Blue

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"Just a hot chocolate please" Jane requested, smiling at the thought of warming up with a hot drink on the girls' day out shopping. Her friends Laura and Lisa were waiting with their drinks at the other end of the counter. They'd planned a guiltless day of shopping stopping only for food and drink. 

Picking up her finished beverage at the drink station, whipped cream and sprinkles included, they scanned the shop for an empty table. "Ah the window seats!" exclaimed Lisa, an unapologetic people watcher. They made their way through the crowded store and fell into the chairs arranged by the window. 

After a few moments of sipping and relaxing, the girls began to compare their purchases from the past couple of hours. Jane pulled out a sparkling gold dress that she'd found in the sale, not her usual attire but at the price it was selling for she had to take it. "That's something I'll be borrowing" winked Laura, who had her new stiletto shoes in her lap for them to admire. 

As more garments were being pulled from bags and shown off at the table, Jane gazed out the window. People were rushing by, oblivious to each other, bumping around with noone really noticing anyone else. Typical of a city centre, everyone in their own world making a beeline for their next purchase. Just as she started to turn back to the mini fashion show, a man caught her eye. He was unnaturally tall and very thin. Just standing there, holding a blue coloured balloon on the other side of the walkway. At first she assumed he was just waiting for someone but he himself seemed to be watching everyone.

"Earth to Jaaaaane" Lisa mocked, poking her in the side.

She pulled herself away from the window and turned back to her friends. "Where's that sweater you found?" Lisa asked, pointing to Jane's bags. 

Jane smirked, knowing that Lisa would try to borrow it all the time but it was so soft that she'd be hiding it in her closet. She pulled it out and handed it over for her friends to admire. After they'd recapped on all their purchases, they drank up and gathered their things ready to head back out and continue with their trip. 

They had browsed through a few shops and were about to enter a beauty store when Jane stopped at the entrance. The others carried on ahead until they realised they'd lost a member of the group. They turned to see Jane staring away from the store. "Jane, what are you doing?" they chorused, to no reply. 

She was watching him again, the tall man from earlier. She'd forgotten about him before but she was sure he had been following her around. Now he was only a few shops away, watching her. His face was obscured by the hat he was wearing, pulled down and covering his eyes in shadow. She only glanced away as her friends tried to drag her inside. "No don't, that guy has been following us around all day" she pointed. Her friends peered around the doors to the store, "What guy?" they asked in unison again. 

"Him, with the balloon" she pointed him out again but the others couldn't seem to see who she was referring to. They both waltzed back into the store, leaving her at the door, just watching the man with the balloon. Whilst his face was obscured, she was sure he had started to smirk now, sending a chill down her spine as a result. 

She frowned and darted into the store, trying to put the man out of her mind for the rest of the trip. After a few more hours of wandering around the shopping centre and buying bits and bobs, she made her way home without her friends as they decided to dash to the supermarket to grab food for dinner.

As Jane rounded the corner towards their house, she realised that after the beauty store the man had disappeared. It relieved her to think that it was just a creepy guy who got bored once she decided to ignore him. She stopped at her front door and tried to grasp her keys from her handbag without putting all her shopping down. Once this attempt had failed she admitted defeat and let all her bags drop to the floor, accidentally dropping her handbag with them. Sighing, she bent down to rummage for her keys amongst the sea of receipts and old sweet packets. After a moment or two she found them and stood back up to let herself into the house, ready to fall onto the couch and maybe have a little nap. 

As she pushed the key into the door, a strange squeaking noise coming from behind startled her. The hairs on her arms stood on end and she closed her eyes wishing it was just her imagination. As she reopened them, she tilted her head to the side so she could see who was behind her in the reflection of the glass in her door. Heart beating fast, she swirled to meet the stranger behind her and was met only by a single blue balloon, tied to her gate.

See the next installment- The Letter 'D'

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Right

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The car shuddered to a halt on the dusty track belonging to the cabin. A typical sight, logs here and there with various trophies displayed on the walls. Unfortunate for the animal but a staple for any log cabin enthusiast, something Carl loved to hate every time his father, Dan, guilted him into a father-son weekend. 

He hadn't been too keen on the weekends for a long while. As a child the adventures were exhilarating but now he would rather hang out with friends over a cold one... or ten. His father still came once or twice a year though, albeit alone. The lakes were great for hunting and he preferred the peace and quiet away from the bustle of town life. 

Glancing toward the cabin, he spotted his father waving him in from the crooked front porch. He waved back, and pulled his keys from the ignition. Watching Dan re-enter the cabin, which Carl thought of more as a shack with its less than practical design, he pulled his dufflebag from the passenger side seat and slid out of his truck. 

He took his time, merely ambling toward their home for the weekend hoping that the experience wouldn't been too excruciating this time. "Finally Boy, I was about to come drag you inside myself you were walking so slow". Rolling his eyes Carl responded, "Well we aren't all go getters like you Dad". Silence followed, but only briefly as his father let out a slow laugh and then patted him on the shoulder. 

"Well then let's get started shall we?" his father suggested. 

"No Dad, I've literally just arrived. Can we just chill out for a little while, y'know, relax?" Carl was fatigued from the drive up and fancied a little nap by the fireplace for an hour or two. 

"Fine, fine" Dan replied, both of them settling down by the hearth. Pulling out two bottles from his bag, Carl tossed one to his father, "Cheers" he winked and they began to drink in silence. 

                                                              ***

"Carl, wake up we need to get going if we're going to get anything done at all this weekend."

"CARL"

He'd heard his father the first time, he wasn't even truly napping. Just stalling for time but the proverbial bull had reared its head and so he tackled the situation head on. 

"Dad, do you think you could just, not, this time". He asked, knowing the retort that was to come.

"What are you blathering about, I have to do it, I always do"

"You don't have to do anything Dad" he said, watching his father disappear down the hallway into the bedroom. He soon emerged, chain in hand. This one looked terrible he thought, assuming his father had arrived a day or two early to find the catch without him. 

He had loved it as a child, every kid wants to be like their dad. Most kids would do anything their dad asked of them and Carl was no different. He adored coming to the cabin to hunt with his father, it made him feel grown up and sometimes he was even allowed half a cup of beer to celebrate the catch. He had matured now though, he was an adult, and he spent all of his time at college. Time that had expanded his horizons and he had realised that he didn't like the pastimes of the past anymore. In fact, they made him feel bad just thinking about them.

"Carl, I don't know what this college business has done to you but you know why I do this and I'd like to think that I don't need to explain myself to my child" Dan responded, almost snapping at his son. 

Looking at the catch for the weekend, Carl saddened. He could see the fear in her eyes, almost pleading with Carl to set her free. From the looks of her spindly legs, she'd wandered into one of his fathers traps that littered the woods. Blood had seeped out and dried, with a glimmer of bone just peeking its way through the torn meat on her leg. She let a whimper of sorts pierce the air, to which his father responded with a sharp slap across the cheek. 

A funny moan escaped her lips and Carl realised his father had cut out her tongue and burned the end, sealing it as to not kill her. He must have caught her today, no-one could survive this for very long. Pulling her brown hair from her face, his father uttered "Not long now pretty lady".

"Dad, please let her go. It's bad to keep doing this. It always has been" he pleaded, which only made the girl cry even more. "She's probably just lost her friends, she doesn't deserve this fate".

"It's not about what is good or bad Carl. It's about what is right" Dan replied as he dragged the girl towards the door, picking up his hunting rifle on the way. "I was chosen to rid the earth of these vermin Carl, you know that. This heathen deserves her fate".

He whispered "Run little lady" as he opened the door and freed her chains. Watching the teenager limp towards the hillside he pulled his gun up to his shoulder and began the chase. 

Flickr User John Kent Title: Middle Tennessee Cabin

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12:01am

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"5 minutes left everyone, find your someone special!"

Sarah rolled her eyes, the University had been extra cruel with her timetabling this year and her exams were to start on the 4th January which not only meant that she was taking a test on a Saturday but that she was also stuck in the library on New Years Eve. Her friends had tried to lure her to the impromptu street party that had sprung up outside the dorms but this exam was much too important. Her first round of exams hadn't gone so well and she was expected to resit in order to catch up. 

She wasn't the only one with her head in the books that night, Amy, her course-mate (if that's what you could call her), was also expected to resit in order to pull her up from a fail to a pass. Sarah had struggled with the workload, leading to her fail, but her fellow library-goer for the night simply never turned up to lectures.

Sarah had hoped that Amy wouldn't base her study operation too close to her own area for the night, expecting that she'd be asked countless questions about course content. Thankfully, Amy contained herself in the private study area, leaving Sarah to revise in peace. A guy Sarah didn't recognise had also entered the library that night but she hadn't seen him since he first arrived a few hours earlier. They'd exchanged polite smiles and left it at that. 

Slamming her hefty book closed on the sleek new tables the University had installed during its "modernisation period", she circled her fingertips against her temples attempting to subdue what felt like the beginnings of a headache. The revelers in the street had increased in decibel as the clock drew closer to midnight, so she stuck her hand into her mess of a handbag and fumbled around for her phone. Locating the device, she clicked in the side button and sure enough the time read 11:59pm. Deciding to at least acknowledge the impending new year, she wandered over to the window to partake in the festivities (even if it was from the silence of the library). 

"3... 2... 1... Happy New Year!"

Making sure she was truly alone in her little area of the library that night, she did a jig of sorts to celebrate the arrival of 2014 and just as quickly regained her composure readying up for the next couple of hours of studying. 

Stealing one last glance at the party in the street, which had broken into song with Auld Lang Syne, she headed back to her table. Spotting her phone dancing around dangerously close to the edge of the table, she realised someone had managed to fight through the millions of phone calls being made at that precise moment and get through to wish her a happy new year. Catching it just as it was about to drop onto the thinly carpeted floor, she frowned at the unknown number message flashing in her hand. 12:01am on New Year's Day, it must be someone she knew,so she slid her thumb across the screen and answered. 

"Happy New Year!" She exclaimed, expecting a familiar voice to identify themselves on the other end to no luck. The crowd had gotten louder with the second rendition of Auld Lang Syne so she blocked her other ear with her finger in an attempt to hear her caller.

"I can't hear you, speak up." she said, frowning at the festivities now. Still nothing. Moving to the corner of the room she could just about pick up a faint thumping noise on the other end. Realising this was quite possibly a pocket dial, she shouted "HELLO" down the phone to try to gain the attention of her midnight dialler. She could just hang up but it was 2014 and she wanted at least one person to talk to for a few minutes. Pushing her call control buttons on screen, she changed the call to speakerphone to try to figure out who it was. 

Almost on cue, the drunken party-goers had grown tired of singing and had resumed normal celebrations for the night. 

Still thumping on the other end of the phone. It didn't really fit the profile of a pocket dial, which usually featured some heavy rustling and voices on the other end. This call was silent except for that thump, thump, thump noise. Resigning herself to defeat, she was about to hang up when a new noise filled the air. A dragging sound.

She frowned. What on earth is this call about? And then footsteps. It dawned on her that someone was dragging something on the other end of the line and for some reason this made her very nervous. Setting the phone back to its normal call mode, she decided to go find her course-mate and get a second opinion. That and to calm herself down. Something just didn't sound right, she didn't know what but it had freaked her out a little.

She made her way across the main library floor to the stairs which lead to the private study area. For some reason she was creeping down the steps one by one but she didn't stop herself. The air felt tense around her despite the celebrations happening outside. She found her way to the area that her course-mate had said she was headed and pushed through the door letting it swing shut behind her, to alert Amy to the fact that she was coming (and partly just to break the silence that was making her nervous). 

Deciding she was only freaking herself out, she called out "Amy" before she came to the private area. Just as rounded the corner, she stopped. Every single hair on her body stood on end and dread filled her limbs. The smiling guy from earlier was dancing around with one of Amy's arms in hand, leaving a dark stain of blood across the carpet as he dragged her.

"You finally joined the party, come, dance."

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