The Killing Kind

CHAPTER FORTY

March 27

Joe was surfing gay porn sites on his laptop when he heard footsteps coming up the stairs from the first floor. He heard voices, too. Shushed whispers. Though he couldn’t make out any words, the timbre of one of those voices was unmistakable. He took a hand out of his shorts, clicked away from the current site, cleared his browser history and cache, and flipped the laptop shut.

His heart was pounding when the door to the second-floor room he was sharing with Emily opened and she stumbled inside with tears in her eyes. “Joe…I’m sorry…they…j-jumped me…”

He was on his feet in an instant. “Honey, what’s-?”

Then the others came in behind her.

Two chicks and a guy.

The barrel of a gun was thrust into his face. The bald girl holding it beamed like a prom queen posing for a yearbook photo. “Hi. Get on your fucking knees.”

It was them.

Terror slammed into him and stole his breath.

He dropped to his knees and began to pray.

Annalisa sat cross-legged on the bed with her hands clasped around her iPhone. She smiled as she sent identical status updates to Facebook and Twitter:

Vacay a total wash. Drama drama drama. But I’m in love w/Sean & somehow happier than ever.:)

She heard the voices in the hallway as she finished sending the update. She recognized Emily’s voice right away. No mistaking that sultry tone. It made her think of that afternoon and she felt a reflexive tingle of arousal. She felt bad about that. But she couldn’t dwell on it. She had a great guy and a bright future ahead of her. The thing with Emily she could chalk up as just another of life’s experiences.

She frowned.

The other voices were very soft. She sensed an obvious effort to be quiet. Despite the low volume, she was certain these were the voices of strangers. Her mind flashed instantly to the news reports of the Walgreens massacre.

She sighed.

Ridiculous. You’re just being paranoid.

The door to the bathroom opened, making her gasp and jump. Sean came out wearing only khaki shorts and a grin. “Whoa. Nervous much?”

She laughed. “I-”

The bedroom door flew open and there they were.

Tears sprang to Annalisa’s eyes.

She knew her bright future no longer existed.

Chuck had just gone back to the bar when he heard the footsteps coming up the stairs. There had been no sign of Annalisa and Sean for hours. It wasn’t Zoe. She was down at the beach and always returned via the balcony staircase. The only other possibility was the one he dreaded most. He was still sort of baffled by how badly he’d misjudged Joe over the years. He knew the guy was wild and liked to have a good time. And that was fine. He was the same way. But there was a world of difference between that and being a total fucking sleazebag. Emily was even worse. She was the queen champion slut whore of all time, as well as a total user and manipulator. At this point it didn’t even matter whether she’d corrupted Joe or vice versa. They were both beyond redemption, in his eyes.

Joe appeared at the top of the stairs.

He was weaving again and his face looked red.

Shit. Here we go again.

Chuck didn’t care if the guy was still fucked-up. If he tried to start shit again, he was getting his ass handed to him.

Then he saw the red welt beneath one of his eyes and frowned.

What the hell?

Emily came up right behind him. She was also wobbling a little and there were tears in her eyes. Joe watched them and wanted to puke. So the drama had continued in private. More drama followed by fisticuffs, from the looks of it.

That theory gave way to reality an instant later.

Missy Wallace shoved Emily aside and strode into the living room with the malevolent confidence of an avenging angel. She had a gun in her hand. It was aimed at the floor, but it was rising. Chuck moved without thinking about it, instinct propelling him away from the bar toward the balcony door. She was here to kill him. He had to run, even if it meant a bullet in the back.

The gun boomed.

The big pane of glass in one of the French doors blew out and Chuck skidded to a halt. He stood shaking and breathing hard as he stared at the spray of glass. His mind calculated what the trajectory of the bullet must have been and he almost fell over. He’d just missed having his brains splattered against the door. She was still coming at him. He could feel her bearing down on him. Then he felt the gun against the back of his neck and screwed his eyes shut.

This is it, he thought.

This is how I die.

He had seconds left, probably. His heart raced. His head was filled with a whirlwind of clashing, confused thoughts and feelings. Regret, terror, loss, heartache, and a desperate hope for some kind of continued existence beyond this mortal plane. All the things anyone facing imminent death would feel. It was impossible to grab on to any one thing and focus on it.

Until he thought of Zoe again.

Shit.

She had been down at the beach for some time. More than an hour, easily. She could be on her way back right now. Could be moments away from walking in on this slaughter in the making. The odds were against her, but he figured she was the only one of them with any chance of surviving the night. She might yet live if Missy and her friends got down to business fast.

Chuck opened his eyes.

Several seconds had passed. The gun’s barrel was still pressed to the back of his neck.

“What are you waiting for? Get it over with.”

Missy laughed. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? A quick and merciful end.”

Chuck swallowed with tremendous difficulty-it felt like he was trying to force a golf ball down his gullet. “Yes.”

Another laugh, this one tinged with a merciless, taunting quality. “Sucks to be you, I guess.”

The gun came away from his neck as she moved back some.

“Turn around, frat boy.”

Chuck turned around.

They were all here now. All but Zoe. Emily and Joe. Annalisa and Sean. Missy and the other two wanted in connection with the Walgreens killings. The fugitives had all changed their looks. Missy had short and spiky blonde hair. The guy and the younger chick were both bald. They looked like skinheads. The grin on the younger girl’s face disturbed him as much as anything else. She looked like she was having the time of her life. The guy was lean and fit. He wore black jeans and a black button-up shirt with a flame pattern on the front. Chuck might have laughed at the duds under other circumstances. He looked like he shopped exclusively at Hot Topic. He also looked exactly like the sort of dude who’d get mixed up with the likes of Missy Wallace. But there was something off about him. Maybe it was just wishful thinking, but he had a feeling the guy wasn’t as into this as Missy and the other chick. He looked nervous. Scared. Like he’d rather be anywhere but here. The insight gave him his first glimmer of hope. It was a small one, but it was better than nothing. He had to work on tweaking this guy’s conscience, somehow nudge him into intervening before it was too late.

“Rob!”

The bald guy flinched when Missy barked his name. “Yeah?”

“Got a job for you.”

Rob grimaced. “What do you want?”

Yeah. Definitely not into this at all. Yet here he is. Weak-willed little bastard.

“I need you to rearrange some furniture.” Missy never looked away from Chuck as she issued her commands. Never stopped smiling. And never stopped aiming the gun right at his face. “Shove that goddamn sofa out of the way, up against the entertainment center. Then drag the chairs from that table and line ’em up in a row.”

Rob set about his work with obvious reluctance. The listless way he moved made him look like a tired old man. He couldn’t be more than a few years older than Chuck, but the haunted, faraway look in his eyes made him look like a combat veteran at the end of a tour of duty. He nonetheless got the job done within a few minutes. The sofa was up against the entertainment center and four metal-framed chairs were lined up in a row, facing the kitchen area.

Missy moved away from Chuck and pointed the gun at Joe. “You sit there.”

She nodded at one of the chairs.

Joe staggered over to it and plopped down, tears leaking from his eyes. “Please. I don’t wanna die. Please…”

“Shut up or I’ll shoot you in the balls.”

Joe stopped pleading, but his tears continued in a steady stream.

Missy ordered Sean and Annalisa into the two middle chairs and installed Chuck in the chair on the far-right end, the one closest to the balcony doors. Chuck glanced at the shattered door and tried to send a telepathic signal to Zoe to stay put. It was ridiculous, but what else could he do? He made himself stop looking at the door. He didn’t want Missy developing any suspicions.

Missy knelt and set her big tote bag on the floor. She pulled out some clothes and tossed them aside. Then she reached into the bag and pulled out a plastic bag with a Walgreens logo. She opened the Walgreens bag and dumped its contents on the floor.

Rolls and rolls of gray duct tape. A dozen, maybe more.

Chuck groaned inwardly.

The situation was already seventy-seven shades of fucked-up, but the prospect of being restrained made it so much worse. He would be helpless, incapable of fighting or resisting. Maybe he should try one more desperate run to freedom while his hands and legs were still free.

Missy must have sensed his thoughts.

She got up and came over to him in two quick, long strides. The gun barrel was right in his face this time and he instinctively cringed away from it. “You’re not going anywhere, fuck-o.”

Chuck felt like crying, but somehow the tears wouldn’t come.

He was becoming numb inside.

Rob and the girls scooped up rolls of duct tape and set about the task of taping the four of them to the chairs. Rob started with Chuck, pulling his wrists together behind the back of the chair and then winding more than a dozen layers of tape around them. The son of a bitch was very thorough. Chuck tested the tape. There was no give at all. Maybe he wasn’t into this, but it was clear he would do whatever Missy wanted. Chuck felt that little flicker of hope snuff out as Rob used a full roll of tape to secure each of his legs to the chair legs.

Yes. Very, very thorough.

Just like a concentration-camp guard.

Chuck looked at Emily and frowned. They hadn’t dealt with her yet. She didn’t seem afraid anymore. In fact, she was smirking and her eyes gleamed with that same mad glee he’d seen in the younger girl’s eyes.

“Emily-”

She came at him fast and whipped a hand across his face. It was a hard blow and it snapped his head hard to the right. A bright flash of pain set his cheek ablaze with pain, but that was a minor thing compared to what he felt when her arm swung back around and she backhanded him, her knuckles mashing a nose still tender from the beating he’d received earlier in the week. A spike of agony slammed through the center of his head. She slapped and backhanded him several more times. Through it all, he was dimly aware of the confused and startled voices of his friends. Even Joe wanted to know what the hell was wrong with her.

Emily stopped hitting him and seized a handful of his hair to hold his head steady. His face throbbed and he stared at her through eyes bleary with tears. She spat in his face. “My hand hurts.”

He coughed and blinked at her. “Wh-what?”

She was smirking again. “My hand hurts, you fucking asshole. But it’s totally worth it. I can’t wait to see what Missy does to you.”

“You…know her?”

“Obviously. Now I have a question for you. Where’s Zoe?”

Missy had been standing back, watching the scene with an expression of mild amusement. Now she frowned. “Who’s Zoe?”

Emily let go of Chuck’s hair and turned toward her. “She’s Chuck’s girlfriend. Remember the hot blonde with us at Starbuck’s?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s Zoe.”

Missy’s frown deepened. “We need to find her.”

The bald girl moved closer to Missy. “We’ve checked all the rooms. All empty.”

Emily looked at Chuck and smiled. “She must be down at the beach. I’ll go get her.”

Chuck bucked against his bonds. “You bitch! You backstabbing cunt!”

The bald girl offered Emily a big hunting knife crusted with flecks of what had to be dried blood. “Here, take this.”

Emily smiled again and waved off the offer. “Won’t need it.” She shot another leering smile Chuck’s way. “Zoe’s not happy with me right now, but deep down, she loves me. She really does. And there’s nothing I can’t talk her into when I put my mind to it. She’ll come back with me hand in hand, never guessing anything’s wrong.”

Missy nodded. “So go. But make it fast. I’m itching to get started.”

Emily winked at Chuck and departed without another word. Chuck’s eyes tracked her across the room and out the shattered door, his soul seething with hatred unlike anything he’d ever experienced. He wanted to scream out a warning, but knew Zoe would never hear it over the wind and the sounds of the ocean. And he didn’t want to exhaust his strength by exercising his lungs. He would need every ounce he could spare for the ordeal ahead.

He couldn’t wrap his mind around what Emily was doing. She was a mean bitch, sure, but there were a lot of those in the world, just as there were a lot of mean, cold-hearted bastards. But there was a huge chasm between this and just being mean.

This was betrayal on a level beyond his comprehension.

It wasn’t human.

It was…evil. Yes, evil. It was a strange thing to think, but it was true. There was a devil living in that girl’s heart. She’d surrendered her soul to darkness.

He thought about the things she’d said about Zoe and wanted to weep.

Because he knew they were all true.

A dark figure came striding down the beach toward her as Zoe emerged dripping wet from the ocean. She wiped salt water from her eyes and smoothed her hair back, which fell in a thick, wet sheet across her shoulders. It was too dark to discern the figure’s identity from this distance, but instinct told her it was Emily. A surge of anxiety swept through her as she slogged through the wet sand toward the row of canvas chairs where she’d left her things. She gathered up her beach towel and wrapped it around her waist like a sarong. She glanced up as she stuffed a hardback novel into her tote bag and was unsurprised to find her hunch verified.

Emily had closed to within ten yards.

She smiled as Zoe’s eyes locked with her. “Hi.”

Zoe didn’t return the smile. She didn’t want to talk to Emily. Not right now. She didn’t want to start bawling. But she couldn’t just ignore her and walk on by. Well, she could, but it didn’t feel right. “I was just about to go back inside.”

Emily’s smile faltered slightly. “You mind if I at least walk back with you?”

Zoe suppressed a groan. “I don’t know, Emily.”

Emily came closer, stopping just a few feet in front of her. “Look, I know this has been a rough week. Nobody’s happy with me. Not even Joe, believe it or not. But you’re the only one who matters, Zoe.” Her voice became thick with emotion. She sounded on the verge of tears. It made Zoe feel bad. “You…you’re my best friend. My only real friend. Please just let me walk with you and say a few things. We don’t have to have a real talk until you’re ready.” A single tear traced a slow trail down one of her cheeks. “Would that be okay? Please?”

Zoe felt her heart begin to melt. And though it went against her better judgment in light of all that had happened, she found herself unable to deny Emily’s request. She really was her best friend. Still. Even now. Accepting this frightened her because she had no idea how things would shake out in the end. There were her other friends to consider. They all hated Emily. It wasn’t fair. She was an adult. Shouldn’t she be able to choose her own friends? She sighed. “Okay. But-”

She gasped as Emily grabbed her and pulled her close. Emily kissed her. Her tongue slid between her lips and tangled with Zoe’s tongue. Zoe braced her hands on Emily’s shoulders and tried to push her away, but Emily tightened her embrace and kept kissing her. The towel came loose and slid to the ground. Zoe tried to wrench her head away, breaking the kiss for the slightest moment before Emily’s mouth found hers again. This time she kissed back.

Jesus fuck, what am I doing?

She braced her hands on Emily’s shoulders again and shoved with all her strength. This time the embrace was broken and Emily staggered back several steps. The strange thing was, she didn’t look pissed. She was still smiling. She licked her lips. “You always taste so sweet.”

Zoe scooped up her towel again, grabbed her tote bag, and gave Emily a wide berth as she started up the beach toward the house.

Emily hurried after her. She slowed a bit as she came up alongside Zoe, matching her stride for stride. “Remember that night in the hotel room?”

Zoe didn’t say anything.

Emily laughed. “You sure didn’t have any inhibitions that night. I guess the coke helped loosen you up. I’ve still got some, you know.”

“I don’t care.”

“Liar.”

The dune and the little bridge beyond were coming up fast. Anxious to be back inside and away from Emily’s discomforting insinuations, she picked up her pace to trudge up the grassy dune.

Emily gave her a little sideways shove as they reached the bridge and moved into the narrow space ahead of her.

Zoe glared at her as she followed her onto the bridge. “Hey! What the fuck was that?”

Emily laughed and kept moving. She didn’t respond.

Zoe’s anger surged. “Seriously, that was really fucking rude. What’s your problem?”

Even as she asked the question, Zoe figured she knew the answer. Emily wasn’t used to having her advances spurned. She was very self-centered and couldn’t abide rejection in any form. Some of Zoe’s anger subsided as she realized it was at least partly her fault. A lot of her recent behavior had laid the groundwork for situations like this. If she’d always rejected Emily’s amorous overtures, this wouldn’t be happening now.

“I’m sorry.”

Emily stopped at the far end of the bridge and turned to face her. She had moved fast and was some twenty yards ahead of where Zoe stood. Her figure was a dark outline in the dim moonlight. “Really?”

Zoe stopped five feet away from her. “Yeah.”

Emily smiled. “Wanna go back down to the beach?”

“No.”

Emily’s smile vanished. “Whatever.”

She turned away from her again and stepped off the bridge, but she moved slower as she continued down the dune to the gate at the back of the fence. Emily opened it and they stepped inside. Zoe paused inside the gate to wash the sand off her feet with the hose. Emily lingered, waiting for her. It struck her as passing strange. She sensed their conversation was over. There was no more to say on the subject of their endangered friendship until later. But Emily seemed to want to stick close anyway. Whatever. It didn’t matter. She’d head back to her own room once they were back inside. No way she’d want to hang around upstairs with Chuck, not after this afternoon’s debacle.

Zoe shut the hose off and started across the deck, angling toward the staircase leading up to the balcony.

Emily followed, hanging close, almost on her heels.

Zoe glanced over her shoulder at the other girl.

She frowned.

Emily was smiling, but her eyes looked hard, malevolent.

Weird.

She started up the stairs and heard the slap of Emily’s sandals on the stairs beneath her. The first little flutter of alarm hit her as she glanced down and again saw that same vaguely evil expression. But that was forgotten as they reached the balcony and Zoe saw the broken shards of glass sprayed across the wooden beams. An accident, she assumed. But why hadn’t someone cleaned it up? This could be dangerous. She wasn’t wearing shoes or sandals and would have to-

“zoe! run!”

Zoe frowned again.

Chuck?

She heard pain in that voice. And terror. Something was horribly wrong here. She heard something else in the house. A whimper. A female sound. More evidence of something very bad happening. Then terrible, gleeful laughter. The laughter of a sadist. Followed by a scream.

Zoe moved back a step.

And she felt a hand at the small of her back.

The hand shoved her forward. She cried out as broken glass slashed at the soles of her bare feet. Emily grabbed her by an arm and wrenched her toward the space formerly occupied by a large pane of glass.

A glimpse of hell made her weak in the knees.

Emily shoved her again. Shards of glass still embedded in the door frame ripped at her flesh as she flew through the empty space and crashed to the hardwood floor. She rolled onto her side and stared straight up at Chuck. His face was streaked with tears. His mouth moved as he tried to speak, but he couldn’t force the words out.

Oh, Chuck…

She felt a foot on her shoulder. It pressed down, forcing her to lie flat on her back again. She looked up and saw a familiar face above her. Familiar, but not the face of someone she knew. It was her. She looked different, but it was definitely her. The girl Chuck had picked on at the coffee shop.

The killer.

Missy Wallace grinned. “Glad you could join us, Zoe. Now we can finally get this party started.”