Part III

29

Wherever Everett had brought her, it didn't take long for Renee to soak through the blindfold through her tears, and she was entirely too afraid to be disgusted with her own behavior, thinking more important matters were at hand here.

Growing up with just her kid brother around, Billy had always been a huge fan of horror films, the gorier and more disgusting the better, and whenever Renee saw peoples' reactions on screen, the young woman swore she would never let herself act that way in such a scenario.

At least, that's what she bloody well told herself.

She, on the other hand, would be proud, brave, strong, and smart enough not to fall for the killer's ruse. And yet, here she bloody was, blindfolded, her wrists bound by a pair of handcuffs that she suspected the creep had enchanted somehow with that wand of his, considering they weren't coming off at all, no matter how much she wriggled her wrists.

Grunting with the effort to afford to trip over the hem of her black lace dress as Everett wordlessly steered her towards what she presumed was going to be some kind of a holding place, Renee found herself at a loss.

At a loss, utterly confused, cold, frightened, and struck to the bone with a horrible, debilitating fear that she didn't know how to react to her current precarious position. The fact that she had essentially sacrificed her freedom so that Lupin, Tonks, and Sirius would all be safe.

The fear that pricked at her heartstrings was bloody cold, raw, and a horrible, lonely terror that was clouding Renee's judgment, rendering her unable to think straight, much less see at all.

Oh wait, that was the blindfold, Renee thought bitterly to herself, letting out a muffled squeak of surprise as Everett's firm grip on her shoulder loosened and she felt herself being shoved to the hardwood floor, having to throw out her wrists to catch her fall and not break any bones in the process, which was easier said than done. The force of his shove was quite impactful.

Renee yanked futilely at her handcuffs, but the only thing she succeeded in doing was digging the harsh metal more into the skin of her wrists, causing them to bleed, and more tears came to her eyes as she struggled to think at all.

She wanted nothing more than to scream at the top of her lungs with every ounce of breath her heaving lungs could muster in the hopes that someone, hopefully, Sirius or Lupin, would hear.

Considering Tonks was a new mother to that precious baby with the gift to change his hair color that Renee wished she had, she decided she didn't want the witch anywhere near this perverted creep if she could at all help it.

No. Better that Tonks stays away, she hoped. Renee breathed an audible sigh of relief as she felt her blindfold being pulled off of her, and yet, as her vision slowly but surely cleared, her kidnapper was nowhere in her line of sight at all.

To say this unnerved her was an understatement. I bet he's using his magic to trick me, to turn this into some sort of game…

Renee swallowed thickly as she fought to tamper the scream that threatened to escape her lips, though she wanted nothing more than to let herself break down and just weep. But she couldn't. Her own death was not a thing she had any intention of hastening, and the longer she could stay alive and keep Everett placated, the better if it meant there was a chance help came.

Renee grunted through gritted teeth as she yanked hard at the handcuffs binding her wrists as she continued to pull futilely at them in a vain effort to free herself and try to escape this place.

Wherever 'here' happened to be. She looked around the dim, dank room that smelled of mold and blood and God knew what else the pervert had done to his victims in this room, assuming this was where he brought his other ones to die.

Just that thought was enough to incite fresh panic into Renee's bloodstream as a surge of adrenaline compelled her to keep trying to break free. Renee felt a warm trickling of blood that seeped its way down her wrist as she sliced into the soft flesh. The cuts on her palm seemed to have stopped bleeding, as did the gash over her left browbone that probably was going to need stitches, in time, but was already crusting over.

Renee tensed and stilled her movements as she heard the creaking of the wooden floorboards, and after a tense moment, she started yanking at the stupid handcuffs harder.

The young blonde Muggle woman tugged harder, feeling certain Everett was coming to kill her, and dispose of her body the same way he'd done to Billy before he'd move on the next.

Heavy footsteps thudded towards her location where she sat huddled and cowering in the southernmost corner of the desolate room, and she let out a startled yelp of pain the moment she felt the man's gloved hands around her wrists. Everett's hands held her steadfast and firm, preventing her from fighting with her cuffs.

Still, despite her best efforts not to, Renee could feel her lips start to quiver rather violently.

"Shut. Up. Be quiet, bitch," Everett whispered in a smooth, languid voice that would have, she supposed, under better and normal circumstances, once made her weak at the knees, but not right now. One hand left her wrists so he could place the pad of his finger against her lips.

"Please don't do this, Everett," Renee whispered in a small, meek sounding voice that did not at all sound like her at all. The hand immediately left her lips and began stroking her cheek tenderly, the way a lover would do. She felt the killer lean forward, not because he was touching her because he currently wasn't, but rather because Renee could sense him moving.

He pressed his nose to the top of her short blonde hair, and Renee instinctively recoiled and tried not to gag. He was…sniffing her. Like a dog.

Renee swore she tasted bile as she tried not to gag. But then, the sound of his sniffing slowed, and he breathed in deep and slow, like he was savoring her delectable scent. It was more than a little disturbing, but Renee did the only thing she could. She drew in a breath and held it, waiting for him to stop, feeling his breath ghost over her face as he exhaled through his flaring nostrils.

His breath smelled strangely of mint, and for a moment, Renee had a ridiculous thought that a handsome bloke who kidnapped and murdered people, who would do something like this to her, shouldn't have such nice-smelling breath. She crinkled her nose in disgust and looked up towards him.

"Is…is Sirius okay?" she asked, trying to keep herself under control as she blinked back a fresh wave of tears. "Lupin and Tonks, what about them?" she demanded. She paused slightly to tug harshly against her magically enchanted handcuffs but paused when a new pain shot through her cracked, bleeding skin. "Are they…are they alive?" She saw him move away from her, and she breathed out an audible sigh of relief. "Please…don't hurt them. I'll do whatever you say. Just—don't hurt them!" she breathed, and Renee let out a squeak as Everett turned on the heels of his boots and closed off the gap of space from where he stood on the opposite side of this desolate bedroom.

His hand came up to wind itself around the column of her throat and tightened, squeezing hard.

Fresh tears rolled down her cheek and his free hand went to the back of her hair, pressing in slightly, and the pressure was almost unheard of. Renee found her gaze drifting to the floor.

Whatever kind of bedroom this was, it felt to her more like a cellar of sorts, the floors were done with hardwood, polished oak from the looks, and a neutral colored carpet, the concrete foundation covered with an elaborate wooden paneling.

The room was dimly lit, and her eyes struggled to adjust to the poor lighting, but as Renee looked around, she saw Everett kneeling into a crouch on the balls of his feet a few inches away from her. Slowly he stood and waited, not speaking much.

If she hadn't already known who he was from his time at the Broken Spoon Café, she would have pegged the guy as a mute who didn't talk at all. Not because he couldn't, but because he viewed his words as unnecessary.

When he walked towards her, Renee felt her churning stomach drop even more and bile in her throat as she saw the glistening of silver metal. She looked up to Everett's eyes, those piercing eyes of green, and shook her head.

"Please don't do this, guy, I'm begging you," Renee whispered in a hoarse voice, surprised she could even find her voice at all as Everett took a slow, methodical step closer, almost lovingly and tenderly twirling the knife he held in his hands in his fingers. He raised the knife towards her face, pressing the point of the ice-cold steel against the delicate flesh of her cheek. Her eyelids fluttered closed as she waited for her throat to be slit or stabbed to death, but it didn't come.

The knife left her cheek and slowly drifted down, the tip grazing over the skin of her collarbones. Her eyes flung wide open so she could better look her former customer in his piercing eyes of moss green like a lush forest.

The listlessness within made it difficult for Barreau to gauge Everett's attitude, but his lips curved upwards into a truly twisted smirk that made her shudder in revulsion and she looked away. She heard the handsome chap sniff in disapproval and something akin to disappointment. Renee let out a squeak as his rough, calloused hand came up to cup her chin and her head was turned sharply to the right, effectively forcing her to meet his sharp gaze.

"You love him. Black. You do, don't you?" he breathed, halting Renee's squirming as he reached out again with a surprisingly tender touch, pressing the point of his knife at the top button of the bodice of her black lace dress.

Renee let out a muffled whine as he pressed down, and the button popped from her dress and landed just a few inches from his black boots.

"Wh—what are you doing?" Renee froze, inhaling a sharp breath of frigid cold air as he moved the knife downward and the second button was cut from her dress's bodice. He made a noise by way of response that was more a growl. A deep, guttural, masculine noise and it made her body wrack with hard, shaking sobs.

His intentions were made quite clear without Everett having to speak a single word, though when he did, his smooth, languid voice that would have, under normal circumstances, along with his looks, were he, not an insane madman, would have made her weak at the knees. Everett was, like it or not, a handsome chap.

A dead ringer for that American actor, bloody hell, what was his name? Joaquin Phoenix, that was it. Billy had always liked the man in that movie about the Roman gladiator. At the mere mention of her kid brother in her mind, Renee was hit with a surge of anger, a vent of adrenaline at what he'd done to Billy. Gritting her teeth and squeezing her eyes shut with the effort to remain silent, the insult was out of her mouth before she could stop it.

"You made me a promise, Everett. I gave you my word. You have me. You want me. Fine. Take me, then. I came with you so the others wouldn't be hurt," she snapped, unable to keep the note of bitterness and anger and hurt from seeping unbidden to the surface of her trembling voice. "So, you have me, then. Do whatever you're going to do to me, Pisscloak," she growled in a hardened tone. "And go to hell!" Renee whisper-hissed in the shell of his ear as Everett leaned forward, shivering as his tongue slipped out of his mouth to lick his lips.

He ceased his movements of drawing his knife over the buttons of her lace dress's bodice.

Renee froze, not seeing a scenario of getting through the night in Everett's company without getting assaulted, but she did see a scenario in which would keep herself and Sirius, and the others alive. From the way he was behaving, he just wanted to get his rocks off. She was, sadly to say, when she had been dating John, not used to rough encounters before if that was this one's game. She hoped, prayed, that once Everett took what he wanted from her, he'd leave her alone.

The knife that now hovered in front of the column of her throat, however, was beginning to give Renee some serious doubts about this idea. Renee let out a haggard, shaking sigh as she glanced down at her wrists and gave another futile tug at her magically enchanted handcuffs. No dice. They weren't coming off without the key and the key was currently hanging on a silver chain around Everett's broad, thick neck.

"These things, they work well, don't they? These handcuffs? Your first time using them?" she asked as her huge, blue, doe-like almond-shaped eyes moved back around to meet his. "Our…what do you call the non-magic? Muggles? Yeah." She nodded to herself as if to reassure herself she was using the correct term. "Our 'Muggle' police force would have a field day with cuffs like these. No getting out of these…" Renee let out a soft, albeit nervous chuckle as she took notice of how her Joaquin-Phoenix doppelgänger's lips curved upward into a smile as his gaze drifted down to her cuffs.

Usually, Everett preferred to use sharp wires, but these cuffs were an item best kept unmarked. She'd managed to cut herself, and she might have cut off her birdlike delicate wrists if he'd used anything stronger than what he had.

And yet, there was something satisfying about seeing the young Muggle café owner bound and cowering in the corner of the cellar in his safe house, completely at his mercy, his whims. She was his to do with as he liked, yes.

He looked back towards his body, the bodice of her black lace dress hanging open slightly to reveal a petite and slender, but curvy body. Full breasts, and a black lace bra. He almost resisted the urge to roll his eyes at that.

"I see why he likes you. Black. You truly are a pretty little flower, aren't you, Barreau. So soft, so delicate," he growled, raising the knife, and pressing it once more against the pristine flesh of her cheek, eliciting a shiver of fear from her, watching her bright blue eyes fill to the brim with anger and fear, her lips quivering in earnest of what was to come for her.

Renee's blue eyes widened, and almost darkened, cerulean in color as her head whiplashed sharply upward to regard the killer, and had Everett not yanked the knife in his hand back precisely when he had, he would have surely slit her throat on accident, and that, he did not want. No. He wanted this one to stick around.

"Wh—what?" she breathed in a faint whisper, so hushed that Everett thought for a moment, she hadn't spoken at all, and he surely would have missed it had he not leaned forward.

He wanted nothing more than to press his lips to hers, to taste her sweet, succulent kiss, but he resisted, pulling back, fighting against the urge, though he paused, just a few inches from her lips, watching as the blonde girl flinched.

Everett blinked, studying her movements carefully. She had fair skin so white it was almost translucent, like that fairytale princess, Snow White, from the Muggle story his Helen had loved, once upon a time when she was alive.

Renee Barreau had bright blue eyes the color of a robin's egg, or the sky after a fresh summer rainfall, almost crystalline in color. Her pale blue orbs displayed more vulnerability than Everett had seen in any number of his victims in a long bloody time. Yet, the girl was trying so very hard to be strong and resilient, a trait he knew he admired.

Everett found it brought him a satisfying amount of amusement. He moved the blade of his knife, so it rested flat against her right cheek, tilting her head to the other side to look at her.

"You care for him," he answered simply, once more bringing up the topic of Sirius Black, trying and feeling like he was failing to ignore the welling, burning feeling in the pit of his stomach as it swooped and churned, the moment visions of the dark-haired man's handsome visage flitted through the forefront of his mind.

"For Sirius?" she questioned, her voice sounding incredibly small as her gaze lifted to meet his. She blinked owlishly, surprised at the statement he had posed to her that was not exactly a question, but he still demanded an answer. She hesitated, biting down on her lip.

Renee tried her hardest to tamper back on her honesty and contain the truth, but in the end, she couldn't. It would do her no good to lie. "Yes," she confessed, quickly averting his gaze, though she took note of how he flinched.

Everett stiffened, grinding his teeth together. Never before did another man's name, particularly that slippery little worm, Black's, name sound like such a Merlin-damn curse.

What made it even worse was the way Sirius Black's name sounded on Barreau's sweet lips. She had spoken his name just now with such tenderness and anguish that Everett felt his blood boil and he curled his hands tightly in a fist to prevent himself from striking at something in his growing rage, which in this case, would be Renee, and he did not want that.

The question remained was when had Barreau spent enough time around the womanizing wizard to be so familiar with him? He did not like the familiarity in which Barreau spoke Sirius Black's name, nor did he like the growing misty, faraway look in her blue eyes, as though she were remembering something pleasant during her time spent with Sirius.

Stifling a growl deep within the confines of his chest, he patted her cheek affectionately with the side of his dagger, earning a squeak from her pretty pink little lips in return. He let out a sigh.

Everett decided he liked the look of the cold steel of his blade looked against the pristine, unmarked flesh of the woman who was now his new obsession, Nymphadora Tonks long forgotten. Unless, of course, she decided to try to come after them, then he'd have to do something about the bitch and her wolf mate.

"Why do you care?" Renee whispered, much to Everett's surprise, and he, not having anticipated the question, looked up at the girl.

Everett did not immediately answer her, reaching up instead and pressing his index finger to her lips for what felt like the hundredth time.

"Shh…." He soothed in his smooth, languid voice, shushing her for what was the third time. "What of Black, Barreau? What would you do to ensure the man's safety?" he growled in a low voice. Before the girl could part open her lips to speak, he cut her off, not giving her a chance as he continued speaking. "Should he share in his lover's fate? Hmm?" he muttered, taking his time in pressing the tip of his blade into her throat. "If you so much as look at me in a manner that displeases me…he will die. If one day, you decide to be noble and take your own life, he will die."

Everett's head snapped to the side the moment he heard his new precious prize let out a muffled whine, sounding like a wounded dog that had been kicked by its master after misbehaving and turned to look at Renee.

It was the girl that he would take and keep for himself. The man who held her heart, he wanted dead. He let out a haggard sigh and rose abruptly, turning on the heel of his boot and started to stalk out of the bedroom, when she called. "Please!" the young blonde woman screamed, her voice cracking. It gave him pause.

There was…something there, a flicker of an unfamiliar emotion. Was it desperation? Anger? He couldn't tell, but it was enough to render him rooted to his spot in front of the front door.

"Please!" Renee begged. "Please don't hurt him! I'll do anything! Don't hurt them, please…"

Everett merely looked at Barreau before bringing his finger once more to her luscious lips. She stopped her desperate plea, but continued to gaze up at her captor, her bright blue eyes begging him when her lips couldn't.

The man enjoyed the pleading, desperate look in her blue eyes, quite eager to see it again. He made the split decision that he would keep Black and the others alive…for now, that is.

At the very least, it could possibly lend itself to forcing Barreau's hand to be obedient to his demands better than any form of Muggle torture or the Cruciatus Curse could possibly dish out.

And…if he were to bring Black back here to his safe house, he rationalized, he could do with the man as he pleased. Force him into assuming the permanent form of his Animagus, that huge black dog.

That brought the beginnings of a sarcastic smile to his thin, pink lips. The rude, sarcastic man who made a better dog than a human with how he tended to ogle every witch on the street.

His mouth went dry and he licked his lips to moisten them, but no moisture came. Just further dryness. His boots thudded as he strode towards the door, but the sound was drowned out by the even louder sound of the pounding of his heart against its cage of bone and cartilage.

A small, muffled noise that sounded like a scraping sound reached his eardrums, causing his ears to perk up at the unusual noise. Everett whirled around on the heel of his black boot, pointedly feeling his face freeze and anger swell.

Barreau was gone. He stomped into the center of the bedroom in the cellar to see just how the hell that was even bloody possible. The enchanted handcuffs he knew she couldn't escape from, and in fact, he did not find the strange device littered anywhere about on the floor, so he knew for a fact she was still bound.

He gnashed his teeth, cursing himself for not being more careful in subduing the girl.

Somehow, she'd managed to slip out the side door when he'd been not looking. He closed his eyes, breathing heavily and deep, taking a much-needed moment to compose himself before he began his search for his precious prize through the rest of his fun haunted little house.

Renee Elizabeth Barreau would not escape this house alive.

Everett only hoped he found his prize before the girl stumbled onto one of his traps…

Ew, ew, and ew. Everett truly is a creep. In case you haven't guessed, I sort of modeled our serial killer after one of my favorite actors, Joaquin Phoenix. But I regret nothing! He's truly wonderful at playing creepy roles, and I could absolutely see him in this role in the wizarding world. He just has a chilling aura and a presence that's perfect for Everett, so he's kind of who I envision whenever I write his segments.

Coming up in Ch. 30, Tonks and Lupin deal with the aftermath of Sirius losing his cool in the street, and reach out to an unexpected old friend for help in locating Renee.