Mr. Hodek and His Little Minion

17

We didn't end up taking the shotgun with us, for some reason. With Hodek's whole impression I'd have assumed he collected the things. But either he couldn't see it, or didn't care. So we only had the laptop in tow as we made our way to the next house. I had the opportunity to actually question the man living there. Fortunately, he was sleeping, so we could take our time.

Unfortunately, once he woke up, it was pretty clear he was going to put up a fight.

When his vision adjusted to the dark and he spied two men in his bedroom, with one of them holding a knife to his neck, his eyes widened and he instinctively elbowed me in the stomach. Hard. He hardly had to wind up, which made it even more difficult for me to react in time. I was knocked back a good couple of feet, and by the time he stood up I was ready to charge at him.

"What are you doing in my house," he half-yelled. I guessed he was trying to alert his neighbors by being purposefully loud, but it didn't last too long. I kicked him down so that he landed on the floor, but his head still hit the wall.

"Be quiet, or I'll just kill you faster," I said through clenched teeth. I had the knife position above his heart. He didn't flinch, only used an arm to support himself.

"Kill me faster? What would it matter? Who even are you?!"

"I'm nobody. Just work with me, sir. Please."

"Oh, 'sir.' Like that's going to keep me from—"

"Do you know anything," I interrupted, holding the knife closer to his chest, "about anyone named Birthday?"

The man's face nearly contorted. He paused. "...what?"

"Anniversary."

"What are—who would name someone that?"

"Iris. Jade. Carol, Laurel, Event, something?" My words became more rushed as his stare became more blank. Eventually, when I realized I had no luck here, I sighed.

"Alright. So you don't. I'm sorry it had to end like this."

And I drove the knife flat into his throat.

It was odd, to see another person die by my hand after that little break. I felt like something in me had sprung back to life at the expense of something else. His eyes rolled back, which I could definitely do without, and after an agonizing five seconds he finally stopped moving. Hodek looked like he wanted to get going, but I signaled him to wait. I slowly walked to the man's closet and rummaged through until I'd found a baseball cap. I folded his arms over his chest like he was already in a casket, and placed the hat on his face to cover it.

"Okay. I'm ready," I muttered after what felt like forever. It felt almost like Jeff was going to say something to comfort me, which would have been a surprise. Good thing he didn't.

I washed the blood off my hands and we headed home, with him throwing constant sympathetic looks my way.

"...you okay?"

My eyebrows knit in frustration. "Yeah. This happens all the time. I'm used to it. Why wouldn't I be okay."

"Alright, it's just that you seemed pretty upset that the guy had to die. I'm actually kind of jealous. You've wiped your entire existence off the map by now, haven't you?"

"Yeah, and you—" I started, but then I realized. "...oh. Right. The Killer."

"It's really that hard to just say my name, isn't it," Hodek muttered. He said it almost like a joke. After a moment, he shook his head.

"When we first met, and you didn't know who I was, I was a little put off. Not because I was mad, it's just that any other person would have recognized me. It was a nice change."