THE BEAUTIFUL ONES
Part Twenty-Two: Wannabe
Dib grappled at the edge of consciousness. Fuzzy fragments of memory intruded on his brain like underpaid tax collectors. Memories of himself and Gaz, of the first discovered body, of being constantly picked on, of the skool massacre. Dib attempted to sort through the memories to the last one he could remember. Let's see...ummm...two gloved hands bursting through an air duct and dragging him down. Shit.
"Morning sleepyhead! Wait, is it morning? Yeah, it's about 3AM, I guess that's TECHNICALLY morning. I'm glad to see you're awake, since I can't really wait to see some conscious expression to having your insides cut out," Dib attempted to recognise the voice, but he was too disorientated to see, let alone hear, "oh come on! You have to be awake by now! I knocked you on the head ONCE! Oh well, maybe this'll perk you up a bit..."
A searing pain entered Dib's left shoulder, immediately jolting him awake. He felt some piece of metal retreat from the shoulder, but the pain still remained, and he could feel his own blood soaking the fabric of his shirt. His sudden awareness made him take account of his surroundings. It seemed like a perfectly normal living room except without furniture except the bare wooden chairs he and Jessica were tied to, and with the windows and doors boarded up with floorboards. There was no carpet, and there wasn't so much as a lamp shade for the weak light providing illumination for the scene. Whoever built this had put a lot of trouble into turning a scene out of a family sitcom into a scene from 'Reservoir Dogs'. He turned his attention towards his assailant, and saw Alex standing before him. There was something strange about her expression that didn't really suggest 'psycho-killer'. Apart from the blood-drenched dress and stained knife in her hand, she really looked no different than she did on your average day of skool.
"Why?" wheezed Dib. It was the question foremost on his mind, though if he had full control of his brainmeats at the time he might have guessed the answer.
"For her," Alex pointed her knife at a frightened Jessica, and despite the fact that this wasn't actually menat to be threatening, it nevertheless appeared that way, "yep! I did it all for you, Jessica! You know all those freaks and weirdos and losers who you always seemed to hate? Well, I've got rid of them all! I wanted to be like you SO much, Jessica. I brought every kind of fashion you endorsed, every fad you enjoyed. My parents, they didn't like that very much. They were afraid I'd bankrupt them, since we were nowhere NEAR as rich as your parents. But it turns out that construction jobs give out decent amounts of money, I just wasn't getting any. That problem's since been rectified. Their stingy, lifeless bodies are currently stuffed in my closet. I sprayed them to make them smell better! Please can I be one of you?" Alex cupped her hands around her knife with a hopeful look in her eye.
"You...are such...a FREAK!" Jessica condemned, sending a slight twitch through Alex's eye and warning klaxons through Dib's over-sized head.
"(Jessica, can't you appreciate the fact that this lunatics going to KILL YOU!?)" Dib whispered urgently. Alex was beginning to exhibit some signs of nervous laughter. A loon with a knife starts laughing nervously is NEVER, EVER a good sign.
"I don't understand. I did everything you wanted me to! I took up the latest trends, I picked on the outcasts. Better! I ELIMINATED the outcasts! But you still won't let me in? Oh well, another form of persuasion might do the trick," Alex rambled, switching on a nearby flashlight and illuminating two older people in over-priced clothes bound and gagged in a corner. Jessica looked horrified. They were her parents. The parents who gave her triple-figure allowances and poured so much filthy rich love that she was never able to appreciate. Alex got out a piece of paper and started reading it out.
"'The parties represented on this will agree to bequeth our entire collected fortunes to our beloved friend's daughter, Alex, upon our deaths,'" read Alex, rolling the sheet back up, "of course if you let me in, Jessica, your parents would be allowed to live. We have such fun together, Jessica! WE could sit together in the cafeteria and gossip about boys and marvel at each other's jewelry! I've always wanted to be one of you, made it my life's work. After all you've seen, do you think I'm ready to come in yet?" Alex looked hopeful again, her left eye twitching intermittedly and Jessica's parents struggling desperately against her restraints.
"No," Jessica said with finality. She had standards to maintain, after all. Dib looked horrified at Jessica's single-minded denial of even the possibility of reasoning with that insane wannabe. Alex's hopeful smile merged into an angered frown as she moved behind the squirming parents. She first slit the throat of Jessica's mother, and as she gurgled her last drop of life away she moved onto Jessica's scared father, seeing his blood drench his Vesacci suit. Jessica closed her eyes. If she didn't see it, maybe it didn't happen. The torchlight switched off and her parents were never to be seen again.
"Fine then, if you can't accept me then I'm just going to have to settle for the next best thing. I'm going to replace you," Alex declared, drawing her knife close to Jessica's face, "I've already dealt wih your money, now I will have enough cash to drive the trends. But next we'll have to deal with that face of yours. Such a pretty face like yours deserves to be popular. That's one thing we'll have to change..." Jessica began sweating and panting as Alex's knife began stroking gently at her cheek...
TO BE CONTINUED...
Part Twenty-Two: Wannabe
Dib grappled at the edge of consciousness. Fuzzy fragments of memory intruded on his brain like underpaid tax collectors. Memories of himself and Gaz, of the first discovered body, of being constantly picked on, of the skool massacre. Dib attempted to sort through the memories to the last one he could remember. Let's see...ummm...two gloved hands bursting through an air duct and dragging him down. Shit.
"Morning sleepyhead! Wait, is it morning? Yeah, it's about 3AM, I guess that's TECHNICALLY morning. I'm glad to see you're awake, since I can't really wait to see some conscious expression to having your insides cut out," Dib attempted to recognise the voice, but he was too disorientated to see, let alone hear, "oh come on! You have to be awake by now! I knocked you on the head ONCE! Oh well, maybe this'll perk you up a bit..."
A searing pain entered Dib's left shoulder, immediately jolting him awake. He felt some piece of metal retreat from the shoulder, but the pain still remained, and he could feel his own blood soaking the fabric of his shirt. His sudden awareness made him take account of his surroundings. It seemed like a perfectly normal living room except without furniture except the bare wooden chairs he and Jessica were tied to, and with the windows and doors boarded up with floorboards. There was no carpet, and there wasn't so much as a lamp shade for the weak light providing illumination for the scene. Whoever built this had put a lot of trouble into turning a scene out of a family sitcom into a scene from 'Reservoir Dogs'. He turned his attention towards his assailant, and saw Alex standing before him. There was something strange about her expression that didn't really suggest 'psycho-killer'. Apart from the blood-drenched dress and stained knife in her hand, she really looked no different than she did on your average day of skool.
"Why?" wheezed Dib. It was the question foremost on his mind, though if he had full control of his brainmeats at the time he might have guessed the answer.
"For her," Alex pointed her knife at a frightened Jessica, and despite the fact that this wasn't actually menat to be threatening, it nevertheless appeared that way, "yep! I did it all for you, Jessica! You know all those freaks and weirdos and losers who you always seemed to hate? Well, I've got rid of them all! I wanted to be like you SO much, Jessica. I brought every kind of fashion you endorsed, every fad you enjoyed. My parents, they didn't like that very much. They were afraid I'd bankrupt them, since we were nowhere NEAR as rich as your parents. But it turns out that construction jobs give out decent amounts of money, I just wasn't getting any. That problem's since been rectified. Their stingy, lifeless bodies are currently stuffed in my closet. I sprayed them to make them smell better! Please can I be one of you?" Alex cupped her hands around her knife with a hopeful look in her eye.
"You...are such...a FREAK!" Jessica condemned, sending a slight twitch through Alex's eye and warning klaxons through Dib's over-sized head.
"(Jessica, can't you appreciate the fact that this lunatics going to KILL YOU!?)" Dib whispered urgently. Alex was beginning to exhibit some signs of nervous laughter. A loon with a knife starts laughing nervously is NEVER, EVER a good sign.
"I don't understand. I did everything you wanted me to! I took up the latest trends, I picked on the outcasts. Better! I ELIMINATED the outcasts! But you still won't let me in? Oh well, another form of persuasion might do the trick," Alex rambled, switching on a nearby flashlight and illuminating two older people in over-priced clothes bound and gagged in a corner. Jessica looked horrified. They were her parents. The parents who gave her triple-figure allowances and poured so much filthy rich love that she was never able to appreciate. Alex got out a piece of paper and started reading it out.
"'The parties represented on this will agree to bequeth our entire collected fortunes to our beloved friend's daughter, Alex, upon our deaths,'" read Alex, rolling the sheet back up, "of course if you let me in, Jessica, your parents would be allowed to live. We have such fun together, Jessica! WE could sit together in the cafeteria and gossip about boys and marvel at each other's jewelry! I've always wanted to be one of you, made it my life's work. After all you've seen, do you think I'm ready to come in yet?" Alex looked hopeful again, her left eye twitching intermittedly and Jessica's parents struggling desperately against her restraints.
"No," Jessica said with finality. She had standards to maintain, after all. Dib looked horrified at Jessica's single-minded denial of even the possibility of reasoning with that insane wannabe. Alex's hopeful smile merged into an angered frown as she moved behind the squirming parents. She first slit the throat of Jessica's mother, and as she gurgled her last drop of life away she moved onto Jessica's scared father, seeing his blood drench his Vesacci suit. Jessica closed her eyes. If she didn't see it, maybe it didn't happen. The torchlight switched off and her parents were never to be seen again.
"Fine then, if you can't accept me then I'm just going to have to settle for the next best thing. I'm going to replace you," Alex declared, drawing her knife close to Jessica's face, "I've already dealt wih your money, now I will have enough cash to drive the trends. But next we'll have to deal with that face of yours. Such a pretty face like yours deserves to be popular. That's one thing we'll have to change..." Jessica began sweating and panting as Alex's knife began stroking gently at her cheek...
TO BE CONTINUED...