Too Late

In Promo by Pyre

Nobody ever sees until it’s too late.

Nobody but me.

When I was a freshman, there was this kid named Tyler. He talked funny since he wasn’t from around here.

People loved him, though.

He’d walk through the halls like he was hunting wabbits, but instead of Bugs, he was looking for Babs. Or Jen. Or Lily.

Tyler spent all day chasing girls, making a fool out of himself every time he got the chance to actually talk to his quarry. They’d outwit him, and we’d all laugh at him.

It was all a bit of innocent frivolity, right? Just a weird foreigner who chased after the ladies, providing us all a chuckle to distract us from all the shit we have to deal with regularly.

But one day, I was walking home from school, I saw Tyler following Babs home.

Next day, she wasn’t at school.

Nor the next day. Or the next.

So I followed Tyler home. When I snuck in his back door, what I saw shocked me. Babs had been stripped, and was chained to a chair, covered in piss, shit, and blood.

When the cops came, they found his manifesto: videos of how he planned to hunt each girl in the school.

If I wasn’t there, she’d have died. Because nobody could see that Tyler wasn’t a joke. He was a dangerous cunt with bad intentions.

Just like Chip Montana.

I saw his ass show up during Lambs to the Slaughter. I saw the way everyone reacted.

They laughed at his over-the-top accent. They laughed at the way he chased that fucking rabbit across the stage.

Fuck, they love Chip Montana.

He has his little TV show where he chases after some innocent little critter. They outwit him, and he embarrasses himself. Cue the laugh track!

Just a bit of innocent frivolity, right? A good distraction from the life and death stakes of the Slaughterhouse.

But ask yourself: what the hell happens to those animals when he gets his grubby little hands on them?

Is Chip going to hug Dave the Rabbit and make him his forever friend?

Nobody ever looks any deeper, they never see the truth until it’s too late.

But I see through you, Chip Montana.

Behind your cheerful smile and wacky antics, there lurks a cold blooded killer.

Takes one to know one, right?

When you get your hands on your quarry, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows, is it? You’re just like Tyler, you’ll take that little Rabbit to your lair and have your way with it.

You’ll bleed him out, skin him to the bone, and savor every last taste of his flesh. It’s what people like you do, isn’t it?

Convince everyone you’re harmless, then strike when no one expects it.

I expect it, Chip.

The only thing you’ve convinced me of is that you’re a predator, and just like I did to Tyler, I’m going to burn down your whole operation. It’ll be the biggest hunt of all, a burning effigy to your deception.

Your hunt is over before it began. But as always, I’m still here.

All that remains.