One week later...

Paranoid, that's what I was now; totally, utterly, undeniably paranoid.

For an entire week now I'd been a nervous wreck. I was constantly looking over shoulder wherever I went, I always kept a taser hidden on my person, I'd even bought an entire box of four leaf clovers for cryin' out loud!

And it didn't help matter that Beyond Birthday was still at loose.

My phone beeped and I nearly jumped out of my skin. When I calmed down I saw I had a new text message. It was from Yagami-san.

"Shll, new msge BB. Snt foto 2 comp, pls respond."

"Wht is it?" I texted back.

My phone beeped again. This time the message was considerably longer.

"Soon will be the time when Heven falls and the soul Embrases Lite. Luv BB."

"Thnx." I texted as I ducked into a nearby caf .

I sat down at an out of the way table and stared at the message from Beyond. After a while I gave up, unable to make any sense of the gibberish.

"Um, Miss, would you like to order now?" a pretty young waitress asked, suddenly apearing at my table. She seemed rather short, and had short, poofy brown hair. I guess her family owns this place or something.

"Just water," I mumbled, any sense of appetite nonexistant. She nodded and went into the kitchen to get my order.

When she was gone I opened the message and tried to make sense of it. Again.

"What are you looking at?"

"Ah!" I cried, not expecting the waitress to be back so soon. Or maybe I was lost in thought for longer than I thought.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she apologized, backing away. I sighed.

"It's alright," I told her, "I'm just a little edgy lately." I was so edgy that my whole body was taking a toll; my hair was all messed up and askew from my puling it, I had horrendous bags under my eye from the lost sleep, and i had put on make-up in over three days.

I turned my phone so she could see. "It's just a prank from one of my friends," I lied.

She stared at it for a minute before she said, "What's 'Shell' mean?"

"It's my nickname, why?"

"Because, look at all the misspelled words," she said. "If you take the first letter of those words, plus the beginning of the sentence, it's spells out 'Shell'."

"I don't see it," I said, squinting at the screen.

"Sorry, I forgot that that trick was only for English," she explained. "It's an exercise my Foreign Language teacher made us do. Here," she took out a pad and started writing the sentence in English.

'Soon will be the time when Heven falls and the soul Embrases Lite. Luv BB.'

"'Shell', see?"

I did see. In fact, everything in the world suddenly felt like it made sense.

"I have to go," I said to no one imparticular.

"But what about-?" I heard the waitress say as I hurried out the door and back to my apartment.

If I was lucky then there might still be time.

.oOo.

I was so stupid, how could I have not seen it when it was staring me straight in the face? The notes weren't suppose to be viewed on there own, there was another message hidden throughout them.

This is your only
Wanring.
Only the ritcheous
Will survive now.
Enny of you who
Endaever to stop me, I will
Kill them. so
Says Beyond.
Too think I only
Invigerated you miserable
Louses, how
Lowd I proclamed my warning. If all that
You do is
Obzerve, to you
Untold
Deathes I will conduct from my
Impereus sanctum. the
End will come soon.
Soon will be the time when
Heven falls and the soul
Embrases
Lite.
Luv BB.

"Two weeks till you die, Shell," I heard it going over and over again in my head. He was sending me my death sentence, and I just blatantly ignored it. He probably even set it up to put me off my game, keep me in one place. After all, I so distraught after that girl told my fortune I barely left the house anymore.

Wait, that would mean....

I quickened my pace, going from a brisk walk to a hurried jog. It was getting dark by now, and there were as many people on the streets as there were an hour ago.

Yeah, that helped my spirits.

As I rounded another corner my phone beeped. This time it was a text from Sakura.

"Invtd Raymon-nunuu ovr 2nite, ribbon on door. Hve fun w/o me. Sakura." Oh no, I haven't told her about the Beyond Birthday killings yet (she doesn't like that kind of stuff anyways), and the house would be the most likely place he would try and kill me.

I broke into a frenzied run, hoping I wasn't too late.

.oOo.

I finally reached my apartment, completely out of breath (In my haste I didn't think to call a cab). The lights were out in my room, which meant that either Sakura and Raymon were there, or Beyond was waiting to kill me.

I barged through the front door, not bothering to greet the sleeping attendant in the lobby, and raced up the stairs. (Since this building only has three floors, there isn't an elevator.)

When I reached the top I half staggered down the hall to the door to my room. When I got there I noticed a pink ribbon tied to the doornob in the shape of a bow.

I reached out to open the door but then hesitated. If I was wrong than I would be intruding on Sakura's right to privacy. If I was write....

I didn't want to think about it; I grabbed the nob and gave it a yank. I panicked when it wouldn't open, but calmed down some when I remembered the key above the door. I retrieved it from it's perch and turned the lock.

I cracked the door open and peered inside.

All the lights were off, which brought back all unease I was just starting to loose. I crept inside and began groping around for the light switch. Just as I found it I saw a faint light coming under the door to Sakura's room. I flicked on the light, closing my eyes and breathing a sigh of relief.

When I opened them again I screamed.

Sakura's dead body was lying in the conputer chair, her eyes frozen open in sheer terror. Actually, it was only one eye, because there was kitchen knife where the other would be. There were multiple cuts all over her body, and she was covered in bruises. Her left arm looked like it had been just destroyed, and her fingernails on both hands had been torn off. There were also what looked like bite marks covering her torso.

Good god, she'd been tortured.

I stumbled backwards, tripping over a pair of shoes. As I pulled myself up I fumbled in my coat for my taser. I finally found it and switched it on, holding it out in front of me like a gun.

I suddenly heard clapping from the other side of the room. I swung towards it and saw a very pale, very skinny man with mussy hair and terrible bags under his eyes lying on the sofa, looking staright at me and grinning.

Beyond Birthday.

"Very good, Shell-san, you figured it out just in time."

"W-w-who are you?" I stammered, terrified to find the infamous serial killer standing in my living room.

"Don't you remember?" he asked, rising from his seat. "You've seen me at least thrice before."

I had? Where, when? As near as I could recall, I'd never seen anyone that looked like him before in my life.

"Maybe this will help," he said, taking a pair of glasses off his shirt collar putting them on. "By the way," he said, "did you enjoy that bootleg copy of CSI I gave you last Christmas?"

Wait how did he- No, he couldn't be....

"That's right, I'm your roommate's lover," he said with a smug grin, nodded towrads Sakura's remains.

"No," I whispered, too horrified to say anything else.

"Oh yes. I'm pretty good with disguises, aren't I?" He pulled a gun out of his pants, "Now, toss the weapon over here, please?"

"What if I don't?" I asked shakily, trying to muster up a bravado that I never had.

BANG! I felt the hot air as a bullet whized past my ear.

"You won't want to know," he said grimly. Not knowing what else to do, I tossed him the taser.

Right at his face.

He moved his free arm to block and the taser hit him square in the palm. He jerked about for a few seconds before going completely still. He lowered his hands away from his face and I saw it had an evil grin on it.

"Sorry," he said, letting the taser drop to the floor, "you missed."

This was the last straw.

Screaming, I turned and ran into the kitchen, (hoping to get a weapon of some kind), only to feel an intense pain well up in my left leg a moment later. I fell, mere inches from the counter, and grabbed my injured leg in agony. I looked at my leg and saw blood flowing from a hole in my upper thigh.

I'd been shot.

Beyond tossed the gun aside, satisfied that it's purpose was fulfilled. He really hated killing people with guns, it was just too quick. He preferred to slowly chip away at his victims' life little by little, allowing them plenty of time to accept their beginning.

And she had gone into the kitchen, with the many, many knives within.

That made his job a little easier.

He stepped into his newest death room and saw his prey lying on the floor, a pool of blood forming under her left leg.

He walked up to her and kicked her hard, sending her flying into some chairs a short distance away. He then went over to the knife block next to the sink and picked out three choice blades.

"Now, let's make sure you have a good seat," he said, taking a small case out of his back pocket. He opened it nup and pulled out a sickly sweet smelling handkerchief. He placed it over his victim's mouth, careful not to inhale any of the fumes himself, and then she went limp.

He then pulled her over to the wall and held up one of her arms against it.

"This will hurt a lot," he said, driving one of the knives through her hand and pinning it to the wall.

Tears began to flow from her still opened eyes.

Good, he thought, the drug took. Can't have the victim falling unconscious during the pain, can we?

He raised her other hand and drove the second knife through it, preventing her from leaving before he was done.

Strung up like a puppet.

"You see," he explained, bending down to her level, "I've been watching you for much longer than you think. Ever since before you joined the force, in fact." Her eyes went wide at this, silently screaming denial.

"But I've bided my time," he went on, slowly tracing the knife over her skin, "waiting for just the right moment to show you the beginning." He pressed harder, drawing blood. The pain was terrible, biting, and agonizing; all her life she'd never felt pain as bad as this.

Then he bit into her leg, tearing off a piece of bloody flesh.

He was eating her alive.

She wanted to scream more than anything, if for no other reason than to call someone else here to save her. Unfortunately, because of that drug he gave her, she was unable to.

Then he suddenly stabbed her leg hard, adding more pain and more blood. Then he stabbed her other leg. Then again. Then her side. then again, higher up.

Slowly moving closer to her heart.

"Oh, there's no need to worry about your heart," he said, as if reading her thoughts, "you're still not at the beginning yet."

Then he took a bottle out of his pocket and unscrewed the cap. He poured a dorp on her face and immediately her flesh began to sizzle and melt.

Acid.

The pain of her face slowly melting away was excruciating, almost unbearable. She was now wishing that he would get it over with and kill her just to end the pain. He dripped some acid in the woulds on her legs and she almost ended her own life right there.

Her pour the acid down arms, on her chest, again on her face.

"Please," she just barely whispered, tears streaming down herface and stinging her naked flesh, "stop it."

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Yes," she barely mouthed.

And just like that he stabbed her right in the troat.

"Welcome to the beginning," he said, turning away and heading out the door. He locked it behind him and placed the key above the door-frame like he found it.

"Well, on to the next soul."

Thoughts of Beyond.

At last the chaotic symphony is ready, ready to forsake the end and embrace the begining of clarity. In the freedom of it's cage the Shell is finally ready to begin.

To the unritcheous take heed, your beginings are soon upon you as well.

Soon, I will collect a new piece for my divine orchestra.

Soon, someone else will die.

Soon.
_________________________________________________________

Thank you for bearing through another horror piece by yours truely. As usual, there are a few things I'd like to point out not that the story's done.

Firstly, I just reallized I never mentioneed the police finding Beyonds' fingerprints, so let's just say that he seared them off himself before he started his escaped.

Secondly, my model for BB is based mostly off of Zsasz from the Batman universe. Sinse I don't really know BB's mannerisms anything else about him out side of the Wikipedia article, that's what came out.

Lastly, happy holidays, freaks!