Page 35 of Bloody Valentine

Her breathing was faster. She was really pushing herself now, and I smiled. The hunter in me loved it when my prey became so scared they made stupid mistakes, just leading me right to them.

She dodged out of the maze, heading toward the wooded area where all my other prey met their end. I couldn’t kill Vivian. Not yet, but I could certainly enjoy this.

“Vivviannn…” I sang, picking up my pace and bolting out of the maze just a few paces behind her.

I tracked her all the way to the end of the woods, the cliff being her only means of escape. She wouldn’t be so stupid as to jump, and so I simply waited for her to resurface, knowing she would only have one means to flee if she didn’t want to die. This was all too predictable, and I was already bored.

At least when I caught her, I could break her all over again. Some time went by, and I stared out at the woods. She hadn’t resurfaced.

“Hmmm…” I said aloud, walking toward the shrouds of trees. “Where did you go, Little Virgin?”

Silence.

There was no longer heavy breathing or running feet.

Would she have jumped after all?

“Fuck!” I hollered, running toward the cliff.

I looked over the edge but didn’t see a body. It was the same rocky craig as before. There were dead deer carcasses, and thoseanimals were unfortunate to get too close, but Vivian was not there.

So where had she gone?

I walked back toward the trees, listening for any sounds. Still, there was only silence. My blood pumped as the thrill of this hunt became so much more than I had ever experienced. My prey couldn’t have gotten past me without my noticing.

So that meant—

“I know you are hiding, Little Vivian! Come out, come out wherever you are! I just want to play, darling.”

More silence.

I walked around the forest, looking under the tree roots and behind rocks big enough to hide her small form. As the time dragged on, I was more and more perplexed.

“Vivian dear. This is futile. You are going to get tired.”

I didn’t know if that was true. She definitely had resilience, and I could see her staying up all night just to spite me. I only had the weekend to find her. If I didn’t bring her to the arena below the university on the eve of Valentine’s Day, I would fail.

Frustration clouded my judgment, drowning my lust and replacing it with…fear.

Where could she be?

The woods were vast, but they were easily navigated. I knew them like the back of my hand, and it didn’t matter how long she hid. Eventually, I would find her.

I tried to think of the places she could be obscured. Walking over to the area where a broken door was leaning over a rock, I searched underneath it.

No Vivian.

Another snowed-over spot had a discarded boat near the water surrounding the school.

Still no Vivian.

Growling, I started walking back toward the university, accepting that she must have gotten past me somehow when I was searching for her.

Just as I walked underneath the very pine I used for sacrificing, I found my mask. I had left it here, not being able to bring it back with me in the daylight hours from the last hunt.

I smirked and picked it up from the snowy ground. After dusting it off, I settled it over my face, and I heard a scream from above me in the tree.

“Accept your own fate, Maddox Valentine!”

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