Page 85 of To All the Men I’ve Killed Before

And the brutal absence.

The Ripper sub seems like it’s grown since the last time I looked at it. There are so many new threads. None of them are exactly comforting bedtime reading.

I click one titled He Strikes After Dark and scan through the replies, hungry for information but also aware of the sickness it’s causing, the cold bile biting into my stomach.

The post is full of people speculating about when the Ripper likes to hunt. I scroll until my eyes hurt. The one thing they all agree on is that his favourite time is after midnight. And that he stalks his intended victims until they’re walking alone in the dark.

It’s got to be someone that no one notices, one poster helpfully points out. Someone who blends into the background. Like Kevin Spacey in that old movie.

Get that name off of this sub.

Bro, this is LA, no one blends into the background here. No one wants to.

Background artists do. That’s literally their entire point.

Honestly? Its more likely that he’s an influencer or YouTuber. They’re everywhere all at once. They’re like streetlamps. No one pays them any attention.

I reckon he’s a rejected actor with an axe to grind.

Nah. It’s someone who hates women. Who hates women?

Everyone.

There’s a link that I click on that takes me through to a colour-coded spreadsheet.

Jesus, someone has really put time into making this thing.

The women I know about are on there: Alicia, Sofi, Ellie and Juno. Their last known movements tracked. The places where their bodies were dumped. Links to their PrivatePool accounts. But I’m shocked to see more names. Names of women who are missing in Hollywood. Could there be even more victims than the ones we know about?

Marissa Hale – yoga instructor. Last seen New Year’s Day, early hours, left a house party in The Hills to walk home. Had a PrivatePool.

Talia Shah – model. Reported missing by her boyfriend when she failed to arrive at his house in Fairfax. She’d texted him to say she was five minutes away and was never heard from again. Had recently set up a PrivatePool.

Brooke Chandler – actor. Missing for two years. She was last seen saying goodbye to friends on Sunset. Was very active on PrivatePool and had a large following.

There are half a dozen similar stories and no one can agree if they’re victims of the Ripper or not. The conversation about them is predictably misogynistic.

Nah. The Ripper dumps the bodies at landmarks. He wants us to know he’s killed them. These hoes are probably just junkies.

Or they’ve run off with a sugar daddy.

Or they’ve been trafficked to Dubai and are living that porta potty lifestyle.

Do you think he fucks them before he kills them?

Nah. These skanks are too dirty. He just eliminates them.

None of them are ugly though? I’d stick it in before I choked them.

LMAO. Right?

I wonder if he’s looking for a Robin to his Batman.

The amount of men who want to hurt women never fails to horrify me. After everything I’ve seen. Everything I’ve done. It still chills me to my core. And now one of them has my sister.

I slam the laptop shut, unable to bear reading any more of the vitriol. How are men applauding someone who murders women? And just because the women make content for men exactly like them? It’s so fucking backwards that it makes my head spin.

I suddenly feel very scared and alone.