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there was nothing that was as horrific as this and I wasn't prepared.
    The fire and rescue team and news crews all gathered in their rightful circles behind the intimidating yellow boundary tape. Absolute mayhem. This was savage and anyone could be next. I felt a tingle move from the base of my neck and travel around my body. I knew from the telephone call this morning that Riverview would never recover from this. I shuttered and tried to shake off the thought.

Chapter 4
    I stepped back into the shadows of the crowd and knew that a vicious storm was heading our way. He wasn't going to stop at two. How many more until we found him? Every minute that passed was a minute closer to the next kill. What I wanted was a cigarette. What I wanted was a drink of something strong enough to numb the shock and the wounds that were opening up again.
    I scanned the scene for Chief Hayes and he was nowhere to be found. Hopefully, he was back at the station with Cole and Billy Randall, our only possible witness. Billy might have noticed something that he didn't think was relevant. If he wasn't too drunk to see. Tonight was not the first time that he’d wandered the streets in the middle of the night. He did it all the time. There had to be something that he would remember if he was sober enough.
    I hadn't noticed that Jason had followed me outside and into the dark. He towered over me from behind, with his bull horn of a voice, lips pressing on my ear shouting over the generator. "Sam." I knew for sure that he had busted my eardrum and shook me off balance and down to the ground.
    "Shit," I yelled, and glared at the giant. "Help me up!"
    His six foot four, two hundred and forty pound body whipped me up like a feather. I landed, feet firmly on the ground, my available arm circling to balance. I tried to brush the dirt and humiliation off but I could feel the bristles of a brush blending a dusty shade of red into my face.
    "I'm sorry," Jason said with his usual sexy grin. He was always saying I'm sorry, but I often wondered if he knew the definition of the word. How many times can someone be sorry about something if they are always up to no good? And I was close enough to know he was possessed by the devil. The words constantly rolled over his perfectly shaped lips like a waterfall plunging into a pool of raging water. He seldom pulled his games on me. I never let him get away with it. I knew too much. More than I needed to know. My best friend and the crush that I'd had since he shoved Lance Baker to the ground for hitting me with a spitball in third grade. The typical bad boy, the only kind I liked, and the only one that I didn't dare to have.
    "Come on, Sam, I didn't mean it." He lowered down to my eye level.
    "Knock it off." I narrowed my eyes at him. "I need to think."
    "You've been avoiding me for a week."
    "You're like a head on collision, impossible to avoid."
    "You're doing a damn good job of it," he said. "What's the problem?"
    "I've been busy." I used one of his favorite lines.
    "Bullshit." His laughter echoed through the trees.
    "This really isn't a good time to talk about your stalking abilities.”
    "You're right, but will you please answer my calls?"
    "Of course I will," I said, looking at the ground and drawing N O in the dirt with the point of my boot.
    "Good, I'm going to make friends with the neighbors." Glancing back at me, he slipped through the darkness like a thief and disappeared into the crowd. He had my heart and didn't know it. I wasn't sure how I was going to get it back and I wasn't sure if I wanted it back. The Jason roller coaster. It was frightening. I wasn't sure that I had the guts or stamina to the stay on the ride long enough for the two-minute thrill. I also had no desire to end up as a flavor of the week.
    The wind was blasting my face and turning it into a crimson rose. Random thoughts of the past pounded my head like a rubber mallet—hard enough to hurt but padded enough to only bruise my flesh. I