Mercy Abbott - The Kiss of Death

A Narrow Escape

Mercy turned and twisted in her chair as the killer drew closer swinging his axe- whistling playfully- like a predator playing with its prey one last time before it kills it.

She knew it was a do or die situation- she had to put together all the clues to reveal his identity now or he will know that she's bluffing.

"Think Mercy think!!", she said to herself closing her eyes.

"So? Who am I? Tell me!", asked the man pointing an axe to her face.

Mercy felt a spark in her mind- she suddenly knew who he was.

"You are not a chef- nor are you french-you're the one who owns Rotunda!!", she replied.

The killer froze. His cover was blown but he was calm.

"Everyday you watch and stalk pretty women who come to dine at your restaurant with their men and you secretly tape their bedroom affairs and blackmail them- asking them for regular favours- you have everything you need- money,luxury,influence but you can't seem to satisfy your lust for women you can't have- I'd say you had some serious heartbreak in your early years and somehow it turned you into this perverted, sick and disgusting animal that you are now….Shall I continue Mr.Phillip Braugher ?", said Mercy triumphantly.

The killer was shocked. He put down his axes on the ground and took of his mask.

"God Damn it! You're smart!", he said sounding quite impressed.

"it just makes me want to ave you even more…Wow…nobody … nobody knew about me… but you…umh! You're one helluva girl…But how did you find out?", he asked squatting down on the floor.

Mercy was getting scared now. He was behaving like a mad man and she had no other defence to protect her from this craziness- all she could do was stall him with her words.

"The flowers- you shouldn't have left them everywhere-", Mercy replied.

"Those stupid flowers led you to me?C'mon you're kidding me!", he said laughing at her.

"Yes, in case you haven't noticed, you sent those flowers wrapped in a bouquet and it's wrapped in a particular style- always in one particular style- You use this style of decoration all over in your hotel on all of your flower designs...", she explained.

"Wait … wait .. hold on… you got this from a style of decoration?", he asked.

"Yes- you had easy access to the flowers from the shop across the street and you wrapped those flowers by yourself like you do in your hotel…a force of habit and you spike those flowers with a strong anaesthetic which you get from one of your client who's a doctor.. so it makes sense now…",she continued.

"Go on…how did I kill your friend?", he said attentively listening to her explanation like a kid.

Mercy knew about this. She never said much generally but once she gets comfortable with you - she wouldn't stop talking.

"Yeah.. that party…I wanted to ask - did you happen to notice a tall sort of- french guy- slim built- he might have been a pro chef?" Mercy asked interrupting her.

"Wow.. that's so specific..hmm…wait…I saw a lot of people there- all the regulars- juniors and seniors and classmates…", replied Rudy trying to recall.

"Think…have you seen Amy there? The guy must have been with her…", added Mercy.

"Well.. I did manage to see her once - she was dancing - ah! shouldn't have had that beer- can't remember much…", Rudy replied.

Mercy kneeled down outside and started to weep. Who would do such a horrible thing to her? She had just talked to her only a few hours ago. Why her? Why? A young police officer saw her state and walked up to her.

"Don't waste your time, the killer took it with him...I hope you hurry and find him soon,... I have a bad feeling he's gonna strike again....Oh! and the name's Mercy...Mercy Abbott - I'm a postgradaute student of Criminology....Find him officer before I get to him..." said Mercy and walked away.

"Flowers?Red? ... Oh God!", she opened her eyes and looked at the man again.

"Could he be ... the serial killer?", she kept thinking.

"Am I being held captive by the same killer that I was investigating?", she swallowed hard and kept staring at the man with fear and suspense.

The man walked towards her.

"Aah... so you're awake?", he said.

"I was admiring your beauty...my my... what lovely legs you have...", said the man standing a few feet away from her with his bloody axe still in his hand.

"Agh! who the hell are you... why am I here?", Mercy asked repelled by his words.

"Patience sugar...patience...let me stare at you for a while...after all you won't be alive for long, now that you've met me..", said the man.

Mercy could feel that he was grinning underneath that horrible mask. She really wanted to kick him in the guts.

"What have I ever done to you?You creep...", she yelled in anger.

"Such anger... ah.. it turns me on...", replied the man walking behind her, "Why... you've been after me for so long ...I thought you'd want to meet me...after all you're my number one fan...".

" Is that an axe in his hand? It's ... red...with blood...", she wondered as she tried to make sense of everything around her.

She soon realised that she was sitting on a chair with her hands tied behind her. She twisted her arms but it hurt. She was in some kind of an abandoned factory. In front of her was a man- standing and watching her- he had a mask on his face- but he was dressed like a businessman, in a brand new suit- his bloodied axe was glistening in the single beam of sun light that peered in through the broken ceiling of the room.

Her skirt was half torn which revealed her beautiful brown legs. She wanted to scream and call for help but her lips won't move- she was trembling with nervous excitement and maybe with fear- maybe today was the day she would die...the man was calmly watching her as if he was undressing her with his eyes- it was creeping her out and she tried to cross her legs in embarassment.

After struggling through the dense sss forest for an hour me and my three local guides and Alicia arrived at the fabled-"city of the dead" built by the ancient aztecs. Huge ruins of pyramids, broken stones, pillars and pathways lay ahead of us in a clearing. Alicia was awestruck, "We did it - we finally found it!", she said,her eyes shining through her glasses. Our Incan friends too seemed relieved at the thought of finally getting the job done and returning home,but I for one was sceptical. 'Was it really supposed to be so-easy?',I thought staring at the vast ruined pyramid which was now covered with algae and wild plants.The lost city of the dead was supposed to be filled with immeasurable treasures and hence most difficult to find.Nevertheless I asked Paco one of our guides to lead the way.

We struggled to keep up with him as he climbed up the stairs swiftly. "Slow down!", I shouted, as he kept climbing ahead. He seemed to be in some kind of frenzy as if he were possessed. "Paco! slow down !", I yelled again, fearing we might lose him in the ruins. Paco looked back at me and I could swear I saw his face had gone grey and his eyes were green...a chill ran down my spine as I stared at that little boy running madly to the top of the ruined pyramid. "My friend", said Sergio one of the elder guides, trembling with fear as he placed his hand on my shoulder "the king has finally returned home".

A chill ran down my spine and I could feel beads of sweat dripping from my forehead.

I froze for a moment as I looked at the sheer madness ahead of me.Paco was relentlessly moving forward towards the top of what was once a pyramid like monument,which during the old days was most probably used for human sacrifices.He raged on like a mad bull, mumbling gibberish, occasionally slipping down,barely able to hold on to the flimsy rocks. The four of us hurried to stop him but the boulders of algae ridden rocks made it very hard for us even to step foot on them.

"The King-the lord-of Mictlan-has returned?",I wondered trying to remember the history of the place-which wasn't depicted in any map.It was once used as a temple dedicated to the God of the underworld -Mictlantecuhtli.Human sacrifices were performed by great priests of the temple who wore large skull like hats and painted their faces red as they carried out brutal acts of murder on top of the pyramid platform and hundreds of spectators would watch from below as they hoped that these inhuman acts would somehow please the deity.What a dreadful sight it would have been!

Paco had almost reached the top by now and as he laid his feet on the platform he let out a horrific scream and fell into some kind of hole.We could only observe helplessly from below."What on earth!- cried out Alicia-did you see that- he got swallowed in- he-", words failed to come out- we were all dumbfounded,but we had to reach the top.The old stairs were broken and we were holding on to crumbling rocks as we scaled the hundred metres tall ruin.Our hands and feet got covered in a strange slime like substance which seemed to ooze out from the cracks,and wild grass and climber plants wrapped round the stones made it harder to climb-still we had to move on.Sergio almost fell trying to hold on to a block of stone.Alicia was the one who reached the top first and we all stood there not knowing what to do.

A huge hole was in the middle of what was supposed to be a flat platform.We stared down into the dark abyss and shone our torches yelling out Paco's name.Strangely our lights couldn't even reach the bottom and all we saw was a slime and moss covered wall and an endless dark pit below.At this point I vaguely remembered some line I read in an obscure book -"He shall feast upon blood on a moonless night,he shall dance upon the bones of the dead...he shall rise..."I couldn't remember much but I knew it was a prophecy related to this place - Mictlan!

It was almost sunset and darkness would soon fall,we had to return to our camps,but we also had to look for the lost boy.Sergio and the other local guide weren't much keen on finding him as they only kneeled down and offered their prayers.I was furious at this behaviour at first but Sergio explained to me that he was taken as a sacrifice by the deity and that we could have done nothing to help him.Their superstitious beliefs saddened me-surely everything had to have a logical explanation, but I thought it would be more reasonable for us to go back to our camps now and look for the boy tomorrow.We all agreed to head back but as I stood there holding my satchel,I looked at the majestic scenery of the jungle.It would be dark soon and the dense forest was eerily getting silent.I could no longer hear the howling monkeys or the occasional roar of the jaguar nor the majestic birds of paradise,who are known to be notoriously loud with their shrilling annoying voices trying to impress their mates.It seemed as though nature was shying away creepily into sleep and the only thing that could be heard was the monotonous shrilling of crickets and cicadas.

The sun had now crept behind the mountains as the four of us tried to find a way down this dreaded place.Sergio was the first to climb down,Alicia and I were going next.As he made his way down,Alicia drew a sharp breath and pointed towards the ruins that lay below.A thick fog was engulfing around the pyramid.It was strange and unnatural as winter was months away.The other guide started to tremble in fear and hurried to climb down the slope.I tried to stop him but something must have spooked him,for he wouldn't listen and was determined to leave the place. Suddenly the pyramid began to rumble as though it was hit by an earthquake.The whole thing was falling apart brick by brick.Alicia screamed and grabbed my arm as I called out to Sergio-"Come back up!Its not safe...grab the other guy!".Sergio quickly held out his hand to his friend who was a few feet away from him holding on to a broken piece of boulder which would likely give away at any moment.But before he could reach him the boulder broke away and fell down taking the poor local with it.We could only hear a fading scream and a dull thud as he was quickly swallowed by the strange fog below.Sergio knowing that he couldn't do anything else had now quickly climbed up.The three of us were barely able to hold on to each other as the rumbling continued and the fog was getting thicker.Behind us was the dark abyssmal pit and the way back home was engulfed in the ever growing sinister fog.All we could do was to hold on to our dear lives.But then the rumbling stopped.

We were shaken with fear and awe.Alicia was still holding on to my arm and Sergio was trying to catch his breath.I for one was trying to get a hold of the bizzare events that had just occurred and I couldn't make any heads or tails of it.We were stranded in the middle of nowhere with no help from the outside world and this horrible place wouldn't let us leave. Somehow my scientific beliefs were completely shadowed by the paranormal.

It was completely dark now and we decided we had to make another attempt to leave.I shone my torch at the pit behind us -it was dark,but I noticed that the walls of the pit were now completely covered with slime and it was moving as though it were alive! It moved slowly but steadily-outwards and upwards towards the edges-through the cracks- towards me-my heart began to race and my ears were filled with the screams of our dead companions. Impossible! - I murmured.But then I heard Alicia calling out to me which broke my trance.She and Sergio had found another way down ,through the broken stairs-parts of the stairs that broke off had now piled up below us making a crude platform towards the ground,but we had to jump.We shone our lights and jumped one by one,onto the platform and a few moments later onto the ground which was still surrounded by the fog.We held each other's hand and moved ahead carefully as we could barely see and the light from our torches reflected back from the thick fog.Still we moved on,the ground below us cracked and I felt as if I was stepping on bones and empty skulls.Alicia kept repeating that the place was cursed and once we were out of here we would never come back.

Almost half an hour later, after struggling through the fog,we saw some lights ahead of us.Apparently some of our local friends had come looking for us for knew the dangers of this place. We finally felt safe,and God knows how grateful I felt to see them.