Page 27 of XO Karma

I’ve spent enough time watching Aster the past few weeks to know he’s one of them. Who the other is, I have no clue. They turn a corner, disappearing out of sight.

This is my chance for proof.

The creaking of the structure gives away my position as I rush down the fire escape, and I cringe with each movement. Please be out of earshot or otherwise preoccupied.

Once near the bottom, I hop to the gravel lot with a soft thud, then rush after them. At the corner, I peer around the wall and freeze in place.

Aster holds a man against the rustic brick of the alley, an arm firmly pressed against the victim’s throat.

“Why?” the man chokes out, struggling under his hold, and my leg muscles tighten.

“You know exactly why I’m here,” Aster growls out. “Have fun in hell.”

“I swear I—” A knife pierces the man’s neck, silencing his words, and I cover my mouth with my hands to stifle a gasp as chills scatter across my body. Aster twists the blade, and he doesn’t so much as flinch when blood spurts against his face. The victim grunts, twitches, and shudders, thick crimson liquid gushing from the wound, until he finally goes still. Bile creeps up my esophagus.

Run.

Call the police.

Do anything but stand here as a witness and possibly his next victim!

Aster removes the knife, and the body collapses to the ground with a thud as blood pools against the concrete in an amount I’ve never witnessed. Its appearance is almost syrup-like as the streetlights reflect off of it in the dark alleyway.

Aster Blake is the Kodak Killer.

He is the fucking Kodak Killer! And I let him distract me with his stupid smile and took the souvenir of his delicious smelling T-shirt that’s still shoved in the bottom of my tote.

With a calmness that’s freaking me the hell out, he retrieves a bottle from his backpack and pours it over the knife. With a small towel, he dries the weapon and returns it in a sheath on his belt loop. He then pulls another bottle out and douses it all over the body. What the hell is he doing?

Aster kicks the large corpse, and the head slowly slumps to the side, vacant stare meeting mine. A shudder racks through me as my eyes wander from the corpse to Aster, and I recoil at his gaze targeted straight towards me. The skull mask doesn’t cover his eyes, and his stare weighs on me so intensely it’s as if a two-ton elephant is pressed on my chest.

Half his face is illuminated by the streetlight, and awareness trickles across my body as his head tilts to the side.

He can’t see you, I remind myself. You’re hidden by darkness.

I blink. He’s gone.

My breathing sputters.

What do I do?

The lifeless body holds my attention.

Make a decision, Lily. Before someone else arrives and pins you as the killer.

My hands tremble. I’ve witnessed a lot in my life, hell, I’ve done a lot of shit myself… but straight up murder?

Maybe I⁠—

A large hand covers my mouth, limiting my oxygen, and another loops my waist and lifts me in the air.

He found me.

I kick and thrash and screech through his hand.

This is how I die.

My lungs burn as I force another scream, then attempt to bite him.