A Slender Chance

Chapter Twelve

CHAPTER TWELVE

My birthday was the Thursday of the next week. School wasn't half bad, thankfully. Teachers were the same as always, but in a rare stroke of luck I didn't have to endure any pop quizzes or excessive amounts of work.

During lunch, Drew came prancing back from her locker with a cake. I grinned at her. Chocolate with chocolate icing - my favorite. "Aw, you shouldn't have," I said.

"Sky," she winned, "it's the best friend code! I couldn't have not gotten you a cake. It's unfathomable!"

I laughed. "You're the best Drew."

"You know I try," she winked at me.

Joanna and her brother Jackson - my next two closest friends after Drew - came over then, bearing presents. I slid over and Jackson sat next to me, Joanna occupied the seat beside Drew.

"Hey, happy birthday," Jackson and wrapped me in a bear hug. "Ready for your present?"

"Jackson, go away! She's gonna open my present first!" Joanna bickered with her twin.

I laughed and held up my hands, "Woah, woah, what happened to taking turns?"

"Exactly. My turn first!" Joanna insisted.

I rolled my eyes. "Well hand it over then Joan."

"Yay!" She squealed.

I dug the paper out of the little gift bag and held up the shiny silver earrings. They were tiny little crosses with a delicate sliver rose at the center. "They're beautiful! Thank you," I exclaimed.

"It was nothing," she said beaming.

"Now mine," Jackson said, sliding a small blue box towards me. He slid closer to me so that the side of his leg was against mine. Trying to be casual about it, I slid away an inch.

I knew Jackson liked me. He'd made it pretty obvious. I just didn't feel that way about him - he was just a friend. I'd been okay messing around with him though. He knew I had no serious intentions. His flirtatious hadn't bothered me before. Now it kinda felt wrong.

Upon opening the box I saw two little slips of paper. Puzzled, I picked them up and examined them. "Movie tickets," he explained. "Two of them so you can take someone with you," he said, making if painfully obvious just exactly who he wanted me to take.

"Thanks Jackson, this is really nice," I said with a grateful smile.

"Anything to make you smile sweet heart," he said.

I rolled my eyes. "That was so cheesy."

"But its true," he said grinned and planted a kiss on my cheek.

Oddly I felt the hairs on the back of my neck prickle at his contact and an extreme feeling of discomfort washed over me. It took me a second to realize it as the feeling of being watched.

Admittedly I'd been having that feeling all week. Someone (and I knew exactly who) was watching me closely.

I had a feeling he didn't like Jackson flirting with me.

After school my family held their own little birthday party for me: cake, presents, a couple of cheap balloons, it was all there.

Happy with my new Netbook and maxi skirt, I flopped down on the couch after the celebration atmosphere had died down. Grabbing the TV remote, I flipped to the news. Then I blanched.

The reporter was standing outside a house, ambulances and police cars were everywhere behind her.

"Seven bodies were found in the basement of this abandoned home earlier this morning, horribly mangled. Our reports have told us that they were all about teenage age, but authorities have yet to release their identities. Investigations are under way as police search for the culprit behind these murders. If you have any information concerning this indecent, please call-" I shut the TV off.

The images from the basement were still haunting me. Considering that I had almost been raped and beaten to death by them, I should be happy for the fate that had befell those boys - grateful in fact - but I wasn't. I felt sick think about it. The screams, the blood, the smell... It had left me with nightmares.

Then the thought occurred to me that the reporter had said that they'd just found the bodies this morning. That meant they'd been down there festering for five days...

I ran to the bathroom and vomited, unwarranted tears streaming down my face. I could have gone a lifetime without imagining that scene.

"You okay, honey?" my mom asked in concern. She knelt beside me on the bathroom floor and held my hair out of my face so it wouldn't get messy.

"Yeah, too much cake, I think," I lied when I was finished. I groaned and laid my head against the wall.

"Stay right here, I'll go get you some Stomach medicine," she instructed me and left.

After taking the medicine and laying down for a while, I told Mom I thought some fresh air might do me some good. I stepped outside and, not even bothering walking to the park, went straight into the woods. He would find me, I knew.

We needed to talk.