The Eyes Tell No Lies (10 page)

He slammed the palms of his hands onto the dashboard when he noticed it was only six
a
.
m. He gripped the steering wheel until the blood drained out of his hands
. H
e noticed it was still six a
.
m as he glanced back at the clock on his dashboard just a few seconds later. His
body rocked back and forth
,
as he continued with his strong hold on the dashboard.

“Just fifteen more minutes
and she will be stopping for her
stretch
,
”
t
he Daytime Killer mumbled about his latest victim
’
s routine.

He had been watching his latest victim for the past two weeks since he
had
seen her at the Nameless bar for the first time. She was one of those creatures of
habit and he loved that about her. Every morning
,
no matter what
,
she
left her
house for her run at five
-
thirty a
.
m. By six
-
thirty
,
she was stopping for a water break and to stretch again right in the very spot
where
he was waiting
.
Leaving him just enough time to snatch her
,
bring her back to one of his
lairs,
and get to work by eight.

Just thinking about how he was going to snatch her lit a fire in him that he had been
missing since his last victim. He was tired of pretending
as if
he was in control of himself while he really wanted to hunt. Darkness was starting
to cloud his mind and he couldn’t see which way h
is mind
was going
,
leaving him feeling weak, powerless,
and unconfident
, not in control of his mind or body. He knew if he didn’t get her soon he would
snap on some
one
and maybe
,
just maybe
,
kill them since his control was
overpowered
by darkness. If he was going to lose it
,
without a doubt
,
it would be at work when one of those assholes he worked with fucked with him again.

His mind began to drift back to those times he really felt powerless as a child.

He
and his brother had the best time of their lives for the last three months. It felt
as though they were finally free and didn’t have to
be
afraid of their own shadows any more.

When he was
a ten
-
year
old
kid, he
woke hurriedly as his mother
’
s painful screams penetrated his dreams. He jumped out of bed and made his way to
the living room where the screams were coming from. Without having to look
,
he knew his mother was runnin
g around the living room screaming
as she ran from his deranged father. She had lasted longer than he had expected
this time before she let his father
know where they had moved to. He hadn’t believed his mother was truly going to leave
his father until
two days ago.

Right before he rounded the corner he saw his brother following closely behind him
trying to pee
k
over his shoulders. He stop
p
ed in his tracks when he saw blood dripping from his mother
’
s eye and
nose. Her right eye
was already swollen shut and purple. She was almost out the front door when his
father leaped over the couch and tackled her to the ground. H
is father
grabbed h
er
neck and as he began to cho
ke
her
,
he slammed her head repeatedly into the ground.

His ten-year old self stood the
r
e,
shock
ed
for a moment
,
as he watched before turning around to his brother. “Go to your room and lock your
door
,
”
h
e said right before he went after his father with the baseball bat
that was
a few feet in front of him.

With everything he had in him
,
he rammed the bat into his father’s back and didn’t stop until h
is father
let his mother go. The only thing wrong with this was his father stood quickly and
went after him. Just as his father reached out to grab him a la
m
p came sailing from behind
him
and hit his father in the head. Without looking back he knew it was his brother
who threw the lamp since h
is
mother was laying on the ground moaning in front of him.
His father stumbled just a little bit from the impact of the lamp but
he
was quickly gaining his balance back.

“Hit him with the bat again
,
now
!
”
h
is brother yelled from behind him
,
snapping him out of his trance.

He lifted the bat and swung it at his father’s legs making him yelp and run out the
door quickly. He watched in like a dream
-
like reality as his brother ran to the door
,
locked
i
t
,
and placed a chair under the doorknob.

“Help me make sure all the windows are locked in the house and put a stick or something
in them just in case
,
”
h
is brother said as he ran around the house locking the windows before his dad came
back.

He went around the house placing sticks into the windows his brother already had shut
and locked. It never crossed either of the boys
’
mind
s
that their father could just break the window and enter. After all the windows were
secure
,
they helped their mother to her bed and placed a bag of frozen peas on her eyes.

His mother let his father back into their home three weeks later. The first thing
his father did when he got back was beat him until he passed out from the pain. He
was out of school for an entire month from the beating. It made him angry at his
mother for letting his father back in after years of beating her. What really pissed
him off was she didn’t say or do anything to
his father
after he almost killed him
,
her own son.

During that month
,
darkness about himself, life, and other people took over his thoughts and body.
Dark
thoughts cloud
ed
his mind while stuck in bed.
He was worthless, powerless, unlovable, unprotected, lonely, vulnerable, and he promised
himself he would never feel this way again
,
if he could help it.

He gripped the steering wheel tight
ly
with one hand and banged on t
he window with the other. H
e yelled and screamed until he noticed the time on the dashboard was six twenty
-
five. His body instantly calmed down as he climbed into the back of the van and crouched
down in front of the sliding door. Serenity instantly took over his mind and the
darkness receded some as he began to feel a little b
it in control and some power came
forward. His mind drifted back to the first time he felt like this.

He was at the edge of their backyard where his backyard
butted
up
with the woods when a lizard came stalking out from the woods. He slowly crouched
down, placed his hands into the grass
,
and waited for the lizard to walk into his hands.
He snapped his hand closed quickly like a mouse or bear trap did when it caught its
prey. He felt a little bit powerful and in control
as
he tightened his fist around the lizard making it where he couldn’t move no matter
what.

He was getting bored with the
l
izard when an idea
popp
ed into his mind. He took off one of the safety pins his mother put on his pant to
keep them up and started to poke the
l
izard with the sharp edge. A slight spark took over his body as he watched the
l
izard squirm whenever he poked it with the sharp point. The slight spark took over
the darkness and made him feel all the things he didn’t feel. Powerful, strong, confident,
and the most important
—
in control
—
when he accidently poked the
l
izard in his heart and
he
watch
ed
as
the lizard
took
its
last breath and blood pour
ed
from the wound.

The smell of the blood drifted into his nostrils and smelled like pure bliss to him.
He pressed his nose close to the blood and took in huge deep breaths
,
trying to embed
the scent of blood
into his memory.
A few months later
the reptiles he found
w
ere
n’t doing it for him
,
the darkness was still there. He wanted to hear them scream out in pain as he tortured
them and it wasn’t happening. So he moved up to cats and dogs
, and
boy
did those screams do something for him. He replayed their screams over and over
again in his mind every waking moment of the day. Eventually after a few years the
small animals
weren't
enough and he moved up to bigger animals until finally
, when he was a young man,
he moved on to women. Women who were in a way like his no good trifling mother who
didn’t deserve to live.

He watched her as she came jogging down the street
,
he grabbed a towel and poured chloroform onto
it
. His palms sweated and a broad smile took over his face the closer she got. He
double
-
checked
everything in the v
an with a scan of his eyes before turning his attention to the lock on the door.
His eyes roamed
over
her as she stopped and took a
sip of her water before starting
her stretching.

He opened up the door
,
leap
t
out of the car
,
and placed the towel over her mouth
,
all
in a matter of seconds as she bent over to stretch. His prey began to fight him back
kicking, screaming, and thrashing with all her might.

I am going to like this one
,
she
’
s a fighter
—
and a tiny little thing
,
h
e thought as her body slumped to the side as he dr
ag
g
ed
her into the back of the
van
.

He laid her onto the cool van floor before making his way to the front of the van.
A smile took over his face when he noticed it was only six thirty-
one exactly.

He quickly drove her to the cabin that was an hour from where he was at and only fifteen
minutes from his job. A sensation of home filled him when he pulled up to the abandoned
-
looking cabin surrounded by the woods. He parked behind the cabin
,
picked his prey up from the
back of the van,
and carried her into the cabin. He whistle
d
like he didn’t have a car
e
in the world as he carried her to the basement.
He placed her on a cool metal table he stole from a morgue and strapped her in tightly.
He looked at her one last time before making his way to work so he wouldn’t be late.

****

Arie
groaned and covered her eyes with her hands as the sunlight streaming through the
blinds woke her.
Confusion clouded her mind as she looked around the room trying to remember just where
in the hell she was and how the hell she
got there. She grunted as
her memories from the night before came rushing back to her.
Her eyes focused in on the plain room trying to shake the memory overload from a sleep
clouded mind.
The walls in the room were white and only held the king
-
size bed she was laying on and a small black dresser pushed up against the wall.