CHAPTER 1
Courtney sat at a corner in the lecture room and looked around as the rest of the students slowly strolled into American History class. Her eye caught the famous Lisa Alveron. Lisa was a very beautiful slender girl and very popular at school. She was very outgoing and this made it easy for her school mates to relate with her. They liked her very much. She was a cheer leader and the Editor of The Voice, the schools newspaper. She was good at what she did and soon after making it as editor, she turned the once boring paper into the talk of the school.
Though, even as everyone admired and dreamt of being like her, Courtney didn’t. They lived in the same neighborhood and growing up, Lisa had always picked up on freckled chubby Courtney. The beautiful model figured Lisa always made fun of freckled Courtney to the extent of embarrassing Courtney in public. Though their parents had been good friends, the two girls never really set it off. During her final year at high school, Courtney lost her mother in a freak accident and her father after suffering from depression for a while, finally gave in and committed suicide 7 months later. This was a very devastating moment for Courtney and her older brother Tommy.
Both Courtney and Tommy were laid back and quiet and didn’t mingle much with people. Their father’s older sister, Aunt Kelly moved in to live with them at their late parents’ house. Aunt Kelly had lost her husband after 5 years of marriage and her only son died while on duty in Afghanistan. She offered to live with them and they liked her enough to accept. Life wasn’t the same but they had to move on and try to survive. They were both at Terry Hill University and looking forward to finishing their study and making something of themselves.
Though hurt from the loss of their parents, they were more determined than ever to succeed and prove to the world that nothing could bring them down. Tommy especially was more enthusiastic and was the driving force of change. He was a medical student in his 3rd year and very good. Very opposite from his sister, Tommy was tall slender and masculine. After the loss of his parents he spent most of his time studied or working out at the gym. This worked well for him. He passed the stress phase within no time and soon turned to help Courtney too.
Courtney had trouble coping. She really loved her mother and they were always doing stuff together. Her mom had home-schooled her the first years of her life before transitioning into junior high. Therefore the bond between them was too strong. After her mother died she had locked herself in her room for two days before Tommy finally got through to her.
The voice of Mr. Phelps suddenly slapped her into reality.
“Good Morning...” he said, as the towering lecturer walked into the room.
“Before we begin with class I know most of you have heard that we have a stalker at campus...” he began to say.
Everybody around had a worried look and listened attentively.
He continued…..“So far, we have lost 3 students, all ladies. I request you all not just the ladies to be very careful and always walk in groups. Never walk alone especially at night. If you spot anything suspicious report it to the police hotline immediately. With that, I pray you all keep safe.”
“OK, so where did we leave off last lesson…”
As the lesson began, Courtney’s mind drifted off and all sorts of images slipped through her mind. The thought of a serial killer running around campus really scared her and she silently hoped He would be caught by the police soon. Within no time the lesson was over and she came back to reality as her mate Melissa yanked her elbow trying to urge her to get up.
“Hey class is over…..what are you so serious about?” Melissa asked.
“urrr nothing….. I’m just frightened of all the stories going round about the stalker” Courtney said.
“We’ll be OK if we stick together…”
“But we can’t always be together. There are situations you’ll be alone. What will we do then?”
“Don’t worry, everything will be OK….” Melissa whispered and they left the room.
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Lisa dashed out of class and run into the pathway. She had a late evening meet up with her newspaper club. There was a big story happening and they were planning on publishing as front page on the next day’s paper. Another student disappeared without a trace and was found few days later at the parking lot dead and with the infamous knife tattoo engraved on her stomach. ‘A serial killer in campus’, ‘The Butcher’… So many titles for the front page were running through her mind as she walked towards her campus hall.
She was elected as Chief Editor and ever since she joined the ‘Campus Journal’ the paper had turned out to be a must-have in campus. She changed the whole system and brought in a different style and more stories that made it much more interesting. Lisa was very aggressive and always went out of her way to make everything she did her best. She was the popular girl at school who had everything ‘perfect’
Lisa was dating college’s most popular guy Sam O’Brien. Sam was a champion swimmer having represented the country in several events and won too many awards. He was a tall blonde and well-built with Hazel eyes. Other than outdoor success, he was an exceptional student and among the top. She was very proud of him and always made a point to show off to the other girls. Her parents too liked him very much.
Tommy, Courtney’s brother, also had a major crush on Lisa. He had tried approaching her on several occasions but she always turned him down. He finally gave up and decided she was out of his league. Though deep down he was burning with desire for her. Sam had warned Tommy to keep off Lisa or else face his wrath.
As Lisa walked on, she felt like there was someone behind her, following. A chill ran through her body. She stopped and looked behind but there was no one. As she kept walking she could see a shadow through the corner of her eye but as soon as she turned to look behind, there was nothing. She stopped for a moment, very scared and not knowing what to do. It was barely 8Pm but after all that has been happening, most of the students kept indoors. Here she was alone and was only a short distance from her destination but seemed miles…
‘I feel like someone is following me.....” she thought to herself.
” What should I do? Oh my God…” she slowly whispered to herself as she tried to reach for her phone. She was transfixed to the point for what seemed like hours but just a minute. Too scared to move a step.
She pulled out her phone as she started walking faster to try and call her friends. Veronica, her best friend, was first on the speed dial, before she could even speak a word, a heavy metal object landed on her head and she fell down with a heavy thud! She was still conscious, she tried to pull up and try to see who was after her but she couldn’t it was too dark. She wanted to scream for help but she could barely say a word. The hooded man pulled her off the path and into the bush. He quietly lifted her and put her in the boot of his car that was parked closed by.
They drove for about an hour and suddenly he slowed down and stopped. Her head was throbbing and she could feel blood flowing down her face. The boot opened and she was pulled out and taken to a basement, tied to a post.