Baked Scribe Flashback : In Depth
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“Seriously, it’s really interesting stuff,” Kimmy said
“I know, you keep telling me, I’m tired of hearing about it.” Rudy was frowning into his book, wanting just to be left alone. The expression had been on his face for much of the last 10 minutes. As soon as Kimmy started blathering on about her latest blog article.
“I always thought I knew so much about him, but some of the stuff just blows my—”
“I know.”
She was oblivious to the hints he was carpet-bombing her with.
“His last victim? Her throat was cut so deep that it went all the way to her spine.”
“Kimmy—”
“And he cut open her abdomen and removed all of her organs, even her heart was missing!”
“Kimmy! I’m trying to eat here for fuck’s sake.”
Her face immediately made the transition to pouting, and he dropped the sandwich onto his plate. “I’m sorry, all right? I’m glad you’re so into this article I just don’t need to hear all the details.”
“Okay,” she said the word, but deep down only felt frustration at his lack of interest. The work was so important. It was getting to the point where, even though the third shift at the factory was paying the bills, all she now saw it as was something that took time away from her work. Maybe the time would come when she could actually make enough money from just the blog to scrape by, but until then she would just have to hold to the course, hacking it out and working her ass off.
While Rudy was washing the dishes, she scratched out a quick note and slipped out the front door. If she stayed around the house, she would just spend the evening coming with reasons to be pissed at him. Better to just go to the library and spend the night being productive.
The bus dropped her off, six blocks up from the entrance and she trudged down the sidewalk, kicking up the slush and snow on the as she walked. Traffic was light, being too late for classes but still too early for the bar crowds to be starting.
As she passed the small parking lot for the bank, she heard something behind that made her stop. It took a few moments to fully register, but when it did, she snapped her head around.
She heard someone breathing.
Of course, there was no one behind her. Both sides of the street were empty for blocks. Had to have been the wind, some weird tunnel effect blowing through an alley or something. It had to be the wind.
Kimmy resumed her walk and was soon shaking off her coat and stomping boots at the front door of the library. There was no competition for the workstation she preferred, the lone computer terminal off in the far corner of the room where no one could see the gruesome articles she was reading.
As she sat down, she caught in the reflection of the briefly darkened screen, that someone had walked up behind her. The person was just standing there, staring, and as she looked up she felt her heart speed up at the sight of the top hat on their head. Was there a costume party going on somewhere? Maybe in elaborate prank on Rudy’s part? She turned around in the chair, mouth open and ready to chew out whoever was standing there.
There was no one.
She slammed her palm on the desk as she turned back. The noise brought the brief attention from several nearby students as well as a nearby librarian. She ignored them all.
The evening went on without any incident. The scratching of her pen on the paper sounded like something was clawing at the back of her notebook, punctuated by the hollow clicking sounds of the mouse.
She had lost track of time until the son of the church bells outside brought her back to reality. The screen of the computer showed that it was nearly midnight. By now, Rudy would be out for the rest the evening, or he would be barricaded into his room, not to be seen until morning.
Bus service would’ve ended an hour ago but the weather was mild enough, and she didn’t mind having a walk entire way home. It briefly occurred to her to call for a cab, but she quickly rejected it. Seven dollars plus tip wasn’t sunny she can afford to casually par with these days.
It was a clear night, and she looked up at the nearly bursting moon as she walked, choosing the path along the river. There would be more homeless people down this way, but anymore it was the drunk college students that posed more of a threat.
She looked up at the sound of bells ringing through the silence. It was a kind of sound she always imagined hearing an old sailing vessels, from a past long dead. She squinted through the gathering fog, thinking she could see a dark shape gliding down the river, water lapping up against a ship’s hull.
Her brain was starting to catch up with how strange it was to hear something like that on the river, especially this late. She looked up, out onto the river again when she heard the sound of footsteps behind her. The sound was loud and clipped, like that of heels, echoing off of walls that were nowhere near them.
The footsteps were getting loud enough to fill her head. The wind, the traffic from the nearby street, the other bars all become secondary to the sound of the person walking behind her. It didn’t seem like they were speeding up, but instead maintained a casual pace that more or less seemed to be gaining on her.
Just as the person seemed to be right behind her, she turned to face the person. The retort was already on her lips but was silenced in a moment at the sight before her. The person towering over looked to be nearly 7 feet tall. It wore a black cloak that billowed around it like a sail. On its head was a top hat that seemed to add another foot to its height, the brim hanging out far enough to completely obscure the face in shadows. Images from all the books and articles came rushing back to her, the vision of him, now standing before her.
The scream she let out was immediately cut off as a knife flashed out, cutting across her throat and severing her vocal cords. She fell forward, ending up held in his arms, her last vision being of the same blade plunging into flesh she only barely acknowledged as being her own.
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