The Crimson Game

James led me and dad to the body, one look and I knew who it was, I fell down crying. Ben was my boyfriend from eighth grade year to a few weeks ago and his beautiful eyes, right hand and left hand fingers were gone. Dad had always liked Ben; we were friends first so he didn't care. However, if this was someone’s way of catching my attention they'll never get me, that thought ran through my head all night. Dad had James take me home because I was too weak to stand up and almost passed out when they picked me up. I didn’t sleep at all that night Ben and Alex kept flashing through my head and I was scared half to death. The only thing that unoccupied me from that was "who's next? ". I didn't feel too well to begin with so I planned on not going to school the next day and I could tell it was going to be a very long night. I didn't sleep at all it was like being in a nightmare where you had no control over waking up. I had those kinds of nightmares once when I was six for six months after mom died but they ended when we moved. I never wanted them to come back, but they did and almost everything that happened in the dreams. Dad already told me when I was half asleep that her thought it was best for me to stay home until this all settled down. Secretly I heard him talking to Rio, his girlfriend for four months, he was thinking about moving.
I finally fell asleep and woke up around four pm. I knew I would sleep until four because of the nightmares again. I heard dad screaming, his philosophy was “don’t let anyone know if it will break them down and hurt.” Ever since mom died that’s been his philosophy, so frightened and he told me. Dad was really funny before that happened, him and mom was so carefree.
Dad ran up the stairs again “Maddlyn…”. His voice trailed off, I zoned out thinking of who could have been dead this time. Kinzi? Or maybe April? What about that new kid Emily? “Maddlyn…” he gripped my arm hard “what happened on Monday?”. Monday? Nate James talked to me but that’s all I specifically remembered. I also remembered fighting with Alex. That’s why I came home alone Monday, why Ben was angry at me, why dad didn’t know. I was angry at Alex because she helped Ben cheat on me with her. I handled it on my own and didn’t tell him because he would have made us move away. “Maddlyn!!!” I tensed up, I hated when he yelled at me, “tell me what happened!”. “Ben cheated on me with Alex.” I said. “Alex was a hoe anyway, I saw this coming” That surprised me because I thought dad liked Alex.
When dad left my room I took a nap until three fifteen am. Great I thought, witching hour. I was always superstitious after mom died because dad started being home less and less every day and I was scare. Up until age eight I was frightened of being alone. At age nine I was used to being alone I didn’t really care anymore. One thing I was sure of was that I was going to school and if anyone asked about Ben or Alex or anything I’d just walk away, I didn’t want to talk to anyone but I certainly didn’t want to be home.
I was up and out of the house by five am because I couldn’t sleep. I left a note for dad and told him I was going to school. I left with my book bag on my back and headphones in my ears blasting Bad Company by Five Finger Death Punch. I looked around and decided to go eat something although I wasn’t really hungry.
I saw Nate and he started walking over but he dropped his notebook and I bent over to pick it up for him. “NO!!” he yelled but I had already picked it up and I opened it to the first page and I saw my name plainly written in black ink and numbers one through 5 on the page. I became horrified as I read what was beside the numbers, plans, names, dates, and times. I knew he was obsessed with me but this note book and killing people was the last straw. “WHAT THE HECK IS THIS?!?!?!?”. I was furious. “Maddlyn…” he hesitated “it’s for a project. I can explain!”. However I was already running away from him, scared for my life.