Canadian Dating – Thriller Short Story
Photo credit: Karpati Gabor from morguefile.com
My name is Matthew, I’m eighteen and I go to college in a small town in Canada. I got an ice hockey scholarship so I pretty much play hockey every day. My twin sister also goes to the same college, we lived here before college too and our little brother goes to the same high school as we did. It is in the middle of November so it’s dark and cold.
One of my teachers asked me to help an Asian girl after school who also studies computer science. since then I help her for a whole hour every day after school. I don’t ask her questions so I don’t know anything about her, but it is obvious that she’s British but she went to high school in Germany in a German speaking school but has no German accent. That’s all I know about her, and her name, Cindy.
Me and my sister still lives at home in the basement where we have a fireplace so it’s nice. I went to get my little brother home for dinner because he had practice after school, he plays Canadian football. The school was pretty much empty and the halls seemed dark, no windows. I had been there every day for four years and now it was quiet. A lot of things are in strong colors like yellow and purple in the dark.
When I took a left I saw someone coming towards me from some distance in the hall, a student. I thought it was a girl, there was something familiar about her. I recognized the colors of her colorful clothing, it was Cindy. She stopped and I said hi, and asked what she was doing there. She said, “I’m just checking out the school for my sister, our parents are thinking about moving here, so that they can help me out with my studies. They think that they can run their company from here and maybe start up something in Canada.”
After finishing talking with her I continued on but stopped at the end of the hall. it was silent. I turned around and where I talked to Cindy she still was. Then she turned and saw me. I slowly turned and continued my mission, to get my little brother.
The day after was a school day so I was suppose to help Cindy. She was dressed all in white and black that day, and was in a more serious mood than usual. We did what we were suppose to, and once again finished after just one hour. She put her stuff in her case standing next to me and I did the same. Then she did something she never does. when she was done she turned to me but didn’t say anything. When I was done I already knew what I was suppose to say.
“You’re doing great!”
The day after during hockey practice I suddenly saw that Cindy was there, watching us from the stand. I think it’s dark in there, as if the winter is getting to me, it never has before. I waved to say hello to Cindy. after lunch I had class with Cindy then we were suppose to meet up as usual.
And so we did but our session didn’t take an hour that time. I had to figure out several of the things myself first, which took some time with her next to me. When we were done she asked me if I could take her to the high school. This time she was suppose to take pictures and she was in a really good mood doing that, the flash went off every time.
When we were close to where I met her when I was getting my little brother, we heard someone coming. Sort of running, someone heavy and running slowly, but we couldn’t see anyone then. The one who was running stopped running when he got closer to the hall we were in. Then we saw him and the knife he was holding in his hand, the white paint in his face. Then he started running fast against us, he appeared dangerous, there was no time so I pulled Cindy’s shoulder to get her to run with me to get away from the man.
We ran fast but he was still right behind us and there was no longer any doubt that he was after us. I had no idea what we should have done but we ran against my car. if anything he was just getting closer so running wasn’t working out. But there was no time to get into the car or to get something in the car to use as a waepon, he was too close.
I tripped on slippery ice and he was right there on his way to stab me holding the knife above his head with both hands. Cindy didn’t get close enough to strike him so all I could do was to throw myself to the side when his strike came. I made it, so obviously he wasn’t very good at stabbing people. For some reason he then gave up on me and tried to slice Cindy from where he stood. He did just hit air but the knife got very close to Cindy who, after that swing, started running away looking for me and or him. We both ran after her, I kept enough space to him but I couldn’t run faster than him.
He turned his head and glanced at me at least two times, the face painted in white. I was getting tired, I was getting trouble just to keep up and there was no time to think. I got closer to him on his left side and jumped with my left leg to get my right leg in front of his legs and lock his legs with my left leg to get him down to the ground. It worked and I was on my feet before him, I had the opportunity to kick his head or throat but I just kept breathing. I’m not cut out for that. Cindy came running past him. I joined her and he came after us but there was a greater distance between us and him then.
By the way, no we didn’t see anyone else out there. When we got to the car we went inside and I said with obvious panic in my voice.
“Are you alright?”
He had stopped running when he got next to the car, he walked along the left side of the car. He was just outside my window when the car started to move, he knocked on the window with the knife. I never seen him before.
© Copyright Martin Norberg. All rights reserved.
