The Beach House (12 page)

Sullivan was getting close now. His gut told him that something wasn’t right at that house. In the very least, he would satisfy his own concerns by checking it out. If nothing was wrong, he would be able to get some sleep tonight. Then he would take a whole new approach to the murder case in the morning.
He kept thinking about what the neighbor had said to him though. He couldn’t help but wonder about the history of that beach house.

The roadway was empty aside from a couple of trucks and cars here and there. Unless it was prime time for driving to the beach for the weekend, the roads did not see many travelers. The oncoming storm most likely kept people inside their homes too. At this rate, he would be there very shortly. He just hoped that it wasn’t too late to help those people and to figure out what was going on.

***

Damon slowly made his way down the stairs. Despite the darkness, they could hear his heavy footsteps making their way down to the living room area. Megan ran to the
front door and turned the knob. Kristi, on the other hand, seemed unable to move. She had never been so afraid in her life. She wasn’t even sure that she had a life any more. The one guy who wanted to have her was gone. Her best friend would probably never forgive her for sleeping with her boyfriend. The guy who she trusted turned out to be a killer. What was the point of running?

Megan turned towards her friend. “Kristi, come on. We can still get out of here. What are you doing?”

Rather than head towards the door, Kristi walked towards the bottom of the stairs. She could see Damon now. He didn’t appear to be carrying anything down with him. He was walking methodically down the stairs. He didn’t appear to be in a rush at all. Damon stared at his former girlfriend as he continued his descent.

Kristi met him at the bottom of the stairs and looked into his eyes. He didn’t appear to be the same Damon; this guy was a complete stranger to her. She had never felt so betrayed in her life. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Please forgive me.”

Damon laughed. “You’re really something, you know that? You screw your best friend’s boyfriend behind her back and my back, and you want to forget about the whole thing? You just want to move on like everything’s fine.”

Megan stepped back inside. The sting of the reality of Kristi and Mark began to sink in. “Look, Damon. They’re not worth it. They betrayed us, and that’s unforgivable. Let’s get out of here. Go home.”

He stepped down and peered into the kitchen at Mark. “You think that I can just go home and forget about
this
? He got what was coming to him, and Kristi, now so will you.”

Damon stepped behind Kristi and wrapped his arm around her throat. Kristi let out a shrill cry for help as she could feel the pressure of his arm closing in around her neck.

Megan hesitated for a moment. It would be easy for her to run out the door and leave her so-called friend behind. Kristi had betrayed her, but it really didn’t come as a surprise. She never expected to end up with Mark in the end. Megan realized that she couldn’t leave that house without her friend. Most likely, things would never be the same between the two of them once they left here. Kristi would not be the person who she could trust and come to with her problems. That would be something to deal with once they left the house. Right now, she had to get both of them out of here.

Damon continued to tighten his squeeze on Kristi. He felt great satisfaction as she kicked at him and wiggled to try to get out of his grasp. As the applied pressure increased, her attempts to free herself became weaker and weaker. Not wanting the fun to end too early, Damon released his grasp and threw her to the ground.

Kristi slowly crawled towards the couch. Megan stood in the doorway, not sure if she should run for help or try to pull her friend to safety. Just as Megan was about to make a move towards Kristi, Damon grabbed his ex-girlfriend by the leg and pulled her towards him. After Mark’s death, he had had time to carry objects he might need into the kitchen. He had been waiting for this opportunity, and he wasn’t going to allow his execution to be sloppy.

With Kristi lying on her stomach in front of him, Damon picked up one of the oars and brought it straight down onto her ankle. Kristi let out a loud scream, obviously in pain. With the second forceful blow, he heard something snap and crack. He was pretty sure that it was her ankle. Once again, Kristi cried out in pain. She had never experienced something so agonizing in her life.

The pure terror, experienced by Kristi, gave Damon the rush that he desired. He knew he was put here to punish those who disappointed and betrayed him. In a way, he was providing justice. Justice for himself and in this case, for Megan as well.

Megan watched the scene unfold. “Damon, you don’t have to do this. You can end this now. You hurt your brother, Cliff, and Mark. Don’t hurt Kristi.”

Anger begin to boil over inside of Damon at the mention of his brother. “How do you know about my brother?”

“Horace told us. He saw the whole thing. This needs to end, Damon.”

Damon smiled. “I knew I didn’t like that guy. What has he been doing? Spying on us? He doesn’t know shit about me or my family.”

Kristi reached a hand out to the person who she considered to be her best friend. Megan almost felt a sick sense of satisfaction at seeing her friend being punished. Kristi deserved a little pain. She had certainly hurt other people. However, this kind of pain was not warranted and Megan had to make it stop.

Megan tried appealing to Damon again. “Let me help you, Damon. Let’s talk this out. Don’t do anything else you might regret.”

She could tell that Damon had no regrets or reservations about hurting Kristi or anyone else for that matter. He pulled Kristi into the kitchen and dragged her across Mark’s blood which had spilled across much of the floor. He pulled her right next to Mark’s body. “There is your lover. What do you think of him now? Still want to screw him behind my back? Huh? Do you?”

Kristi squealed
and sobbed. “No, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

She couldn’t bear to look at Mark. What Damon had done to him was just sick and wrong. How could someone do that to another human being? How could someone do that to the guy who she finally wanted?

The sensation of Mark’s blood all over her body sickened Kristi more than the snapping of her ankle. She started to realize that her life would end at this beach house. That Damon would win. That she had made a terrible mistake by trusting him and coming here.

Damon looked at the two of them. They appeared to be the perfect couple; two people who only cared about themselves and who were ultimately doomed.

***

Megan looked at her former boyfriend and best friend. This trip had damaged her physically, emotionally, and mentally. She had no idea how it would change her even if she managed to get home alive. She stood in shock as Kristi sat beside Mark’s body, tears flowing down her face. She was obviously in pain; her ankle most likely shattered. Mark’s thick blood coated her body. The scene looked like something from a terrible horror movie in which the writer only wanted to portray the goriness of murder.

Megan knew that realistically she couldn’t get Kristi away from Damon. He seemed to want to drag out the punishment, really make Kristi’s suffering last. Chances were that she would have time to run over and get Horace before Damon was done. Seeing that Damon was fixated on the duo in the kitchen, Megan bolted out the door and made a run for Horace’s beach shack. The beach was completely empty and more dark clouds had filled the night sky.

As Megan ran, she could hear rumbles of thunder from a distance. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning lit up the night sky. She could make out Horace’s home which appeared to be completely dark on the inside. She assumed that he must have gone to sleep. Horace had been telling the truth about Damon. She knew that now. If only she had known the truth sooner.

Megan banged on Horace’s door. She could feel drops of rain beginning to fall from the sky. She couldn’t understand why he wasn’t answering. He seemed so willing to help them earlier. Maybe he didn’t really care after all. She turned the knob and the door opened. She peeked in and called out to Horace. She got no response.

After a momentary pause she decided to go inside of his house. She wished that she had her cell phone from her suitcase, but there had been no way to go up to her room and get it now. Maybe Horace had some sort of a phone in the house. She found a light and turned it on. The living room was about as filthy as she had imagined. There were articles of clothing strewn around the couple of pieces of furniture that Horace owned. There was something directly in the middle of the floor covered with an old, tattered blanket. Almost afraid to look, Megan yanked at the blanket revealing Max. She let out a small shriek and threw the blanket back upon the dog.

It was apparent that Horace was not home. She wondered where he had gone. The rain was coming down pretty hard out there now. There was no one out on the beach. She couldn’t understand where else he would have gone. She knew that if Kristi were to be saved, it was up to her to find a way. She continued to search the house for anything that might be of help.

Outside, the thunder continued to rumble across the threatening sky.

Kristi didn’t know what to say or what to do. She knew that her ankle was broken, but felt that she could limp to safety if the opportunity arose. She had watched Megan leave the house and was hoping to stall Damon long enough that her friend would come back with the police.

Kristi looked at Damon
and pleaded. “I love you, you know I do. I’m sorry. Please forgive me. I want to be with you.” The words came out amidst loud sobs that stifled her ability to speak coherently. 

This was hilarious to Damon. Almost as funny as his brother trusting him out in the ocean during the night of his drowning. “I bet you do, babe. Too bad that you’re about to die. We really could have been something if you hadn’t been such a bitch.”

Damon turned around to see that Megan was no longer standing by the door way. There was a chance that she would get some help. He knew the beach house on one side was vacant and the other side housed Horace who would be worthless to her. To find someone else in the storm, she would probably have to do some traveling.

Damon approached Kristi and grabbed her by the hair. As she screamed and cried out for help, he dragged her back through Mark’s blood into the living room. He wrapped the chain that had torn through Mark’s flesh around her arms and torso. She sat in the middle of the room unable to move.

Kristi had never been so scared in her life. Just earlier today, she felt that things would be okay. That Mark and her would have a real chance at happiness. Now she would be lucky to make it out of here alive. All she could do now was beg for her life. “Please don’t kill me, Damon. Please.”

Her tears and fear meant absolutely nothing to him. He went to the kitchen and returned with a large butcher knife from one of the drawers. When Kristi caught a glimpse of it, she burst into tears. Her sobbing was uncontrollable. She didn’t want to die. She just wanted another chance to do things the right way. To be a good friend and a loyal girlfriend to someone. She had messed up, that was for sure. But she knew that she didn’t deserve to die because of it.

Damon knelt down in front of her. He pressed the knife to her left cheek. Tears, still flowing, sat on the blade of the knife. “Stop crying and shut the hell up. You deserve this. You deserve to die.”

Her continued crying irritated him even more. It reminded him of when Jonathan called out to him as he was being pulled under the water. He slid the blade of the knife across her cheek. Immediately, her skin opened and blood flowed down her face mixing in with her tears. She was in too much shock to really feel the pain. She knew that she had been cut though. She feared what would come next.

Megan searched for anything she could find in Horace’s home that might be of use to her. It was obvious that he had no phone. She wouldn’t have time to run to the next occupied beach house and get back to Kristi. She would have to find a way to help her now.

Horace had a lot of junk lying around so she knew there must be something useful in one of the piles. Just when she was about to give up, she decided to head into the kitchen area. She found rope lying on the floor, which she assumed was the rope used to kill poor Max. She grabbed the rope and a knife from the kitchen counter. It would have to do, it was Kristi’s only chance.

With materials in hand, Megan was ready to head back out and face whatever was waiting for her.

***

Sullivan pulled into the beach community. Only ten more minutes or so and he would be back at the beach house. He wished that he had pursued some of these issues earlier in the day. The truth was that he had no real evidence to tie any of them to the murder of Cliff. He did, however, have his gut insisting that Damon had lied about the events of that afternoon. If he were correct, then those people really were not safe in that house with him.

He realized that there was a lot more to being a police officer than forensic evidence. Sometimes you had to follow your instincts, learn to evaluate people. From what he could tell, Damon was not the kind of guy who ought to be taken at face value. There was something more to him than meets the eye. He was ready to find out what the guy was hiding.

***

All of Kristi’s regrets were running through her mind. She would die knowing that she had betrayed her best friend. Worst of all, she would die knowing that she brought them to this house with Damon to be slaughtered. Her only hope was that Megan had gotten away, maybe she would escape all of this. How could anyone lead a normal life, though, after witnessing the murder of a boyfriend and a friend?

Her thoughts came to an abrupt end when Damon held the knife to her throat. Kristi was at his mercy, and he loved that. He loved knowing that her life was completely dependent upon his actions. There was no one to save her. He suspected that Megan had gotten away and would be trying to find a way out of here. Would she really come back to rescue the person who was cheating with her boyfriend? Megan was not a threat, and it didn’t matter to him whether she lived or died. Megan, after all, had not done anything to complicate his life. Kristi, on the other hand, had betrayed him and made him out to look like a fool. He didn’t have time for people who
deceived him or took away what rightfully belonged to him. Jonathan had taken all of his parents’ attention, making him look like the incompetent brother who would be a failure at life. Poor Cliff had been a minor annoyance on his path to this destruction. Now Kristi would have to face her fate.

Damon placed his hand on Kristi’s left cheek. He could feel the blood and wet tears across his hand. “You really are beautiful, you know that. You ruined everything. You’re just like Jonathan. You have to be the perfect one who can’t do anything wrong. You want all of the attention. No one cares about how that might make me feel.”

Kristi’s sobs came to a stop. She couldn’t believe that he was actually looking for pity, but she thought that perhaps she could play along. “No, you have it all wrong. I do care about how you feel. I love you. I just thought that I wasn’t good enough for you.”

Damon smiled at his former girlfriend. “I love you too, baby. Maybe we can go home, and find a way to make all of this work. Can you forgive me for all of this?”

Kristi felt a sense of hope for the first time in what seemed like an eternity. “Yes, of course, I forgive you. I just want to be with you. Only you.”

Damon got to his feet and put the knife down on the table behind him. “Let me get you out of these chains so we can go home.”

He maneuvered Kristi onto her stomach so that she was lying flat on the floor. He picked up the oar that had been propped against the wall. With one hard strike to her healthy ankle, he heard the agonizing sound of bone splintering. Kristi let out the loudest scream yet. The pain throbbed immensely in her ankle and lower leg. She succumbed to the fact that she was about to die.

Damon picked up the knife and raised it above Kristi’s neck. Just as he was about to bring the knife down, Megan ran back into the house screaming. “No, don’t kill her!”

Megan charged at Damon with the knife she had taken from Horace’s house. Catching Damon off guard, she stabbed him in the top of his right shoulder. The pain of the blade going deep through skin and tissue caused him to stumble and drop the knife he was holding.

Damon spun around and looked at Megan. All she had now was some old rope which did not seem to hold any promise of stopping Damon from carrying out his plan. He reached his right arm back and grabbed the end of the knife. He attempted to pull it out, but it felt as if it were stuck within his shoulder. He tried to tug at it, but it remained rooted within his flesh. The pain was like an adrenaline rush, and it only intensified his desire to bring an end to Kristi’s life

He pulled at the knife again. This time twisting it back and forth to jar it loose. The serrated edge of the knife continued to tear at his muscle and skin as he forced it out. Blood was seeping from the open wound.

Megan turned to look at her friend. Kristi was lying helpless on the floor. Between the broken ankles and heavy chain, she couldn’t move. Selfishly, Megan wondered if she should have even come back for her.