Star Bright

Twenty Seven: Cadaver

  Dani staggered through the woods, Kolo giving her a push every few minutes. Her dress was bloodied, her face, arms, and legs injured, and her hair tangled. She felt weak, drained. Her legs wanted to give way but she remembered the immense pain she'd bore as Kolo had dragged her by her hair. She staggered on.

  "I gotta say," Kolo began talking, "you have the worst of luck. Whatever did you do to a Star for him to hate you this much?"

  Dani froze, turned around in shock. "You know." It wasn't a question, more like a realization.

  Kolo pushed her onwards. "Don't stop walking." When she obeyed, he continued, "yes, I know. He told me everything once he freed me. Just touched my arm and boom! I knew and saw everything I needed to know. He and I have the same goal: to see you suffer. He promised I could watch while he plays with you."

  "Why couldn't he just come get me himself?"

  Kolo snorted. "Like you don't already know. You've got those darn crystals! He says he can't touch you as long as you had them on you. But hey, I'm not a Star. No crystal's gonna protect you from me."

  "How are you not freaking out right now? You just found out that Stars are walking the earth."

  From the way he said it, Dani could guess he was shrugging. "Meh. I've seen weirder sh¡t when I'm high. Plus, I'm not a girl."

  "Wow, sexist much?"

  Kolo pushed her. She stumbled and fell to the floor, hitting her nose on the ground. Warm blood rolled down to her lips, staining her teeth. He sniggered.

  "Does that answer your question?"

  Dani began getting to her feet. In the process of doing so, she quietly grabbed a fig. It might have looked harmless but someone with one working eye would say otherwise. She knew Kolo didn't have any gun on him, Anon had probably forbidden it. It was just him and his man strength.

  Once back on her feet, Dani decided to scan the area she was in to see if she could recognize any familiar tree. She quickly realized that they were on the way to The Summit.

  The place that had been shut down!

  As soon as she thought that sentence, it made sense. An abandoned place in the woods was a perfect hideout for a psychopathic murderer. She remembered principal Doud saying that officers had been stationed there and also remembered that Kolo had known everything about Stars simply by mere touch.

  Dani simply put two and two together at this point; Anon had learned about Kolo by touching the officers! He'd ransacked their memories.

  So technically, Dani was in this situation because of her decisions. Every choice she had taken had led to this moment. She refused to feel sorry for herself, instead forced all her thoughts into thinking of a way to plunge the hidden stick into one of Kolo's eyes.

   "You know," he began quietly, "I was just trying to make a living. Not everyone grew up with rich families."

  Dani resisted the sympathy her heart was trying to express. "I'm not from a rich family either. My dad left us when I was young, my mum died during childbirth. My life's not so perfect either, but you don't see me doing drugs."

  She'd expected another shove so that this time she wouldn't get up and when he came closer to help, she would swing into action. But he chuckled instead.

  "Can see why that star dude wants to kill you so badly. You've got a big mouth. Can't wait to see him rip it apart."

  "He's gonna kill you too. As soon as he's done with me, he's gonna end you too."