226A/N: Hello everyone! This is my third novel, "How to Catch a Killer"! I had the novel fully published before but, unfortunately, I deleted it by accident thanks to an issue on my laptop. If you saved this under favorites and such, I apologize. Your reviews and my shout-outs were deleted as well. I'll try to repost them, but if I can't, I apologize.
Either way, if this is your first time reading this or otherwise, I hope you enjoy it!
Chapter 1: What She Saw
-Aubrey's POV-
Keep running…you have to keep running…don't let him catch you…
I weaved through the trees, not bothering to stay quiet anymore. He saw me. I know he did. He looked right at me. I needed to get out of here before he caught me. If he caught me…
He'd kill me.
I was breathing so loud I wouldn't be surprised if he could hear me forty feet away. I kept holding back painful coughs, ignoring the fact that this was the fastest I'd ever run in my life. How I managed to run this fast in heels when I couldn't manage to run this fast in sneakers during gym class still didn't make sense to me, but that was the last thing I wanted to think about right now.
Well, my shoes were about to become the center of my attention. I turned my head momentarily when I heard the sound of dead leaves breaking behind me and, when I turned my head back around, got smacked in the face with a low-hanging tree branch. I felt the branch scrape from my right cheek across my nose and the sudden shock from the impact made me topple over.
It had rained the day before and ground was somewhere between the consistency of dirt and mud. Thanks to Mother Nature and the fact that she was a bitch, my shoes ended up getting partially stuck in this gloppy mess, trapping me on the ground.
"C'mon! C'mon!" I whispered desperately to myself, tugging at my ankles in an attempt to free myself before he caught me. Normally this would've been an easy task to complete if you were calm, but I wasn't calm. I'd like to see you stay calm if you were being chased by a murderer!
I was able to free one of my feet and I quickly moved onto my other one, but the sound of his voice distracted me. He sounded so comforting, just like he usually did when he talked to me. Pfft, yeah. That wasn't the right word to use for him anymore, was it?
"Auuubrey…come on out. I know you're here somewhere…"
Oh, screw this! I slid my foot out of my high-heeled boot and jumped back onto my feet, staggering in the process. I didn't think of the fact that one of my legs was now three inches taller than my other one, but that was a thought for another time and place.
I wasn't afraid to admit it. I was a huge air-head. That was why it didn't occur to me to take my other boot off and just run with it in my hands since I wasn't holding anything else. But where was the fun in that? Instead, I half hobbled, half (attempted to) run towards town.
"Where do you want us to go, boss?"
…Boss?
Boss or not, I didn't hear a response; but whether that was due to the fact that his response was extremely quiet or the fact that he didn't respond at all, I wasn't sure.
My mission now was to make it to Brett's house. Brett's house was closer than mine. I had to tell him about this. He wasn't going to believe this, but I had to try to convince him.
By this point, it finally occurred to me to take off my other shoe. I practically flung it off my foot mid-run and continued my trek to my best friend's house. As I ran, tears finally started to slide down my face. This was all wrong. Why did I have to walk through the forest instead of riding home with Brett today? Everything happens for a reason…but what was the reason for this? Was this how I was going to die? Running from a guy I thought I could trust?
I didn't know what to do. I never expected my life to turn into a screwed up movie with one simple decision of how I would make it home from an average day at school. What could I do to get out of this?
What should I do after I witnessed my dad's best friend murder someone in cold blood? I couldn't tell my parents…not with the situation we were in. All I could do was run and hide…and hope that he didn't kill me, too.
As I ran, I thought about the scariest part of this situation. I thought I recognized the man he killed. I could be wrong; I had been wrong about a lot (and I mean a lot) of things before, but I had a weird, scared feeling about this.
I thought about the past two days and how all of this started. It all started last night when I visited Brett at work…
A/N: This is a short first chapter! I once again apologize, and I hope you enjoy this novel!