"If you follow your heart, you will always make the right choice." – Hunter (Hunting a Nogistune)
"Ally, Ally, Ally. You've got yourself in quite a pickle, here. Let me help you out, for a favor, of course. Nothing in this world is free. Everything has a price."
Toby twirled the knife expertly, letting the sharp edge shallowly cut Ally's throat. The teenager couldn't do anything but sob, too terrified to even think properly.
Her kidnapper grabbed a thick lock of hair, showing his canines in one horrifying grin. He leaned in close, letting his rotten teeth snap at her neck, as if he were a vampire ready to chow down on its next victim.
"You're so pretty like this: scared, broken, beautiful. It's no wonder you have so many guys falling at your feet as if you're their God. Are you? Are you our God?" He whispered against her ear, biting her ear lobe.
"Go to Hell," she spit, harshly.
Instead of being disgusted and wiping it away, he licked it off his face and released his inner Cheshire Cat. "That was tasty. Do it again."
"You're sick," Ally spat.
"Only the sickest, darling. Now, how about apologizing?"
"Never."
"Oh, I'm afraid that's not an option." Toby grasped the knife tightly and held it right under her right ear. He let it sit there, slowly cutting away skin, releasing dark crimson, before sheathing it in a pouch around his waist and grasping Ally's cheeks with two dirt-ridden hands. He then yanked her face upwards towards the single lightbulb hanging in the rectangular room.
"Never trust the deceitful nor the candor, for they are the ones that are only black and white. Everyone hunts them, but what they don't realize is that the grey ones are more dangerous. And you Ally, are in the grey area." Toby spoke in riddles that Ally couldn't comprehend, only knowing that while he was talking, she could attempt to get free from her restraints.
"You don't lead nor follow. You are untouchable, Ally. And I need that gift. Give me that gift."
"How? How do I give you it?" she asked desperately.
Toby frees her from her restraints and gives her the knife. He gazes into her eyes and they tell unheard stories only he knows.
"Kill me. Kill me so I can be in the grey area."
Ally couldn't think. Was she about to kill a man? Whenever they had to put down her puppy she couldn't even look. But now Toby stared at her, eyes pleading. Now was not the time for morals. If a man as dangerous as he asked to be killed, then she shouldn't hesitate. Who knows how many women he had killed before her. Maybe she could save more from the same fate.
"Rot in hell."
Ally doesn't bother going for the chest, instead deciding to go for the throat. She digs deep and hard, going for bloody. Crimson spurts out of his neck and covers the now murder. Toby slumps to the cold tile and a puddle formed, like the ones she used to jump in as a kid, but instead of being made from water the puddle was made from scorching blood.
She doesn't know when but the police arrive. She answers all their questions, except one.
"Did you kill that man?"
God, she did, didn't she? Killed a man with the very knife she had in her school backpack. And why? All because he had asked?
But what if she hadn't? Would she have survived?
Ally didn't want to know.
Somehow, word got out on the streets. While the police couldn't arrest her due to lack of evidence, she now had the reputation.
Everyone now knew Ally Cat as a murder. A stone cold blooded killer. A psychopath.
And she believed them.