The Thorns Under Pedals

Chapter 8:

I had gotten tired of watching them being slowly killed by each trap I had set on the monitor. I made myself wait patiently until I saw them fall into the syringes. Hearing Drake scream so loud in pain brought a smile to my face along with shivers. It was a new feeling then I had felt before. This made me wonder if my last act with them would have the same effect. That part I would not miss to see in person. So I collected the equipment I intended to toss in the fire and headed back.

The cold air was warmer not just because of the fire but the sky was turning gray with a few lines of white. The sun was coming and I did not see how time had flown so quickly. My eyes next went to the building that was now engulfed at the top levels with flames. Smoke was going in the air which told me I did not have long before fire men would be coming. Luckily there were no nearby stations so I could finish up my kills the way I wanted.

I placed the equipment I had used in a far room that would be one of the first ones to touch the flames since it was close to the stairs. I made sure to leave the door open as this would make sure the fire would actually get to them. My change of clothes was also in this room but next to the door so that I could quickly change after. I would not take the chance before blood would be spilled. I did not need the evidence on my getaway clothes. This also allowed me to burn my clothes with the rest.

Being so close to the stairs allowed me to hear the creaking in the steps as they made their way down. I could also hear all the cursing Drake was doing towards me. I had struck hard enough to break his silence to anger. The man would now speak to me with less calculation in his words. I was thankful so I could get a clue of who I had to go for next. As much as I loved to see them tortured at my hands the research was draining. So was the disposing.

I took several breaths of the stinging smoked air calming my excitement. I could not let myself be so clouded that I would mess up now. Everything was going according to my plan like it did with Jigsaw. However, I really doubt he would be pleased with me considering I could not hide behind these games for the killings I committed. I knew the outside world would see me as a serial killer after this. Honestly the high of killing for revenge was too addicting for me to care much of what others would frown upon. If the police force had done their jobs I wouldn’t have gotten involved. This was what I told myself even though deep down the toss of blame could not hide that I was a monster now unleashed.

The footsteps stopped and I could hear Drake yell in frustration. It was my cue to take the steps to walk in front of them now. I was moved to do so when I heard Rebecca’s soft voice. I almost didn’t hear her words; they were so soft and shocked with an underlying sob. My feet froze at the edge just before the stairs. Ice froze my muscles as my eyes widened. Rebecca’s pregnant? I asked myself. My excitement dimmed slightly. Thoughts of my brother surfaced. Tears were threatening to fall at the thought of it being his.

I had an internal battle with myself. For the first time since I started these kills I asked myself if I should really be doing this. Doubts filled my mind and I felt much like my age. Naive and small is how I became. My breaths were unsteady and my palms began to sweat. I wanted revenge. I had lost everything to these people and lived my life alone. Yet...Rebecca was giving me hope that I could have a piece of my brother. After all, there were some women who did not show much while being pregnant.

Don’t listen to her. She is just playing with you to let them live. A voice in my mind reasoned.

What if she is telling the truth though? I asked with doubt.

Who is to say it’s even Xavier's child she is carrying? Rebecca has been a deceitful b***h before. It could very well be Drake’s.The voice chillingly reminded me.

If that’s the case can I really kill the unborn baby either way? I felt sick. The image of a baby covered in blood crying out was not something I could stomach. Yes I could enjoy killing these people because they took my family away. A baby who was not even breathing yet had done nothing wrong to me. My resolve to kill Rebecca was wavering.

The voice did not respond back probably because it could not give me an answer. I did not know how long I had been waging the war in me but I reasoned that I would ask Rebecca and see what happened. Either way if she was lying or whatever I still intended to kill Drake. I turned my thoughts to him to breathe normally again. This took a while to calm myself enough to reveal my presence.

I took in the scene before me. Both of them were pale with red rashes covering their bodies. Drake was barely conscious but was looking at Rebecca with wonder and fear while Rebecca was holding onto him. Rebecca had tears streaming down her face with blood all along her side. There was already a puddle forming from Drake’s amputation and their wounds that reopened deeper by the needles. Through the barbed wire I saw them share a look. One that burned my wavering mind into smoke and angered me. Love shines through their eyes not even noticing I had appeared. All the thoughts of it possibly being my brothers disappeared.

See. You can not trust anyone. You will forever be alone in this cruel dark world. The voice said in a calm but cruel manner. I felt my mind empty of everything around me. A pool of nothingness held my empty emotions and the voice continued to state just how alone I was. These two that stood in front of me helped make me this. All I wished was to vanish from this world into the darkness that claimed my family.

Yes. They took it all from you. Everything you had loved they have the blood on their hands along with the rest of William's family. Tell me, should they have the happiness they took from you? Darkness filled my vision along the edges as the voice talked. I felt weirdly calm as if the voice truly understood me.

No. I thought back. The voice was right. If I could not be happy with my family, why should they be?

How will you take it from them? How will you make them feel your own pain? The voice asked in that chilling manner but I felt like the voice was smiling. Like they were excited just as much as I had been or more about the blood that would pour over our hands. To see life fade from these two’s eyes as relief would fill our muscles to have a good night sleep.

Instead of answering the voice I spoke out loud to ask a rhetorical question for Rebecca. My voice held no sign of the battle I had been through and only seemed calm if not affected. “Is the father Drake?” Rebecca did not even look at me as if she didn’t know that I had asked her the question.

“Yes.” A smile along with her answer was her response. Seconds later both of them realized I had asked the question and turned to me. The smiles they had dropped. Fear gripped Rebecca’s features. Drake took a wobbly shift to place Rebecca behind him as if to shield her from me. This was amusing. He was in no state to think he could protect her. What could he think he could do?

“Don’t you think of hurting her any further. Let them out of here and I’ll tell you what you want.” Drake spat in my direction.

Who does he think he is ordering us around like that? Does he not realize who is in charge? The voice growled in my mind. I stayed silent as if contemplating his order. When really I was deciding what I could get out of him before he realized I wasn’t listening to his request.

“Ok.” I finally spoke and I could see Drake was surprised. “I won’t lay a hand on them but you have to give me the list of names who helped you and Andrew.”

Drake’s eyebrows were frowned as if he wasn’t sure to believe me. Rebecca had a slight hope in her eyes. Not much of a light but it was the size of a pebble. She squeezed his uninjured shoulder. I could not tell if it was to push him to go along with me or in fear that it was too good to be true. I honestly did not have time for this and added this, “I don’t have time to kill both of you with my own hands. Soon the firemen and police will come to see all the smoke from upstairs.”

The light in Rebecca’s eyes died as my words settled in. She heard that I would kill Drake but not her or the baby. That she would lose the love in her life. This was not something that settled well with her and she almost said something before Drake spoke up to interrupt her.

“Fine.” Rebecca cried out at his response. “There were four of us. Blake Riverson, Carlos Santos, Jorge Smith, and I all prepared the scene for Andrew. We were always the crew who set things up and cleaned up. Carlos and Jorge work with William's family business while Blake is a former SEAL turned into the head bodyguard for Andrew’s.”

I could see that sharing the information tore him up inside but he did so believing that his women and child were being saved. There were also hints of belief that I would not get far in killing the others as I had him. Especially with Blake since he clearly told me that this person was in a top military position that did stealth missions. Blake would be much more of a challenge for sure but I was not going to back out of it. Maybe he or she could send me straight to my family.

Drake looked back at Rebecca to say one more I love you when I pulled a wire that set off one of my traps. Instead of being sad that she would lose him I traumatized her as the two sharp blades killed him. She screamed as his blood covered her naked form. Drake’s head rolled down the stairs steps to the wire. His gaze still staring up into Rebecca’s even in death. His body did not take that long to follow with the waist below first then his torso. The blades clattered beside the cut up body of Drake.

Horror filled Rebecca’s expression and ugly sobs were wheezing from her. I watched for a while seeing the same reaction I had when I came home. I did not feel empathy for her nor for the child she was carrying. “Now you feel a part of what I did. Don’t worry, I'll end your suffering unlike how you both did mine.”

She looked up at me just in time as the second trap that was timed drove into her and let her fall straight into the barbed wire. Her blood splattered on my clothes and a few drops got on my cheek. I saw the sadness drain into lifeless. I heard her take her last choked breath. Blood was all over the place thanks to my makeshift spiked club that stabbed her back that had her falling into the barbed wire for an iron maiden effect kill.

From one of the windows above the staircase sunlight was pouring in. As if heaven knew that I had killed an innocent along with the sinners. A reminder that for this I would never see my family on the other side but I knew that I had to avenge them all the same. A single tear slipped out of my eye lid down my cheek and I turned away to get changed. The smoke was already thickening to my level. I stayed longer than I should have and for that I had to hurry away.

Quickly I changed and placed the bloody clothes with the equipment. I took one last look at the death on the stairs feeling a sense of peace fill me. The high was over and my body felt drained but there was always a peaceful relief just before I felt drained. With deep breaths I left the building. I stayed in the shadows in case anyone was around to see the fire.

Luckily I did so because I could hear the rings of the police sirens with fire trucks in the distance. Definitely stayed way too long and I had to escape now. Though I knew this there was no rush of panic. I was actually curious to see what these people would think of my work. So instead of escaping like I should I found myself hiding in a safe spot away from everyone who would be looking at the scene. Crackling filled the distance and the building blew up the second floor and into the first level when the firemen got to the scene minutes later.

There was a huge crowd of people around the scene gathering to see what was going on. Each one of them was either coughing or covering their faces at the weird smell in the air. After the explosion the smell grew stronger. What they didn’t know was that the smell came from human flesh along with the soy in the syringes. Loud mummerings were heard from the crowd and the police had to use the speaker from one of their vehicles to force the civilians back.

I could see four police cars and two fire trucks at the scene. Two police cars were on either side of the building while one fire truck followed. They planned to spray the large building on both sides before sending the cops in. This told me that they believed no one was in the building. It was a deserted building for decades so I could understand their logic. Even if they knew there were two people in there it would not change the fact that they were dead before the fire got them. Though the police didn’t need to know that.

From my hidden spot I watched as men around my father and older brothers' ages got out of the fire trucks one by one. The system they seemed to have was unknown to me but the routine seemed grand in each of them without having to express any words of command. While the fire men grabbed water hoses to begin spraying on the lower levels one man on each side got on the ladders to spread the top levels. This action took roughly about fifteen to twenty minutes considering the equipment was heavy for one man to carry.

The fire started to die down. The crowd and I watched as the fire diminished leaving the building scarred if not fragile. This took maybe an hour until the fire was completely gone and safe for the police men and women to examine the inside. I held my breath wondering if the evidence truly got burnt in time. There was a diversity of police officers that entered the building from age, race, height, and weight. My body became tense as I waited to see who the weak hearts were. I stayed still like this for a while and my breath was shallow.

The first of the weak hearted came running out to the bushes. It was one of the younger men that had walked ahead of his group almost confidently. His features were pale white and I could hear the sounds of him vomiting in the bushes away from the public eye. Before long four others followed out of the building one by one looking just as disgusted. Among those five total only two were elderly men almost to the age of retiring. The two others were women that had seemed out in the middle of this career.

That left only three left who went to search the rest of the building. I waited patiently to see their reactions. While I waited an ambulance came to carry the dead bodies of Drake and Rebecca to a morgue. The sound of the crowd was all the reaction I truly needed. Many gasped at the burnt up bodies that were unrecognizable but there were screams as well. I even witnessed a handful of women faint from the sight as some others hurried out of the crowd to vomit.

I was not surprised since the frame of Rebecca, who was much smaller than Drake's, still had flesh on most of her front body while the back had lost a lot of the meat. Her body was still intact completely unlike the bundle of his. Drake’s body you could see the pieces of his flesh dropping to the ground in a pile of ashes. They had to carry his body halves one at a time. Each time they came out with a section of him it was worse. Drake’s head made many of the crowd vomit or faint. His skull was visible ¾’s of the way while the other quarter flesh hung loosely.

The local news channels even drove down to record what was happening. Though each reporter was too far for me to hear and the crowd held most of my attention. Hours continued to pass. Many people left to start their work shifts but I stayed having time before school would start. However, it was getting close to when I would absolutely need to leave so that I could go home and shower before school when the other three police officers came out of the building.

The crowd quieted down to catch anything that they may say. One of the women of the police officers came forward to be one of the five that left sick. She was pale and worried that wrenches formed on her facial features. Her voice was heavy in a hispanic accent as she whispered words to her fellow officer. However the words traveled farther than they thought because the crowd was quiet. This meant that I could hear every word.

“There was more on the top level. We found a chain covered in blood and the fire seemed to start in one of the rooms that was heavily coated with gasoline. This was not just some random fire, sir. Someone staged this.”

The man’s face frowned and nodded to her. “Any evidence left to show who or why they were here?”

I held my breath. The lady officer shook her head in response. The breath I held was released. “Whoever did this was playing a sick game of torture. We better call Detective Warden, sir. We can not move anything without it being too fragile to break from the fire.”

The man nodded and headed to one of the police cars to do just that. As much as I wanted to stay to meet this Detective I had to leave for school. So as quiet as I could I made my way away from the crime scene and to my car that was parked far away from the scene. The whole time my mind took in every detail I had seen holding it into my memory. This way I could review it after school when I had time to contemplate my next steps. I really wished that I didn’t have school but it was a Friday and that meant I had the whole weekend to plan and start my research.

Then we can make Andrew feel the same or worse pain his own sister had. The voice said laughing in my head. Yes but before that I needed to get the smell of death off of me and appear like a normal High School student. No suspension. No clues. No one was to notice anything off about me. I wanted it that way and it would stay like that until I wished to reveal it.