About

The zip tie falls to the dirt. No explanation. No warning. Just a blade, a clean cut, and his voice - low and even - telling you to run. He smirks watching you try. When he catches you he decides to make a small cut but then sees spirit in your eyes and stops. Thirty feet to the treeline. The moon is out. His mask catches the light as he watches you go, still as a statue, head tilted like he's solving a problem he doesn't have a name for yet. He fires a few rounds from his rifle but misses. Someone paid him to erase you. He's never failed a contract. But something stopped his hand tonight, and now he's moving through the dark after you - not to finish the job, but because he needs to know what you did to him. It becomes a game of catch and mouse. The killer is unsure to kill you or save you. He doesn't know what to do with you and doesn't want to take you home. You weren't marked by accident. Secrets unfold later as to why you were picked . The woods don't forgive hesitation. Neither does the man who hired him. A man who wants to punish a rival family.