Chapter Text
Techno's calls remained unanswered as he ran deep into the eerie woods that surrounded the edges of the town. His heart was pounding with every shadowed silhouette he ran past, imagining a familiar corpse somewhere in the shadows as well as the figure of that vile murderer next to it and forming some gruesome scene of blood and terror. Anxiety and worry ate at him as multiple scenarios formed in his mind, each more ghastly than the last and making his grip on the handle of his rapier shake ever-so slightly as he pushed himself to run faster.
Faint rays of moonlight filtered through the dark canopy, slightly lighting up his path with its soft bluish glow. It was barely enough to make it so that he didn't run straight into one of the trees but not enough that stray rocks and the gnarled roots that dipped in and out of the ground managed to make him stumble a few times as he ran on uneven ground and nick his clothing from the dark shrubbery around him.
He called out his name again and still nothing but the sound of leaves swaying, his uneven breathing, and his loud footfalls greeted him back.
Light became more scarce as he went into the deeper parts of the forest and in his struggle to navigate through it, he didn't see the small stump in front of him which had tripped him and making him fall roughly onto his side. Techno hissed as he touched his bruised arm that he used to break his fall, luckily it wasn't broken or anything worse but he could already see the nasty bruise that'd form in an hour or so before sitting up and lightly dusting himself.
He noticed the absence of his phone from the pocket of his sweatshirt and looked around until he saw it lying on a rock behind him with multiple cracks decorating the screen. He lifted it up and turned it on, only to see half of it not displaying anything but the cracked black screen while the other half functioned a bit normally albeit glitchy. He cursed before tossing it to a bush next to him and continued to make his way in the woods.
In hindsight, maybe taking a flash light with him before leaving to run off into the dark woods with no reception was a better idea than his phone, which is unusable at the moment somewhere on the forest floor, which only had three percent of battery life...
The pinkette arrived at a steep cliff that overlooked the greenery below, fortunately there was not much of the tree line above with him to block the moonlight from shining on the tree tops below but even with the illumination, nothing looked out of place and there were no tell-tale sounds of an under-going murder neither was there any sign of the killer and the unfortunate victim. He grit his teeth in frustration and wondered if the kid was still alive. Best case scenario, he's alive with possible injuries ranging from mild to life-threatening; worst case scenario, he's already dead in some ditch somewhere.
None of those managed to alleviate his panic-ridden mind at all.
Techno sighed and continued his search, looking for a safer way get to the lower grounds. He asked himself why was it that his Sunday night was spent running through the dark woods at eleven o'clock in the evening, chasing a dangerous killer who's about to murder his nosy friend who'd been nothing but a complete nuisance to everyone in town when he started his own little investigation.
When his editor suggested that moving somewhere smaller and quieter would give him a much needed break from the hustle and bustle of the city, Techno's pretty sure that his poor editor's idea of a break isn't being knee-deep into a real-life murder case that had been killing the unsuspecting townspeople from left to right.
He was sure on one thing though, when he took English as his major in college it was so that he could professionally write romance novels and maybe some other genre every once in a while. He didn't waste four years in college to get his diploma only to go after some dangerous murderer in the woods with a bloodied chainsaw or a machete a few years later as if he was some trained criminology graduate.
And even with all that being said, he still ignored all sense of rationality to go along with a kid and his two other kiddy friends' plan in getting involved with the murders going around all for the sake of having "fun" and just so the three could know what its like to be Nancy Drew in real life or something.
They lost him at the Nancy Drew part.
Yeah, so maybe the thought of three teenagers getting caught in the crossfire was what encouraged him to get involved in the first place but that didn't change the fact that he was way out of his league.
He soon found himself looking down at a slope and frowned at some of the jagged rocks and wilted brambles scattered all over it. For a second he thought of looking for another option before sighing and carefully started to go down the slope. It was all good before the end of his pants got snagged on one of the brambles which caused him to stumble forward and roughly roll the rest of the way down.
He stopped rolling as he collided with one of the trees at the bottom and let out a small groan. His entire body ached and his feet were killing him. As if on instinct, he started to curl inwardly on the ground and tried to stabilize his breathing. His lungs felt as if they were burning and his mouth was dry with all that running and yelling.
Why was everything in this town was hellbent on trying to kill him? Well he shouldn't be surprised seeing as half a dozen or more people died there and one more would join that list because he was stupid enough to end the game of cat and mouse with the murderer and blame someone else for everything that happened.
Everyone hailed him as a hero for figuring it all out when in reality he was just an incompetent dude who just managed to ruin someone's entire life when he refused to acknowledge the rest of the evidence that didn't make any sense whatsoever just because Techno only wanted everything to be over with.
Because he was so tired of everything that led up to this point.
Getting close to the townies only to find out the next day that they'd been stabbed in some abandoned building somewhere was torture and the endless thoughts that war with each other in his head whether he should just pack his bags and abandon everyone to their deaths or to stay with them and just deal with it, kept him up at night on more times than he could count.
He cursed himself for getting soft. None of this would've had affected him much if he'd kept his distance. If he'd remained his normal awkward introverted self who liked rom-coms, block games, and writing cheesy romance novels on his desk in his cozy little apartment.
And now because of his selfishness and desire for the situation to end despite the consequences, an innocent person is in jail for crimes that weren't committed and a young teenager is going to be killed in the next hour or so; whether he would be the last victim or not is unknown to him and anyone else who gives a damn about the situation.
Taking deep breaths, the pinkette gingerly rose from his position before grabbing his rapier and standing up. He wasn't just going to lie on the ground and let his mistake worsen by the minute. Slowly but surely he started to go through the thicket of shrubbery in front of him again, all but ignoring the aches and soreness.
Someone innocent was gonna die tonight and it'll be his fault if he doesn't do something about it. He can throw himself pity party of negativity and regret all he wanted later, right now he has someone to stab and an annoying gremlin to save.
Now that his head was a bit clearer than it was thirty minutes ago when he scrambled out of Jack's truck maybe he should've atleast called Sam despite the bad reception and low battery, at least he'd still have some reception there unlike being so deep in the woods with his useless phone tossed somewhere that his only hope of communicating with anyone is either yelling loudly for help like a lunatic, like what he was doing now, or burning the trees for a smoke signal or something and risk a forest fire. Maybe he'd have a chance at this confrontation with a guy who has a gun and proper training with apprehending criminals.
He shook his head and kept running. He couldn't dwell on the maybes and the what-ifs. There's a murderer in these woods who needs to meet the end of his rapier and he wasn't going to lose without a fight.
A flash of red caught his eye and he slowed his run to a steady jog before going over to a low hanging branch with what looked like a piece of cloth snagged on its pointy end. He carefully disentangled it from the branch and looked down at the red cloth which on closer inspection, had spots of fresh blood dotting the embroidered T on the corner.
There was only one guy he knew who owns a red bandana with the initial T.
"Techno!" A terrified voice shouted suddenly nearby.
He gripped the hilt of his sharpened rapier and ran faster to the direction of the voice.
He'd be damned if he was going to let that bastard kill Tommy.