Filed to story: The Mindf*ck Series Read Online Free
When I emerge, I watch him waver on top of the water. It holds him up with too much ease, despite his size.
The more body fat, the easier they float.
As soon as the current grabs him, I head back, picking up the hoe near the water’s edge, and start digging up my tracks with it. I take my route in reverse as I hold the small but bright flashlight in my mouth to see.
It’s two in the morning, but I had to wait until now to dump his body. The bastard has neighbors within earshot, so torturing him was a pain in the ass. Fortunately, he had a basement.
Hence the damn stairs I was referring to.
I also had to hose said basement down with bleach and water to get rid of the blood. Counter forensic measures were needed for once.
Killing is so much easier when it’s on my list. Less cleanup.
I want them found when they’re on the list.
Kenneth has too much trace evidence that has to be destroyed, so the large body of salt water will do the trick. Not to mention all the little critters in the sea will get a nibble before or if he’s found.
The pictures I found in his nightstand told the story before he could. Seventy small children were in those pictures, mostly naked. Polaroids are a terrible creation, and pedophiles love their pictures.
There was one picture out of all of those that I took. I’m not sure why I took it. But it was Hadley at age eleven. He labeled them. Marked their ages too.
For some reason I know she won’t enjoy her coworkers seeing her face on their board if his body is ever found and those pictures are discovered. She’s strong and prideful, and most likely felt like it really was in her head all this time.
They convinced her she was crazy. Her own mother convinced her she was making it up. Paid a professional to aide in this, simply because the woman couldn’t come to grip with the possibility she was married to a pervert who was molesting her daughter.
Hadley ran away.
She ran because she thought she was dirty and wrong.
So many good people in this world, and it took a monster to end the suffering of so many innocent children.
I have no reason to feel indebted to a girl who wants to take me down, but there’s something forcing me to feel as though we’re kindred. I’d have gone crazy or killed myself without Jake.
She never had a Jake.
Maybe Logan is the closest thing to Jake she has, which is why she came after someone she thought was playing him.
I’d kill a bitch for Jake.
Hadley doesn’t deserve to be broken, so she’ll never see that picture.
I change out of my clothes on the gravel driveway, carefully watching anything that falls off me. My hair is bound tightly to my head and covered with a plastic wrap under a beanie.
My clothes are nothing special-generic brand things bought at any local store. I’m careful to buy all things that are found everywhere, so as to have nothing special isolating me.
The nail falls from my pocket, and I lean over, picking it up. I’m not sure why I’m taking a nail from his house. He’s not on the list. Maybe it’s a habit. Or maybe I really have adopted the serial method of trophy collecting.
Where they die, a nail gets taken.
His nail will go beside the others, finding a home with other perverted sons of bitches.
Warm and toasty in my clean, dry clothes, I drive back to the drop spot, making one detour.
An old woodshed is twenty miles down the road, resting on private hunting ground. I open the door, and hear a scurrying of motion.
Scared eyes meet mine from the kid huddled in the corner. She’s dirty, scared, and all alone.
“I’m here to save you from the monster,” I say softly into the dark shed.
The shaking slowly stops as she peers at me, her eyes wide and hopeful.
“Are you an angel?” she asks, her throat raw and raspy, as though she’s dehydrated.
“Compared to him, yes,” I say honestly.
She slowly stands, warily looking at me. She can’t be older than eight.
“Do you know if he has anyone else?” I ask her, knowing he swore it was just her, but it could be more.
She shakes her head. “The other girl didn’t come back.”
My heart clenches. “Come on. I’m going to take you somewhere you’ll be safe.”
She nods, and even though she’s terrified, she comes to me, ready to face anything terrible I could do versus anything he could come back and do more of.
When she stumbles, I grab her, and she doesn’t flinch away. Brave girl.
She lets me help her to my car, and she slides in on the passenger side, tears already leaking from her eyes. Her hope was gone until this moment.
I jog around to the driver’s side, a risky plan forming. There’s one place she can go to be safe.
“You don’t have a family, do you?”
She shakes her head.
“I have a friend-a woman-I knew in another life. She’d be a good momma. She’d take care of you.”
She pushes her dirty hair out of her eyes. “Really? She’ll keep me safe from him?”
“I’ll keep you safe from him. I can promise he’ll never return. Okay?”
She studies me for a long time, more tears building in her eyes. I’ve scared the shit out of her now. Damn it.
“You really are an angel,” she says at last, causing my heart to flip.
I don’t say anything else as I drive toward Lindy May’s house. She’s one person who can see a ghost but not flinch.
“What’s your name?” I ask the girl who is relaxing more by the minute.
“He called me Pup. But my name is Laurel,” she says around a yawn, leaning against the window.
My grip tightens on the steering wheel, wishing I’d cut that dick off and sewn it into his mouth.
Lindy May’s house comes into view, and I debate this for a few minutes. She’s a good woman. Just like Diana. Both of whom tried to seek justice for me. Lindy suffered a terrible fate because of that. She was five years older than me the night they robbed me of everything.
“I’ll call the FBI!” Lindy shouts.
“Go ahead, cunt. The FBI didn’t give a damn about their father, did they?” Kyle taunts, smirking.
Dev holds her back, his face grim as she struggles to get to me.
“I’ll teach that bitch a lesson later,” Kyle mutters under his breath.
Dev starts pushing Lindy away, practically carrying her as she screams for me. She screams for Marcus. She screams for help that doesn’t come.
Music grows louder, the sounds permeating the air with no concern for the screams they’re trying to drown out.
“Now, where were we?” Kyle drawls. “Whose turn is it?”
Kyle did silence her. He didn’t just silence her; he ruined her. Lindy suffered a loss trying to save me, but puts flowers on my grave every year. She talks to that grave, saying she’s sorry she failed me.
She goes back to that hell to speak to a dead girl who she thinks she let down.
She’s a true angel.
It’s fate that she’s so close by. Fate tells me Laurel would forever be loved and cared for by Lindy. And I’m sure no one would take a homeless child away from a loving home after what this kid has suffered.
Leaving Laurel here though? Knowing this will tie Kenneth to the killer I am? It’s a huge mistake. But I can’t leave this kid just anywhere.