Page 7

“Hey, you’re early!”

I greet Isobel and Clark and make my way to the back.

The sound of Clark jingling the keys brings me out of my focused trance, and I look up. “Oh crap, is it already six?”

“It’s a little past, you just looked so cute working hard I wanted to give you some extra time.”

Eh… “Thank you! I’ll just put these in the fridge and head out, then,” I say politely, grabbing the first cake.

He leans against the metal table, trying to smoothly cross his arms as he watches me. “Well, before you go, I wanted to ask if maybe you’ve thought more about that dinner?”

“Um, I haven’t. Honestly life is so crazy, I just have so much going on when I’m off. So⁠—”

“No worries, maybe once your schedule opens up…maybe soon?”

I nod politely with a smile, and it seems to satisfy him enough to leave the back room and I sigh. Clark seems okay…I just don’t have any interest. Though I also feel super guilty rejecting him because he’s a good guy. Eventually I have to reject him fully, instead of being nice.

I finish putting everything away, try to avoid another awkward conversation with Clark, and slip out of the bakery. I rush to the bus stop and make it just in time before he notices. All I want to do is go home and get online to continue my research. I think it’s exactly the distraction I need right now. I was so caught up in work all day, I didn’t even have a chance to check in with my forum friends.

Basically, I’ve gotten myself pretty deep in The Hangman’s forums. True crime people are no joke. I’ve made a couple friends there, and we always go to our group chat whenever we feel like talking about him or discussing new information we found. We all have a common interest—-which is figuring out who he is.

Unmasking him, if you will.

I check our group chat and nearly drop my phone. “Oh my g—" I exclaim loudly, but people on the bus turn and I slap my hand over my mouth.

No way. There is no fucking way. There’s a picture of him?

I can’t take this. I need to get home now. I furiously text the chat, letting them know I’m almost home and I’m going to hop on my laptop the moment I get inside.

I practically launch myself off the bus, making my way quickly to my still-broken screen door that leads to my building, and fumble a little before I fully unlock my door.

“I can’t believe this,” I say to myself as I sit on my couch and throw my laptop open. I race to open the tabs from the forum and…I see him.

The Hangman.

The man I’m looking for.

He’s real. He isn’t just something I’ve made up. He isn’t a hoax.

He’s a man. And he’s…huge. He looks like a scary, giant, bouncer.

I quickly save the image to my laptop and open it up so I can zoom in. When I do, I try to scan everything. I see that he has some sort of full mask on; the kind that covers everything, including your neck. The same kind you’d see a robber wearing. It has a design, though you can’t see the full front of it as his head is turned, it's undoubtedly a skull.

I let my eyes move down, and…holyfuckingshit.

His muscles are begging to rip the tight black fabric covering his arms. His broad shoulders, which are barely contained in that shirt. I can even see the fullness of his back since he’s half-turned.

I never really imagined what he’d look like. I assumed someone like him must be strong, since he chokes his victims with an object and somehow overpowers them for long enough to accomplish it. I assumed maybe he was handsome, because I felt like he was. Otherwise…it never mattered to me. I know that no matter who he is, he’s exactly the person I want.

My eyes dare to go further down, and land on his taut legs, down to his large boots. They remind me of something they wear in those military movies.

“Wait—”

I look back up, and zoom in, and I do see it. Dog tags. I wouldn’t have known that’s what they were, except that I was looking for them. This means he was in the military, right? Isn’t this a step closer to finding him?

I go back to the forum, and I see everyone posting their theories about who he could be. Cop, butcher, personal trainer, convict, firefighter. They go on and on, everyone chiming in with ideas and reasons why it needs to be looked into. I excitedly type up a whole comment explaining my theory, but I stop before I press “post.”

Not everyone here admires him like I do. What if I post this and everyone agrees, and the circulation of the post leads to his arrest?