An Amber Death

Zoe jogged past the park towards her house. It was a cold night in West Virginia. It wasn’t even winter and the grass had started to frost. Two more streets she thought. Her raven black hair whipped around and the icy wind pushed her back. She cut across the grass into the forest, deciding to take the shortcut. The darkness of the forest and the chill in the air made it seem foreboding.
Halfway across the forest, a piercing shriek broke the silence. Startled, Zoe flinched and ran faster only to come upon red dirt. Not dirt… she realized. Blood.
She darted behind a tree as she heard the snap of twigs and the sound of something being sliced into the air. She peered around the bark and whimpered.
A dead man with clumped brown hair lay on the ground, his hands splayed out around him, making him look like he fell from the sky. A soft chuckle drew her attention from the body. A man, she guessed from his hands. She watched as he bent down to check his pulse. A glistening object drew her eyes from him to the dagger on the ground. A bloody dagger.
Zoe took a step back and her sneaker skidded a little and made a squeak.  She clapped her hands over her mouth as the man lifted his head and looked straight at the tree. No, straight at her. She held still. His eyes, the color of hardened tree sap, searchingly looked around her and then stopped at her for several, long seconds. Finally, he looked away and smiled. Under the moonlight, she could see a small, pale line of a scar.
She took out her phone to take a picture. Her fingers trembled. She tried to find a good angle to have the dagger, the killer, and the body in the picture. How quickly she’d reduced the poor man to a body…
Zoe ran back the way she came and fled home with a speed she never thought she had. Her mother, sat in the living room, watching TV, waiting for Zoe to come home. Zoe hurriedly said goodnight to her mom and dashed upstairs, taking two steps at a time. She decided to tell her mom tomorrow.
She slammed her door shut and called Noah, her best friend since second grade.
Noah’s warm voice filled her ear. “Zoe. What’s up?”
Her palms got clammy and her mouth went dry. How could she tell him? Hey… So I just found a dead body in the forest behind my house with a creepy killer next to him.
“Zoe… What’s wrong? Talk to me.”
She took a deep breath and started. “I found a dead body outside the woods and I-”
“What! What do you me-” he started.
“If you would let me finish, you would know!” Zoe snapped.
“Sorry.”
She began again. “As I was saying, there was a dead body in the woods with a man next to it. He had a dagger with him.”
“Why were you in the woods in the first place?” he asked.
“I thought I could jog home faster that way, and, yeah, I know it was stupid.” She sighed into the phone. “I took some pictures too.”
“Send them to me.”
Shakily, Zoe brought up the pictures in the phone. The killer’s amber eyes flashed through her mind. She sent the pictures and went back to the call.
“Noah?”
“Did you tell your parents about it?”
“No I didn’t want to worry them. They already have too much stress about her brother’s disappearance. I’ll them tomorrow.” Her brother disappeared three months back while coming home from a party. She still imagined that he was alive sometimes to decrease her loneliness at home. Her mother had work all the time and her father was just absent, shattered by her brother’s disappearance.
“Oh. Don’t show this to anyone else. We have to show into the police.”
“Ok.” She finished up the call and fell onto the bed. She drew the covers up until her nose and faced the window. The forest loomed over the moon, creating a haunted like scene. She fell asleep, her last thought of the bloody dagger and amber eyes. Eyes of a predator.

Zoe walked into pre-calculus. Last night’s incident lingered fresh in her mind, a foreign intruder burrowing its way into her head. This morning, when she looked at the mirror, her green eyes had lost its twinkle, her golden skin had looked pale, and her inky hair had looked limp.
She took a seat and set her backpack in the seat next to hers, saving a seat for Noah. He came and took the seat.
“Thanks.” He smiled at her, sending a wave of butterflies through her. His brown hair swept into his eyes.
She flushed and and stammered a response. Since when did she blush at Noah… her childhood friend.
The bell rang. They were getting a new teacher and he was just out of college.
Mr. Linc walked in, head high and a folder in his hand. His blond hair was carefully swept to the side. It was his eyes that were strange. Blue with a ring of amber around it. It looked fake, cruel and calculating.
Noah poked me with the back of his pencil. “Did you call the police?”
Zoe sighed inwardly. She knew this question was coming. “No. I was going to call this afternoon.”
“Call me after you tell them.” He paused. “I still think you should tell your parents.”
She started to respond, but was cut off. “Hello, everybody. I’m Mr. Linc. Ethan Linc.”
Zoe tuned out and whispered back to Noah. “I will.”

Zoe walked home and closed the door behind her. She took a deep breath and walked towards her parents and told them the entire story. She worried how her parents would take this. Her dad had appeared to pay attention, her mom shocked and outraged.
“How could you have not told us this when it happened?” she yelled.
Zoe dropped her head. “I was scared and I’m sorry.” Best not to tell them that she had told Noah first.
Then her Dad spoke. “Same thing happened to your brother, but I didn’t listen to him and he died.”
Zoe and her mom stared at her dad in shock. He hadn’t spoke so many words strung in a sentence since her brother disappeared.
“He died?!” she shrieked. At the same time, her mom asked, “What do you mean?”
Zoe had clung onto the hope that her brother had survived because they never found his body, but deep down inside, she knew he was dead.
Her dad looked up at her, desolate. “He said that he witnessed a murder. An amber-eyed murder.” He laughed madly. “I thought it was just a figment of his imagination. Three days later, he was dead. And it’s my fault”
He lifted his head suddenly. “You have to call the police. I can’t lose you too.”
Zoe was shaken. Her mother put her hand on her shoulder, her first show of kindness since her dad began to unravel.
She picked up her phone and dialed the police station and, once more, told the entire story.
“We’re coming now.” a husky voice replied. Officer Hedwig. She remembered him from her brother’s disappearance. He looked like the human version of Harry Potter’s owl. Snowy white hair with peircing eyes.
She disconnected the call. Five minutes later, Officer Hedwig and his lackey, Officer West, were sitting in the living room collecting the facts from me.
What did he look like?
Was he carrying anything interesting?
What do you think he killed the man with?
What was he wearing?
Her head pounded by the time they left. Zoe called Noah and told him that she told the police and her parents.
“Good.” he said. “Did you show them the pictures?”
“Yeah.”
They talked about school and other mundane things, carefully avoiding the murder.

A day passed by and Zoe was back in pre-calculus. She was early. Mr. Linc sat near his desk, working. She was about to take her seat when he called her.
“Zoe? Can you come here for a second?”
What did she do now? Zoe walked up to him and he handed her a paper.
At her confused glance, he explained. “Your classwork. You forgot it.”
“Oh.” She took the piece of paper and looked at him. Right there on his eyelid, a scar.
It niggled at the back of her mind. She had seen that somewhere.
Zoe went back to her seat and Noah appeared on her right.
“So…” he began.
She interrupted. “The scar. It was on him.”
He blinked. “What?”
Zoe looked into his brown eyes. “The scar on Mr. Linc’s eyelid is the same scar on the killer.”
Noah took out his phone and pulled up the pictures.
They crowded over his phone for a closer inspection. And then, Zoe remembered his eyes.
“Amber!” She paused remembering the weird eyes Mr. Linc had. “His eyes looked fake. They also had a ring of amber surrounding it as if the contacts didn’t fit properly.”
Noah looked around. “We can’t talk about it here. Let’s talk after school at the well.” The well was behind Noah’s house, near the pond.
She nodded. She could do this. After all, she knew who the killer was now.

Zoe walked towards the well, her classwork clutched tightly in her hands. After she had got out of class, she looked at the classwork and froze in place. Adam and Zoe will meet together at last. Her brother’s name and her name. What did that mean?
She ran the last few steps to the well where Noah was waiting.
She thrust the paper at him and didn’t say a word.
“Where did you get this?” he looked at her protectively.
“Mr. Linc.” she mumbled. “Before you came. I read it after class.”
“Adam and Zoe will meet together at last…” he murmured. His head shot up. “He’s going to kill you.”
“What?!” Her heart started pounding fiercely.
“Zoe, your brother is dead and when you die, you will join him.” he said, trying not to hurt her.
She squeezed her eyes shut. She felt a tear leak out of the corner of her eyelid. “No… this can’t be happening.”
Noah grabbed her shoulders. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Zoe looked up at him. He was looking at her with a ferocious intensity, willing her with his eyes to believe him.
She backed away and stated the obvious. “Ethan Linc is the killer.”
“I know. The evidence clearly points to him.” He looked at her. “Let’s show this to the police.”
She stared at her scuffed boots. “Yeah.”
“I’ll come with you.” They walked to the police station and handed it over to Officer Hedwig.
More questions followed and more answers trailed behind. They left the police station and Noah dropped Zoe before her house.
“Bye, Zoe.” he said softly, looking at her walking to the door.
Turning her head slightly, she whispered “Bye, Noah.”

Her alarm rang. Zoe groggily opened her eyes and reached for her phone and saw a text from Noah. I’m going to pick you up in my car this morning for school. He was really taking this protective thing seriously. She smiled to herself, touched at his actions.
She got ready and sat outside on the porch waiting for Noah. Her parents weren’t at home. They went to the doctor’s office for her dad’s therapist appointment. They told her not to leave the house until they got back, but it was just the porch.
Her heart stuttered as she saw Mr. Linc walking down the street. Straight towards her.
Zoe scrambled to her feet. Through the corner of eye, she saw Noah’s car enter the street. She looked a Mr. Linc. He didn’t seem to notice. Noah had stepped out of his car when he saw Mr. Linc. She saw his face contort in rage as he inched closer to him.
Zoe was terrified. Not only for herself, but for Noah too. So many what ifs.
What if Mr. Linc sees Noah?
What if Mr. Linc gets to me before Noah gets to him?
What if Mr. Linc uses Noah to get to her?
Mr. Linc came up to her and asked, “How’d you like my note?” He gave a bone-chilling smile and continued. “Your brother had the same situation, you know. He came across one of my victims, and I killed him. No witnesses.”
Her back stiffened. “You have no right to talk about my brother. No right at all.”
Noah’s head swung towards Zoe, pleading her with his eyes not to provoke him. She didn’t care. She was done being scared of Mr. Linc. All this time, she had been  worrying and not standing up to her fears.
She stood straighter, leveling her eyes with Mr. Linc’s. “You’ll never get me.”
Mr. Linc’s eyes - amber now - widened in shock and amusement and he laughed at her statement. “You think-” He stopped, his eyes rolling back into his head as Noah hit him with the garden gnome sitting on her porch.
Noah dropped the gnome as he enveloped her in his arms, tightly against his chest. “Don’t ever do that again. If that ever happens again, which it won’t, you lock yourself in your room.” he said gruffly.
Zoe hugged him back, squeezing him as tightly as he had. “I will.”
They sat on the porch and called Officer Hedwig and told him what happened.
“I’m coming. Stay put.” He ended the call.
Right when Officer Hedwig and his team had arrived, Mr. Linc woke up and charged at them. Officer Hedwig barged in between and restrained him.
“I’ll come back for you. I swear on your brother!” he growled at her.
The officers put him in cuffs and hauled him to the car.
Mr. Linc took one last look at her, emotions carefully masked. His eyes seemed to burn through her.
As they left, his words drifted over her.
I’ll come back for you. I swear on your brother…

That evening, after the police called her parents and told them, they got information on Ethan Linc. His name was Dameon Linc and he was responsible for 25 murders.
Zoe called Noah to tell him to meet her at the well.
“Coming.” he replied.
She waited for him, watching the sunset.
“Hey.” Noah said from behind, startling her.
“Hey.” She told him about Dameon Linc.
“Good thing he’s behind bars.” He grinned. “Now you have nothing to worry about.”
Her answering smile was wobbly. Damien's voice seemed to follow her wherever she went. I’ll come back for you. I swear on your brother…
She laid her head on Noah’s shoulder.
“Thanks for sticking with me.” she said.
She felt his smile as he laid his head on her head. “Always.”