I swing, connecting my fist with his jaw. He stumbles back but ultimately takes the hit better than most. I hear a few gasps spread out as I reel him back in by gripping the collar of his shirt, but I ignore them as I make my statement clear.
"If I catch you anywhere near my girl, I'll make sure that you never get to see another fucking football field ever again, that understood?"
He scoffs before rolling his eyes. But he accepts defeat, deciding to sit down while coddling his jaw before he further makes a fool out of himself. And before I can decide that now is as good of a time as any to fuck up his face anyway, I focus on my priority.
Hunting down my sweet little prey.
19
OLIVIA
“One, two, Freddy’s coming for you…” — A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Irun through the forest. The cold air eclipses any warmth I’d been feeling from the pure adrenaline and seeps into my lungs, pinching tightly. It burns with every foot I pound into the ground. I know he’s coming for me.
I want him to.
I can feel it, the tear between what my mind has kept hidden and what the truth is. It's hard to explain, but when he's near I can sense something. He's not telling me the truth or he's covering something up. I saw it in his eyes back there, something haunts him too. And though he claims it’s me and my supposed betrayal, part of me believes that it’s more than that and he’s just using that as an excuse to toy with me in the meantime. To hunt me.
But why? Does he see that I like it? Does he notice the quiver of my lip and the greed in my eyes when he gets me like this. Is this just his fucked-up way of making me aware of the fact that even after all these years, he stillowns me?
Is he really here for just me though? Or is there someone else he’s after too?
I don’t stop until I know I’m far enough out where no one else can find me. Where no one else would even care to look. Rain drops swipe against my face, cooling my heated skin as I breathe heavily.
The sun is still pretty high in the sky, so any hope to be hidden by darkness is out of the question but at the same time, at least nothing can hide from me either. I just need a few moments to try and recover the full memory of what I’d seen at the fire pit. The memory with Seren. So I duck behind a tree and hope that he’s not closer than my gut is telling me.
I squeeze my eyes shut and try to tie my emotions back to the night, hoping that feelings will bring me back to it. I recite the statement she’d made to me during that moment, imagining it to be in her voice. Wanting to know who she seems to be afraid of and what he was going to ask her to do. But I’m not able to recall anymore than what was shown to me, coming up empty handed. I wonder why the memory has been stripped from me in the first place.What does that mean?
I close my eyes to try and remember anything involving Seren from that weekend and still, I come up blank. I can remember burning marshmallows one of the nights as someone told ghost stories. I remember gathering around to watch as everyone dared some kid from our class to run around naked through the forest. But Seren wasn’t there either. Or if she was, I can’t remember. I do remember seeing Declan both nights outside of the night he was killed. I even recall seeing Tyre and Jett too. And of course, the nighteverything happened has been full of gaps but now I have my final memory with my brother burning a hole in my brain like an angry ember. But nothing of Seren.
Why?
“Oh, Olivia.” I gasp, clasping my hands over my mouth.
Trace is near.How the fuck did he catch up to me so fast?
I sink to the ground when I hear the sinister timbre of his words, not ready to be found yet. But I grow curious. How close is he?
I decide to face him, standing up and wiping off the dirt from my pants before stepping out from behind the tree. Other than the occasional whistle of wind, I’m greeted with silence. I look around, trying to scope out where he could be but I don’t see a way he’d be able to stay hidden. I take a few steps before I hear him again.
“I see you, Reckless. Are you scared?” I twist my body, certain his voice is coming from behind me. But I don’t see him.
I’m not scared. Or maybe I am. Maybe I am but I crave it. I crave this kind of fear.
I turn back around, and still nothing.
“Stop fucking around, you coward!” I shout, hoping to taunt him a little by portraying myself to be unbothered, but I know deep down it only fuels him. “Face me like a fucking man!”
I walk a few more steps, attempting to get a better view behind some of the trees, and then he calls my name again. This time it sounds like it’s coming from everywhere.
I freeze, feeling powerless but also . . . exhilarated.
“Trace?” I call out his name, now wondering if it’s even him hunting me. I’m sure it is, but it feels too apparitional to be real.
“Where are you?” I’m sure he can hear the worry, or fear, in my voice. The cold is now starting to seep into my boots and even the jacket he gave me isn’t enough. But then, as usual, my body starts to heat.
I turn around, over and over again. Trying to find him hiding in broad daylight. Getting dizzier and dizzier with every step I take, my heart is booming in my chest, and then…
