HUNTING A SHADOW

Chapter 2.

My life, everyone i had known, gone. What have i done? I didn’t want this. But i was driven to madness. Being hunted down like a dog. Craving revenge for the things that happened. All the people I’d known had been murdered, and what for, a simple mistake. This must sound like a crazy mans story. But let me tell you, of my story.

The air was cold, I had a bad feeling. Something was going to happen. I just knew it. I need only $40, and then I can get the perfect gift for my girlfriend. A wedding ring. It had been over a year now, and we loved each other still. We first met at college. Our last day. Eyes met in a crowded room. She made the first move. By coming over. She walked like a goddess. She was perfect. I thought nothing bad to anything she did. We sat and talked about our lives. We spoke of our families.
I walked her home. She lived in a flat only a few roads from the club where my friends would play "drink up". We said our goodbyes. Exchanged numbers. Then she closed in for a kiss. It was so passionate. Our lips locked and from then on, knew we were meant to be. Forever and all eterntiy.

My name is Zach Copper. I was 23 and working in a car garage. A man brings in his car. An Aston Martin. Very posh for a man like this. He was wearing a torn white shirt. His jeans dirty with stains of paint and grass. I asked the man how he got this car and he told me nothing. He just gave me the car keys and ran.
I shouted back at him to stop. But he carried on running. As if he was running from something, someone.
But this someone, I never thought that in my life I had seen such brutality.
As the man ran off down the road a man with a pistol ran round the corner and shot at him. The running man lay on the floor quivering, in pain. I was scared. I reached for something, anything. The shooter got closer to him. He reached into his jacket pocket and took out a knife. He stabbed the dying man. Once, twice up until he got him ten times. Ten times. By now i was shaking. I found a gun in the boss’s desk in his office.

I looked back round the corner to check out the murderer. He was crouched down next to the lifeless bloody body.
He seemed to carve into his chest. Then the killer stood up on his feet. He turned round and stared at me. His black soulless eyes met mine. We stood there, no movement. Only stares. I blinked, but when I opened my eyes again. He was gone. I ran over to the body. Looking round as I ran to see if the man was still there.
I looked at the man’s lifeless body. I was sick. The murder was brutal. Ten Knife stabs. Countless cuts. But the most disgusting of it was the carvings.

A man with no head, and knifes coming out of it.
And the words... "I told you. It was your curse"
They sent shivers down my spine. Ever since that day I remember his face. The man I once cowarded from was now my enemy. Because since that day he had killed all my family. My brother, sister and parents.
All gone. All killed. Brutally murdered the same way. And with a message on all the bodies. A message that haunts me with every breath I take. "They have gone. You saw. They must pay. You will DIE"

I’m now a distraught man. Who lost his wife to cancer at the age of 34.
I loved her deeply. Every time i think of her my heart beats faster. The thoughts of her gave me courage. It gave me the courage to look for this animal. I blamed him for her death. And i seeked revenge. I will kill him for what he’s done. Ruined my life. Killed all i ever loved. Everything I lived for has disappeared. It seems so long since then; past memories are now like dreams.

I needed him dead. No matter what. I wanted to kill him. Whatever means necessary. He will die.