An idea took hold: everyone I knew was violently being ripped away from me. Everything that I had come to love could be dead, and gone for the rest of time. I sprinted upstairs and rushed into the first room.
“Damn it, no,” I chocked. My heart stopped as I entered the room. In the middle of the floor, just like Kyle in the basement, was Susan. She was strapped down in a chair, unlike Kyle. Her head was down, her hair soaked in blood and sweat. A pool of red lay near her feet. It leaked from the holes that covered her arms, her shirt just as red as Kyle’s. She didn’t move.
“Susan?” I said with little power.
Nothing.
I slowly approached the girl and was overwhelmed with just how much I cared for her, more than she would ever know. The place in my heart that desired Susan was burning, but it was falling apart, dying just like the world.
I knelt by her side and looked her over closely. She was dead. Susan hadn’t clung to life like Kyle. Her head was angled downwards, neck careened all the way forward. I swept the hair from her forehead just to make sure it was her, and pretended for a moment that it was going to be someone else. Susan’s eyes were glazed over, streaks of tears covering her cheeks. Her mouth was open in a silent prayer.
“Why?” I asked Susan.
She didn’t respond. She had deep, red and purple marks around her neck. Gashes were scattered about her arms, and her fingernails were covered in bits of flesh. She’d fought, just like Kyle.
The bleakness of my situation was coming quicker. Nothing would ever be the same, yet the fact remained that nothing would change. I was going to die in a twilight hell, be it walking into the darkness downtown, or gunned down by whoever had committed this gruesome crime. But I still had one act, one person, to discover: Olivia.
The floorboards creaked behind me. I turned around and saw the baseball bat only for a brief second. It hit and world grew dark.
Chapter 16: My Greatest Threat
My head thundered and the side of my face blistered with rage as I awoke. Double vision multiplied the individuals in the room, but it settled quickly enough. I couldn’t move my hands. Ropes burned in my wrists as I struggled. My legs were pinned to the legs of the chair, just like Kyle and Susan.
“’Bout time, chap,” someone hissed. A figure materialized sitting opposite me. He ran a hand through his slicked black hair while rocking back in his chair. No one else was here, though. A smile careened through his dark, oily beard, and a pair of venomous black eyes stared back at me.
“I heard things, about you being in places you weren’t supposed to be, doing things you aren’t meant to do. I thought we had an understanding, Jackson. Hell, I thought you were dead. Of course, that was my mistake,” he said and stood up, stretching his back, cracking it audibly. “Hate to say it. Hated myself for even believing that you were still here.”
“What have you done, Frank?” I asked. I felt sick. So much pain filtered through my body, but it wasn’t just the physical. The death of my dear friends and the unanswered questions lingered in my mind. And poor Olivia. Where was she?
Frank’s smiled widened as he stroked his beard. He shrugged his shoulders and walked behind me, resting a filthy hand on the back of my neck. I tried to shake it off but he simply chuckled.
“Me?” Frank stayed out of sight. “I didn’t do anything.” He whispered in my ear. He moved his hand to the other side of my head, keeping my neck from moving. “That would be a lie though, wouldn’t it?” He double-tapped my cheek, kneeling beside me as he brought out a knife. He twirled it in front of me. It was discolored, still bloody.
“You sick bastard,” I said and shut my eyes, wishing away everything. He must have used it to carve up my friends. I just hoped it hadn’t come close to Olivia. I stared at the knife’s steel blade, its handle made of ivory.
Frank laughed.
“Oh come along now,” Frank said.
I didn’t understand his meaning. He must have seen my brow furrow.
“You mean to tell me…” Frank said as he returned to his seat, playing with the blade in his hand. “This was art. I’m an artist. Their deaths weren’t simple kills,” Frank’s smiled vanished. “Of course, this probably wouldn’t have happened, you know, if you’d stayed away.” He remained seated as he brought a hand to his temples and started rubbing.
I didn’t have a clue how he’d found us, found me. I didn’t think he would have tracked up here, not for this. How did he know about Susan and Kyle, where they lived? And where was Olivia?
“Why them?” I asked.
“Why them? Why the fuck not them!” Frank shrieked. He reached over and wrapped a hand around my neck. I caught my reflection in his eyes. He brimmed with hatred, revulsion from those years ago, against me and my ideas, fueling his crushing grip. He stopped short before I lost consciousness. Smiling, he sat down again.
“You made the mistake. You did,” he pointed out. “You killed them the moment you stepped foot Downtown, champ. You couldn’t just let things be, couldn’t just stay away. I was good with you decaying up here. I knew you lived here. You thought different?” He laughed.
I looked away, not allowing myself to cry. Frank was crazy, but smart. He knew exactly where to strike and when.
“Oh no…” I mumbled. There to my left, he had laid out both bodies. Their arms were crossed on their chests, almost like a ceremony to the deceased.
“No one is safe. Not when they know you,” Frank whispered.
“Fuck you,” I muttered.
“What was that?” Frank looked intrigued.
“I said… fuck you,” I said louder.
No reason to hide my anger anymore. All this pain, all these questions, what was the point anymore? Everything was building up, and my end was ticking ever closer. My friends were dead, Olivia was missing, and I was gone myself in a short month. Soon enough the turning was going to take me. I had no respect for what this bastard said. He’d just stick that knife through my neck anyway, just like the others.
“Ooh I like that. Yeah, I like that Jackson. I really do. Got some bite to ya, huh?” Frank chuckled. I didn’t expect that.
“I hate you,” I whispered in rage. “I fucking hate you.”
“Not more than I you,” Frank hissed back.
“Just do it already,” I looked away. Wherever Olivia was, I hoped she wouldn’t have to see this.
“Oh no, no, no, no. It’s not going to be that easy.” Frank shook his head.
“What?”
“You really thought…” Frank laughed loudly. “No. You get to live with this.” He swung his arm toward the bodies.
“Boss!” a shout bellowed from downstairs. It wasn’t a voice I recognized, but apparently Frank’s goons had caught up to their leader. For whatever reason, this new voice sounded panicked.
“Oh shit, the place is a mess. Boss! You okay!” another voice shouted.
I didn’t understand what was happening. Did they not know about the bodies? Did Frank do all of this by himself?
Frank smiled as he got up again and drew a handgun from his belt. But he didn’t do what I expected him to do. Instead, he cut loose the rope that bound me down and tossed it beneath the bed. He threw the dagger onto my lap, and shot himself in the leg.
“What the hell?” I whispered.
“You will suffer,” Frank whispered. “Up here!” Frank gritted his teeth. He tossed the gun towards me feet. I could swear he was grinning through the pain.
Without thinking, I grabbed the gun and the knife. I aimed the sidearm at the center of his chest and pulled the trigger. But when the hammer fell, nothing happened.