Chapter Seven: The Broken Mind
Authors notes:
Anyone easily disturbed should be wary of this chapter and those after. You'll see why, but I am introducing a very dangerous criminal into this story, one based off of multiple real life killers.
Trigger warnings all apply. Rape, death, torture. Nothing too graphic, because I wanted this fanfic to stay rated T.
The young couple exited the plane quickly, being the premiere passengers that they were. They each left one goodie bag heavier, including soft pajamas, slippers, lotions, and the ever important sleeping mask.
The walkway between the plane and the airport was sturdy and as Kaori stepped off it into the airport, she was unaware that she was already being watched.
Kousei felt a tickle in the bond. It was common enough, as Kaori's beauty attracted all sorts of looks.
They were passing a magazine stand, full of popular publications, and mostly devoid of customers. One dark-haired man was operating the stand.
However, he brushed it aside. Kousei was too tired to care at the moment. He hadn't gotten much sleep on the flight. Kaori felt him push on the bond, getting rid of a feeling.
"What was that?" Kaori was obviously curious, brushing a lock of her hair out of her face, her lifted arm accenting her frame.
The tickle returned again.
He let her feel it this time.
This was clearly someone not afraid to stare. Kaori was honestly too tired to understand the implication of it.
And as they moved on to get their belongings from baggage claim, they didn't understand the sort of beast that was on the hunt.
Trigger warning. Last chance to leave.
He was a monster. His family knew it, he knew it, and the children that he had made disappear definitely knew it.
He'd never been caught. He hadn't left any evidence, aside from his first kill. He had been inexperienced, and hadn't disposed of the victim in the same way as the rest.
"I guess we are all fools at one point or another," said the man, airport worker Matthew Poulsen, aged thirty-three.
He didn't think he was bad looking. Age was starting to wear him down, along with his lifestyle, but his face was as boyish and trustworthy as ever.
As an adult, he was a career criminal. But no one knew about the broken mind his skull housed. He was entirely sane. Just unforgivably, unspeakably evil. As a child, he'd experimented on animals. He hadn't done it for any scientific reason. He just liked to hear them squeal. He'd been obsessed with death. It wasn't a sexual thing with them.
He spoke softly, crooning to no one in particular.
"I could never hurt them…"
But they were bad, so they had to go away. His mother had found him one day, standing over one of his experiments. The wicked smile on his face would forever haunt her mind.
His animal killings only became less and less satisfying. By the age of 19, a little girl had gone missing from his hometown. He even joined the search. He would talk about the case to whoever would listen. And in his mind as he cried those crocodile tears for the masses, he remembered gleefully how he took everything from her.
She had only been twelve. He didn't care. He never would.
And as he looked for his next victim, he spotted a radiant young woman, accompanied by a lithe young man.
"Such a waste," he whispered under his breath, "I'd do so many things to you, little lady."
The young man shivered.
The girl spoke briefly to the young man.
The girl lifted her arm, and his broken mind liked what it saw, sexualizing an underdeveloped body.
But he tore his eyes away.
That's how it always started. For a while, in between his triumphs, he could control his urges. For a week, or a month even. But then he started slipping. And then the monster would say hello.
They never stood a chance against him. His victims were always of small stature. Exclusively. And it just so happened that Matthew Poulsen was a tall man. He was 6'2.
But he was poor, from his sentence for the animal abuse charges filed against him by his own mother.
The once robust killer was now thin, and occasionally getting sloppy when assaulting the girls. Sometimes, he would accidentally forget to tie down an arm or leg, and he would have to cover his face while at work to hide the scratches.
He had used many different excuses to explain away absences from work.
And many excuses for the injuries occasionally inflicted on him by his victims.
A bush got my arm over the weekend, got a nosebleed that gave me a black eye.
That one had been particularly strong. An athlete. But in the end he'd broken her too.
And looking as the young lady moved on with her little boyfriend, he couldn't help but stare, and as both of them shivered, he smiled, but his eyes weren't smiling. They were predatory. And no one was going to stop him from getting his prey.
Not this time.
Kaori and Kousei both shivered, the bond continuing to alert them to the passing danger, but as they rounded the corner to baggage claim, the stares disappeared, the tension in the bond dissipating.
They didn't really notice that much, given that one of them had been up the majority of a day, and the other just being exhausted by her first flight.
Kaori wasn't the strongest woman ever. She'd kept going to the gym after her physical therapy was over, but her returns quickly became diminishing in nature.
"I hate that this made me so tired. I thought I'd be excited. Right Kousei?"
She turned to her partner, who was essentially dead walking. He needed sleep, and desperately.
They waited several minutes for their luggage.
Kousei almost fell asleep on his feet.
They grabbed their things, and blustered out of the airport, heading toward the private transport vehicle they'd booked for movement to and from the airport.
They saw the name Arima on the sign that the chauffeur was holding up. He helped Kousei load their things, while Kaori took her seat in the back. Kousei opened the door shortly after, shooting his head onto her lap after leaping onto the seat.
"Immature much, hon?" Kaori said, clearly amused by her boyfriend's antics.
Kousei was serious about sleeping on her lap. She wasn't having it, and tugged on her side of the bond, snapping him out of part of his stupor. He started to act his age, sitting up and blinking dazedly.
The car was already en route by the time he was done waking up.
Their hotel was nice enough, being modern and sleek.
Advanced amenities and comfort were the big priorities for the two of them when booking the hotel, so they chose the one that best fit their needs, regardless of its cost.
They could have gotten separate beds, but Kaori had thought that that would be lame, sleeping in a bed without her partner in it. And Kousei couldn't have agreed more.
They approached the hotel, the sign getting larger in Kaori's line of sight.
The hotel wasn't particularly big, but it was comfortable, and modern. It was an average size for a hotel.
There were always rooms available, as they didn't overbook their rooms, constantly having some stay on reserve.
They pulled into the parking lot.
"Kousei, don't fall asleep! We're here!"
They struggled with their things, getting them into the hotel lobby. Unbeknownst to them, they had led the monster right to where they'd been staying, and he'd soon know who they were.
They didn't know that the kindly man who had shown them to the particular hotel loading bay at the airport had been the most evil person they'd ever meet. Because he'd stopped looking at them, and they hadn't seen his eyes, brown and beady.
They couldn't have known about the children he'd made disappear. They'd have never come if they knew what they'd walked into.
They'd walked cleanly into a practiced trap.
He knew by Kaori's violin case that she was an international contestant. And as Matthew Poulsen drove to the hotel, he asked for a reserve room, which he'd done before. And the employees there knew him by now.
After all, the time spent there the last two years hadn't all been used to make two young violinists disappear.
He would have never expected what he was now up against. He couldn't have possibly known that he was up against a pair that knew when the other was in danger.
He was in the midst of making the last few mistakes he'd ever make. What more danger could he put himself in?
Kaori and Kousei had since forgotten about the lingering looks they'd received at the airport. They were currently tussling to see who would open their hotel room first, each pulling at the key.
Kousei took control of the keycard.
"Fine, then. You open the door. Meanie." Kaori was a secretly amused by their antics.
They were inside unpacking within minutes. And by they, Kousei was unpacking both suitcases.
He spotted lingerie in her suitcase.
"Oh god what does she have planned?" He thought this to himself, unaware that Kaori was closely feeling for his thoughts, hoping to catch wind of engagement plans.
He heard a whisper behind him.
"The better question is, dear heart, what do you have planned? That's what I'd like to know. And if I have to seduce it out of you," she said, leaning forward, pressing herself against his back, "I will."
They waited there, her chest on his back, each waiting for the other to speak.
"Are you gonna let me unpack, or are you going to keep searching me for engagement thoughts? Because let me tell you now. You aren't gonna find anything obvious."
She thought on it for a moment, and decided to let him continue, pulling out her phone and headphones, after letting go reluctantly.
Kousei was relieved. He'd been hiding the box in his left hand the entire time, and even now had her cut off from his side of the bond. He was lucky she wasn't hard pressed to figure out what was going on, or he'd really be toast.
She'd turned on a record from an old fusion band. Their hit song, "Japanese Soul Brothers," rang through the headphones, bringing her to somewhere else, in a club. Somewhere full of aggressive dancing and intensity. Somewhere where the stakes were high. Full of tension.
The song would eventually resolve, but as she was somewhere else, her partner was busy hiding the engagement ring. And he wasn't having too much luck.
He was grateful to have her, but hiding such an obvious box was a big hassle.
"I was able to hide it well enough before, what should I do now that she's in the same room and I can't leave without alerting her?"
And he did the one thing he could think of. He put it inside his spare shoes, which he never used, but brought along anyway.
And so he put it there indeed. And he roused her from her music-induced trance, breaking through her daydream. Kaori sat at the rooms little table, content. Kousei was getting them both tea, and Kaori was content as everything was well. But not everything was well, as they were about to learn.
There was a pause as he sat down. Time seemed to freeze for just a brief moment. Everything turned grayscale and back into color.
Words echoed through Kaori's mind. And they held a certain power over her, compelling her.
"Go to bed, child. I can't stay for long. I have a message for you two, and you need to hear it before you stay here any longer."
And like that, as soon as the words started, they stopped.
And at once, Kousei and Kaori understood.
Their limbs almost moved on their own, getting into their pajamas. The bond, as sentient as it was, knew when it was being spoken to by a higher power.
And as they laid in bed, cuddling, the bond pushed the two of them into a fitful sleep.
Kaori stood alone in the sky, her feet pressing against the blue nothingness underneath. She looked around in awe, this only being her second time seeing the place.
The whole floor was a mirror. Behind her, she heard a chuckle. She turned, and there was a man, wearing a toga and a half-crooked smile. He had wings. A halo of light surrounded his head, framing his eye sockets with an odd amount of shadow.
Angel?
"Yes, child. I am the messenger for those in danger, Markus. And I'm busy, so let me get to the point. You are being targeted by a sexual predator. One that has raped and killed multiple children. You are not safe alone, but so long as you stay with Kousei, you should be able to avoid danger. The feelings you two felt earlier were the stares of this man. He already has you in his sights. He will get you if you let your guard drop for even a second."
Kaori was stunned into silence. There was little she could say to that. "Isn't this a dream?"
"Does that make it any less real, child?" Markus said, emphatically. "I can tell you this much. I am real, and you are wasting my time. I have more than two thousand more messages to deliver in the next three hours, and I can only slow down time to one half normal speed."
"Okay. Don't let me keep you, then. Thanks for the warning…. Wait! What's this man's name?" Kaori had almost forgotten to ask.
"His name? Matthew Poulsen. Now," he said, breaking into a warm smile, "stay safe. Goodbye, for now." And with that, Markus disappeared.
And Kaori woke up with a terrified shout as their door rattled loudly.