Chapter 1 Head Hunter
>>Clio
Jackpot!!!
I dashed out of the bustling streets, my heart pounding with exhilaration. The crisp evening air brushed against my cheeks as I hurriedly made my way towards the towering building. Dark clouds were assembling in the sky so I was more than happy that I finished my job before the weather got bad. The polished marble floors sparkled under my feet as I ran through the corridors to enter the area my company was renting.
“Hey!” One of the workers there noticed me, “Our pretty boy’s back!” Almost everyone was leaving the office at that time but they waved at me when they saw me.
“Hi!” I waved back at them and went over to the Boss’s office. Everyone knows me as a pretty boy but no one actually knows that I’m not a ‘boy’. I’m a girl pretending to be a boy.
I have my reason for pretending to be a guy and I really hope I survive doing this.
I’ve been working for NL News for quite some time now and the sole reason for that is because of the Boss. I rapped my knuckles against the door of his office and waited for his response.
He always tells me to knock, but he’s the boss, so, of course, I should knock before I enter the room even though we’re not just boss and employee.
"Come in," A deep voice answered after a short gap and I opened the door.
“Nolan!” I ran up to my boss’s desk, “I did it!” I took off the DSLR camera around my neck and opened the screen, “I caught the shot!” I was so excited to show it to him that I didn’t notice Cherelle, his dark-haired, blue-eyed secretary, in the room.
“Cherelle,” It was only when Nolan spoke to her did I pause and turned my head to her, “You can leave,” I saw her standing near the wall, not far from us.
“Yes,” She cleared her throat and adjusted her clothes, “I’ll get back to work.”
She began to walk towards the door to leave and I think I saw something odd.
Why were her knees red?
“Clio,” I looked at Nolan when he called my name, ignoring everything else.
“Yes?” I answered.
He patted his thigh, “Come on,” He smiled at me making my heart skip a beat, “What were you going to show me?”
“Ah!” I walked around the desk, “Yes,” Slowly and softly I took my place and sat down on his left thigh shyly, “I got the shot.” I spoke in a lower tone as I got the picture of the celebrity couple. They were having an affair even though the woman is married, “Here,” I staked out on the roof of a building to get this and it took me three days but as long as Nolan was happy, I didn’t care how far I had to go.
A sly smile spread across Nolan’s face and he wrapped his arms around my waist, “Well done,” He rested his chin on my shoulder, right next to my neck, “Good job,” I felt his breath on my skin which made me excited.
“Thank you,” I let out a soft giggle.
“This is going to be an exclusive scoop.” Nolan let out a soft chuckle and I couldn’t help but feel happy. I always do when he praises me like that.
“I did good, right?”
“Very good,” He patted my head and I felt proud of myself. Then he took the camera from me to look at the pictures and I kept staring at him. Nolan is good-looking, his wavy brown hair and dark brown eyes have always been appealing to me but for a while now, he’s got me wondering about something.
“Nolan,” I stared at his face which was only a few inches away from mine,
“Hmm?” He kept his eyes on the screen.
“Will you really tell everyone we’re dating when I graduate college?” It’s been a year since Nolan and I started dating. We have an age gap of ten years but Nolan has been so nice to me and my mother for as long as I can remember that I couldn’t help but fall for him.
He looked at me, “Hmm?” Then softly touched the locks of my light blonde hair as he placed the camera on the table, “You’re so pretty,” He smiled at me, making me blush, “If only you weren’t…” He whispered the next sentence halfway, making me pause. My heart skipped a beat in dread.
“Nolan?” I looked at him and he immediately smiled at me.
“Of course,” He kissed my cheek and wrapped his arms around my waist, “Of course, I will. You’ve only got a semester left right? When do your classes start again?”
I nodded, “Right after the summer vacation, in September,”
“How old are you again?” He asked and I paused. Shouldn’t he know that? He asked me once before too.
“Twenty-one,” I answered anyway.
The sky got completely dark and I heard rumbling. I guess it was going to rain soon.
“Okay!” He smiled at me and placed his hand on my face, “You can leave for today,” He caressed my cheek with his thumb and we locked our gazes, “Your skin is as soft as always,” He was staring at me, making me feel giddy. I stared into his brown eyes while I found him staring into my blue ones. He moved closer, making my heart skip a beat.
Is he going to kiss me?! Finally!!?
I got excited and closed my eyes but he stopped right before he reached me, “Come on,” He spoke and I shot my eyes open, “Get going now.” He turned his face away, making my heart drop.
“Oh,” I got off of his lap, “Okay,” And started leaving his office. Was I mistaken? But he was so close to me. I reached the door and looked back at him. A year… We’ve been dating for a year but he still hasn’t kissed me…
“Have a safe trip back.” Nolan waved at me, “And be careful not to run into the Head Hunter.” Just then a bolt of lightning struck in the sky, and the sound of thunder reverberated in the air.
My skin stood up at that and I shook my head, “Come on Nolan,” I laughed nervously, “Why would I run into that murderer? Aren’t his victims from City A?”
He nodded, “But all his victims, so far, have been pretty young adults. And he kills regardless of gender.” He pointed at me, “Wouldn’t that make you the perfect target.” I felt a shiver go down my spine, “Hmm? My dear Clio?”
I shook my head, “Nolan!” I frowned, “This isn’t funny,”
He laughed, “Sorry, sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” He winked at me, “Get going, you should get back to your dorm before it gets late.”
Unfortunately for me though I had only walked halfway there when it started raining like crazy.
Oh no!!
I ran to the nearest convenience store with my camera bag covering my head and took shelter from the rain under the store’s overhead shed.
“Oh Gosh…” I brought my bag down and dusted the raindrops off of it, thanking myself for getting a good quality bag even though I’m dirt poor. Then I let out a sigh and stared at the rain falling down like cats and dogs.
It is monsoon season already? I moved my upper body as I felt a little restless, I was in a street where barely anyone was seen walking normally and today there wasn’t a single person in sight.
The flickering street light cast eerie shadows on the cracked pavement, creating a foreboding atmosphere that sent chills down my spine. So I turned to look inside the convenience store where the lights were on but no one was at the counter. Did they go out? Or go to the back to get something? Lightning struck, followed by thunder sending goosebumps all over my body and I immediately moved.
I should definitely go inside!
I was about to enter the store when I heard a scream that made me freeze in my path.
What was that?!
I shot my head around but saw no one. Am I hearing things? I gulped. I should get inside!
But, as I opened the door another blood-curdling scream made my eyes go wide.
This time, I caught where the sound was coming from and turned my head slowly to the narrow dark alley right by the store’s side.
“HELP!!!!” It was a woman screaming, “PLEASE!! HELP!”
My heart started pounding and my first instincts were to run away but then I thought about it again.
What if she’s stuck or what if she slipped?!
I let the door handle go and jogged over to the alley. I peered inside but it was too dark to see anything.
“HELP!!” Hearing her beg made me feel bad but there was no other choice for me but to go in and get to see better since nothing was visible from the corner and that’s what I did. I walked into the dark place that barely had any light at all, “HELP ME PL-” The woman’s heavy screaming for help stopped halfway and I froze as well when I heard something unholy.
Unfortunately, I had gotten near enough to be able to see what was going on and just then lightning struck to illuminate the whole place, giving me a clear purple view of the scenario followed by darkness again.
There, amidst the suffocating darkness as thunder rumbled, a gruesome act unfolded before my horrified eyes. A figure, their face concealed by the shadows, stood over another person, a woman, who lay motionless on the ground.
I squinted my eyes at the scene because I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The woman lay there unmoving but why was her head not there?
My heart pounded violently in my chest, its frantic beats drowning out the sounds of the world around me. Fear gripped me tightly, constricting my throat and stealing the breath from my lungs when I noticed the person standing above her with a ball-like shape in their hand.
A surge of terror surged through me, paralyzing my body and rendering me powerless to even say anything. The ball-like shape dangled down the figure’s hand like a head without a body being kept in the air by gripping the hair. The sight of such violence, the raw brutality on display, stirred a mix of disbelief and horror within me. My mind struggled to comprehend the unimaginable scene before me, desperately searching for a rational explanation, hoping it was all a sinister illusion.
That’s when the figure looked at me, rendering me frozen as the blood from the severed head trickled down and got washed away by the rain.
No matter how much I tried to deny it. I knew the person in front of me was none other than the infamous serial killer.
‘The Head Hunter’
Tears welled up in my eyes, blurring my sight but failing to erase the trauma etched in my memory. Dread coursed through my veins, mingling with a desperate urge to escape the nightmarish tableau that unfolded before me. Every fiber of my being screamed for safety, and I ran like crazy, unsure of where I was even going. I kept glancing over my shoulder to see if I was being followed but the rain that was drenching me and the tears that blurred my vision didn’t allow me to see anything properly which only resulted in the terror and fear grasping my mind even more.
It wasn’t until I reached the familiar building that I realized where my body had taken me and a hint of hope lit in my heart.
With trembling legs, I stumbled back into the company office, my mind filled with a mix of sorrow, and fear.
“Nolan,” I let out a quivering breath and began to walk to his office. My heart was beating so hard, I could hear it pounding in my ears in the lonely office where the gushing sound of the rain faded as I walked further in, “Nolan,” As I got closer to his office, I saw that the lights were still on and it made me feel better.
He’s still here! I felt so much better just by knowing that.
Tears were streaming down my face and my whole body was shaking from the cold and horror.
“Nolan,” I tried to yell his name but each time only a whisper came out.
I gulped, lubricating my dry throat as I reached his office where I heard muffled voices.
He must be with someone.
That’s good! The more people the better!!
I got to the door and without a second thought I opened it up.
“Nolan!” I stepped inside with a heavy heart ready to run into his arms to find some warmth and peace but stopped the moment I saw what was in front of me. Nothing could have prepared me for the heart-wrenching scene that awaited me, not when I was already losing my mind. Cherelle and Nolan were on the three-seater couch, engaged in vulgarity. Nolan was sitting on the couch, his pants down while Cherelle was sitting on top of his crotch enjoying an intimate romance.
Shock and disbelief flooded my senses, momentarily paralyzing me as the world seemed to shatter into a million fragmented pieces. The air in the room turned heavy with an indescribable mix of heartache and resignation as they both turned to look at me in shame. The echoes of my pounding heart intensified as the anguish and pain intermingled, intertwining with the echoes of the earlier terror, creating a maelstrom of emotions.
My brain couldn’t comprehend anything properly at this point and all I could let out was a simple questioning word as I stood there dumbfounded.
“What….?”