The Tenth Night

Rae Edison

“So let me get this straight. You asked me to come with you to stalk this guy because you feel uneasy?”

Rae shifted in the driver’s seat of her car, glancing out of the windscreen momentarily before turning back to the man sitting in the passenger side of the car. Nathan was smirking at her, his lips turned upwards in that god-awful self-assured grin that she had fallen so hard for when she was a teenager. It had taken almost every single ounce of pride from her body when she had dialled his number that evening, but she just didn’t feel secure planning out her murder by herself. Something had changed. The ten-year anniversary marked a decade of getting rid of scum, but all it seemed to do was make Rae feel uneasy. Something was happening, she was sure of it. They had gotten away with everything for way too long and it couldn’t continue on in the same way.

“Honestly Rae,” Nathan groaned, throwing his hands down and making Rae jump out of her stupor, “you’re getting as paranoid as Edwin. Nothing is going to happen to you. We don’t even know if this guy is violent yet. He could be as calm as they come.”

Rae raised a jagged eyebrow at Nathan, glancing once again out of the window at the entrance to the town’s small gym. Edwin had given a fairly nondescript name, as always, and the trail had led Rae and a reluctant Nathan to the small car-park opposite the building in search of a Reece Harris. It was the same every year – Rae would ensure that she knew the specified victim inside-out before making her move. Clocking their everyday movements was the natural progression from learning the name and after that, she could formulate a plan around those movements.

“He spends almost every night in a gym, Nate,” Rae said, her feeble attempt at an excuse sounding pathetic even to her. “I’m roughly five-foot-nothing and built like a stick insect. He gets me and I’m toast.”

Nathan rolled his eyes, turning his attention back to the foil-wrapped burger he had left lying on the dashboard. The food had been his idea – if Reece looked their way as he left, all he would see were two people in their late twenties having a quick bite to eat in a car park. Rae had cursed herself for not thinking of it, because it had given him more satisfaction than it should have and Nathan’s inflated ego wasn’t something she wanted to blow more hot air into.

“How long d’ya think it’ll take Veronica to snap, then?” Nathan asked through mouthfuls of food. Rae grimaced as a small fleck of churned-up meat landed on her cardigan. She flicked it off carefully, keeping her eyes trained on the world outside of her car. It had gone dark quickly that evening, so the only sources of light were coming from the glass-panelled doors of the gym and the harsh ambience of the streetlights. Even the car light was feeble, bathing both bodies in a white-washed glow and casting eerie shadows across Nathan’s face.

“Are you asking to make conversation or because you’re generally concerned?” Rae asked with a smile, holding back a chuckle. It was Nathan’s turn to shift in his seat and he seemed to spend a few seconds debating whether to take another bite of his burger or to answer the question posed to him. He stuffed the remainder of the greasy take-out into his mouth, providing Rae with the answer she needed at the same time. It amused her more than she could think; the devil-may-care attitude and soaring ego seemed to completely disappear when anyone mentioned Veronica Whitby. Granted, she had the same effect on everyone and seemed the most likely to turn on the group, but seeing Nathan reduced to a paranoid mess was more fun than Rae ever wanted to admit.

“There he is,” Nathan mumbled, nodding his head towards the gym. Rae stuffed some food in her mouth, feeling her heart rate increase. She hadn’t thought about how out-of-place they would look and she desperately hoped that their flimsy cover would be enough to cast away any suspicions in the body-builders mind.

“Edwin sure picked a good one this year,” Nathan snorted, glancing at the hulking man-giant. He struck Rae as the type that would hit any girl he had right away, with his mean, beady eyes and mop of sandy-brown hair. Sure, he was attractive. Rae wasn’t going to dispute that. But his demeanour and the way that he carried himself reeked of self-worth and importance and Rae knew all-too-well that those were the classic signs. Reece Harris was the type of person Rae would usually stay far away from. Any confidence she had held previously dropped to the floor and she almost felt physically sick at the sight of her next victim.

“He’s huge,” she murmured, averting her eyes from him and turning back towards Nathan. “How the hell am I supposed to overpower someone of that size?”

Nathan shrugged, also keeping his eyes away from the gym entrance. He had finished his meal now and was making an elaborate show of crumpling up the foil. Throwing it onto the dashboard, he slid down the seat and rested his head against the glass.

“You’ll need to come up with a plan B,” he mused, looking Rae up and down. “You’re way too tiny to take him on like you normally would.”

Rae nodded in agreement. There was no way she would be attempting to get a knife anywhere near that man. One wrong move and she’d be toast, either tossed to the police or beaten to a pulp. Rae wasn’t the type for prison. She was too small, too undeniably middle-class to be thrown in with a group of delinquents. They’d eat her alive in a heartbeat.

Unfortunately, Plan B wasn’t formulating itself in Rae’s mind and as she twisted her key in the ignition, she realised that she hadn’t felt more out of her own depth in a long time.