Mia Carter THE DARE

CHAPTER ELEVEN – THE MURDER

There was a sickening THUD against the wall and it sounded like whomever it was being thrown got the wind knocked out of them. The sounds of the struggle were in front of them. The girls ducked behind a couple of tin garbage cans quickly, praying they hadn’t been seen or heard. There was a whimpering noise being made now, it sounded female.

“Shut up bitch! I am going to cut your throat and watch you die slowly. You were foolish to come here. How stupid are you?” A deep booming voice could be heard. Their hearts were pounding out of their chests.

“Please stop!” It was a female voice, terrified beyond reason and begging for her life. “I told you it was over between us! I’m with someone else now, I have been for a long time! I won’t say anything about you, just let me go please!” She continued. She screamed as she was thrown up against the wall again.

“Oh shit,” Kala whispered, “That’s Cristy’s voice!” The girls were stunned, their hearts sinking. They peered up over their barricade. They had reached the dim light they saw from the entrance. The light source was over one of the side doors to one of the buildings. In the yellowish light they could make out Cristy’s horrified face and outline. She was bleeding from her mouth and her eye was swollen from a fist she had taken to it. She was gasping and gargling for air. She was trying to turn her head towards where the girls were. She couldn’t fully look their way because there was a hand gripping her by the throat and she was being pinned up against the wall now. The man holding her was hidden in shadow. They could only see his outstretched hand. The girls were sick with fear for their friend. It suddenly dawned on them why she had sent them there. She was looking their way because she knew they were supposed to be there at the same time. What in the hell had she gotten herself into?! Who was this man that was threatening to kill her and what the hell were they going to do now? Taylor looked up over the cans again and saw that the man was now holding a large blade against Cristy’s throat with his other hand. Cristy whimpered more and begged him to stop. It only fueled the vile man further. She kept trying to look for them in desperation. Taylors heart pounded furiously and she was angry that this man was hurting her and threatening her life.

“We have to do something! This guy is going to kill her!” Kala tried to keep her voice calm, but fear was gripping and taking control. The man was talking to Cristy, saying terrible things about what he was going to do to her, he hadn’t noticed them, yet.

“Kala,” Taylor whispered, “Get your phone out and get the camera cued up, flash on. May, take my keys, make your way quietly back to my car, but be fast about it. Open that door as softly as you can, roll the window down, put the key into the ignition and wait for us. I want you to jump in the back seat, take my mace, stick your hand out of your window and keep the mace pointed in our direction. For goodness sakes, don’t start spraying until we are clear. The stream will go a good fifteen feet, it should stop him from getting to the car and give us enough time to get away. Kala, you’re going to take a picture when I say and I’m hoping the flash will be bright enough to buy us time to grab Cristy. May, look at me, once we get to the car I’ll yell for you to spray and keep spraying until we are driving away. I will make sure we get us the hell away from here with Cristy. We’ll have to get her to a hospital quickly. Then we’ll tell the guys where we are.” Taylor’s voice was frighteningly calm and quiet. She knew there was no time for panic right now. Cristy’s life was hanging in the balance, all of their lives were. Her training from the self-defense classes she and her father had taken together were now paying off. She had to keep the girls calm, she had to fight her own fear. May was the loose cannon as far as emotions went and giving her a job to do would help keep her calm, she hoped. She said a small prayer and was glad her car had manual windows. If May made it to the car and had to turn the car on to get the windows down, they would definitely be heard. Taylor looked back towards the car, it looked like it was miles away now. Could they reach it in time before this psycho got to them? Get a grip, she thought.

Ready to execute the plan, Taylor motioned for May to go. She gave a nervous nod and started to creep away. Kala had her phone ready, her hand shaking just slightly. Taylor was really counting on the flash being bright enough to distract whoever this was long enough to grab Cristy and run for it. She was really wishing she had brought her pistol with her now. No time to worry about that though. She pulled her own knife out and was ready to use it. She was not as great at hand to hand combat, even with the lessons she had taken. She knew enough moves though to give them a fighting chance. She was always willing to defend and die to keep her family and friends safe if the need ever arose, she never thought it would come to pass though. She would slash and cut at this monster in the shadows to give her friends time to get away, no matter what it meant for her fate. Kala was looking terrified and angry at the same time. Taylor put her hand on Kala’s shoulder, took a deep breath in and out with her. It steadied Kala enough. They looked back and could see May still creeping towards the car. Not fast enough though, at this rate they might all be caught and killed.

“I should have gone.” Kala whispered, looking back at the man and Cristy. “We need to act now Tay, he’s not going to hold back much longer.” The man was still torturing poor Cristy with his cruel words. He was slowly dragging the knife down her arms, not cutting her, but making her tremble in fear, as the cold metal dragged along her skin, with the threat of being cut. He was chuckling as she was begging for her life.

“Sick bastard.” Taylor spat, she was ready to attack this man holding her friend captive. There was a crash of cans and bottles again, this time from behind them. May had tripped and fallen, she was so close to the car, how could she have been so careless!

“Shit!” Taylor screamed, she yanked Kala up, “Now, Kala now! May run! Get the car started!” Taylor shouted and turned just in time to see the bright flash go off. Blue spots filled her vision and she could see the shadow of the man light up, still holding Cristy with one arm, he hid his face with the other. She and Kala tried to maneuver around the garbage cans to get to Cristy, shouting and screaming at whoever this was to stop.

He gained his composure back quickly and yelled expletives at them. He turned back to Cristy who was trying to get out of his grasp, she managed to break free, but he grabbed her again, shoved her back up against the wall. As the two girls stumbled over the garbage to get to their friend, Taylor and Kala watched in horror as he took the blade and plunged it into Cristy’s stomach twice. She screamed the most blood chilling scream they had ever heard, stopping them mid run. To silence her screams, he took the blade across her neck. Cristy fell to the ground in a bloody, lifeless heap. Time seemed to stop, Taylor felt like her heart was going to explode. Kala was gripping Taylors arm so hard she could feel her circulation being cut off. She looked down at her friend who lay there bleeding, dead and helpless. She looked up into the shadows at the man who had just committed the vile act. She couldn’t see his face, he was just a hulking outline in the dim light.

“NO!” They screamed. The shadow and his blade were now coming after them. Taylor grabbed Kala’s arm and turned around to run. Kala in haste to get away from the maniac chasing them dropped her can of pepper spray.

This wasn’t happening, this wasn’t happening! Wake up! Wake up! Taylor’s mind screamed, the images of Cristy being murdered playing in her head. It was real, it was happening. One of their longtime friends had just been murdered right in front of them. Tears stung at Kala and Taylor’s eyes, they were screaming and begging May to get car going. Everything seemed to be going in slow motion now. It felt like their feet were sticking to the pavement, melted to the ground, making it impossible to escape. The man’s threats to kill them could be heard, his pounding footsteps gaining ground on them. Something large flew by Kala’s head, nearly missing her. The killer had thrown the bloody knife at her, trying to stop their escape. The knife landed with a metal clatter to the side of the fleeing girls as they kept running. They heard the beautiful sound of the Chevelle ring through the alley and gave them the strength to push harder and faster. As they were getting closer to the car, they heard the killer right behind them. Taylor could hear his breathing as Kala turned around and fired off another shot of her camera. The flash bright and blinding did the trick. It stunned him long enough for them to get ahead of him. He was recovering fast though and back after them, he was staggering a bit.

May was screaming at them from the back seat to hurry. The car running and ready to go, Taylor was screaming for her to start spraying the mace she’d given her.

“I lost it, I lost it when I fell! Run!” May shouted in desperation and sobbing. Taylor dove into the car, Kala next, slamming the door shut, screaming for Taylor to go. She jammed it into gear and took off, tires screaming down the street. Taylor fought for control of the car, she couldn’t let them crash into anything now, their lives depended on it. She looked back in the rearview mirror, the killer was not in sight.

“Where’s Cristy? We have to go back for her!” May shouted through her tears.

“We can’t! She’s dead!” Kala shouted and shoved at May who was trying to grab the steering wheel of the car. She managed to make her sit back in her seat as May screamed for her friend.

“What do you mean she’s dead?” May was sobbing uncontrollably.

“That bastard stabbed her and cut her throat.” Taylor said quietly through her tears. She was trying to get them out of there as fast as should could without drawing any attention to themselves. She didn’t know if the murderer had a car waiting and was coming after them or not. Once again, her car was not as inconspicuous as others. Overwhelming dread sunk in on that thought. He had seen their faces. He had seen her car. This was not over. He would find them. Taylor was trying to keep the panic away, she had to get her and her friends out of downtown fast. She couldn’t chance this guy spotting them. She fought back the panic attack and concentrated on driving out of the area. She floored the car on to the highway, checking the rear-view mirror to see if they were being followed.

“Taylor! We have to go back, we can’t leave her there!” May continued her plea.

“We can’t May so shut up!” Kala shouted. May buried her head in her hands and screamed.

“She knew we would be there, she thought we could help her! What the hell was she doing down there?!” May continued to ramble and panic. Kala and Taylor looked at each other and wondered the same. What had Cristy done? Why was this man after her? What drove her to go down there in the first place to meet him? Spots were appearing in Taylor’s vision. A panic attack was trying very hard to break through. She slowed the car, taking an exit, she went up the off ramp and pulled into a dark, abandoned parking lot. They were in the dark just a little way off the highway. She cut the engine and the three of the stared at each other. It seemed like hours before they spoke.

“We have to go to the police.” May said quietly.

“We can’t.” Kala whispered, shaking her head. Taylor and May looked at her, puzzled.

“Why the hell not?” May started to shout.

“They might think we did it!” Kala panicked. She hit the dashboard with her fists in frustration.

“Don’t be stupid Kala!” May yelled.

“It’s not stupid! What were we doing there? At midnight? We had weapons, we were not supposed to be there!” Kala was in full panic now, rational thought completely gone. “The police will never believe three grown women were there on some stupid dare and oh, yeah officer’s, the girl who was murdered was the one who dared us! Right!” Kala was hoarse from yelling and she was heaving sobs between her rants.

“Kal, calm down.” Taylor gripped her arm. “We will have to go to the police, they will believe us. Cristy was our friend, we had no reason or motive to hurt her like that.” Taylor was trying to fight off her own panic. Would they believe them? They had dropped all their mace and Taylor had lost her own knife. Would the killer see it and try to frame her? Would the cops find it and come after them too? Panic was now taking over.

“Taylor, we lost everything, our prints are on the cans and knife we lost! They’ll match your tires to the scene!” Kala was shrieking, her words mirroring Taylor’s thoughts.

“CALM DOWN!” Taylor yelled. Kala stopped her sobbing. “They can’t match anything, even if they do it will take days for the information to get to them. By then we will have already talked to the police. We don’t know what the killer did after we left, he could have picked everything up. I’m sure he doesn’t want the police finding anything either. Until we talk to the police we won’t know. We can’t right panic now.”

“What do we do? Do we go now to the police? Do we wait?” May quietly asked.

“I don’t know what to do.” Taylor’s head was going to split in two. She hated knowing that Cristy was lying dead in that horrible place. “She was trying to warn us like you said May. She knew she was going down there, by why? Why did she go? Who the hell would want to take her life like that?! Why in the hell didn’t she just tell us what was happening?” Taylor was trying to piece together what had happened, it was all a flash and blur.

Headlights were suddenly coming up the road off the highway. The girls panicked and ducked below the windows. Taylor had her hand on the ignition. They sighed in relief when the car passed by, oblivious to them sitting there. It was a car full of drunk, rowdy college kids, yelling and shouting to horrible music as they continued on down the street.

“Okay, here’s the deal. We go home tonight.” She held her hand up at May’s gasp. “Look, we are in a spotlight in this car. The killer knows what it looks like and what we look like. We don’t know where he is and if he sees us tonight, we’re done.” Taylor was getting a firm grasp on what they would do. “Tomorrow, Kala and I will come back to your house, we will have the guys meet us and we will all go to the police.”

“Jack.” Kala whispered. “What is this going to do to Jack? They were fighting and now she’s dead. This will destroy him.”

“You don’t think-” May started to suggest a very sinister thought.

“Don’t you dare!” Kala raged at her. “Jack would never hurt her!”

“I’m sorry, you’re right.” May sighed. “We have to text the guys something. It’s going on one o’clock. I’m surprised none of them are blowing up our phones right now.”

As if on cue, the texts started pouring in. The guys were asking what was going on. Did they go? What happened? They wanted to see the picture they took. Taylor made a suggestion for a generic text to keep them at bay and not raise any alarms. There was no way they were going into all of this again tonight. They still had to make it home. May’s house was still a good distance away and to get to Kala and Taylor’s houses, there was another highway drive involved. It was like being out in the middle of the deep blue ocean, not knowing what was watching you from fathoms below. A chill ran through Taylor. She felt like they were being watched. Is that what happened when you witnessed a crime? Suddenly everything and everyone was against you? Would they be looking over their shoulders for the rest of their lives?

“We need to get home and I need to get this car hidden in a garage until we talk to the police.” Taylor fired up the car again and took off towards May’s. There didn’t seem to be anyone following them. There were a few cars on the highway, but none seemed to be interested in them. A state patrol car flew past them on the left, headed somewhere in a hurry. The girls nervously looked at one another. About twenty long minutes later, Taylor eased a little but not much as they pulled up to May’s house. Kala opened her door and got out so May could exit the car. Taylor got out and walked over to the other girls, she stared at the tire marks that truck had left hours earlier. What had started out as such a fun, promising day had turned to horror so fast. John’s arrival at the house, that strange scene with Nick and Sally, the tension that followed the strange events, now leading to them witness one of their best friends being brutally murdered in front of them. Taylor shook her head, it was too much.

“May, first thing tomorrow, we will handle this.” Taylor swore to her. “We will get that son of a bitch who did this to her.” Taylor held her friend as she quietly cried. “Not a word to the guys until tomorrow though. They will freak out.”

“I won’t say anything. I told Ken that I was headed to bed and that I would talk with him tomorrow.” She turned her phone off and promised she would stay quiet.

Next Chapter: THE CHASE