He stares at the woman as his face crumples, falling into a jagged expression. “Rose. Her name is Rose.” Nodding, I pull the bat back and slap it across Eddie’s face. The sound of his face breaking fills the silent gas station.
“Thank you.” Jumping across the counter, I bring my bat down against his stomach. He grunts. Ah, he’s still alive. So, satisfying to hear. He mumbles for me to stop but I ignore him. I bring the bat down again and this time it’s against his manhood. He howls and I snicker. “We’re just getting started, Eddie.”
His eyes close and I’m having such a fun time. I look at the camera behind where Eddie had been standing.Perfect.I bring the bat down again against his skull and he takes his last breath. He’s broken. Brain dead. Lifeless. That’s two more people dead tonight. I take the girl's purse and cell phone before I pull the tapes from the shelf and the one that is in the VCR. Without so much as a backward glance, I leave the store. The girl, Rose, will be dead before we go home tonight. Sending a text to Kronos, I tell him the girl's name is Rose and she frequents the bar on this street. I let him know I have the tapes as well.
I dump the girl’s purse in a nearby dumpster after I take her wallet. The girl had money. She sure did dress like a hooker. But the way she sucked dick told me she wasn’t a professional. My phone rings as I step back into Dead Man’s Alley.
“Rose is not her name. Sandy confirmed she doesn’t have anyone by that name there. Go back to Eddie and see what we can find.”
“Eddie’s dead.”
“Dammit, Ayres. Fine, burn the bodies in the alley. Hypnos and I will be around the corner soon enough for Eddie,” he grunts out.
Before he hangs up I quickly say, “There’s a dead girl in the store, too.” He ends the call with a sigh before I can say anything else. Shrugging my shoulders, I whistle the tune, “Monster” by Meg Meyers. I stack the bodies together in a huddle. These jackasses deserved their deaths tonight. They owed us money and when they refused to pay, they signed their death warrants. It was a shame I didn’t get to play with them longer. Reaching into my pocket, I pull out my lighter. The feeling of exhilaration hits me as I light them up. It doesn’t take long for their bodies to become engulfed.
I readjust myself. Most people would gag at the smell of burning flesh but not me. No, it has the opposite effect. “Shit,” I moan and readjust once again.
“The buildings are empty,” Hypnos announces as he walks up, tossing Eddie onto the pile.
“We can’t be chasing a ghost. Eddie said her name was Rose. Kronos didn’t find her at Sandy’s Bar. So here, these are the tapes from the station. If we don’t find her, we can figure it out once we get home.”
Hypnos shifts, trying to hide his disgust for the smell that’s permeating the chilly night air. Kronos comes up with the girl and I smile. Her mouth is stuck in anOshape. So damn sexy. My dick is hard as a rock again. Damn, I need to get laid.
“There’s an apartment building down about three blocks. Hypnos said he saw a girl enter a building right next to it but didn’t find anything. I say we go to the apartment building and we torture everyone in there to get answers. We don’t get answers, we torch the place,” Kronos growls as he looks at the burning bodies.
“Ayres was able to get the tapes. We can watch them back at the gas station if you want?” Hypnos speaks up, trying to calm Kronos.
“No. We have to hunt this girl down. Now.” Kronos looks at both of us. “What, just because we have tapes doesn’t mean we are going to get a damn thing, this ends tonight.”
His words are final. Hypnos nods his understanding and I follow suit. I can’t help but pop off. “Before we kill her, I’m tapping that ass.”
Anxiety threatensto take over my mind as I sprint into the street, wondering where I’m going to go. If I run to the bar, they’ll follow me. Hell, I can’t bring my drama to Sandy’s. My mind races. The thought of dying tonight makes my stomach quiver. The scar along my stomach aches—letting me know danger is near. I mean, who else has a bat signal for danger? Me. I do. And I listen to my gut. Always.
“No way I’m dying tonight,” I whisper to myself. I dash into the abandoned building to the right of my apartment building. It’s two buildings wide. There’s an underground passage to my apartment building that should give me cover.I hope.The men make no attempt to be quiet. I guess their plan is made. I hear two pairs of feet hitting the pavement, fading.
I stand here on the filth of the building for a moment. “Oh, God.” The man cusses, fumbling through the trash at the entrance. This place is a loitering hole for miscreants. They leave everything and anything behind. I try not to think about what might be crawling all over me.
“Come out now. We only want to talk.” The tone in which the man speaks tells me talking is the last thing they have in mind for me. I take a deep breath and leap into action. I know where this building leads, and the man doesn’t. I remember the path from this building to my apartment complex. When I moved here, I found the exits. The hiding spots. The dead ends and the traps. I never moved to a new spot without developing an escape plan. Shit hit the fan way too often to be naive enough to think I didn’t need to know how to get out of a jam.
The man is behind me, angry. I have to be quiet but that’s quite hard to do with all this trash around. As quiet as I can be, I make my way to the staircase. Underneath the staircase is a door that’s hidden in plain sight. You have to know where to push on the wall to get it to open. As the door opens, I hear the man cuss. He’s already upstairs. I make a mental note that the man is impatient. Or stupid, not to follow the path I had. It didn’t matter. I have to get out of here.
The man is opening doors now. He isn’t very subtle, not even trying to be quiet. I close the door, thinking about how this man is hunting me. Ready to kill me. My stomach knots itself and I gasp, overwhelmed. I make my way through the tunnel, thinking about how I’m going to have to burn these clothes. To move.Again.I focus on not thinking about what I’ve seen tonight. The stabbing of the man. The beating of the dead corpses. The ease of the man snapping that woman’s neck. I’m going to be sick, but I have to steel myself.
The sound of noises in the tunnel freaks me out. I run all the way to the door that leads me home. I have to believe they don’t know where I live. They don’t know my name. And if I’m lucky, they didn’t get a good look at me. They won’t find me. I’ll call Haydes and ask for another favor in finding a new place closer to the college. That is, if Haydes answers me. He’s been kind of radio silent since I started working and moved to the south side of Timberland.
“Hey girlie, you got any spare change?” I almost simultaneously scream and throw up in my mouth, looking at the old lady from room 104. Her teeth are molding, and warts cover her skin. I smile, trying to be a better person than my mind is.
“I’m sorry, no. Have a good night.” I whisper as I maneuver around her. I race up the last flight of stairs and sigh. My hands shake so badly, I can’t keep from fumbling with the keys. I’m able to calm down enough to unlock the door, get in and shut the outside world out. I have to think positive. First thing first though, I need to take a shower. Then I’ll make my call. Ripping the clothes off my body, I shove them into the garbage can, tears running down my face. I know I have to be quick and quiet.
Locking my bedroom door, I make a beeline for the shower and jump in. The cold hits me and I tremble, but it’s better than standing in my bathroom naked. My life has officially changed forever, and the water isn’t washing it away. I scrub hard and fast. Then slow and hard. Nothing makes me feel clean enough. After the third time washing, I finally start to wash my hair, thinking of how I need Haydes.
“I sure hope he is going to answer his phone,” I whisper into the steam.
Ayres watchesthe bodies burn as I stand by, looking over the area. Kronos paces, probably wondering what the fuck is going on. A small sound comes from above. “There,” I say, pointing to the third floor of the apartment building behind us, “we got her.” Kronos smirks as he looks up, “Kill them all.” Ayres comes around the corner just as the gas station blows up. “Just like clockwork boys.” Ayres starts laughing like crazy. He’s such a child sometimes.
Kronos rolls his eyes and growls, “Shut up. The police will be here within minutes. The fire department right after them. We have a hunch the girl is in the apartments on the third floor. Now be quiet so we can go into the building and kill her.”
Ayres quiets down and I pull out my knife. I shouldn’t be excited about the idea of getting to carve the bitch up, but I am. My chest swells with giddiness. We walk into the dilapidated building and Kronos heads to the second floor. Ayres will work on clearing the third floor—but he’s been instructed not to touch the far east apartment. I’ll be clearing the first floor. I come across an old man first. I smile and slit his throat. Before I move on to help Kronos, I hear moaning coming from the far back apartment.
