Chapter 8: Unholy Baptisms

"I don't think this is cool, just coming in like this." Carly muttered looking around the unkempt garage.

"What? Look, the door was unlocked. He said he'd be half an hour, he's been freakin' hour and a half. I'm sure he won't mind. You know, if your brother and his yes man hadn't come along..." Wade replied crossly as he scanned the fanbelts on the wall. Coincidently, a 15 inch was the only one missing.

"That's not my fault. Nick's got beef with everyone. I don't know, he feels he needs to watch over me. He's the evil twin and he likes that image. That is his image." Carly rambled letting her fingers run over the carved up counter, "Wade, I'm sorry for his remarks."

"Hey, baby, it's not your fault. I know that." Wade stopped momentarily as a feeling of uncertainty washed over him, "Why would this guy just be missing a 15 inch?"

"I don't know, he a psychopath?" Carly laughed, "It's getting dark and really hate this winter."

"I guess I'll just take a 16 inch and make it work somehow-"

"You plan on stealing that?" Bo's asked leaning against the doorframe. He loved watching them squirm.

"No. We didn't know how much longer you were gonna be...and, you know, we didn't wanna interrupt again. I left you money on the counter but you don't have the right size, a 15 inch-"

"I do at the house." Bo said finally. He was getting into this. The blonde hottie was eyeing him and of course she would. Bo was well-aware of his good looks. He smiled at her and she gave him those innocent shy smiles back. Charming, he thought.

"You keep fanbelts at the house?" Wade asked as they trudged outside.

"Well, I get them delivered there when I'm not here."

"I'm sorry for the inconvenience." Wade blurted and it deeply amused Bo, "Do you mind if I use your restroom?"

"Not at all, no need to apologize," Bo replied curtly, "No need whatsoever."

Carly and Wade followed Bo along the gravel road. The silence wasn't awkward to Bo, not really, but he decided that he would instead narrate his story to this two strangers. They were going to die anyways. Why not give them some entertainment first? So, Bo began about his father and mother. The story was getting strange and he could see Carly and Wade cringing.

"Trudy got a cyst in her brain. She just started rotting away. Couldn't work no more and she went crazy. Things got so bad that Doc Sinclair finally had to strap her to the bed. The whole town could hear her screaming. Dr. Sinclair was so depressed that he couldn't save her......he blew his head right off."

"That's terrible." Carly supplemented.

"Uh, yeah." Bo shrugged before absentmindedly adding, "It was worse for the boys left alone like that. They both ended up in foster homes. But never mind that. It happened a long time ago. The town's all different now. Why don't you, Carly right? - sit in the truck and I'll go get the fanbelt. Your boyfriend can use the restroom."

Bo lead Wade into the house. The lanky boy was hardly worth all this choreography, Bo thought, but he had been careful. Before Adriana had come home, Bo outlined in harsh terms how exactly Wade was to be killed. He hardly told his unattractive half how to do things when his beloved was around because she freaked. She always broke into passionate speals on his cruelty. Why could Bo not just shoot them taking them out of their misery before blood spilled? Where was the fun in that?

Bo had always had a soft spot for Adriana. She was his partner in crime. But lately, she was morose and far more detached from them, Vincent included (who held a soft spot in her heart). Adriana was the champion of the underdog. She saw that in Vincent. She saw that in the victims. It was amazing that she was not demanding they stop this perverse tirade. Perverse, he was well aware of it. The bathroom door clicked shut. Bo trudged on upstairs and decided to change into more comfortable clothes.

Ironical, he thought, that today was his mother's death anniversary. Was that a sign from the heavens? He snapped out of his reverie when he saw Adriana in the doorway.

"There's that blonde in your truck."

"Hmm? I know." Bo said buttoning up his overalls, "Where were you?"

"What are you going to do to the boy?" Adriana said, her voice was shaking.

Bo grabbed her arms and peered intensely in his face.

"What's up with you?" He asked with a malicious smirk on his face, "You've always been for these artistic sacrifices. You look sick."

Adriana violently flung his hands off.

"What did you tell Vincent?" She snarled, "What are you making him do, huh? A live autopsy? Conscious brain surgery? Your mother wanted an art museum, not a sadist asylum! It's bad enough-"

"Oh, please." Bo rummaged under the covers on his bed for his cap, "Why do you have to do this everytime? I thought you would be over all this sensitive crap by now. It's just death. It happens. They will suffer but only for a moment."

"With you, it's never like that. A moment takes hours." Adriana was seething but her insides were quivering. This routine happened most times but she mostly stayed away from the killing. She only saw the bodies when Vincent was moulding them. At thirty-four, the toll of this bizzarism was getting to her.

"So what? I gotta go." Bo said indifferently, "Think twice before you do something stupid. You can continue this discussion after dinner or something."

Adriana stood in the dark of his room.

OoOoOoOoOoO

Wade fumbled around the strange room letting the inner child ravage the room. He picked up the preserved pig and shook it arounds. It was nasty smelling, like formaldehyde and burning flesh. Weird. He moved aside flipping through papers and pushing green curtains. Why was he doing this in a stranger's house? Wade knew Carly thought he was square. Always sticking to the rules. It would make an awesome story later. The lights cut out. Wade's heart began beating. This was bad. He inched towards the door and ran his fingers violently against the doorknob. It was locked. He was sweating and adrenaline was pumping. What was it.

Wade grabbed the closest thing to him. The turny thing and began flailing it about. What was out there? He turned to open the door and his vision blacked out momentarily when something cut through his foot. Now he was going to die.

Wade spun around in a desperate attempt to save himself. What was it? His vision cleared when he saw the hideous white face looking him with the biggest pair of scissors. Wade was begging for his life now. The scissor plunged into his chest leaving his nerves firing with hot burning pain. Wade screamed trying to fend off this brutal attacker. No use. He was on the floor merely covering his face when a steel-toe boot knocked him out. Blackness and nothing more...

OoOoOoOoOoO

Adriana heard the screaming. Her heart was beating fast. The boy was dying at Vincent's hand. She was such a coward. She paced the Bo's bedroom wondering what she should do. Adriana flung the door open. No time to think with logic, she thought. The voluptuous woman tore through the house to the surgical room. The trapdoor was open and there was blood on the floor. Adriana climbed down the ladder and jogged through the dusty corridor. She reached him while he stood over the stove warming wax.

"What was all the noise?" Adriana asked calmly, scanning the room to see the boy lying on the table moaning, "He's not dead."

Vincent look up and shook his head. He took a needle and threaded it. Adriana grimaced as he sewed up the boy. He was groaning and weak. Adriana could not watch. Maybe all these years of indifference had lead to this moment. To see a young man die from injustice, no, helplessness. It was her own vulnerability as a child that made her want a family but it was this ruthlessness that was making anger swell in her. In her eyes, Vincent was no longer the weak one. All these years, they were the monsters. She knew that. She knew it always. But it was hard to just walk away from a life where people accepted her wholeheartedly. Adriana wanted to help the boy on the table. But how?

"Help me." The boy was begging and it made her dizzy.

The stitches were complete and Vincent moved on to retrieve the wax.

"Bo needs your help upstairs." Adriana said avoiding his stare, "You want him to get angry? Because, you know how he is. He's going to kill the girl."

Vincent nodded putting down the wooden ladle and disappeared into the passageway.

Adriana ran to the table.

"Hey, you hear me? You have to help me or I can't help you, okay?" Adriana scanned his body, "That foot's not going to work. We have to hurry up. Put your arm around me. What's your name?"

"Wade. Wade. Please, help me." He rasped.

"Alright, calm down. I will, I will." Adriana pulled his legs off the table and draped his arm around her neck. For a girl, she was pretty strong, sporting a toned and strengthened body. In between these crazy searches for art bodies, Adriana did nothing but workout, "Hold on, hold on! What did he inject you with?"

Adriana picked up the syringe and sniffed it.

"Some variation on tranq. You're not going to move much." Adriana said, a small hope in her heart flickered. Why did good people suffer? Wade was so kind to his girlfriend, he was so innocent, so pure, "No matter. I'm going to save you, Wade. I will save you even if it kills me. Damn, I'm going to drag you out of here."

Adriana pulled him off the table and hobbled around the table towards another passageway. He was moaning in pain. The stitches in his chest were bleeding. She pulled Wade, he was limp but for an injured person he was trying very hard. Good, she thought. Adriana pulled him up the stairs and into the House of Wax. She stopped to listen for someone. Vincent did not return.

Adriana dragged Wade through the eerie dark hallways of the museum. They barged outside through the back and Adriana pulled him along violently towards a closeby house.

"Just a little more, darling," she murmured as if talking to a child, "A little more and you can rest."

Adriana was now hauling a nearly naked man through Ambrose's deserted streets. They did reach the house closest by. It was empty, Adriana's own safe haven from Bo and the others. It was where she lived as a normal woman who thought about the colour of eyeshadow that would look good on that green dress she was saving, what Madonna's latest single was, tomorrow's horoscope. She pushed him inside, her own muscles throbbing with pain, and bolted the door.

"Let me have a look." She spoke, "You'll be fine."

Wade was sweating profusely. He was moaning things in delerium. Did he ever think this was going to happen to him? He wondered what his parents were doing in Michigan. Was Carly going to die too? Did he love her?

The voice was whispering to him over and over. What was she? An angel? Was he dead yet?

"You will not die. I will not let you."

OoOoOoOoOoO

Bo dumped Carly into the dirty leather chair. She was fighting furiously with him which only angered him more. Why not just accept fate as it was and let him be the bringer of his destiny. Although Carly was arousing, his thoughts remained with Adriana. She was not a blood relation and therefore capable of all disloyalties. Bo suspected they would have to kill her. She would look beautiful in a red dress standing in the bedroom of the House of Wax. It would be a grand lie if he said he didn't think of Adriana in his bed either.

"Shhh, shhh." He cooed as he bound her hands to the metal bars, "Fiesty, aren't we? It's a shame we have to close that pretty mouth of yours. Especially with the way those lips curve."

He held her jaw bruisingly hard and squeezed super glue onto her perfect heart shaped lips. She was crying and sweating. Bo heard someone upstairs. He smiled at her and left the room.

"I'm looking for my sister and her boyfriend. They were looking for a fan belt or something." The hooligan looking punk spoke and it made Bo's blood boil.

"I don't think I've seen them." Bo replied with a curt grin. He knelt down, clippers in hand, pretending to tie his laces. Carly just did not accept her situation, stupid girl. He closed the pliers, snipping her lovely finger off.

"This is the only gas station in town, then they were definitely here." Nick spoke, "What's that noise?"

"Nothing, just my dog."

"Nick! Nick help me!" Carly screamed.

Nick gave Bo a punch across his jaw. The crunch made his adrenaline jump and instantly he was running inside the gas station. Nick leapt onto the garage and closed it locking the suave psychopath outside.

Bo was well-aware of the complication now. The brother and sister were together, could potentially warn the others. The police could get involved. No matter, he had much experience in this regard. He would kill them both before midnight.

OoOoOoOoOoO

Wade's eyes wearily opened. He could feel the buzzing of his foot, chest and arm. The burning of open flesh made his open his eyes faster and attempt to get the hell out of where he was.

"Where are you going? You're not moving anywhere."

Wade moaned in pain. He looked at the foot of the bed where he lay. She was there. That voice belonged to her? Wade looked at her closely. She had black hair, smooth, straight and silky; creamy burnt skin like a peanut; and intense dark blue eyes. What was her motive?

"You set us up!" Wade cried barely above a whisper as the throbbing intensified, "What kind of sicko are you?!"

"And you don't know how sorry I am. I am the worst kind of person. There will be plenty of time for me to rot in jail, Wade. I think you should just rest here quietly. There's not much else I can do for you." Adriana said leaning back.

"What did you do for me anyways?" Wade said, his face wet with sweat.

"I dressed your wounds and made sure you would wake up. You have the full right to hate me, to want to rip out my guts and eat them, to sell me into slavery-"

"You saved me from him." Wade said quietly.

"I promised myself I would save you." Adriana said rising from the bed and looking out of the window.

"Why?" Wade propped himself up, pulling the blanket higher.

"Why? Why indeed. Because you are innocent, helpless against Vincent and Bo. There is no way you can leave Ambrose with a major ligament torn in your foot, stab in the heart and heavy dose of tranquilizer, not to mention severe bleeding. You will die without my help."

Wade looked away.

"Now then, are you willing to cooperate with me, Wade? I will die in jail, rest assured, but I can help your friends too." Adriana let her eyes downcast, "Where are they? How many are there?"

"There are five others." Wade said, "Carly, that is my girlfriend, was outside the house when I was attacked."

"I see. I'm going to go look."

"How do I know you're not just setting me up again?"

"I would not have suffered so much backache to haul your heavy ass here unless I wanted to save you."

Adriana replied curtly as she scanned the depleted house.

"Guess you can take that." Wade shook his head towards a machete propped up against the wall behind the curtain.

"Yeah." Adriana said picking it up and grasping it firmly in her hand, "You're asking me to kill Vincent?"

"I want to save my friends and myself." Wade said finally looking at her. The pain was numb now. He looked down and saw a green gel over his wound.

"Gel novocaine and aloe. Feels good, huh?" Adriana opened the door, "Stay quiet. I'm going to find your supposed friends if they haven't deserted you already."


Reviews and suggestions welcome!