Please be warned this chapter has some very disturbing ideas. So if you're easily triggered by sexual abuse or assault, please don't read. It's not graphic, just what's going through Norman's mind and not as bad as what happened on "Bates Motel" I just wanted to warn you. Remember that Norman is a monster and the idea of Hitchcock's Norman Bates is that monsters can look very innocent and normal.
35.
~ Madeline's disappearance was noticed right away. Rumors about Sam's affair was all anyone in town talked about and the loud fight she and her husband had in front of their neighbors, had to be connected to her disappearance. Even a inflammatory true crime show host did a segment about the case and made several good points that implicated Sam Loomis.
Sam, to his credit, had an alibi for the night of her disappearance. He was in the village's other motel. Alone, but their security cameras were working and showed he'd never left his room.
No one in town seemed to have any idea where Madeline could have gone to and Sheriff Greene was asking her friends if they'd seen her. No one, including Norman Bates had any information to give to Sheriff Greene.
Norman shyly smiling and saying he'd seen Madeline a few days ago, but he was so used to seeing her, he couldn't say exactly where and when. He was sorry he couldn't be more helpful.
Sheriff Greene nodded and thanked Norman who was receiving new guests at his motel. It was becoming the busy season again. The Sheriff had checked each cabin of course and Norman had let her. He'd apologized that he hadn't had time to clean cabin 4. Busy time of year you know.
~ It was strange for Norman to think he'd never see Madeline again. That he'd never have her to relieve the stress that would be pent up in his body all week. He liked going over to her house and pretending it was their house. Pretending they were married and could do the things married people did. He'd enjoyed their time in bed together and how accommodating she'd been.
He liked especially the secretive nature of their relationship. The fact no one knew about it. He'd always hated how crudely people talked and bragged about sex. How open and pornographic the word had become.
As a result, he never got on social media and hardly ever watched television. No, he had very refined tastes which Madeline catered to precisely and he was going to miss her.
He supposed it would be something; to find a new girl to replace Madeline. Perhaps he could find a young lady. A nice, small blond who reminded him of sunlight. One who smiled brightly. One who would look pretty in a dress and who would do as she was told.
It came to Norman that in his isolated home where no one ever visited, a home where he lived with only Mother and Rebecca, he could keep such a girl. He could find a girl. Perhaps at the high school; virginal and sweet. She would have to be innocent. He would have to educate her and show her how to behave in the bedroom. He could, perhaps keep her drugged for most of the time. Zach Shelby had done such a thing but he would be more careful. He would keep his girl cleaner and no one else would know about her. He would be the only one to see his girl; she'd belong only to him. He'd have to keep her in the house. But where? Mother's room was out of the question. The Basement? Plenty of room but Rebecca was there and she might scold him.
No. The girl would have to stay locked up in Dylan's old room. He'd secure a chain to the wall. Board up the window. He still had his scripts from Doctor Edwards, although he didn't take them anymore. If they made him sleepy and confused, they would surely make a young woman of his choosing much more sedated.
He'd let her out a few times a day to go to the bathroom and to clean herself. She had to stay clean. He'd make sure she dressed nicely. He'd have to take her measurements to order her the proper clothes.
There was a problem though. Such a girl, a girl he wanted, virginal and sweet would be missed if he took her. If he took her from the high school like he planned. If he picked her up like he was going grocery shopping.
No, he couldn't get caught like that. He had to be careful. Careful with his plan and not get caught. He and Madeline were careful and he and his new girl had to be careful. He had to do it soon though. He was lonely for a warm body. He missed the way a female form would jump and bounce while he was on top of it. Eyes growing large and the feeble and excited cries of 'no' just before he penetrated. He missed that. He loved that. To almost feel like rape, but not really. It made him feel powerful and in control.
That's how he knew his new girl was a good one. If she fought back and moved a lot. If she was scared and wanted to cover up. It's how he knew Madeline was a bad girl. The way she pranced around naked when she was alone. Her body on display for anyone to see.
Norman felt a discomfort in his pants at the thought of Madeline like that. When he thought of her like that, he wished he had been the one to hurt her and not Mother. Only he didn't want to kill her, like Mother had. He wanted to hurt her in bed. To be rough with her. To fuck her the way he'd seen Sam Loomis fuck his whores.
Norman shook his head. He didn't want to think about that. He wanted to keep his thoughts on his nice girl. The good girl he was going to get.
As if by providence, an SUV pulled into the drive of the motel and a family got out. A handsome looking family with kids of all ages. Norman didn't pay attention to the strapping father or the youthful mother. He didn't even notice the rambunctious boys fighting in the parking lot.
His attention was drawn to the teenage girl with the sullen face. Her blond hair cropped short to just barely touch her shoulders and her eyes too big. She'd probably grow into them; or maybe she wouldn't.
Norman smiled at her alone and ignored the family.
The girl was shy, he could tell. An outcast from her school. Most likely here with the family on a vacation. Why take the risk of getting caught when his good girl could come to him?
~ Her name was Penny and she was here with her family on vacation. It wasn't even her real family but her mother's third husband and her two half brothers. Each with a different father.
Norman knew all this because she told him on the concrete steps leading up to the house. She had wanted to get away from her mother and step father fighting. Her little half brothers shouting in the second bedroom where she'd been expected to babysit.
"I'm sorry." Norman said sympathetically. It was always good to sound sympathetic.
"She had me when she was sixteen. Same age I am now, and she keeps getting a new guy." Penny said hatefully. "I've got another sister who lives with her grandmother and a brother who lives with his dad."
Norman didn't like that Penny was with these awful people. She'd be better off with him. If she was cleaned up a little. That dark goth make-up washed off her face, she'd look very pretty.
He told her so.
Penny actually smiled. She wasn't offended.
"People tell me to lose all the make up." she sniffed and showed her slightly crooked teeth and Norman saw a smattering of freckles under the too pale foundation.
"It's not forever." Norman said. "One day, all of this will be a bad dream. My own mother abandoned me for a man once. She couldn't live without me for so long and then she found this guy."
He shook his head remembering how hot and bothered Romero and his mother were for each other.
"It was like they couldn't get enough of each other. But he broke her heart and she came back to me." he said. "Some women just can't make it work."
"I like it better when she doesn't have a boyfriend or a husband." Penny sighed.
Norman liked Penny. She was young and sweet. He didn't like her clothes though. Her fishnet stalkings that were meant to be a statement piece. Her lace up doc martens that were making a huge come back. Her purposefully aged Nirvana T-shirt. He was sure his own mother had dressed just like this when she was Penny's age and the idea made him laugh out loud.
"What?" Penny asked.
"You just remind me of someone." Norman admitted. "Listen. If things get to be too scary, if your stepdad gets too drunk or whatever, you have my business card. Just call. I'll come pick you up."
~ It had been too easy. A few days later, Penny had called near the Nevada boarder. Her step father had lost big in at the casinos and things were looking scary. She'd called at a bus station after she'd run out of money. Thankful he said he was on his way and he'd be there in just a few hours.
He'd asked if her mother knew where she was and if he wanted him to take her to her grandmother's place. Penny had said no. That she was mad at her mother and her grandmother had sided with her mom when Penny had been caught smoking pot last summer.
She leaned over and kissed Norman's cheek.
"Thank you." she said sweetly. Her make up running off her face till she looked as if she'd just washed her face.
"Alright." Norman laughed. A blush creeping on his cheeks. "Behave yourself, young lady.
~ Penny had a good appetite, but bad table manners. If this situation was going to work, Norman would have to say something. It was uncomfortable for him to have a stranger in the house and he could hear Mother upstairs in her room. She could tell they had a visitor and would probably have something to say about that.
But Penny wasn't like Madeline. She was a teenage girl. Not a married woman. Surely Mother wouldn't object. Norman looked forward to dressing her correctly and showing her to her room.
In a few days, depending on how their relationship progressed, how well they got along, he might show her how to do things. See her innocent face light up with fear and curiosity at being with a man. He'd have to be patient; very patient with her at first.
But soon she'd be as well trained as Madeline and they could have relations every night.
"So my mom got pissed at me cuz I was by the pool at the hotel. I was supposed to be in the room with the kids." Penny said.
"Oh?" Norman said and noted she ate with there hands too much. She rarely ate with a knife and fork. Distasteful, trashy table manners. Another item on his to-do list.
"Yeah." Penny said. "Back in L.A. I kept getting in trouble for cutting class and going swimming."
She shrugged as if it were no big deal.
"School is important." Norman said.
"I'm not going back." Penny shook her head. "Those girls are jealous and the guys are all pervs. The teachers to. My mom doesn't like me hanging out by the pool because that's where I met my last boyfriend."
"Boyfriend?" Norman picked his head up. She hadn't mentioned a boyfriend.
Penny nodded.
"Yeah, she caught us." she giggled. "Had my top off and everything. It's not like she wasn't doing the same thing when she was my age. Hypocrite."
Penny rolled her eyes and ate a pork chop without cutting it up first.
Norman felt sick at the idea of this girl acting that way. Of her not being innocent and sweet like she'd pretended to be.
"This is a nice house. You live here alone?" Penny asked.
Norman said nothing. His hand going to the large and heavy candle stick.
~ Penny had been enjoying her meal and thinking of how she would take advantage of this guy when the blow came and knocked her on the floor. Her senses dazed and her vision blurred.
She honestly hadn't seen it coming. She'd trusted this Norman Bates guy. He was old, sure but young looking and had a nice smile. He even dressed nice and didn't act like the other old guys who were always trying to grab her tits and reach down her panties.
He wasn't at all like her step dad who was trying to walk in on her in the shower and pretending he didn't know where the door was as he stared at her.
She was thinking how she could find out where Norman kept his money and maybe take his truck. She could find some valuable jewelry in a house like this. Maybe she'd screw him. Give him a little fun. Poor guy like that would make him happy.
She wasn't expecting this. She wasn't expecting the second blow to the head that made everything go dim and distorted.
She could hear the cackling voice of an old woman.
"You filthy whore! Trying to soil my son? Trying to seduce my son? You might have fooled him, but you didn't fool me."
'Who are you?' Penny wanted to ask but her head hurt too much. Everything was spinning.
She didn't see and wasn't prepared for the final blow that killed her. Her head cracked open like an eggshell. The blood running out and everything slipping away.
~ When Norman came back to himself, he was near the bay. Penny's body, he knew, was sunk deep into the waters with Earnest and Emma's mother.
'You just get back home, boy.' Mother was hissing at him.
~ Norman looked over the local and even national news for Penny, but couldn't find her. He didn't know her last name but he carefully searched every news story and still didn't find her. Nothing at all about a missing sixteen year old girl that matched her description.
It was as though she never existed; poor creature.
He still wanted female companionship though. Still longed for it. Still had motel guests to check in that were always of interest to him. Occasionally he had the solitary woman who intrigued him. A nice blond woman who seemed pretty and charming. The same way Madeline or his mother had been.
He'd check them into room 1 and watch them. Observe them in case he wanted to bring them into the house and keep them. They sometimes came close, but were never what he was looking for. A very nice woman had invited him to her room and they had spent the night together. She reminded him of Blair Watson with the way she had made him do things. She told him her ex husband was out of town and she was lonely. Norman had thought she was beautiful Had thought she WAS Blair Watson and had cut her throat all over again to see her bleed out.
It wasn't until she was dead in the bed that Norman realized she wasn't at all like Blair Watson. She was old, fat and flabby in her too tight clothes. Her face wrinkled and her red hair showing stark whips of gray along with the garish make up.
Into the bay she went and Norman had been sick for days at the thought he'd been aroused by that woman.
It had been embarrassing and something he couldn't speak of. Not even to Rebecca.
This was how life went on for Norman, until Sheriff Greene arrested him for the murder of Madeline Loomis. He would always swear that he hadn't killed Madeline or anyone else. He told the Sheriff that Mother had done it and that Mother had even killed Rebecca.
Of everything he'd lost; the house, the motel, his freedom. He'd been most upset to know Rebecca was finally taken from him.
That she wasn't in her room in the basement anymore. That she wasn't safe and beautiful with her flowers, tiara and fox fur to keep her warm. It hurt him beyond words to know that she was on the slab and her naked body was being poked and examined by a stranger and most likely burned up or buried in the cold and dark ground where he could never see her or find her again.