Fear Me, Dear

I am torn from my slumber by someone shaking me by my shoulder. With a groan, I sit up and rub my eyes. Looking up, I realise that it's Max shaking my shoulder. Letting out a yawn, I furrow my eyebrows in confusion as I pull a piece of paper off of my face. Throwing it to the floor, I look in front of me and see my desk, thus coming to the conclusion that I must have fallen asleep sat at said desk. Running a hand through my hair, I look up at Max who is looking at me in disapproval with a slight hint of amusement in his expression.

"Did you have a good sleep?" He asks with a smirk.

"I have had better, I am fucking knackered though."

"Not surprising, seeing as you didn't go to sleep until around five."

"What time is it now?" I ask, stretching my arms above my head causing my back to crack.

"Seven, we have to leave in forty-five minutes."

My eyes widen in disbelief, and as Max continues to smirk I look over my shoulder at the clock that sits on my bedside table. The glowing green numbers read 07:01. With a groan, I fold my arms on my desk and rest my head on them, muttering 'fuck' repeatedly. Two hours of sleep, how the hell am I going to make it through college today without falling asleep. Shit.

"Wait," I lift my head up from my desk and narrow my eyes as I look at Max quizzically. "If you know when I went to sleep, how come you're so chirpy? You mustn't have slept until I did."

"Au contraire my friend, I went to bed at midnight. I was woken up by your head slamming against your desk. As I am a great friend I came in to check up on you to see if you were still alive, and when I opened the door you were already asleep so I assume you passed out or some shit."

"I hate you so much."

"Aw love you too Joshy. Now come on, you need a shower because you fucking reek."

Pulling my shoe off of my foot, I aim at Max and throw it but he quickly runs out of my room laughing like he is insane although he probably is. My shoe flies through the door and over the banister, and I hear a 'thump' as it lands in the hallway downstairs. Getting up from my chair, my joints cracking in the process, I grab some fresh clothes and head towards the bathroom. As I walk past Max's room which he shares with Matt, I shout 'arsehole' and run into the bathroom before he can retaliate.

*****

The hall is near silent, the sniffles of other students being the only sound. The headmistress decided to hold what can be called but not quite an assembly. Every student at my college is seated in a ridiculously uncomfortable blue plastic chair as we all sit in silence. I begin to fidget: lightly tapping my foot, drumming my hands quietly on my legs, and squirming around in my seat. Dan has made a habit of discretely kicking my leg whenever I start to fidget, and I swear there will be numerous bruises on my left leg now.

The headmistress starts to speak again, and it is about Suzie and how she will be missed et cetera et cetera. To be honest I keep zoning out. I'm not being disrespectful because come on, a student was murdered. In my defense I am really fucking tired, plus my theories about the murderer keep whizzing through my mind. With all the research I have done, and from all the theories I put together last night/this morning, where does it leave me?

My assumptions are as follows: whoever it is works alone, and at first their victims were chosen specifically for moral reasons but as their deadline creeps ever closer their victims are becoming more random as they seem to panic. That's another thing, there is a third party involved that is threatening the killer, forcing them to kill. The killer also feels a sense of remorse, like they don't actually want to murder people. Despite all this, they are very careful and think things through thoroughly, seeing as they leave no evidence (apart from the bodies, of course). No fingerprints, nothing. And finally, they see the victims as sort of inconveniences, as he doesn't want to kill them but he has to. Therefore, this causing them inconvenience.

As I said, these are only assumptions.

It only seems like the puzzle is half done though, or as if there is a piece missing.

What the fuck am I missing?

Just as I ponder over that question, I hear shuffling and look around, surprised to see everyone getting up and leaving. Wow, did I zone out for that long? With a shrug of my shoulders, I go 'meh' and stand up, stretching my legs. Dan gives me a weird look, but simply shakes his head and goes to follow the other three. Tripping over a chair leg and almost falling flat on my face, I tug at the bottom of my black shirt, straighten my unbuttoned red checked shirt and jog after the others.

*****

The rest of the day went on as normal: lightly slapping Max, Max punching me in the arm, Matt talking about chicken, almost falling asleep in lessons, throwing scrunched up paper at Chris, doodling when I should be working, stealing Dan's snapback, and sassing a bunch of dickheads. Just the average day at college. Plus, after numerous cups of coffee I fully woke up at around eleven o'clock.

A few hours and a trip to KFC later (Max got Matt the chicken he promised to get him after the crazy Hispanic man incident) we were all sat in the living room, all watching the football. Arsenal versus Tottenham, and Arsenal are obviously going to wipe the floor with Spurs. In the football spirit, I am even wearing my Arsenal scarf. Half time and we are already beating the spurs two-nil. Reaching my hand into the bowl of doritos on the table, I groan as I realise that the bowl is empty.

"Matt, do we have anymore doritos?"

"I don't think so." He mumbles, peering into the empty bowl.

"We're out of doritos?! Well shit." Max mutters.

"Why doesn't someone just go to the shop and buy some?" Chris says.

"Josh." All four of them say, as they turn to look at me in sync.

"What?"

"You go to the shop." Matt says, pointing at the door.

"But it's ten o'clock, and it's dark!"

"Aw, is Joshy-poo afraid of the dark?" Max coos, pinching my cheek as he does so.

"No I'm not!"

"Then go and get some doritos then." Dan tells me, kicking me off of the sofa. Standing up straight, I let out an exasperated sigh.

"Fine, but one of you guys is paying for it."

Max throws a fiver into my hand and pushes me over to the door, yelling 'go'. Slapping him around the back of the head, I walk to the door and step out onto the street. I stand for a moment, unmoving as I completely misjudged how dark it actually is. Shit. Oh well, I should be twenty minutes tops, and I'm just over six feet tall so if I do encounter any trouble then I should be fine. Just punch them and run screaming like a girl, simple and effective. There is a slight chill in the air, and I got to shove my hands on my pockets only to realise that I made the mistake of not putting a jumper on. Sighing yet again, I bury my hands in the pockets of my black skinny jeans and keep walking. My long sleeved black shirt provides some warmth, but my checked shirt moves about in the breeze. I would do it up, but I can't be arsed.

After ten minutes of walking, the newsagents is in sight. Unfortunately, it is the one next to the alleyway where Suzie is murdered. What if the murderer is there? Oh jesus christ shut up Josh, you are being stupid. That is a fantastic argument, thank you brain. As I continue to walk, I feel a hand on my back as it grips the back of my checked shirt. The rational side of my brain is telling me to just shrug off the shirt seeing as it is unbuttoned and leg it, but instead I leave it on like the twat I am.

I am pulled back into the alleyway, and one arm is wrapped around my waist as the persons other hand goes to cover my mouth. Before they do though, I speak up.

"I won't scream, fucking hell I won't scream okay." I tell them in a voice that I tried to make sound confident, but instead it came out shaky, showing my fear.

The guy listens to me though, and moves his hand away from my face. As the person seems to relax slightly, I pull myself from their grip and start sprinting down the alleyway, if I can just get to the newsagents I should be safe. Their pounding footsteps are close behind me, and my heart beats at a million hours an hour, both out of fear and how fast I'm running. My judgement has failed me again though, as it seems that this guy has pulled me further into the alley than I originally thought. As I reach the turn in the alley, I grip onto the wall and skid around, proceeding to run at full speed to get away from who ever decided to grab me. The end of the alley isn't in sight. Crap, I'm way way way further in the alleyway than I thought. As luck isn't on my side, I trip on the laces of my converse and fall onto the cobblestone floor. Fantastic. My laces have been undone many times before, but never before have I tripped on them. I guess there is a first time for everything, unfortunately this had to occur during a possible life or death situation. With heavy breathing, I quickly scramble up onto my hands and knees and hurriedly attempt to get up. I am stopped by a foot on my back, which roughly shoves me into the ground.

"That was a bad decision." I mumble, and as I say this more pressure is applied to my back. "Shit, a very bad decision."

Before I can even move and try to get the guy off of me, something comes onto contact with the side of my skull, causing pain to shoot through out my head.

As the already dark world begins to blur and get ever darker, I remember something. When I went down this very alleyway two days ago I spoke to that police officer, Vic, and he told me something.

'Just be careful, and make sure none of you go out alone at night'

I didn't fucking listen though, did I?

Darkness.