Burnt Out Vignette [GUANO]

(timestamp for this event will come later ( ˶°ㅁ°) !!)

The flood light flickers and prompts Jenni to look up from rummaging around the seats of the worn down pickup truck. The light, obviously on its last legs, shorts out again before stabilizing. She stares for a few more seconds, then looks out the grimey windshield to the decrepit shell of a gas station before her. Long abandoned off a secluded part of the 138 in favor of a fancier rest stop miles up the highway, it looked like something straight out of an apocalypse movie. Perfect for tagging, smashing windows or other adventures in property damage. Or, if you had the mind for it, hiding several bodies from the nearby towns of Yoncalla, Roseburg and Eugene. 

But that’s not where Jenni’s mind is at right now. Instead, she’s digging out her fourth deluxe bag of Twizzlers from under the dusty, crumb and wrapper-filled driver’s seat. She didn’t think serial killers had sweet tooths, but apparently this one just had to have his fix in between the multiple kidnapping and torturing four young men. She rips open the cleanest bags of gummy worms, Twizzlers and peach rings, wondering if Kevin knew any other killers addicted to sugar. Jenni reclines the seat, the old hinges groaning and squeaking in protest the whole inch and a half back. She settles down to try some weird candy combinations and lets her eyes comb the blackened gas station, making sure to regularly check the side, and rearview mirrors for any cars or the odd hitchhiker dumb enough to be walking along this road at ass- o- clock at night. 

While deciding if Twizzlers and peach rings make a good flavor combination, something catches her eye in the rearview mirror. Not a person, but another goddamn bag of candy right behind her head. “Teeth must’ve been falling out of his damn head...” she mumbles., She reaches back to grab the bag, and yanks at it until it flies out over her shoulder and lands on the center console with an unexciting thud. A long expired, unopened bag of candy hearts makes her snort loudly and shove a couple Twizzlers in her mouth. No one eats these chalky things, not even the lowest of men. But this pack was different, still inedible of course, but it was the Halloween edition. Jenni’s eyebrows raise up into her bangs as she excitedly tears into the bag to read the poorly printed, cheesy words, immediately discarding them onto the floor of the car. They could have at least made it a little creepier beyond shit like ‘Boo!’ and ‘Scary!’ stamped in bright purple. She’s at the tail end of two Twizzlers when she picks up a blank yellow heart flipping it over to read ‘Behind You!’.

There's a knock at the window.

Jenni almost leaps out of her skin at the sound, eyes and ears buzzing with adrenaline, her hand trained to go for the hunting knife on her left hip. She whips around, to see a large, dark figure at the passenger side window. It takes her too long to register who, or what it is, finally breathing again as she awkwardly turns around to roll down the manual window.

And in comes the critique.

Too slow. Kevin signs, leaning down enough to look through the window and cast judgement through his fencing mask. 

“You scared the shit out of me!” she protests around a mouth full of candy, leaning against the door.

Sorry. It was hardly a sincere apology. What's that? He gestures to Jenni’s mouth, where the forgotten twists hang. 

“...candy. Whatshisname likes sugar.” 

Oh, that explains the teeth. I want one. He taps the edge of the car door, leaving behind streaks of blood. It's then that Jenni notes the smell of fresh blood on him and the muffled sobs coming from the gas station. As the sobs devolve into screams, she pulls out another red rope from the package, briefly wondering if becoming desensitized to the smells and sounds of death was something she should refrain from.

“You might not like them. Acquired taste or whatever.” she warns, holding the candy out as he removes the fencing mask. There’s a brief moment where she sees his face, illuminated in the flood light before it decides to sputter and dim to near darkness. She can still see the warm honey of his eyes and the scar that runs up and across his face as he leans in to take the candy with his teeth, almost knicking Jenni’s fingers with his outturned canines.

“Hey, careful with those things.” she mumbles, sticking a new rope into her mouth. “Since his teeth are bad, it’ll be done soon?” He won't take them if they're rotting, not pretty enough to make something with, let alone keep as a trophy to look over.

He nods, sliding his mask into place but not fully over his face, letting the neck guard hover above his nose, the candy long gone. “Ten minutes.”

Jenni nods, the red rope bouncing along with her head. She realizes he didn’t have any reason to stop field dressing his prey other than to check on her and well...it made her feel good. Maybe fuzzy.

Kevin leans in again, so close that Jenni, in a soft- hearted state, thinks it’s a kiss. 

Instead, she gets the Twizzler yanked from her mouth and actually gets nipped by his teeth. 

“DUDE!” she exclaims, hand shooting up to her bitten lip as he steps back quickly and soundlessly with a little wave, just as the flood light painfully sputters back to life.