Los Angeles, California
Monday, June 25th, 2018
Pixie Browne was reminiscing about her past and eating a bowl of clam chowder at her favorite Northeastern-themed hole-in-the-wall restaurant when her attention wandered to the news on the screen in front of her. Perhaps it had to do with the ambiance of the joint, but the owners always keep the TV tuned to the Northeastern news channels.
At first, the weather forecast showed nothing surprising. While sunshine and warm temperatures were the norm for L.A., the weather forecast for the Northeast had nothing going for it. The remnants of a tropical storm were hitting the coast and carrying loads of rain.
Suckers!
Pixie smiled, pleased with herself for having left that part of her life behind. She’d left her family, her name, her friends. She’d given up everything so she could start anew, away from him. The weather was just one tiny improvement, but oh, did sunshine make her new life more enjoyable!
Her mood changed when the screen flashed with a breaking news announcement.
The TV was muted but a caption scrolled across the bottom of the screen while random footage of a police cordon surrounding an apartment building repeated in a loop. Then the portraits of two young women appeared for a few seconds.
What the caption said next almost made her spit out her spoonful in surprise:
“Bostonians the target of a serial killer. Two confirmed murders in a few weeks. Both victims were blonde women in their early twenties. The mayor is urging the citizens to be overly cautious, even with people they know, and to report any suspicious behavior to the police.”
That can’t be him again, can it? Oh shit.
“Did you see that?” the man sitting next to her asked.
“Yes. Crazy, uh?”
“Hope you don’t mind me saying, but you kind of look like those two chicks. Ain’t you lucky to be living far away from there?”
“Yeah. Lucky me.” Pixie dropped a handful of small bills next to her half-empty bowl, then darted out to the street, her stomach knotted and her heart pounding.