A hooded figure

Luke slid his hands down from Melissa’s shoulders and wrapped them around her waist. Then he lowered his head and kissed her.

“I just wanted to get you alone,” he whispered, starting to kiss her again.

“Get off me!” Melissa shouted angrily. She shoved him with both hands.

He slid backward, easily regaining his balance. His smile faded. “Melissa, what’s your problem?”

“You scared me to death!” she cried angrily. “How could you be so insensitive?”

“I thought this was supposed to be a party,” Luke snapped back, pouting. “I just—”

“You just forgot that I got all those death threats!” Melissa snapped.

“I thought—”

“You thought it was funny to lead me out here to the darkest spot where the ice is cracking! I don’t believe you!” She uttered an angry cry, raising her fists and nearly toppling over.

“Okay, okay. I was wrong,” Luke said, raising both gloved hands as if to shield himself. “Cool off, okay? Just chill.”

Melissa cast him a dirty look, but her anger had started to fade.

Luke was just trying to be romantic, after all.

But he scared her. He really scared her.

And besides, they had no business being out where the ice was thin and cracking.

“Why don’t you skate on without me?” she suggested, softening her tone but unwilling to let him off the hook entirely. “Go ahead. Skate a few laps. I’m just slowing you down. Skate for a while. Then I’ll meet you by the refreshment table,” she said, pointing.

“Well, okay,” he reluctantly agreed. “You still mad at me?”

She shrugged. “Maybe.”

She watched him skate away, leaning into the wind. “When I get back, I’ll teach you some tricks,” he called back.

“Yeah, like how to stay on my skates!” she shouted. She wasn’t sure he’d heard her.

A gust of wind ruffled her hair. She pulled her wool ski cap down. She felt sorry she had suspected Luke.

Party pooper, she scolded herself.

“What am I doing way out here?” she asked herself out loud.

The other skaters seemed miles away. She couldn’t even hear the music, only the steady booming of drums, echoing off the trees.

Surrounded by darkness, she felt suddenly afraid.

I’ve got to get away from here.

I’ve got to get back to the others.

She started to skate, the ice slushy beneath her skates.

She heard a loud crack, spreading across the ice like a soft thunderclap, very nearby.

She tried to skate faster. Lost her balance. Stumbled. Fell onto her stomach.

“Oh, wow. Great party,” she muttered sarcastically.

As she pulled herself to her knees, she saw the hooded figure skating toward her.

Who is that? Melissa wondered and climbed all the way to her feet.

The hooded figure was skating fast, bent low, face cloaked in darkness under the hood.

Melissa squinted hard, trying to see who it was.

Closer. Closer. Skating low and fast in a straight line toward Melissa.

And what was that in the skater’s hand?

Something that caught the torchlight. Something silvery.

Slender and silvery.

Like a knife blade.

“Ohhh!” Melissa uttered a moan of terror. She tried to scramble away, but her legs wouldn’t cooperate.

She slipped, almost fell again.

The ice cracked behind her.

The skater approached, head bent low.

Melissa stared in open-mouthed horror.

The hood flew back. She saw the long red hair fly out from under it.

“Rachel?” she cried.

The skater glided rapidly through the shadows. The arm holding the slender blade rose up.

Melissa struggled to dodge away.

“Rachel!”

Head still lowered, red hair trailing over the fallen hood, she crashed into Melissa without slowing.

“Oh!” Melissa cried out, rocked back by the force of the collision.

And then she gasped as the knife plunged into her side.

Дата добавления: 2015-07-20