The smell of rain was still thick in the air, it was so cool and refreshing against hwe warm skin.

It was her usual late night run, the therapy at the end of my monotonous work day that she needed to survive.

There was something about the night time that made it so easy to clear her head. It was so quiet and peaceful. No exhaust from passing cars polluting the air, and no sound of their egines or the people in them polluting your mind.

Nothing to distract you from the world around you and all of its natural beauty.

The glistening black pavement beneath her feet and the music flowing into hher ears were washing away all my stress and anxiety from the daylight hours.

She felt human again at last.

She had always loved running, ever since she'd joined the track team in high school. It made her feel free like nothing else in this life was able to. Like for a collection of moments, she broke free from the shackles of society and she could just... be.

She could just go and let go.

About 30 minutes in, her usual half way point, it was time to turn around and head home. She stopped for a handful of seconds to catch my breath, but didn't allow her heartbeat to return to level. Her chest was heaving as she breathed the rain tinged air in deeply, savoring this slice of tranquility she'd needed since she first rose from her bed that morning.

There was a community board in front of her, bringing her to take a few steps forward to have a closer look. A slow hang rising to pulling one headphone from an ear as if it might help her see better. There was a particular picture that had caught her eye. It was of a young woman, one who couldn’t have been much older than herself. She was objectively attractive, and from the smile on her face she was seemingly happy. It was a missing persons, and oddly enough she seemed so… familiar? But she was almost certain she had never actually seen her before.

“It’s a shame,” a voice suddenly said from her right.

There was a subtle jumped and an increase in her heart rate again, as she was alarmed by the unexpected presence next to her. It was odd that she hadn’t even sensed him before his approach, that the feeling she would get on the back of her neck when someones entered the room had never occurred. He also hadn’t made an attempt to clear his throat, or done anything else to warn of his impending arrival like most would have. “Jesus Christ!” She blurted out so loudly it was practically a scream. The words escaping her mouth before the thought to speak them entered her mind. It was paird with a hand that moved to press on her chest in an automatic reflex. The thud thud of her heart felt like a frightened bird trying to escape her ribcage.

He chuckled to himself as he offered is hands up in surrender, “I apologize. I did not mean to startle you, it’s just strange to see someone out on their own this time of night.” His eyes narrowed slightly as his head titled to one side in curiosity.

She laughed nervously and let out a sigh of minor relief before answering him. “Uh, yeah… I run this way almost every night and I’ve never seen anybody here before.” She took a moment to examine the stranger properly and he seemed… normal. He had kind eyes, some scruff on his jawling and cheeks, and thick rimmed glasses. His hair was perfectly quaffed like every other hipster male on the planet, and everything about him nearly screamed:

I am average.

After analyzing the stranger a bit longer, and observing that he seemed pretty harmless, she felt herself relax a little. At least until their gazes met for a moment, and he quickly averted his gaze.

Hmm... That's a little unnerving.

His eyes went to to the board again, “It’s too bad what happened... or whats been happening, I should say.”

She looked at him for a minute before pulling herself out of her own head - swimming with suspicious. It was likely that her eyes were glazed over, and she might have looked something like a deer in the headlights, but she shook it away before speakin. “What’s that?” She responded as she came into focus.

“The girl.. they think it was another kidnapping,” he nodded his head towards her picture.

She took another look at her now, and something clicked. Suddenly, she could hear her mother's voice in her head, talking about how girls had been going missing in the area. She almost rolled her eyes thinking about it. Her mother had always been so dramatic. Always bossing her around and being nitpicky as mothers where known to be.

Wear a jacket, it's cold!

You sound stuffed up? Drink some green tea!

Don’t eat fastfood, you're get fat and die at fifty!

Don’t date assholes!

Get your life toghether, you’re twenty-four!

“Oh that’s right.. one of those girls that have been going missing,” I answered him returning my gaze to his expression. "Said there's been no trace of them..."

“Another reason I was so surprised to see you out here alone,” he chuckled again. But this second laugh was a bit different than the first, something about it was... off.

“Yeah me too…” She laughed nervously again. The realization that it was pretty late, that this was in fact a stranger, and there was no one else around crawled its way into her demeanor. She could hear her Dad’s voice in her head now, as he was reading the paper in his recliner, a concerned look on his face. “Police are urging women to avoid traveling alone late a night, Serena... Please be careful... Your midnight runs could become dangerous.”

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

She could remember bits and pieces from the police report he recited to her. It said that they still had not leavds, and whoever was responsible, was expertly leaving little to no evidence. There was no sort of description of who was taking these girls, because nobody had actually seen the girls being taken. Nobody had any idea where they were taken, or even if they were still alive.

“They say there was no trace of where they’d gone, just that they never came home. No evidence or leads as to who had taken them either... I believe. Truly is sad, missing persons like this usually don’t have a happy ending.” He shook his head, looking down at the ground as a sight exited his long nose. She watched as he grabbed a pack of cigarettes from his sweater pocket soon afterward. Camels. Cheap and strong. He then pulled one from the pack, placed it between his thin lips, before tossing what she guessed was the empty container on the road. From his other pocket, he retrieved a lighter, the sound of the flick echoing throughout the quiet street as his face was left aglow for a few seconds.

It was easier to see all the fine lines it harbored in that short span of time. All the things the years he had survived had left written in his skin. He looked exhausted, worn down, with many secrets hidden behind dark eyes nestled above sleepless purple bruises.

She was listening to his words carefully now, and her musceles were kept tense just in case there would soon be a need to run. He didn’t look like a bad man, but again.. he was a stranger. And there was this feeling inside of her, a part of her that screamed to not trust this stranger. “How long ago did she go missing?” she tried to keep the conversation going, almost as if she felt it was wise to that he remain distracted.Her voice cracked slightly and accidentally as her nervousness boiled over and spilled out of her mouth.

“About a week,” he responded nonchalantly as he pulled the cigarette from between his lips. She watched intently as he exhaled, the smoke filling the air in front of him and dissipating into the open after not long afterward. “Paper said it’s been happening every week,” the stranger continued. Before saying another word, he flicked the tip of his cigarette filter and watched as the ash melted into pavement.

For some reason, her eyes were drawn to the camel logo again, and she wasn’t sure why...

And then.

It clicked.

There had been evidence.

There was one lead.

The police have been searching the places where the known victims could have been the last time they were seen. Only one thing tied them all together.

Cigarettes.

Camel cigarettes.

There was an empty pack of camel cigarettes.

Every time.

It was like he was leaving a paper trail. T

oying with investigators.

Whoever was taking these girls, was planing something, he was playing a game.

She couldn’t help it as her eyes darted to the pack of cigarettes laying on the ground. At the same time, she could feel his gave on her, analyzing her as he waited for some sort of response.

He laughed again, but nothing had been funny.

Nothing had been said.

Something was wrong.

“Ah, that’s right,’’ he said. But his voice had changed, it had lost its lighthearted tone and it had become deeper. It was quieter ,but louder all at the same time. It was was slow, yet urgent. It was as if he had lifted a mask, but his face hadn’t changed...

But he had.

“There was one lead.”

Run Serena.

Fucking run!

He then took a few steps towards her, unhurried and menacing, flicking his half smoked cigarette into the road before his lips parted to speak again. “Too bad, really... You seem like a smart girl. Just a little… slow on the uptake.” A smirk crawled across his mouth as he reached into his pocket, chuckling again.

In one swift movement, she turned on her heel and tried to run away, but he swept his foot in front of her leg and she felt herself fall forward. Harshly, she hit the pavement, knocking the wind out of her lungs, and leaving her to gasp for the cool night air. She attempted to pull herself up and away from him, but she could feel him straddle her almost instantly. The feeling ofl his weight on top of her to keep me down on the ground was suffocating. All the while, she felt a tear fall from her left eye, and roll down my cheek.

“Hel-” She tried to scream, but he cupped my mouth with a cloth. No one knew where she was. No one even knew she had gone anywhere.

There was going to be no evidence.

There was going to be no hope.

And then it all went black, and I fell into nothingness.

Into a deep deep sleep...

Some hours later, she jerked awake.

The room was cool but the air was unmoving and stuffy - moldy and thick with mildes. The walls were metal, along with the door, and harsh fluorescent lights beamed down from overhead. Her eyes began to focus as their burn caused them pain, forcing them to flutter to fight to open. Her body was killing her, and she was so very thirsty. But there were shapes in this room with her… Shapes that began to form into people. Gradually, as the fog from my drug induced slumber began to lift, the shapes became clearer and clearer.

But a part of her already knew what they were...

It was the missing girls.

She could hear her father's voice again in her head then:

“Six girls, Serena! Six! You need to be more careful!”

Six pairs of eyes staring back at her, filled with sadness and remorse that she had joined them in captivity. Her eyes scanned them all slowly as she sat in silence. They all looked so drained of life - so drained of hope.

And there she was...

The girl from the poster.

Her happy face was now terrified, and when their eyes met she saw the tears begin to form. She had so many questions, but she couldn’t seem to form any of them. She couldn’t seem to speak. She felt the realization of her current circumstances hit me like a tidal wave, sadness filling every bit of my being and leaving her utterly paralyzed.

“You are… The six missing girls,” tears were thick in her voice as she finaly spoke.

One of them looked at her, her hopeless stare meeting colliding with the newest addition as a single tear ran down her dirty cheek.

“Seven,” she said.

“Seven,” she whispered to myself.