How To Catch a Killer

Karma

Anna's POV:

It all happened so fast... the crash. A deadly ringing mixed with the muffled sounds of the engine was all I could hear. One minute I was on the road, next thing I know I'm curled over my steering wheel in the forest. The smell of pine and gasoline was a surprisingly pleasant mixture. However, it wasn't pleasant enough to ease the sharp pain that was coming from my head. Everything hurts, everything. "Get out of the car," a familiar voice barks but I'm too disoriented to do anything. The voice fades as I slip into unconsciousness. I felt the coarse hands of a man carrying me through the forest, the sounds of twig snapping under his feet was music to my ears.

I'm saved, someone found me.

The blood leaving my fingertips, left nothing but a sickening cold in its place. The disturbing feeling woke me from my sleep. As I blinked back to reality, I found myself thinking I might still be dreaming. The scene before me could only be a nightmare but the rug burns from my wrists felt all too real. I was suspended from two ropes, my feet barely touching the ground.

What the hell is going on?

I glanced over and noticed a table lined with tools that look like it came straight out of a medieval torturer's kit. Those tools are gonna be used on me, aren't they? The unsettling reality made me want to scream but all I could do was groan.

A cloth covered my mouth preventing my cries of help from escaping. After a while, when my throat was filled with fire and my cheeks burned with the same power I heard footsteps approaching the hell I was in. I watched as the doorknob slowly turned, the last man that I thought would be behind it walked through with a sinister look on his face.

"Ah, I see your finally awake."

Why? Why is this happening?

With each step he took closer to me I thrashed in protest. "Keep that up and you'll stay gagged," he spat.Thrashing about wasn't doing me any favors so I decided to comply. 

He stared me down as he removed the cloth from my mouth. My jaw ached from being open for so long. I instinctively tried to touch it but I was quickly reminded of my shackles.

"Oh yeah, sorry about that. But I can't have you escaping now can I? Especially now that you've seen my face."

"Why," I choked. "Doctor-

"Don't call me that!" he barked. "I'm not a doctor, no that dream was taken from me by a bunch of close-minded sheep. It's ridiculous really. No Anna," he brushed the side of my face with his cold hands causing me to wince. "I'm no doctor, but you'll wish you had one," he walked over to the metal slab that acted as a table and brushed his fingertips along the various tools before finally landing on one. It was simple, a pocketknife with a wooden handle. "This'll do," he whispered to himself.

"Help! Someone please! Hel-" He struck me with his hand, it was painful as much as it was loud.

"You're going to regret that," he retrieved the cloth that once silenced me and began wrapping my mouth.

After he was done, he retreated to the back of me. For a while I almost thought he had disappeared. Until he ripped my shirt exposing nothing but my bra underneath. Goosebumps lined my back, and I don't know if I was feeling fear or embarrassment, probably both. All I could do was cry, cry and hope that I made it out here alive.

He ran the blade against my bare back, daring to add more pressure as he did. "Let me tell you a story. There once was a family in a small town that was loved by many and hated by none. The family had no daughters, only a son. The son was young but smart true. But his life was cut short by the hands of you!"

He sliced the knife into my back quick but long. I let out an agonizing scream, but it was muffled from the cloth. He stepped back in front of me wiping the blood-stained knife with a towel.

Readjusting his glasses he spoke, "do you know what today is?" He loosened my gag, it only drooped below my chin.

"Friday?" My answer was hoarse and apparently wrong from the way he was glaring at me.

"It's my son's birthday today, he would've been seven. You took him from me," he grimaced.

Son?

Finally, I started to connect the dots. That night, the party, oh God. "I'm sorry," was the only thing I could think of saying. What else was there to say to the father of the boy you killed.

"Sorry? You're sorry? Sorry isn't going to bring my son back!" His anger rumbled through my bones.

"All this time... you knew? How? Why didn't you turn me in?"

"There were cameras that I set up around the forest. To keep track of wild beasts and such. I found you Anna, now as to the why well, where's the fun in that?" He stated coldly. "Besides, your mom would've found some way to limit your sentence. Must be nice to have a mommy in high places huh. Too bad for you, she won't save you this time. There is one thing I'm curious about though. You weren't alone, were you? Just briefly I noticed someone in the backseat... who was it," he propped my chin up with the blade in his hand.

"Please, what do you want? Money?" I pleaded for a way out but I could see in his eyes he wanted nothing more but to see me in pain and how could I blame him. He ignored my question, gagging me again and making his way back behind me.

"Five more to go," he sliced again, and I felt the warm blood dancing with the cold blade on my skin.

"Who was with you!"

In a daze I saw Rowan leaning against the wall staring at me with such sadness. "Why did you do it?" She cried out. Her face melted with her tears.

"Rowan?"

My vision was beginning to blur and all I could think of was Rowan my best friend. She's probably worried sick wondering where I am. Avery, I'll never get to annoy her again. The time we spent together, brain freeze, looking at the stars in the fading sky, talking about our boy problems. 

My mom, I didn't get to tell her how much I loved her. Now, she'll never get to know. This is it isn't it? How I go out. Being hacked to pieces until there's nothing left. There's so much I wanted to do, so much I wanted to see. Perhaps in the next life I won't be so careless. One can only dream.

Goodbye, Rowan.