“Thank you for playing with Charlie today,” Mrs. Polivka said with a smile as I tied my shoes on.

                “Oh, it was no problem. I like playing with Charlie,” I said, returning the smile.

                I had come to their house today, pretending that I just wanted to hang out with Charlie. In truth, I was just learning where Fuller was. I had managed to sneakily learn that he was grounded for the night for mouthing off to his dad again.

                Fuller would be locked in his room all night. I had checked out the side of the house. Sneaking out wouldn’t be easy for him. Not impossible, but dangerous. He would risk breaking a leg or an arm if he tried to sneak out of his window.

                I made my way home and called up Casey. He came over about 10 minutes later, and I explained everything to him.

                He nodded when I was done and slid his string bag off his shoulders. He pulled it open and smirked. “I’m prepared,” he announced.

                He pulled out two small flashlights and turned them on to show me that they were small, but powerful. He handed me one before letting his hand disappear back into the bag. He pulled out a weird looking headset.

                “That looks like the thing Robbie uses in Scre4m,” I said curiously.

                Casey grinned and nodded. “Because it’s basically the same thing. I figure if we see anything, we might as well get it on camera,” he explained. I nodded.

                “Okay, so wear dark clothes. Preferably all black. We don’t want to be noticed by anyone. People might think we’re the killers,” he said, rolling his eyes.

                “Casey, what do we do if we see anyone?” I asked quietly.

                Casey shrugged. “Creep as close as we can, I guess. If they run or try anything, we take them down. I can handle that part.”

                I nodded, even though I was mentally rolling my eyes. I could take someone down too. I wasn’t some helpless little girl. I knew how to take care of myself.

                We hung out around my room until it was dark and late before starting. I changed into black clothes and shoved the mini flashlight into my pocket. Casey put on the headset and turned it on. I pulled my window open and we silently snuck out, shutting it.

                “Where are we going to patrol?” I asked Casey as we began to creep away down the street.

                “Most of the animals are found near the cornfield. It’s easy for the killer to escape there. The corn field is huge, and practically impossible to navigate in the dark. They could easily slink away from cops and hide out. So, I guess we’ll just hide around there,” Casey explained.

                We kept our eyes peeled as we slunk around the town towards the cornfield. We reached the field and I looked at Casey, wondering what the hell to do now.

                He pointed at a tree on the edge of the cornfield. “We’ll climb up and hide out there,” he said, keeping his voice low as his eyes darted around for sign of anyone.

                We quietly and slowly climbed the tree to a thick branch where we could easily hide or jump down from quickly. We stayed on alert as we watched the cornfield.

                We sat for about an hour, my feet falling asleep as I crouched carefully. I was fighting against yawns and forcing my eyes to stay open. I was so exhausted. We should have grabbed some BFCs or something before we decided to do this whole night watch thing.

                And, for all we know, it could be for nothing. The killer might not make an appearance tonight. That didn’t necessarily make Fuller the killer, although that would put him under more suspicion of me Casey.

                But the killer obviously didn’t kill every night. If they did, the cops would’ve done this whole hideout thing already, and the killer would’ve been caught. They had to change things up so that they wouldn’t be predictable to the local police.

                “Shay!”

                Casey nudged me and nodded. My eyes snapped open and I became wide awake as we saw someone sneaking towards the cornfield. I had almost missed them, but the white of their sneakers had given them away. They were also wearing black.

                And carrying what looked like a rabbit.

                Casey and I watched intently as they slammed whatever they were holding against the pavement violently. They knelt down and pulled out a pocket knife, flicking it open.

                The danger of what was happening slammed into with so much force that I felt sick. This was a crazy person, whoever it was. They were killing animals. They could possibly kill people. They had a fucking knife.

                They stabbed whatever they had been holding repeatedly, almost furiously. They stopped, their shoulders rising and falling quickly as they panted. They slowly got to their feet.

                Casey shifted and pulled out his flashlight. He aimed it at the killer, who was staring at the object they had just stabbed. Casey clicked the light into life.

                The killer jumped in shock and instantly shielded the revealed part of their face. They turned and sprinted in the opposite direction.

                Casey leapt out of the tree and took off after them. Cursing out loud, I jumped down and hurried to keep up with him.

                “Stop!” Casey snapped as he began to gain on the killer.

                Of course the killer ignored him as he continued to try to sprint away from Casey. He turned and disappeared into the corn.

                “Casey, don’t!” I cried, grabbing him before he ran into the corn. “Think before you act!”

                He was panting. “You’re right. I’m sorry,” he said, breathless from the mad dash to catch the killer.

                “Hey! You kids!”

                Two officers ran up to us and grabbed our arms. We stared at them in shock and fear. “I think you kids better come with us,” the one holding Casey growled, shining a flashlight towards us so he could see our faces.

                “Casey?”

                The one holding my arm dropped it as Casey’s face paled. The man waved at the man holding Casey. He released Casey, looking confused.

                “Casey, what in the hell do you think you’re doing?” the man who had been holding me demanded furiously.

                “Dad, we were just-” Casey started weakly.

                “Just sneaking around the town with a killer on the loose?” the man, apparently Casey’s dad, demanded, his temper rising quickly. “Are you stupid?” He was almost shouting now.

                “Dad, he killed something! We saw him! He ran into the corn!” Casey said and quickly explained what had happened.

                Casey’s dad paled slightly. “Show me where you saw him kill something. Rick, check the corn field but don’t go too far,” he commanded. The other officer, Rick, nodded and disappeared into the corn.

                Casey and I led his dad over to the thing we had seen being stabbed. Casey shone his flashlight on it, revealing that it was indeed a rather large rabbit.

                I gulped and forced myself to keep looking. To remember why I had come out here tonight in the first place.

                The poor thing had had its throat slit and had been stabbed violently up and down its body. Its eye had been poked out, and it was missing a foot.

                “Casey, you could’ve been hurt,” his dad said, the anger rising in his tone again. “Both of you could’ve been hurt or even killed tonight!”

                Casey and I hung our heads in shame. “Dad, I’m sorry,” Casey said quietly. “It’s just…well, I think Fuller Polivka is doing this. I really think he is dad. The guy I chased looked a little taller than Fuller, but it could’ve been his shoes or something.”

                “Casey!” his dad snapped. “Don’t you dare say things like that! Fuller Polivka is not even a suspect in this. He comes from a good family. They would know if their son was sneaking out and killing animals like this. Besides, Fuller worked at the petting zoo last summer and there was no incident involving him.”

                “But there was an incident?” Casey pressed.

                His dad sighed. “Casey, drop it. One of the young goats got out on accident. They never found it. Fuller wasn’t even there that day. Now, I’m going to take this young lady home, and then I’m going to take you home Casey, and you’ll be in so much damn trouble tomorrow morning,” he said sternly, motioning at us to follow him.

                We reluctantly got in the police car and waited until that Rick guy came back. He shook his head at Casey’s dad.

                “Someone was definitely plowing through some corn, but I couldn’t tell which way that had gone. It was too dark to follow them, and I didn’t even hear anything. There was a dead animal?”

                Casey’s dad nodded. “It looked like one of Paul’s rabbits. He does keep those things caged outside sometimes,” he said as he took off down the street.

                I directed him to my house and he glanced at me once we were in the driveway. “I’m not going to tell your parents, miss. Not right now. I’m just going to assume my son dragged you into this. But I’m warning you, and you too Casey, that this is too dangerous for either of you. We have a nut job on our hands. Don’t get yourselves killed,” Casey’s dad warned as I got out. I nodded and shut the door, sneaking into my house and back to my bedroom.

                I threw on my pajamas and laid down, exhausted. My phone buzzed a few minutes later and I sighed and answered it.

                “Yes Casey?” I asked sleepily.

                “Shay, I didn’t want to say this in front of my dad. I don’t know if you noticed it, but when I flicked on the light, I swear I saw the killer’s hair,” Casey said, his voice low.

                “And?” I asked, wondering why this couldn’t have waited until the morning.

                “And it was Fuller’s hair. That was also the knife you sent me a picture of that the killer was holding. Mr. Polivka’s knife.”