Prologue

I checked my phone. 9:46 PM. Perfect. That was exactly 15 minutes before the target would be at the right place. I had to make sure everything was in correct order. I had this need to study on the prime target. Their behavior, movement, their schedule. Everything had to be carefully calculated and precise or the whole plan would fall apart and I definitely hadn’t prepared a backup plan in case something went wrong. Usually these little incidents were more…“In the heat of the moment” type things.

 

I looked around the store. It was a small and comfortable corner store, not too far away from the local high school. I walked up to the counter with the supplies in hand. I handed the clerk the rope, pocket knife and a small pair of black snow gloves. After handing over the money, the clerk looked me up and down curiously.

 

The clerk was a plump middle age man who looked like he could be in his mid-30s. His hair was mostly bald but thinning on the sides. He could have passed for Santa Claus on Summer Vacation with a red sweater that spread over his pot belly like spandex.

 

“You look familiar. Do I know you?” the clerk said.

 

I shook my head.

 

“You go to the high school don’t you?”

 

This time I nodded.

 

The look of curiosity melted from the clerk’s face. He mumbled something under his breath and went on with printing the receipt. While waiting for the machine to finish the long receipt, the glass door swung open making the bell above to ring. A woman with carefully combed red hair came bursting in, stopping just adjacent to me. She was wearing an orange sweater and various necklaces around her neck. Her wrinkly, paper-white skin laminated in the store light.

 

“Excuse me, Dearie,” she said, glancing back at me. “Samuel, I need you to fill up an old woman’s car.”

 

Samuel looked at her with cold dark eyes. “Ms. Benson, I’m with another costumer. I need you to wait for just a moment.”

 

Ms. Benson looked long and hard at Samuel and turned back to look at me. She sighed and stepped to the side to let us finish our business.

 

Samuel muttered a “thank you” and handed me my receipt. Before walking away from the counter Samuel spoke up.

 

“Hey, kid. Are you going camping or something,” he asked.

 

I thought for a moment. Curiosity did kill the cat. Maybe he just might get a taste of what that meaning truly meant. I, instead, opted to throw that thought away. I just shook their head and walked out the door, the bell ringing obnoxiously from the door frame.

 

The night was brisk. A cold bone chilling breeze blew through my hair. There was a familiar smell of baked goods just two stores down from the corner store. It was the only other thing that I enjoyed more than causing pain. A sweet piece of pumpkin pie always made things better.

 

I walked around to the back of the store. Behind the store was a vast field of dark forest. The trees made eerie shadows at night. It reminded me of a horror movie. An innocent teen goes into the dark woods all alone, with nothing to protect themselves but a cell phone and the hopes of being able to out run anyone who they may come across. I wasn’t the innocent teen. I was far from it. And by tomorrow morning, there was going to be a major change in the small quiet town of (Insert Town’s name here). There was sure to be an uprising that would throw our plan into motion. Counting down!

 

3…2…1…Let the games begin.