Eleven:ThirtyNine p.m.

10:26 p.m., they're still not back yet. He turns up the volume on
the TV. He looks through the dark emptiness of the room and out the
window, awaiting their arrival. Now he's getting worried. They were
always late, but never by more than an hour. His sister and her
boyfriend had left at 2:00 p.m. that afternoon. The small flat felt so
empty and lonely without them. They were due home at seven but never
arrived. He tried to attribute their tardiness to young love and
concentrated on the TV, but it was only fleeting, he kept looking out
the window for signs of them. His favourite show seemed suddenly
unimportant as he examined the street beneath the 12-story apartment
block. Now he wished he hadn't forsaken the trip with them to watch it,
maybe he could've saved them. He threw all such thoughts from his mind,
they were okay, just late.

He sat down again but he hadn't touched the cushion when he jumped up
again as the phone's shrill 'bring bring' filled the dark, empty. He
slowly got up and answered it.

'Hello?'

'Hello Johnny' A deep, husky voice he didn't recognise greeted
him.

'Who is this?'

'What? Were you expecting your sis? Your beautiful sis? She was
enjoyable, better than her boyfriend.'

'Who is this? Where's Joanne?' His voice raised.

'She's in a better place now, but don't worry, you'll join her
soon.'

Johnny slammed the phone down quickly. Small beads of sweat were
forming on his brow. Surely that was a prankster, but was it? What if
something had happened to his sister? He began pacing around the house
now. He never smoked before but tonight he changed his mind about it.
He checked his watch, 11:04 p.m. Four hours since he last saw them. He
couldn't just wait around the house anymore, he had to do something. He
grabbed his coat and walked with speed out the door into the dark
hallway. He almost knocked down his next door neighbour in his rush. He
reached the top of the stairs when he heard his phone ring. He quickly
ran in, maybe it was them. He answered it.

'Hel-'

'Hello Johnny, going somewhere?'

John deafened the line with his silence.

'Haha, I'm getting closer Johnny, there's no escape, your sister and
her boyfriend learned that the hard way.'

Johnny slammed down the phone, panic consumed his half-lit face. He ran
out the room panting from the stress. He checked down one end of the
dimly-lit street, then the other. On this side there was a dark shadowy
figure advancing quickly, he could barely be seen in the dark night
sky, but John could definitely make out a phone in his hand. At that
moment, he could hear the faint ringing of his own phone above his
head. He turned and ran away from the figure. He couldn't see far in
front of him. He went as fast as he could into the forest beside his
house, thinking he could lose the figure there.

As he delved deeper and deeper into the forest, he began to hear
footsteps behind him, running in sync with his. He put all his energy
into running now. He concentrated wholly on getting to the other side
of the woods. As he was doing this, he began to hear the footsteps
behind him get further and slower, then he was sent flying into the
air. His foot had caught a loose branch and now he was on the ground
against a tree in agony. He could hear the footsteps slow to a walk, a
menacing, advancing walk. Soon the dark figure was visible in front of
him, his breathing wrapping itself around John and pinning him to the
ground. The figure produced a bloody knife from his back pocket and
held it up in the cold glow of the moon.

The figure lunged at John but just missed as Johnny ducked out of the
way and kicked the figure's legs from under him. Before he landed, John
was off, running through the pain of the fall. Without hearing the body
hit the ground, he again heard the figure begin to run after him. John
panted and cursed as he made his way through the dense woods. He could
see the light of a lamp-post in the distance. He had a goal now and was
determined to make it. John seemed to finally be putting distance
between himself and the figure. He could no longer hear the speedy
footsteps behind him.

Eventually he found his way through the woods to a traffic junction. He
knew he couldn't wait around or the figure would reach him. In front of
him was a car with the front door open and keys in the ignition, the
owner was conversing with her friend in his doorstep. John dived into
the car and started the engine much to the angry protestations of its
owner. He looked out his rear view for the figure but saw nothing. He
breathed a sigh of relief, he just had to drive to nearest police
station and he would be safe. He checked his watch again, 11:38, the
station was still open.

The nearest police station was about two miles outside town, through
some fairly thick countryside, it was beside where his sister and her
boyfriend had gone for their picnic. As he thought about it, tears
began to form on his eyes. Tears from both his sister's fate and the
pain of his fall. He got just outside of town when they really began to
fall. The road got blurry as the water fell from his eyes. He turned
around to look in the back seat for a tissue but froze at what he
saw.

'Hello Johnny'

The swerve of the tires could be heard from the nearing police station.
When they arrived they found the body of a young male impaled on the
windscreen of the car with a slit throat. Time of death, 11:39 p.m.
There was no explanation for the slit throat and no evidence of another
passenger. The shadowy figure watched from the side of the road with
sick pleasure as the police examined the scene. His laugh trailed with
the wind and then, just like a passing truck, he was gone.