They say money can't buy happiness, but it definitely buys peace of mind, and the sum Carlisle Cullen had offered was generous enough to guarantee a lot of peace of mind.
For a family of immortals who had already accumulated compound interest for a long time, these figures were mere numbers.
For Lief, however, it was a clean deal: zero risk, minimal time investment, and an astronomical profit margin.
With his bank account much healthier and humming a tune, he closed his chapter in the soggy town of Forks.
His last stop was the principal's office to formalize his withdrawal.
The man showed genuine consternation; losing a student who effortlessly raised the school average was a harsh blow to the district's statistics.
He tried to tempt him with scholarships and advanced programs, but Lief rejected the offer.
Crossing the high school gates for the last time, he didn't feel the need to use his shortcuts.
He could have opened a door and instantly appeared in his office, and then arrived at his home.
But he was a creature of habit.
He enjoyed the asphalt under the wheels, the vibration of the engine, and the gradual change in the landscape.
He mounted Fenrir and as he twisted the throttle, the engine responded with a deep roar that vibrated his chest.
He left the parking lot like a black lightning bolt, leaving behind the perpetual gray sky, to devour the interstate highway.
The wind battered his helmet, whistling a song of freedom, as the pine forests gave way to open plains.
There was a type of magic in traveling alone, a disconnection from the world where destiny was an unknown and adventure a constant promise.
In conclusion, the fun was not in the destination, but the possibility of the unexpected.
...
Night fell.
Hours later, Lief was still on the road, now surrounded by the immense solitude of the rural areas.
Civilization was a distant memory and city lights had been replaced by absolute darkness, broken only by the cone of light from his headlight.
On both sides of the road, endless walls of corn stood tall and dense.
But suddenly, a patch of light appeared ahead.
As he approached, he made out an old house set back from the main road.
The porch lights were on and the deep sound of bass was thumping. It looked like a college party relocated to the middle of nowhere.
Grimacing, Lief, with no interest in mixing into this, adjusted his grip on the handlebars, preparing to accelerate and leave the commotion behind.
However, just as he was passing in front of a stretch that bordered the densest and darkest part of the cornfield, his ears caught something that didn't fit with the music.
The sound was not coming from the house, but from the depths of the cornfield.
Jumping off the accelerator, he let inertia carry the bike as he sharpened his hearing.
It wasn't laughter... It was a scream.
A human shriek and right after, a whistling sound.
The unmistakable sound of a heavy blade slicing through the air.
?
Curiosity got the better of him and gently braking, he guided Fenrir toward the gravel shoulder until he came to a complete stop.
He took off his helmet, shook his hair, and tilted his head toward the darkness of the crop.
Now he heard it clearly.
Someone was running between the corn stalks, breathing desperately, tripping and falling. And something else was chasing him.
Suddenly, a second scream tore through the night that was abruptly cut off with a liquid impact sound, followed by a heavy silence.
Lief's expression transformed into genuine interest.
He turned off the engine and without further ado, walked directly toward the corn wall.
…
At the same time, at the farthest edge of the cornfield, where the party lights were barely a diffuse glow.
Quinn and her two best friends were huddled against the side of an old truck.
The cold night air gave them goosebumps, but it was fear that made them tremble.
"What... what the hell was that noise?" asked the blonde girl while her eyes scanned the darkness of the stalks.
"S-Surely it's Matt. He's an asshole," replied the other friend although her voice lacked conviction, "They said they were going in to scare us. They are probably crouching there, laughing at us with those stupid clown masks they stole from the party."
Just a few minutes ago, it was all laughter. Matt and other boys had dared the girls to approach the cornfield, promising a "surprise."
At first, mocking screams and distant laughter were heard, which the girls interpreted as their typical antics.
But then…
A bloodcurdling scream, one that had nothing of a joke about it, made itself present, but as abruptly as it came, it also cut off.
Leaving a silence much more terrifying than the noise.
"I don't like this... let's go," whispered Ronnie taking a step back.
"Yes, let's go. Matt can go to hell if he thinks that—"
Swish
Before Janet could finish, an arrow embedded itself with precision in her throat.
"Ugh..." Involuntarily she brought her hands to her neck.
Her eyes widened disproportionately and blood began to gush between her fingers, soaking her white blouse in seconds.
She tried to suck in air, but only produced a choking sound before her knees gave way and her body fell collapsed.
"AAAAH!!"
Instantly Quinn and Ronnie screamed like animals.
Panic paralyzed them for a second, and in that instant of horror, something round was thrown from the thick of the cornfield.
The object rolled through the grass until stopping right at Quinn's feet.
It was a human head.
It was Matt.
He was wearing the clown mask but now the white plastic was splattered with crimson red.
"Oh, my God!!"
Unable to take it anymore, Ronnie doubled over, fell to her knees and began to have violent retching, vomiting.
"..."
Meanwhile, Quinn's mind had gone blank.
This was not a joke.... Matt was dead. Janet was dead.
Shh... shh... shh...
The sound of corn stalks brushing against each other began to arrive from all directions and it wasn't the wind.
Slowly, figures began to come out from among the corn.
One by one, they stepped into the moonlight.
There were more than a dozen.
They all wore clown masks, some smiling and others sad.
But what caused a chill wasn't the masks, but what they carried in their hands.
Sickles, machetes, hammers, and sawed-off shotguns.
They surrounded them in silence, blocking any escape route.
Ronnie, get up!" shouted Quinn, recovering a bit of sanity and grabbing her friend by the arm and pulling her hard, "We have to run!"
Dragging her, Quinn turned, searching desperately for a gap in the circle to reach the road.
But it was useless.
A huge clown in overalls blocked their path.
BRRRRRUMMM
This one carried a chainsaw which he raised over his head and with a demented laugh under the mask, brought the chainsaw down, aiming directly to split Quinn in two.
She closed her eyes tightly, raising her arms and waiting for the end.
Clang
But there was no pain; instead, a metallic clash rang out, followed by an unbearable screech of metal against metal.
Trembling, she opened her eyes.
In front of her, emerging from out of nowhere, was a tall figure dressed in a black leather jacket.
He had his back to her, standing like a shield between her and the killer.
But that wasn't the important thing.
The important thing was that he had raised his hand and had caught the chainsaw blade... pinching it with just two fingers!
The chainsaw engine roared, spewing black smoke in the effort, but the fingers didn't move.
The clown stood paralyzed, watching all this with disbelief.
"Making so much noise at this time of night... is an unforgivable lack of manners."
Shaking his head, Lief's voice rang out clearly despite the sound of the struggling engine. With a sigh of resignation, he applied a minimal but devastating twist with his fingers.
Click
The steel chain fragmented under the pressure, bursting into dozens of pieces.
Boom
And before the clown could process this, Lief unleashed a half-hearted backhand with his hand.
The clown, along with the smoking remains of his chainsaw, was ripped from the ground as if he had been rammed by a speeding truck. Flying backward violently, crashing through several rows of corn until he finally landed heavily, turned into an inert lump and silenced forever.
"..."
Silence descended, swallowing the screams and leaving only the whisper of the wind.
The rest of the killers stopped dead, unable to comprehend what had just happened.
Shaking his hand with indifference, Lief looked up and his eyes swept over everyone coldly, evaluating each of the costumes surrounding him, only to stop for a second on the teenagers' corpses and the severed head.
A serious expression settled on his face as he moved his neck from side to side.
"I admit the road trip was getting a little monotonous, but it seems destiny always finds ways to entertain me."
[Clown in a Cornfield]
________
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