Killer Teens

Sucked Back In

Milo's POV

She sends me the text when I’m listening to Mad World and feeling sorry for myself.

I shouldn’t make up my mind to come so fast. I should stare down at the four-letter word, pondering, wondering what it means. I should ask myself why Brooke would text me when she has all the friends in the world. I should question whether I even care.

But I don’t, of course. I just walk out the door of my house, take one, deep breath, and run.

I haven’t run in a long time. I’m stiff; I get a stitch in my side and become short of breath quickly. But I’m still fast. 

I get to Brooke’s house in under two minutes. Sure, we live close, but not this close. I used to run to her house all the time, and it took five or ten on a good day.

Something is very wrong, and my body knows it before I do.

I hesitate at the door. I don’t hear screams, but I definitely hear something. I put my ear closer to the door and freeze when I realize that someone is whimpering.

I spin around and pick up the first thing I find—a shovel—before ramming into the door with as much force as I can muster.

What I see takes less than a second to register, but fills me with more emotion than I’ve felt in over a year.

First, I see Kate. She’s the one who’s whimpering. A guy I’ve never seen before is forcing himself onto her with a hunger that is fearsome, and for reasons I can’t understand, she’s halfway letting him. The one thing I do understand is that this is Cole, the guy who called Brooke at the volunteer event—the guy who was at the party everyone at school has been talking about.

It’s a lot harder to hate Jason now that I see what his victim is doing to Kate.

It’s about then that I see Brooke.

She’s on the floor, curled up in a ball and shaking. She’s clinging to one arm with the other, and the arm she’s clutching is so covered in blood that I can hardly see her skin. She’s shivering fervently and sweating profusely. Her gray eyes are blank, staring out at nothing, and from there I saw the short but deep scar that runs down her temple.

I’ve never felt this much rage before. I want to murder him. I really, truly do.

So I walk up to Cole, lift the shovel, and slam it as hard as I possibly can into the back of his head.

He falls to the ground, eyes closed, back of his head spouting with blood, but still breathing.

I feel Kate hugging me, but I might as well not feel anything at all.

“How did you know?” she asks me. “How did she tell you?”

“She texted me,” I hear myself mutter, pulling away from her. My throat is dry and scratchy. I turn to look at Brooke. Her eyes are on me, but everything about her looks completely empty—like a body without its soul.

It’s a hard thing to look at.

“Call an ambulance,” I tell Kate. “And the police.”

Kate nods and heads for the home phone, but she stops short when a meek, almost inaudible noise comes from Brooke. 

“No.”

“What?” Kate demands. “Brooke, baby. We have to get you to a hospital right away.”

“I’m fine.” Her voice sounds heartbreakingly broken.

“You’re crazy,” Kate corrects stiffly, but she doesn’t continue toward the phone.

“He’ll wake up,” Brooke says. Her voice, which, like the rest of her, normally seems so perfect, sounds shattered and lost. “He’ll wake up, and he’ll charm the court room, and he’ll call Jason in, and Jason won’t be able to lie, so they’ll find out about the party. And me, Kate, and Jason will be blamed, and even if we’re not, he’ll come and find us.”

Silent tears start to stream down Kate’s cheeks.

“He’ll take Kate and he’ll kill me,” Brooke continues turning her puffy eyes toward me again, “and the police won’t stop him.”

“He brought a gun, Brooke,” I tell her. It’s the first time in over a year that I’ve spoken directly to her. Despite everything, it feels… glorious. “He won’t get away with this.”

Brooke says nothing, but I can tell from her expression that she knows I’m right. 

When Kate still doesn’t move, I do. I can’t look at Brooke’s broken, bloody body for another second without doing something about it.

I brush past Kate and picked up the phone. I press my finger to the nine, and then—

“Milo!” Brooke screams, and I duck just in time to dodge the punch Cole throws at me. His hand smashes into the cupboard behind him, wood splintering everywhere, but he hardly even flinches.

“Run!” I shout to Kate and Brooke, but neither of them moves. I see Cole reach for his gun, but Kate kicks it away from him just in time. I seize the opportunity to tackle him to the ground, but without the rush of adrenaline I had before, I feel a lot more powerless. Cole shoves me off in a matter of seconds.

“Who the hell are you?” Cole shouts at me. “I’ve never even seen you before!”

He sounds outraged—like he should know absolutely everyone even remotely connected to Kate’s life.

At first, I don’t say anything. I don’t want this psycho to know anything about me. 

But then I look back at Brooke and decide that I do want him to know. I want to know who it is that will make him pay for what he did.

“I’m Milo Ryans, and I’m not afraid of you, you sick fuck.”

And then I punch him as hard as I can.

The stories I heard about Jason beating him to a pulp make sense now. Of course Jason wasn’t satisfied with just one punch; Cole hardly even stumbles.

I hear Brooke’s breaths becoming shallower behind me, and it scares me so much that I don’t manage to dodge the painful fist Cole sinks into my gut. I stagger backwards, coming far too close to tripping over Brooke, whose eyes have finally closed. It takes me a second to regain myself, for more than one reason. For one thing, it feels like he smashed a pillar, not a fist, into my stomach. And, for another, well… Brooke.

And then there’s the knife he picks up off the ground.

I hear my heartbeat in my throat, and I feel my head spin and my blood rush, and all I can think to do is stand in front of Brooke—Brooke, who is probably going to die if we don’t get her an ambulance soon.

Brooke. For Brooke.

I duck as Cole slashes at me with the knife, and then grab his knife arm as he slashes again.

He’s so much stronger than me. 

I hold onto his arm, pushing against it with all my might, trying to force it back, but it’s like the ultimate arm wrestle, Cole versus me, and I’m no athlete, no Jason, definitely no Cole, and all I can do is watch as he gradually forces it closer and closer to me…

I hear Brooke shriek “Kate!” and grab my legs, as if that would help, and yet it does, because somehow knowing that Brooke is the last person I’ll touch in this world is all that matters now.

But then I hear something entirely unexpected, and instantly the knife falls to the floor, and I watch Cole fall to his knees, waving his arms blindly, and I hear him shout something furiously, but then that sound happens again, that ear-splittingly loud sound of death, accompanied by smoke and another crash, this time of Cole falling to the floor completely.

He isn’t breathing this time.