Bloodbath
Chapter 25
Over the next two months, Takuya and Zoe hung out almost every day. By now Zoe had killed over fifty households, as the bodies were usually discovered the day. I'm not doing this because I enjoy it, she kept telling herself. I'm only doing it for a place to stay at night....
One day, as the summer began to draw to an end, Zoe was waiting at their usual path. She was quite depressed, as it had been three days since she had last seen Takuya.
"Maybe he doesn't want to be my friend anymore," she said quietly.
Zoe stood up and was about to leave when she heard a voice in the distance.
"Hey, Zoe!"
She turned around to see Takuya running over to her, an excited look on his face. A few seconds later he stopped in front of her and smiled.
Zoe looked down. "For a minute I thought you weren't going to come. I haven't seen you in a few days and I figured that maybe you didn't want to hang out with me anymore...."
"Are you kidding? I will always want to hang out with you," he said. "Sorry I couldn't hang out those days. I had to pack because my family's leaving the city tonight."
Zoe could feel tears well in her eyes. The only true friend she had ever had was about to leave.
"Hey, cheer up. I thought that since today's my last day here, we could spend the entire day together," he told her.
"Really? What are we going to do?" She asked.
Takuya grinned. "You'll see."
With that, he grabbed her wrist, then began to run, pulling the surprised girl behind him.
"Where are we going?" She asked, trying to keep up.
"No time to explain! I'll tell you in a little bit," he said.
"Slow down!" Zoe cried.
After about five minutes of running, they were seated on a bus.
"So, where are we going?" Zoe asked again as the bus began to take off.
"We're going to the zoo," Takuya said happily. "I like looking at strange animals."
Zoe narrowed her eyes. "Strange? What do you mean?"
Takuya laughed. "You know. Animals that you don't normally see on a daily basis."
After all the times Isamu had called her an 'animal', she was somewhat upset about that comment. Maybe he only likes me because he sees me as a strange animal, she angrily thought to herself.
"You're going to love it," the boy told her.
"Zoos don't interest me," she said coldly.
Takuya smiled. "We'll see."
Fifteen minutes later, they had gotten off the bus and began roaming around the crowded zoo.
"Wow, what's that?!" Zoe excitedly ran over to an elephant. "It's huge!"
"Told you that you would like it," Takuya said.
Zoe turned red. "Well.........it's alright.........Hey! What's that?!"
She ran to the other side to see a giraffe. "It's neck is so freakin' long!"
Takuya laughed. "Admit it. You're having fun."
"Alright, you caught me. I've never seen so many animals. And they're so different than the ones I usually see," she said in awe.
"Different is a good thing, in my opinion." He gently took her hand. "Wanna walk around some more?"
Zoe smiled. "Okay."
As they walked, she squeezed his hand a little tighter. "So........what are you gonna be doing tonight?"
Takuya sighed. "I'm going to a carnival this evening with my friend. I don't really want to go, but I might as well because I already promised I would."
At the same moment, Zoe could overhear the conversation between two people as they walked by.
"You know that string of murders? There's been another one. Family of five, all dead in the living room," one of them said.
The other person shook their head in disgust. "It's unbelievable. This has gotta be one of the largest killing sprees in history. And especially in only a few months! There's been a murder almost every day. I hope they catch this psycho and give him the death penalty......."
Zoe sighed. Looks like I'm going to have to kill someone else for a place to stay, she thought. A second later she realized what she had just said to herself, and was shocked at it.
Why do I need to kill people? She wondered.
Just then, Zoe could hear an eerie voice in her head. It's because you love to kill them, the voice whispered to her. If you don't kill them, then one day they will just kill you........
She suddenly saw herself in a hazy purple dream-like sequence. She was sitting on the ground and thought she was alone. That was until she heard the soft footsteps of an approaching figure. As the figure got closer, it was revealed to be a child around her own age. The child was naked and her head was mummified in a wrapping of white bandages. The girl stopped in front of her and crouched down to her level. Although her head was covered, a single glowing eye stared into Zoe's.
You were born to kill humans, the girl told her. You were put on the earth to end their existence.....
No, it's not true, Zoe said to her. I'm not a killer....
The girl chuckled. But you were, she replied. You are a bloodthirsty murderer. You want to rip them to pieces and watch as their blood pools around their corpses....
"Shut up!"
"Zoe? Are you okay?"
The sound of Takuya's voice brought her back to reality.
"What?" She asked, confused.
The brunette was looking at her with a concerned expression. "Um.....are you okay?"
Zoe looked down. "Yeah........just hot and tired I guess........"
"Here, let's go cool off."
He led her to a secluded lake, about ten minutes away from the zoo.
"Is it okay to be here?" Zoe asked, looking around. "Will we get in trouble?"
"Nah, no one comes here," he replied. "So it's okay."
Takuya took her hand and ran to the edge of the lake, pulling her along behind him. Zoe playfully splashed at him, a smile on her face.
"Hey!" Takuya pushed her down in the water. "How do you like that?"
"I don't know. Why don't you tell me?" With that, Zoe grabbed his ankle, causing him to fall into the water as well.
They splashed each other for a good five minutes until they finally collapsed from exhaustion.
"We better go dry our clothes," Takuya said. "They won't let us back on the bus with wet clothes."
They undressed and laid their wet clothes flat to dry in the sun. The two of them sat back to back, naked.
"I had a really good time today," Zoe said quietly.
"Good, I'm glad you did," he happily replied.
Zoe turned around, causing Takuya to stiffen and turn bright red. She laid her head on his shoulder.
"I'm going to miss you so much, Takuya. You're the best friend I've ever had.....And ever will......." She told him.
He sighed. "I'm really going to miss you, too. I promise I'll come back next year."
"I hope so," she replied.
On the bus ride home, Zoe was thinking to herself. I wonder if his friend is a boy or a girl....
I bet it's a girl, the voice in her head started up again. If it is a girl, wouldn't that just be terrible? You can avoid it, though. All you have to do is kill him. After all, he can't hurt you if he's dead.....
Stop it! Who are you? Zoe silently screamed at the voice.
The voice laughed. You should know that by now, it said.
"Zoe!" Takuya gasped.
Zoe snapped back to reality once again to realize that she was strangling Takuya.
"Sorry!" She released him, terrified at what she had just done.
"It's okay," he said uneasily, rubbing his neck. "What was that about anyway?"
"Takuya, I want you to promise me something," she said monotonely.
Takuya blinked. "Sure, what is it?"
"If I was ever to kill a bunch of people......I want you to kill me....."
He stared at her, too shocked to say anything. They sat in silence until the bus dropped them off.
"I had a good time," Zoe said, a shy smile on her face. "I'll be waiting for you next year."
Takuya pulled her into a hug. "I'll come back to you."
"You better," she said, clinging onto him. "Um, Takuya? Your friend..........is it a boy or a girl?"
Takuya hesitated. He really liked Zoe and didn't want to give her the wrong idea about his friend Courtney.
"He's a boy," he lied, causing the blond to beam radiantly.
Her smile made his heart flutter and he gave her a soft kiss on the cheek. "Bye!"
As Zoe watched him leave, she sighed. I'm going to the carnival tonight, she thought to herself. I'm going to tell him how I really feel about him. I hope he feels the same way.....
damn, my fingers hurt from typing. let's see what happens in the next chapter, shall we? well, you gotta wait till it comes out. don't hurt me! *runs away from a barrage of bullets* chapter 26 is coming soon!
