WILL YOU SURVIVE?

Viorela was one of the most beautiful and peaceful towns in the state of Tzerna. That was, until 4 months ago. There were a series of murders happening throughout the village. The young men and women of the town, who barely passed their teenage lives were the victims of the tragedy. Who was the murderer? None knew. The murders happened twice a month. 6 people, two girls and 3 boys, who were around 21 years old were the victims. The murders were ever so perfectly planned that no one would find the murderer.

Today is the 22nd of April, and it is also the day when all the schools and colleges reopened after almost a month's break. The town was sent into a major lockdown by the state authorities for the safety of the whole state due to the murders. It was a month or more ago when the last murder took place, but since there have been no murderous activities for this long, the lockdown was broken by the people of the town.

The town is filled with excited young students who were being taken to their schools by their parents, as well as groups of friends who were walking to college. One such group included Melissa, Steve, Jenna, Kay, Emma, and Adrien. This squad of six became friends at the beginning of this year, their first year in college. Jenna and Adrien were 20 years old, while the others were 22 except for Melissa and Steve, who were 21.

The six of them headed to their assigned classes, and the day went by quite boringly, as usual. Right now they were walking towards their homes, and fortunately, all six of their houses were on the same path, so they used to walk together to and from school. "Oh guys, did anyone understand the math class? It was so confusing!" Melissa argued. "Once again, let me remind you Mel, do not sleep during the professor's lecture!" Steve scolded. Jenna and Adrien let out a chuckle since this argument was usual for the both of them. Meanwhile, Kay was on a call with his friend, chit-chatting about their common interests. Emma was too busy on her phone, taking pictures of her friends sneakily.

The first one to reach home was Adrien, followed by Emma, Steve, and Kay, respectively. After Melissa and Jenna bid Kay their goodbyes, Melissa asked Jenna to help her with the math homework.

"Please! Jen! I swear I will listen to the math class without falling asleep from tomorrow onward. Help me do the homework!" Melissa pleaded. Fine, then, after freshening myself, I will come to your house." Jenna sighed. "Oh, thank you, Jen! I knew I could count on you. After all, we are neighbours. Oh, and for the next 2 days, my parents won't be home; how about you stay the night there?". "Fine anyway, it's Saturday tomorrow, and it's not safe for you to be alone at night since we are not sure the murders have ended." Jenna replied to Melissa's request.

That evening, Jenna strolled to Melissa's house with her backpack. Both girls spent the evening solving equations given to them for homework. The clock struck 10, and Melissa let out a loud yawn, followed by Jenna. Both of them arranged the bed. Melissa brought an extra pillow and quilt for Jenna while Jenna was on Melissa's phone scrolling, but that's when a news headline caught her attention.

"Uhh, Melissa! Can you keep the news channel on your TV?" Jenna shouted to Melissa, who was in the next room. "Sure, and since when did you watch the news?" Melissa asked as she played the news channel.

The headlines read, "Survivor of the young adult serial killings reveals the appearance of the famous murderer."

A girl who seemed to be around their age began speaking to the police frantically. " H-He looked around my age... I was locked in his basement, somewhere near Viorela North College. He wore a black leather jacket and black jeans." She said this as she kept on shivering, probably at the thoughts of the past few days. "Ma'am, can you tell us what his face looked like? Was there anyone else with you?" an officer asked her. "He wore a white mask; he had black hair; and he had a strong scent of pineapples. He also has the help of someone named Bill Bundy, whom he was calling while k-killing my twin brother. My brother distracted that man so I could escape. We are orphans. I only had my brother.." She said as she broke into a fit of loud cries.

I looked at Melissa, terrified to see the same emotion plastered on her face. "Mel, I-It means he did not stop the killings, this girl and her brother were the ones meant for last month's killings, which means..there will be 2 more killings for this month." Jane whispered terrified, while Melissa was zoned out.

"Jen..D-Did you ever wonder why Kay always smelled like p-pineapples?" Melissa asked, looking blankly at Jenna. "What do you mean? Kay is our frien-" Before Jenna could finish her sentence, Melissa opened her phone and shoved it into Jenna's hands. When Jenna looked at the phone, she saw the pictures Emma had secretly taken of them while they strolled back home from class.

"Emma sent them to me..look" Melissa said as she zoomed into the photo showing Kay, who was on a call with the caller ID 'Bill'. "N-No way!" Jenna said as she stuttered. Suddenly, the sound of glass breaking was heard from downstairs, followed by a set of claps. Both of the girls looked petrified.

The sound of loud footsteps was heard. The noises were nearing, as now footsteps were heard near the staircase. Since the TV was off and none of us spoke a word, the house was so silent that the footsteps were heard so loudly. Jenna, noticing a shocked Melissa, quickly ran to the door to lock it. They both were in Melissa's bedroom, which was upstairs. The footsteps reached the front of the door, and a familiar voice spoke, "I didn't expect someone along with Mel".

Mel? Only their friend group used this nickname for Melissa. "K-Kay?" Melissa spoke. "Oh, I didn't expect my victims to run away from me, but that girl turned out to be very lucky. Now I guess only you both know my real identity... How can I let you, Mel, live?". "WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS? WHAT DID WE EVER DO TO YOU?" Melissa screamed. "How did you even hear us?" Jenna spoke calmly, which weirded Melissa out. "Oh please, Jen! You speak so loud, and I have been hiding in your kitchen for the past 1 hour!" Kay chuckled in a creepy way. All of a sudden, an axe pierced through the door, almost making it fall to the ground. Sensing the danger, Jenna looked around the room to find a way to arm herself or escape. She saw that the window did not have grills securing it, so she ran to it, holding Melissa's hands. In an instant, Melissa knew what Jenna was planning, so she helped her unlock the window while Jenna tied up both of their blankets and bedsheets firmly together and tied one end of the makeshift rope to the end of the window. 2 more hits with his axe, and Kay entered the room. Both of them held the makeshift rope and jumped from the window. Jenna reached the ground first. While Melissa was halfway down, Kay cut the blanket tied to the window, and as a result, Melissa fell to the ground.

Even though she fell from a small distance, Melissa twisted her ankle. "Run as much as you want, Melissa, but tonight you're going to be my victim." Kay says slightly indicating that he has no intention of killing Jenna as he makes his way back into the house and gets out of the house using the same way he got in. Meanwhile, Melissa limps with the help of one leg and the support of Jenna, who is holding her. They knock on their neighbour's doors but get no reply, so they use the bicycle from the lawn and go to the next nearest house, which happens to be Kay's. They give the house a disgusted look because now they know the real reason why Kay never allowed any of us to enter his basement. Jenna cycled faster with Melissa behind her towards Steve's house, only to find his lifeless body covered in blood laying on the front porch of the house. After all, Steve lives alone.

"Steve..." were the only words that left my mouth before I was forced to cycle to find someone nearby since this place was partly forested. All of a sudden, someone jumped in front of the cycle, making Melissa scream. "Don't scream; it's us." Emma said with Adrien beside her. They shared about how they ended up in the middle of the road at this late hour. Steve was on a video call with Adrien, and that was when Kay attacked when Steve fell asleep during the call. Kay never noticed it since the phone fell from Steve's hands. Before they could speak anymore, Kay came out of the trees with a knife instead of his axe in his hands. "I didn't expect all of you together, but this will be fun indeed." He grinned.

*Note from Author: I would recommend listening to "Lovely" by Billie Eilish to feel the emotions of the characters *

"What did all these innocent kids even do to you?" Emma asked Kay. "WHAT THEY DID? DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT THEY DID? WHY DON'T YOU ASK JENNA?" Emma was shocked at the instant shout from Kay. Everyone stared at a clueless Jenna. " JEN! Do you remember anything from the past? You don't do you? Do you know why you're an orphan? Do you know who your parents are?" Kay asked with tears almost welling in his eyes. "What do you mean? I'm born an orphan, raised by the church." " Don't you remember anything? OUR MOM DIED IN FRONT OF US!" He shouted back to only get replied by Jenna asking " What do you mean ..our mom?". "1996 December 31st....Jenna you were never an orphan, you had a mom and two elder brothers, Jason and Bill." Almost as if memories flashed Jenna's mind she kept silent. " I'm Jason...Our mom was inside our house when it caught on fire and guess what...our house was surrounded by college students of our age...instead of calling for help they took selfies. Now speak, do you think I am doing wrong by killing all these people who are in some way related to the ones who were with us that day while our mom died that day and kept that pictures instead of helping?". Jenna was utterly shocked. Bare memories of that night when she was just 4 kept flashing in her mind. She fell to her knees, her eyes turning red due to the endless tears falling down. Was the person who was her friend for the past few months her real brother? Was she, not an orphan? Was her brother's murderer?

Kay threw his knife next to Jenna who was the closest to him right now. "If..you feel that I'm wrong and I have been the worst brother, kill me right now or you will never be able to" was all Kay said as he inched closer to her. Adrien who was behind Jenna grabbed the knife and placed it on her hands knowing it was the best option and backed away from both of them. With shivering hands, holding a sharpened knife, the teary-eyed girl looked up to see her brother standing just inches away from her. " You hated me for everything I did, didn't you?" Kay said as he kneeled in front of his sister. "Every time you talked about how much you feared me and how psychopathic I was, it was like a knife being dug into my heart." Kay said looking back at the glossy eyes in front of his. But what the others didn't know was as Kay was emotionally making Jenna weak he held her hand and brought the knife closer to his chest and in an instant he forcefully pulled Jenna's hand making the knife thrust deep straight into Kay's heart. " N-No, why did you do that!?" Jenna screeched as she left her grip on the knife and held her brother's face. " I hate to live like this, I never wanted and now finally all of this will end for me by my own sister's hand." Kay said as he gave his last smile, his eyes slowly drooping low and his body slanting towards Jenna. Jenna hugged her brother's body and cried loudly. Even if the killer was dead, it was her brother, her friend, the one who secretly protected her.

20 minutes later the cops arrived who were called by Adrien and Emma. Jenna was heartbroken and motionless. Her friends comforted her. For some, it was a happy ending knowing the killer was dead but for some like Jenna, it felt like their world was torn apart.

Either way, Viorela was finally relieved from all the serial murder cases, or was it? The legend of the serial killing is still left unsolved as the accomplice of Kay is still hidden, Bill Bundy.

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Author: I actually wrote this as a part of a competition in my school so thought why not actually upload it here? I hope you enjoyed reading it! ⌒ ‿ ⌒

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26 June 2023