressed his finger to the wrist. I realised he was checking for a pulse. He looked at Damien and shook his head. The man was dead.

They walked over to me. Their faces were horribly pale so pale I could see their veins sticking out.

"What should we do?" Damien asked.

"I think we should call the police" I said.

"No I've already been in trouble with the police. One more strike. I'm 18 which means I won't go to juvie" Jake said.

"But it was an accident" I said.

"It doesn't matter. I've already been caught drink driving they'll arrest me" he said.

I heard a car approaching it was pretty far but it was coming closer.

"Hear that. There's a car coming they can call the police but right now we need to go" Damien said.

I couldn't argue. I looked over at the spot where the body lay and screamed.

"What's wrong?" Damien asked. He followed my gaze and swore.

The body was gone.

"Where did it go?" I asked stupidly looking around but I couldn't see it.

"Maybe we imagined the whole thing" Jake said but we might as well be hoping that we would win the lottery tomorrow.

"Let's get out of here" Damien said and we ran into the car.

"What the f**k happened?" Layla demanded. "Why did you scream?"

"The body's gone" Jake answered as he sped away.

"What how could could it be gone?" Layla snapped.

"I don't know" Jake snapped back. 20 minutes later we reached my house. My hand shook as I opened the car door.

"Everything will be okay" Damien said trying to make me feel better.

I nodded but I couldn't sleep that night.

I got a text from Damien the next morning to meet at the park he said he invited Jake and Layla as well.

I got dresssed into a red blouse and a pair of tight jeans then walked the 5 minute walk to the park.

Damien and Layla were already there but Jake was nowhere to be seen.

"Where's Jake?" I asked.

Damien and Layla shrugged. Then Layla got a text from her mum telling her to come straight home right now.

"SHe probably wants something" Layla said rolling her eyes. Me and Damien walked with her to her house.

Her mum immediately opened the door and to my surprise her eyes were red as if she had been crying.

"Layla something horrible happened to Jake" she said.

Layla stood agaped at her "what do you mean?" she asked.

"He had an accident" she said letting us in.

"What do you mean an accident? Is he okay?" Damien asked.

"His mother found him dead in the bathroom. He seemed to have slipped in the bathroom and cracked his head on the sink" Jake's mother said.

Layla seemed to have not  to take it in. She just sat there no emotions shown on her face.

"Honey are you okay?" her mum asked.

Layla didn't answer.

"I think we better go" Damien whispered.

I nodded and stood up. I walked over to Layla and gave her a tight hug saying sorry and I'll call her later.

Damien walked me home. I held his hand but I could feel it trembling and I remembered Jake was his best friend.

"I'm so sorry Damien" I apologised not sure why.

"It's okay Jake was so drunk last night" Damien said. His hands trembled even more and I hoped he wouldn't cry. Fortunately he didn't.

I wanted to invite him in make him feel better but I knew he just wanted to be by himself.

I quickly kissed him goodbye and walked inside just in time to get a text from Layla saying she wanted to meet me in front of the cafeteria tomorrow at school. I sent her a text saying sure then walked into the kitchen and grabbed a can of mountain dew.

I sat in the loungeroom shaking my head as I slowly sipped the drink. I turned on the TV and straight away I saw a picture of Jake. He was on the news and the headline read horrible accident takes a young boy's life.

I immediately turned off the TV and started crying. I don't know why I was crying I didn't like Jake much. I always thought he was an a*****e and don't know why Layla was dating him. All he did was flirt with other girls and make sleazy comments about them.

I heard the front door open and mum walked in. She saw me crying "oh my god what's wrong?" she asked.

"Jake died last night" I sobbed.

"Oh honey I'm so sorry" she said sitting next to me on the couch and pulled me into a hug. I couldn't remember the last time she ever hugged me I think it was when I was 8 years old when I was scared about going to the doctors to get a needle. It made me feel slightly better being in her arms. She smelt like peppermint and her body was warm.

I pulled away and she smiled. "How about I order some pizza and we can watch movies" she said.

I nodded and while she ordered the pizza I put in our favourite chick flick Bride Wars.

We sat there eating pizza and watching movies till it was midnight. I murmured I was going to bed then walked upstairs. I was about to climb in bed when my phone buzzed.

I grabbed it and saw the text was from Layla's mum's number.

"Why would she be texting me?" I wondered.

I read the message and let out a cry. It only had 5 words. Layla's dead. She killed herself.

I couldn't believe it and collapsed on the bed.

For the second time in a row I had a sleepless night.

I met Damien at the school gates by the look of his face he knew as well.

He wrapped me in a tight hug and we walked inside.

As we walked past the cafeteria I remembered the text message Layla sent me.

"Wait I don't think Layla killed herself" I said abrupting at an hault.

"What do you mean?" Damien asked.

I showed him the message "but she was found with a rope around  her neck. How can someone kill her by doing that" Damien said.

"Maybe he killed her and then hung her to make it look like suicide" I said.

Damien shook his head "who would possibly want to kill her?"

I thought for a couple of minutes then had the answer.

"Remember Saturday night. The guy we ran over. Maybe he came back for revenge and killed Jake and Layla" I said.

"Do you hear yourself? That's obsurd" Damien said.

"Maybe he wasn't dead. We left him there. Maybe he's out for revenge because we hit him and didn't help him" I said.

"He was dead Jake checked" Damien said. I could tell he was angry his face was slowly going beetroot red. I knew I should stop but I knew something weird was happening.

"Fine don't believe me" I said angrily and stomped away to my history class. I heard him callmy name but I didn't turn around.

I spent the rest of the day avoiding Damien. I knew he thought I was crazy but I couldn't believe Layla would kill herself and my text proved it. Why would she plan to meet me in front of the cafeteria if she was going to kill herself. It didn't make any sense.

I was walking home when I had the strange feeling someone was following me. But when I looked around there was noone there. I shivered increasing my pace. As soon as I reached my door I opened it and walked inside then slammed it and locked the door.

I walked upstairs to my room planning to do homework when I heard something crash in the kitchen. At first I thought it was my mum but then I remembered she said something about having a meeting and won't be back till 10.

I was wondering whether I should climb out the window if my theory was correct then the person we hit would be going for his revenge on me.

I heard footsteps coming up the stairs and I jumped into the closet. I left the door slightly ajar so I could look in my room. I tried not to scream when I saw the familiar black coat. I was right. And in a pale wrinkly hand was a shotgun.

He started walking the door and I tried to dissolve amongst my clothes. I screamed when my closet door opened.

It seemed to surprise him.I ran past him and towards the stairs when I collided with someone. I screamed again till I realised it was Damien.

"Are you okay?" I asked pointing a shaking finger up towards my room.

I looked up and saw the guy standing at the top of the stairs his gun pointed at us.

"Wait don't shoot" Damien said seemingly unfazed.

"Listen I know leaving you alone on the road was a terrible thing to do. We're sorry we were so scared and drunk. Don't you remember being a teenager once and having fun with friends on a Saturday night?" Damien asked as the man started walking down the stairs. He paused on the 3rd step and stared at us.

"Yes I do. But you killed me.You deserve to die" he said.

"Yes. But revenge is never the answer. If you kill us you will always feel the pain of killing someone" Damien said sotfly. I stood next to him half in his arms trembling watching as the man slowly lowered the gun.

"Yes. You're right. All I needed is an apology" he said and then suddenly he dissapeared.

I let out a sob as I collapsed in Damien's arms. "Ssh it's okay. It's all over" he said.

"Why did you come?" I asked him.

"I was pretty suspicous. I went to Layla's coroner and used a fake I.D  pretending to be a police detective. He said that she didn't die from the rope she actually died from a blow to the nose that resulted from a heavy item" Damien said.

I sobbed in his arms and we stayed like that for a while as he apologised for not believing me.

"There's something we should always do from now on" Damien said.

"And what's that?" I asked.

"To catch a taxi next time we go drinking on a Saturday night" Damien said.

We both laughed.

Reviews

[Bubby]

I like this. It's pretty dramatic

[KittyKatgirl]

Thank you :)

[Bubby]

Haha you're very welcome.

[dw817]

I have oft been a designated driver, and never by choice. Certainly that would've been helpful here. This seems to have been written along the lines of I Know What You Did Last Summer with the difference of a missing body.

Mere words is often not enough to remove a vengeful spirit, this could definitely have gone full-scale horror. He wanted an apology - and then vanished before it was given ?

[KittyKatgirl]

Thank you for reading this. And yeah I kind of got this idea from that movie. And yeah I ended it a bit too early I guess I should've set it out more instead of just going straight into the murders and then one simple apology makes him disappear.

[dw817]

Some of the best stories are those that are not whipped up in a single night but perhaps a fortnight. Anyone can take a bulldozer and knock down a crystal mountain, but it takes practice and expertise to chip away at it with a toothpick.

The advantages are, the readers not only become familiar with your main characters but grow a fondness for them - including the villains. And you always want to write in such a way that your work has re-read value.

That is, what you have written is so effectively penned that people will not only read your work once but want to read it weeks or months later because it is so lavish in description and articulate in ambience.

[KittyKatgirl]

Thank you so much :)

[dw817]

You are very welcome. Take care ...

[KittyKatgirl]

You too :)

[Writergirl]

Very chilling. I hope they use a designated driver next time ;)

[KittyKatgirl]

Thank you for taking the time to read this and reviewing it. And yeah it can also give out messages to people if they're going to drink either get a sober person to drive or take a taxi.

[Writergirl]

Absolutely. Not that I would drink and drive, but this story would definitely make me think twice.

[Silent Wolf]

I had a feeling that when the body disappeared, it was never alive, like a ghost or something reenacting it's own death. Then, when the kids refused to call the cops, it triggered something in the guy, and he went out to "teach them a lesson" or something. But he took it too far and killed them. That was my thinking, but when I got to the end, the guy was alive, the body magically disappeared, and they killed him. *Mind blown*

[KittyKatgirl]

Yeah I didn't think about it too much I didn't think what people's first impression when they read it would be. Thank you for taking the time to read this and reviewing :)

[Not here]

thats really a creative twist on the fake-suicide story. i liked it :)