- Tom -

A crunch came from the impact of the metal pole against his shins. He screamed behind the gag as the pain rippled up his leg and pulsed through his whole body.

“Oo, that one sounded good” A tall man that held the bat said as he moved to the side to look at his handy work “Shattered”

“What’s left to break? Ribs?” A girl sat on a small chair opposite from the tied up man. She wore a thin veil of white, but she wasn’t old enough to know the significance.

“How many fingers we have left. Two? Let’s get those first” a shorter stout man stood to her left. Brothers and sister all intertwined in a sadistic theater of torture and pleasure.

“This one lasted a lot longer than the others. Surprised me, still awake and breathing after all that? We didn’t even need to use the smelling salt or anything. A strong one.” The man sat the bat down and tore the blind fold off the tied up man. Both eyes were purple, bruised and small flecks of light refracted off bulging flesh. “Maybe we take his eyes”

With that the man in the chair seemed to chuckled. Laugh? Behind his gag. His whole body convulsed and spit ran down his chin as his teeth shone and lungs worked.

The tall man back up “What’s so funny?” He picked up the sheers.

“Cut him up Shane” the girl smiled “Take his eyes, then his tongue”

The man let out a howl of laughter. Blood leaked from all contusions and bloody stumps where toes and fingers used to be.

The shorter brother walked up and smacked him so hard that he rocked back and forth, but the laughter grew even louder. The girl stood up.

“Make him stop, no one laughs at us, even if they are half crazed”

Shane moved to place another finger between the blades, but as he did the mans hand seemly un bothered by missing fingers and shackles reach around and plowed into the side of Shanes neck. The girl and the younger brother backed up immediately as the man slithered out of his bonds, his bloody stumps of hands slashing, slicing and piecing Shane as he screamed trying to fend him off with the sheers to no avail. Tendrils of black whisped off the mans back and his body and limbs turned more beast then man. Claws, serrated and thick burst through flesh and started to rip Shane open. Blood, screams and meat sprayed out form under the beast who was the man.

“Jim do something, do something!” The girl screamed her eyes wide unable to pull away from the massacre of her brother.

Jim stepped forward, but in a flash he slipped and fell to the ground. He tried to stand again, but both his legs had been cut clean at the knees. He reached for his phantom limbs and screamed as the man stood up from Shanes now desecrated body.

“Damn, that was a little messy, wouldn’t you say?” The beast was a shadow of horror that now formed into a man. His hair black as night, face pale white with strong features. His eyes deep and black. He seemed to float as he caught the girl as she tried to run for the stairs.

“Please, please stop” she screamed and thrashed around.

He looked at her, a soft smile upon his face. He pulled her to the cold wall and spoke in a deep confident, but hushed voice

“How many people have you killed, tortured? Many. I know. I have felt them”

The girl started to sob. The make up she wore for the kill now running down her face “Please, don’t kill me, have mercy, please” she begged.

The screams from Jim were now fading as his consciousness faded from blood loss.

The man licked his lips “Mercy? Let me ask you, if I would have asked for mercy back in that chair, would I have received it?”

He held her firm, her eyes flashed to his.

“Everything is mirror my dear child. What you do is reflected onto you. Was there ever any mercy for me? The others? Of course not. So you have your answer.You will have plenty of more pain once I am done with you.” He smiled showing sharp teeth “Now, let us dance”

The shed was out back in a broken down part of the neighborhood. Rows of shantie houses locked side by side in decay a mile long. The neighbors started to complain about the rats and soon the police found the basement of the shed. That’s when they were called in.

Tom stood in the middle of the room, blood and body parts strewn around the walls. He stared at the girl. Arms and legs ripped from body hung in a macabre scene. Her face screamed eternally and eyes held pure despair. He sighed heavily and walked back up stairs and into the yard where James stood looking up into the sky with a donut in hand.

“Is it our man?” James said still staring up at the clouds.

Tom scratched the side of his head. A serial killer of killers. The brutality of each scene was starting to add up in Tom’s conscious. They were on his track. This demon roaming the streets.

“Yup” Tom blew out a full breath of air “They found bodies, seven, eight, maybe more in the lower level of the basement and of course the brothers and sisters splashed across the room”

James pursed his lips and then took a large bite of his donut. Chocolate frosting with sprinkles. “Yeah, you know, maybe we just let this dude clean up the city? He’s great bait and he cleans up after himself, in the killing of killers type of way”

“You know there is always a bigger reason why they do what they do. There is a reason that will lead to bigger trouble down the road.” Tom ground his teeth. He pushed the tormentor out of his mind which had been growing louder since seeing the women in Tyler’s basement. He recomposed and spied at James.

James turned and offered the donut to Tom. He turned it down “Ya, you’re right” he said then brushed the crumbs off his mustache. “The Hidler family huh? Where are the parents when you need them?”

“Probably in the basement” Tom answered.

James laughed “Good one, probably.” He finished off the rest of the donut and made his way back to the main house. A shambled mess of garbage stacked to the roof top, rotted food and rats. It was clear that the Hidler family was in the business of killing and not cleaning. Tom looked back at the small shed that held the basement. Among all these houses, all these windows, how many eyes saw them bring their victims down there, or just looked upon the shed. Not knowing the horrors and carnage happening beneath the surface. Just couple hundred feet.

For a moment, a brief moment, Tom agreed with the demon they were chasing.

Happy Birthday to me!

We meet Tom and James after being introduced to our killer of killers that they are chasing. There are many horror movies where the whole family is in on the “fun”. Control is always ecstasy until the illusion is broken. When you are no longer the top of the food chain, how does that feel?

I actually have two stories I wrote on my Birthday, this one and Wizards Peace (which is still being edited at the moment), that one is a bit more relaxed and less gruesome. The balance is needed. See you in another time.

What Lies Behind
Stacked Deck

Cheers~

Tom and James sat across from a man wearing a pair of blue jeans and a white t-shirt. He was young, handsome, with the palest skin one could have. His eyes sparkled in the daytime of a sapphire and he walked with swagger that could be confused with arrogance or complete confidence that the universe was moving around them. The man drummed his hands and they all sat in silence.

A waitress came over and dropped two black coffees, to the man and James, while a cappuccino to Tom. As soon as she left Tom spoke up.

“You said you had something on the case we are working on, a tip? or information? Did you know Tyler?”

The man’s eyebrows rose “Who?”

Tom could see James give him a sidelined look.

“The man who had a murder basement in his house, it’s been all over the news.”

“What, no, second rate killer, guy was absolute amateur from what I heard. No, no, I heard you guys are in to that” the man put his hands up and waved them about while doing spooky sounds “you know”

James wiped his mustache and leaned forward “and what if we are? Are you into the whole” James mimicked shower scene from psycho then sat back and shook his head.

“I am.”

“What?” Tom said.

“Yes, I am a serial killer. One of the best.”

James groaned and pulled out a note pad and produced a pen.
“Alright, name?”

“Mick Gendal”

“How long have you been a serial killer?”

“A long time, James” Mick smirked.

“Tom arrest this guy, open and closed” James flipped his notebook closed took a swig of his coffee.

“First, I could be joking, second, where are the bodies, third, I just arrived this morning, no way for me to do in this Tyler fellow. Look, I called you two specifically because” Mick searched around the ceiling and windows for the words, both Tom and James followed his gaze trying to spot what he was looking for. Mick scowled and tapped rapidly on the table “I need your help”

“Pardon me?” Tom said

James face broke out into a grin “You opened up with that and now you asking for help?”

Tom elbowed James “Help with what?”

Mick regained composure after drumming his fingers together. “While I did not know Tyler, I did know others like him. Much better then Tyler. They have all met an early demise. I believe that all these cases are connected. You two, as clunky as you are, have a reputation of getting results. Even in the worse scenarios. We marvel at your” he searched again “stupidity? Towards the situations you get yourselves into and then, somehow out of them.”

“You damn right.” James wagged a finger at Mick.

“You said ‘we’, who exactly is that? and why would you be following us?” Tom said.

Mick smiled. His eyes gleamed and he leaned back into his chair crossing his legs and roping his left arm around the back.

“Look, no matter what you do in life, business, art, sport, whatever. One needs to stack the deck in in their favor. You need to make sure that when you go into the action, that you have the advantage, you can’t lose. You are the house in your life, and the house always wins. Eighty years, that is how long I have been a serial killer.” Mick held up his right palm. On it was red circle, strange symbols and sigals line the inner rim and in the middle was a repeating circle that spiraled into infinity. “When I hunt, I always win. When I am hunted, I always get away or, you know.”

“So the ‘we’ is some sort of Hogwarts for serial killers? Holy Hell” Tom rubbed his forehead with his index finger and thumb “Couldn’t get any worse”

“of course it could, it could of been Hogwarts for demons or something” James waved the waitress over.

Mick snapped his finger and pointed at James “Yes, that is what I need your help with”

“Hogwarts?”

“No, the demon”

Both James and Tom froze. While they both knew, since that day neither of them had spoken about it. Somehow they tried every other supernatural entity that they could think of to explain away the case of Tyler. None of them sufficed. The void, the black door in their minds banged and clamored on its hinges. The memories buried and contained, but now bursting and clawing back into consciousness.

“What do you know about demons” Tom spoke up.

The waitress was approaching and Mick leapt from his chair and leaned in, his face inches away from theres.

“You two are the only ones that anyone knows of that has come across a demon and lived to tell the tale. You are fucking rock stars. I need your help to survive this thing. I need to have victims, I need to have blood. I can’t do that if this thing is hunting us like it is. The risk is to high. Time is ticking” As the waitress arrived Mick was leaving “I will be in touch” waved them goodbye and left.

James looked up at the waitress “Banana muffin, side of Jam, please. Tom? Nothing, alright, that’s it, also the bill when you have a chance.”

Tom sat resting his head on a clutched fist and stared into his memory. What was left was not much.

“How did we survive it James?”

The waitress returned with the muffin. James spread jam over the top and took a large bite.

“Did we?”

–

Tom and James our unlikely duo of paranormal investigators are trying to figure out what might be going on when they receive a call asking to meet. They run into Mick Gendal some one who openly admitted to being a serial killer, and not just admitting, but flaunting. That is when the stacked deck line came to me. Mick embodies this statement to his core, yet there is a bigger house in his world that he is against and as he says ‘The house always wins’.

Our demon is still out there, watch out as you roam the streets.

You can read their beginning story here - What’s in her Eyes