Kelly Hashway: The Monster Within

Next victim? What was I thinking? I couldn’t let myself take another life. I wouldn’t let myself. I had to find a way to keep from dying without taking life from another living being. This had to stop.

“Samantha!” Gloria called.

My sight was slowly returning, and I could see that the door was open a crack.

“We’re backing up. Hurry it along in there!” Gloria was sweet, but from the way she’d screamed at the dishwasher when he took too long on his break, I knew she didn’t tolerate her employees wasting time.

I rushed back into the dining room. “Sorry!” I grabbed the coffee pot from Gloria’s hands and made my way from table to table.

The rest of the day was a blur. A flurry of activity. But no more visions and no loss of breath. Ethan and I stayed through dinner, too. Finally at eight, Gloria waved us out.

“That’s enough for today. I’ll see you both after school tomorrow.”

School. The next big thing I had to tackle in my new life.

“Dismissal is at two-thirty, so I’ll expect you here no later than three.”

“You got it,” Ethan said.

I waved goodbye and followed Ethan to the car. I slumped into the seat, practically melting into the leather.

“I’m beat, too,” Ethan said.

“At least I made some good money in tips.” I pulled a wad of bills from my pocket.

“Not bad.” Ethan smiled as we pulled out of the parking lot. “So, I got us all registered for school.”

“How did you do that?”

“I filled out all the paperwork online and paid a homeless couple to go to the school and pretend to be my dad and your mom. All we have to do is report to the guidance office in the morning to pick up our schedules.”

“I don’t suppose you were able to work your magic and get us into all the same classes, were you?” I leaned my head back on the seat. Even my hair was tired.

“Honestly, I have no idea what our schedules will be like. Only that the school has block scheduling, so we have four periods a day along with lunch. But we were placed in classes based on Samantha Smith’s and Ethan Jones’s records, remember?”

I turned my head just enough to look at him. “Please tell me Samantha Smith wasn’t an honors student.” I’d missed a ton of school thanks to all my cancer treatments. If I was put in honors classes, I’d fail for sure, and the school might look deeper into “my” record.

“Actually, she was a solid C student. I’m sure you’ll make it look like she had a sudden change in appreciation for a good education.”

“I don’t want any sudden changes. I have to perform to her ability, or people might get suspicious.”

“Relax.” Ethan squeezed my hand. “Everything’s going to be fine.” He let go of me, which was odd because he always held my hand when he drove. “Um, there’s one more thing. Samantha Smith was the star cross-country runner at her old school in Phoenix, so you might want to dust off your running shoes and do a few laps around the cottage this evening to warm up.”

“What?” I nearly jumped out of my seat.

Ethan burst out laughing. “I’m kidding!”

I smacked his arm. “That’s so not funny.” But I couldn’t help laughing. “Okay, tell me more about Ethan Jones from Florida. What’s he like?”

“Oh well, he’s exceptionally attractive, has a 4.0 average, and is a total chick magnet. I don’t need to change a thing.”

“No, not a thing.” My tone was full of sarcasm. Though truth be told, Ethan was all those things.

“Nah, really he’s an A/B student. No extracurricular activities, which is good since I’ll be working at the diner after school.”

Things seemed to be working out. Everything except my problem. The problem I couldn’t mention to Ethan. I tried to tell myself I’d adjust to being alive again. My body would get used to it, and I wouldn’t need to steal life from others after a while. I knew I was fooling myself, but I repeated it over and over in my mind. I was so lost in my thoughts I almost didn’t hear Ethan say, “What the hell?”

The car stopped in the driveway. I looked at the cottage. It was surrounded by rocks. A circle of rocks. All strategically placed. Someone had made a big circle around our house. It was something straight out of The Blair Witch Project .

“DID you do that?” I asked, knowing there was no way Ethan had anything to do with the rocks. He was as surprised as I was.

“No, and no one knows we’re here—other than the water and electric companies. I mean, my family hasn’t been here in years. None of them would think I’d come here when I left home. I’m sure it’s the last place they’d think to look.”

Ethan’s family had had sort of a falling-out about a year ago. Something about his uncle gambling away all his savings. The family had even staged an intervention, but when that didn’t work, his aunt and uncle had moved away, leaving the cottage in their son Rick’s name. The cottage had been abandoned long before all that, and since Rick didn’t like the Poconos he up and left.

“I don’t get it.” I shook my head. “Why would someone take all that time to arrange a bunch of rocks like this?”

“Maybe it’s a prank.” Ethan opened his door. “It could be some local kids messing around. This place does look eerie all by itself in the woods.”

I nodded. He was probably right. Some kids were bored and decided to scare some younger boy or girl by convincing them this was a gathering place for witches. That had to be it.

“You stay here. I’ll go inside and look around, make sure no one broke in while we were gone.”

“Okay.” I locked the car doors behind Ethan. For a moment, I thought how ironic it was that I’d be scared of some kids. I was a killer. They should’ve been afraid of me. Then again, I felt fine right now, and I touched Ethan all the time without hurting him. It was only when I felt the life draining out of me that I was a danger to other people. Not that that made it any better.

I scanned the woods. It was hard to see with the sun setting, so I couldn’t be sure if the people who did this were still lurking around, trying to scare each other. I didn’t see anyone. Not even an animal in sight. We were all alone. Secluded on our little hill.

Ethan came back out of the cottage, shrugging his shoulders. I opened my door and met him in the driveway.

“Everything looks fine.” He kissed my cheek. “See, just a prank.”

I eyed the rocks. “Real funny.”

Ethan moved one of the rocks out of the way, and we went inside. It was starting to get dark, and I was wiped from my first day as a working stiff. Pun completely intended. All I wanted was a hot shower. Of course, we didn’t have hot water. We had lukewarm water. It would have to do.

“You can shower first,” Ethan said, reading my mind. “Who knows how cold the water will be the second time around? I don’t want you turning into an icicle.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, go ahead. I’m going to play around with the TV some more. See if I can’t get us a station that works.”

I grabbed my pajamas and headed to the bathroom. I set the faucet all the way to hot, hoping for a miracle. When I stepped inside, I was shocked by the chill in the water. It reminded me of the coldness I felt before I needed to… What exactly was I doing? Feeding off humans? I shook away the thought as I washed off as quickly as possible. As I shut off the water and grabbed my towel, I realized I hadn’t felt that coldness of death creeping up on me since last night. Maybe I was getting better. Maybe I wouldn’t need to kill anymore. I hugged my towel to me and prayed that was true.