run. / clara & the killer (clue)

[sidney]

C L A R A    B U R N S

You think you've gone deaf for a moment, when Grady and Zeke burst outside, bloodied and looking panicked. You can't hear them, though, not very well. It's distant, like how it sounds when you hear something under water. Faint and hollow, noise caught in the throat of the sea, never traveling as far as it needs to be heard. You're teleported back in time to being at the neighborhood pool with Cleo. Diving under the surface to tell secrets to one another, just to see if you could hear them. You couldn't, not really. But it's one of the more fond memories you have of your sister. That just digs into your chest like a jagged knife, though.  But it does snap you out of your foggy, THC-induced catatonic state and back into reality. One in which most of your friends have gone INSIDE the house where the screams are coming from??? Are you the only one who thinks this is a continuously bad idea? You haven't seen Naomi and Presley in like fifteen or twenty minutes, and you've sailed so fast far panic and jumped right into fight or flight.  As much as you want to be the noble hero and go in there after Benji to find your best friend and your girlfriend, you know there's nothing you can do against someone capable of killing so many people. What you do know is that a couple of Keepers could take down some psycho in a house terrorizing a bunch of teenagers.  You take one last hit from the joint in your shaky hands before tossing it into the bonfire before you. "You know what? FUCK THIS." With a nod toward Zeke and an apologetic look to Grady, you push yourself to your feet and take a few steps back, hands raised in a surrendering sort of motion. "I'm not doing this. I'm gonna do what we should have done a half hour ago - get some fucking HELP."  You grab  your jacket from the lawn chair and shoulder it on in one swift motion. "Please follow me. Don't go back in there." You plead, but have the distinct feeling it's falling on deaf ears.  You turn and run.

[cluekiller]

Their lives are slipping through my fingers like silk. It hasn't been long since I killed Naomi, but I can feel the itch burning in my fingertips. It feels like an addiction, and there is only one cure: I have to kill all of them. That was the whole point. If I can't finish something I started, I can't be happy again. I did suspect that from the beginning, never achieving happiness. I was happy before all of this. Life isn't kind. People aren't kind. Time heals wounds, they say, but in my case, it's only going to happen if I can watch the life drain from their eye sockets.

There is blood leaking through the leather. It's sticking to my arms and legs like a second skin. Stella called it a costume. I can't be bothered to care. It's an instrument of anonymity, just as my weapons are an instrument of torture and death. In my mind, they're all instruments of justice. She can call it what she wants, but I am not ready to take the mask off. They deserve to question their own sanity, as I do. They deserve the paranoia, the fear. They deserve to turn on each other and accuse each other. It tells me everything I need to know about them.

I end up outside again to catch my bearings. A breath of fresh air is what I need. Together, my wounds and I take a break, until I see Clara Burns in plain sight. There are shadows dancing around her. I will join them. I think about what could happen if I catch up to her. Stringing her up like a real horror movie spectacle, leaving a blood trail and waiting for the others to find her. As I step forward, she takes off running. She glows under the moonlight like a beacon.

I feel like I'm close enough to stick my knife through her spine, but the darkness separates us. It's not something only I can use to my advantage anymore. When the drop off comes, I slide down a trail of mud and find myself turning in circles. It's too dark now. I listen, and I hear silence. There is nothing beyond the crunch of leaves beneath my feet.

I'm on borrowed time, so I walk faster.

They can't hide forever.