Chapter 16: Alone with a psychopath

The maidens came to prepare her for her wedding night, but she sent them away. The servants left what she had requested in a corner of the room and she ran to her bridal chest, taking several nightshirts of it.

She put one over the other, just as the old hag had instructed her.

The number is uncertain. One of the tales mentions seven, other mentions ten.

Let's stick to ten them.

Anyway, back to the story... Where was I? The bride put all nightshirts one over the other and sat on the bed waiting for her groom.

Finally he was there in all his bestial glory: the Lindorm King.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

The light did not dare enter that huge warehouse, which once upon a time had housed a family owned garage. The carcasses of the old cars which one day would have been carefully fixed, polished and primed for the streets now lay haphazardly over the floor supported by cement blocks, as skeletons of age old whales left to dry on the beach.

Laura knelt on the floor nervously trying to undo the handcuffs biting the skin of her wrists, but her efforts were in vain. She closed her eyes and rested her forehead in her palms, cursing her day and luck, for being so blind and stupid and eager to do the job.

She could only hope that the Emergency services had found McGee before some thief or looter, laying there on the dirty floor with only her thin jacket as a pillow and her cell phone carefully hidden between the folded cloth.

Calling 911 might have saved McGee's life but it also had sealed her fate.

A reckless decision which would probably cost her life by the end of the day.

Finally the door of the garage opened and a hunched man entered, keeping the lights off as darkness was his friend and helper. He started pouring his things over a table in the left corner, the metallic noise of knives making her gulp as she saw in her mind the bodies of the victims she had investigated.

"Thanks for saving me."

Her words made him stop and look over his shoulder, before his attention went back to the tools over his work desk.

"You're not disgusted by me."

"Why should I be?" Laura's tone was friendly, almost amicably.

He hid among the shadows of the garage, unwilling to get close to her. He turned around and went to the carcass of an old Pontiac, its rusted metal showing here and there what once had been a green varnish.

"I'm an abomination."

"No, you're not. You saved me from that very unpleasant man."

Norman took a piece of cloth and started cleaning his knives, his only good eye fixed on her sitting on the floor handcuffed to a pipe under the only light of that place.

"He... was touching you. Putting his paws all over you."

"Yes, he was. And I'm grateful you stopped him."

Norman stopped, snickering lightly at her words.

"You seemed to be enjoying his attention."

"I wasn't. I was so scared."

"You lie. You were kissing him!"

"He attacked me and he kissed me! What was I supposed to do?"

Finally Norman left the shadows and came to a ray of light coming from a upper floor window, which illuminated his disfigured face with tumors. The nose had been removed in the first surgery to control the cancer, but the evil disease had already spread to the tissue around it, making protuberances in strange colors grow in a disorganized way all over his face.

"You should have let me kill him."

"I couldn't. He was a Fed. If you had killed him, the Feds would be all after your blood, like crazy hounds scenting an easy prey."

"Why are you trying to protect me?"

"Because you need help, Norman. And I want to help you." Laura said as sincerely as possible, hoping to get through his thick skull and, in doing that, saving her own life.

"Nobody can help me."

"I know some good doctors who can take care of you. They will help with the medicines and they won't let anyone hurt you anymore, Norman."

"Nobody can help me."

"Only you can help yourself. Release me, I'll take you to my friends. They will treat you."

"I'm dying!" He turned and rushed to her side, hovering over her kneeling figure as he shouted again, "Can't you see I'm dying!"

Laura closed her eyes and hiccupped, breathing heavily trying to control her fear. Norman grabbed her chin and lifted her face, forcing her to get close to his deformity.

"Look. At. Me." He growled, squeezing his fingers and smiling when she whimpered in pain.

Laura slowly blinked and finally fixed her gaze on his face. She studied every protuberance and sore, before finally fixing her gaze in his eyes.

"Are you disgusted by me?"

"No. You are sick."

"SICK!" He screamed, letting go of her chin and running to his work table a few feet away, his hand flying to the hunting knife lying on the table, "I'll show you who is sick!"

"No, YOU NEED A DOCTOR!" She shouted, only to close her eyes when he grasped her hair and touched her neck with the knife.

"Esthesioneuroblastoma." She whispered as he pressed the knife against her vein which led blood from her heart to her brain.

The knife stopped.

She kept her eyes closed and rushed her explanation, while he breathed loudly against her ear, his fingers twisting her hair painfully pulling at her scalp.

"Esthesineuroblastoma is... ah... a rare form of cancer. Only 200 cases have been documented in the last twenty years and ...it occurs... in the nasal cavity and it grows and... results in deformities on the face due to the tumors."

The fingers released her hair just a little, so she dared open her eyes and look at the horrible face just a few inches from her face.

She studied the empty hole where the nose was supposed to be, the red itchy skin surrounding the eyes, which were bulging out in a grotesque sight. The gash in the face went low, leaving an open area where one could see the teeth beneath.

"Are you disgusted by me?"

"No. You need help. You need a doctor. Your condition will only get worst if not treated."

"Don't you know I've seen all doctors? They all told me that I'm going to die. One damn ugly bastard."

"Yet they can help alleviate the symptoms and pain..."

"Nobody can help me!" He leaned over her face, screaming and spitting. "NOBODY!"

"Why are you doing this, Norman?"

Norman let go of Laura's hair and walked away, his fingers squeezing the handle of the knife nervously as he shuddered with anger.

"That bitch. She couldn't stand looking at me. And she left me! She told me I'm an abomination!"

"And as she left you for her yoga instructor... so he deserved to die."

"Yes. All of them fit. Beautiful. Not aware of how lucky they were. They had no guts. I made them have no guts." Norman started laughing, remembering the murders he committed. "They deserved to die! All of them."

"You are not an abomination, Norman."

"Look. At. Me. Don't you see an abomination?"

"No. I see a man in dire need of medical help." Laura shook her head, wincing at the pain in her scalp where he had pulled her hair. "And she didn't love you. Norman. She never did."