by Noelle Marie
Katherine did her best to ignore the strange guilty feeling that swelled within her as Brad’s expression dimmed at her explanation. “You want me to pretend to be this person?” he questioned, having worked out her intentions.
“Yes,” she confirmed, despite the guilt that continued to gnaw at her. “You’re the only one I feel comfortable asking,” she added, though she wasn’t sure why because it wasn’t exactly true.
She didn’t feel comfortable asking anyone.
Brad just happened to be the most convenient. She was almost positive he’d agree, if only to rile up his ex-girlfriend. It was the reason he’d ask her to sit with him at lunch last week after all.
“Okay, I’ll do it.”
Immediately relieved by his positive response, the inexplicable guilt Katherine had been feeling all but dissipated. “Thanks, Brad,” she replied, truly grateful. “You’re really helping me out. Supper’s at seven. Does that work for you?”
Brad’s face brightened a little at her obviously heartfelt gratitude, the smile he was sporting looking a bit more genuine. “I’ll be there,” he quickly assured her.
Katherine offered him a few more words of thanks before turning and walking away, feeling mostly satisfied with how her conversation had gone with Middletown’s most popular jock. Though, to be honest, she was dreading the unavoidable confrontation with Mallory that she knew was coming later.
She had almost reached her locker to unload her history book when Brad called out to her. “Hey Katherine!”
The small brunette stopped and turned, hoping the boy hadn’t changed his mind already.
“Just so you know,” he half-shouted across the busy hallway, “whoever wrote that note probably wasn’t joking or playing a prank like you think. A lot of people like you Katherine – they can tell there’s something about you. Something special.”
Katherine could feel her whole face heat up at the comment and knew that she was probably as red as a tomato. She had no idea how she was supposed to respond to something like that. Luckily, Brad didn’t wait around for a response, opting instead to offer her one last smile before turning away.
Special?
Katherine snorted in disbelief.
Unless he was talking about that kind of special, she couldn’t help but think that he was wrong.
She didn’t give much more thought to Brad and their upcoming “date” until noon when Abby bombarded her at lunch. The blond boy must have told his friends about their plans because there was no other way the redhead could have found out.
“Is there something you need to tell me?” her friend demanded as soon as they had found a somewhat private spot to sit. Despite her harsh tone, the girl looked positively giddy.
Weighing her options carefully, Katherine decided that denial was her best bet. “No.”
Abby blinked, looking rather dumbfounded at the unexpected response. “No?”
“No,” Katherine repeated, fighting off the smile she could feel trying to emerge, as she took in her friend’s flummoxed expression.
Abby caught on rather quickly, however, and smacked Katherine playfully on the arm. “Don’t you lie to me, Katherine Mayes! Why didn’t you tell me you liked Brad?”
Katherine paused, wondering how she was going to explain this. “I don’t, but-”
“And here I thought you were the only girl in the whole school who didn’t like him,” Abby continued, ignoring the brunette completely. “Why, all this time you’ve just been hiding your true feelings!”
“But I don’t-”
“I knew there was a reason you’ve been dressing differently at school,” she went on, talking more to herself than anything at this point. “Showing off your legs and all that.”
“What?! I haven’t-”
“Na-ah-ah,” Abby interrupted, finally acknowledging her friend’s protests. “You don’t have to explain anything to me, Katherine.” Her eyes glazed over a bit. “I can’t believe it. My best friend. Going out with Brad Thompson.”
“Look, I don’t like Brad that way,” Katherine tried again, attempting to get through to the redhead. But it was to no avail. It was like she didn’t even hear her.
“I’m so jealous.” Abby sent her disgruntled friend a mock glare. “I wish I could get Brad to notice me.”
Just then, loud yelling from across the cafeteria caught both the girls’ attention. Turning to the sudden noise, Katherine winced at what she saw.
She immediately spotted Mallory, who was jabbing an angry finger into Brad’s face. Brad wasn’t reacting – just sitting there and looking unsure as to what he should do. The blonde girl caught Katherine staring and glared wrathfully in her direction. If eyes could kill, Katherine would already be six feet under. She quickly looked away.
Abby, who suddenly appeared rather pale, the freckles splattered across her nose more prominent than ever, caught her eye from across the table. “Perhaps I don’t envy you as much as I thought,” she joked weakly, sneaking another glance at the quarreling blondes across the cafeteria. “Come to think of it, I’m glad Brad doesn’t notice me.”
Despite Abby’s following premonition of Katherine’s gruesome death by Mallory’s hands, however, she didn’t see the blonde – not even during a shared class, British Literature – until cheerleading practice. To her surprise, Mallory steadfastly ignored her in the locker room and throughout most of the practice.
Unfortunately, that didn’t stop her friends – and in particular Heather and Jacqueline – from making awful faces at her and constantly elbowing her and tripping her when the coach wasn’t looking. Not even her newfound grace could help her and she lost track of how many times she fell during practice.
She was finally given a reprieve around six when Coach Benson blew her whistle, signaling the end of practice. She was sitting on the floor next to Abby, stretching her legs and arms with the rest of the squad, when the coach made the announcement.
“I’ve tallied the votes for team captain that all you girls cast last Friday,” she informed them, as she clasped her hands together excitedly.
Katherine saw Mallory straighten up from where she was sitting across from her and squashed the urge to roll her eyes. Everyone on the squad, including the blonde herself, knew Mallory was a shoo-in for the position.
“And the captain of the cougar cheerleaders this year, as voted by their peers is,” Couch Benson paused, trying and failing – at least in Katherine’s opinion – to create a sense of anticipation. “Mallory Flanders!”
Katherine clapped politely with the rest of the girls as the blonde’s name was announced, though certainly not as enthusiastically as Mallory’s sidekicks.
“And Katherine Mayes!” the coach declared abruptly, catching everyone by surprise. “It was a tie! Looks like this year, we have co-captains!”
Abby squealed and slapped her on the back excitedly, but Katherine was ignorant of her friend’s reaction and the other congratulations she received. She only had eyes for Mallory, who’s previously pleased expression was quickly turning sour.
Katherine didn’t understand it.
Why did so many of the squad vote for her to be captain? She wasn’t even that good at… Oh.
She had been doing really well in practice this past week – she was more nimble and agile than she'd ever been before.
She felt the sudden urge to scream. Great. Just great. Another reason for Mallory to hate her.
Suddenly, Abby’s premonition of her death wasn’t looking all that unlikely. She hoped Mallory didn’t have any sharp objects handy – like a pair of tweezers or nail clippers in the purse she liked to haul around.
“I’ll need both you girls to stay after practice so we can discuss some of your responsibilities as co-captains.”
Coach Benson’s instructions jerked Katherine out of her morbid thoughts. She glanced at the clock and just barely suppressed a groan. It was already twenty minutes past six. If the coach was as long winded as she normally was, there was no
way she’d be able to shower and make it back to her house before Brad arrived for supper.
Half an hour later, she and Mallory were finally dismissed. Katherine forced herself to keep her shower brief – a mere five minutes – before she quickly dried her hair with one of the coarse towels the school provided and made her way to her locker to change into a fresh set of clothes. Mallory, too, was finished showering, and the atmosphere was tense as they both dressed, the only two left in the locker room.
“Going to be late for your little date with Brad, aren’t you?” Mallory questioned coldly, breaking the silence.
Katherine debated if she should even bother responding before deciding she could probably save herself some trouble by telling the girl the truth. “Mallory-”
“Forget it,” the blonde briskly interrupted. “I give up. You win, Katherine.”
Katherine was truly perplexed. The blonde sounded tired, an almost defeated quality in her voice. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Don’t act innocent. You know,” Mallory accused. “You have Brad. You have captain. You have everything I want. So congratulations. You win. You’ve managed to completely ruin my life.”
“I don’t-”
“Save it,” Mallory snapped, before slamming her locker and storming out of the room, leaving Katherine in the empty space. Something resembling guilt began to form in the pit of her stomach. She scolded herself as soon as she identified the feeling. Mallory had always been horrible to her and she had absolutely no reason to feel bad for the girl.
She pushed the feeling away.
Just like she had to so many of the other negative feelings she’d been experiencing lately.
Katherine caught a glance of the clock on her way out of the gym and clenched her teeth in frustration when she saw the time. It was already past seven. All she could do was hope that Brad’s football practice had run late and that he hadn’t shown up at her house yet. She wasn’t optimistic, however, when she didn’t see his car in the near-empty student parking lot.
She forced herself to drive a little faster than she usually would have on the way home and hurriedly parked her car in the garage when she saw Brad’s Ford pick-up sitting in front of her house. She entered the house through the door connected to the garage.
“Mom? Dad? Brad?” she called as she haphazardly shucked off her shoes.
She didn’t receive a response, but didn’t think much of it as her attention was immediately caught by the awful smell permeating the air. She followed the odor down the carpeted hallway and into the kitchen where she immediately spotted the large pot of stew on the stovetop. She quickly turned off the burner it was sitting on and lifted the pot’s lid, only for her nose to be further assaulted by the horrid burnt smell.
She grabbed a nearby spoon to mix the lumpy concoction, but quickly realized that it was no use. Blackened meat and potatoes stuck stubbornly to the bottom and sides of the pot. The stew was completely ruined.
“Mom?” Katherine yelled from the kitchen, surprised that her mother had forgotten about food on the oven when she knew there was a guest coming over for supper.
When she once again didn’t receive a response – from her mom, dad, or even Brad – an uneasiness began to settle in her gut. The house was almost too quiet.
And her mom would never allow the stew to burn this badly.
Where was everyone?
Determined to put her foolish fears to rest, Katherine quickly dropped her book bag off on the counter and exited the black and white tiled kitchen in search of her parents. As soon as she entered the next room, however, she froze.
For there, lying prostrate on the floor, was her father. Thick blood gushed from a deep wound on his side and even more of the red substance was trickling down from his forehead.
Around him, what used to be the dining room lay in shambles. The table and chairs were in pieces and lay haphazardly around the room. Broken glass from her mother’s china cabinet was everywhere. A vase that just that morning had held a dozen daffodils was smashed near her father’s head. And under a large pile of rubble, made up mostly of pieces of the wooden table, Katherine could make out a shoe-clad foot and part of a leg. The shoe she vaguely recognized as one of the pair that Brad had been wearing that morning.
“Dad!” Katherine shouted frantically, not thinking twice before running – feet protected only by thin socks – across the floor of jagged wood and sharp glass. The pain didn’t register as she knelt by her father’s side – small pieces of glass digging into her knees – and gently grasped his face in her hands. To her immense relief, he blearily opened his eyes.
They widened in alarm, however, when they focused on her. “Kit,” he rasped and managed to weakly grab onto one of her wrists. “You have to leave.”
“What happened?” she demanded, choking a little on the tears gathering at the base of her throat as she took in the total destruction of the room around her. “Who did this?”
“Leave,” her father insisted, ignoring the question completely. “Please. You have to leave. They’re here for you.”
Katherine felt the blood freeze in her veins. “Who’s they, dad?” she asked desperately. “Are they still here?”
He nodded feebly, looking as if he was on the cusp of losing consciousness. “Have to leave, Kit. Please.”
“Where’s mom?” Katherine asked, shaking her father a little in an attempt to keep him awake. “Do they have her? Is she hurt too?” She was only all too aware of her mother’s absence.
Benjamin tried to answer his daughter, but a harsh coughing fit consumed him before he could. Katherine absentmindedly noticed the red spatter that resulted from the coughing, half of which ended up on her shirt.
To her horror, her dad’s eyes closed after that, and worse, his grip on her wrist went lax. In her panicked daze, she couldn’t tell if he was still breathing or not.
Forcing herself to get up, Katherine rushed into the adjoining sitting room and headed straight for the phone, intent on calling for help. When she lifted up the receiver, however, she quickly realized there was no dial tone. “Damn it,” she cried, slamming down the phone in helpless fury.
Immediately catching her mistake, however, she whipped out her cell phone from her pocket.
But before she could dial 9-1-1, it was smacked out of her hands. She was grabbed from behind and didn’t even have the chance to scream before she was slammed to the floor and the breath was stolen from her. “Don’t even think about shouting for help, little girl,” a big man wearing a ski mask warned from where he stood above her.
Another masked man, this one shorter than the first, clucked disapprovingly at his partner from where he casually lounged against a wall. “This ain’t no little girl,” he pointed out nastily before stomping a boot-clad foot down on her cell phone, destroying it beyond repair. “This here is just a dirty, rotten creature that needs to be put down.” The man’s beady eyes glinted cruelly at her from the holes in his mask.
“Who are you?” Katherine demanded, ignoring the sharp pain in her side from being thrown to the ground as well as the fear that enveloped her at the shorter man’s words.
“You ain’t in no position to be demanding things, ya little monster,” the same man retorted. Her fear only intensified when he pulled a small, but sharp-looking knife out of his jacket and pointed it at her threateningly.
Katherine took a deep breath and forced herself to remain calm. When she opened her mouth again, her voice came out as soft and submissive sounding as she could make it. She didn’t want to give him a reason to use that blade. “What do you want?” she asked delicately. “Why are you here?”
“We’re here because monsters like you don’t deserve to live,” he bit out snidely.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Katherine pointed out sensibly. She was frantically trying to think of a way out of the situation she’d found herself in. “I’m not a monster. I’m a person, just like you.”
; The man paused at that, seeming to think about what she said.
“Think she knows, boss?” the taller man asked.
The beady-eyed one only snorted at the question. “Doesn’t matter,” he said indifferently. “She still has to die.”
Katherine clenched her fists in frustration at his callous response. She knew then that there was no reasoning with either of the men in front of her. They were insane – completely batty.
“Why are you doing this?” she yelled angrily, any attempt at appearing meek and compliant forgotten. “I’ve never hurt anyone! My family’s never hurt anyone!”
The taller man sneered at her. “Maybe not yet, you’ve never hurt anyone, but it’s only a matter of time. Your family’s just collateral damage. Too bad ya dragged them into this.”
Did they not realize that they seemed more and more unhinged with every word that came out of their mouths?
“I still have no idea what you’re taking about! You haven’t explained why you’re here – why you’re doing this. And where’s my mom?”
“Dead,” the smaller man replied unsympathetically, shrugging his shoulders a bit. “Just like your little boyfriend. Your dad’s dead too – or at least, he will be shortly.”
And Katherine finally cracked. Knife or no knife, she flew at the smaller man. She hit and kicked and clawed at him everywhere she could. The suddenness of the attack worked to her advantage and she was winning the physical battle until the man’s bigger partner once again seized her from behind and threw her brutally to the floor.
It was just as the disheveled and infuriated man looked ready to pounce on her that a loud crash – the unmistakable sound of a window breaking – alerted Katherine that another person was about to join the fray.
And join he did, immediately distracting both men as he sprinted into the room and slammed into them. Although she’d seen him only once, she immediately recognized her rescuer – the wild-looking black hair was a dead give-away. “Run!” he bellowed at her.