Short, but sweet. ;)

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I stared down at Hunter in horror as he rolled onto his side, gasping for air.

                  "You...you...you..." I looked back and forth between Ronny's "bedazzler" and Hunter's bleeding chest. "You shot him! With a gun! Not a water gun! A....a real gun! He's dying! We have to help him!" I started to rip off my sweatshirt to apply pressure to Hunter's wound, when I tripped over the wrench that Hunter had dropped and fell right onto Hunter's body, eyes inches from his wound. The unbearable stench of burning flesh filled my nostrils. I reeled backwards, jumping ungracefully onto my feet and crashing into my father's work bench, knocking over many screw drivers and other tools.

                  "He's....evaporating!" I shouted. "He's melting like the Wicked Witch of the West! Or maybe this is just a phase and he'll turn into freaking dust! How am I going to clean this up? My parents would never let me bring their award winning vacuum out here where there's probably rat shit all over the place that I can't see. He's going to die! I'm a witness! I'm a witness! I'm a loud witness who cracks under pressure! I'll crack like a freaking chestnut on Christmas if I'm questioned by the police about this! I can't be on your side, Ronny! I can't be on anyone's side! I'm a criminal now, aren't I?!" I got on my knees, my hands up in prayer and my head tilted upwards towards the ceiling. "God Almighty, I know I haven't spoken to you in a while but if you could just let this one thing slide. I know I've asked for a clean slate many times, especially after that one time I accidently..." I briefly looked at Ronny--"Never mind. The point is, God--"

                  "Honey, enough!" Ronny shook me many times until my eyes weren't glazed over with shock. "Get your cute little butt out of his shed and calm down."

                  "Knock it off? Knock it off? I can't breathe! I'm a killer! You're a killer! I watched you kill, therefore I am partially the killer for not stopping it! Right?" I shoved Ronny off of me, stumbling out of the shed and gasping for air. "It's both of you, isn't it? You and freaking Sketch-Gar, smiling all around town with your bedazzler gun and Gary's intimidating black eye liner! Oh god, I'm friends-- ex friends, with killers, and now I'm a killer for not even killing! Ahhh!"

                  "Pepper! Get a hold of yourself!" Ronny half whispered, slapping me lightly across the mouth. "I'm the one that shot Hunter! Not you! I would be the one that would get in trouble, not you! And for the record, he's not even evaporating, babe! That was just the silver in the bullet reacting with his blood and melting through his skin."

                  Now I was hyperventilating. "Then is he melting? Do fang people melt?" I did the sign of the cross multiple times. "God Almighty, we don't even own a mop! I need a mop! Please God, please! Mom broke the only one we had last Christmas trying to kill a spider!"

                  Ronny pocketed his bedazzler gun. "It's only an minor argon projectile thin cylinder with a stylish bedazzled case. It stuns werewolves for a few minutes before it disintegrates into their blood. I could have done a lot worse."

                  "You could have done a lot worse?" I shrieked. "What the hell are you and Gary, Ronny? Why did you come to my house? Do you have any idea what Gary did to me?"

                  Ronny only looked at me.

                  "Well?" I pressed.

                  "Besides the fact that the Magic Mike DVD Gary put in for me somehow broke my television in half, I can't tell you. Just stay away from us. Stay away from Gary, he'll hurt you next time without thinking twice. I'm serious."

                  My mouth fell open. Ronny knew. He knew that Gary had chained me to my shed to prevent me from going to Crave. He knew that Gary was Smiley. Once again, I felt utterly and completely betrayed by one of my only real friends. "Did you come here to kill me?" I whispered. "Did--did Gary tell you to come kill me? Is that why you brought the gun? You want to kill me?"

                  Ronny immediately looked offended. "I would never want kill you, Pepper. Ever. Surely you know that."

                  "So you had to kill me, then?"

                  Ronny ran a hand down his face and looked away. "Honey, I love you almost more than I love my new Armani jacket, but you know too much already and I'm not the guy you should be worried about killing you, and I'm not the guy that hung you from the shed. If I say anymore to you, we could both wind up dead tomorrow. Understand?"

                  I bit down on my tongue, released it, then clenched my hands. I was absolutely enraged. "I understand that you lied to me. All this time. All this time, Smiley was Gary."

                  Ronny's expression fell. "I wish I could explain things to you, Pepper, I really do, but I have to go. Trinidad will be back on his feet in ten minutes or so. I suggest you get back into the house and stay there. I'm sorry it has to be this way, but ignorance is bliss in your case." Ronny opened his mouth to say something else, then shook his head and started to walk towards the gate to my driveway.

                  "Wait!" I started to run after him. "Are you going to Crave?"

                  Ronny never answered and continued down the driveway to his car.

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                  I'll admit, after Ronny left I was in a foul mood and I wanted to punch the hell out of something. I couldn't go to Crave. It was too risky now. I couldn't throw myself into an area with a bull that I didn't know how to fight yet, and I was starting to realize that. Sure, I could kick ass and take names, but I was no Bruce Lee.

                   Regrettably, I started towards the shed for a few steps, debating whether to storm back into there and beat on Hunter while he was unable to grind me to a pulp. However, I came to my senses, locked him in the shed, turned back around, and went into the house. The poor guy. Even though he wanted to kill me and all, I was kind of getting use to the blind bat. He was like a breath of really...undead, unique air.

                  Plus, like Gary, he was totally hot when he was fuming. Like, really hot.

                  I rolled around restlessly in my bed with my cell phone in my hand. I wondered what Gary was doing right at that moment. Probably sucking faces with some girl and then chopping her head off. Was it bad that that thought made me jealous? Should I have called the police on myself for falling for a psycho?

                  Most importantly, had Hunter already woken up?

                  I checked my phone and oddly enough, the clock wasn't showing up. It felt like I had been laying in bed for hours, when in reality it had probably only been fifteen minutes. What day was it? I could have sworn at some point I had fallen asleep. Maybe I was dreaming.

                  Suddenly, I heard a loud bang outside my window.

                  Hunter.

                  Heart in my throat, I scrambled to my desk to grab my handy-dandy kitchen knife, dialed 9-1-1 on my phone, then cautiously crept to my bedroom window, cell-phone to my ear.

                  "Orange Gate County police, how can I help you?" a female voice spoke tiredly through the other end of my phone

                  Another bang on the window.

                  My heart was pounding.

                  "Hello? What's your emergency?"

                  "There's a..." I slowly peered out my window. There was nobody there, just a branch swaying in the violent wind. I relaxed, it was just a branch, not an axe murderer.

                  Then I saw him.

                  He was standing on the opposite side of the street with a dark sweatshirt and pants on. His head was slightly lowered, but not enough to hide the edge of his smiley mask. An object in his left reflected the light of the moon in his hand. A knife. In his other hand, there was a rounded object that he held by what looked like a piece of rope.

                  I tuned the woman on the phone out, straining to see what the man was holding in his hand. It appeared to be wet whatever it was, dripping on the sidewalk and creating a puddle next to the hooded man.

                  "I can't tell if he sees me," I whispered hoarsely, before dropping the phone straight to the ground. My mouth opened in horror as I finally put two and two together.

                  I hurriedly picked up the phone.

                  "Hello? Hello?" I was breathing so fast that I thought I would pass out.

                  "I'm still here, miss. Take a deep breath."

                  "I....I..." " I was trembling so hard and sweating that I thought the phone would slip out of my hand. It wasn't rope. It was hair. The man was holding an object with hair. "Smiley is outside my house, he's--he's holding a head."

                  Smiley moved rapidly across the street, bringing his arm back and chucking the head towards my bedroom window.

                  I threw myself to the ground as my bedroom window shattered, screaming bloody murder into the phone.

                  "Help! I need help! Help!"

                  "We can help each other, baby." There was a deep snicker on the other end of the line. Gary's snicker. I gasped. "I can think of a few things you could do for me that would put a big smile on my face. Although, things could get a little...messy."

                  I looked down at my bedroom floor which was pooling with blood, rising so high that it was already up to my knees. I was unable to move as the blood rose, it's thickness swallowing me foot by foot.

                  "You'll be smiling when I'm done with you, bitch."

                  I woke up from the nightmare, panting like crazy into my pillow, with the sound of distant sirens mingling with overly cheerful birds.

                  I flipped on the television. Immediately, I saw the images of two teenage boys around my age and the words "Smiling No More" beneath them. The images switched to a picture of Crave with yellow caution tape all over the doors. A cold, sinking feeling settled in my gut that would remain there the entire day.

                  There was another killing.

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