AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Faith knew she couldn’t reach him running the way she was. She took a breath, then climbed the rail onto the maintenance walkway. She didn’t trust herself to walk on the tracks without stumbling into the rail.
By the time she was able to sprint at full speed again, the killer was twenty yards ahead of her. She drew her weapon and cried, “Stop! Stop, or I’ll shoot!”
The janitor shrieked something unintelligible back at her and continued to run. She paused and took aim with her weapon, then once more decided against it. At this range, her chances of hitting a moving target were slim. If she did hit him, he could fall against the electrified rail and burn himself to a crisp, eliminating any chance of positively identifying him as the killer.
She holstered her weapon once more and resumed pursuit. The few seconds of delay allowed the killer to gain another fifteen yards on her, and she could barely make out his shadow every few yards under the dim glow of the tunnel’s lights.
She chased him for maybe a quarter mile before reaching an unused platform. The tracks split here, one line veering to the left and continuing along the route, the other heading into the platform and ending abruptly at a stack of planks and sections of rail.
She stopped at the fork and looked down the two routes. A moment later, she saw the flash of gray coverall as the killer hoisted himself onto the platform and disappeared behind a stack of rails wrapped in plastic sheeting.
She drew her weapon and walked slowly toward the platform. “Hey!” she cried out. “Stop!”
There was no answer. The killer’s shrieking stopped.
“There’s nowhere for you to go!” she cried out. “There are more police and FBI on the way! Surrender yourself now, and you won’t be hurt!”
The sound of laughter echoed through the platform. Faith looked around, taking stock of her surroundings. There were stacks of rails, planks, and boxes scattered around the platform, covered in plastic sheeting. Behind the barrier at the end of the tracks sat three rail cars, all in disrepair. This was either a maintenance yard or a supply depot. Maybe a dumping ground for old supplies and equipment the railroad no longer needed.
There were far too many places to hide.
Laughter echoed again, and Faith whirled around, training her weapon behind the nearest stack of boxes. She carefully walked around the boxes, stepping softly and listening.
Footfalls echoed around her, and she spun around again, looking for any sign of her prey. Or her predator.
The thought that he might be hunting her chilled her, but she pushed through it. She wasn’t the same agent who had been kidnapped and tortured by Jethro Trammell, and dangerous as this maniac was, he was no Donkey Killer.
“It’s over,” she called out. “No more running! Wewillfind you!”
“Not if they find you first!”
She spun toward the voice, finger tightening on the trigger of her handgun. Laughter echoed once more through the platform, and she cursed under her breath. Sound echoed too much for her to pinpoint its origin. She walked among the stacks and listened, but every footfall and laugh seemed to come from everywhere at once.
She decided to keep him talking. She might not be able to tell the direction the sound came from, but she could at least make a rough guess at how far away he was.
“What’s the plan?” she asked. “Kill me and run? Where will you go? An awful lot of people saw you.”
“No one saw me!” he cried. “I was invisible! No one but you even noticed I was there!”
“Did that upset you?” she asked. “Is that why you killed those people?”
More laughter. “Does it matter? Not to you, miss FBI! No one will see you either!”
“Listen,” she said. “I can tell your story. I can make sure that people notice you. I can make sure that everyone everywhere knows your name and knows why you had to do what you did. You can be an inspiration to others like you who live life ignored by everyone around them!”
“Everyone is ignored by everyone around them,” the killer’s voice called, a little closer than it was before. “I thought I was truly invisible, that God had granted me a special dispensation to enact His vengeance on the uncaring assholes of the world, but you know what? Everyone is invisible because everyone is blind. Everyone sees only the world that exists directly in front of their noses and then only when something impacts them directly!”
Faith crept closer to the voice as the killer ranted. It reminded her of a game she played as a kid where one person would wear a blindfold and try to find a hidden object, following the directions of the other kids, who would shout warmer as the blindfolded kid approached the object and colder if they moved away from it.
“Listen,” Faith called. “If you come with me, then people will know your story. They’ll know who you are. They’ll know why you did this. You’ll be a legend.”
The killer cackled laughter again. “I already am a legend, didn’t you hear? I’m the Subway Vampire!”
Warmer.
“People fear you,” she called. “They don’t love you. They don’t understand you. They think you’re just killing for fun. They don’t know your purpose.”
More laughter. “No one will understand me, FBI!”
