Sons of Night

Present day
Mayden’s POV
How many killings do there have to be before they decide that it’s time to cancel school? Seriously when there have been girls disappearing from the school over a year now and nothing has been done about it. People who have the money are leaving. The rest of us are stuck going to this Hell hole and we just get to wonder who’s going to be next. A common excuse for late papers has become just saying that your lab partner has mysteriously vanished and will probably turn up dead on the side of the road in a few weeks. That’s how it goes. Once every couple of months someone leaves, and doesn’t show back up. If no one hears from them for a few days we all just assume that they’re dead then. It’s terrifying. We’re told to come to school in large groups and not to be alone. Extra security doesn’t seem to have helped any. The killings continue and the police can’t nail down one piece of evidence.
People are speculating who it could be. Some say it’s a janitor, or a security guard. Someone who can get to the tapes and tamper with them. Other’s think that it is the creepy principal who always floats about and lurks around corners. That’s not the most popular argument though. Most people think that it is Andy. The legendary boy that killed the school bully in a fit of rage and then escaped into the woods. They say that after the first kill he realized his lust for blood. They say he started on animals. Ripping out their intestines and torturing them to death. Then he got bored. That’s when people started to go. I don’t know if I believe that. I don’t know if Andy was really wrong for killing the bully. I can relate to him. All I know is that as I’m sitting here in calculus getting insults whispered to me, all I can focus on is surviving. Part of me wants to become the next Andy, and snap someone's neck. I don’t think that I ever would have the guts to kill someone.
I sighed and looked around room, sliding lower into the blue plastic chair. I was so bored. Calculus was the worst class. All the people who liked to torment were in it and any time they could they made sure to make a spectacle of me. I decided to stare out the glass door leading outside. Perhaps I could zone out and be awake but asleep for the rest of class. I could hear the wind howling outside and little bits of snow where flicking around. I knew that it was bitterly cold outside. Probably close to zero knowing that it was an Ohio winter. Maybe it would snow harder all night and then I’d get Friday and the whole weekend out of here. That would be nice.
“Mayden?” My teacher, Mr. Schrock, called snapping me back into reality.
“What?” I said, sitting up suddenly.
“Can you come up to the board and solve the problem for us?” The teacher asked. He was probably expecting me to know what he was talking about, I was normally the top student. This time I looked at the board and I was sure that it was written in some other language. I could feel the judgemental eyes of the whole class and I wanted to sink into a hole. I floundered about in my mind looking for any memory of what we’d been learning, or even the question asked but I came up entirely blank.
“I, uh, I don’t know,” I said, shamefully. Mr. Schrock was about to call on someone else when Braden, one of my tormentors spoke up.
“Wait! Mr. Schrock, I have something for Mayden,” He called rummaging around in my bag. Everyone looked in surprise. Out of his pack Braden pulled out a tall, white, and pointed paper cone. He stood up and started walking towards me.
“Maybe Mayden isn’t as smart as we think she is,” He chided putting the cone on top of my head. The class started to laugh as he revealed his work. I grabbed the cone and pulled it off my head. In bright, read, poorly painted letters the word dunce glared at me from the the paper cone. A dunce cap. Braden had gone through the effort of making a dunce cap just to shame me more.
“Fuck you!” I screamed at him. I threw the cap back at him while the class roared with laughter. I could hear Mr. Schrock yelling at Braden and trying to regain control of the class. My brain was my everything, Braden knew that, I judged myself on making sure I looked intelligent to other people. My vision blurred and my nose stung as I tried to hold back tears I couldn’t stop the tears; but I wouldn’t let the class see me cry. I headed for the door, the one I’d been looking out of earlier. I had to get out, I couldn’t think, I didn’t care what happened, or how could it was, or if I was skipping class. I had to leave. For my sanity. I pushed open the glass door and headed out into the swirling snow. I heard Mr. Schrock yelling out to me. I ignored him and kept walking. Tears rolled hotly down my cheeks. I stumbled in one direction for a long time, not really watching where I was going.
After a while my mind started to clear of the emotions I was beginning to be able to think again. I kept walking but I wrapped my arms around myself, my hoodie wasn’t doing much to help me. I realized what was happening when I realized that I was crunching on fallen leaves, snow, and sticks. I was in the woods. I brought my head up and looked around. Behind me all I could see was trees. In front of me all I could see was trees. Everything was bright white in the gathering snow and crisply quiet. All I could see moving was the branches in the wind and all I could hear was my breath that was quickly rising into panic. How far out was I? I didn’t know. Worse, I couldn’t tell which direction I’d come. Everything looked the same. There wasn’t yet enough snow for me to leave prints, and the weather was getting colder. I shivered, I’d freeze to death out here at night. I had to find my way out. I couldn’t though. It was too dry for footprints in the mud and the worsening snow was covering any hope of prints. I had been turning around in circles hoping to find my way out so now all sense of direction was gone. Who’s to say I was even walking in a straight line to begin with.
I searched my pockets for my phone. Nope, I’d left it in class when I’d stormed out. I was so screwed. More than screwed. I was dead. Not only that but there hadn’t been any disappearances in about two months. The killer was either gone, or getting ready to look for more prey. I swallowed hard as I realized that I was the prime target. All the memories of news reports came flooding back to me. Girl found, beaten, throat slit. Girl found, eyes gouged out, throat slit. Girl found, head three yards from her body, signs of sexual assault. I had to move. if I stood still he’d find me easier. I walked again. In a random direction. Maybe I’d get lucky and my path would lead me back to town. I walked for another hour. I realized that I was wrong when I started climbing over logs. I hadn’t climbed over any to get here.
I was breathing hard in a panic, my legs ached from all the walking. I was shivering hard, it was getting dark and I could feel the temperature dropping fast. The wind whipped around me and I convulsed with cold. Fresh tears sprang to my eyes as I looked up through the trees and saw the brilliant yellow oranges of the sunset. If the killer didn’t find me that night I’d freeze to death for sure. Either way I was dead. I tried to think of how I was supposed to make a fire, I needed shelter too. I didn’t know how to make a fire, perhaps I could find some sort of a cave or something as a wind block. Maybe I’d make it through the night that way. I walked for about another fifteen minutes before I found a little dry cave. It was pretty shallow only about ten feet back, but it was facing away from the wind. I crawled inside, feeling the rocks scraping at the bottoms of my hands. It was a bit warmer in there. I leaned up against the wall. I decided I’d wait out the night there and come back the other way in the morning.
As I lay down and relaxed I suddenly began to feel warmer. I didn’t understand why, my hands and toes where still numb, and I was still shivering, but the cold was melting away. I looked out into the dark woods. The sound of the branches clacking began to blur together into an almost music like sound. My vision blurred and my eyes started to close. I felt like there was a nice warm fire right in front of me. Which didn’t make any sense because there wasn’t, but I let the feeling soothe me until I closed my eyes.
I woke with a start, the light in front of my eyelids making we think that it was morning. It wasn’t sunlight though. It was firelight. There was a small campfire lit in front of me and it was dark behind it. I lay there confused. Then it hit me that I was laying down on the cave floor. I’d fallen asleep sitting up. I moved and I realized that I was wrapped up in at least one thick flannel blanket. Fear gripped me. The killer had found me. I was sure of it. For some reason he’d decided to keep me here in the cave. I stilled myself completely, pretending to still be asleep. There was silence for a long time. I could hear nothing but the crackling fire, maybe he was gone. I peeked open one eye, I couldn’t see to the other side of the fire, the light was blotting out the darkness behind it. I then became aware of an unexpected smell, it was a warm, vaguely cheesy smell and it made my stomach rumble. I made my eyes focus and I realized that there was a pot sitting in the ashes of the fire. He was making food? I still couldn’t focus on the other side of the licking flames. Everything was still quiet.
Slowly and carefully I sat up. My head spun and for a second I thought that I was going to have to lie down again to keep from blacking out. I pulled my knees to my chest and hung my head between them until it stopped. I looked up and at the things in the pot beside me. There was a bubbling stew in it with chopped potatoes turning and beef bobbing in it. The liquid was a yellowish orange, and it smelled delicious. The handle of a soup ladle stuck out of the pot and a few feet from the fire inside the cave where two soup bowls. They were not new or fancy, but they were clean, two spoons of the same degree lay in the bowls. Next to the fire was a cup of what looked like and smelled like hot chocolate. My stomach growled again. I looked out into the darkness around the cave, I could make out a backpack lying open in the snow. It looked well used and was full of survival gear. Finally I looked farther out into the woods. For a while as I scanned the trees everything looked normal. Then I saw him.

Notes

Hey, so this is a day early. I was typing tomorrow's chapter and I realized that it was ridiculously long, so here is the first half of it today. I hope you all enjoy and I would love a comment to let me know what you think of it so far. I won't always be this on top of things but I am today, so here it is! I hope you all have a lovely day/night see you tomorrow.