Date number 42
By Angelica Sabili

Boom! Blam! Went the fireworks that were released quickly. When Vianca opened her eyes, she saw Nick standing before her. A bouquet of sweet roses in his right hand and his other extended to hers. She laughed, it was all too cliche, but she couldn’t help the strange feeling in her stomach. Although, Nick wanted to end this date in an instant. On the outside, he looked pleasant and tried to force a smile on his face, but was disgusted by the way Viance looked. On campus, he is the most popular guy and is known as one of the jocks. This date was just a stupid dare for Nick, and he only dated girls just to satisfy his big ego. They both walked through the carnival entrance with faces like red ketchup sauce. Nick handed Vianca an ear of caramel corn that was followed by a bite of savoury sweetness, while she was stroking a fluffy plushie. 

Hoot! Hoot! Went the purple clown on the mini Bicycle. It was 11:00 pm and Vianca led Nick into the horror house. This was going according to plan. They were greeted by a series of magnificent horror monsters. Nick felt his arm being cuddled by Vianca while she screamed in horror, but then he turned to see her narrow face with unblinking eyes menacingly spreading wider. He felt an undeniable strange feeling of fear in his chest as if his heart was going to explode. They kept on walking, suddenly, Nick heard a scream. He tried ignoring but it felt like something eerie was going to happen. As he turned around, his body fell to the floor and hit his head hard on the concrete tombstone. His vision started to become blurry and he could see Vianca’s crooked smile across her face. Vianca squealed with excitement, smearing her finger against her lover's blood.

Thump! Nick forced his eyes to open while seeing a shroud of swirling darkness. He felt his body dragged into the carnival tents leaving a trail of blood on the ground.

“You’re a lot heavier than the others, date number 42” Vianca exclaimed. Nick felt frozen in time and couldn’t process what was going on while he was tied around the chair. 

“You are one of my favourites Nick, but ciao!” Vianca chuckled. She took a lighter and threw it onto the tent and showed her cunning grin.

“Get me out of here you witch!” Nick cried

“Aww, Mahal Kita” Vianca answered in Filpino and kissed him on the cheek. In a moment, Vianca had a mental flashback of longing, abandonment, and resentment of her childhood past but at the same time began to feel the satisfaction, feelings of relief and clarity of her serial killings. Vianca felt “alive” and the sense of absolute power she had in killing her victims. Now…. she is looking forward to date number 43.