Storymania - The 13th Victim by Heather Burke

The 13th Victim
Heather Burke

It’s coming for me. What is coming for me, I do not know. All I know is I can feel a sinister urge, closing in on me. I don’t dare try to take a peek, for fear I will lose my will to run. I am running for my life through this dark dismal forest. I'm lost and I do not know how I got here.

It feels like I have been on this treacherous journey for hours. The fact is I don't know how long I have been running all I know is if I stop the creature chasing me will kill me. I can feel it closing in on me. My flesh is covered in a cold sweat and goose bumps.

I know I can't run forever. I can feel deaths hold starting to strangle me. I am can feel myself starting to give up. Just when I think all hope is lost I feel the sound of a car horn, bring with it a ray of hope that I might make it after all. I start pushing myself to my braking point hoping to reach civilization before the creature kills me or worse.
I can see the highway now. The creature lets out a blood chilling screech as though it knows I may escape it’s evil grasp. I manage to make it to the middle of the highway all I can see is headlights baring down on me. As the headlights gain on me, everything goes black.

I come to briefly to find myself in the arms of a dangerously handsome man. He is loading me in to the cab of his truck. He must have felt me stir because he asks my name and if I’m in pain. All I can manage before my world goes black is, Sadie May.

The next time I come to I find myself in a hospital bed somewhere. As I look around the room trying to see a clue as to where I am. I notice a tuff of blonde hair half way down my bed. The stranger from the highway is a sleep in a chair with his head resting on my bed. I’m not sure why but the thought of him staying with me brings a smile to my face.

A nurse making her rounds enters the room to find be alert and awake. She starts to ask questions I have no answers for. All I do know is my name is Sadie May, I’m from Philly, I have red hair, blue gray eyes, I’m 29 years old and I am pretty in a classic way. I have no answers for any of her other questions. I don’t even know where I am or how I got here.
The nurse explains to me that I am in Georgia. She also goes on to explain my injuries to me. I had cuts and bruises mostly, but I did have this weird mark that looks like someone cut it into my shoulder with a knife or other sharp object. The nurse gets me a mirror so I can see the mark on my shoulder blade. I have never seen anything like this. The mark is a triangle with an eye with wings. The nurse asked if seeing that mark brought up any memories.

The nurse left me with the stranger still asleep at my side or so I thought. Once the nurse was gone the stranger sat up and looked at me. He had the most beautiful blue eyes I had ever seen you could just lose yourself in them. I asked him who he was. He said they call him Slade. That is all the information he was willing to give me until I let him get a closer look at the mark on my shoulder.

I don’t know what it was about the way he asked that made me show him my shoulder. He looked at me and told me I was very lucky he found me on that lonesome highway. I had so many questions to ask but I could feel exhaustion taking over. I had been through so much.

When I awoke in the morning I found Slade missing. I figured he was just a dream. As I sat there looking out the window day dreaming about Slade he walked in the door in fresh clothes. He told me that I was going to be released shortly he got me some fresh clothes while he was out. I told him that was very nice but I wasn’t his responsibility.
Slade quickly informed me that now that I am marked, I am very much his responsibility. I tried to ask him what he meant and he quickly told me now was not the time or the place but he would fill me in very soon.

Once we were outside and on our way Slade decided it was time to tell me what was going on. As it turns out I am the 13th girl to go missing on the east coast in 13 days. I was kidnapped by a dark cult that’s mission is to raise an army of demon soldiers to help them take over the world. I stared at him with disbelief. After all what he was sounded like the plot of a bad horror movie.

He insisted that what he was saying was true and I was in grave danger. The best chance I had to stay a live was to stay close to him. He checked us in to a seedy motel in the middle of nowhere off the highway. So we could rest up and make plans. While I napped, Slade went out to get us supplies. My nap was disrupted by nightmares of dark forces and demons. I woke myself up with my screams of terror. My clothes were soaked with an icy sweat and an overwhelming fear of my impending death on my mind.

When Slade came back in the room he could see the fear in my face and asked me what had happened. I told him about the dream and he told me they would get worse. I was the only one he was able to find before the demons managed to capture them. I had lived this long and he planned to keep me alive.

The plan Slade had come up with was simple. We were going to go to a cabin that Slade has in the forest and stay there until the demon finds us. He said it wouldn’t take long for the demons to find us since the symbol the cult carved in to my shoulder will attract him to us. He bought items that he could use to battle the cult and destroy the demon.

I don’t know how much faith I had in Slade but I had no where else to turn. I did know that I was very attracted to this mystery man and I didn’t want to spend anymore time with him than I had to because I was nursing a broken heart. Instead of letting it heal I was trying to keep the wound raw and angry so I didn’t fall for another mans lies.

Maybe that is why I was targeted they could see the hate boiling out of me. I remember I was out at a club listening to a great band and some guy was hitting on me. That is the last thing I remember before I was running through the woods.

We left first thing in the morning to go to the cabin. Once we got there we had a lot of things to set up such as alarms and early warning devices. It was getting late so I made dinner for Slade and I. I discovered that I loved Slade’s peaceful cabin and I longed to stay there forever. Unfortunately my peace would not last. We were at the cabin 3 days when my shoulder started to burn. Slade told me that was how we would know that they were coming.

It was late the next night when they arrived. They had us surrounded. There had to be at least 50 cult members and the demon. I couldn’t see him in the darkness except for red of his eyes that were radiating out of the gloom.

The cult leader stepped in to the light. I couldn’t see what he looked like because he was wearing a crimson hooded rob. In a powerful voice he called out to us. All we want is the girl, If you give her to us now we will let you live Slade.

Slade called back If you want her come and get her. I was appalled by how cocky Slade was acting. I was in terrible danger. I don’t know how I knew but I did if they got there hands on me I would wish for death before they were through.

Just than Slade sprung into action. I have never seen anything like it. He was throwing flash bombs out at the cult members as a distraction. So he could sneak out and capture the cult leader. He also had a special bomb that was a blend of herbs with a banishing spell written on the outside of the bomb that was meant to banish the demon when it hit it. Slade was saving that bomb though because he only had one , so he had to use it wisely.
As Slade risked his life I was stuck in the cabin sitting in a circle of protection that he made on the floor for me. I could only hear the commotion that was going on outside but it sounded like we were winning until the room went black. I didn’t know what to do since I could leave the circle to find candles. I waited for several minutes debating about going to find candles since I wasn’t sure Slade knew what he was doing. Until I smelt this fowl smell like a mix of sulfur and rotten flesh. As I looked around in the dark I couldn’t see anything until those glowing red eyes appeared out of the darkness. The fear that hit me was so intense I couldn’t even scream. I just sat there quaking with fear.

Watching the eyes get closer and closer. I wanted to run but couldn’t find the courage to go. The demon got right to the edge of the circle and shrieked in anger. Slade was right it couldn’t get me as long as I stayed here, but how long could I stay in this circle alone in the dark.

I was starting to feel hopeless when I heard a loud bang and a wail of pain coming from the demon. Slade had snuck in the cabin and threw the banishment bomb at the demon. The next sound I heard was Slade’s rugged voice chanting the spell that was written on the bomb. There was a bright flash and the demon was gone.

What Slade did with the cult leader I don’t know. I never really felt the need to ask. Although what ever he did to the cult leader he was able to break his hold over the rest of the cult members. None of them could remember what happened after they joined the cult.
Slade and Sadie May decided to stay in the cabin. Since Sadie discovered that she really didn’t have a life to go back to in Philly. There wasn’t anyone to fill a missing persons report on her that is why she was chosen by the cult. Sadie May was able to live out the rest of her days in peace in that cabin in the woods and her scar left by the mark on her shoulder never bothered her again.