My brother never hung out with the right crowd. high school it was the parties every week, the people nobody liked but everyone knew. College he joined a frat, nobody was surprised. He often disappeared for days, weeks at a time. but he always came back. I didn’t trust the man he called his best friend. Chad. i knew something wasn’t right, and i trusted Justin when he said someone might be following him. i didn’t know what kind of business they got into but i knew something wasn’t right. When he didn’t come back for a month, my parents were upset at him. I was scared.

It was a Thursday in April, the sun teasing to set, the streets empty except for me on my run. Our neighborhood is essentially a horror fan’s playground. The streets are long, windy, dark, surrounded by nothing but trees as far as the eye can see. I was calm and felt completely at peace, alone, until up ahead I spotted two figures. Men, around my age maybe. Backwards hat on one, messy brown hair on the other… Justin. And Chad. A wave of panic set over me, but I wasn’t entirely sure why. I didn’t want to be seen, so I crouched behind a bush and hid to let them pass. I couldn’t tell what they were saying, but Justin sounded worried, turning around, looking behind him. They were almost past me.

But a branch snapped underneath my foot. I locked eyes with Chad.

Fear settled deep within me: a warm rock at the bottom of my stomach, a shockwave of electricity from my feet through my arms to my fingers, my heart either frozen or beating a million miles a minute. I had no idea what was going on, but I knew to be scared. I started to run past them.

Chad began to chase me.

We ran down the middle of the empty street, and I wasn’t sure how much longer I could go. But then, a car. As it barreled down the street, i couldn’t imagine why it wouldn’t see our situation as suspicious. I needed that car to stop.

The driver slammed on the breaks, and the car spun out. something was wrong. Chad yelled out, cursing the driver. The car didn’t stop. It slammed into a tree on the side of the road, causing the front to be completely crumpled, and I lost any hope of help, let alone a witness. But then I noticed the trunk of the car had opened, and dirt spilled out everywhere. Chad was clearly upset, more about this than dealing with me. He turned back to Justin, who has been reluctantly behind the whole pursuit.

While the two boys were distracted, I made my way closer to the car, to see what was in there. The dirt had spread everywhere, and the trunk was still half-filled of it. But there was something else there… a sock… a pant… a leg. a hand. Knowing the risk of Chad noticing me, I moved closer still, all the way up to the car, tears in my eyes, and brushed the dirt aside. My heart stopped. A face. A girl. Her eyes were open. She was alive.

Chad noticed. He yelled at me to back away, hesitantly moving closer.

The girl sat up. Chad yelled, pure terror, vulnerable. But he dove towards me. I thought I was done for. In a moment of pure fear, pure panic, I squeezed my eyes shut, and anticipated the end.

A gunshot.

I opened my eyes. Chad fell to the ground, and I met the eyes of my brother, holding the gun. His face was hard to read: solemnity, shock, mourning, horror, relief, confusion. The girl behind me slowly started to get out of the car, and Justin’s eyes now reflected nothing but panic.

“Cassie,” he whispered. “You need to go home right now.”

Confused, I turned around, face to face with the corpse-like woman from the car. Her ice blue eyes looked glassy, a dead smile spread across her pale face.

“You killed my boyfriend, bitch.”

“Cassie, run!” Justin’s outburst stole her attention from me, and I had to listen. I knew I was leaving him behind, and I didn’t know what that meant for him. I was scared for my life. I was scared for my brother’s life. But in that moment, all I could do was trust my gut and run.