FOUR
Gradyville, Pennsylvania
January 16th, 2009
Casey Robertson rollerbladed through Ridley Creek State Park on her usual route, exhilarated by the brisk morning air. Her auburn hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she wore her usual dark blue jogging tights and parka. Her rollerblades pounded out a rhythm that matched her heartbeat. Casey was just about ready to call it quits and head back to her car when a deer suddenly darted across her path, startling her and causing her to lose her balance. She landed hard on her backside, cursing loudly.
"Stupid wildlife," Casey mumbled as she rubbed her left wrist, which had begun to throb painfully. She'd thrown her hand out behind her in an effort to break her fall, causing it to take a lot of the impact against the frozen ground. She didn't think the wrist was broken, but it sure hurt like hell.
Casey groaned as she carefully got to her feet, trying to brush the cold, wet dirt and debris from her backside with her gloved hands. It was no use, the damp dirt already staining through to her skin. She steadied herself as best she could and looked around, waiting for more wildlife to appear.
Normally, Casey liked when she spotted the woodland creatures on her morning workouts, just more from a distance and safely out of her way. Suddenly, she realized she could hear nothing but eerie silence all around her. Shivering, Casey wrapped her arms around herself, rubbing them to get the chill off. Somewhere close by a twig snapped, and Casey jumped, almost losing her balance again.
"Someone there?" she called out tentatively. She skated forward a few inches, searching the woods around her. A few seconds later, a rabbit skittered out from under a fallen tree branch a few feet from where she was frozen and darted off across the path, back into the woods.
Casey, realizing she'd been holding her breath, let it out in a whoosh and chuckled at herself. "What did you think? That the big, scary bunny was going to eat you," she murmured to herself teasingly. She shook her head as she began making her way stiffly towards her car, all the enjoyment from her morning exercise gone. In the distance she could hear a car pulling into the parking area and relaxed a bit more. Casey waved to a man of about thirty-five who was just getting out of his car, a silver Mercedes she noted, as she entered the lot.
"Morning," he called to her. The man was dressed in gray sweats and old tennis sneakers. His black hair, speckled with gray, was cropped short, and he wore dark rimmed glasses. Not bad looking, Casey thought to herself. She smiled back at the man as she clomped over to her car, pressing the button of her own car's, a red Audi, keyless entry and opening the passenger side door.
She sat down on the seat, careful to keep her parka over the soiled part of her pants, and began to untie her rollerblades. Casey saw the man wave once before disappearing down the path she had just come up. After slipping on a pair of sneakers, she pulled out an old towel she kept in the trunk to wipe off her rollerblades. Folding it so the dirt was on the inside, away from her tan upholstery, Casey placed the towel on her driver seat and slid in. She glanced over wistfully at the silver Mercedes once more.
"What the hell," she exclaimed before fishing her purse from the back seat. She pulled out a slip of scrap paper and a black pen. Casey quickly scrawled her name and number on it and got back out of the car, glancing around as she made her way over to the Mercedes. She slipped the paper under the windshield wiper, making sure it was secure and noticeable for when the man returned before returning to her car. A wide smiled spread across her face as she thought of her pertness.
As Casey started to pull out, she spotted the man in her rearview mirror as he returned to his car. Her stomach did a nervous flip when she realized he had noticed the piece of paper immediately. He looked up and spotted Casey stopped at the entrance. Smiling, he began to walk towards the back of her car. "Oh, god," Casey squealed. The man waved once as he approached the driver's side and she rolled down the window.
"Hey Casey." The man's voice was low and husky, reminding her of an actor whose name she couldn't recall. Something Diesel, she thought to herself. Although Casey thought the man was an awful actor, he was certainly just as nice to look at as this man.
"Hi," Casey replied. She smiled again and could feel a blush color her cream complexion. They stared at each other for a few moments, neither seeming to know what to say.
"I'm not usually this forward," Casey explained, desperate to break the awkward silence.
"And I'm not usually so easily flabbergasted," he chuckled. "I just didn't expect a beautiful woman like you to leave me her number. I'm not that lucky." He laughed again, but something about his smile suddenly made Casey extremely uncomfortable. It didn't seem to touch his eyes.
"Yeah," was all the response she could muster. Casey turned her attention back to the road ahead of her, hoping that the man would notice her discomfort and let her escape. Instead, he placed his hand on the door, curling his fingers over the spot where the window would come up, and leaned inward. Casey stared at his fingers, grimy and covered in dirt, as if she might be able to shove them away with her mind.
"It's going to be a shame about this car," the man said nonchalantly. Slowly, Casey tore her eyes away from the dirty hand on her car to the face it belonged to. The smile was gone now and in its place was something twisted and ugly. Gone was the suave man whom Casey had felt compelled to give her number.
"Excuse me?" she whispered, barely able to speak.
"I mean, I suppose I could find something useful for it. Maybe give it to a friend. But it's going to be a bitch getting the blood out of this tan interior." The man leaned forward as he said this, practically inside the car with her.
"What...?" was all Casey managed to get out before, quick as lightning, the man's hand whipped up and across, slicing her throat in an instant. Blood poured from the wound and a gurgling sound escaped from between her lips as Casey tried to breath. She placed her hands to her throat, trying to scream, to stop the warm flow that escaped through her fingers. She gaped at him, confused and panicked, her eyes pleading. The man stood watching all of it with a serene look on his face.
Finally, the woman's head bowed forward as her eyes glazed over. Her mouth hung open in a silent O, making her look like a Kewpie doll from the sixties. He looked around quickly to confirm he was still alone, despite already knowing it, then opened the driver's side door, and turned off the car. In one swift movement, he unbuckled the woman and dumped her onto the ground, gravel and dust scattering around his shoes.
"Well that wasn't quite as fun as the last one," he mumbled to himself. Although, the woman leaving her number had been a nice inflation to his ego. It was good to know his job could be easier if he just worked his meat-suit a little more. I can get the damn monkeys to just line up and die, he thought blithely.
He pushed up the sleeves of his already sodden sweatshirt and reached down to drag the body out of the way. Nice looking form for a puppet. Too bad I have no use for it, he thought snidely. He dragged the Casey over to the trunk of his car and hoisted it up, careful to keep the plastic lining sheet he had set up inside underneath the body. He slammed the trunk and winced at the thunderous noise it made as it echoed off the trees.
He crossed back to Casey's car and climbed in behind the wheel, needing to slide the seat back to accommodate his host's longer legs. He started the car, smiling at the comforting purr of the engine. Luxury cars were a weak spot for him. "Humans can be so ingenious," he said to himself as he listened to the steady thrum of the car.
He drove into a secluded area of the woods and turned off the car. He hesitated again with the door open, straining to hear anything that might indicate the approach of people. He was rewarded with blissful silence. His feet made a squishing sound in the blood that had pooled in the upholstery as he climbed from the car. Shuddering, he sighed, feeling remorse only for the waste of the car; a car he would have happily taken, too, if he could have.
He parked it out of the way, hoping that the distance from a major trail would help keep the car from being discovered for awhile. Evidence was going to begin piling up, unfortunately coming back to his meat-suit. He wanted to be finished with the task Lilith had set him before the bumbling police were able to gather enough leads to point back to him. By that time, he would be long gone, inhabiting another monkey until Lucifer was upon the Earth. He smiled at the thought. The monkeys would be ripe for the picking then. He wouldn't have to hide, wouldn't have to be so careful.
He strolled casually back to where Casey had stopped her car and began kicking at the dirt. He had carved a pentacle into the ground in order to complete the ritual. Although he didn't care if it was completely gone, he still wanted to conceal the pentagram enough so that it might not be noticed right away.
He looked around for a moment, taking in the silence. It seemed even the animals knew danger was in the area. He laughed at the thought. Pulling out his car keys, he got in behind the wheel of his meat-suit's Mercedes, and headed out of the park. He began whistling to himself as he drove off, the body in his trunk shifting slightly with the acceleration.