I walked out of my classroom to the sound of blood-curdling screams. I, as well as dozens of others, ran to the source of the noise. I made it to the base of the staircase and looked up to see what everyone was gaping at. One girl even began to vomit. I had nausea tease my stomach as well.

Samantha hung from the second floor balcony, a rope digging into her neck. She spun slightly as she dangled in the air. I shrieked and brought a hand to my mouth when I realized that it was her.

"She committed suicide!" one girl exclaimed. I looked to her. She was someone who didn't know Sam at all.

There's no way that Samantha committed suicide.

She had a perfect life. An only child, with perfectly content parents and no bully or social problems. She was on the honor roll and a cheerleader. There was no way she committed suicide.

Then...what exactly happened here?

It didn't take long until a single word sneakily crept its way into my head like the way mercury travels along a wooden surface.

Luther.

It had to've been him. Killing people is so easy to him, it's like second nature. When was he here? He must've been there not too long before, for she looked freshly dead. Was he still there?

That question chilled my very bones. The thought of him still being here, and seeing him again while murder still lingered on his hands made my stomach churn.

I have to get out of here.

Before anyone could stop me, I dashed away from the staircase.

"Ava!" a young man's voice exclaimed as he followed after me. Ignoring him, I proceeded outside through the door in the back of the school that always seemed to be unlocked. I heard the person follow.

"Hey," he cooed softly. I broke into tears and collapsed into his arms. Nate's arms. They were big and strong and protective around my weak, feeble body. "I know that this is scary for you."

"It's more than that, Nate," I cried into his chest. "It's so much more."

He slightly pulled me away so that he could look me right in the eyes. "What happened to you? Why were you gone, why did the police question me?"

My lip quivered as tears streaked down my face. "Nate, I...he...Luther...he kidnapped me."

"Kidnapped? But how? When? Why?"

I put a hand on my forehead and leaned back into his chest, sobbing a bit more. "It's a very, very long story."

He rubbed my back and stroked my hair gently. "Ava, I don't know what would've happened if anything had happened to you. I don't know what I would've done.

"You barely know me," I responded. "We didn't even meet a week ago. Why this sudden fancy?"

"I've been observing you since the day you started coming to school. I wanted to introduce myself, but you seemed so afraid of every one. Then the whole Luther incident happened and...I don't know. I wished I had known you sooner."

"You mean you had a crush on me even before we met at church?" I asked, a slight bit of laughter lingering in my sobbing voice.

He smiled and slowly nodded his head. "I did."

He leaned down and gently kissed my lips. I returned the kiss by wrapping my arms around his neck and leaning back a bit. He pulled away and took my hand.

"I can hear the cops coming," he replied. "They might want to question us about her suicide."

"You think it's suicide too?" I asked him. He furrowed his brows and turned his head slightly.

"Yeah...why? Don't you?"

My eye brows curled up as I slowly shook my head. "I think that Luther did it."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

I gave my tip to the police, but still, I didn't tell anyone about where he might be, even though I knew perfectly well where he was. I wanted to stay off of his radar, even though I was probably one of the only things on it.

I walked over to my car. And started the engine. I looked in the rearview mirror and saw something odd. I normally kept a blanket back there, neatly folded, in case of emergency. It was crumpled up and in a pile.

My heart started to beat very quickly. Did mom or someone else scruff it up when they fixed my window or something? That must be it. What else could it be?

No...I remember it being folded this morning. I remember refolding it and putting it into the car before I went inside and ate breakfast. Who did this?

The answer didn't take long to figure out. I gasped and looked in the seat behind me. No one was there. I did a thorough search of the car, but there was no sign of him anywhere. Shakily, I got back into the front seat of my car and drove home.

My mother and uncle were waiting for me at the front door. I told them everything that had happened. My mother hugged me tightly.

"Maybe we should move again," she told me.

I shook my head. "No, mom. I don't want to leave Uncle Michael here alone, and something tells me that no matter what we do, Luther will always find me."

"There has to be something that we can do..." she said, looking down at my hands. My uncle put his hands on my shoulders.

"You two are welcome to come and stay with me for a while if you'd like to."

I shook my head. "I don't want to be an inconvenience. There is nothing for us to do but hope that the police catch him."

I don't know why, but I was seriously hoping that the police didn't catch him. I don't know why I felt that way. But, I really wanted to fix him, if you know what I mean. Perhaps I could. Gomez certainly had an influence on him too, but would he encourage Luther to stop killing people, and do the right thing? This was a man with a twisted father and past, as well as a career in murder and drugs. Luther may not take him seriously.

But me, he claimed to be in love with. I had a bigger influence over him than anybody on the planet. He was beginning to form a major soft spot for me. Why he had killed my friend, I do not know. But I had no doubt that he would try to kill someone close to me again.

I went to bed with Samantha's death heavy on my mind. It just didn't add up. Why did Luther kill her? He didn't even really know who she was.

I turned over and looked at my clock. It was about midnight. I couldn't have slept that night if my life had depended on it. I decided that I would go to see him. It was a really bad decision, but I was too upset to care.

Stealthily, I stalked out of the house and across my neighborhood over to Gomez's house. The dim streetlights lit the sidewalks. It reminded me of that first night with Luther nearly a week ago. I reached up and rubbed my fingers across the scabs that had formed over the bite marks he had left on my neck. Being reminded of what he did to me made me want to turn around, to go home and never think about him again. But I pressed ever foreword.

I made it to Gomez's dark house. Not a single ray of light escaped from the windows or under the door. There was no light coming from his house, making me think that everyone in the house was dead. But I knew that that was a complete lie.

I brought my fist up to the door and pounded it loudly. I stuck my hands in the pockets of my sweatshirt and squirmed a little. The porch light flicked on, causing me to flinch a little bit. I saw the peep hole darken a bit, meaning that someone was looking at me. There were several clicking and metallic sliding sounds from the other side of the door, signifying that there were several locks being unlocked. The door opened slowly, revealing a cautious Gomez on the other side of it.

"Ava," he whispered. "It's midnight. What the hell are you doing here?"

"Gomez, is Luther here?" I asked, getting straight to the point.

He furrowed his brows and nodded his head. "Yes, last time I checked, about an hour ago. What's the problem?"

"We really need to talk."

He narrowed his eyes at me and opened the door up wider, gesturing for me to come inside. "Yes. We do."

I gulped and bowed my head as I walked into the black abyss that was Gomez's home. He flicked on a dim lamp and pulled out a chair for me at his kitchen table.

"Take a seat," he ordered. I nodded and did as told, interlacing my fingers together while resting my hands on the table. "I will go and get Luther."

He disappeared down a dark hallway, but returned soon after with the tall, pale boy following close behind him. Seeing him in the flesh after three days of not seeing him made me almost choke on my breath. Why was I feeling so intoxicated by him? I didn't have feelings for this murderer. I hated him. Or, at least, that's what I told myself.

Gomez and Luther sat on the opposite side of the table, both of them facing me. Gomez's tongue swirled around the inside of his mouth, pressing his cheek out with it as he stared at me with his olive green eyes.

"You told the police," he stated.

I sighed and looked down. "I didn't tell them anything about you, Gomez. But I had to tell them about Luther. My stories didn't add up at all with the previous investigating that they had done. They didn't buy it at all."

Gomez rolled his eyes. "Chica, I don't think that you understand. It doesn't matter if you told them about me or not. They're after Luther, and if they find him, then they are going to find me as well."

I nodded. "I know. That is why Luther cannot ever get caught." I turned my gaze towards him. He stared at me with that sad, empty expression in his eyes that he always had. My heart melted at the sight of him, although I didn't want it to. I should not have felt this way towards a serial killer. "Which is why I came here tonight."

Gomez looked at Luther, who didn't move his gaze away from me. "Did something...happen?" he asked to no one in particular.

I lifted my brow and looked to Luther, who still stared at me with an empty stare. "He doesn't know?" I asked him.

Gomez looked back and forth between the two of us. "Know what?" he asked suspiciously.

I looked to Gomez and leaned back in my chair. "Luther killed someone today."

Gomez furrowed his brows and shook his head. He looked at Luther and back to me again. "Luther never left the house today."

I gave him an exasperated look and tilted my head down to look up at him. "He hung my friend Samantha from the second floor of the high school."

Gomez's eyes grew wide and he slowly turned his head to stare at Luther incredulously. "You did WHAT?" he shouted.

Luther shrugged. "I wanted her out of the way."

My mouth hung open as I crossed my arms and stared at him. "Out of the way?" I squeaked. "She didn't do anything to you, Luther! What could you possibly mean?"

"I saw your phone the day we took you," he admitted. "I saw that you had texted her to call the police. And she did. Any one who calls the police on me should certainly know better. I mean, you did."

I breathed heavier and shook my head. I slowly started to stand up. "You killed her because she did something that I asked her to do? To help save me...from you?"

He chuckled and shook his head. "Save you?" he asked. "You don't need to be saved from me. I need to save you from everything else. That's why I did it."

I started out the door. Gomez got up and disappeared down the hallway without another word. Luther followed after me. I got jittery and scurried away even faster. He grabbed my wrist. "Ava, wait."

I looked up into his sad eyes. "What do you want?" I rasped.

"I will have you." He seemed to stare into my soul. I got a little creeped out. "One day, you're only going to have me. And you will have no one else to love, no one else to love you, but me."

My eyes widened as my eyebrows curled up. "You're insane."

I twisted my wrist out of his grip and ran away from him, leaving him standing forlorn on the dark porch of Gomez's house in the cold, October night.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Yeah two updates in one day. I just really want to finish this book and submit it for watty's. Maybe if it wins a prize they will feature it. I already sent it in to be featured, but they declined it. Idk why.

Please vote and comment! All your feedback will help me win an award for watty's. I am only submitting the book from my main @modernjomarch account, so if you want to leave something nice, please leave it there.

I will have sequel information up once the book is finished, so stay tuned for that because Outlawry does not end on a satisfying note.