Chapter 1
It was a dark and stormy night...

 She couldn't see what was following her, but she knew it was there. She quickened her walk, and she could hear the footsteps start to quicken as well, the rapid pounding echoed in her head. She hurried into a slight jog. Once again, the following footsteps met her pace. She turned to look back, but she could not see it. Still, she knew it was there. Waiting for her to give up. But she knew she couldn't, for it would catch her. She just needed a little bit more time. There was a convenience store about a block away. She burst into a run. She could make it! She willed herself to run, faster then she ever had before. But the footsteps were faster. they caught up. She turned around to face her stalker for the first, and last time. She screamed, but her scream was muted by the darkness. The blade came down. Stabbing, and stabbing. She gasped, blood dripping from her mouth. The shadow stood over her. She looked him right in the eyes. And the last vision she ever saw, was that of her killer's cold, heartless face. And he was smiling.

Chapter 2
Wildenne High school

 "Did you hear? The cops found the body of Janie Millden! She was stabbed several times. The killer left a mark on her chest. He shredded right through her clothes!" Courtney was saying. Deena rolled her eyes. She was used to her friend, Courtney's exaggerations.
 "Janie's not in school today, that doesn't mean she's dead!" Deena said. Courtney shook her head.
 "My Uncle's the Police Chief, remember? I heard him talking to my dad yesterday! The needed someone to take pictures for the records and evidence and stuff!" She said. Courtney's dad was a well known photographer, everyone went to him for picture. He was the best in all of rural Tulsa.
 "Whatever Courtney. Look, I have to go home now, okay? I'll see you later." Deena said. Courtney nodded.
 "Yeah. I'll e-mail you." Courtney called. Deena waved, and headed for the bus stop. The thought of Janie dead still haunted her. But, Janie couldn't be dead, she just missed school today. She's proabably sick or something. I'll give her a call later, she thought. Deena waited at the bus stop. She saw a familiar red Camaro pull up beside the curb. She sighed. Go away, she thought. Isaac Hanson's head poked through the window.
 "Hey, Deena. Need a lift?" He asked. She smiled weakly.
 "It's okay, I'm waiting for the bus." She said. He smiled.
 "I can see that. Why don't I save you the trouble, and give you a ride home?" He suggested. She thought about this. Isaac was very nice, his whole family was in fact. They lived across the street from Deena and her family. But, they were famous. She felt weird every time a car full of girls came down her street, and screamed out the windows at their house. She had know Isaac and his family for a while, and they didn't seem like famous pop stars.
 "Okay. Thanks a bunch." She said, and got into the car. He turned on the radio. Where's The Love? came on. She blushed. He laughed.
 "God, it's so weird to hear yourself on the radio." He said. She shrugged.
 "You should be used to it by now." She said. He nodded, and made a right turn.
 "Yeah, but it's still weird." He said. Maybe he felt the same way she did. I mean, he was only eighteen, and gosh, Zac's only thirteen! Deena herself was sixteen turning seventeen in April, and she couldn't imagine doing even half the things that Isaac and his brothers have done.  Isaac was flipping around the radio station. The news came on.
 "And the police found the body of Janie Millden this morning, of Tulsa. She was stabbed several times in the chest and neck area." The radio was saying. Isaac went to turn it off.
 "No! Wait! I know her, leave it on." Deena said. Isaac shrugged, and left it at that station.
 "Police have yet to identify a suspect. the last person to have seen her alive was her boyfriend, Matt Doyce. Doyce has a alliby at the approximate time of Millden's death, but the police are not ruling him out." Matt! Deena thought. She had the biggest crush on him, and had always been jealous of Janie.
 "Oh my God. Courtney was right!" Deena mumbled.
 "You knew the girl? Oh, I'm sorry. Gosh, what a horrible way to die." Isaac said. Deena nodded.
 "Yeah, poor Matt." Was all she could say.
 "You know him too?" Isaac asked. She nodded.
 "Jeez. I never would have thought that could happen in this part of Tulsa." Isaac said. He pulled onto their street, and stopped infront of Deena's house. She got out.
 "Thanks Ike. I'll see you later." She said. Isaac nodded, and gave a mock salute.
 "No problem. Say hi to Courtney for me if you see her!" He said. Deena smiled, and nodded. She knew that Isaac had a pretty big thing for Courtney. Courtney didn't really care for him all that much. She was more interested in Joseph Halliway. She could hardly look at any other guys. Deena got her keys out, and went to unlock the door. Her parents wouldn't be home until later, so she had the whole house to herself. The went to put her keys in the slot, but she saw that the door was slightly ajar. She pushed it, and it opened. The creak was enough to scare her. She gasped, and dropped her keys.
 "Get a life, Deena." She told herself. She stepped inside, and flicked on the light switch. It didn't work. The power was out. She went into the living room. The house was oddly silent. Usually the radio was playing, it turned on automatically at three o'clock. She heard a dripping coming from upstairs. She went up. Deena felt her foot slide on something wet. She looked down. The carpet had a puddle of red liquid. She didn't need to touch it to know what it was. Blood. She looked down the hallway. All the doors were closed, except for the one at the end of the hall. Her room. The door was opened a crack. That seemed to be where the dripping was coming from. She couldn't take it, and she ran downstairs and across the street to the Hanson's. She rang the bell, and pounded on the door. Zac answered.
 "What's up? Why are you being so loud?" He asked.
 "My house, it was broken into! There's blood in the floor! I don't know..." She said. Zac brought her inside.
 "It's okay, I'll get Ike and Tay. Hang on." He said, and went to the foot of the stairs.
 "Guys! Get down here! Something's wrong!" Zac called up the stairs. Deena heard feet come pounding down the stairs.
 "What's wrong, Zac?" His brother, Taylor asked him. Zac turned to look at Deena. She was pacing, and had her head in her hands.
 "What happened? Deena, are you okay?" Taylor asked, and came over to her.
 "Someone broke into my house, and there was blood." She said. Isaac came down the stairs. "What if it's Andy? What if it's Andy?" She shrieked, thinking about her younger brother.
 "We're going over to Deena's house, Ike. Someone broke in." Taylor told him. Deena shook her head.
 "No, we have to call the cops! Please..." She begged. They didn't listen to her.
 "Here, Deena sit down." Taylor said, and motioned to the couch. She sat down.
 "Do you think they're still in the house?" Isaac asked. She shrugged.
 "I didn't hear anything. Only a dripping." She said.
 "Well, I'm going over there. C'mon." Taylor said. Deena follwed him out the door.
 "I don't think that's such a good idea Tay." Isaac said. Taylor shrugged.
 "There's four of us, and probably only one of them. We'll be okay." He said, and left. Isaac looked at Zac, and sighed. But they followed Deena and Taylor outside. Taylor had opened up the garage, and had gotten out two hockey sticks. He handed one to Isaac. They headed back acrosss the street.

Chapter 3
Silent, night.

 "Hello?" Taylor called into the house. The lights were still out. The four teens stepped into the silent house. Deena motioned to the stairs.
 "Up there." She whispered. Taylor nodded, and led the way upstairs. He saw the puddle of blood, and stepped around it. Isaac and Deena did the same, but Zac didn't see it, and he walked right into it.
 "Ewww, gross." He said.
 "Shhh!" Isaac told him. They went down the hall. Taylor held up the hockey stick, and pushed open the door to Deena's room. He stood back. There was no one there. Deena looked for where the dripping noise was coming from, but she couldn't find it. She sighed.
 "No one here." Taylor said. Deena nodded.
 "Yeah, sorry I dragged you guys here." She said. Taylor put down his hockey stick.
 "No problem." He said, they started to leave. Deena saw something out of the corner of her eye. There were tiny dark red drops comong from the ceiling, and there was a red puddle, not unlike the one at the top of the stair, beneath it. She looked up to her ceiling, and screamed. Taylor, Isaac, and Zac all looked at what she was screaming at.
 "Holy shit!" Zac gasped. A mangled and bloody body was nailed to the ceiling. Iron stakes had been rammed through various parts of the body, and blood was dripping from a deep chest wound. Deena recognized who it was.
 "Courtney!" She screamed. Taylor grabbed her arm.
 "Let's get out of here!" He yelled. They ran down the stairs and out the door. they didn't stop running until they reached the Hanson's house. Deena was sobbing uncontrollably.
 "Holy shit! Did you see that?" Zac was screaming. His face was pale. Isaac shook his head, and closed his eyes several times.
 "We gotta call the police." He said. Taylor went to the phone in the kitchen. They could hear him talking hurridly to the dispatcher on the other line.
 "They're sending someone over right now. They're gonna send one here too." He said. His face was very pale.
 "Holy shit.....holy shit....." Zac continued to mutter those words.
 "Zac, shut up!" Isaac yelled at him.
 "Oh my god....what about Andy? What if he comes home? We gotta go over there! What if the murderer is still in the house? We have to stop Andy!" She screamed, and headed for the door. The three Hanson brothers raced after her, but she ran across the street ahead of them. Isaac ran into the house first. Taylor and Zac lingered outside.
 "C'mon, we have to go in." Taylor said. Zac nodded, and they went in after Isaac and Deena. They heard screaming.
 "Ike?!! Deena?!!" Taylor called thorough the house.
 "We're here!" Isaac called from upstairs. Taylor and Zac ran upstairs, and into Deena's room. She was kneeling down on the floor, crying. Taylor forced himself not to look up at Courtney's body. Zac looked up, and wrinkled his nose.
 "Holy shit...." He muttered again.
 "Look!" Deena screeched, and pointed to her mirror. It had been broken, and smeared across it were the words:

 SHE'S DEAD. LIKE JANIE..

 Isaac was reading the words carefully.
 "Blood." He murmured. They heard people downstairs.

Chapter 4
Family Ties.

 There were police standing ready at the door. They noticed him right away.
 "Freeze!" One of them shouted. He put his hands up.
 "Yo! Watch it! I'm the guy that called the poilce, Taylor Hanson." He said. One of the men lowered his gun, and stepped up to him.
 "I'm Police Chief Spears. There was a murder here?" He asked. Taylor nodded.
 "Yeah. Deena came home, and she saw the door was open, and then she ran over to our house after she saw some blood, and we came over here and found, the, uh body." He felt weird saying body. Chief Spears nodded.
 "Okay. Are you the only one in the house?" He asked. Taylor shook his head, no.
 "Ike and Zac and Deena are here too. Deena freaked, and she got all worried about her brother coming home and finding the body, or the ah, killer, so she ran over here. We followed her, and they're up in her room right now. There's a message on the mirror. Oh! And she said the girl was her friend, Carol, Cora, something like that. I think my brother knew her too." Taylor explained. Chief spears nodded once more, and motioned to his men to follow him upstairs. Two mean stayed by the door. Taylor led the way. They went into Deena's room. The Chief didn't notice the body at first, he went over to Deena. She was still crying in a little ball at the bottom of the floor.
 "Shhh....Deena, it's okay." He soothed. She recognized him.
 "Teddy! No, go please....you don't want to see this." She said. And glanced nervoulsy at the corpse nailed to the ceiling. The other officers had already noticed it. One was talking into a walkie talkie. Chief Spears gave her a worried expression.
 "I don't want to see it, but it's my job. Everything's going to be okay, Deena. You're allright now." He said, and turned his head to look at the body on the ceiling.
 "No! Teddy....oh Courtney...poor Courtney...." Deena sobbed.
 Chief Spears' face went deathly pale.
 "Sir? Are you okay, sir?" One of the other officers asked. He closed his eyes, and refused to look at the ceiling.
 "Subject's name is Courtney Spears. Write that down...dammit Marshton!" He telled at the lieutenant. Marshton nodded, and wrote Courtney's name down. Chief Spears got up to leave. Isaac, Taylor, and Zac were very confused. Deena was still crying.
 "I told him not to look....I told him...." She said. Isaac leaned down, and looked her right in her eyes.
 "Deena, is he her father?" He asked. Deena shook her head.
 "No, Teddy's her uncle." She said, and continued to cry. Isaac closed his eyes. He wanted it to all go away.

Chapter 6
six months later.....

 "Bye guys! I'm going to see Deena!" Zac said. The faint sound of his mother's voice could be heard coming from the other room. He ingored his mother, and hopped across the street. The memories of what happened that day still haunted him...but he had managed to put those awful images of Courtney's mangled body out of his mind, as had Isaac and Taylor. He rang
Deena's front doorbell. Her brother, Andy, answered. He looked very tired.
 "Hey, Andy man. Can I see Deena?" Zac asked. Andy frowned.
 "Zac, you really shouldn't come here." He said. Andy was 15,  but it seemed as if he had aged to about 18 the last few months. Zac felt bad for Deena's whole family. But, he couldn't really do anything about it now. Maybe before....but not now. He ignored Andy and bounced up to Deena's room. The puddle that had once been at the top of the stairs was gone now....the whole upstairs hallway had been recarpeted, and so had Deena's room. Her room had also been painted. It was now a light purple. But other then that, it hadn't changed for a little less then six months. The door to her room was slightly ajar, and he pushed it open softly.
 "Deena? Can I come in?" He asked. There was no answer. He didn't expect a answer. He saw her sitting on her bed. She was smiling.
 "Hi, Zac. How are you?" She asked. He smiled.
 "I'm okay. I just thought I'd come to visit you." He said. She smiled.
 "That's nice of you." Suddenly he saw a girl out of the corner of his eye. He turned, and faced Courtney.
 "Hey, Zac." She said. He smiled. He had always liked Courtney. Even if he barely knew her before. He heard the approaching footsteps of Andy, and his brothers, probably. They just didn't understand that he had to come here to talk to Deena and Courtney. He felt sort of bad, about what he had done to them, but it always made him feel better. He didn't have any feelings of remorse for that other girl, what was her name? Julia or something? It wasn't important. Taylor, Isaac, and Andy marched in. Isaac grabbed his arm.
 "Zac, c'mon, you weren't supposed to leave the house, that's what the doctor said." He said quietly. Zac gave him a angry expression. Isaac didn't know...nobody knew, except Deena, Courtney and what's-her-name.
 "But, Ike. I'm trying to talk to Courtney and Deena." He said. Taylor came up beside him.
 "Zac, Courtney has been dead for six months, Deena, a bit less. Remember? We found Courtney here with Deena, then you found Deena in the park a week later. It looked like she was killed by the same guy. Zac, they're dead." He said. Zac shook his head.
 "No, they were only pretending. I saw it all happen. They weren't really killed. They didn't even put up a struggle." He said. Taylor's eyes grew wide.
 "What?" He asked. Andy stepped closer to Zac.
 "You saw Deena's murder?" He hissed. Zac smiled, and nodded. It felt good to tell the truth.
 "Deena told me how she liked what's-her-faces boyfriend, so i killed what's-her-face. And i wanted to tell Deena, so I came over here. But I saw Courtney waiting outside for Deena. She wanted to know why I was there. I said to talk to Deena. She asked about what. I told her that I killed what's-her-face, and she got all scared, I didn't want her to tell Deena, I wanted to tell Deena, so I grabbed her, and opened the door. It was unlocked, and I killed her. I didn't really want to, but I had to. Then, I saw Deena was sad. And I felt bad, but I knew that news about what I had done for ehr would make her happy, so I asked her to meet me at the park, and I told her. She said that I was evil, and I got mad...I did it for her after all! And I grabbed her, and threw her to the ground, only her head hit a rock, and she died. I didn't know what to do. But I had brought along a knife, so I cut up her stomach and chest. And now I have to go see her and Courtney every day. They're really nice, you know." Zac said. Isaac gave him a confused look.
 "But, Zac, they caught the guy that killed Deena, Courtney and Janie. He's in jail." He said. Zac shook his head.
 "He didn't do it. I was the anonymous tip that gave him in. I had seen him at the park that night, and I had seen him walking down the street near where I killed, what's her name? Julie? And he was walking down the street when I killed Courtney. It was a good coincidence." He said.  "Zac, saying you did it isn't going to make them come back. Let's go home now." Taylor said. He looked apologetically at Andy. Andy looked even more tired.
 "I'm really sorry about this. He thinks he killed them...it's like he wants them to come back or something." He said. Andy nodded.
 "It's okay, I understand." Andy said. Taylor and Isaac half escorted, half dragged Zac out of the house. He was screaming.
 "Deena! They didn't believe me Deena!" He yelled. He saw Deena's face in the window.
"Look! There she is! See?" He yelled. Taylor looked, but he couldn't see anything.
 "Zac, there's nothing there." He said. They went back the Hanson's house. Mrs. Hanson was waiting by the door.
 "Zac, are you okay?" She asked. Zac shook his head.
 "No! Andy didn't believe me!" He said. Mrs. Hanson shook her head.
 "Zacky, you can't tell anyone else what you did! It's going to ruin your band! We already have to pretend to Andy's family that your crazy, and if this ever got out, that you were crazy or a killer, it wouldn't be good for your future. We did all this for your future." She said. Zac looked confused.
 "But, I killed them. That other guy didn't." He said. Mrs. Hanson nodded, and led him up to his room.
 "Zac, I know. But you have to pretend you're crazy, at least for now." She said.
 "But, I really do talk to Courtney and Deena! Really!" Zac said. Mrs. Hanson smiled.
 "That's good honey. You tell that to the doctors, and the police and everyone else that asks questions." She said, and left, closing the door behind her.
 "They don't understand." Zac murmured. "I really do talk to Deena and Courtney." There was a faint breeze in his room. He thought that was odd, because there were no windows open.
 "I talk to you too, Zac...." the voice said. Zac smiled.
 "Thanks, Deena."

~*~Downstairs~*~

 "Mom, I'm starting to get confused. I seriously believe that Zac thinks he's talking to Deena and Courtney." Taylor said. His mother shrugged.
 "Which ever. As long as nobody ever finds out about what he did to those girls." She said.
 "But, why'd he do it?" Taylor asked. Mrs. Hanson shrugged.
 "Because...he has do. He's a killer, Tay. Zac's a killer, but he did it all for Deena. All for Deena." She said, and opened the door to the cellar. There was the faint sound of a girl crying.
 "Now, tell Isaac that this one's ready to be done with. How come you don't want to kill like your brothers and sisters do?" Mrs. Hanson asked, and raised her meat cleaver.
 "Because, mom. It's wrong. You can't go killing people!" He yelled. It felt good to finally say what he was thinking all this time.
 "But, Tay, it's fun." She said. Isaac came into the room, and saw his mother raise the knife towards Taylor's chest.
 "Mom! No! Not Tay!" He screeched. She didn't listen, and plunged the cleaver deep into Taylor's chest. He fell to the floor. Blood tricked from his mouth, and started to sweat.
 "Mom..." He gasped. She shooked her head, and tsk tsked him.
 "Taylor, darling, now look what you made me do. I'm sorry, but if you can't participate in family activites, then you might as well not be a part of this family at all." She said. Taylor turned to look at Isaac with pleading blue eyes. Isaac wanted to help his brother, but he could not will his body to do so. He had lost his caring heart, the day their family sold their souls for him and his brother's fame. Now, it was all gone.
 "Mother! What about the band!?" He screamed. She looked confused for a moment, and then frowned.
 "Oh, yes. Put a towel on his wound to stop the bleeding. I missed his heart, he'll live." She said, and went to leave, but thought twice about it, and turned back.
 "And remember to attend to what's in the cellar! Your mother and your family didn't sell their souls to me for nothing!" She said, laughed. But it wasn't his mother's laugh. It was the laugh of the devil. Isaac nodded, and put a dish towel to Taylor's wound.
 "Don't worry Tay, mommy'll be back soon. We just have to kill her." He whispered. Taylor looked at him, his eyes glassy with pain, and nodded.
 "Yeah. We'll kill her." He rasped.

The End.
copyright athene_girl, 1999

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