Chapter 1: So it Begins.
She could not remember when exactly she noticed it, that her thoughts were radically different than everyone else's. She did remember though what first made her able to embrace these differences and be able to laugh hysterically about it.
She had never really felt what one would call excitement, joy or even happiness as a child. It wasn't that she had a bad childhood, her parents were well off. Her mother was a prominent fashion designer and her father was an accountant for a large shipping company.
Her older siblings always seemed to be the ones in the spotlight. She was five years younger than her sister and eight years younger than her brother. Her brother was a great athlete and was also good at school. Her sister while slightly bossy but had their mother's eye for fashion and was already learning how to sew by the time her sister was born.
Since her parents worked and both her siblings were in school by the time she was born she was often left in the care of her grandparents. They were kindly and treated her well. They both appeared to dote on her and everything seemed great. That was until she turned four and her grandfather started doing things to her. She did not understand what was happening, only that she always felt gross and ashamed afterwards.
No matter how much she washed herself afterwards the feeling lingered and there was always a strange soreness to her body that would last for days. It made her tired and fed-up at everything. All she wanted to do at these times was stay in her room and make a small nest on her bed out of her stuffed animals.
Many times, it happened right in the living room as the girl would sit and read or watch television. She loathed these times as her grandmother would be in the kitchen either cleaning or prepping things for dinner. The angle of the dark brown and somewhat old couch was perfect to accommodate this as from every point of entry there was no way to see the whole front of the couch directly.
It did not help that the living room though of a good size had a lot of furniture in it. The couch itself had both a large armchair and a smaller loveseat adjacent to it. The two pieces of furniture unlike the couch though were an off-white colour that had yellowed slightly with age.
The large wooden coffee table took up most of the floor space and left very little room for people to walk in between. The television was one of the earlier and rather bulky flat screens that had a built-in base the same size as an actual stand.
Against all the free wall space were bookshelves and china cabinets filled with knick-knacks and her grandfathers rather large collection of sports memorabilia. It was these things that cluttered up the space the most and made it hard to move around.
Even after the abuse had been happening for awhile the girl knew there was nothing she could do about it. And she absolutely hated her weak self for it.
Telling someone was not an option in her eyes. She could see how devoted her grandmother was to him, her mother wasn't home much around this time as she was busy traveling after launching several new fashion lines. This would make her mother busy for the next three years. Her grandfather was her father's dad and considering he deeply respected his father she knew he wasn't an option either.
Her father often spoke of her grandfather as if he were one of the best people his father knew.
Her grandfather had fought in two wars and although he was not decorated, he had stayed in the army a good year after everyone who had been drafted had already moved on. After this he kept the same job for years, slowly climbing the corporate ladder and eventually retiring from being a regional manager of a mid-sized grocery store chain.
As far as the girl knew her sibling had not suffered as she was and they also appeared to have fairly normal relationships with him.
The girl was highly irritated by this as it meant she really was alone in her suffering. She did not feel bad about admitting that she had somewhat hoped the same thing may be happening to one of her siblings because then they would be in agony right along side her. For some reason the idea of this had given her some sick sense of satisfaction that she could not help but revel in.
It also did not help that neither of her siblings had shown much interest in her. The most they had done for her is let her read the books in their rooms as well as their textbooks from school.
She preferred her brothers' room to her sisters as the formers was very garishly decorated.
The older sister's room was painted a shade of almost baby pink. Her vanity was lit with a string of fairy lights and the frame of the mirror itself was a powder blue colour. Stuck in the frame were photographs her sister had taken or magazine clippings. The dresser was large and intimidatingly dark in colour compared to everything else. The double sized bed was adorned with either a flowery or butterfly patterned comforter. The older girl even still had stuffed animals at the top of her bed.
The walls themselves were all adorned with posters of the latest pop idols as well as numerous sewing patterns. Her small closet was bursting not just with her own clothes but also small sewing projects she was working on.
Her brothers' room was a dark shade of sea green. The walls were covered in sports posters and several baseball caps from games he had been to with their father. He was the only one of the three siblings to have a television in their room. It was tiny and had a grey game console hooked up to it with two grey controllers attached to it.
Sometimes her brother would allow his sisters to play the games with him but as they got older this became less frequent.
The girl's room was a light shade of lavender of her mothers choosing. There were no pictures or paintings on her walls as of yet. Her furniture was all from when she was first born. A white bedframe, dresser and end table. The few toys she did have were in the large cedar toy box which was a sickly colour of bright magenta.
All of this meant she was alone in her suffering and she would just have to put up with it or else figure out something drastic.
So, she kept it to herself and was glad when school started. Unfortunately, she found it dull and boring there was never any real challenge. The lessons were so easy she never bothered with them beyond making sure she had a passing grade. She also found out quickly that her school time was only a slight buffer to what had been happening.
Her parents work hours were getting longer and longer and her siblings were often off at friend's places. She had been unable to make friends with anyone as her classmates thought her odd. She had never really shown any interest in anything even remotely girly aside from the one time she had taken her mom's lipstick and painted her face with it to see what she would look like with red skin.
Her father had never really let her play sports with him and her brother as he was a little old fashioned about sports only being a boy thing.
One thing she did like though were insects and arachnids. She would often spend a lot of time capturing them; she would then carefully dissect them as she was curious about how they worked. She also liked the sound of them popping between her fingers when she squished them.
So, once she was found doing this by one of her classmates, she was labeled a weirdo and they would not go near her.
The girl pondered at her classmate's reaction to her preferences as she found many of their normal behaviours odd. The boys chasing the girls around the yard, the girl giggling as they gossiped to each other.
All of it just struck her as nauseating and she did everything she could to avoid both scenarios. This was probably because she could not keep up with all the weird rumours the girls had going around and she did not like it when the boys caught her. She had surmised that this had to do with the fact that these interactions often reminded her of how her grandfather treated her.
She cursed the fact that unlike her classmates she already knew about this sort of stuff. Her knowing about this was her own fault though due to the only other pleasure she had.
The only other thing the girl liked to do was read. Her parents didn't know it but she had read every book in their house that she could get her hands on by the age of five. Since no one wanted to play with her the only option she had was to read both at home and at school, she even tried to read what she could at her grandparents.
Often times though this back fired on her, this was because sometimes when she would go to change out her book her grandfather would either try to ambush her, or he would be seated on the couch in a more advantageous position. Due to this she gave up reading the books there unless she had someone else with her when she went to change them out.
By the time she was seven she had read all the books in her school library that she was allowed to. There were some there that the librarian would not allow her to read because they were inappropriate for her age.
Her solution for this was to get her grandparents to take her to the public library where she would sneak in books, she knew she would not normally be allowed to check out. This was how she learned that what her grandfather was doing to her was both wrong and very dangerous.
At first, she just felt extremely worried about what might happen if her grandfather went to the final step with things. So far, she had been able to avoid this but she knew it could happen and was doing everything to avoid it.
Her way of rebelling against what was happening to her was to make herself as undesirable as possible. She insisted on cutting her hair short and wore the baggiest clothes possible; she also didn't shower for days at a time if she could avoid it. She hated her body and had started to cut her legs when she turned eight. She knew the scars would not be visible that way. She had also started to burn things whenever she could.
Her mother smoked so she would sometimes steal lighters and matches from her. If one of her siblings was left in charge of her they were not nearly as responsible as her grandparents when watching her.
They left her roam free in the ravine behind their house; she absolutely loved these periods of freedom. These were the times when she would set fire to things. At first it started small with just piles of dead twigs and leaves where she would often throw in insects to watch them catch fire.
It gave her a small thrill whenever she could see one of them trying to scurry away in panic only to realize they were doomed. It was especially satisfying when the ones that could fly would try to get away and would get caught by a sudden tongue of flame.
Watching them burn in the fire gave her an idea. As from her normal vantage point all she could usually see was the creatures either shriving or bubbling up as they died.
Now she would sometimes take the insects and spear them on a small twig. The girl would then place the twig into the ground and slowly burn the insect alive.
She experimented, starting from different points on different insects each time. The girl found it disappointing when she could not devise a way to burn smaller insects this way; such as ants or millipedes. Though the worst one she found was slugs and snails as they smelt horrible when being burned. It made her vaguely wonder how people could eat escargot.
Eventually she found an old shack in the ravine. After watching it for a while and planning carefully she knew she was going to set fire to it. Not just how to, but that it was going to happen.
She went there on a Saturday morning. She had planned it to coincide with her parent's date weekend and her grandparents' vacation. An hour after her parents had left her brother shooed her out of the house as his girlfriend was coming over.
He told her she could come back in for food and the bathroom but that was it till dusk. Her sister was off at a friend's house as usual.
This had now become a regular thing ever since the girl had accidently walked into him and his girlfriend being frisky on the living room couch. She had wolf whistled at them as she walked from the hallway and into the kitchen.
Needless to say, her brother and his girlfriend were not impressed by her reaction to catching them in the middle of things. After threatening to tell their parents though her brother had agreed to allow her to go outside until dark as much as she liked whenever he was watching her. In exchange he could have his girlfriend over whenever he wanted and she would keep her mouth shut.
She headed outside and down to the ravine where she could get things started.
So, there she was with her tools; a lighter, some matches, and a can of highly flammable body spray. She made a larger pile of sticks and leaves then usual inside the shed itself. She then sprayed it down with the body spray. After that she waited for a little bit, she knew the fumes were flammable and did not want to be caught in the blaze.
After sufficient time had passed she went back in and nestled the can in the middle of the pile. She then lit the base of the logs and sticks and ran out swiftly just in case it caught fire quickly. She sat about ten feet away and waited with her knees drawn up to her chest, her arms wrapped tightly around them.
It did not take long for the whole pile of logs and twigs to be engulfed in flames. She then heard a curious whistling noise, she soon realized it was the can of body spray. The fire had gotten hot enough to cause a weak point in the can to open up and what was left of the spray to escape. About ten seconds after the whistling stopped there was a deafening boom. The can had exploded causing part of the fire to collapse slightly.
The shack itself took a while to catch fire completely. Once it did though it looked spectacular. The flames roared five feet over the roof and two of the walls gave way at the same moment, crashing to the ground in a pile of smoldering rubble.
Shortly after that the wind suddenly shifted blowing the smoke and soot towards her. She cursed under her breath as she coughed harshly at suddenly breathing in a large amount of smoke. She switched sides and moved a little farther away as the building finished burning.
She had hidden two buckets near the site several weeks ago just for this event. She now fetched them and put out the fire with water from a nearby stream. This was the other reason she knew she was going to do this, cause she could prevent it from spreading.
After putting it out completely she looked up and realized to her dismay that it was already dusk. She cursed in irritation and swiftly ran back to her house. She hoped to god that her brother was to occupied with his girlfriend down in his basement bedroom to be on the main floor. Her luck panned out, he was nowhere to be seen when she got to the back door.
Slipping in quietly, she went up to the bathroom and began cleaning herself off. She was covered in soot and dirt. As she did this she knew she could not return to the woods after this. There was too much of a risk getting caught near the site any time soon after what she had just done. Not many people frequented the ravine, but the few who did came often enough to notice what had happened.
No one in her family suspected a thing. She had been very careful about removing the dirt from herself and her clothes as well as her shoes.
When her brother asked her why she hosed down her shoes and threw them in the washer she lied and said she had stepped in dog shit.
By this age she was already doing her own laundry. This was because she always had to change after getting back from her grandparents. She could never stand to stay in clothes he had touched.
It was on her tenth birthday that everything changed for her. She was wearing a luridly pink shirt her grandmother had bought. It was a tank top and showed off parts of her body she was extremely uncomfortable with.
She had begun to hate her body even more as it developed against her will. She knew why she was developing early. The books she had covertly checked out of the library told her that it was her grandfather's fault.
It disgusted her and she wondered if there was some way for her to halt the process. She wanted to stop its progress, as she knew the more she developed the more likely her grandfather was to take things to far.
She had also begun to fantasize about killing him. Not just to escape the abuse, but she wanted to outright murder him in cold blood. She had thought of all the ways to do it. Part of her had also thought about killing her other family members for never noticing what was going on.
At this point they should have noticed she thought, after all she had shown all the textbook signs for years now. Unfortunately, her parents had no real interest in psychology and only really knew how to recognize physical abuse.
She would often curse them for their ignorance. The weird thing though was that even though she wanted to kill them it did not disturb her, in fact the thought amused her slightly.
She wondered what sounds they would make as they died, would they pop just like all those insects she had killed. The thought so amused her sometimes that she would burst out in hysterical laughter and would get weird looks from those around her.
At first, she could not control the laughter but after a while only a slight smile came to her lips. These were the only times she smiled she could not be bothered to try anymore. It was at this point that her grandmother seemed to notice something was happening but she was also in the beginning stages of Alzheimer's. This meant that both the girl and her grandmother were unsure whether anyone would take the older woman seriously.
This meant that the girl continued to suffer in silence, as her grandmother was becoming less and less able to help her. The girl did not resent this though, in fact she found it fascinating. Even though her grandmother was suffering the girl was surprised by how far her ever ailing grandparent was willing to go to protect her. Though the girl knew she was unable to feel the same emotion towards the older woman she felt oddly proud of her. For now she was unable to empathise but she still understood how powerful this emotion was.
They had gone into the bank so her grandparents could pay some bills. She sat in one of the chairs by the window and pulled out a book from her bag she was carrying.
She had begged and pleaded with her mother that she was old enough for the book. The book was "It" by Stephen King. Her mother had finally conceded after months of negotiations.
All her mother said to her as she patted her on the head and handed her the book was "don't let your father see it." She reveled in her prize as she sat at her grandparents house that morning.
After her grandmother had insisted she wear the shirt when they went out that afternoon she felt horribly exposed. Especially when her grandfather looked at her, every time he glanced her way she felt her skin crawl.
The bank itself was rather large and the inside was a pristine white. The outside was adorned with fake roman columns and a large golden clock hung over the entrance. The bold sized golden letters just above it spelled out Gotham City Bank.
On the inside to the girls right was a long row of ATMs which were gold and red in colour. The thin carpet that ran in front of them was black and looked freshly vacuumed.
Every teller window was manned by a well-dressed man or woman ranging in age every age, skin tone and hair style.
Her grandparents were quite a ways back in the lineup for the teller windows and the rest of the bank was equally busy. All over there were people dressed in suits darting around the bank floor. There were also several small groups of people standing around chatting with one another either happily or seriously.
Indeed, there was a small group of them standing in front of her talking to one another rather boisterously. It sounded as though one of them had closed a house sale without telling the buyer about a key detail.
"I thought you told them about that," a man in a black suit with tightknit curly black hair stated as he looked over at another man curiously.
"Well, I told him the result. What I failed to mention was how it got there," the other man who was wearing a dark blue suit with no jacket answered sheepishly.
"What's that supposed to mean," the shortest man in the group asked. He was quite portly and almost bald with only a small ring of black and loosely curly hair on his head.
"I told him what happened I didn't explain how it happened," he expanded as he fiddled nervously with his burnt orange coloured tie.
"How'd ya pull that off?" The fourth man asked, he was easily the tallest of the group and he was skinny as a twig. His lanky frame was adorned in a greyish brown business suite.
"Umm, you see, I sort a told them that they passed away in the house. I never explained how," the man answered as he swept back his blond and impeccably kept hair.
"Ohh, impressive, how'd you mange it?" the bald man asked eagerly as he leaned in closer.
"Well you see I," he began to explain but then stopped short as his face went very pale.
At this point the girl did not notice as she had long ago tuned out of the conversation and gone back to her book.
Since her back was to the window and her head was buried in her book, she didn't notice till they had entered the building and began firing into the air.
She looked up sharply just as He walked in. She had never seen anyone like him before. It wasn't his body or even the gun that he carried in that caught her eye, it was his face. It was garishly painted, like a clown, only it looked like it was done by someone who only had the vaguest idea of what a clown was supposed to look like.
His face was a sickly white colour except for his mouth which was bright red and he also had large black circles around his eyes. The paint was sloppy and uneven and his mouth looked as though it was affixed in a permanent smile. His hair was also neon green and looked almost fake. Then he looked up and laughed, not just laughed but cackled maniacally as he fired his gun off into the ceiling and twirled on the spot.
At the sound of his laughter she felt a chill run down her spine but it wasn't at all unpleasant. On the contrary it was a sensation unlike anything she had ever felt before. She looked down at her book again as he began to speak.
"Well boys, looks like we got ourselves a hostage situation, perfect," he spoke the first part of the sentence in a rather high pitched voice, then suddenly growled out the last word. He snickered quickly before directing his men.
Something she had noticed as the men moved around and hustled the hostages off elsewhere was that no one seemed to notice her. Maybe it was because she had not acted like the others, moving rashly and getting themselves seen. Instead she remained silent and still as she continued to read her book.
It had just switched to a section where they're kids and it was reaching a good part.
After making sure his men had gone to do their jobs he turned around and finally noticed her sitting there. "Well, well, looks like we missed one," he mumbled under his breath in an annoyed tone as he walked over to her.
The Man walked over to the girl and noticed her overly shaggy appearance. Though her shirt was obviously new the rest of her ensemble was decidedly weather worn.
Her baggy jeans had many patched holes with horribly contrasting colours. Her mismatched socks were both two large and her shoes were falling apart they were also a garish shade of yellow.
Even her hair was weirdly off; the entire thing was lopsided. It almost looked as though she had cut it herself. There was even a bright red streak in the front of her hair that looked as though it was applied very recently.
It made her look both unkempt and spunky in an oddly defiant way. It weirdly appealed to the man and he had a somewhat amused smile playing about his mouth as he approached her.
She turned the page of her book as he approached. This seemed to strike a chord with him as he stopped in front of her he said sounding mildly amused, "aren't we the bold one."
She shrugged her shoulders and continued to read on. He then pointed his gun directly at her forehead. "You know it's not polite to ignore someone who's talking to you," he growled at her. The man wondered at the audacity of this small child whose attitude perfectly matched her mismatched attire. Even though the man was slightly irritated at her lack of fear her also felt somewhat intrigued by her actions.
She picked up her bookmark off her lap then closed the book as she set it on her lap. She then stared up at him intently and waited. He stood up put his hand over his eyes and directed his gun at the ceiling and then began to laugh hysterically. He walked away from her a little and stared through one of the cashier stands for a moment.
He turned around looked at her and smiled widely somehow revealing all of his teeth. "You know for someone staring death in the face you are remarkably calm," he stated in that high-pitched tone.
"If you were going to kill me you would have done it already," she told him in a rather matter of fact way.
"Is that so," he mused more to himself then to her as he brought his hand up to his chin and stared at the ceiling.
"Yep," she said as she opened her book again.
He walked over to her, stopped about three feet in front of her and stared down at her. "You're not the least bit scared of me, are you?" he questioned sounding slightly intrigued.
She glanced up at him before responding, "there are things in this world scarier than you." The girl had an extremely grim look on her face at saying this to the Man.
He looked at her with slight alarm. "It's a little odd for someone your age to be saying that," he stated sounding slightly thrown off by the statement she had made.
The girl shrugged slightly at this with a forced smile on her face. "I can't help it if it's true," she pointed out in a wary tone.
"But what could you possibly," the man began incredulously but was cut short by loud voices outside a nearby doorway.
Just then two of his men burst into the room carrying a security guard. They were both wearing ski mask with bright green smiles and blue eyes painted on them. They threw the security guard on the ground before looking up at their boss.
"We caught him calling the police. What should we do with him Boss?" The taller of the two asked as he stood to his full height. The thug then kicked the security guard as he tried to get up from the floor.
The other accomplice who was extremely broad pulled out his gun threateningly and waved it in the winded guards face.
Their boss glanced over his shoulder moved his gun around to face the guard then shot him quickly in the head. The sound was quick and not as loud as she thought it would be.
The thug closest to the guard had to jump back at the Boss suddenly discharging his weapon. He narrowly missed getting shot in the foot and stood well back from things after that.
The other thug also jumped back but did not retreat nearly as far as the other man.
"Now get back to work, before I shoot you to," he said quickly then laughed slightly as though the thought amused him. From what the two thugs knew of their Boss killing them just for the hell of it probably would appeal to him in some strange way.
The two thugs escaped the room quickly leaving the guards body lying there as blood slowly pooled around it.
She shut her book then got up quickly and walked over to it. She kneeled down in front of him examining the body curiously. "That was quick," she said with interest.
The Boss as the thugs had called him walked over to her and stared down at her with interest. "You're quite the odd one aren't you," it was more of a statement then a question.
"You're one to talk," she retorted as she glanced up at him.
He giggled slightly at her response. "I suppose you're right," he said sounding amused. He seemed highly intrigued by his banter with the young girl.
"Why do you do it?" She asked him with an inquisitive look.
"Do what?" He asked her in response.
"All this," she said gesturing at his outfit, "just to rob a bank,' she expanded as he kneeled down beside her.
"Why do you think I do it?" He asked her sounding genuinely curious.
She glanced away from him and thought for a moment before looking at him again to answer. That's when she noticed his eyes, the irises were an odd shade of green, they looked almost yellow. "Fun, and an interesting sense of humour," she answered him holding back a smile.
He looked rather pleased with her response, in fact he began to rock back and forth on his heels as he cackled. "Well it seems you understand me better than anyone I've ever met," he said giving her another one of those eerily wide smiles.
She turned rather red at the Man's obvious flattery of her. She wondered what she could say in reply as she had not been expecting the sudden compliment.
"You know, I like you kiddo," he told her still smiling widely. "Though I have a question for you now," he stated as he stood up and moved away from the body. The blood had begun to move very close to their shoes.
She stood up to and walked over to him before asking, "which is?" She did not know why but she wanted to be as close to this man as possible and stopped just short of running into him.
He turned to look at her before saying, "about what you said before, about me not being the scariest thing in this world, what did you mean by it?'
She knew she had to choose her words carefully but she also did not understand why she felt compelled to tell this man who had just killed someone in front of her as though it were nothing about what was happening to her.
"There is something scarier in my life then you, something that even after you're gone I will have to deal with for longer than I can bear," she began as she rubbed her arms as though trying to ward off a chill. "And it will only get worse, it always gets worse after something bad happens." She felt the shame course through her as she spoke, her voice getting more high pitched as she held back the urge to scream. "And there's nothing I can do about it. I don't have the strength or the means," her talk was cut short as he bent down so his face was level with hers.
"What if I gave you the means?" He asked her with a wide smile. "Or rather what if I became your means?" He continued as he looked her directly in the eyes.
"You would do that?" She asked him sounding surprised. The girl wondered at the Mans motivation to help her out of nowhere but also felt highly thrilled at the offer.
She wondered what would come of this and how far this man was willing to go for her.
"Why not?" He said as he straightened himself into an upright position again. "I mean after all, this bank robbery thing has been all rather dull aside from my little chat with you," he stated as he walked away from her slightly. "Besides it sounds as if this something, or should I say someone could do with a little more than what I did to that guard over there," he continued as he turned around to face her again. "Wouldn't you agree, my dear," He said as he opened his suit jacket to reveal a pistol, several small knives and a walkie-talkie.
She felt a slight thrill run through her at the site of the weapons. It was something beyond what she had felt at burning things and she wondered at her ever-growing odd list of preferences.
She did not even think before nodding in agreement. "Well then let's get to it shall we. All I need is a name," he said sounding more excited by the minute.
She told him her grandfather's name and that she did not want her grandmother to see this. "She has Alzheimer's and she is the only one that doesn't deserve this," she explained in a somewhat pleading voice.
To her relief the Boss agreed and then spoke his directions into the walkie talkie.
Her grandmother was getting worse by the month now and the girl knew that it would be to much for her family if both her grandparents died. It's not that she cared about their reactions, she just knew her acting skills weren't great enough to match her families. Besides she had other plans after this that she was already devising ways to reach her new goals.
As he led her into an empty room with a single chair and a table in it, he said, "now my dear I will have to tie you to the chair, after all, we don't want your grandfather to suspect till the last moment, now do we." He said this all with a thrilled smile as he led her to the chair.
"What do I need to do?" She asked him sounding curious.
"I am going to tie you to the chair, don't worry it shouldn't hurt, I think," the man informed her in a pondering kind of way.
"I'll be fine," she reassured him in a firm tone as though she was trying to convince herself as well.
He tied her loosely but it looked convincing. "Now it's up to you how I conduct this," He stated as he kneeled in front of her just having finished tying her feet. "How do we do this my dear?" he asked her sounding as though it really did interest him.
She thought about it for only a moment before answering, "make it sound like I told you against my will, as though you coerced it out of me and you're doing this as a twisted form of entertainment for yourself." The girl had a very contemplative look on her face as she said this to the Boss.
He looked up at the ceiling while laughing. "You really do crack me up kiddo," he said as he looked at her with another one of those wide smiles.
The girl smiled a little at this and felt herself turning red again. "You asked," she blurted out sounding embarrassed.
The Boss was a little thrown off by the girl's response to his admittance. "Of course, I asked, how else would I know otherwise. I'm not psychic," the man retorted as his voice sounded increasingly angry.
The girl felt more than a little startled by the Boss's reaction and took a moment to answer. "I-I just, I'm sorry," the girl responded sounding highly upset but had a weirdly cute look of hesitation on her face.
The Boss felt uncomfortably off put by the girl's apology. He had not expected it from the bold child and it threw him off greatly.
"Never mind, let's just get back to things shall we," the Boss redirected as he opened up his jacket to grab his walkie talkie.
The girl nodded solemnly and then slouched slightly in the chair.
This is when she looked around the oddly empty room. From what the girl could surmise this had been a small meeting room. There were several inspirational posters that adorned the four beige walls. There was also a fair-sized potted plant over by the solitary window that was south facing but entirely frosted.
He went and stood by the door then said into his walkie-talkie, "bring him in."
She looked him over more thoroughly now that he was directly in front of her. His suit was dark purple, the dress shirt under it was bright yellow and his tie was the same shade of neon green as his hair. He wore white gloves and the pistol he was holding in his left hand was silver. Even the man's shoes and socks were purple but she noticed one sock had a patch sown on that was bright green and a completely different texture from the rest of the sock.
A good two minutes passed in silence then the door opened and her grandfather was roughly shoved into the room. He tripped almost falling flat on his face, he caught himself at the last second though.
The girl looked down at her grandfathers slightly dishevelled appearance.
His light brown leather jacket was askew and the light grey shirt under it had a button undone revealing her grandfather white undershirt. One of the mans reddish brown leather loafers was half off his foot and his glasses fell out of his pocket and clattered to the greyish wood floor.
As he struggled to his feet he looked up and noticed her tied to the chair. "Thank goodness you're alright," he said wheezily as he got up almost to a standing position. It was at this precise moment that The Boss made his move; he leapt forward in one fluid movement bringing the pistol around and whipping her grandfather in the temple with it.
He crumpled almost instantly grabbing at the slight wound the weapon had made which was already trickling blood. The man then held the gun to her grandfather's head and yelled, "Surprise," and then began to cackle maniacally.
Her grandfather looked up in confusion at first, then his expression changed to horror at the site of this man. "Wha, what are you going to do to us?" He asked shakily as he kneeled on the floor.
Her grandfather looked as though he wanted to run as far away as he could. The sight of her grandfather's terror filled expression filled the girl with glee. She could not believe she was seeing this, it all seemed to good to be true.
The man laughed again before bending over to look her grandfather right in the eye. "Oh it's not a question of what I'm going to do, but what you've done to her," he answered as the last few words came out in a low growl.
Her grandfather looked genuinely confused as he stammered, 'I-I d-don't know what you mean."
The boss whacked the old man in the chin this time, causing him to fall backwards onto the floor. As he laid there dazedly looking up at the ceiling the man placed one knee on his chest and pointed the gun at his forehead. "You know exactly what I mean," he stated sounding serious for the first time as he deliberately put all his weight on the knee resting on her grandfather's chest.
Her grandfather looked greatly terrified. "I really don't know what you're talking about," he answered as his words came out in a high-pitched wheeze.
The man then drew a knife from his pocket and rested it upon her grandfather's cheek. "Oh, but you do old man," he stated as he smiled wickedly at him. "Your granddaughter over there told me quite a bit not too long ago. About what you did to her. It took some persuading, but I got the story out in the end," he explained as though what he had done to hear her story was nothing important.
"Y-you're lying," her grandfather retorted shakily. "There's not a scratch on her," he continued as he glanced over at her. She made sure to look away from him as he did this in order to hide her look of interest.
She couldn't help but be fascinated by what she was seeing. The blood oozing from the wounds, the bruises already forming on her grandfather's face, the dull sound the pistol had made as it made contact with his skull. All of it intrigued her, she didn't want to admit it yet but she wanted to see more.
"Oh, there's more than one way to get what you want out of a person," the man said as he looked up at her, she pretended to look away in shame at this point. "But then you would already know all about that, wouldn't you," He growled sounding angry as he looked back at the man with a feral expression.
"How dare you," her grandfather began, but his sentence was cut short by the man slicing open his cheek with one swift movement. Her grandfather yelped in surprise and pain at the sudden and very deep wound. The Boss's knives were so well sharpened he had almost pierced right through her grandfathers cheek.
"How dare I!" The boss stated sounding angry as he stabbed the knife into the floor just millimeters from her grandfather's head. He then stepped off his chest and pulled him up by his shirt till they were almost nose to nose. "Oh no my dear sir, how dare you," he spat at her grandfather before shoving the older man's head into the floor.
He quickly took another knife out of one of the holders on his jacket. "Now listen to me, and listen well cause I don't like to repeat myself," he said quickly sounding angrier by the minute. "You are going to confess to everything, and if you don't, every ten seconds I will slice you, got it," he explained as he tossed the old man across the room.
Her grandfather moved his arms up to protect himself as he stammered sounding terrified, "I-I really d-don't know what you w-want." He tried to shuffle away from the man but The Boss lunged at him, swinging the knife wildly and laughing like a madman.
Her grandfather tried to get away from him but every time he would let him get slightly ahead then he would pounce again making the slices ever deeper.
She watched in fascination whenever she could get away with it. If she knew her grandfather was about to look her way she would turn her head away and pretend to flinch at the sound of the blows and her grandfather's pleading. The girl wished there was a way to record this as she wished she could rewatch it to see what she had missed.
Whenever The Boss glanced at her he could see that she could hardly contain her fascination with what he was doing. This amused him immensely and made him laugh even harder. It wasn't that he cared about the fact that she didn't care about her grandfather's suffering. He was just happy that he was giving her a good show that was until.
Her grandfather collapsed, holding the table beside her. He reached out towards her and mumbled desperately, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." He looked truly desperate and weak, it sickened the girl and made her skin crawl. The girl could not believe she had let such a weak creature take advantage if her like this.
It was also the first time she witnessed raw violence first hand, and she knew she could not get enough of it.
Just then The Boss wrapped his arm around her grandfather's throat and hoisted him up. "Ah, ah, ah, we can't have that," He said as he slowly tightened his grip around the old man's neck. "We can't have the actors addressing the audience, this isn't some Deadpool comic after all," He said sounding slightly annoyed, he then slammed her grandfather's head off the table. As the old man crumpled to the floor The Boss twirled around laughed and drew out his pistol once more.
He dragged her grandfather over to her then grabbed him by the hair forcing his head up so he would look at her. "Now you know what the best part is about this old chap?" The boss asked the old man as he blurrily stared up at his granddaughter. She was finally looking at him, really looking at him but her face was expressionless.
"She was in on it that whole time," he stated loudly as he began to chuckle. "And you never suspected a thing." He continued gleefully. He gripped her grandfather's hair tighter and drew his head up more. "That's right, she wanted this to happen to you," he growled scathingly. "and now the question is my dear," The Boss said looking up as he put his pistol to her grandfather's temple. "Has he had enough? Does he deserve to live?" He asked her with a smile, sounding excited.
She looked at her grandfather blankly as his expression pleaded with her. "No," was all she said, then the trigger was pulled. Again, the sound was not as loud as she expected it to be.
The bullet went straight through his head and embedded itself in the wall. She watched as the light went out in her grandfather's eyes and his head fell to the floor oozing blood.
The Boss let her grandfathers body fall to the floor in front of her with a dull thud. The man had a rather shrewd expression on his face as he stared down at the now lifeless body.
"That's one monster down, now it's time for this one to head out," the Boss stated in a somewhat satisfied tone as he looked up at the girl.
"What's your name?" The girl inquired in a highly interested manner.
Not even five seconds after she asked this the Boss's walkie-talkie seemed to explode with noise. It sounded as though the cops had finally arrived.
"Well here come the rest of the actors it seems," The boss said as he straightened up a little. He then moved forward and reached around her. She thought at first that he was going to untie her but the next second she felt all the ropes tighten at once.
He moved back and just as their heads were side by side he whispered, "Well that's that my dear." He then gave her a swift kiss on the cheek. He stood up, whirled around and headed for the door. "Thanks for the laugh kiddo," He said to her in his high-pitched voice as he simultaneously waved at her and opened the door. He then laughed maniacally as he left the room.
Before she knew it she was laughing, she was laughing harder than she had ever laughed in her life. She laughed until she cried and could not breathe. Luckily by the time the police found her the laughter had subsided. She looked down as she heard them approaching and pretended to be sobbing. As they opened the door she heard them talking quickly.
"God damn it, what the hell was that guy," one of them asked as he swung the door open.
"I don't care what he was, Jesus Christ," the other began to answer as he looked through the doorway at the bloody mess at her feet.
Just then a third police officer came over. "What are you two, oh my lord," he exclaimed as he saw what was in the room.
The second officer who had talked yelled back to someone out of sight, "hey we need forensics over here."
The girl had been to preoccupied before this to notice the state the room was in. The table was smeared with blood in several places. There were dots or blood all over the wall and floor. Even the ceiling had not escaped the carnage. The girl also noticed three large blood pools spreading from her grandfather. There was the obvious one from his head, also accompanied by one in his stomach and another from his left leg.
The blood had spread so far that the girl's shoes were sitting in it. The girl felt immediately disgusted by this and wanted to burn her sneakers.
The third officer to arrive charged into the room. "We need to get her out first, have some discretion Bullock," he said sounding angry as he crossed the room to untie her from the chair.
After being untied she was sent outside after telling them it was her grandfather he had killed. "He, he only w-wanted to protect me," she began in a shaky voice. "H-he said if my grandfather d-didn't entertain him he'd d-do things to me," she explained further her voice becoming more and more unsteady.
"What sort of things?" The officer who untied her from the chair asked sounding concerned.
"I d-don't know," she said as she buried her head in her hands. "I just, I just," she began as she pretended to shake uncontrollably.
"It's alright." He said as he grabbed her shoulder to steady her. "That's enough for now." He continued as he kneeled down to look at her. "You said your grandmother was here too right?" He asked her as she lowered her hands and sniffled. She nodded silently as she continued to cry, she found it very easy to continue crying as the flow had already started.
"Let's go out and find her," he suggested as he stood up once more. She nodded in response and they walked out of the building and into the fading sunlight.
Outside it was still chaos, it appeared as though her grandfather and the security guard were not the only casualties. The girl clearly saw at least five body bags and numerous people on stretchers.
The people that had not been hurt were huddled together over to the far left of the bank and were surrounded by police officers who were still taking statements.
It was over this way that the girl headed with the officer just behind her. The girl though did not want to keep walking, she wanted to stay were she was and watch the drama unfold.
The thugs were still being put into the many police cars surrounding the bank. Though to the girl's disappointment it appeared as though that man had already been taken away.
Due to realizing this displeasing fact the girl swiftly walked over to the small group of survivors.
The instant she saw her grandmother she called out to her, "grandma, grandma." She ran towards the older woman who was looking around wildly at the sound of the girl's voice.
Her grandmother rushed over and embraced the girl who was already almost as tall as she was. "Oh my dear, oh my dear, thank god you're alright," she exclaimed shakily as she hugged her granddaughter tightly.
The girl began to shake and cry as her grandmother hugged her. "Grandma I'm sorry, I-I'm so s-sorry, he in front of m-me," she began her voice beginning to shake. "Grandpa is, grandpa is," Before she could continue her story though her grandmother held her closer
"I'm sorry Harleen, I'm so sorry," she said before she too was reduced to tears.
Harleen barely registered what her grandmother was saying, she had seen him. The patrol car he was in was still there at the scene, and it was right in front of her.
He looked terrible now though, as though someone had beaten the ever-loving shit out of the man.
Harleen felt a hot wave of fury wash over her as she detangled herself from her grandmother. She quickly rearranged her features as she resumed looking at her grandmother. "I'm sorry grandma, there was nothing I could do," she explained in a regretful tone.
"My dear, don't blame yourself. You can't help what monsters do," her grandmother answered Harleen with a sad shake of her head.
At Harleen's grandmother's words Harleen also shook her head though it was in exasperation rather than sadness. "That was no monster. Just a very sick man. I just happened to be the one he caught and decided to toy with," Harleen explained rather well as she wiped her eyes and sniffled a little as she began to fake cry again.
"Oh, Harleen dear," the older woman responded then hugged her granddaughter again.
Harleen had anticipated this and used it to her advantage to sneak another peak. To her delight it paid off, he was even facing in her direction this time.
This was when Harleen noticed the swollen eye socket that was turning darker by the second. Noticing this Harleen realized the man was not wearing makeup and that his skin actually looked like that.
As Harleen patted her grandmother sympathetically on the back she also saw the smeared paint around the mouth and that his hair though ruffled was mostly still sticky upright a little.
Harleen vaguely wondered what he looked like without the garishly painted mouth but then he seemed to notice her through the crowd.
Harleen blinked and squinted at him as he moved his face closer to the window. Harleen looked around a bit to try and see if he was looking at someone else. Once she established that he really was looking at her she gave him a thumbs up and as wide a smile as possible.
The man seemed highly pleased by this as he fell back in a fit of giggles at Harleen's response. When he was finished, he gave her the thumbs up and then appeared to begin yelling at someone in the front seat of the police car.
Harleen felt thrilled at this and now she knew for sure what she had to do to get to where she wanted.
Hey guys,
So, I managed to finish the first chapter more quickly then I thought. From here on out though the updates will be every two weeks from now on. Also, if you want sneak peeks or any news about my writing progress please follow me on twitter and Instagram:
rjmeijers90 and Rjmeijers90
I won't ask you to enjoy as this isn't exactly a pleasant read but I do hope that it at least makes you think.
Sincerely,
RJ Meijers