Douglas Mitchell
I waited all night for the perfect moment. I had everything ready. Tucker’s Swiss army knife which I had yet to touch without gloved hands. Charlie would not get away with breaking my heart for a basketball player. The thought of it made me sick.
“It’s kind of spooky out,” Charlie said to Tucker, cuddling closer to him as they walked along the forest path. I kept a far enough distance so they couldn’t hear me and if they saw me, they wouldn’t recognize me.
“It’s not that bad,” Tucker said, wrapping his arm around Charlie’s shoulders. Just the sight of this made me want stop in my tracks and vomit. But I kept going.
I could barely hear the rest of their conversation. I couldn’t tell if they were speaking in whispers or if they weren’t talking at all.
Finally, I heard Tucker say, “I’ll race you to the end of the path.” He let go of Charlie and took off.
“Tuck,” she giggled, following after him in a slow jog.
This was my chance. I sprinted forward catching up to Charlie, then dove into the trees so she wouldn’t see me. I waited until Tucker was completely out of sight to make my move.
“Tuck,” she called again, pulling out her cell phone and looking down at the bright screen. I jumped out behind her and grabbed her by the sweater, pulling her into the trees. She dropped her phone as I held my hand over her mouth, feeling her try to scream. “Who are you?” I made out through her muffled words.
I knew as soon as Tucker realized Charlie hadn’t followed him, he’d come looking, so I had to be quick. I pulled out the Swiss army knife and flicked open one of the blades I had recently sharpened. I felt a cry of terror in her voice when she saw the knife.
I grinned and stabbed it into her stomach quickly three times. I felt her gasp for breath. Three more stabs and I removed my hand from her mouth because I knew she would be too weak to scream.
I was right. As soon as I let go of her, her knees gave out and she crumbled down to the wet grass. She held her bleeding wound and gasped out the word, Tucker.
I plunged the blade into her side quickly. I repeated the stab so many time, I lost track of how many times it actually was.
When I saw that she was taking her last breaths, I kicked her over so she was lying on her back. I wanted to be the last person she saw before she died. “Mister” - She coughed up blood and it ran down her face. “Mr. Mitchell?”
I grinned even wider and dropped the knife on her body.
As soon as I heard the sound of Tucker’s voice coming closer, I ran. I had debated about this moment for the longest time. Did I want to stay and watch when Tucker found her or not? At the last second, I decided to watch from a distance.
“Charlie?” he shouted into the empty forest. “Where are you?” He wandered around, searching for her. When he came across the cell phone she had dropped, slowly, he bent down to pick it up. “Charlie,” he cried again, “come on, you’re really starting to freak me out!” He looked around confused, not knowing where his girlfriend had gone.
It was then that I realised, I hadn’t finished what I started. A tiny whimper came from where I left Charlie’s dying body. She wasn’t dead yet.
Tucker looked up, towards the noise and ran. Then in the dark, he found her.
“Charlie,” he cried, falling down to her side and holding her in his arms as he began to cry. “Charlie,” he said as the tears fell down his face. More and more, she spat out blood, trying to talk to him, but nothing came out.
He held the phone in his hand and dialled.
“Hello,” he said, “I need help…my girlfriend…she’s hurt.” He was crying so much, it was hard to understand him.
But as much as I wanted to watch this for longer, I knew I had to make my escape, the police would be on there way. I couldn’t be anywhere near here if I didn’t want to get caught. If I was hiding in the bushes, I knew they wouldn’t believe that Tucker had actually killed Charlie.