Why?

Why was Nick here? He had no reason—

Understanding hit me like I had been punched in the stomach.

Did he plan this?

My locker, being in the classroom, the CD. All of it.

Nick wanted me to be here, for me to come back when no one else was around.

I swallowed. This was bad.

Very, very bad.

He did this on purpose so that I’d be here, but why?

Why was he after me like this?

For now, I remained silent, the USB was hidden in the pocket of my yellow long-sleeved dress. I’d rather wait and see what he would do than just jump to something that might be wrong. I needed to be careful.

I gripped part of my dress, pressing my hand to my phone and pressing the number 2 button twice would send a message to my Dad. He told me when he first gave me my phone that if I hit that button twice on its own, it would send an S.O.S. He told me to do this if I ever felt unsafe.

And I felt that now more than ever.

“Amalie, what are you doing here? You should be at home.” He said while ignoring Elain.

I gripped Elain’s hand. “I forgot something that I needed to do for school. Someone messed with my locker and I didn’t remember until later.”

“I heard about that. You were being bullied a lot by that girl, Mia, right? I guess she and her group had something to do with that.”

I didn’t respond, Mia still didn’t like me all the much, and the same for me, but we ended up on some kind of understanding. I think… she might have been glad that I was trying to do something that others wouldn’t or couldn’t.

“But if that’s true,” Nick continued. “Where’s your father?”

My grip tightened on Elain’s hand; his tone of voice changed when he asked about my Dad. It made the hair on my neck stand up.

“Her Dad’s on the way,” Elain said suddenly, drawing Nick’s attention, Elain had kept herself between me and Nick while watching him. Her face was blank with emotion not giving anything away. I knew it was a bad time to think this but she looked cool. “He’ll be here in just a few minutes.”

I noticed how Nick’s expression changed faintly like he was annoyed but it quickly went away a moment later. “Is that so? I thought it was a little strange for her to come with someone else besides her father.”

“I’m her babysitter,” Elain told him as she nudged me to stay behind her as we walked towards the door and into the hallway past Nick. “Excuse us, sir.”

“But it’s strange,” Nick said suddenly causing us to stop. “Is her father really coming? Or are you just lying to try and buy more time?”

I froze, worried about how this was going to go, but then Elain did something unexpected. “I could ask the same thing… it’s strange that it’s just you here. Normally there would still be teachers or cleaning staff but there’s no one. So I can’t help but wonder.” Her blue and brown eyes glared at Nick. “Just what the hell are you planning to do to Amalie?” she growled at him like an animal. I never heard Elain sound so mad before…

That surprised me even more.

It even surprised Nick.

He then ran a hand over his face, like he couldn’t believe what he just heard.

And that’s when his mask fell off.

His dark brown eyes became cold, and scary, as he looked at Elain, as though he was no longer interested, who didn’t let go of my hand this whole time. “What gave it away?”

“The way you’ve been looking at Amalie this entire time, you never paid me any mind and just stared at her. Even when you spoke to me. I’ve seen that same look in your eyes before.” The way she said that made me feel like it had something to do with what happened to Elain when she was hurt. “Even before that, when I’ve picked her up from school, I’ve seen you staring at her wherever she goes, every time.”

Nick scoffed. “You’ve got some eyes; I’ll give you that. You’re a hell of a lot better than the majority in this shithole of a school. Or her for that matter, but she started to wise up. It’s all because of her, maybe if she’d done what I told her I wouldn’t be feeling like this.”

I scowled at the word “shithole” I guess he didn’t like this school all that much like a lot of kids that went here.

“What the heck are you going on about?” Elain said but was ignored.

His gaze became cold as his voice sounded empty. “But do you think someone like you could even stop me?”

Elain then grabbed me, carrying me as she ran as fast as she could to the door that we came in, but found that it was locked. “No…!” she snarled under her breath, not letting me down as my feet dangled off the ground. She was about to turn, possibly to go another way, but I could smell it. Nick. He had caught up to us.

“El behind you!” I yelled and she quickly moved, avoiding being hit by Nick’s fist, only to grab my upper left leg and kick Elain in the stomach. Her grip on me became loose as the man pulled me towards him, I screamed from the shock of it as he kicked Elain again when she landed on her hands and knees. He clamped a hand over my mouth but I bit him the moment he did that. He was going to take me and I wasn’t going to go down into that basement willingly.

And I was hit for it, my cheek stung as he staggered away into the classroom near us. It was for kids in kindergarten. The room was filled with big beanbag chairs, soft blocks and small chairs and tables for little tiny kids. The floor felt spongey, making my landing a bit softer, had it been the hard floor, it would have hurt more.

I gasped for breath, breathing heavily as I could taste copper in my mouth. Like I had put pennies in my mouth. I looked at him, and he looked angry as he shook his hand from where I bit him, he looked like he wanted to hit me or do worse.

And for a moment, as I looked at him, I saw it.

I saw myself dead on the floor, lying on the floor between us. Like a broken doll tossed aside. My clothes were ripped, a shoe missing, and my neck was red, I had been strangled, that’s what killed me as my eyes were open. A void of nothing, emptiness, cold and lifeless.

Is that how he kills me?

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Is that how I die?

At the hands of such a monster…

Just like with mom…

Yet, with all that he had done, what he wanted to do to me, what he did to Elian. Something pressed in my mind. Something that came out before I could stop myself.

* * *

“Who hurt you?”

Nick stopped, freezing in place at Amalie’s sudden words, her gaze boring into him as if she were seeing past his flesh and straight to his soul. He didn’t know why, but for whatever reason, her gaze bothered him. As the rain began to pour heavily, thunder rumbled in the distance.

“Who hurt you to make you like this?” her soft voice cutting through the heavy rain like a serrated knife.

He could only stare, a brief memory from his childhood flashing in his mind, of his mother, alcohol, cigarettes and men. He shook it off, before laughing.

“What makes you think that?” he had no intention to ask, it just slipped out.

“‘It’s all because of her.’ That’s what you said. Did your mom hurt you too? Like mine did with me?”

Wait, what?

Nick staggered and backed away from her, what the hell was that supposed to mean? The kid was seven for fuck’s sake. Why did her words strike too close to home?

He was talking about Gina, not her.

What did it matter, what did any of it matter? Those kids believed no one could touch them, he just proved them wrong, that’s all. If anything, it was their fault, not his!

“Listen here you little…!”

“‘If only she didn’t exist, I would have been free…’” he stopped again. She was saying the words that once echoed in his heart which had long died.

“Stop that…”

“‘It’s their fault, not mine. I was hurt first, they thought nothing would hurt them.’”

“I SAID STOP!” he went to strike her but froze when he saw her expression and what came out of her mouth next.

Yet instead of seeing her in that bright yellow dress, he saw himself when he was younger. Battered, bloodied and bruised, clothes dishevelled and torn with eyes filled with rage.

“‘They should all just disappear…’”

How? How could this kid, this brat know something like that?

What the hell was she to make her like this?!?

This little girl was a monster, she had to be, how else could she have known all that?

But before she or Nick could do anything else, that bitch from before grabbed him, used some kind of judo move on him to make him let go of the kid and pinned him to the ground.

“Run Amie!” hearing the woman’s voice seemed to snap whatever Amalie was in out of, and she was back to being an average kid. “Run!”

Amalie did so, as fast as her little legs could carry her.

Nick shoved the bitch off him, she rolled to stand, wiping the blood from her mouth as her mismatched eyes burned with anger. She wanted to kill him.

As if she could. From the looks of things, she already had one foot in the grave. He had heard from those mouthy annoying teachers, the ones who liked to gossip about everything and anything regardless if it was fact or not, of Kaya and why they had to move, or more specifically who they moved for.

So this was the sister with some kind of gang ties huh?

She didn’t look like she belonged in a gang. With how scrawny those arms of hers were, hell even her legs. She didn’t even look like she hit puberty. Well, even if her tits were small what did it matter? He’d easily break her like a twig—

Only to be taken by surprise with her swift movement and nearly being kicked in the head by this damn woman. She shifted back and kept her distance while remaining in some kind of stance, the Arab bitch knew martial arts.

Fuck. He didn’t expect that.

Nick had his share of fights and knew how to take down those through intimidation, a few solid punches or just having to grab hold and squeeze the life out of something smaller until they just gave in. But this girl was different.

Every single time he tried to grab the bitch she’d just weave out of the way, surprising her with a strong kick to the stomach was out of the question as she seemed to be expecting it. The way she was constantly shifting her feet, practically bouncing, adrenaline pumping as she kept her arms slightly raised, not as fists, but open and ready to grab if need be.

The look in those mismatched eyes looked at him with anger and determination, a kind that Nick hadn’t seen in someone so young. As if this girl had seen hell and was waiting for the chance to beat the shit out of someone.

And before he could act, she did, moving in close and going for an uppercut, only to realize too late when he dodged it moving back, that she had taken another step forward and punched him right in the face, the sound of cartilage in his nose snapping and popping from impact. As thin as this bitch was, she could pack a punch.

Blood leaking from his nose as she kept going, hitting him again, this time hitting him in the stomach, but he managed to grab hold of her, pushing her back before attempting to backhand her, only for the girl to lift her arm and to block it, wrap her arm around his and sweep her feet causing him to lose his balance and fall to the floor. But what she didn’t expect, was that the moment he had, he rolled, taking her with him until she was the one pinned beneath him.

“You’d think I’d let you keep hitting me like that?” he said as she struggled, kneeing him repeatedly in the stomach but he didn’t move. Instead, he responded by wrapping his hands around her throat and began to squeeze. Nick had the fullest intention to squeeze the life out of her, but such thoughts were short-lived when she gabbed her thumb into his eye. He screamed and grabbed her arm with one hand and slammed her head into the floor with the other.

“You fucking bitch!” he roared. “Where the fuck you get off, huh? Where the fuck do you think that’ll save you!?”

To his shock, the girl laughed, a cold bitter one as she looked him dead in the eye with her mismatched gaze. “Piss off and die. You pathetic bastard…”

With grounded teeth, he gripped her arm, during the fight he noticed how she had been using her right less than her left, she had been guarding it every so often, with her left hand shielding it. Meaning there was an injury that caused it, as it quivered, peaking out of the sleeve he saw a bandage, and when he pulled back the sleeve, he realized what it must have been. After all, he had heard on the news that some chick lost a chunk of flesh from her arm, who would have thought it was the girl that he had pinned underneath him. In response, he gripped the part of her arm, and with a twisted grin, he told her. “You deserve this.”

He then tore off the graph to her arm.

Elain screamed. A high visceral scream from the sheer force that Nick used, blood pouring from a now open wound as the man seemed to take a great amount of enjoyment in her pain, but even still, she clawed at him with all that she had, telling herself over and over again that she couldn’t let herself fall unconscious. If she did, then he’d go after Amalie, she needed to stay awake, needed to keep him back just a bit longer so Amalie could get out—

Only for the man to kick her in the chest, causing her to lose what air she had in her lungs as everything around her began to grow dark. No… Amie…

Nick then stood when the girl had gone limp before kicking her one more time for good measure. Fucking bitch.

He wanted to keep hitting her, bash the teen’s skull in, and more, but he wasted enough time. This woman wasn’t his target. He then left the classroom without so much as a glance at the unconscious bleeding woman as he ran through the halls.

She couldn’t have gotten far, after all, he made sure the doors were locked from the inside, making it impossible to open for anyone without a master key. A key that Nick just so happened to have, he almost expected to find the girl at one of the few main doors to lead outside, but to his surprise that wasn’t where she was.

Amalie was in another classroom leading to the parking lot trying to climb out the window after using scissors to cut through the screen.

The girl was clever, he’d give her that. Shame that he was faster, and grabbed her by yanking her arm and hoisting her up by the scruff of her neck. She made a high-pitched gasp, reaching for his hand trying to get her neck free. It did nothing but annoy him as he made short work to the one place he knew she would never come back out of.

Alive, at least.

He dragged her down the stairs to the vast expanse of the basement, closing the door and locking it so she couldn’t escape even if she reached it as she struggled relentlessly in his hold, the little bitch wouldn’t sit still!

Not that it mattered she couldn’t—

She bit him again as she let out a feral scream, but this time when she did so, she bit as hard as she could into his forearm. Those tiny teeth pierced his flesh like he was being bitten by a wild animal, not a human being. What the fuck was wrong with this kid’s teeth?!

How could they be so sharp?

And these were baby teeth!

Before he could pry her face off his arm, she kicked him repeatedly. Her feet landed square between his legs causing him to gasp as Amalie kicked him again in the stomach, dropping her as she tumbled out of his hold onto the grimy concrete floor, she scrambled up as he remained prone where he was, that was the second time he had been kicked there.

Fuck!

Amalie took the chance and ran, further into the school’s basement. She probably thought she could get out some other way. Just like all the others had before her when they realized they were trapped with him down here.

Only there would be no escape, especially for her, he’d take his time and show her what he had wanted to do all this time to her.

Nick found himself smiling at the prospect of that, of what her expressions would be when he’d catch her.

And now, after all that.

She would finally be his.

And there wasn’t a damned thing anyone could do to stop it.

All the while completely unaware that someone else had entered the school and was now peering down at the unconscious bleeding teenager.