The Killing Kind

CHAPTER TWELVE

March 17

The first thing she was aware of as she returned to consciousness was pain. Her head hurt and her jaw throbbed. One of her teeth felt loose. She probed it with her tongue and whimpered at the fresh jolt of agony this triggered. Her eyelids fluttered and she saw the hazy form of a man looming in front of her. She squeezed her eyes shut, opened them again, and the image crystallized.

It was him.

Her mouth opened wide.

“Scream and the lights go out again.” He cocked a fist and moved a step closer. “Maybe forever.”

Julie closed her mouth.

And in the next moment she became aware of several other things. It had all really happened. John, Karen, and Nancy Lee were all dead. She had killed a man, this psycho’s partner. And now here she was. Naked. Tied to a chair. She flexed her wrists, testing the bonds. Electrical cords or cables, felt like. He’d cinched them painfully tight, making the flesh bulge at her wrists and ankles.

She scowled at him. “Why am I naked?”

“I wanted to look at you.”

“Perv. Did you rape me?”

The big man smirked. “You’d know if I had.”

Julie’s face crinkled in disgust. “Gross. So you didn’t…right?”

The man shook his head. “I wanted to, but Lulu forbade it.”

“Who the fuck is Lulu?”

“You wouldn’t understand.” His smile was bitter, devoid of humor. “But she’s the reason I haven’t shoved a knife up your cunt.”

Julie gulped.

Yay, Lulu.

“Where is she? I want to talk to her.”

The man stared at her and didn’t say anything. He was still naked. His body was covered in dried blood. He was well into middle age, a fact betrayed by the gray hair and the deep lines in his face, but his physique was impressive. Thick musculature just about everywhere, but with a small bit of flab through the middle. She studied his face and decided it might have been sort of handsome twenty years ago, with that square jaw and those piercing eyes. But now he was old. He was one of those hard-living scumbags who looked old before his time. He had a destined-to-die-on-skid-row-in- a-puddle-of-piss kind of vibe. And he was a fucking pervert. He was licking his chapped lips and looking her up and down, his cock stiffening as he scrutinized her.

“You want me to suck that for you?”

Please say yes, you fucking freak. I’ll bite that nasty thing clean off.

His nostrils flared. “You know I do. But Lulu won’t allow it”

“Yeah. And speaking of her…you didn’t answer my question. Where is she?”

“Ya can’t see her.”

Julie stared at his swollen cock. The guy was jerking it right in front of her. She didn’t want to stare, but it sort of compelled the eye. It was huge. “Why not?”

“You just can’t, that’s all!”

Julie sighed. “Okay. Fine. Whatever. You’re in charge here.” She smiled and looked him in the eye. “Look, you can tell her I said it was okay. I wanna do it. Or if she’s not around, we just won’t tell her. It’ll be our little secret. What do you think?”

He grunted. “Hold on. Can’t think straight. Be right back.”

He trotted out of the living room, disappearing down the hallway that led to the bedrooms. Soon she heard the faint squeak of bedsprings again and her stomach fluttered. He was giving Karen’s corpse another bounce.

What a sick fuck!

Of course, she was the one who’d wanted to snap a picture of him performing this very act, so who was the sick one here?

He returned some ten minutes later. This time he was no longer completely nude, wearing a clean pair of briefs probably swiped from John’s dresser. No way this piece of human garbage owned anything remotely clean. It was almost sort of funny. He was too much a prisoner of his twisted sexual appetites to think clearly. So he’d banged one out and put something on to take his dick out of the equation.

“So why doesn’t Lulu want you to do anything to me?”

“She says you’re…” His lips curled in his hesitation, making his distaste for the next word clear. “…special.”

Julie stifled a laugh. This guy was insane. That was a given. Clearly this “Lulu” existed only in his head. But the asshole just as clearly believed she was real. Which was good. Because Lulu was on her side. God knows why. But maybe it was something she could exploit.

Julie smiled. “She’s right. You should listen to her.”

“I always listen to her. That’s why you’re not dead, bitch.”

Julie’s expression sharpened. “Don’t call me that. You think Lulu would like that? She said I’m special. Well, treat me like I am.”

The man frowned. “I…” His jaw clenched and his hands curled into fists. Deep lines formed on his brow. He looked frustrated. Probably wasn’t used to getting this kind of attitude from a girl. Women were supposed to tremble in his presence. Or cringe away in disgust if he happened to pass them on the street. He didn’t have the first clue what to do with her. Well, here was another thing she could exploit.

“Hey, asshole. You forget how to talk? You look like you’re having a fucking seizure. And Christ, but you stink. You smell like you’ve been submerged in shit the last ten years. Please go take a fucking shower.” She smiled. “A nice, long one.”

His whole body was shaking. “Don’t. Talk. To. Me. Like. That!”

Julie’s smile never wavered. “Relax, baby. I’m just playing.” She giggled. “Did Lulu tell you why I’m special?”

The man let out a long breath. His hands slowly unclenched. “She said you’re like me on the inside.”

Julie’s smile drooped a little. She thought of her collection of crime-scene photos. Recalled with only a small echo of shame her first impulse upon spying this crazy fuck’s defilement of Karen’s body. Only a few very close friends knew about her secret obsessions and fantasies. And yet…no. She was reading too much into this. Lulu wasn’t real. And this guy wasn’t psychic. Psycho, yeah, no shit, but not psychic.

Still…

Play along.

“She’s right. I’m just like you.”

The man’s expression was somber. “Yes. And that’s why you’re coming with me when I leave.”

Julie shook her head. “What? No…I…”

The man began to smile. “Yes. Lulu says it’s your destiny.”

Julie kept shaking her head. “No.”

The man laughed.

Then he went out of the room, disappearing down the hallway again. He came back a few minutes later with another item pilfered from the Lees’ belongings-a bottle of sleeping pills. He forced a few down her throat and slapped a strip of duct tape over her mouth. She cried and struggled against her bonds a while longer as he puttered about the house gathering things to take with him.

The crash came fast. Her head felt thick. She stopped struggling and closed her eyes. When she woke up again, briefly, she was in the trunk of a car. The space was cramped, more than it should be. She moved around a little, enough to determine she had company in the tight space. The man she had killed was her companion in darkness. She couldn’t see him, but the god-awful stench was proof enough. She began to cry. Mercifully, the swish of tires on pavement soon lulled her mind back into that hazy, gray drugged space, and she fell asleep again.