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I’m keeping Lyra.
There will be growing pains and challenges to overcome. She’ll adjust to what will become her new reality eventually. What other choice will she have?
First, I must tie up loose ends. And by tie up, I mean eliminate the last few roadblocks standing in our way.
Grady is an unbelievably easy catch. Perhaps even easier than Lyra wandering down a crowded street preoccupied on her phone. The twenty-six-year-old man who seems to only own t-shirts with holes in them and happens to be allergic to hair clippers just can’t kick his drug habit.
As destitute as he claims to be, he finds a way to scrounge up money for his dealer. They meet on the corner of a poorly lit street located in one of Easton’s most crime-riddled areas. I’m lurking in the background, dressed in an inconspicuous hoodie and jeans, waiting out the illegal transaction.
Grady can’t wait to get his fix. He barely makes it across the street before giving in. He scrabbles at the plastic baggy he’s been given and stuffs two of the pills into his mouth. An immediate euphoric expression rearranges his features.
I step out from the shadows. His eyes connect with mine, but it’s already too late. I’ve descended on him, jamming my needle into the pulse of his neck.
It happens fast. He goes from full consciousness alight in his gaze to heavy-lidded vacancy that brings him to collapse. I catch him before he does, walking him down the shoddy sidewalk without a single suspicious stare.
It’s dark out. Few people are around. The ones who are don’t give a damn; they’re too strung-out or embroiled in their own criminal activity to spare a glance at the wobbly-legged drug addict getting carried away by a hooded man.
I stuff him into my trunk like luggage and speed off.
It takes him hours to wake up. His head rolls along either shoulder, and he groans out in discomfort. Slowly, his eyes flutter open, and his vision clears. The rigid iron bars of his cell are the first thing he sees.
I’m the second. Just beyond his cell, I’m standing at my workstation in the middle of a thorough scrub down and sanitation.
“Whoa… what the fuck?! You fucking psycho!” he yells. “Where am I? Let me out!”
“Lower your voice.”
“What did you do to me? I knew it! You’re a fucking—holy shit, what is that?!”
Grady’s sneakers scrape against the cement floor and his body thuds against the wall. I don’t need to turn around to know why—he’s noticed the door hanging open to the industrial-sized freezer in the corner of the room. Fyodor’s half disassembled body lays tucked inside.
He loses it. The waste of space ex of Lyra’s erupts into wild screams as if he’s a toddler that’s discovered the boogeyman under his bed.
I still in the middle of my scrubbing and grit my teeth. “Shut up.”
“Get me out! Get me out! HELP! SOMEBODY HELP!”
I slam down the sponge and disinfectant and grab the meat cleaver I was about to clean next.
Grady only screams louder as I approach his cell. He shakes his head side to side in pure horror and presses himself against the wall. A wet spot materializes in the crotch of his faded jeans.
“Please.. no… HELP… SOMEBODY!”
“I said shut the fuck up!” I growl with cold menace clenched onto my face. The meat cleaver rests in my hand, ready to strike if I choose to do so.
It’s enough to do the trick. Grady whimpers and swallows down his scream. “P-please… dude… I don’t want any trouble… just… cool it, alright?”
“No one can hear you. You are in an empty building my family owns, guarded by my security, trapped within soundproof walls. No one is coming to save you. Just so you know, you’re wasting valuable energy when you decide to scream like a banshee. It is in your best interest to get comfortable. You will be here a while.”
“Let me go. Please. Let me go.”
“I can kill you sooner than I plan to. That is on you. Agitate me enough, and I will.” I stride along the perimeter of his cell and take satisfaction in knowing he’ll be my next game. I will make the most of this one.
Ending Grady will be sweeter and more satisfying than any of my other recent kills.
“I have an event to attend,” I announce, checking the time on my phone. I set down the meat cleaver and head for the passageway. “I’m sure in my absence you will continue to scream like a fool because that’s what fools do. However, food and water will not be supplied to you at this accommodation. So, again, you might want to conserve your energy.”
Grady proves he’s indeed the fool I believe him to be. I haven’t made it up the stairs before he’s screaming profanities and demanding I come back down to release him.
