Spankenstein

Tim Miller

Copyright © 2016 Tim Miller

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. The following is a work of fiction. Any representation of any actual persons living or dead is coincidental.

Cover image provided by Martini Productions

Photographer: Tom O’Brien

Models: Tom O’Brien and Jessica Mazo

Chapter 1

Donny Spanks sat in front of the TV, watching the actress closely. This was his favorite show, but only because of her. The show was called, 'Criminal Brain.' It was a bunch of secret government agents solving the most heinous of crimes. The lead actress' name was Candi Murphy. She was everything he dreamed of. Long, perfect blonde hair, full luscious lips and a body that wouldn't quit. Donny made sure he was in front of the TV any time it came on. He'd even lost a few jobs over his obsession, but none of that fazed him. He couldn't get enough of her.

She was the perfect woman in every way possible. As he watched, he wondered if he could ever meet her. If he did, would she be interested in him? Would he stand a chance? During the commercial, he stepped into the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror. Taking his shirt off, he scanned his whole body. No way would she want him. He was short, skinny; scratch that, way too skinny and so pale he was almost transparent. His hairline was receding and his chest hair came out in random patches. No girl had ever found him remotely appealing.

This fact got him thinking. He'd worked in the medical field for years as an operating room technician. It was a great job. Well, several jobs. He bounced around from hospital to hospital before he finally ran out of places that would hire him. His awkwardness, along with his tendency to daydream, made most employers uncomfortable. Turns out, surgeons like you to be paying attention when they need a set of clamps during open heart surgery.

So here he was, an unemployed and unemployable surgical technician. He'd seen so many surgeries he felt like he could perform one himself. Over the years, he'd accumulated a lot of instruments and had saved lots of money. One of the side effects of being single for so long with no children. His jobs paid well, and he never spent much.

He went back and watched the TV again to see Candi some more. Once the show was over, he decided to head out and have a beer. Sitting around the empty house all night drove him crazy. He got dressed, got in his car, and headed to a nearby pub. It was an old bar that he used to frequent more regularly. He didn't get out as much anymore, but maybe it was time to start. Once inside, he sat at the bar and ordered a Coors Light.

As he sipped on his beer, he noticed there were lots of women in the pub; he didn't remember so many girls in this place before. They were there in groups, hanging out and listening to the jukebox. That was when he saw her. No way was it Candi Murphy; she lived in Los Angeles. Doubtful she'd ever hung out in a dive bar in San Antonio, Texas. The woman stood out among the rest of the girls. Partly because most of the girls were Hispanic. That wasn't unusual. Most of San Antonio was Hispanic.

A blonde haired, blue eyed angel like her stood out even more so than normal. Donny stood and walked casually past her, pretending to look at the jukebox. He was trying not to stare, but she gave him an uncomfortable smile as he walked by. It wasn't Candi; he was sure that Candy had fuller lips and a dimple on her chin. Either way, the resemblance was uncanny. Maybe she'd be interested in him. Now wouldn't that be something; making love to this beautiful woman and pretending she was Candi. It would be the next best thing, at least.

He went back to the bar and sat sipping his beer. He began drinking it faster as he felt the tingling in his brain. Ordering another, he quickly downed that one as his buzz grew stronger. As hard as he tried not to stare, he couldn't help himself. He could tell she saw him; every time he looked over, she was looking away. Finally, she got up and walked out. Fuck! Normally, he would sit and pout that he’d blown another one; but the beer seemed to grow his testicles, and poof, he had balls. At best, he wanted to apologize to her for staring and acting like a weirdo.

He jumped up from the stool and headed out the door. She was there, in the parking lot, walking by herself to her car. She'd been sitting with two other girls, but they must have arrived separately. Slowly, he walked up behind her until he was a few feet away.

"Umm, excuse me," he said.

She jumped and turned around.

"What the hell? Are you following me to my car? What the hell is wrong with you?"

"I-I'm sorry. I was just…"

"Just what? Wasn't bad enough you kept staring at me in there like some creepy asshole. Now you're following me? For what? What do you want?"

"I just wanted to apologize. I'm sorry for staring in there. I don't get out much."

"Yeah, that's pretty obvious."

The conversation wasn't going how he'd pictured it at all. In his mind, she would smile at and welcome his apology and maybe strike up a nice conversation. Now, he was just freaking her out even more.

"I'm sorry. I know I'm weird. I just think you're a pretty lady," he said as he turned and began to walk away.

"Hey," she called out. "I didn't mean to be such a bitch. I just had no idea what you were doing or why you followed me to my car. For future reference, don't do that. It's weird as hell."

He couldn't help but smile at her softened tone.

"Really? Thank you!" he turned and smiled at her.

"No problem. Try to have a better night. I need to go anyway."

"Oh, yeah sure." At this point, he wasn't sure what came over him. She was so beautiful, and the fact that she suddenly was being nice to him flipped a switch in his brain. The beer obviously didn't help, but it was as if something came over him that he couldn't control. At least, he didn't want to control it. He took a few steps forward and put his arms out.

"Could I have a hug?" he asked as she stepped back and screamed.

"What the hell! Get away!" she took another step back before kicking him in the dick. As he doubled over, she pulled a can of mace from her purse and sprayed it into his face and mouth. His eyes and tongue burned as he fell to the ground. She got into the car and sped away, kicking dirt and rocks onto Donny's burning face. As he lay there, writhing in pain and crying, rage began to fill him. It was time for him to face the facts. No woman would ever want him. He was too ugly and weird. Perhaps there was another way for him to obtain the perfect girl.

Chapter 2

Jessica Johnson sat in her car waiting for the light to change. When the light finally turned green, the car in front of her continued to sit. She honked her horn and banged on the wheel.

“Come on fuckwad! Go!” she screamed. Finally, the guy snapped out of whatever he was doing and began to move. She sped around him first chance she got and darted through traffic until she made it to the studio. Her call time was ten minutes ago. She just hoped they’d be understanding. She threw the car into park and ran inside.

“You’re late!” Domingo shouted. He was the director of the commercial shoot. It had been three months since she’d had a paying gig. Film work in San Antonio wasn’t exactly booming, not that it ever was. She occasionally got work in Austin or Dallas, but her line of work in Texas was drying up completely. Atlanta was fast becoming the new hot spot. She just didn’t have the money, or courage, to move just yet. As it was, she really needed this job. It should have been easy. A few hundred dollars for a couple of days on set was all she got for this grocery store commercial. Except, as usual, her world had to go to hell that morning.

It started with dropping her phone in the toilet as she was getting ready. Then her landlord caught her as she was leaving and blocked the doorway so she couldn’t move, trying to shake her down for rent. That wasted ten minutes of her life. Then, of course, there was traffic. There was some light rain that morning. In San Antonio, light rain means everyone has to drive ten miles per hour for fear they may just fly off the surface of the earth.

“Why are you late?” Domingo asked.

“I’m sorry. Had a shit morning.”

“A shit morning?! That’s funny! That is really funny! You know why? I had a shit morning too! I’ve been sitting here waiting for for our actress to grace us with her presence! I mean, it doesn’t cost anything to rent equipment or pay for all the other souls here, now does it?”

“All right. I get it. Do you want me to work or am I fired?”

“May as well do this. Go and get ready. You have two minutes!”

She went to the makeup chair where they fluffed her hair and did her makeup. Finally, she went over and for the next several hours, they did take after take of the commercial. Once Domingo was happy, almost eight hours later, they called it a day. She headed to her car, thankful that she would, at the very least, get paid for this gig. What she wasn’t looking forward to was her agent screaming at her about being late. She’d already blown two previous jobs. If she blew another, her agent just might drop her.

Some days she wondered if it wasn’t time to get a day job. The mere thought of a “normal” job made her head want to explode. She couldn’t imagine living the rest of her life, punching a clock and doing some mundane task over and over for eight hours. She’d rather stab herself in the eye with a blunted spoon. The acting thing sure wasn’t getting anywhere. She would be thirty in a few months. After almost ten years of acting, the best she had gotten was some commercials and a few indie movies that were deferred pay. In her case, deferred pay meant no pay. One micro-budget film she worked on, the guy shot on his cell phone.

It was a cheesy slasher movie. Her character had to run around topless until she was repeatedly stabbed. She was one of the main characters, and her top had gotten ripped off early in the film. So for the rest of the movie, she ran around with her boobs bouncing about. To this day, she had no idea why she’d agreed to that. At least she had been paid for that film. It was only two hundred dollars, but it was something. The movie was one of those straight-to-DVD bargain bin specials. She never saw the final product and didn’t care to.

Jessica reached her car, climbed in, and started the engine. Once back at her apartment, she made a beeline to the bathroom and washed her makeup off. After she had removed the cake residue that was called makeup, she slipped into her pajama pants and turned on the TV. As she sat and watched, there was a knock on the door. She had no idea who the hell would be banging on her door as no one ever came to visit. So it had to be a salesman or her landlord, and she had no desire to speak to either one.

She didn’t get up, hoping they’d go away. After five minutes of non-stop knocking, she got up and opened the door. A short, skinny guy stood there looking like she just killed his puppy.

“Can I help you?” she asked

“Um, hi. Sorry to bother you. My name is...um…Donny. I’m just... uhh...  I’m doing a survey for a women’s clothing company.” The man was awkward as hell and was holding a clipboard.

“Survey? What the hell kind of survey?”

“Just…um…information on what women like to wear. Like what size do you consider yourself? Or what build? Medium? Large? Small?”

“Do I look like a fucking large? Try small.”

“Ok sorry,” he said as he scribbled on his clipboard. “Who shops for women’s clothing in your household. You or your husband?”

“What the fuck? How many guys buy their wives’ clothes? Besides, I’m not married, and I dress myself. So yeah. I do the shopping. Any other brilliant questions?”

“Well…I…” he began, but she slammed the door in his face and sat back on the couch before he could finish. Whoever hired that clown to be a door to door survey taker should have been shot. What clothing company sends people door to door like that anymore anyway? She flipped her movie back on and within minutes she’d forgotten all about the strange man who was just at her door.

Chapter 3

Donny walked away from the woman’s apartment and back to his car. He tossed the clipboard onto the seat and sat down. Normally someone blaring their horn at him in traffic and cutting him off would piss him off. He was pissed until he got a look at the woman. She was stunning. She looked exactly like Candi Murphy. Well, mostly. Following her to work and waiting all day to follow her home took more time than he’d expected but it was worth it for a closer look at her.

Her face and hair sure looked like Candi’s. Her body was thinner and not as curvy. He could work with that at least. The problem was, he needed a plan. This girl was a serious firecracker. If he weirded her out too soon or messed things up around her, that would be a quick end to his quest. No, he needed to be more organized. First thing, he’d never abducted a girl before. He had, however, seen all six seasons of “Criminal Brains.” Guys kidnap women on there all the time. How hard could it be?

He stopped at the farm supply store on the north side of town. There they carried all sorts of agricultural supplies and items. Chloroform was sometimes used as a pesticide. He was able to find it easy enough. Except it came in a huge jug. He only needed a little but if all he could get was a jug that would have to do. Donny paid cash to avoid the paper trail, like the bad guys on Criminal Brains often did. Once he finished up at the store, he stopped at a drug store and picked up latex gloves, an apron, gauze and duct tape. He also grabbed some snacks and a couple of Red Bulls to get him through his first ever stakeout. The whole thing felt extremely thrilling to him. For the first time in his life, he wasn’t watching others do exciting things; he was actually the one doing them!

From there, he was ready for his trial run. Timing was everything, and by the time he was finished running his errands, it was already fairly late. He cruised around some of the bars until he found a nice little hole in the wall on the west side. It was a strip club called The Chesty Chola. He’d driven past it a few times but never bothered to go inside. It would be a while yet, so he got comfortable as he waited for them to close.

Several hours later, they did close, and people started filing out. He waited, but the girls who did come out had a guy with them. This may have been a waste of his time. It didn’t occur to him security might just escort all the strippers out. So he waited some more until finally one came out alone. This was a tiny Hispanic girl. With her huge breasts and high heels, she looked as if she could topple over at any minute. He put on his gloves and watched her walk to her car while digging for her keys. Donny took the bottle of chloroform and poured some onto the gauze. He wasn’t sure how much he’d need to knock her out, so he made sure it was good and saturated. Chemical spilled onto his hand and the floor as he poured. As she fumbled for her keys, he waited for the perfect moment to spring on her.

Impatiently waiting, he couldn’t help but notice how strong the chloroform fumes were. He felt lightheaded as he rolled down the window to try and get some fresh air. His head began to hurt as his eyes grew heavy. Shit. He’d put too much on the gauze. He didn’t think the stuff was that strong. Donny opened the car door and stumbled out of the car. He made his way to the girl who saw him immediately.

“Hey! What are you doing? Go home you drunk ass!” she yelled as he stumbled toward her. He was determined to accomplish his mission, though. In his determination, he just started to realize how much the chloroform had messed him up. He must have looked like a drunken slob to her as he staggered. Oh well, it was too late to turn back now. Still fumbling, he reached up and grabbed her or, at least, made a hearty attempt, but his hands just sort of flopped around her shoulders. She pushed him away, screamed and took out a can of pepper spray. Before he could tell what she had, he felt the pain of the liquid fire on his face.

Immediately his eyes and face began to burn. It felt like there was an inferno ravishing his face. His jaw dropped when the first seconds of spray nailed his face, sending the noxious chemical into his mouth and igniting his tongue and throat. He flopped onto the hood of her car. She pushed him away as she reared back and kicked him square in the dick. This dick kick caused immediate amnesia from the fiery horror on his face and shifted sole focus to his balls, which currently felt as if they’d been launched into his abdomen. He doubled over and fell to the ground as the girl jumped into her car, started the engine and sped off, closely missing his body.

He lay there in such unimaginable agony, as his entire body throbbed. His limbs began to feel heavy as if they weighed a hundred pounds each. Donny tried to sit up in a failing effort to get off the ground, but he couldn’t force himself to move no matter how hard he tried. His head began to feel so heavy, and his eyes just wouldn't open. He made one last attempt to move, but the effort was too much. This whole thing felt like a bad idea. Jesus, what had gone wrong? He’d seen this on TV enough it should have gone seamlessly. Perhaps he should familiarize himself more with the chloroform before using it. The thoughts faded as he lay on the pavement for a few more minutes before everything went black.

Chapter 4

“Hey, sunshine! You awake? Wake up buddy!” the man yelled. Donny thought he was dreaming; then it occurred to him he wasn’t at home or even in bed. He snapped awake to find he was lying face down in the parking lot of the Chesty Chola. It was daylight, and the place was empty except for the police officer tapping him on the shoulder with his baton. Donny’s vision was hazy, and he felt like someone just ran over his head with a bulldozer. His memory of how he got there was in bits and pieces, but he began to remember. The cop continued talking to him.

“You ok? Have a little too much fun last night?” the cop said.

“What time is it?”

“It’s 7 a.m. I drove by and saw you lying here. I thought you were dead at first. Why are you wearing rubber gloves? You some kind of germaphobe?”

“Huh?” Donny looked at his hands and noticed he still had on the latex gloves. Shit. “Oh yeah. Yeah. I’m kind of weird about what I touch. I hate to be sick.”

“Right. You might not want to hang around this place. You could get an STD just from sitting on the couches in there. Come on pal. Let’s get up.” The officer reached down and helped pull Donny to his feet. “You ok to drive? Not still drunk are you?”

“No, I think I’ll be okay. I just need something to eat.”

“Sounds like a plan. Next time maybe drink at home. I don’t blame you, though. I've been here once or twice. You need to drink a lot for them to look good. Just don’t let me find you passed out here again.”

“Thank you, officer,” Donny said as the cop walked to his car. Donny got into his vehicle and took off the gloves. Fuck, that was close. He was lucky he hadn’t chloroformed himself to death. His car still had some residual chemical odor in it. He rolled down the windows and turned the air on full blast, trying to air it out so he wouldn’t pass out again while driving home.

He went into the house and brought his supplies. First thing he did was search Google for how to use chloroform properly. At least, how not to kill yourself while using it. On “Criminal Brains” the guys always just poured it onto a rag and went to town. Apparently it wasn’t actually that easy.

As he was surfing, he came across another website called Backpage. On this site, there were tons of ads for girls advertising their sexual or massage services. Out of curiosity, he sent one a message, and it only took her a few minutes to reply. Her name was Barbie. She said her rate was a hundred dollars per hour. He replied ok, and she sent him the name and room of a hotel to meet her at in a couple of hours.

Now this might work. He wouldn’t be out in the open. If he parked near the door, he could just knock her out and drag her into the car, even though it's daytime. Just make sure it’s clear. This time, he carefully prepared a rag with chloroform, folded it and placed it into a Ziploc baggy. He showered, changed his clothes and put the Ziploc into his pocket. The drive to the hotel took about twenty minutes. It was more like a motel.

The place only had a single floor with about a dozen rooms. He pulled up to the room number she gave him, number ten and parked the car. He climbed out of the car and tapped on the door. It opened just a crack revealing a tiny Filipino woman’s face.

“You John?” she asked. He had given her a fake name.

“Uh, yes. That’s me. I’m John.”

She opened the door and stepped back. She was incredibly tiny. He’d be amazed if she were even five feet tall. Her hair was long and black, hanging down past her waist. She was wearing a tank top and shorts.

“You got the money? One hundred dollars up front. No rough stuff.”

“Yeah. I got it right here.” He dug in out his wallet and handed her a hundred-dollar bill. She took the cash and turned to stuff it into her bag. While her back was turned, he dug out the baggy and pulled out the rag and unfolded it. Before she turned around, he grabbed her around the neck and put the rag over her mouth. She tried to scream, but he pinched it tight over her nose and mouth. She struggled for a few seconds, but it wasn’t much of a fight as small as she was.

Finally, she went limp as Donny laid her on the bed. It worked! He stood back and looked at her motionless body. He wasn’t sure how long he had before she woke up, so he had to hurry. He ran to the door and looked outside. It was clear. It looked like they were the only ones at the hotel. He shut the door and walked back to the bed as the girl began coughing. Except it wasn’t just coughing. She was hacking up so hard her entire body jerked with each cough.

White foam bubbled from her mouth and ran down her chin as she vomited all over herself. Donny quickly rolled her onto her side as she continued the fit.

“Oh shit! No! No! No!” he said as she coughed and gagged for over a minute before she went still. He rolled her back to see her eyes frozen wide open as the white foam and vomit was caked around her mouth and chin. Shit. He used too much this time, but at least he hadn’t chloroformed himself. She was so small, and he hadn't accounted for that. He picked up the rag and put it back in his pocket. From there he went through her bag and took back his cash. He also took out the other five hundred dollars she had in there. He pulled the blanket off the bed and wrapped her up in it as if tucking her in and walked out of the room and back to his car. As he drove away, he hit the steering wheel and screamed.

Chapter 5

Donny took a few days off from any further abduction attempts. He had shaken for hours after returning from killing the prostitute. He was sure his fingerprints and DNA were all over the hotel and cops would be kicking in his door any moment. No one did, however. In fact, the murder didn’t even make the evening news. Part of him wondered if he shouldn’t abandon this whole idea completely.

One thing he did find out is what happened with the hooker he’d killed by accident. His curiosity got the best of him, so he scoured news outlets for any coverage of the story. Sure enough, he found it in the local paper. The motel manager had found the body and called the police the next day. Except when the police arrived, her pimp was in the room digging through her bag looking for his money. The money Donny had taken. Immediately the cops thought he’d killed her over the money, and he was immediately arrested. The guy had all sorts of gang affiliations and a long rap sheet including robbery and assault charges. So they had no trouble pinning her killing on him. And that was it. Donny had gotten away with it.

Despite his small victory, he had blown both tries at kidnapping a girl. There had to be an easier way. Instead, he watched more “Criminal Brains” episodes and obsessed over Candi Murphy. He downloaded some books about serial killers and read several more true crime books and finally, he thought he had a real plan. Once again, he needed to start off simple. He would go after a girl who was on the street. Someone who wouldn’t be missed. This time, he’d forego the chloroform and go with more crude methods.

He bought a small leather blackjack, like what police used to use, online. It was a leather strap with a flat piece of lead sewn inside one end. All he had to do was come up behind someone and bust them over the head with it. It was strong enough to knock them out but soft enough not to break any bones or cause any permanent damage. The best thing was, no chemicals and no fumes. He wasn’t going to accidentally knock himself out or kill the girl.

He’d put together a kit of duct tape, a pillow case, rope if needed, and a few other items. This time, he’d head to the east side and see what or who he could find. It was evening when a lot of the more undesirable types were out and about. Sure, they were people to someone, but Donny couldn’t see them that way tonight. Not if he was going to carry out his task. He got into his car and headed into town until he found a dark street. He sat in his car watching for anyone that caught his eye, but the streets were pretty dead. He didn’t want to waste the whole night waiting around.

Finally, he saw a woman coming out of a bar. The place wasn’t very busy. She was staggering slightly as she fumbled with her purse while walking down the sidewalk. She stumbled right past his car as he watched her trip by. This was a short, but slightly chubby Hispanic woman. She would have to do.

Donny quietly opened the door and stepped out of the car. She was just a few feet ahead now. He didn’t want to let her get too far away. Gripping the blackjack tightly, he ran up behind her and quickly smacked her across the back of the head. She tumbled to the ground instantly. Donny stood there for a second looking around, shocked that it had worked. He bent down and grabbed her under the arms and dragged her to his car, opened the trunk and quickly stuffed her inside.

Using the duct tape, he bound her hands and feet and placed a strip over her mouth before closing the trunk. Once he got her home, he dragged her inside and into the back room which he’d converted into his makeshift laboratory. He lifted the woman onto the table and used the straps to secure her after removing the duct tape. The woman slowly awoke as he stood watching her. Once her eyes opened, she looked around slightly before her eyes went wide, followed by a scream.

He wasn’t prepared for the screaming. The woman was incredibly loud. He thought his eardrums were going to burst at one point. Finally, she stopped long enough to try and reason her way out of this.

“Who are you?” she screamed. “Where am I? What are you doing to me?”

“Hey, hi. Um, I’m Donny. Please stop screaming. Or I’ll have to tape your face back up.” She ignored his warning and continued to shriek. He picked up the duct tape and walked over toward her. Once she saw what he was about to do, she stopped again.

“Please! Let me go! What are you going to do to me?” she asked.

“Well, I’m kind of a scientist. I’m working on a special project.”

“Project? What kind of project?”

“A special one. Don’t worry. You’re not part of the actual project. You’re sort of a test run.”

“Oh my God! What are you going to do to me? Please don’t hurt me? Please!”

“Oh, I’m afraid it’s going to hurt quite a bit.”

She began screaming again as he picked up his bone saw and turned it on. The motor whirred over her screams as he began sawing through her arm just below the shoulder. Blood sprayed as she struggled and cried. In about a minute her entire arm was severed. Blood continued to gush from the wound. Donny sat the arm in a tub of ice lying nearby as he picked up a blowtorch and cauterized the wound. The smell of burning blood and flesh filled the air as Donny sealed the wound. While the bleeding had slowed to a trickle, the woman was still screaming.

After ensuring the blood had coagulated, he held the limb back up and looked it over. He was impressed; he’d pulled this off with practically no effort. Maybe he was getting good at this. The woman’s screams had turned to sobs and whimpers as she watched him handling her severed arm. He looked at her and smiled.

“See? That wasn’t so bad, now was it? Don’t worry, just three more to go!”

Chapter 6

Over the next several hours, Donny removed each of the woman’s limbs, cauterizing each wound until she was just a torso with a head. She remained alive throughout the process. He gave her IV fluids and even some pain meds. Well, sort of. One couldn't just acquire Morphine or Demerol, but he could get heroin. It was still an opiate, and she didn’t seem to mind. It wasn’t that he cared if she suffered or not. He just didn’t want her going into shock and dying too soon.

It had been a few hours and the last dose was starting to wear off. Her eyes fluttered as she began coming down.

“What’s going on?” she asked. “What are you doing?”

“Almost done. Just getting you cleaned up. This is the first phase. The next part will be a bit trickier but don’t worry. You’ll be as good as new when I’m done.”

“Oh. Done what?” she said still in a mildly drugged-out haze.

As her eyes came back into focus, she looked around and realized she was now a quadruple amputee. At first, she looked confused, and then it sank in just what had happened to her. Her eyes went wide as she began screaming again. Donny covered his ears. He didn't anticipate screaming at all through this process, something he soon realized was a pretty stupid thing not to anticipate. However, when her screaming began again, it totally threw him off. Even with all of this lack of expecting, what topped the proverbial cake was how this screaming affected him. The noise was almost dizzying.

“Shut up!” he yelled, but his voice was drowned out by her screams. “I said shut up!” Unable to take it anymore, he picked up the ice chest filled with severed limbs and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. The door was made from thick oak and muffled the screams well enough for Donny to get his bearings back. He moved into the living room and sat down.

He pulled one of the severed arms out and looked at it. In all his rush, he hadn’t had time to really sit and admire his work; it was a fairly decent, clean cut. Feeling along her arm, her skin was still quite soft and fairly warm. He opened the palm and ran it and the fingertips along his face as he closed his eyes, fantasizing he was receiving the soft touch of Candi Murphy. His flesh tingled at the touch as he pulled off his lab coat and unbuttoned his shirt. Running the fingertips down along his chest and even having the fingers circle his nipples. His nipples hardened at the touch. It had been so long since he’d felt a woman’s touch it was ridiculous. Granted, this was a woman’s arm which wasn’t attached, but at least she wasn’t dead. The limb was warm enough to feel real.

Unfastening his pants, he slid the finger tips down toward his crotch. He used his other hand to pull out his cock as he let the fingertips tease its head. With his eyes closed, he imagined Candi Murphy’s soft fingertips teasing his tip as his cock throbbed and danced. It grew harder and harder as he used his free hand to wrap the severed arm’s fingers around his shaft, holding it in place as he stroked himself.

His pulsed picked up as his erection throbbed and pulsated in the grip of the foreign hand. He stroked faster and faster as in his mind envisioned Candi Murphy sitting there smiling at him with her beautiful face, while her soft, silky fingertips massaged his cock. Finally, he couldn’t take it anymore. With a grunt he released his load, squirting it all over the hand. He sat back and wiped his wad from the sticky fingers and placed the arm back into the ice chest.

After taking a few minutes to gather himself, he buttoned his shirt, fastened his pants and went to look in on his patient. The screaming had stopped from behind the door. As he stepped inside, the woman had passed out. Either from shock or screaming herself to sleep. Whatever it was, he was glad she’d finally shut up. He didn’t want to overdose her with the heroin. Looking at her naked body, or what was left of it, he felt himself getting excited as he ran his hands all over her. For the first time since he’d brought her in, he began to explore her.

When she’d first come in, he had been dealing with her as a patient or subject. Now he had a moment to see her as something more. Her stomach was a little flabby and had some stretch marks, but other than that he enjoyed her soft skin. Her breasts were large and firm. He squeezed them and massaged them without the woman stirring. Her nipples were huge. Most of his experience looking at breasts was from pictures on the internet. He’d seen plenty of nipples, but hers were gigantic. Not that it was a bad thing. He kind of liked it.

He slid her hands down to her vagina. Her pubic hair was neatly trimmed into a little landing strip. He slid his fingers along her labia and slid one finger inside. It looked strange all exposed with no legs on either side of it. His cock had grown hard and was throbbing again on the inside of his pants. Quickly, slid his pants down to his ankles, released his pulsating member and climbed onto the table. Spreading those warm flaps, he slowly pushed into her motionless body. He noticed her breathing had picked up, and she was sighing, maybe even moaning, in her sleep. Yeah, she’s liking it.

He picked up his pace, thrusting harder and faster with each stroke until he was so hard he could barely stand it. Just as he was about to let go and explode inside her, her eyes snapped open, and she screamed the loudest, shrillest blood-curdling scream he’d ever heard. His cock immediately went limp as he jumped back. The scream had startled him so badly he tried to run out of the room without pulling his pants up first. Instead, he tripped and fell face first onto the floor, biting his tongue as his chin hit the tile. Blood pooled in his mouth as pain shot all the way up his tongue clear into the back of his head. Donny lay there bleeding from his mouth, as she screamed, sending his mind into a dizzying spiral until he passed out.

Chapter 7

Donny woke up a short time later and gathered himself. The woman was still screaming which had hastened his return to consciousness. Once he pulled his pants up, he rinsed his mouth to soothe his still throbbing tongue. Donny decided he needed a long shower and fresh clothes as he stormed out of the laboratory.

Feeling refreshed, he returned to the room where the women continued her screaming fit. Unable to take any more, he gave her another dose of heroin sending her off to la-la land before he got to work.

Once she was sufficiently high, she was looking up at the sky and talking to someone who wasn’t actually in the room. Donny reached into the ice chest and pulled out one of the severed arms. He held it up to her left shoulder, lining it up with the stump. Sitting the arm down on the table and he meandered over to the work bench, grabbing his sewing kit. Lining up the arm again, he began his sutures. He pulled each one tight and kept them close together. As he worked, he wondered if he was doing it right. He’d seen plenty of surgeries, but never anything like this.

Did he have to do something special with the nerves? How about the bones? Will those just grow back together naturally? He figured he could try this and see how it goes. Once he had the arm finished, he moved it slightly, satisfied that it was well attached. He moved on to the other arm and sutured it into place. From there he began on the legs. Those were much trickier. He’d removed them just above the thighs. Due to the angle of the pelvis, it was harder to line them up. It took him much longer to stitch them into place. Once he’d finished, he stood back and looked at his handiwork.

Everything seemed to be holding together just fine. He went over each limb with his scalpel to cut away any extra skin. The woman was still high as a kite and mumbling something incoherent. He removed his lab coat, hung it on the rack, and walked out of the room. He figured he’d let her rest awhile. No telling how long it would all take to heal up. After so long in surgery, he needed to get out of the house for a bit.

He got into his car and headed to the apartment of Jessica Johnson to see if she was there. If he couldn’t watch Candi Murphy in person, he could at least watch her. Part of him thought of knocking on her door again, but she’d barely bought the survey act. No doubt if he showed up again she’d know something was up. Instead, he sat in the parking lot of her apartment complex. Her car was still there, so he knew she was. He couldn’t help but think about her and what she might be doing right now. Could she be taking a bubble bath? The thought of warm water and soapy bubbles glistening off her soft, golden skin made him erect.

His cock bulged through his pants as he imagined her lathering herself up, running a loofah over her firm breasts. Her nipples, pointing out with excitement as she massaged her body. He began rubbing his bulge through his pants. He closed his eyes as he felt himself throbbing through the material. Unable to take anymore he unzipped his pants and removed his cock. It felt so good as it sprung free. He stroked it gently imagining he was rubbing it along Jessica’s beautiful breasts.

His cock twitched and throbbed with each stroke as he teased the tip with his fingertips. He felt himself getting close. He was already worked up from his earlier adventure with the woman. Unfortunately, he’d never got to finish. This time would be different. His cock grew harder and harder as he got closer and closer. Just as he was about to blow, someone knocked on his window.

He opened his eyes to see Jessica Johnson standing there banging on his window screaming.

“What the fuck are you doing?” she yelled. “You’re that survey guy! Are you fucking jacking off?”

His erection immediately shriveled and hid away like a turtle going back into its shell. Immediately he regretted parking right next to her car. He rolled down the window as he quickly tucked his penis away.

“I…I’m so sorry,” he said.

“You sick fuck!” She snapped a picture of him with her cell phone. “I’m calling the police, and I’m putting your picture on Facebook. Everyone will know what a sick fucking creep you are.”

“No, no, please don’t do that.”

“Watch me asshole! Hang on while I call the police!” She dialed on her phone and put it to her ear. Panic began to set in. She had his picture. If she called the cops and put his picture all over the internet, his whole mission would be done for good. He couldn’t let that happen. He got out of the car and stood next to her begging her to change her mind.

“I’m sorry. Ok. Please look. I’m sorry. I’ll go away. You’ll never see me again.”

“Shut up freak! Creepy ass.”

He reached up and tried to grab her phone, but she backed away and kicked him in the dick. Fortunately, it was a glancing blow and didn’t totally disable him. He doubled over and grabbed his now extremely abused dick while trying to regain his composure. She took a few steps away. He lunged again at her phone and, this time, he got it. Before she could respond, he slammed it into the pavement, shattering the device as he stomped on it. She screamed and swung at him, connecting on the side of his face.

The blow hurt but wasn’t devastating. He swung back and hit her just below the chin. He’d never been in a real fight before, but he connected with enough force to knock her back. She hit the ground landing on her ass. She wasn’t out, but she was stunned. He jumped up and punched her in the nose. This one nearly knocked her out. Blood gushed from her nose as she fell onto her back.

He grabbed her under the arms and dragged her to his trunk and opened it. He had to hurry as it was broad daylight. Fortunately, there were no people around as far as he could tell. Lifting her up, he heaved her into the trunk and quickly duct-taped her hands, feet, and mouth and climbed into his car. This wasn’t how he had planned on grabbing her, and way too soon, but circumstances dictated the situation. He started the car and headed back to his house. As he drove home, not only did he wonder how he’d deal with her so soon, but also if he’d ever actually be able to get off before the day was over.

Chapter 8

Donny got back to his house and dragged Jessica inside. She was still dazed, so he kept her taped up until he could figure out what to do with the other woman. Going into his laboratory, and checked on the woman who was coming down from her heroin trip. She was looking around and blinking rapidly. Donny saw the sutures on each limb were red and puffy where it connected with her torso. He needed to set up a second table, but this woman had just been a test run anyway.

He needed to make room for Jessica. It was time to get rid of his test subject. In order to keep from making a mess, he dug through the trash and came up with a plastic bag. He walked behind her and placed it over her head and squeezed it tight around her neck. She thrashed and bucked while trying to scream through the bag but, at least, the sound was muffled. He expected her arms to flail at him, but they are severed, and the stitching didn't seem to hold. Her torso just flopped around for a few minutes. Finally, she went still. He left the bag over her head for another minute in case she was only passed out but finally saw that her chest wasn’t moving.

He rolled his large trash barrel over to the table, moved each limb up across her torso and folded her up and rolled the body into the trash barrel. He figured he’d dispose of her later. Once she was removed, he dragged Jessica inside. She was beginning come out of the stupor from the possible concussion she’d sustained. She struggled against the tape. Donny knew if he cut her loose, she’d punch him immediately. Before putting her on the table, he grabbed one of the syringes and gave her an injection of heroin. In minutes, she was drifting off into another place and time.

Donny hoisted her onto the table and cut the tape free and her clothes off her. For the first time, he had the chance to look Jessica over really well. Her face looked almost exactly like Candi Murphy’s. Her body on the other hand, not so much. Candi was curvy and fit, with large, firm breasts and a nice round bottom. Jessica was bony and skinny. Her ribs protruded, and her tits were little more than a pair of nipples. Donny didn’t find this attractive at all.

He sat and thought about his failed experiment. This had all happened much sooner than he’d planned but since he had her, he might as well run with it. He went into another room and grabbed one of his folding tables and brought it into the lab. Once it was set up, he used the duct tape to restrain her to the table, gave her another dose of drugs for good measure, and headed out.

He needed to find a Candi Murphy body to match the face. Where would he find this? It was too early to head to a bar. The Chesty Chola would be open. That place opened at noon to take advantage of the business crowd.

He got into his car and headed there, hoping no one would recognize him from his incident the other night. It had been dark, and he was gagging on chloroform, so hopefully he’d slip in unnoticed. When he arrived, he paid the cover and sat down in the club area. The place was fairly busy for the middle of the day. On the inside, it looked just the same as it did at night. Low light, loud music with a girl dancing on a pole.

He looked around, scoping the place out. The club smelled of beer, sweat, and perfume. Many of the girls were shorter and had on way too much makeup. A few came up and asked if he wanted to buy a dance, but he turned them down. One short Asian girl was wearing a cowboy hat and boots. She was cute but definitely not his type. There were a few bouncers standing around who looked bigger than Donny’s car. He did not want to draw any of their attention. Finally, he saw her. This was a tall blonde wearing a bikini with a thong. She had a tattoo of a dragon on her upper thigh, but that was the only ink on her body. Donny looked her up and down as she approached him.

“Hey honey,” she said. “Would you like a dance?”

“Sure!” he replied.

She straddled his lap and began dancing and grinding. Immediately his cock stiffened in his pants. It pressed against the inside of his jeans feeling as if it were about to bust itself out. She faced away from him, rubbing her ass up against his cock, teasing and pressing her ass against it, causing it to get harder than he’d thought possible. She leaned in and stuck her breasts in his face. They were enormous and firm. They looked fake which he was ok with. He’d read Candi Murphy had gotten a boob job a few years ago, and he thought she looked fine.

With her boobs pushed into his face, she straddled his lap, grinding away. His boner throbbed and stiffened to the point he couldn’t hold it anymore. After two failed attempts earlier in the day, he finally blew his load but inside his pants this time. The stripper’s eyes went wide as she felt his cock jump and twitch. She stood and smiled as he grunted with his eyes closed until he was done. Once he finished she sat down next to him.

“I take it you liked that?” she asked.

“Umm, yeah you could say that.”

“Awesome. Would you like another one?”

“Maybe in a little while. I need to catch my breath.”

“Haha! Nice! My name is Mindy. What’s yours?”

“Donny.”

“Great to meet you, Donny. I’m going to make some rounds, and I’ll be back to check on you. Ok?”

“That’d be great.”

He sat for a while watching her move around the club. Her body was perfect. It was really perfect as proven by the fresh wet spot in his pants. He got up and went outside. He wasn’t sure how he’d do it, but he had to have her. She would become part of his version of Candi Murphy, a masterpiece. All he needed to do was sit in his car and wait.

Chapter 9

Donny waited until he saw Mindy walking to her car. It was early evening, and more and more people were coming in. He hadn’t planned this out very well. He hoped this would go more smoothly than his other attempts. She strolled to her car carrying her purse. She was wearing sweats and a tank top. Much different than her work attire. She stood by a Toyota Camry and dug through her purse as he looked on.

He put the car in gear and drove up behind her. Before he got out, he popped the trunk. He pulled up behind her and before she had a chance to turn all the way around, he grabbed her by the hair and shoved her into the trunk. She kicked and struggled, but he had caught her enough off guard. He closed the trunk, got back in and drove off. He could hear her kicking and banging around inside, but he’d got her.

When he got home and pulled into the garage, he had to look for something he could use. He didn’t want to bust her up too badly, but if he let her fight when he opened the trunk he’d just get his ass kicked again. He found a broom stick in the back of the garage. He held it up as he opened the trunk. As it popped open, she screamed and flailed, but he swung the stick at her repeatedly. Unfortunately, he didn’t use enough force, and she grabbed the other end of it.

Pulling herself out of the car, a tug of war commenced over the broomstick, and they rocked back and forth. She was twisting and pulling on it trying to loosen his grip. Instead of pulling, he decided to push instead. Using her momentum against her, he shoved her backward as hard as he could until she tripped over a trash bag, and fell backward, hitting her head on a table. She bounced off the floor and was out instantly.

Donny sat down and caught his breath. This girl kidnapping business was far more exhausting than he’d imagined. The guys on “Criminal Brains” never broke a sweat. He walked over and grabbed her by the arms and dragged her into the house and onto the laboratory. Jessica was still there and on her trip. He finished setting up his second table before lifting Mindy onto it and removing her clothes. Once she was naked, he taped her up and looked her over.

She definitely had the body of Candi Murphy. Her face looked nothing like hers. The only problem was the tattoo on her leg and upper arm. He didn’t see it in the club, but she had a tattoo of a rose on her upper right arm. Well, that wasn’t going to work. Candi Murphy was classy. She didn’t have these kinds of tattoos or any tattoos for that matter.

Mindy began to wake up as Donny pulled on his lab coat, apron and face shield as he picked up the bone saw. Her eyes went wide, and she let out a scream as he fired up the saw and pressed it against the base of her neck. A geyser of blood shot into the air as she thrashed and twitched before going totally still. Within minutes, her head fell off and into the trash can sitting just behind the table.

Blood continued to squirt from the stump as he moved over to Jessica’s table. Mindy’s screams snapped Jessica out of her euphoria as she looked over and saw the newly headless woman lying next to her. Instantly Jessica began to scream as Donny prepared the saw a second time.

“Sorry I have to do this,” he said. “But don’t worry. You’ll be part of something much bigger now. You’ll live forever as the most perfect woman ever made. You should be excited!”

She screamed again as he lowered the saw, cutting into her neck, severing her jugular as more blood sprayed onto Donny’s apron and face shield. Her body lie still once he was done. He held a handful of her hair with his free hand as he finished cutting the head free. Once he was done, he carried Jessica’s head to the new body and placed it on the stump. Retrieving the sewing kit he began stitching away and hoped, this time, his stitches would stick. It was difficult to see with all the blood, but he wound the sutures tightly together. He had to reload the thread a couple of times to cover the whole neck.

Once he was finished, he removed his gloves, apron, and shield and got a wash cloth. Soaking it in the sink, he washed the blood off her neck and new body. He went back and finished with the sutures and tied them off. Once that was finished, he commenced to bathing her until most of the blood was gone and lifted her slightly by the shoulders. Her head flopped around but remained attached.

Looking her over, he still wasn’t happy about her tattoos. It just wasn’t looking right. He’d seen Candi Murphy in a bikini on “Criminal Brains.” No tattoos at all. He went to the other table and rolled the trash bin over and dumped Jessica’s discarded body inside with the other woman’s body. He was doing to have to do something with these soon. Couldn’t just let bodies pile up in his lab. He wheeled the bin out of the lab and into the garage. He took a sheet of plastic, lined his trunk with it, placed the bodies on top, and closed it up. He got in the car and pulled out of the garage, heading to Brackenridge Park. It was getting dark so he could move around in the somewhat darkness.

The park was near downtown, but once you’re in the park, parts of it feel like the wilderness. Parts of it that is. He drove around the road past several joggers until he reached one of the thicker wooded areas. The woods weren’t huge. This wasn’t an ideal body dump site, but he was in a hurry and figured it would be a day or two before anyone found them. He wore gloves while handling them. Well, he did most of the time anyway. So hopefully, police wouldn’t find any evidence of his prints.

Once he found the spot, he made sure it was clear and opened the trunk. Leaning in, he folded the plastic over the bodies and pulled them out of the car. They both hit the ground with a thud as he dragged them into the woods. He walked until he couldn’t see the car anymore and pulled the plastic out from under them. They flopped out onto the ground, their pale skin almost glowing in the dark.

Donny threw some dirt and sticks on top of them, trying to cover them up and balled up the plastic. He walked by one of the trash cans near a barbecue pit and stuffed the plastic inside and headed back to his car. Once in the car, he headed back to his house. Time to call it a night. Tomorrow, he’d figure out what to do with his new Candi’s tattoos.

Chapter 10

Veteran Detective Rich Colburn stood in Brackenridge Park, looking at the bodies dumped in the woods. Whoever had dumped them was in a big hurry. That, or they were an idiot. A jogger had seen a man stuffing something into a trash barrel nearby. Digging through the barrel, his crime scene technicians had found a large piece of plastic with blood caked on it. He knelt down and examined one of the bodies more closely.

They were both women. One of them had her limbs stitched back on but was missing a head. His partner, Claudia Gomez walked up and knelt down next to him.

“Any luck finding the head?” he asked.

“Nope. No head anywhere around. We checked all the trash cans, barbecue pits even the bathrooms. No head.”

“So we have one girl missing her head entirely. The other has her head, but has had her limbs cut off and sewn back on.”

“Are we sure they’re her limbs?” she asked.

“Looks like it. I mean, see she has a tattoo on her upper arm that matches along the bicep.”

“Why would a killer cut her shit off then sew it back on? That’s fucking weird.”

“Well yeah, and then dump them in a public park. Fuck! I want to find that head. Did he keep it? Is it a souvenir?”

“If so, then why does the other girl still have hers?”

“I don’t know. This is some fucked up shit,” Rich said. This isn’t like our usual gang or domestic shootings. This is just too fucking weird.” Rich shook his head as he looked the bodies over. They’d been found when an accountant was walking his dog early in the morning. The dog went nuts and ran into the woods, finding the bodies. At first, they looked like they’d been more mutilated around the face for the one who had a face and the neck stump for the others. But that was from animals nibbling at them. In almost twenty years on the force, this was one of the more bizarre cases he’d seen.

The weirdest one was about ten years ago. Some guy got in a fight with his girlfriend. She threatened to kill herself with a shotgun. The guy tried to grab the gun away from her, and as he did so, it went off, blowing his whole face clean off. Seriously, the guy had no face. He had a gaping bloody hole where his face was. Except he didn’t die right away. He must have been in shock, so he took off down the street screaming and terrorizing the neighborhood. Rich had been shift supervisor at the time. He’d arrived as one of the first on the scene.

Oddly enough, the guy didn’t want help, he tried to fight and kept swinging. Rich had to taze him to get him under control. The paramedics were horrified to show up and see him with this guy handcuffed on the ground with no face. The guy died in the hospital a few hours later. To this day, he still sees that faceless man chasing him in his sleep. So these didn’t quite top that. The trouble was, he was afraid to know the story behind these.

“One thing is for sure,” he said. “This wasn’t a crime of passion or random violence. Somebody did some work on these girls. What that work was, I have no fucking idea.”

“The medical examiner just got here. I have three guesses on the causes of death,” Claudia said.

“Yeah, for one of them that’s easy.”

Claudia pointed to the neck on both girls.

“Look at that. Needle marks.”

“You think they were shooting up in their necks?”

“The puncture is too big. And look.” She ran her finger around the wound. “Looks like some kind of adhesive. He put an IV into their necks?” As she spoke, crime scene techs walked around them snapping pictures from various angles.

“You think it’s some back alley doctor? I’ve seen a few of those before.”

“Did they do this shit with cutting off limbs?”

“No. Good point,” Rich said.

The medical examiners bagged up the bodies and took them away.

“I wonder what drugs he gave them. That might tell us something,” Claudia said.

“If we’re lucky it will be something hard to get. That will narrow it down.”

“I’m never lucky.”

They both went back to the car and climbed in. Claudia got behind the driver’s seat. He didn’t mind letting her drive. Some officers gave him shit about letting the girl drive, but she had been his partner for almost a year. Never once had she let him down. At first, he had to admit he was nervous about his first female partner, but in a short time, she proved herself. Now he didn’t even see her as a girl. Well, she was a woman for sure and a very attractive one. But she did her job and did it well, so that was all he could ask for. Hell, he’d had some male partners who were totally worthless over the years. He’d take Claudia over them any day.

They were headed back to the department when his phone rang. He took the call and listened for a few minutes. It was dispatch. Once he finished, he hung up and looked at Claudia.

“Ok. We may have an ID.”

“Already? How?”

“Got a call from the Chesty Chola that one of their girls is missing. Someone saw a guy stuffing a woman in his trunk yesterday.”

“What the fuck?”

“Yeah. In broad daylight. Ballsy asshole.”

“Did they get a plate?”

“Of course not. That fucking club. You know how many strippers go missing from there? A few years ago a family of cannibals grabbed a girl from there too. Not sure why everyone picks that place.”

“Well, it’s so classy,” Claudia said.

“Yeah, if you want a $5.00 blowjob from a toothless chick guess.”

They headed to the club without speaking the rest of the way. Rich thought about the bodies and what kind of killer they might be dealing with. An overwhelming sense of dread came over him the more he thought about it. As they pulled into the parking lot of the Chesty Chola, he started wondering if it wasn’t time to think about retirement.

Chapter 11

Christina Cooper stood in the checkout lane. She was beyond frustrated. The stupid store was nearly packed, but they only had two registers open. Neither of which was an express lane. All she wanted was a few snacks and some toilet paper. Had she known she’d have to wait in line behind some lady with four toddlers and a cart overflowing with groceries, she wouldn’t have bothered. The woman had no control over her kids either.

One of the little shits had tried to grab the soda out of her hand. His mom just stood there and watched as if Christina was the bitch for not handing her shit over to the kid. After what felt like forever, she got checked out and was out the door. At least, she had snacks for work. She was scheduled for a twelve-hour shift at Smarty Mart, a twenty-four-hour convenience store. Most convenience stores in the city closed at eleven due to robberies and such. Not Smarty Mart. They had to be open all night.

Oh well, she made an extra dollar an hour in shift premium. Not that it amounted to much. In the six months, she’d been there she’d never been robbed. There were a few obnoxious drunks who’d stumbled in and raised some hell but nothing too bad. One guy grabbed a pack of beef jerky and took off running. She didn’t even bother chasing him; she just called the cops. No way was she going to risk her life over nine dollars an hour and a three-dollar pack of beef jerky. Soon she arrived at Smarty Mart and headed inside.

There was already a big line of people at the register. Most of them pre-paying for gas, buying beer or both. She didn’t have time to chat with Chet, the clerk on duty. He finished ringing up his last customer, and she switched him out. He simply nodded and headed out the door. She didn’t blame him. Within five minutes she wanted to run out the door. After a few hours, it finally died down. It was almost 10 p.m. She stepped outside to get some fresh air. After going back inside a short, skinny guy came walking in.

The guy stopped and looked at her, looking her up and down.

“Um…hi,” he said.

“Good evening. Can I help you with something?”

“Oh, I needed to pay for some gas.”

She walked behind the counter.

“Ok. How much?”

“How much what?”

“Gas. You said you wanted to pre-pay for gas?”

“Oh! Right! Twenty dollars.” He handed her a twenty and she rang it up. He went outside back to his car as she picked up a magazine and started thumbing through it. After a few minutes, he came back inside.

“Um, excuse me. Can you help me? I’m having trouble getting the pump to work.”

She looked at the pump settings on the counter.

“It shows that it's on?”

“Yes, but nothing is coming out.”

“Which pump are you on?”

“On number four.”

“Yeah. That’s what I got.”

“Can you come and take a look at it?”

“Sir. I can’t fix the pump. You want to switch to a different one?”

“Please. It will only take a second.”

She really didn’t want to go out there and dick around with the gas pump. No one else had complained about it all night. This guy must be a complete tool. She walked out from behind the counter and followed him to the car. Looking at the pump, he stood behind her as she bent down and lifted the nozzle and flipped the lever. Everything was working fine.

“This seems to be working just…” she began, but something struck her over the head. The blow stunned her and sent her wobbling as he grabbed her by the arm and threw her into the trunk. She tried to fight back, but he punched her in the nose. Her eyes watered as her vision blurred. The man had duct tape right there in the trunk, which he used to tape up her hands and feet. He fished through her pockets and dug out her car keys and closed the trunk. Before the car started, she heard him shuffling around and another car door opening and closing before the car started as they began moving. The ride was bumpy for part of the way and lasted almost twenty minutes. Her hands were taped in front of her, and she used them to bang on the trunk.

She had read before that car company put some kind of quick release inside the trunk in case people were locked inside. She looked all over but never found it. It was probably an urban legend. Either that or the guy had disabled it somehow. Finally, they came to a stop, and he came around and opened the trunk. She took a swing at him with both hands, but he swatted at her with a broom handle, hitting her in the nose again. The pain shot through her face as her nose throbbed.

He grabbed her by the hair and dragged her into the house. The house was small and filthy. There were empty bags of chips and rotten food all over the floor. The only furniture was a filthy couch along the wall with an old TV set sitting across from it. He dragged her into a back room which looked like a makeshift laboratory. When she saw the dead woman lying on the table, she began to scream. The woman was naked, and her head was on weird. Upon a second look, she saw her head didn’t match her body. It was almost too big for the body it was on. That was when she saw the stitches. The head had been sewn onto the body.

“Oh my god! What is this? What are you going to do me? Please?”

“It’ll be fine. Just going to make a few enhancements is all. You’ll do fine. I took one look at you and knew you were perfect.”

“What? Perfect for what?”

He shoved her onto the table and had her sitting down.

“Don’t fight with me or I’ll hit you again. I don’t care how bad your face gets messed up. Now, I need to ask you some questions, and I need you to answer me honestly.”

“Questions about what?”

“Tattoos. Do you have any tattoos?”

“What? Yes? Why?”

“Where?”

“On my shoulder blade. Will you let me go now?”

“Ok. So none on your legs or arms?”

“No! Why?”

“Great. You’re perfect.”

He picked up a syringe and injected something into her arm. He did it so quickly she didn’t even have a chance to react. In seconds, the room felt as if it were moving as a floating feeling took over her body. The man began to lay her flat on the table and removed her clothing. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she felt like she should be afraid or scream, except she no longer cared.

Chapter 12

Donny carefully stitched the leg into place just above the thigh. This one wasn’t nearly as sloppy as his test run. That was good. Once he got the second leg attached, he moved to the arms. The girl named Christina hadn’t moved hardly at all when he’d removed her limbs. She was very skinny. Maybe the dose was too much. She had an enormous stash of heroin in her car when he looked before leaving the gas station. Maybe she was a dealer or something. He doubted she was a user. Either way, he had enough supply to last him for a while. She seemed to be fine, just on an extended trip from the looks of it and the sounds she was making.

“Hey,” she said. He looked over at her. She was still extremely high. “What are you doing? Where’s my legs?”

“Um, hi. I had to use them. For this lady. Now that you’re calm I can explain. I’m building the perfect woman. There already is one actually. She’s an actress named Candi Murphy. You heard of her?”

“Oh yeah, yeah. She’s on that crime show.”

“Yes! Criminal Brains! My favorite show!”

“Yeah, cool show.”

“Yes! Well, I’ve never wanted to be with anyone more than Candi Murphy. She’s the perfect woman in every way. But she’s a big Hollywood actress. So I’m doing the next best thing. I’m making my very own Candi Murphy. Out of other girls. And you get to be a part of it! Isn’t that exciting?”

“Oh wow, yeah. How cool. So is that who she is?” Christina nodded to the girl on the other table.

“Yep. I just got her legs on. I’ll be putting her arms on next. You donated your limbs to her. Isn’t that amazing?”

“Oh yeah. That’s really cool, man. Hey, is she like dead or asleep or whatever?”

“Oh, she’s not alive just yet. I’ll work on that once I get her together.”

“Hey,” Christina turned her head from her left to her right. “My arms are gone.”

“Yeah. I had to cut them off for my new Candi. Remember?”

“Oh right! Haha.”

Christina’s torso was naked on the table, but she couldn’t feel anything.

“I feel weird. Like my nose itches but I can’t scratch it.”

“Oh, I can take care of that for you.” Donny reached up and scratched her nose. She wrinkled her forehead and giggled. Donny ran his hand over her body, feeling her breasts and rubbing her nipples.

“Your skin, it's so soft.” He ran his hand along her stomach and her side.

“Oh! That tickles!” she giggled. He felt along her right side and to her stump where her recently severed left arm had been. He’d cauterized the stumps after removing the arms, but not as well on the left side. It was still somewhat open and dripping blood. Touching her body had gotten him somewhat aroused. Her body was soft yet firm and breasts full and perky. His cock throbbed in his pants as he massaged it through the cloth before unfastening them and letting it flop out.

“Oh hey, what you gonna do with that?” Christina asked as she giggled.

He took his cock and slid it into the opening in her stump. The blood and tissue made it feel so soft and warm. It was tight too, really tight. The tissue caressed his cock as he slowly worked it in and out. His cock throbbed as he moved slightly faster.

“Wow, that feels weird,” she said. “It kinda tickles. Do I have a pussy there now?”

Donny almost envied her for how high she was. He was feeling rather euphoric at the moment, as well; this felt so good. It felt better than the stripper rubbing her boobs on his crotch. He grew harder inside her stump as he grabbed her by the shoulders, humping the hole in her body even faster, growing harder and harder until he couldn’t hold it any longer, erupting inside her. His load mixed with blood ran out of the hole and onto his cock as he pulled out.

He took a towel and wiped off his blood soaked cock and then wiped the sweat from his forehead.

“Man, that was weird. You gonna do the other one?” she asked.

He would have to up the heroin dosages in the future. It was cool having her all mellow like this instead of all the screaming. Maybe it wasn’t the heroin. Maybe she actually appreciated what he was doing. That was always a possibility. Perhaps a mixture of both. Whatever it was, he liked it.

“Uh, maybe later. I have to finish up putting her new arms on. You want to watch me?”

“Sure!”

“Cool!” He turned her table to as slight angle so she wouldn’t have to turn her head as much. From there he went to work and spent the next hour meticulously suturing each arm into place. As he worked, he’d looked over at Christina and noticed she had passed out. He shrugged and finished working until he had both arms sewn into place.

He stood back admiring his work when Christina coughed and then looked around.

“Oh, you’re awake?”

She looked up at the new Candi then down at her body and began screaming. This time, the screams were louder and shriller than any of the other women’s screams. Donny put his bloody hands over his ears, caking blood along his hair and the sides of his head. He cowered, hoping she’d stop, but she only got louder. He had to shut her up. Looking around, he couldn’t find his scalpel. Where had he put it? The bone saw was laying on the table to his left. He grabbed the saw and powered it on.

She screamed over the buzzing noise of the saw until he shoved it into her mouth, severing her jaw in one smooth stroke. Her lower jaw fell away along with part of her tongue, and the screams turned to gurgling sounds as blood bubbled up from the new hole in her face. It was a shame; he kind of liked the girl. But no way could he have that screaming. After a minute, the gurgling turned to gagging as she choked on her own blood. Finally, she went silent and her remaining body lay still. He turned off the saw and sat it down. Looking back at his new Candi, he admired the work he’d done. She looked beautiful. Perfect. It was time to put on some finishing touches.

Chapter 13

Rich and Claudia stood inside the Chesty Chola talking to the manager. His name was Mickey McDougal. Which was odd because the guy looked Hispanic. Most people in San Antonio looked Hispanic, but also had Hispanic sounding names.

“So yeah, Mindy left here I thought around two yesterday. Someone saw a car driving fast out of the parking lot around that same time. So I don’t know what that was about. You think someone grabbed her? She was one of my top earners, so when she didn’t call or anything, and her car was still here, I got a bit worried.”

“Haven’t there been girls kidnapped from here before? That weird cannibal family several years back grabbed a few of your girls didn’t they?” Claudia asked.

“Hey. I wasn’t here back then, but yeah I guess so. Not sure why these psychos always target us, though. Not like we’re the only strip club in town.”

“Maybe it’s because you’re such a high-class establishment. Either that or your iron-clad security and surveillance system,” Claudia said.

“Hey. I know these cameras out here been busted for years. You got any idea what that could cost to fix?”

“How about having, at least, one security guard in the parking lot.”

“Hey. I need them inside. Look, you want to run this place? You be my guest. There isn’t that much money in this business like their used to be. Hell, I got the TABC breathing down my neck, and then the sheriff’s department wants to do undercover stings to make sure the girls aren’t prostituting. Not that I ever condoned that, but when they did I always got a piece of the action. Paid pretty well. Shit would buy a lot of security cameras.”

TABC was the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, who regulated all establishments that served alcohol. Listening to the guy talk made Claudia want to throw up. She remained professional and held in her disgust.

“Wait a minute,” Rich said. “McDougal. Hey! Are you related to that crazy McDougal family up in Browneye a few years ago? There was a whole ugly massacre up in that town. Turned out, they were behind it all.”

Mickey rolled his eyes.

“No! God no. I regret having taken this name, since I had no there was a band of psycho rednecks out there with it. My real name was Martinez. I was living in L.A. for a few years trying to be an actor. Well if you’re name is Martinez you’re left playing nothing but cholos in Machete part 5 which I didn’t want to do.”

“You were a serious actor,” Claudia taunted.

“Yeah, fuck you. So anyway, I changed my name. It still didn’t help. All I got was shit roles, so I came back here. After ten years of working as an extra, my resume wasn’t exactly impressive. So the best job I could get was here.”

“How proud your parents must be.”

“Seriously, lady. What the hell did I do to you? Why you gotta bust my balls like this?”

“Because I think you’re a shit stain,” she said.

“Easy Claudia. He’s trying to help us,” Rich reminded.

“Yeah! I’m trying to help you. Fuck. So yeah. I don’t know that she talked to anyone else on her way out.”

“Did she have any clients before she left that seemed odd or anything?”

“You ever hung out here lady? They’re all odd.”

“Ok. More odd than usual.”

“I think, there was this one guy. He was kind of dorky looking. Real short and almost cowered in his seat. She sat with him for a while. Security was watching because he was acting so, I dunno. Weird.”

“Was he touching her weird or following her?”

“No. Just the way he sat and stared. I mean, they all stare it’s a strip club. This guy, though. It’s like he was sizing her up for something. Hard to explain. Oh, and Mindy said he jizzed his pants during a lap dance.”

“Ew.”

“That’s what I said. But she said he was mostly polite so she went and finished her dance on stage and he left. A few hours later she went to leave but was gone.”

“Did anyone see anything at all? Did you ask?”

“No, I was leaving last night and noticed her car was still there. I thought maybe she caught a ride with someone to go out. But she never came back, and her car was still here, so I knew something was up. She never misses work. She makes great money.”

As they were talking, anther girl walked up to them. This one had to be a stripper. She was wearing a leopard print bikini, high heels, and makeup that looked like it had been applied with a paint roller.

“Hey, officers. I’m Francesca.”

“What can we help you with Francesca?”

“You guys here about Mindy?”

“Yes, we are. Do you know anything?” Claudia asked.

“Not really. I was leaving around the same time. I was just backing out of my space there to leave and saw this car peeling out like a maniac. I took out my phone and filmed it, just in case. You know, I figured you never know when something might be important.”

“That’s great! Can I see it?” Claudia leaned over and watched on her cell phone as a small two door coupe sped out of the parking lot leaving tire tracks as it sped away.

“He was in a hurry for sure. Can you email that video to me?” Claudia handed her a business card. “If we blow that up a bit we can get a plate.”

“Yes ma’am, I’ll do that right away.”

The girl typed in the email address on her phone and hit send. Claudia nodded and smiled.

“Thank you. It will take a few minutes for me to get it. Please call me if you see or hear anything else.” She turned to Mickey.

“And you. Call me if that weirdo comes back.”

“Hey. Did You think of going undercover as a stripper? I could have Francesca here do your hair and makeup. You’d fit right in. Hell, with a body like yours, you might make some bank in the meantime.”

Now he was purposely being an asshole.

“Just call if you see the guy. Unless you want more of your girls disappearing. In the meantime, we’ll review this video.”

“Trust me.” Mickey smiled. “You’ll be the first to know.”

Chapter 14

Donny spent the next several hours cleaning up some of the mess in his lab. He’d dumped Christina’s torso into the trash bin. There was already a head in there with some other body parts. He used the hose to spray off the table and mopped up as much of the blood and tissue as he could. Once the floor was dry, he came in with a cart carrying a large car battery, several wires, and a switch panel.

He’d seen some of this on Youtube but had yet to try it out on his own. So he figured he’d do a live test. He got the wires and connections set up and walked over to his Candi’s body. Using the clips at the end of the wires, he connected them to her nipples. Once that was set up, he hooked up the switch panel which was covered with wires, circuits and, of course, switches. He’d ordered it off Ebay, but the guy assured him it should work.

He got it connected the way he’d remembered and walked over and looked at his Candi, placing a hand on her face.

“There, there. I know you’re not awake yet. Soon you will be. Then we will start a new life together. I know I’ll make you very happy.” Once he spoke, he bent down and kissed her softly on the lips. Her lips were soft and cold. As he pulled away, he was slightly disappointed she hadn’t come back to life like in “Sleeping Beauty.”

He walked back over to his contraption and turned a few dials and then activated one of the switches. He heard a buzzing and humming sound, but nothing happened. After a few minutes, he shut it off, went back and readjusted the clips on her nipples and tried it again. This time, he let the battery run for almost ten minutes. She didn’t spring to life, but the room did fill with the odor of burning flesh.

Donny walked back over to check them again. This time forgetting to shut off the switch. He pulled the clips from her nipples and tapped them with his fingertips. This time, an electric charge went through his body. The jolt was strong enough to knock him backward crashing into a tray table as tools and supplies went flying. He hit his head on something on the way down, which knocked him out for a few minutes.

When he awoke, the back of his head was throbbing and someone at his front door was pounding like crazy. He stood and cleaned himself off, hoping they’d go away. Unfortunately, they weren’t going anywhere. The pounding got louder and louder. He walked out of the lab to answer the door, and he suddenly realized all he was wearing was a lab coat and his underwear. He removed the lab coat and tossed it back into the lab and pulled on his pants and a shirt before answering the door.

Standing in his doorway was an attractive Mexican lady and a pissed off looking white guy.

“Can I help you?” Donny asked.

“Yeah. SAPD,” the guy said holding up a badge. “I’m Detective Rich Colburn; this is Detective Claudia Gomez. You Donny Spanks?”

“Uh, yeah. That’s me.”

“We have a few questions for you. Can we come inside?”

Donny looked around.

“Umm, I’d rather you didn’t.”

“This will only take a minute.”

“Good, we can discuss it from here.”

“Ok. Fine. Your car was seen leaving the Chesty Chola yesterday at a high rate of speed. As if you were in a big hurry or running away from something.”

“It was, huh? Must not have been my car?”

“The plate number matched your car. It led us right to your house. It’s just really interesting since a stripper disappeared from there around the same time. A stripper who you were seen with earlier. A stripper with whom you splooged in your pants while she danced for you. Does any of that ring a bell?”

“I think you should leave now,” Donny said as he tried to push the door closed. Colburn had his foot in the doorway so it wouldn’t close all the way.

“What for? I mean you got nothing to hide right. I mean, if we came back with a warrant? We wouldn’t find her here would we?”

“What? No! Of course not. Look at me. Do I look like I could kidnap anyone? She could kick my ass, I bet.” Donny pointed at Gomez.

“You’re fuckin’ A right I’d kick your ass,” she said. “How about we test that theory?”

“Jesus. Ok, Look. I was at the Chesty Chola yesterday. I go there sometimes. Then I got a call that my mom was really sick. She’s in Brooks Haven nursing home. You can check it out. I guess she had a fever. So I raced out of there because she’s really old and I was worried. I didn’t take nobody. I mean, come on. And in broad daylight?”

“So why not let us look around, then?”

“Because I don’t like people in my house. If you want to get a warrant, then be my guest. But I’m not going to let you bully me around in my own house.”

“Have it your way, pal. We’ll be back soon.”

“Fine.”

Donny closed the door and watched out the window as the two cops got into their car and drove away. He leaned against the door and took and took a deep breath. Fuck! Could they get a warrant? On “Criminal Brains” they’d have just kicked down his door. At least, in real life, they had to have some kind of evidence. What if someone saw him? Shit! He began pacing while trying to calm himself down.

“Stay calm. Stay calm.” He stopped and pressed his head against the wall. If they really had anything at all, they’d have arrested him by now. No way would be they let him go with a girl missing. They were either trying to find something to get him on, or to rile him up, so he’d screw up like on “Criminal Brains”. There they always go on TV and taunt the killer or go to his house and harass him. Every time they get pissed and do something stupid. Not Donny Spanks. He’s seen the shows; he knew how they worked. He’d just sit back with his new, beautiful love and play it cool.

Chapter 15

“You think he’s telling the truth?” Claudia asked.

“Hell no,” Rich replied. “He’s hiding something for sure.”

“He’s kind of a dorky guy. He looks like a kid could kick his ass.”

“Yeah, I don’t let looks fool me. I’ve been doing this long enough. I’ve seen some pretty weak looking people do some awful things.”

They got into the car, and Rich put it in drive and took off. They stopped at a little café for lunch. Claudia was glad. She’d missed breakfast and was starving. They got inside where she ordered a bacon omelet and orange juice.

“Isn’t it kind of late for breakfast?” Rich asked.

“It’s never too late for breakfast.”

“That thing is huge. What do you weigh? One-twenty?”

“None of your fucking business,” she said with a mouthful of egg.

“Fine, whatever.” He put his hands up.

“So what do you make of this Donny guy? You think he’s our guy?”

“I think he knows something. I think there is something he’s not telling us and that he doesn’t want us to know.”

“Yeah, I think you’re right. Did you smell his house? It smelled weird. Like chemicals or some shit.”

“I smelled it too, but I have no idea what it was.”

“Were you bluffing about the warrant?”

“Sadly yes. I was hoping that would scare him into letting us search his house. Usually, a little shithead like that will fold, but this guy, at least, has bigger balls than he looks.”

“I don’t want to see his fucking balls,” Claudia said. “I’ll leave that to you.”

Rich gave her the finger as he took a bite out of his sandwich.

The door behind them swung open. Claudia couldn’t see them, but two men in large jackets came into the café, swinging the doors open hard, knocking over a hostess who had walked by. Claudia turned to see one of them taking out a shotgun. The other had a small handgun.

“Everyone on the fucking ground! Now!” The tall one screamed. They both had hoods on, but one spoke with a Latino accent.

“You gotta be fucking kidding me,” Rich said. Claudia looked at him as he nodded slowly. “Don’t move. Just sit tight.”

“I said on the floor now!” The tall man yelled again while the other walked up and down the rows waving his pistol in people’s faces making sure they were on the ground.

“Let’s get on the ground,” Rich said. “Don’t draw any attention to ourselves.”

“Shouldn’t we do something?”

“Only if it’s safe. If it’s just a robbery, then let them do their thing and get out of here. No point in getting people killed.”

The man with the pistol walked by them while the man with the shotgun had the hostess empty the register into a trash bag.

“Now your wallets! My partner is going to pass this bag around, and all of you are going to put your wallet inside. Do it!”

The man was coming back around when a gunshot went off.

“Fuck!” Rich said as he peeked out from under the table. A middle-aged man standing in the middle of the restaurant with a semi-automatic handgun. The guy was emptying his magazine in the direction of the shotgun guy. One round had grazed him, but shotgun guy had ducked down behind the counter. Pistol guy returned fire from a few feet behind the civilian, hitting him in the back of the head. Blood sprayed as chunks of skull and brains landed in someone’s soup nearby.

“Fuck this,” Claudia said as she stood while drawing her sidearm. Rich stood as well.

“I got shotgun, you get pistol,” Claudia said as Rich nodded.

Rich shot and hit the pistol guy square in the back and ran around the tables to cover him. Shotgun guy stood but instead of returning fire, he grabbed the hostess and pressed the shotgun to her cheek.

“I’ll blow her fucking brains out!”

Claudia circled as he tried to back toward the door. Rich’s guy was still moving so he had to keep him covered. He did reach down and cuff the guy as he lay on his stomach bleeding from the wound in his back. Rich took out his phone and called the shooting in. It would still take several minutes for backup to arrive.

“You think I’m fucking with you? Drop your fucking gun now! I’ll fucking kill her!”

Claudia looked up and down for a clear shot. She had been on the top of her class on the range in the academy. This was a moving target, though, much different than shooting a paper bullseye.  She aimed in to make sure she had her shot, took a deep breath and slowly squeezed the trigger. The shot rang out, causing the gun to jump in her hands. The round hit shotgun guy in the side of the neck, dropping him instantly.

The hostess screamed and ran out the door as Claudia kept her gun trained on the suspect as she ran up to him. The man lay on the ground holding his neck as blood gushed from the wound. She kicked the shotgun away while watching him thrash and gurgle for a few seconds before he went still.

“Jesus Christ, Claudia,” Rich said as he ran up behind her. “You fucking wasted him. He had that gun right to her head.”

“I know. I wasn’t going to let him hurt her.” She looked around as sirens wailed in the distance. “Is anyone else hurt?” She asked. People were sobbing and screaming. She noticed for the first time the dead civilian lying a few feet away with half his head blown off. “We need all of you to step carefully outside, please. Follow me!”

One by one the customers walked outside, careful not to step on the dead man lying at the front of the restaurant. One older man stepped in the gunman’s blood and slipped and fell onto his back. Several others helped him up as he began crying and shaking as he looked at the dead man’s blood on his hands and arms. Claudia felt bad for the man, but also worried about her crime scene. It was a clean shooting, however; she was confident in that. The only thing she might catch hell for is shooting with the victim so close by, but no way was she going to let that psycho out the door.

As police arrived several ambulances pulled in. Medics came in to tend to the gunman Rich had shot who was still alive. Claudia went out along the curb and sat down as uniformed officers came in, and Rich controlled the crime scene. Finally, he came over to check on her.

“You doing ok?” he asked.

“I think so. This is my first shooting.”

“It was a good shoot. Gutsy, but you did good. Just remind me never to piss you off.”

Chapter 16

Sonny Cortez dialed Christina’s number again. Still no answer. Where the fuck was that cunt? She had twenty pounds of heroin in her car that should have been dropped off hours ago. He had been calling nonstop and was furious. The guy had paid almost $2 million for the shipment. Christina had been delivering for him for a few years now and had always been reliable. Her job as a gas station clerk made it easy. All she did was drove to work in one car and dropped it off in another. Except she wasn’t at the gas station. He drove by there, and she was gone, and the owner had had her car impounded.

Hopefully, the cops wouldn’t search her car. The owner figured she took off with a boyfriend or something. In all the years Sonny had been working with her, she had never pulled anything shady. He wondered if one of his competitors had gotten to her. Whatever it was, he was going to get to the bottom of it. There was a knock on the door just before it opened.

“Come in!” Sonny called out.

The tall man wearing a cowboy hat and leather duster came into the room. It was Gus Miller. Gus was an old school enforcer who had been working freelance all along the southwest. Sonny had never used him, but he’d come highly recommended. Rumor had it he could find anyone, anywhere. Except he’d had no idea the guy dressed like Wyatt Earp.

“Is this a joke?” Sonny asked.

“Excuse me?”

“Your outfit. Is that a fucking joke? You headed to the rodeo, or is it dollar drink night at Cowboy’s Dance Hall tonight?”

“You know, I don’t like my time wasted,” the bearded man said. “So if you have a job for me, I highly recommend you get to it.”

“Whatever, cowboy,” Sonny said before explaining his situation with Christina.

“You think the cops got her? Did she turn snitch? Witness protection?”

“I doubt that. If the cops got her they’d have searched the car already. The gas station owner had her car impounded. So first thing I guess would be to hit the impound yard and see if the dope is still there. If it is then I really don’t care if we find her.”

“All right. What’s the pay?”

“Forty-thousand now and then fifty more when you find her or the dope.”

Gus laughed as he took off his hat and rubbed his hair and put it back on.

“Something funny?”

“You want me to find almost $2 million in heroin, and do a hit on your shitty ass mule, for ninety-thousand? I don’t think so. One hundred for the hit, and twenty-five percent of the find.”

“Are you out of your fucking mind?” Sonny said. “You must be high on fucking heroin.”

“All right,” Gus stood and headed for the door.

“Where you going?”

“Told you I don’t like my time wasted.”

“Ok hang on. How about fifteen percent?”

“Twenty-five.”

“Eighteen.”

“Twenty-five. I wonder how much your buyer will pay for the job on you if you don’t find it,” Gus said.

Sonny felt a knot in his gut. The asshole was right. His buyer was not one to be fucked with. He’d heard stories of shit he’d done to people who’d screwed him over. Rumor had it he tied one guy to the back of a pickup truck while he was alive and dragged him along the road before cutting him loose.

“All right, all right. Twenty-five. But that is for both the girl and the dope.”

“You want her alive.”

“Fuck no. Just waste her ass and send me a picture of her body.”

“I can do that. You want a body part or something?”

“What?”

“You know, a body part. A finger or an arm or something. Some jobs they ask for that as proof. One guy wanted the guy’s head.”

“Jesus. Are you fucking sick?”

Gus shrugged.

“Makes no difference to me. Just asking.”

“No, you can keep her fucking head or arms or whatever.”

“Hey, just makin’ sure. You need anything else?”

“No, just keep me posted.”

“You got it.” Gus stood and walked out. Sonny sat there staring at the door after he left. The guy was goofy as fuck. Sonny wasn’t convinced this cowboy clown could do what was advertised but at the moment he didn’t have much choice. He wondered if one of his rivals had found out about Christiana and grabbed her and the drugs. If only he knew it was in the car he’d feel much better. His phone rang again. It was the buyer. He’d been ignoring the calls but needed to take it.

“Yeah.”

“Why the fuck have you been ignoring me? Where is my stuff?”

“Sorry. There’s been a situation.”

“What kind of situation?”

“Hard to explain, but I have someone on it. Don’t worry. You’ll get your product.”

“I know I will. Or I’ll have your head. Literally. You get me?”

“Yes, I get you.”

“You have until the end of the week,” the buyer said before hanging up. Fuck. This cowboy had better do what he says. If anything, Sonny would make sure he took his head before the buyer got his own. The other option would be to leave town if it didn’t look like the guy would come through. He had plenty of money stashed away. The key would be slipping out before anyone noticed he was gone.

He reached into his desk and took out a bottle of Patron and poured it into his coffee cup. In the other drawer, he took out a bottle of Pepto Bismol and poured it into the same mug. Using a spoon, he stirred it before taking a drink. The mix burned his throat as it went down. While it sounded disgusting, it soothed his stomach. He took a few more sips, sat back, and let it sink in as the Patron went right to his head. Hopefully, Gus would have results for him soon.

Chapter 17

Gus pulled up just down the street from the impound lot. This was a privately owned lot which doubled as a salvage yard. He’d waited until it was late at night to make the trip. He thought of going and asking if he could look in the car, but sometimes people at these lots were assholes. He’d since ditched the duster, but still wore his hat, boots, and a work shirt.

He parked the pickup truck and locked the door as he headed to the lot. Gus approached from the side carrying his bolt cutters, with his bowie knife strapped to his leg. If there were any trouble, he’d drop both and run back to the truck. At best he was looking at a low-level felony, maybe misdemeanor for property damage. That’s if he got caught. The lot was pretty far south of town, however, not likely cops would be just hanging around.

Once at the fence, he knelt down and used the bolt cutters to cut a hole large enough for himself to crawl through. He made it into the lot easily enough and headed toward the rows of cars. He pulled his phone out to look at the picture once again. It had just come in, so it should be near the front of the lot. Making his way there, he was sure to stick to the edges of the cars and in the shadows. There were some lights set up sporadically, but spread enough out for him to remain in the darkness.

The front of the lot had a few new cars lined up. New as in new arrivals, far from new vehicles. Most of them had been in recent accidents. There on the end was Christina’s car. He walked over to it, pulled out the knife and used it to jimmy the trunk open. It was empty. He walked around and popped one of the doors open and fished around inside while looking under each of the seats, the glove box, and even under the car itself. No sign of any heroin in or around the car. The girl either took off with it, or someone got her and got the dope. Whatever it was, his work was done there.

The following morning, Gus headed into the Smarty Mart and asked around for the manager. The girl at the counter said he would be in around noon. It was just after ten, so Gus headed down the street and had tacos for breakfast, along with a beer. By the time he was done it was close to noon, so he pulled back up to the Smarty Mart. After waiting almost twenty minutes, a white Escalade pulled up, and an older man jumped out. He wasn’t sure who drove white Escalades or why, but the guy parked behind the station and rushed toward the store.

Gus got out and followed him inside. Once inside, the man headed toward the back to an office. Gus managed to catch him before he disappeared.

“Excuse me, you’re the owner?”

“Yeah, that’s me. I’m Dave Henry. You need something, cowboy?”

“Sorry to bother you. My employer had a close friend working here the other night, and she seems to have taken off.”

“Christina. That little bitch. She’s lucky someone didn’t rob the whole store blind with her taking off mid-shift like that.”

“Yeah. I can imagine. So my employer has hired me to try and locate her. She had some property of his that was quite valuable.”

“Oh really? Like what?”

“Private property. Would there be any way I could watch your security tapes? Maybe get an idea what may have happened to her? Would only take a minute.”

“I don’t know. What’s in it for me?”

“I’ll give you Five-hundred dollars right now.”

“Five-five hundred? Is that a joke?”

Gus pulled his shirt aside exposing the bowie knife.

“Yep. The punchline is the part where I cut your throat and let you bleed out here in the middle of your own store.”

“Jesus Christ. Fine, step in the office.”

He turned the key as they stepped into the small office. Dave opened his desk drawer and began fishing for something. Gus pulled out the large knife and slammed it into the drawer barely an inch from his hand which was resting on a gun.

“You really want to get cut, don’t you? I’m not fucking robbing you. I just want to see your footage from that night.” Gus picked up the small automatic handgun, dropped the magazine out and ejected the round before placing the gun back onto the table. “Now, play.”

Dave fumbled around with his laptop until he had something up.

“Here it is, not the best quality. I haven’t even watched it myself.”

Gus watched as Christina talked to some weird looking guy inside the store and followed him outside. She got to the pump and the little guy struck her and began shoving her into his trunk. The man then walked out of camera view and came back to his car carrying a large trash bag. The heroin. That little fucker.

“I need you to blow up the part with his face and print it.”

“I’m not sure I...”

“Do it!”

Dave fumbled around with some keys before printing out the photo. He handed it to Gus.

“Should I call the cops? Since she was kidnapped after all?”

“No cops. I’ll take care of this.”

“She could be in danger.”

“You could be in danger.”

Gus folded the photo and headed out to his truck. Once inside he took a picture of the photo with his phone and sent it to a friend. He had an old Army buddy who owed him a favor. Once the picture was sent, he dialed the man’s number.

“Hey, Tiny. It’s Gus.” Tiny wasn’t the guy’s real name of course. He was huge, but had a squeaky voice, so everyone in their unit had called him Tiny. After getting wounded in Iraq, he took a job with the Pentagon. Occasionally he could look something up for Gus.

“Yeah, the picture come through? Good. I need you to run him through facial recognition. I need a name and last known address plus anything else you might have. The sooner, the better. Thanks, bud.” Gus hung up and called Sonny.

“Hey boss, it’s me. The cat has found the mouse. Setting the trap soon.”

Chapter 18

Donny got his Candi dressed and brushed her hair. It was hard since her head kept wanting to flop forward, but he managed to make it look nice. Her bath had taken much longer than he’d hoped. It took forever to get the blood out of her hair. He didn’t have any decent clothes for her. He’d used some of Christina’s clothes along with the other girls. He did take her measurements and decided it was time to take her shopping.

Picking her up in his arms, he carried her to the car and strapped her into the passenger seat. He placed a pair of sunglasses over her lifeless eyes and got into the car. Once he arrived at the store, he decided it might be best to leave her in the car. He ran in and did some looking around. He picked up some nice underwear and a flowery summer dress he thought she’d look nice in. On Criminal Brains, she often wore suit type clothes or jeans, but those would be trickier to get fitted.

He brought the clothes back to the car and placed them in the backseat.

“All right sweetheart. I think you’ll like what I got for you. You want some ice cream? I know a good place.”

He started the car and drove to a nearby Sonic. Puling in he pushed the button on the intercom and ordered a large milkshake. When the girl came out, she didn’t pay Candi any notice. He got the shake and sipped at it.

“Would you like some? It’s really good.” He held it to her mouth and squeezed the straw between her lips. After a second he took it back and took another sip.

“See? Good, isn’t it? I can’t wait for you to try on your new clothes. You’ll look beautiful. Not that you don’t already. I mean you already are beautiful.”

Once he finished the shake, he threw the cup away and pulled out of the drive. As he headed home, a police car behind him activated its lights. Donny tried not to freak out as he pulled over. Looking in his rearview mirror, he took several deep breaths. The officer approached as Donny rolled the window down.

“Good afternoon sir. You know why I stopped you?”

“Uh, no sir.”

“You ran a red light back there. License and registration please?”

“Ok. One second.” Donny leaned over and dug through the glove box.

“How are you today ma’am?”

“Excuse me?” Donny asked.

“Your lady friend. I just asked how she was doing.”

“Oh. She’s not feeling well, so I’m taking her home. She fell asleep earlier. Migraines I guess.”

“Oh right. My wife gets those. They can be real bitches.”

“Yes, sir. Here you go.” Donny said as he handed the officer his paperwork. The officer returned to his car as Donny swallowed hard while watching in his rearview mirror. It felt like hours before the officer returned with the ticket. Donny signed it, and the officer sent him on his way. Once he was back on the road, he felt as if he’d been holding his breath during the entire traffic stop. His breathing sped up as sweat dripped down his forehead. Finally, he was home and pulled into the garage.

He carried Candi inside and laid her on the bed. Once she was in place, he went and got the clothes out of the car. As he was dressing her, he noticed her left arm was tearing loose.

“Oh no!” he said as he tried to fix it, but the more he messed with it the looser it became until the stitches tore completely through the decaying skin as the arm fell off. He ran and got his sewing kit and tried to reattach it, but the skin just kept rotting away. He threw the kit across the room in frustration as he paced around trying to catch his breath. His love, his beautiful, perfect love carefully constructed with his bare hands was literally falling apart. Why?

He ran into the garage and got into the car and headed back out. She needed to be fixed immediately. He headed to the south side of town near one of the underpasses. It was getting dark finally, and he could move around a bit more easily. He didn’t care what it took; he would fix his beautiful Candi and make her whole again.

He reached the underpass where several homeless people were lying around. There was one woman who was pushing a cart filled with soda cans. He pulled up and got out of the car.

“Hi ma’am, excuse me. Do you need help? You need some money?”

“Money?”

“Yes. I have some money for you. Could you come over here for a second?”

As the woman came closer, he could see she was much older than he’d hoped, but he could, at least, use her arm until he found someone younger. He didn’t have time to look too long for another girl and didn’t think it a good idea to go back to the Chesty Chola for a while. Once she was closer, he grabbed her and threw her into the back seat. She tried to fight but was weak and a little frail. Once she was in the back seat, he got back in the car and stepped on the gas.

Upon arriving at the house, he pulled into the garage and tried to pull the woman out. The woman had screamed the whole way home which had almost caused him to crash the car. He’d closed his eyes at one point trying to drown her out with his thoughts, and veered into another lane almost hitting a semi. Fortunately, he got the car back under control and made it home with no incident. She kicked and struggled as he pulled her out, and he had to punch her in the face a few times to take some of the fight out of her. Even that didn’t calm her down; she just kept screaming.

He finally got her out of the car, but she kneed him in the nuts and went running for the side door. Grabbing a shovel off the hook on the wall, he ran after her and swung the shovel like a baseball bat, bashing in the side of her head. Her lifeless body collapsed to the floor as stood over her. He hadn’t meant to kill her so he’d need to act fast. He picked her up and carried her inside to his lab and went to work.

Chapter 19

Claudia sat in her captain’s office while he read her report. She’d already explained the shooting to him several times as well as to two different detectives. The media was all over the café. The captain had to bring Claudia back in an unmarked SUV so she wouldn’t get mobbed by the press. Some people on the scene were angry she’d taken the shot so close to the hostage. It was a dangerous move, but that situation had had no good ending in sight. She was confident in her marksmanship and went with her gut, and it had worked.

“I still can’t believe you took that shot,” Captain Villareal said. “What if you’d hit the hostage?”

“But I didn’t.”

“What if you had, though?”

“I knew I wouldn’t.”

“How did you know you wouldn’t?”

“Because I’m a good fucking shot. Why are you grilling me like this? Rich shot a guy last year. Did he get this kind of full court press?” She was trying to be careful not to lose her temper with her captain, but he was making it difficult. There was already enough attention drawn to her as it was, no need to make worse.

“No. But his guy was pointing a gun at him in an empty street with no bystanders or hostages.” He was leaning on his desk with his arms crossed.

“Whatever. It’ll be up to the grand jury and review board anyway.”

“You’re right. It will. The shoot itself was clean. The guy had a gun and a hostage. It was also a reckless shoot. So just a heads up. For the time being you’re on administrative leave.”

Shit. She’d forgotten about being put on leave after a shooting. Right in the middle of this investigation.

“What about the case I’m working? The missing girls?”

“The strippers? Yeah, Rich can handle it.” He sat down at his desk and began shuffling papers.

“I know he can. I’m his partner. We have a suspect. We need to get him before he takes another girl.”

“Like I said. Rich can handle it. Is there anything else?” he said without looking up.

She got up and walked out of the office. Rich tried to talk to her as she stormed past his desk.

“Hey! What’s wrong?” he called out as he followed her.

“Captain shithead just giving me a bunch of hell over the shooting. Plus, I’m on leave during the investigation.”

“Yeah, that’s standard. The leave part. And him being a shithead.”

“Well, it sucks. I know that Donny guy is behind these disappearances. Fucking weirdo.”

“I think you’re right. And we’ll get him. It will be ok.”

She shook her head.

“I just wanted this to be my first big bust.”

“You just shot a fucking guy in the head from twenty feet away while he was holding a hostage. I mean that is some serious ninja shit. Forget the captain. The chief will probably give you a medal once all the details come out. That civilian opened fire and got himself killed. You kept it from turning into a bloodbath.”

“You think so?”

“Hell yeah, I do. Go home and get some rest. I’ll follow up with Mr. Spanks.”

“What kind of stupid ass last name is that?”

“You pretty much said it.”

“Ok. Later.” She walked to her car and started the engine. She felt a little better after talking to Rich. Hopefully, he was right, except for the medal. She didn’t care about a medal though it would be better than getting fired. As she drove home, something was bothering her. She wished they had tried harder to get a look inside Donny’s place. Part of her thought she should drive by his house and see what he was up to.

It would be a terrible idea and would only get her into more trouble. But what if he was planning on grabbing another girl? The thought made her sick to her stomach. Who cared if the girls were strippers? They still had families, parents, and maybe even children. They had as much right to be protected as anyone else.

She turned off and headed toward Donny’s house. It wouldn’t hurt anything for her to stop by and just watch to see what he was up to. If he left, she could follow him, and if she saw anything crazy, she’d call it in. No harm in that. She didn’t feel like sitting around her apartment anyway. As she pulled up across the street from Donny Spanks’ house, it was mostly dark with a single light lit. She watched for almost an hour, and there was no movement at all.

The only light went out just before a dark colored pickup truck pulled up and parked behind her.

“Who might this be?”

She couldn’t see who was in the truck other than the outline of a cowboy hat. Whoever it was they also sat there for a long time. Finally, the door to the truck opened, and the man stepped out. He was a tall man wearing a leather duster and big cowboy boots. Claudia’s first thought was to get out of there. Something was amiss, and she wasn’t even supposed to be there as it was. Yet, she couldn’t bring herself to leave.

The man reached the curb when Donny’s garage door opened up, and his car pulled out. The man ran back to the truck as Donny pulled onto the street and sped away. The man in the truck did a U-turn and followed him. At first, Claudia thought she should follow, but had another idea, a less hazardous one. She had to see what was inside his house.

Checking to make sure they were gone, she got out of the car and headed across the street. She circled around to the back of the house where there was a sliding glass door. Claudia took out her pocket knife and slid the blade into the lock. She’d done this one other time as a kid when she was locked out of her house. After jiggling it and turning the latch, the lock opened, and she slid the door open and stepped inside.

Chapter 20

Gus looked at the text his guy sent him and looked over the info. Donny Spanks? What the fuck kind of goofy ass name was that? Looking at the guy it seemed fitting. He looked weird on the security footage. His driver’s license photo was even more stupid looking. How could this guy kidnap anyone and not get his ass kicked? Maybe he had some hidden skills that weren’t obvious by looking at him. Not that it mattered. He’d be dead soon enough.

Gus started the truck and headed to the address listed. When he arrived and parked across the street, there was another car sitting across from the house. He had no idea who it was, nor did he care. Donny’s house was a quiet little place sitting in the dark. The yard was filled with trash, and there was a broken screen door hanging off the front. He sat for a little bit and double checked the address. This was it, all right.

Reaching to the floor, he picked up the sawed-off shotgun and placed it under his duster. He climbed out of the truck and headed toward the house. Once he reached the driveway, the garage door rolled up as a car backed out. Gus jumped out of the way as Donny sped down the street. It didn’t look like he’d seen Gus. His attention was focused on something else. Once he drove away, Gus ran back to the truck, hopped inside and turned around to follow.

Donny was driving fast, but Gus didn’t want to tail him too closely. He’d tailed former secret service agents in the past, following this jackhole should be simple enough. They got onto the highway and wound through town onto 410 Loop, following it along the edges of town. Gus had no idea where Donny was going. It felt like they were driving forever. Finally, he pulled off the freeway and toward a park on the southeast part of town.

Gus stayed back with his lights off while he watched Donny get out of the car and walk around. What was this weirdo up to? Donny walked through the park and hid in some bushes. Looking around, Gus noticed a few joggers out. It was getting dark, but some preferred running during the cooler temperatures of the evenings. Over the years, Gus had done his share of stalking targets but had never watched someone do it like this.

One woman jogged past the trail where Donny was hiding. He jumped out, trying to grab her. The girl was a few inches taller than Donny was. She screamed and punched him in the face, then did a roundhouse kick, nailing him on the side of the head and dropping him like a ton of bricks. She ran back the other way screaming as some of the other joggers began looking around. Donny scrambled to his feet and ran back to his car. Gus was trying to suppress his laughter at the spectacle. How had this clown managed to kidnap Christina? Maybe he’d been using the heroin he stole.

They drove back to the highway; Gus thought they might be going home, but this time, they were headed to a strip club called The Chesty Chola. Donny pulled in and got out of the car. Gus waited until he was inside and went in behind him. There was girl at the door who looked like she could pass for fifteen years old, except for the bags under her eyes and the missing teeth. Gus paid the cover and walked into the club.

The sound of 90’s techno pumped through the club. Gus would figure they could, at least, afford some current music. An overweight girl on the stage twerked to “Pour Some Sugar” on me as various girls around the club walked around while some were doing lap dances. He spotted Donny in the far corner talking to one of the dancers. This was one of the more attractive girls. She was smiling and laughing at something he’d said.

“Hey handsome. Would you like a dance?” A girl asked Gus from behind. He turned around and looked her over. She was somewhat cute, but the lights were low, too.

“No, thank you,” he answered.

“You just going to hang out here all night alone?” She looked over at Donny. “Oh, you like Sparkle I see. Maybe when she’s done with him, you can get her next. You’ll love her, but I’m not bad either.”

“I’m sure you’re both wonderful.” Gus got up and moved to another table. He heard her grunt as he stepped away. He wasn’t even trying to be rude; he just needed to stay focused. Gus watched for a few more minutes before Donny stood and headed for a side exit. The girl followed him, and they disappeared outside.

Gus walked back out the main entrance and circled around the building. The girl was getting into Donny’s car when Gus got outside. He went and sat in the truck and watched. In the car, the girl’s head was bobbing up and down in Donny’s lap as Donny leaned back with his eyes closed. Gus thought he could walk over now and take them both out and be done with it. Maybe go back later and trash his house.

He decided to wait it out and try to catch him at home. This part was just entertainment at this point. A big part of him wondered what he did with them? He’d seen him grab Christina, and there was no sign of her. Had he killed her already? Or did he have a pit in his basement? Gus smiled thinking of all the twisted things Donny might have done with her. The guy was a wiry little freak, but he had to have some kind of skills. Except for grabbing joggers.

There was a struggle inside the car, Gus couldn’t make it out other than seeing her face hit the steering wheel a few times before Donny started the car and drove off. Gus followed as they headed toward Donny’s house. Gus was anxious to see what would happen next.

Chapter 21

Claudia stepped inside the filthy house. There were dirty clothes on the floor, empty soup cans, bags of chips as well as God-knows-what-else strewn along the floor. There was a ratty old couch in the living room with a small TV. The worst part was the overpowering smell. Something smelled horrible, and she couldn’t tell what it was. It didn’t look like he had any pets, so no way it could be animal waste. There were fast food wrappers piled up on a chair in the corner and a bowl of rotten cereal on the edge of the couch.

She walked into the kitchen which was even worse than the living room. Dishes were stacked a mile high in the sink. Some of them looked like they had food stuck on them from 2005. She peeked in the fridge, half expecting to find a human head or something, but all that was in there was some stale leftovers and a gallon of milk that was green. How did this guy live like this? Or survive at all for that matter? There were piles of trash next to the garbage can as if he hadn’t taken the trash out in ages.

She moved back through the living room afraid to even look in his bedroom. When she got down the hall, his bedroom door was standing open. His bed consisted of a small mattress with dirty magazines strewn about along with numerous wads of tissue paper. She didn’t need to guess what was in the tissue. There were beer cans lying along the floor and a bong next to the bed. Walking behind the bed and into the bathroom, she saw a huge trash bag balled up in the shower. She leaned in and looked inside the bag.

There she saw dozens of bags of heroin. She had no idea how much, but there was a lot. No idea where or how he got ahold of so much, unless one of the girls he’d grabbed had it. Talk about hitting the jackpot. Then again, if he’d stolen it from someone, it meant someone would be looking for it. Her thoughts flashed back to the big man in the cowboy hat she’d seen earlier. Hopefully, that was just a coincidence. She pushed the thought aside as she balled the bag back up and walked out of the bedroom.

Further down the hallway, there was another room. This one had a sliding lock on the outside of the door. That seemed odd. If any girls were being held here, then it had to be in this room. Her heart raced as it dawned on her what she was about to find. Part of her wondered if she shouldn’t just get out now. This entire search was illegal anyway. Nothing she found could be used. Maybe she could call in an anonymous tip later.

Without dwelling on it, she undid the latch and slowly pushed the door open. The awful smell intensified as she stepped inside; it was so bad, her eyes began to water. However, the horrible odor was not enough to prepare her for what she was about to see. Once in the room, she saw two tables covered in blood. Dead women lay on both tables. One was an older woman whose limbs had been removed. There was blood soaked into the walls, table, and floor. Her eyes were frozen in an eternal stare up at the ceiling.

The second woman was clean and nude down to her waist. Claudia put her hand over her mouth at the sight. The second woman was missing her right arm, and there were stitches around her neck, arms, and legs holding them in place. What the fuck was going on? She walked around the tables to find a large trash bin behind them. In the trash bin, there were severed arms and legs and one girl’s torso. An entire human torso. She looked inside and also saw a severed head lying at the bottom, and part of the girl’s face attached to the torso had been removed.

Claudia felt her stomach lurch, and she had to look away. Putting her hand over her mouth, she took some deep breaths so she wouldn’t barf all over the evidence. She had to get out of there, now. She’d call Rich and tell him what she found. He’d figure out a way they could get a warrant and take this guy down. She stepped out of the room and latched the door when she heard a car pulling into the garage. Fuck! He was back already.

She started down the hall but heard the side door opening along with the sound of a woman screaming. Claudia ducked into the bedroom and hid behind the small dresser in the corner. Wasn’t the best spot, but she hoped he’d be distracted. Donny walked past, dragging a girl by the hair. The girl was dressed like a stripper, likely from the Chesty Chola again. He unlocked the door to his secret room and dragged the girl inside, closing the door. The screams intensified once the woman had seen the carnage in the room.

Claudia wished more than ever she’d had a firearm with her. They’d taken her department-issued gun, but she still had a personal firearm. Since she hadn’t been expecting to come here, she hadn’t bothered to bring it. Bad idea. Best she could do now was get the hell out of there. The thought of leaving the girl with this psychopath made her sick. But she had no way to stop him right now. Or did she?

She quietly stepped out of the bedroom and headed for the kitchen. Looking around, she saw a stack of knives on the counter. All of them were rusty and dull. She slipped into the garage and looked until she found a chainsaw on one of the tables. She picked it up and held it in her hands. It had a good feel to it, was just heavy enough to have some heft, but not so heavy she couldn’t handle it. It was clean and had a new chain on it. No telling what he used it for, and she didn’t want to think about it.

She picked it up and stepped inside, making her way back to the bedroom. Walking through the kitchen, she passed through the living room when the front door burst open. Standing in the doorway was the huge man in the cowboy hat. He was holding a shotgun and pointing it right at Claudia.

Chapter 22

Donny was having trouble with the stripper. She’d woken up on the drive home and immediately began screaming. At one point she tried to open the door and jump out of the moving car; he was, at least, able to stop that much. The girl kicked, scratched and clawed the rest of the way, though. The screaming was maddening. Donny thought for a minute that he would open the door and jump out. It reached a point he thought for sure he would completely lose his mind, but he managed to hold it together. Once he got her home, she fought and screamed as he dragged her inside. Once in the lab, she really went nuts when she saw Candi and the other woman’s body.

Attaching the homeless woman’s arm hadn’t gone so well. The arm was too short for one; second thing was the skin on the homeless lady’s arm kept tearing as he tried to suture it into place. The woman’s flesh and whole arm were thin and pasty. There were needle tracks up and down the arm which bothered him. Candi Murphy would never do drugs. Even though he used heroin to drug the girls before working on them, that was for medical use.

The endless screaming made Donny want to kill her now and shut her up. He was trying to move the homeless woman off the table while keeping one hand on the stripper’s wrist. He ended up just pushing the woman’s body to the floor where it lifelessly flopped with a dull thud. Donny clenched his fist, ready to punch the girl out for good when he heard the crash toward the front of the house. It sounded like the whole front of his house was being caved in.

He went for the door to see what was going on when he heard the explosion. It sounded like a shotgun blast, but who would be shooting. And who would they be shooting at in his living room? He stepped away from the door when the stripper got loose and ran for the door herself. Whoever was out there would probably kill her too if she just ran out there screaming. She was hysterical at this point and just running on panic and adrenaline.

She burst out the door, and Donny went after her when the second shotgun blast sounded. The woman screamed and as they arrived at the living room, there was a huge man in a cowboy hat in the doorway holding a shotgun. There was a woman hiding behind the couch that was holding a chainsaw. Donny had no idea who either of these people were, let alone what they were doing in his house.

The stripper ran into the center of the living room, looked at the cowboy hat guy and screamed.

“Please! Help me!” Before he shot her in the upper chest, blowing her head and shoulders off her torso. Her tiny body fell to the ground as blood and tissue peppered the entire room and everyone in it. Donny turned and ran back to the lab, picked up Candi and threw her over his shoulder and ran toward the garage. Cowboy hat guy chased him while the woman stayed in the living room. Donny tossed Candi’s body into the car as he got in and began pulling out of the garage. Cowboy hat man fired two more shots, one shattered the headlight as he backed out. The other hit the hood.

Donny got to the street, turned the car around and headed down the road. In his mirror, he saw the cowboy hat guy was headed back inside the house. Donny stepped on the gas and got onto the freeway. Just before the exit ramp, he stopped at a light. He sat there tapping the steering wheel waiting on the light to change.

“Come on, come on,” he said. A car pulled up behind him closing in on him quickly as he looked in the rearview mirror. It was a blood-soaked woman sitting behind the driver’s seat. The lady cop. What was her name? Gomez or Gonzalez or something? Either way, he had no idea why she’d been in his living room unless she’d broken in. But who was the guy shooting and why? The light turned green before she came to a full stop and he accelerated.

Donny wove his way through traffic, trying to lose her as he got onto the freeway. She caught up to him and pulled up alongside him as he drove. Behind him, a large pickup truck closed in and rammed his bumper. It was cowboy hat. Donny was sure he wasn’t a cop. No cop would be shooting as wildly as he was. The truck rammed him one more time, jolting the whole car and causing him to fishtail. He was able to keep the car under control as he pressed on the gas as fast as it would go, heading to 35 North toward Austin.

He wasn’t sure where he was going but had to try and lose these two. The truck pulled up alongside his left-hand side and began ramming the side of his car. Cowboy hat was trying to force him off the road. Donny tried to hold it, but the truck was too powerful. The cop had dropped behind them as Donny slowed down and headed toward the exit ramp. He hoped the truck would miss the exit, but he managed to follow along.

Donny got off the highway and took a right at the next light, speeding to the next set of streets into a residential neighborhood. It was just after 5 a.m. and morning traffic was just starting to ramp up. He drove up and down the streets, turning the wrong way onto a one-way street and having to dodge oncoming cars. He hoped cowboy hat wouldn’t follow him, but both he and the cop woman were still behind. Donny only looked back for a split second, when he looked back forward there was a car just a dozen feet ahead. Donny jerked the wheel to his right causing the car to pitch into someone’s yard, mowing down a fence and crashing into the side of the house. He grabbed Candi and got out just as the front door of the house swung open.

Chapter 23

Claudia ducked behind the couch as the second shotgun blast sprayed across the walls and showered around her. The man’s footsteps came around the side of the couch. She started to fire up the chainsaw hoping she could get it started. It was her only prayer from having her head blown off in a few seconds.

Before he came around to face her, the woman Donny had hostage came running out of the room. The cowboy hat guy immediately blew her head off, literally. He shot her with the shotgun from inches away. Blood, brains, and bones sprayed all over the walls and into Claudia. Some pieces of brain and skull got into her mouth as she screamed. She couldn’t spit it out fast enough, and she tried not to throw up. Blood and tissue ran down her chin as cowboy hat took off after Donny.

Before they remembered she was there, she grabbed the chainsaw and ran out the sliding door, around the back side of the house and to her car. As she got outside, cowboy hat was walking in the garage carrying a big trash bag filled with who-knows-what. She got in her car and took off seeing Donny’s car almost a quarter mile ahead. She caught up to him on the access road and followed him onto the freeway.

As they drove, she took out her phone to call the only person she could at the moment.

“Rich! I need your help!”

“What’s going on?” he sounded half asleep as anyone would at almost 5 a.m.

“I’m in a bit of a situation.” She gave him the cliff notes version of everything that had happened so far.

“What? Are you out of your fucking mind?”

“Look! I got him now; he’s got a fucking dead girl in his fucking car right now! Are you coming or what?”

“Who is the guy with the shotgun?”

“I have no fucking clue!” she said. “He blew some stripper’s head right off. I got parts of her head stuck in my hair for fuck’s sake. Please!”

“All right all right. Text me your location.”

She pulled up the map app on her phone and texted him the current location. No telling where they’d end up. Donny’s car suddenly swerved into her direction. Claudia managed to avoid him as she looked back to see cowboy hat in his pickup ramming Donny’s bumper. He was trying to run Donny clear off the road. Donny sped up and began to pull away before heading off the freeway. She fell back behind Donny and cowboy hat’s truck. They wound around the side streets until Donny crashed his car into someone’s house, after plowing over a fence.

Donny got out of the car as the front door swung open. Cowboy hat pulled in behind him. The homeowner was wearing a wife beater and boxers and holding a handgun. He didn’t get the chance to get the shot off before cowboy hat blasted him in the chest with the shotgun. He pumped another round as a woman came running out of the house and he blasted her as well, hitting her in the neck and side of the face. She grabbed her throat and fell to the ground, kicking and gurgling.

Claudia struggled with the chainsaw as she got out of the car and pulled it free. She gave the cord a single pull, and it roared to life. Cowboy hat, who had been previously unaware of her, spun around, his eyes wide. Claudia charged him with the chainsaw before he could chamber another round. He held up the shotgun, blocking the saw from hitting his face. Sparks flew as the saw teeth ground against the steel barrel.

She took a step back and came at him again, this time, lower, going for his legs, He swung the gun around batting against the saw blade. For the next several minutes, they dueled like two gladiators except one had a shotgun he was using as a staff and the other the chainsaw. He took a swing at her with the butt of the gun, catching her in the side of the face. She almost dropped the saw at the blow, and her eyes watered. The blow was hard enough to stagger her. He swung again, but this time she ducked out of the way.

As the fight wore on, the saw got heavier, making it harder to lift and swing each time. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Donny watching the spectacle before he took off running. She didn’t want to lose him but was in the fight of her life. Cowboy had taken another swing, catching her on the other side of the face. This one knocked her to the ground. She let the saw drop to her side as she landed on her stomach. She closed her eyes, waiting for him to shoot her in the back of the head. The saw lay next to her idling with a low rumble. No blast came as he fumbled with the gun. She rolled onto her back as he pumped the gun again, pointed it at her face and pulled the trigger only to hear the empty click! For a split second, she closed her eyes and expected everything to go black very soon. When she heard the click, she knew she was still in the fight.

She took a deep breath, knowing she should be dead at that very moment. He bent down as he reared back with the shotgun like it were a baseball bat, fully intending to cave her head in with the next blow. Just as he swung forward, she grabbed the saw and squeezed the throttle as she thrust it into his chest. His eyes went wide as he dropped the gun while trying to scream. She had just sawed through his lungs, so no noise came out of his wide open mouth. Claudia screamed as she pushed the saw upward, cutting his whole upper torso in half before splitting his head in two.

She stood and looked down at herself. Her clothes were so soaked in blood you couldn’t even tell what color they had previously been. Her face was streaked with blood, as were her hands and arms. Looking around, she saw there was a crowd of bystanders now watching in horror. Sirens wailed in the distance as they drew closer.

“I’m a police officer!” she called out to the crowd. They just stood looking at her, horrified. “The man who was in that car!” She pointed at Donny’s car. “He is a serial killer! Where is he?”

No one spoke or moved until finally one woman in front of her stepped aside and pointed behind one of the houses. She picked up the saw and headed that way. The crowd moved aside as she took off at a dead run, holding the saw at the ready in search of Donny.

Chapter 24

Rich raced to the location Claudia had texted him, but by the time he was almost there a dozen police cars were headed the same direction. He had no doubt it was because of her. Turning on his radio, he heard the call go out of a shooting at a man’s house, a dead body in a car and a woman with a chainsaw. What in the actual fuck, Claudia?

His red dash light rotated around as he hung back just behind the marked units, following them off the freeway and toward the residential neighborhood. When they arrived, Rich got out of the car, drawing his gun as he ran up to the scene. It looked like something out of a Tarantino film. A car was wrecked into the side of the house. A dead woman was hanging halfway out of the driver’s seat, but her head was dangling from her neck by a thread. Like literally dangling by a set of threads from where it had been stitched on but was now coming undone.

Next to the car, near the front of the house, were a dead man and woman soaked in blood, lying next to each other. In the front yard was a man wearing a big leather duster lying next to a cowboy hat. He had been sawed almost completely in half. Rich looked around as a patrol officer was putting up crime scene tape around the yard. Neither Claudia nor Donny was anywhere in site. Shit.

He walked over to a few bystanders looking on.

“Did you see what happened? Or if there was anyone else here?” he asked.

“Yeah, some skinny guy was running from the lady with the chainsaw. They went that way.” The man pointed behind some houses across the street. Rich took off in that direction hoping to catch up before anyone else got killed. He picked up his pace until he heard the revving of the chainsaw. More sirens sounded as additional units approached. Just ahead he saw Claudia running with Donny Spanks about a dozen feet ahead of her.

*                                          *                                   *                                   *

Claudia ran as hard as she could as the sirens grew louder and louder. They’d jumped several fences into and out of yards. Donny was a little guy, but he was fast and had stamina. Her lungs burned as she lugged the saw with her, trying to close the gap between Donny and herself. In front of the houses, she saw several police cars screech to a halt. She wished Donny would just give up already. There was a helicopter circling overhead and even a news helicopter flying nearby. The guy had nowhere to go.

They ran for almost another half block before Donny veered to his left, headed right for a wave of police cars. By this point, she was barely ten feet behind him. She turned following as they made it to the front of the house; there were several officers getting out of their cars with their guns drawn.

“Help!” Donny yelled. “She’s trying to kill me!”

Oh fuck, was Claudia’s final thought before the police who only saw an unarmed man running away from a woman in plainclothes with a chainsaw opened fire. She never felt a thing as dozens of rounds pierced her chest. The third round to hit her went through her heart, ending her life instantly. All the while, Donny kept on running.

Chapter 25

Hollywood, California. Three months later

Donny Spanks sat outside the coffee shop in his rental car watching, waiting on her to walk out. He had his camera in his lap ready to snap any pictures of Candi Murphy that he could. Thinking back, he still couldn’t believe he’d escaped that day. When he’d come around the corner of the house and seen the police, he’d thrown his hands in the air and screamed for help while he kept running. They’d seen their own officer as the immediate threat and opened fire on her.

He’d kept running across the street and ducked into a vacant home. With all the commotion of the shooting and then realizing they had an officer down, he’d been able to catch a cab to the airport and buy a ticket to Los Angeles immediately. By the time the police figured out who they were looking for, or why, he was long gone. He’d bought some fake I.D. cards and changed his name frequently as well as dyed his hair and grew a beard. So far, no one out here noticed or cared if he was wanted by police.

So now he spent his days watching his love, his real Candi Murphy in the flesh. No more cheap imitations. Under the guise of a paparazzi, he drove around with his camera, snapping photos of her every chance he got. He was also planning. He knew where she lived, knew the layout of her home. It was easy enough to get a copy of the blueprints from the county building commissioner. He’d continue to watch until the time was right. Soon, she would be his.

About the Author

Tim began writing at a very young age. Even in grade school he'd sit around with his notebook, writing stories for himself and his friends.

As an adult, Tim's writings have evolved into darker realms. He released his first horror novel, "The Hand of God" in 2011. Since then his books have become progressively more violent and gory. With the release of "Family Night" in 2013, Tim had moved into the world of extreme horror where he continues to push the boundaries of human suffering.

Tim is now an international best seller as well. His book, "Hell, Texas" has recently ranked high on Amazon sales charts since its release in Germany under German publisher, Festa-Verlag.

Tim is very active on social media and loves interacting with his readers. You can find him at his website at http://timmiller.org

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Also by Tim Miller

Psychoville

Dollhouse

Curse of the Gut Ripper

Hell, Texas

Family Night

My Brother’s Keeper

Fertile Fields