Sherry joined Simon and studied the dim closet. She squatted down and saw blood on the carpet. “Simon! There’s blood.”
“What?” Simon crouched down and saw a small pool of blood seeping into the carpet.
They both flinched when a drop of blood fell from the bunch of clothes and landed on the floor.
They both stood up. Before Sherry had a chance to do it, Simon flung the hanging clothes to the side and gasped.
When Sherry saw the headless body hanging by a thick hook, she jumped back and began crying.
Simon stepped closer and studied the corpse. He guessed the head in the sink belonged to this body. It was a woman, and judging by the flat stomach and long slender legs, she used to be young, perhaps around the same age as Sherry. Blood sheathed the lifeless body like a can of paint had been poured over it.
“Is there a note?” Sherry asked from behind.
“Jesus, do I have to look?”
Sherry huffed. “Fuck! I’ll do…”
“No,” Simon said. “You wait there.” There wasn’t much of a stink, so the body couldn’t have been dead for long. Still, Simon held his breath and stepped into the closet. He wrapped his arm around the body and searched for the note. The skin felt icy cold and sticky from blood. He could feel himself wanting to gag, but he swallowed and continued the grotesque hunt. “I can’t feel anything,” he called back. “Maybe it’s…” He stopped. He closed his eyes and tried hard not to puke.
“What? What is it? You find the note?”
Simon nodded slowly. “Sure did. It’s up her…bottom.”
Sherry couldn’t help but snigger when Simon said that word. It sounded strange for a gown man to call it a bottom.
“You wanna take the note?” Simon barked.
“No, no, I’m sorry, Simon.”
Simon took a deep breath and gripped the note with the tip of his fingers. He pulled it out with care, he wasn’t sure why, and let his breath out when he had fished it from between her cheeks. He jumped back from the body and threw the note down. It fluttered to the floor. “I can’t believe this is happening,” Simon panted.
Sherry bent down and picked up the note.
“Don’t touch…” Simon began.
Sherry straightened up and looked at him. “We have to, Simon.” She unfolded the bloodstained note.
“Greetings and salutations! If you are reading this it means you have found the lovely lass. And yes, to answer your question, her head is currently sitting in your laundry sink. Now, take off your panties, dear.
And sir, can you please…”
Sherry stopped reading and looked up. Simon’s mouth was gaping, and he was panting hard. “What is it?”
Without uttering a word, Sherry continued to read.
“…can you please close your mouth. You look like a goddamn fish.”
“It doesn’t say that. Give me the note.” He snatched the note off Sherry and scanned down the page. His face drained of colour. “This isn’t right. How can he know that!”
“I don’t know,” Sherry muttered. She started to take off her silk panties.
“What are you doing?”
“Have to do what he says.” She tossed them onto the bed.
Simon gazed at her nakedness. “Why? Why the fuck do we have to play his fucking game?”
“Do I need to answer that for you?” Sherry said. “I’m not sure what kind of freaky nut we’re dealing with, but I’m sure as hell not going to take any chances. We might just get out of this alive if we obey what the note says.”
Simon didn’t know what to say. He simply held up the note and continued to read.
“Good. Now, both of you go back into the lounge. Behind the T.V. is another surprise. I know it’s hard, sir, but don’t fuck her just yet.
But she does look good, doesn’t she?
Remember, don’t call the cops. Or else I’ll gut you both.
P.S. I want sir to read the next note.
Ciao.”
Simon threw the paper down. “What do we do?”
Sherry shrugged. “Let’s fuck. He might enjoy it.”
Simon blinked. “What? Are you kidding? You wanna have sex?”
Sherry strolled up to Simon and draped her arms around him. Her breath still smelled faintly of sweet bourbon. “So do you want to?”
Simon could sense the body strung up behind him in the closet. But, despite that and what was happening, he still felt a stir of arousal. Sherry looked and smelled so damn good.
He cupped his hands on her buttocks and squeezed. “Let’s do it,” he said, not really believing he had just said that.
“You would want to,” she sighed. “You sick pervert.”
She pushed him with a generous amount of force.
He almost toppled over into the closet. “What the fuck is the matter with you?” he said.
She was heading out the bedroom door. She turned around and said, “I was just testing you. I wanted to see what you’d do. I guessed right.” She shook her head and marched out the door.
“Hey!” Simon called. “I’m sorry, dear. I don’t know what I was thinking.” He jogged out the bedroom, muttering, “Shit.”
He joined Sherry and grabbed her and spun her around. “I’m really sorry, Sherry. It’s just, all this shit. It all seems so surreal. I lost my head.”
Sherry gave him a scowl. “Fine. Let’s just get into the lounge and see what the sick fuck wants next, okay?”
Simon nodded and let go. He felt rotten.
They headed into the lounge without speaking. Sherry was already at the television set by the time Simon entered the lounge. He saw Sherry bending over the set, searching for whatever grotesque object was hidden there.
He couldn’t help but stare at her. The way she was bent over, her smooth round buttocks…
“Holy shit,” Sherry gasped and straightened up.
Simon managed to avert his eyes just as Sherry turned around. He couldn’t imagine what she would’ve done if she’d caught him.
But what she might’ve done completely left his brain the moment he saw the large handgun Sherry was holding. “He gave us a gun?” Simon said. He just about laughed.
“And a fucking big one at that. I don’t know much about guns, but this one looks pretty damn powerful to me.”
Simon stepped forward. “Here, let me have a look at it.”
Sherry threw a piece of paper at him. It bounced off his chest and landed on the floor. “You’d better read that first.”
Nodding, Simon snatched the note off the floor and opened it. This note was typed, just like the rest of them. Simon began;
“I cannot keep this lie going any longer. If Sherry ever found out about her and I, it would break her heart. I love Sherry but I cannot do this to her any more. I hate myself and what I have become. Please let the Lord forgive me.
I bid the world farewell…
He looked up at Sherry. “What’s this?” he whispered.
“Your suicide note,” Sherry said with little emotion.
Simon found he couldn’t swallow. Tears fell from his widened eyes. Sherry stepped up to him, a ghastly grin on her usually exquisite face.
“You think I didn’t know about her,” Sherry told him. “I’ve followed you two around for months. Watched you two kiss, hold hands…hell, I even watched you two fuck behind that bush in the park last week. That really pissed me off. That’s when I got the idea.”
The sudden urge to urinate overwhelmed Simon again. He tried desperately to control his bladder, but the need was too strong.