Of course she knew who he was, everyone did one way or another. He was a track star back in high school who would win gold medals and bring honor to Westfield High. Some people would give him pats on the back after a race or give a little cheer in the hallways. He always brushed it off, it was obvious he didn't care. Sometimes she would sneak under the bleachers by the football field and watch him run the track around it over and over again. Back then she thought it was just his passion but now she knew he was running from something that would never leave; himself. He had something about him, a secret, that would wrap around you and drag you along with him. She wanted to know it. She wanted to know him. He possessed something so subtle and simple it was breathtaking; freedom. A boy who had nothing to lose, but most importantly, nothing to gain.

Stephanie sat in the gazebo wearing the same clothes she had for that last eighteen years. It was a perfect halloween night. The stars were out hanging around a full moon that would be covered by the occasional cloud. There was a slight warm breeze that would make dry leaves rustle and costumes flutter, and a house not too far away had gone all out with smoke machines and lights that would change from blue to green to magenta. Indeed a perfect night to be a child with a heartbeat. However, being a teenager that's been dead for eighteen years, it wasn't that great. In fact it was excruciatingly painful. She hadn't been sure where to go this year. Stephanie had spent every halloween since her death tracking down her killer along with the other victims of the Westfield High School Massacre, or as the little bitch she had met last year had said, "The Dead Breakfast Club". They had found him, and it seemed like everything was going to be answered and they would finally be able to rest but he didn't remember them. He didn't remember putting his shotgun against her head and pulling the trigger? No, she knew he did. That's why she was here, she wanted to know why the boy she was so fascinated by had killed her. It was his fault she had nowhere to go, no idea where her parents were, no one to love her.

"You shouldn't be here." His hard authoritative voice came from behind. Stephanie just stared ahead into the dark yard. "You're right. I should be at home married with a kid. Happy." Her voice held so sarcasm, no pain, just loneliness. "We both should be." He scoffed and in a split second he was sitting a considerable amount away from her. Tate looked straight ahead at nothing in particular which gave her a chance to give him a quick sideways glance. The acid green light showed that he was wearing his usual ripped jeans, oversized shirt, cardigan and converse. His blonde curls fell into his eyes and she was reminded why she had been so intrigued by him. The light changed to magenta which made it harder for her to see him so she looked back into the yard.

"Why are you here?"
"I have no where else to go."
"I don't want you here."
"I don't want to be dead."

He slid his arm along the back of the cushioned couch and propped his ankle up on his opposite knee. They sat in silence. Children laughing could be heard from the street even though they all avoided the house. "What happened to the brown haired bitch from last year?" She could feel his eyes boring into her and see his jaw clench.

"We don't talk much anymore."
"Funny, I don't hear much anymore."

She turned so he could see the cave that started in the middle of her ear and consumed the upper right side of her head. Streams of dried blood could be seen down her neck that started at the temple. He knows what he did. Tate stared into her eyes and they stayed like that for a few minutes until she broke it by laughing and turning away.

"So the bitch-"
"Her name is violet." he snapped back.
"Oh, Violet. What a pretty name. Did you kill her too?"
"Fuck you."
"Funny enough, that's all I wanted you to do in high school."

She couldn't help but laugh uneasily for admitting such a thing. I wanted- want my killer to fuck me. "You're sick." Stephanie turned to see the beautiful dead boy staring at her intently. "Yeah well I didn't bring a gun to school and kill a bunch of kids now did I?" She looked down at her hands too sickened to look at his face. "No, but you want to sleep with the guy who did. That's pretty sick in my book."

They stayed like that for awhile; him staring at her and her staring down at her hands. The lights stopped changing and eventually kids stopped laughing. The smoke in the yard thinned out and the only light was from a neighbor's back porch. She thought about how eighteen years ago she would kill to be sitting alone with Tate and now she felt scared and uneasy. What's the worst he can do? Kill me? No, make me come back every year until he answers me. Which lead her to the questioned she had wondered, that everyone had wondered, for nearly twenty years.

"Why'd you do it, Tate?" she took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "I've been trying to figure it out for so many years but I just can't. I don't understand how you could pick up a gun and kill people, kill kids. Don't you understand what you did?" She couldn't help but look into his black eyes. There wasn't any light. There wasn't any remorse, just pain and bottomless darkness.

"I can tell you why I still think about it. It makes me hard, and when I say hard I mean rock hard. All those kids running and screaming thinking they have a chance. You thought you had a chance didn't you?" Stephanie sat there and continued to look in his eyes not wanting to show any emotion. "I bet you did. I knew you wouldn't, I had all the power that day. I was a god, deciding who lived and who died." He chuckled thinking back which makes a tremor run through her body. A type of tremor she doesn't want to admit to having. "I remember the way you smelt. How you screamed and fell to your knees right in front of me. How your eyes became watery and how you were going to beg. I could see down your shirt you know. I saw how your blood ran down your neck and covered your pale breasts." What I would do to them he thought to himself.

"So that's why you did it? Because you're a sadist?" Disgust washed over her. "No, I didn't say that. I assure I don't need to hurt others to cum." Throughout his little speech he had been moving closer to her now he fell back onto the outdoor couch and looked at her with a smug smile. He folded his arms behind his head making his undershirt and cardigan rise up making his plaid boxers visible. She could see Tates hardness through his baggy pants. "You're disgusting." I'm the one that's disgusting, thinking about him inside me. She watched as he trailed his hand down his body until he reached the bulge and started to palm himself.

"I bet you're a virgin. I bet that's why you always dressed in black and wore black lipstick and eyeshadow. Dying a virgin; that must really suck."

"I wouldn't be dead if it wasn't for you you psycho."

He smiled and pulled himself out of his pants stroking his hard swollen cock. She couldn't help but look at his manhood. There wasn't anything she wanted to do more than to put her painted black lips around it and suck him dry. She wanted to make him groan her name and pull her hair to make her take him all in her mouth, which would be difficult. Stephanie remembered then that he wouldn't be able to grab the hair on the right side of her head on the account that he blew it off. Tates breath hitched and he let out a growl from the back of his throat as he began to pump harder and faster. He never once took his eyes off of her. She stared at him while he jerked himself off. The sound made her body feel hot. After what seemed like an hours he threw his head back, closed his eyes and clenched his teeth while his hand worked alarmingly fast, and then he cummed spewing all over his stomach. Before she could think she crawled over and licked every last bit off. It was so warm at tasted so good, like pure honey. She was disappointed when it was all gone.

"Your death was my favorite." he said with his eyes half closed and a grin on his face. She pushed herself away feeling disgusted again.

"I'll see you next halloween and the one after that and the one after that until you tell me why." He licked his lips and looked up at her. "Oh, and I'm glad she doesn't talk to you anymore, we don't need any more lives lost because of you. Unless you've fallen into your old ways and killed her?" She knows she's hit a nerve. In a blink of an eye he's standing in front of her looking down without a hint of emotion. Their eyes lock.

"You don't know what you're talking about. I love Violet, and she loves me."
"You're a monster, Tate. She would have to be insane to stay with you."
"I've changed."
"You just got off on remembering how you committed a school shooting. How you killed me."
"I- I'm sorry."
"Fuck you."

Stephanie turned on her heel and walked off the gazebo and out of the yard. Once she was out of Tates view she began to run, in fact she ran all the way back to her grave with tears streaming down her face. She had never felt so ashamed and hopeless in all her life and afterlife. Next year she would make him pay.

Tate sat in the gazebo for a long time looking down at the ground. He wondered if Violet had heard or seen what had taken place between him and Stephanie. He was ashamed. He hadn't let the darkness control him since last year when he put the rubber suit on for the last time and attacked Ben. Tate could feel the tears stinging his eyes and he let them fall down his face. Guilt twisted inside of his stomach and for a long time he sat there and cried.