This time, the way Tony made his reappearance was different. It was like he didn’t care about toying with me and teasing me anymore—he just wanted the job done, to fulfill his own twisted sense of justice. He skipped the phone calls and death threats and break-ins, and went straight to finding me.
A couple of days after I started my senior year as Hailey Johnson, I was completely unaware of how I would never get to be Hailey again, never get to see my friends again.
It was like any other day. I drove to work, walked into the mall and waved hi to Frank, one of the security guards I’d gotten to know, and started my regular weeknight shift. The mall wasn’t too busy but I was still finding things to do to keep myself occupied. We were about to close, the mall shutting down in twenty minutes, when I took a quick break to eat my Nutella sandwich and text my friends.
Ashley stuck her head into the back room. “Hailey, there’s a guy here looking for you.”
“Is it Hunter? I told him I was still hungry and he likes to surprise me by bringing me food.”
As I stood up, Ashley shook her head, her eyes shifting to look at something behind her, something on the other side of the door that I couldn’t see, and I noticed how she was sweating despite the usual chill in the store.
“He … he told me to tell you that he’s your father. He was very adamant about that.”
I froze where I was. “Ash, you know my father is dead,” I said slowly.
I’d been best friends with Ashley for months, practically since the first day I’d moved here. I hadn’t told her how my dad died, but she knew he was gone, and by the way she was acting, she was uncomfortable with the man out there.
She nodded her head slightly but her jaw was tight, her movements stiff. Now I was positive something was wrong. All that was in the break room was a table and some chairs, a microwave, a small filing cabinet, and a bulletin board with some memos for the staff.
“Okay, I’ll be right out,” I said loud enough for the man I assumed was right behind Ashley to hear, the man who’d been hunting me for almost a year now.
Ashley, who had been working here for years and who’d gotten me this job, exaggeratedly looked back and forth between me and the small filing cabinet, telling me a story that I got immediately.
; “I’ll tell him you’ll be right out,” she said, disappearing back behind the door.
I couldn’t help myself. I peeked out the staff door and the floor practically fell out from under me. It was him. He was tapping his foot and glaring angrily at everyone who crossed his path. I didn’t even have to see his face to know who it was. I saw him every night in my nightmares. He’d found me. He just hadn’t followed his usual pattern of teasing and torturing me first.
He was anxious for the kill.
There were a few other people in the store, all oblivious to the hostage situation taking place. I felt cornered even though Tony hadn’t noticed me. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t run and risk Tony hurting people because of me. I couldn’t fight him and risk failing and having him hurt people. I didn’t want anyone, especially Ashley, to get hurt because of me. That group of preteens looking at leggings was not going to have their lives cut short because of me. That pregnant mother and her young daughter were not going to die because of me.
Swiftly moving to the filing cabinet, trying to figure out what Ashley was telling me, I opened the first drawer and found it stuffed with envelopes. I couldn’t figure out what Ashley wanted me to find here.
My breathing got heavier and my head spun. Tony was going to kill me and I had nothing to use against him except my own two hands.
As I closed the drawer with some force, a rattling drew my attention, so I opened the drawer again and shifted around the mess of envelopes. My hand connected with something solid, and I pulled it out, feeling slightly comforted by its weight. It was an envelope opener, one of those knife-shaped ones, like older people use. It was not the sharpest, but I could use it to distract him enough to get away, maybe even aim for an eye.
I mumbled a thanks to Ashley as I stuck the opener into my combat boot, my pulse speeding up as I promised myself that I was not going to die that day.
I stood in front of the door, preparing to come face to face with the man who could end my existence the second he saw me. But before I gathered the strength to walk out the door and live my worst fear, the door swung open, taking me by surprise and making me jump backward out of the way. Ashley entered, with Tony shuffling in behind her. The door swung shut, cutting off my oxygen supply with it.
“Thea.” A smile slowly spread across his face.
He shoved Ashley at me, and that was when I noticed the gun. I froze, not knowing what to do, my previous confidence draining from my body.
“Give me your phone,” he said to Ashley, whose face paled as she handed it to him. Tony smashed it on the floor, crushing it with his foot for extra measure. Then he moved behind me and pressed the cold gun into my back.
Ashley looked at me, an apology written on her face, but it wasn’t necessary. She shouldn’t feel guilty about this. This was my mess, my fault.
“Scream, and I kill her,” he said.
Then he raised his gun and smashed my best friend over the head, and her body went limp, her head bouncing on the floor from the impact, just like he had done to me all those months ago. I covered my mouth to stop the scream from escaping my lips, somehow knowing that he’d do worse if I drew attention to us.
My best friend was bleeding all over the floor, her head at an unnatural angle, her body splayed out like the murder victim she was on her way to becoming.
My cheeks were wet from salty tears as I realized that if she wasn’t already dead from the impact, she’d probably die from the injury if it wasn’t treated as soon as possible.