The brown-haired girl Leonie and her little golden retriever puppy Spike were sitting on the couch watching a little TV to pass the time, as Rain had left the house for a short while to go shopping. Of course, the 18-year-old still felt insecure and was afraid that the figure would reappear while Miss Firescout was away. That's why the woman had given her her number, just in case something happened or the girl got too scared and needed someone to talk to. She felt safe...

There were a few cartoons on TV, one of which Leonie had chosen to watch. She didn't feel like watching the news at the moment, and cartoons reminded her of her childhood. So she thought she could just watch them again. The sun was overcast in the somewhat gloomy afternoon. The snow that was still everywhere outside had melted a little, but there was still a lot of it lying around. What Leonie had also noticed was the fact that there were no Christmas decorations in Rain's house. There wasn't even a small LED light hanging from the ceiling. There wasn't even a tree in the room. "Maybe she doesn't celebrate Christmas either... I'm still not going to ask her. I don't want to seem rude. She'll have a reason why she hasn't decorated her home," thought the girl, shrugging her shoulders and looking at the TV again.

Even if everything seemed safe at the moment, the problem with the strange figure following the girl had not yet been solved. There was neither a name nor an actual appearance. Levi, the boy who had encountered this figure before, could recognize nothing but a mask, eyes and clothing. A face could not be identified. But this figure was not just a joke, no. This figure was dangerous and fast.

Just as Leonie was lost in her thoughts, the front door opened. The girl was torn from her thoughts and got up to help Rain clear out the shopping. But she paused when she realized that it wasn't Rain...

The figure with the broadly grinning mask stood at the open door. And it looked like this thing had an idea about lockpicks. The figure came in without a key and had only used a damn lockpick.

Instinctively, the girl ran back into the living room, slammed the door shut and locked it. She also pushed a closet in front of it so that the door couldn't be opened so easily. When she was finished, she immediately picked up her cellphone and called the police first. The scary figure hammered furiously against the door, tried to break it open with the lockpick and also tried to push against it with his whole body.

While Leonie explained her plight to the man on the phone, the murderer took his knife and tried to stab the door with all his might. After a few stabs, however, he gave up and crept around the house. The figure picked up a stone and smashed the window in the living room. The girl flinched as she had just finished the phone call and saw out of the corner of her eye how the figure jumped into the house through the window. She immediately kicked the closet away from the door and ripped it open, not caring that the door was broken in the process. She ran outside before the killer could even catch up with her.

Outside, the police arrived at just the right moment. The figure immediately stopped chasing Leonie and disappeared into the shadows of the forest. A few policemen tried to follow the murderer but were unsuccessful and returned to the others. Just as Leonie was explaining to the policemen what had happened, Rain returned from her shopping trip. At first she was confused as to why the police were here so suddenly, until she heard what had happened. Her confusion turned to shock and she immediately checked to see if Leonie was okay. Like a mother. "Is everything alright?"

"Yes, everything is fine. I'm just sorry your window's broken now. Or your doors."

"Leonie. As long as everyone is safe, I don't care about my doors and windows. Sure, there's damage that needs to be repaired, but not while this thing is at large. If that figure can destroy my window that easily, he'll do it again."

The girl nodded at Rain's words. "...Can't we stay with Darius? He's the police chief, and next time he can react immediately. Or maybe this killer doesn't even dare go near him."

"Good idea. We'll let the policemen do their job here and go to Darius. I'm just wondering why this thing is following you at all. You said it showed up at your place first, and now it's been at mine. If we go to Darius now, it might come back."

The 18-year-old turned her gaze away from Miss Firescout and saw the police officers tape off the house and go inside to investigate. Then she looked back at Rain and nodded, her face growing stoic. "My gut tells me he's definitely coming back. We should let Darius know so he's prepared. Whether it's with his fists or a gun."

The woman was a little surprised by the look on Leonie's face, but she found her fighting spirit motivating and smiled proudly. "That's right. I'd say a pistol is even more effective than fists. Maybe I'll ask him to show you how to use a gun like that. Then you could defend yourself in an absolute emergency. We're not dealing with a normal thief or anything like that. No. This is a murderer who is chasing you. So we don't even need to talk about whether or not it's legal to use a gun in this case. That's final."

The two of them immediately got into Miss Firescout's car and drove to the police chief's house. They both got out of the car, rang the front doorbell and explained everything to Darius as soon as he had opened the door even a crack. "Slowly, slowly... So, Leonie. The weird thing was there again, he used a lock pick to get into the house, you locked yourself in the living room, then you called the police, the killer went around the house, broke into the living room through the window and you just ran out when the police came? And then he disappeared? Did I get that right...?"

"Well ... I'd say that's a good, long summary of what happened." The girl said. Darius shook his head in shock as he let the two of them into his house. Rain looked at him and spoke. "She has a feeling the killer will be back. You and I know that's the case too. I was wondering if you could show her how to use a gun. In an emergency, when none of us are around, she doesn't need to be afraid. She-" But the woman was interrupted when Leonie gasped sharply.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"Where did Spike go...?! I haven't seen him since the killer broke into the house! What if he's still there?? What if he's run off and got lost...?"

Darius heard the concern in her voice and took his phone out of his pocket. "I'll let my colleagues in the area know to look for a little golden retriever puppy. Don't worry, the little one will be found, okay?" He dialed a number and stepped aside to speak to his colleagues.

In the meantime, Leonie looked at Rain with a panicked face. Her skin was pale and her eyes looked as if she might cry in fear at any moment. Miss Firescout took her in her arms and reassured her, saying, "Calm down now. I'm sure Spike will be fine. We'll find him, bring him to you and everything will be alright. I promise."

Over the next few days, Darius taught Leonie how to use a pistol properly. He showed her how to reload the ammunition, how to aim correctly and where the safety was on the gun. Under normal circumstances, the girl would never have picked up such a weapon. But if a killer was after her and following her everywhere... that was probably the better solution. At least she could protect herself if this monster showed up again.

While the girl continued to practice aiming and shooting, the police chief sat nearby and watched while simultaneously going through the reports from the neighborhood. First the incident with Bryan, then this killer, then the disappearance of people, loud noises from the woods and so on and so forth... Some things were easy to connect, but some cases were still either completely unsolved without any leads or so hard to figure out that the police couldn't keep up. Take Bryan's disappearance, for example. None of the police had found any clues or leads yet. It was as if the young man had simply vanished into thin air.

Darius Edwards knew that Bryan wouldn't just disappear like that. He wasn't that kind of person. He would have at least called or tried to write a message. And the killer? He came out of nowhere. One day he wasn't there, the next day he just appears out of nowhere. Mister Edwards had already suspected that Bryan might have gone mad and could be the killer, but he wanted to forget this suspicion immediately. He knew Winslow well enough to know that this was an extremely stupid thought. Even if it did make some sense, since the young man had first disappeared and only a short time later this masked figure had appeared out of nowhere. He would have to investigate, but he hoped it was wrong.

-3rd January, 2020-

Leonie had spent Christmas and New Year's Eve practicing on Darius' gun. Even the fireworks hadn't really bothered her. Her concentration on the gun and her aim had become almost perfect and the police chief praised her every day for her progress. However, he wasn't at home that day, but at the police station. Rain wasn't there either because she wanted to do the girl a favor by helping the other cops look for Spike.

So the 18-year-old was currently alone in Mister Edward's house. She was taking a break from all her training and was sitting on one of the chairs in the kitchen while eating a yogurt she had found in the fridge. Even though she still had a bad feeling, at the same time she felt much safer than before. In an emergency, she could now defend herself against an attacker instead of just running away. This was definitely a big advantage for her.

The killer would not expect Leonie to be able to aim and shoot unless he had been watching her. But the girl shouldn't rely too much on the safety of the gun either, otherwise something could happen that she wouldn't expect. So she had to be prepared for anything and always keep an eye on her surroundings. In a moment of calm, she decided to call her younger brother Finn. As always, he picked up immediately and spoke in a worried voice. "Sis? Leo? Hey, are you there? Is everything alright?"

"Yes, Finn. I'm fine, don't worry. Despite everything that happens, I'll get through this shit! Darius taught me how to use a gun. So in the future I can at least protect myself if it comes to that." Leonie reassured her worried brother and assured him that everything would soon come to a good end.

"I hope so... Just don't die trying to defend yourself, okay? I need the last member of my family alive and not dead..."

"...I promise, little brother. When this is all over and I can go back to my house, I'll come and get you. See you then, love you."

After the two of them had talked for a while, Leonie hung up. She wished so much that this hell would finally come to an end. She wasn't safe anywhere. She felt like she was being watched around the clock, even though she was alone. She would have loved to be in her house at that moment, together with Bryan and Finn. Just peace, quiet and love... But not like this. She couldn't even sleep properly at night because she always had the feeling that something would come up behind her and try to stab or strangle her. The constant feeling of fear, of being chased, of being watched or of death itself was extremely agonizing.

Then she suddenly heard footsteps. They were coming from the room upstairs. Without hesitation, she took the gun, loaded it and braced herself for the worst. The footsteps walked slowly across the upper wooden floor into the hallway and then very slowly down the stairs. Leonie held her breath and quietly hid in one of the kitchen cupboards. The footsteps came closer and were finally in the kitchen. Through the slit in the cupboard, the 18-year-old could see the figure standing in the middle of the room. Bingo. She carefully opened the cabinet a little and pointed the gun at the killer before pulling the trigger and hitting him in the shoulder.

The killer cursed, held his shoulder and immediately turned to the closet, but ducked as Leonie fired another shot. He grabbed his knife, jumped up and threw it in the direction of her head within seconds. The girl dodged and fired a few more shots as she backed out of the kitchen and walked backwards into the living room, gun still pointed towards the kitchen.

Leonie concentrated and listened for any sounds around her, but the killer smashed the window in the living room after simply walking out the kitchen window and around the house. The girl immediately turned around and shot at the killer. She had little luck, however, as her opponent was much faster and more agile than she had thought. Despite all her efforts to shoot and dodge, she was grabbed by the neck and her hand, in which she was holding the gun, was simply chopped off by the person with the knife. Blood poured from her arm as she screamed in pain. The figure punched her so hard in the face that she fell unconscious...

...

The 18-year-old woke up hours later in a darkened cellar. She realized she was chained to a wall and the blood on her right wrist had been stopped by a few simple stitches and bleeding bandages. She looked around and noticed a mirror in the corner. She was confused, but also a little frightened when she realized that the killer had taped her mouth shut and the sides of her cheeks were marked with a permanent marker. She wondered what that meant, but honestly, she didn't want to know.

She had to find a way out of this situation... But how? The walls were made of stone, the chains on her left wrist, neck and feet were made of iron, the door probably needed a key and it was probably locked with a code too, judging by the little device with the red glowing dot on the wall. Great... She had to leave. And as quickly as possible. She knew that the person would be back soon...