The Tears Devourer

XXI

     "Michael..." Rachel approached the boy from behind and touched his shoulder. "Michael?"

     "Hi Rachel, how have you been?" Patton turned, and gave her a shy smile, as he held the tray with a chocolate dessert on top, a slice of pizza, and a black cola.

     "Where have you been last week?" She demanded calmly, so much so that Michael almost didn't notice that mark in her eyebrows that revealed the anxiety on Rachel's face. "I waited for you on Friday... Did I say or do something wrong that day?"

     "No, no... not at all." Michael licked his lips, noticing that she was glancing at them. "I was..." 'trying to hide a corpse...', he thought, "camping with my father. Yes... He came out unexpectedly, and well, I forgot the phone in my room, so I was totally disconnected for the weekend and the rest of the time."

     "Oh, I got it." The girl smiled out of commitment, hiding her mistrust in Patton's words. "And how did it go? You have fun?"

     "Yes," Michael answered, loud and clear, now with a genuine smile plastered to his face. "It came out as expected."

     'It came out as expected.' Patton's words echoed in his head, damaging his bark with each bounce.

     It was true, things with Ariana turned out better than he thought, at least in the short term. It was a week since he had thrown her into Lake Delton, and he hadn't had any unforeseen events since.

     He was distracted for a moment by the sensation, sinking completely into his thoughts. Michael watched the place move slower, and the image suddenly changed. He was back on the road, his hands on the wheel, and his headlights pointing to the bridge. He came down, stepping on fog and breathing the first flakes of snow, and approached the railing, taking a look at what would be the eternal rest of Ariana Torres.

     'Looks promising. But, how do I sink it?' The stones in the lake were all average size, and quite light to look at. He had to go all the way around, crossing a passage that passed very close to the work of Hallie Sweet, Rachel's mother, whom by then he never thought he would know. Michael glanced at the hotel, curious if anyone recognized him.

     It was already after two in the morning, so it was partially safe to walk the streets without even bumping into a banshee. He parked the car near some neat wooden stairs that guided him to a lower sector, directly to the edge of what he was looking for.

     The silence was painful, and the cold; stinging. Michael was breathing hard because of it. He was not nervous, he was not scared, on the contrary, he was ready to let go, and welcome that girl who had so worriedly gone to look for him in the cafeteria.

     He looked around and noticed three objects that stood out to his keen eyes: a chain, attached and wound to an L-shaped iron that protruded from the hotel wall; a plastic garbage container, with the lid open and the smell flush with it; and finally, planks of wood huddled just to the side of what appeared to be a bridge in its early days.

     He hurried to the iron, untangled the chain and slung it over his shoulder, placed it delicately at the foot of the newly begun bridge, and stubbornly searched for his second idea. He saw it near a bush, where the forest gets its name. It was fat and massive, enough that Michael couldn't carry it with both hands. He lifted up a plank, the kind that served as the foundation for the bridge, and put it under the massive rock. He pushed at the other end, leveraging it, extracting it by the roots, and dismembering the earth that had settled in its lower parts. The rock gave way and continued rolling with the help of the board, to the first end of the bridge, accompanying the chain in that cold and blurred dawn.

     Patton returned to his car, he had to take the order that he left there, and that was waiting so patiently for him. He opened the trunk, burning his fingers on the brass of the latch, which was already freezing in temperature.

     Looked around, and noticing that only the mist was accompanying him, he carried Ariana and directed her to the exact place that he checked a few minutes ago. He laid her on the frozen sea of stones that serve the shore lake.

     Michael was delighted for one last moment by the silhouette in front of him, of that slim and naked lifeless body that seemed to smile at the moon. He had always gotten rid of the bodies by covering them with at least some clothing, a totally different piece from the one they had the last time they were seen, in such a way that it could divert sniffers, but this time it was different from all the previous ones. This time he had nothing to cover her with, much less wanted to. She was just the practice, the proof that Patton can still do what he wants without receiving any punishment, and a first sample does not receive the credit, it is received by the one that works in the end.

     "I'm glad to hear that." Rachel gave him a shy smile, the kind where only her lips arch but her eyes aren't expressed, and she tried to say goodbye with her sight.

     "Uh... can we talk?" he said.

     "We are talking," she replied.

     "I mean... You know, in private," he insisted.

     "Okay," she shook her head quickly up and down, "After school?"

     "It's ... It's okay, after class it's okay." Rachel walked away, slowing down, hoping the boy would stop her, but it didn't happen.

     What did not happen either as its author would have wanted, was Ariana's grave. Michael knew that the weight of the rock attached to the girl's right ankle would surely sink her, and hold her welded to the bottom of the lake long enough for the weather to hold evidence, leaving to time the real job of erasing it entirely.

     But what he didn't plan was the lack of stability of the iron at such low temperatures, he didn't think at that moment that the excessive weight of the immense rock could break this sudden weakening of the particles in the chain, breaking it into pieces in just one day later.

     He didn't plan for the world that the winter solstice would bring a warm 12 ° with it by the time the sun rose and that those extra degrees would give the lake mobility, which dragged Ariana downstream, hitting her with the protruding tips of the logs and stones coming from its bottom, making her dance in the depths of the lake, with her limbs well-stretched at first, and fluttering in a spiral thanks to the same current, to the envy of any more experienced ballet dancer, finally jamming her to the skirts of a tree near the Washington Bridge.

     Michael didn't plan anything like that, but even so, he knew that for the curious each event would be nothing more than pure chance. No connection. No tie. No witness. Things could get out of hand for his victims, but not for him.

     "Rachel..." He stopped her when the girl had given up. "Would you like to go to...?" Because things could get out of hand for his victims "Would you like to go to the dance with me?" As long as the victims believe that everything goes as they are hoping for.

     "Uh..." the brunette hesitated, but Patton could see it in her eyes, those hopeful eyes on Rachel Sweet's face. "Yes, I'd like to go with you." He could see that he was still in control of his life, despite whatever mistakes Ariana might cause him.

     "And maybe after... I don't know" He knew this time he would do it right, "maybe after the dance..." He would do it properly, "go eat something together." Because his victims could lose control of their actions without noticing it.

     "Yes, sure Michael," but never Michael Patton. "Why not?" He would never let go of a treasure as precious as Rachel Sweet.