Page 2 of The Beak

“Bye.” I waited for his door to close before I locked myself back into my apartment. I often wondered if Wilson or anyone else ever noticed the bruises on my skin or that I was hurt. Then again, they couldn’t be suspicious of anything bad going on between Ricky and me and that is mostly my fault.

While his punches never made a sound, neither did I.

2

HADLEY

It’s been the fourth night in a row where Ricky went out with his friends and left me home alone for dinner. Not that I cared. I liked being alone at times, and after the slaps across my face this morning, I was glad he was gone. He only hit until I cried. I learned that a while ago. Maybe my tears were what he was looking for. What pleased him.

I was sitting on my couch again, watching TV. There was nothing interesting on, and all the streaming services we had didn’t have anything on them that I hadn’t already watched. I decided to switch to the news channel, and my interest immediately piqued.

“And we got new information on those murders,” the woman on TV said.

I turned up the volume and watched as excitement rose inside of me when they announced that they had clues about the killer.

“It’s been almost three weeks since this person has been scaring and taunting our neighborhood, and we would like to inform our viewers that the police have an unknown suspect. They say unknown because the person who has apparently been committing these murders wears a mask and dark clothing. Now, you may be questioning why the women who had been there during the murders couldn’t give hints on who the killer was, and that’s a very valid question. Apparently, and this is new information from the police as well, the killer has attacked in moments where the men were entering their homes…”

I listened carefully as the journalist talked about the men that were killed, and when a police spokesman appeared on the screen, he explained who the man who did those horrendous acts might be.

“We’re still investigating but we’ve had someone sending in a tip saying the masked man could be someone living in this town. We have not found any tracks of the man and there are no more clues other than the mask.”

Well, that wasn’t very helpful. Not even a clue about what kind of mask? Damn, and here I was, thinking I could dream about a hot serial killer with a mask coming to my rescue.

I knew many women had a thing for masks. Jason. Ghost Face. Michael Myers.Ugh, Michael. He was my favorite. No…Leatherface was. Hell, I would take them all.

It was safe to say that this killer on the loose was exciting to me, and while I didn’t wish to die, I would love to find out who he was. Maybe ask him some questions. Figure out what his reasons were for killing those men.

I switched to a different channel when they changed the subject, and almost as if the TV had read my mind about liking masked men, a horror movie had just started playing. Halloween. The first one. We were getting close to Halloween, so it did make sense to have horror movies playing.

“Might as well,” I murmured, putting down the remote and curling up under my blanket to watch Michael slaughter some people.

***

“Hadley.” Ricky’s voice woke me, and I tore my eyes open to look up at him. He was standing over me with a beer in his right hand. His eyes were red and dry, and he smelled of cigarettes and alcohol. “Come on, get up, babe. Go to bed.”

I frowned at his gentle demand.What time is it?

I looked at the TV and saw it was still on, with the ending credits of the movie running. I had fallen asleep, and Ricky was back. But why was he not mad at me? He hated when I fellasleep on the couch. For whatever reason. Many things I did—intentionally or not—angered him.

“We can also go to my place,” another voice said, and my gaze swung to the guy standing by the kitchen.

“Hey,” he said with a nod of his head. “I’m Jake.”

My mouth was dry and I licked my lips before speaking. “Hello.”

“It’s fine. She’ll go to bed now.”

I looked back up at Ricky and nodded, not wanting to bother them. I pulled the blanket off me and got up from the couch, running my hands through my hair, and looking at Jake before meeting Ricky’s eyes again. “Good night.”

I flinched when he reached up his hand but was surprised when his hand didn’t smack my cheek. On the contrary. He cupped my face gently and leaned in to kiss me. He hadn’t kissed me like this in months, and I knew he was only doing it to not have his friend question our relationship.

“Night, babe.”

I should’ve called him out on his bullshit. This wasn’t him, and I had the chance to tell someone how Ricky usually treated me. Then again, I had no idea what kind of person Jake was. I couldn’t risk another man getting angry at me for speaking out about the abuse I’ve been enduring. I could be called a liar. Because why would one of Ricky’s friends ever believe me? Especially one who didn’t know me?

I sucked in my bottom lip and bit down on it hard.Just go. Tomorrow he’ll be back to normal.

I smiled tightly, grabbed my phone off the coffee table, then walked away without saying another word. As I lay in bed, I heard Ricky and Jake talk. They were loud and not at all concerned about me not being able to sleep. They also turned up the volume, and I hoped no one would complain about the noise.It was the middle of the week and most people had to go to work in the morning.

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