Horror Bites - Arranging a Date

I'm a bit behind on the Horror Bites Challenges, run by Laura James. She recently started them up again over at her new blog Get Wordy, and I am trying to keep up.

I have been out of the loop with writing for some time, and I need to return to it as I felt I have lost my focus with everything lately.

In attempting to write for the first challenge, I didn't register the word count, and went quite a bit over (400 words). And although I clawed it back to 280, trying to get it down to 200 will lose the entire story, which is a different kind of horror - but just as scary. Enjoy.

Jackson looked at his watch and up at the clock again. “Come on, come on,” he muttered. He hated waiting, especially in train stations. Any one of them could be who he was waiting for. That was the downfall of arranging things over the net - and the beauty of it.

He smirked, his irritation forgotten. He’d always thought about doing this, but never had the nerve. Working as a team gave him courage. 

A man caught his eye: head down, black Parka, tufts of curly hair sticking out the sides of the hood - it had to be Carter. He glanced up looking straight at Jackson. That’s when he knew. They were a go.

The sleeve of Carter’s coat brushed Jackson’s arm as he whispered, “Down from 10 …”

Jackson started counting, moving rapidly to the agreed destination. She’d be in view by the time he reached it, and she was. 

Her blonde pony tail flicked from side to side as she walked towards the escalators. Jackson saw another guy flanking her on the left - that had to be Mandelson. Jackson moved up behind her and pushed the lid off the syringe in his pocket, letting his sleeve disguise it as he pulled it out. He pretended to trip and knocked into her, feeling the tip enter the flesh of her arm and the contents release. She took in a sharp intake of breath and scowled at him, rubbing her arm. 

The scowl became confusion and he saw her eyes roll. He stepped forward to support her from behind, Carter and Mandelson came in on either side to keep her upright. They were going to have fun tonight!