I used to be them, the victims. That was me not so long ago, stumbling home through an alley. It seemed safe enough, well lit, I’d gone that way before. I guess he knew that though, because he was waiting for me, he called my name even though I had no idea who he was. He had been stalking me. But now I’m the hunter.

I’ve been sitting up here on this light pole night after night, and no one ever sees me. No one ever looks up at the light, so long as it’s on. The light makes them feel safe, but it doesn’t protect them. At least it didn’t… until now.

I’m stronger now, faster. My reflexes are quicker than my thoughts can follow. And I see everything now. I see him, I’ve been watching him this time. He’s down there waiting, and she’s headed straight to him. He’s been watching her for a while… he’s patient… so am I. I want him to know why, to really know why he’s about to die. Not just for me, a girl he killed months ago after he’d had his way. But for every girl before, and every one he’ll never get to touch. At last… Time to see if he remembers my face, time to see if he remembers Deanna DeRowe.

 

He saw her jump down from beyond the light, just after he grabs his prey, and she’s suddenly upon him before he can react. He slashes out with his knife, panicked by her speed. The sense that he knows her overwhelming his reason, as she grabs the blade. But it’s crazy, why would she crab his blade like that, how could she be the girl he… no, impossible he thought.

But she could see it in his eyes, “You remember me… good.” The other girl had already run off, probably before she could even get a good look at Deanna. “It’s your turn to suffer, but not here” she said, as she struck the base of his skull knocking him out. She lift him over her shoulder, it was easier than she had thought it would be. She threw the knife onto a nearby roof, and carried him off. She wouldn’t need a knife for what came next.

Her hand was barely bleeding anymore, and she couldn’t remember it having hurt. But it itched like crazy, almost from the very moment she grabbed the knife. She hadn’t really thought to do it either, it just happened suddenly. She moved into the shadow towards a nearby abandoned build. It was a place he had taken her so that he could take his time, so that he could enjoy it, it was a place just for the two of them. But now she was going to do the same, she was going to enjoy beating him to death.

Once she got him inside she tied off one of his legs with his belt, and then she broke it at the shin with one clean stomp. He woke up screaming, as she kicked him in the groin. Suddenly she was on top of his screaming almost terrified body. Straddling this animal, she grabbed the collar of his jacket and bounced off his chest. “Do you like it… do you like it like this, tiger?” She was enjoying mocking him, but she was enjoying the sound his bones made more. She could feel that his ribs were collapsing beneath her, so she steadied herself and started punching him in the face.

He was grabbing at her arm as the collar around his neck tightened in her grasping fist. He couldn’t escape, she was impossibly strong. He cursed her, yelling vulgar, hateful, and depraved things at her, trying to manage his pain, trying to defy the existence of the fate before him. But between being winded from her riding his torso and from the steadily paced strike to the face he was barely able to string together a coherent sentence. His mouth could not keep up with the rage filled thoughts racing through his mind. Even now he started choking on his teeth, and could barely see out of his left eye. She could see blood frothing up mixed with saliva as he coughed trying to clear his throat.

She let up for a moment to watch him squirm. Just as she had before he killed her. She stood over him, waiting for him to try and rise. She stomped on his hand, crushing the fingers. With the other foot she broke the arm. Then she began kicking in the rest of his ribs. Before much longer he was gasping for air, she’d finally punctured his lung. Now she just had to watch him die, but she wouldn’t make the same mistake he did. She would wait a few hour, make sure he didn’t come back like she did. Though she still had no idea why she had. Or why there were no wounds from the knife. She looked at her hand, it had stopped itching… there was no wound, no scratch, nothing. He finally finished choking on his own blood, and now lay there dead before her.

She’d brought supplies to this place beforehand. She began soaking him in gas, if he woke up he’d burn. If he did not wake up his body would be reduced to bone and ash. The floor of this building was concrete, it was under construction. It had been delayed for months due to the weather, and most of the building was covered in plastic. In the end he never woke up, and his body had burned down to the bone. But there were others out there like him, and she could do something about that. Whatever was going on with her she could wait to figure it out, couldn’t she?

For now, she would watch the news, check the papers, looking for criminals who had escaped justice. She would search the obituaries for victims, she would browse the headlines for recent crimes, and she would search for sex offender which had been released. She would find her prey and stalk them until they tried to strike again. Perhaps she could even bait them into going after her. This was her purpose, her reason for coming back.

Before this, she had worked as a waitress.  It hadn’t been the first time she disappeared. But her boss liked her and always took her back. She thought it would be a good idea to make some income while she hunted for lowlifes. She could pick up a few shifts here and there until it got busy enough for her to be put back on the schedule full time. Plus, she could read the paper and catch the news here when it was slow. It was the perfect job for someone with her particular proclivities. In the past, she’d often took-off when things got too slow, so this wasn’t really new to anyone. It seemed as if her attacker might have taken this into account… she wondered how long he had been targeting her. It wasn’t like she could ask him now.

She’d been gone a few months now but no one missed her aside from a few regulars, and no one went looking for her. When she was killed her body was left at a dump across town. She woke up surrounded by, and lying on top of, trash. No one had noticed her there either. It had turned out that her attacker worked for the city as a sanitations worker. She saw his picture in the office when she went to find out where she was and how she ended up there. No one knew how she had come to be there, but she figured it out when she saw the picture of the employee of the month. But this was behind her now.