"The night belongs to beasts of prey, and always has. It's easy to forget that when you're indoors, protected by light and solid walls." – Goodreads.
Lyra
My green eyes lock on my prey- Kael Rylan and I shuddered. He still hasn't changed; he was still the obese man I stalked. I sighed and slipped on my ghost mask and carried my knives and twirled them around. Under that mask, I smiled, because finally, the predator is going to be prey, and I am going to enjoy this chase.
I started walking, and the leaves rustled beneath my feet, and yet he still didn't notice. Daft as always. I scoff. I thought about slipping on a voice changer, but I decided against it. I want it to be my voice he hears when he takes his last breath.
"Kael Rylan". I said as calmly as I felt. "Pleasure to meet you again, what is a man like yourself doing out here around… I check my watch. 10 pm? In the night? In these woods of all places?" He turned and smirked his Texas accent still as thick as I remembered. "Why is a girl like you hiding her face under that mask? Come, let me help you unfasten it". His words contained an innuendo, and I was not impressed by his shamelessness. "No, thank you". He said, "What do you mean by again? I don't recall I've ever met you whore." Ah. I see. He's gone back to calling me whore. "How many girls have you called whore Kael? Me or a hundred you refused to save from the same suffering you put me through?" His face paled, and I liked that. I brought out my dagger- short-bladed, double-edged- built for proximity, for me. The steel is darkened, not painted, but treated until it drinks light instead of reflecting it, just how I like it. The hilt of the dagger fits my palm like it learned my first. Ironic because I learned how to use a knife before a dagger. There's a shallow groove where my thumb rests, a quiet design choice. I can't believe I got this beauty for free in the black market a few years ago, and I've loved it ever since.
"Let me tell you something, Rylan, a story if I may", I twirled the dagger in my hand as I slowly stalked towards him. "I was once defenseless, broken, and wanted help, to be loved, to be helped, to be saved, but I learnt the hard way that no one will save you. Be your own savior, and I am here to inflict eternal judgment upon you." I smirked. "I survived you. You won't survive me. You made a ghost. Now face it. You've been living on borrowed oxygen. I've come to collect. "You have ten seconds to run, Kael, not that it would change the math, but it just makes the thrill more fun". "Run, Kael". His breath shuddered. "You aren't serious, are ya?" His Texas accent broke, and I smiled. The first real smile I've had in days. "Try me". I leaned against the crotch of the tree. "You have eight seconds left, Rylan, make the best of it". He started running with his obese legs, and I had the urge to burst out laughing.
After ten seconds had passed, the hunter had to go catch its prey. I started walking slowly. "Kaellllll, come out, come out, from wherever you areeeeeee". "I really like this game of hide and seek, but I have places to be and things to do. I suggest you come out quickly". My voice darkened at the last part. "Kaelllllllllll, where are youuuuuuu?" I turned, and my knife impaled the tree crotch behind him. "Found you, now run". He started running, and I walked towards, and I unsheathed my dagger from the tree crotch". Now I have to run after that fat man. I scoffed and started running.
Within a few minutes, I'd caught him, put on my mate's black gloves, and tied him to the tree. He started screaming. I clucked my tongue. "Screaming won't help you here, Kael. When I screamed, you didn't help me either". "Who even are you?" He said, shouting. "Remember, Kael, I want you to remember", and then finally it clicked for him. I saw the light in his eyes dim a bit, and I was sated for now. "You're the girl who called me a year ago, asking me to help you, aren't you? Please forgive me". "Bazinga, Kael, you aren't as daft as I thought, but resorting to begging as if it would change the outcome is futile. Don't you think?" I smiled.
I settled onto the forest floor and brought out the portable tea I carried in my bag. "Want some? I've heard Oolong tea does great wonders for Obesity". He nodded, and I gave him some, and he drank it. After a few minutes, he started convulsing on the forest floor, limbs jerking, frothy green foam bubbled at the corners of his mouth, making choking sounds, ocular retroversion taking place. The forest became quieter, and my senses heightened. I love this feeling.
"Ever heard the old rule about never taking anything from strangers? Guess you missed that lesson. Shame." I said mockingly. I turned around to taunt him some more and found him dead. "You're dead already? What a pity, thought you would last longer, maybe I should have used a less strong poison instead of the poison that I created for this effect, 'Retrovex'. Shame". I burned the gloves that I used in handling the poison, with the plastic cup I used in giving him the tea, and cleaned the rope with disinfectant with my white surgical gloves to avoid anything leading to me. I cleaned his mouth with wipes instead of tissue, closed his eyes, untied the rope, and burned everything before I left the scene.
After approximately thirty minutes, I was back at Blackstone without anyone knowing I left. I took a steamy shower, put on my nightwear, and collapsed on my bed and slept. I slept the most sound sleep I've ever slept in years, and I smiled in my sleep.