Chapter 1: Roots of Evil (1/3)
It was a rainy day like the previous one. But at least it was a Saturday, which meant that he could stay in bed. The fact that it was comfy, and warm contributed to that. Him and Lydia were cuddling on the bed and she was the big spoon.
I don't wanna get up. Joshua thought, as the bed was way too comfortable. The rain drops on the window didn't really help, the sound it makes is very relaxing. And Erika's sweet smell helped too. Wait, why is my room smelling like Erika? He opened his eyes to discover.
"M-morning." His question was answered the moment he opened his eyes. As he saw familiar gray eyes staring at him.
"Morning," He said. "How long have you been here?"
It turns out that Erika is sitting down on his computer chair. Wearing a red turtleneck tucked in a dark gray skirt that reached her knees and long white socks.
"I G-g-got here at e-ei-eight." She told him with a smile.
Joshua looked at his clock and saw that it was ten in the morning. "You just watched us sleep for two hours?"
"Y-you two look really p-pe-peaceful." She stuttered like she always did.
"You act like it's the first time she did that." This time, it was Lydia who spoke while she had her eyes closed, still cuddling with Joshua. She was not wrong, more often than not, Erika would watch the two sleep. "Did you take pictures again?" Lydia asked before sitting up on the bed, with her hair in a complete mess.
She looked away embarrassed, which pretty much confirms it.
"Hand it over." She ordered.
Erika reluctantly complied and gave her phone to Lydia. Joshua also sat up to see what photos she took of them this time.
"Fifteen photos?" Lydia commented.
"In the same position?" Joshua added.
"I-i d-didn't want to wa-wake you t-tw-two." Erika explained while looking down nervously.
If she wasn't so adorable, we would probably be mad at her. Joshua thought. Probably...
"You can keep one photo, I'm deleting the rest." Lydia told her, probably thinking the same thing as Joshua.
Erika looks a bit disappointed but relieved as well. "I c-can make p-pan-pancakes." She offered it to them.
"Did Alma leave?" Joshua asked, as he hated when she was around..
"S-she said that she had to so-solve som-something." She explained.
Good, she really should stay out of here? Joshua thought as she usually only annoys him when she's around. "If that's the case, if it isn't too much of a bothe-" He spoke before being interrupted.
"No-not at a-all!" Erika was quick to interrupt.
"Extra chocolate syrup on mine." Lydia added as she stood up from the bed. Still only wearing a gray T-shirt and purple panties.
Both Joshua and Erika stared at Lydia's butt as she bent over a bit to turn his Playstation One on. She's doing it on purpose. Joshua noted. It worked though, Erika is staring as much as I am. She picks the controller up and lays back on the bed.
Erika just smiled. "I-i'll g-ge-get s-started." She stuttered before walking out of the room.
As soon as she left, Lydia asked. "Did she look?"
"We both did." Joshua admitted. "In my defense, you do have a nice butt."
Both are aware of Erika's feelings towards them. So they developed a habit of teasing her as a result.
Joshua stood up from his bed, and started to do a few push ups on the floor.
Lydia just layed there, playing the game Resident Evil 3 on the Playstation One. "Why don't you ask Erika to be your girlfriend already?" She asked him.
"I would be a terrible boyfriend, why don't you do it?" He asked her, while he finished the push ups. I mean, what kind of boyfriend would a sociopath like me be anyway?
"Because... I don't know, my mom will give me a lot of shit for it.." Lydia replied. "Although, I really wanna kiss her at times."
"Me too." Joshua finished his push ups, he got up and sat on the bed. Then he put his head on Lydia's thigh and closed his eyes for a second. I wonder if they found his corpse already. They might still be able to save him if they did. Although, I don't think someone who had the entire skin of their body removed will live long. Especially considering that I toss a bucket of sewage water on him. Joshua thought about it. He will either die of an infection or hypothermia.
He opened them again and looked at the television. Lydia was fighting a boss in the game. It doesn't look like she's going to win.
Suddenly, his phone made a noise. It must be Terry. Joshua stood up from the bed and went to grab his phone that was in his jeans's pocket.
Terry: Problem.
Joshua: What happened?
Terry: On my way to your crib.
Great, what is going on? Joshua asked himself after seeing the message from Terry.
"Let me guess, Terry fucked up?" Lydia was quick to ask.
"Probably." Joshua replied. "I have a feeling that this is about that Jermaine problem."
"I bet five bucks that he picked a fight with him." Lydia betted while smiling.
"No deal, I'm pretty sure that is either that or something similar." Joshua replied.
Before any of the two could say anything, they smelled the pancakes that Erika was making for them.
"Oh shit, I love that smell." Lydia spoke while sniffing the smell of pancakes.
Joshua laughed a bit at that. "I'm gonna check it to see if it's ready." Joshua told her.
"Extra chocolate syrup on mine." She reminded him.
Joshua then walked through the door and made his way through the corridor until he arrived at the stairs. He descends the staircase to get to the kitchen. Where Erika was, she was finishing up with their breakfast.
"Thanks again for making them for us." Joshua thanked her again.
Erika turned around and just smiled at him. Then she looked at him the same way that she looked at Lydia early. Joshua was wearing a white T-shirt and white underwear. She's not even trying to be subtle. He noted that Erika wasn't even trying to hide it. And to think that she used to be extremely shy when we met her, she would have looked away embarrassed before.
Joshua then walked to the living room and turned on the TV. The news report was on.
"At eight AM, it was reported that the body of Paul Maryland was found by the police. According to some sources, it was confirmed that this was another victim of the Stranding Haven Killer, or SHK for short." SHK, what dumb name. "Apparently, the killer sent a video to the police, where Paul Maryland confirmed to be the culprit in the murder of his ex-wife Catalina Ribeiro. Whose body was found a week before." What a waste. "With the inclusion of the Maryland brothers, The SHK has approximately killed twenty-four people since the murders started, two and a half years ago." There's way more than that. "Information given by the police, informs that the killer has a pattern. All of his victims were male, around the ages of eighteen to sixty. His methods of killing are exceptionally complex, which leads the police to believe that the killer is a very educated man with a deep knowledge on subjects like medicine and engineering."You should be a little more specific, because there are several fields on both.
Joshua decided to turn it off. As he didn't need a bloody reminder of all of his previous works.
Suddenly, he heard someone knocking on the door. He went to open it and it turned out to be Terry. "Sup, Homie." He was wearing a green track jacket, baggy vintage jeans tucked in on a white high top.
Terry then looked at Joshua, who was in his underwear. "It's my house." Joshua told him before letting him in.
"It tastes fantastic!" Lydia told Erika while chewing the pancakes.
All four friends went back to Joshua's room and all found a place to sit. Joshua sat on his computer chair, Erika sat besides Lydia on the bed and Terry sat on the ground.
"So, let me see if I got this right." Joshua started to speak. "You called Jermaine and his buddies to a fight and you're trying to drag me into it?" He asked with a somewhat annoyed face.
Apparently, Terry bumped into Jermaine and his friends on his way out of his apartment complex and nearly got jumped by them. But one of Terry's uncles was there, Jermaine then decided to call him a wimp and Terry took bait and practically challenged the guy to meet up somewhere to fight it out.
"And you, being the fucking moron that you are, decided to actually fight him." Lydia asked while eating her pancakes.
"The motherfucker lives on the block besides mine, it's not like I can just ignore him." Terry rebuffed Lydia.
"W-why d-don't you just d-d-don't g-go?" Erika asked, looking extremely bothered by that.
"I can't back out, Jermaine would pick on my ass and everyone would think I'm a wimp." Terry told her before trying to eat one of the pancakes on the plate on top of the bed. But Lydia grabbed the plate before he could.
"Y-you're n-not go-going a-are y-you?" Erika asked Joshua in worry, giving an indication that she's only worried about him.
"I can't let him get his ass beaten." Joshua told her while touching her cheek, which made her cheeks become red. "But seriously though, what the fuck would you do if said no?" Joshua asked Terry as he grabbed a pancake.
"Would fight anyway." He replied.
"The difference is that you would get your ass kicked in front of a bunch of people." Lydia added.
"Fuck off," Terrence complained. "But seriously, are you gonna have my back J?" He asked Joshua.
"I already said yes, but you know that it's probably gonna be just the two of us against them, right?' Joshua pointed out. He wasn't scared of anything, but Terry wasn't exactly known for his fighting skill.
"Don't worry about that," Terrence explained. "Jermaine will drop after the first punch, his buddies are the only actual problem."
Joshua rolled his eyes at his friend's belief that this was going to be easy. "Okay."
"I-i don't like th-this." Erika was quick to add.
"Me neither, but Joshua can handle it." Lydia reassures her while holding her hand.
"Wow, thanks for the fucking support." Terrence was quick to comment.
"You got your own ass into this fucking mess, and now you're dragging my best friend along with it." Lydia replied to his comment. "Also, if Joshua's pretty face is damaged in any way, I'm gonna fucking stab you." She also threatened him.
She does have a pocket knife in her jeans's pocket. So the threat is semi-truth. Joshua thought as he ate more pancakes. "Okay, give me the time and the place."
"At seven, on the playground in the block behind my home." Terry explained.
"Fine, let's go together then." Joshua told him. Then he turned to Lydia. "Are you gonna sleep here again?" He asked her.
"Yes." Lydia instantly answered .
"Then it's gonna be Pizza night." Joshua announced.
"Awesome!" Lydia gave him a thumbs up. Pizza is Lydia's favorite food.
"Since we have a lot of time, wanna play some games until then?" Joshua asked Terry.
"Sure, bring it on." Terry accepted.
Joshua then stood up from the computer chair and grabbed a controller from Terry. He then put on the game Super Smash Bros. Melee on his GameCube console. He also gave a controller to Erika, even though she isn't much into video games, she does enjoy playing it when everyone is together. Joshua then picked his controller and Lydia's, before turning the console on.
The four friends played together for several hours. Until it was time for Joshua and Terrence. Joshua put on an outfit similar to Terry's, A white track jacket with a black T-shirt underneath, navy blue jeans with black high tops. After that, they left Lydia and Erika there and made their way to the south area of Stranding Haven.
They're currently sitting on a bus on their way to Terry's home. And both are thankful that the rain stopped for a bit.
"Alright, be honest with me." Terry spoke to Joshua as he looked through one of the windows. "Are you fucking Lydia or something?"
Joshua sighed before speaking. "No, I'm not." He replied, because it was technically true, but they did a bunch of sexual stuff besides the actual sex.
"Yeah right..." Terrence clearly didn't believe it . "I mean, she sleeps in your house almost every night." Not every night, but most nights. "And I heard from Erika that you two were spooning when she arrived."
"I like cuddling, so what?" Joshua lifted his shoulders.
"Cause Lydia, excluding the masculine behavior that she got, is pretty ." Terry explained. "And I still not completely certain that she doesn't swing our way."
"She definitely doesn't swing your way, T." Joshua pointed out. "Besides, the one who decides what she likes or not, it's her."
"Are you gonna lie to me and say that you never thought about her that way?" Terrence asked him.
"I'm not gonna lie, yes, I did." Joshua admitted. Although, I don't know if it's just some perverted lust or actual feelings. He thought deeply. "Though, I do feel that way about Erika too."
"Erika? Shit man, don't get me wrong, whatever you're into is up to you." Terry spoke while cringing.
"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" Joshua asked in annoyance.
"I mean, she's a little weird." Terry started to explain. "And she's like... super plain looking and on her way to the heavy side."
Joshua got really mad at that. "Terry, you're my friend and I really care about you, but if you make any of these comments about Erika again, I'm gonna stab you and drink your blood." He wasn't really joking about the drinking blood part. Though, I don't think that I would ever hurt Terrence.
Terry started to laugh in response. "Hey, I'm not judging, whatever you're into, you're into homie." He fortunately took his threat as a joke.
Suddenly, the bus stopped and it was time to exit it. Joshua and Terry came down from the bus and stepped on the south area of Stranding Haven. Most of the city looks bad, but the south is the worst. Every single wall they saw had some type of tag graffiti on it. The streets were dirty as hell and some of the stores looked like they were going to fall apart any second.
"Home shitty home." Terry joked. "Come on buddy." He signaled Joshua to follow him.
The two kept on walking, passing through several locations, each looking worse than the other. Joshua saw several drug dealers and prostitutes that were not even trying to be subtle. At least one of those prostitutes that I saw so far were underage. Joshua thought in anger and frustration. I gotta check that out later.
He kept on following Terrence until they arrived at his apartment. Though he noticed something interesting at the entrance. He saw the initials of his dumb serial killer name on the entrance of the apartment in tag graffiti.
It was written.
Fuck the Police!
SHK RULES!
"Who wrote that?" Joshua asked Terry in curiosity.
Terry looked at it. "Some guy on the last floor. A lot of people on the street are fans of the Stranding Haven Killer."
"Fans of a serial killer?" Joshua asked in a small confusion.
"A serial killer that only kills assholes, that's actually an awesome thing." Terry told him. "There was a girl that lived here, she and her father were walking back home. And some guys stabbed her father and made her lay on his belly for them to gang rape her." He started to explain the story. "The SHK found the motherfuckers a year later and did some nasty shit with them."
Yeah, I should have just killed them. Why the fuck did impaled the four guys. It was extremely hard to shove a stake through their access all the way until it came out through their mouths and then lift it up. But I apparently did a good job, since it took six to eight days until all of them died. Joshua heard about what happened to this girl by pure accident when he was having dinner at Terry's home. He decided to do some digging and discovered that one of the guys worked in a convenience store not far from here. Joshua abducted him and interrogated him until he confessed. He abducted the rest one by one.
"Everyone in this building knew the two, so they all kind of became fans of the Stranding Haven Killer. Hell, even uncle Sean is a fan." Terrence kept explaining, but the last part surprised him.
"Wait, your uncle... a police officer, is a fan of a serial killer?" Joshua asked in deep confusion.
"The girl and my uncle were dating when that happened." Terrence revealed to him." She committed suicide a few days later, my uncle never got over it."
Shit! I didn't know that, poor Sean. Joshua felt bad for Terry's uncle. As he's one of the most decent people that he knows.
Both friends then went inside the apartment complex that Terry lives in. It was an extremely decayed place, with lots of dirt on the floor, broken lights and windows. The pillars seemed like they were going to collapse any second. And the walls were filled with graffiti.
There was someone doing graffiti on the wall with spray paint as they passed through the first floor of the complex.
But then, he saw someone exiting the door beside the wall that he was painting on, and smashed the guy's head with a Vodka bottle. "You punk ass bitch!"
Joshua decided to ignore that, as it was not really his problem.
The two friends finally arrived at the playground that Terry mentioned. This place looks as bad as the apartment complex. Joshua observed.
The toys were completely rusted and the ground was covered in dirt. There's a severe smell of dog shit around and there's three broken street lights that were supposed to be lighting the place up. There was a bathroom on the playground with a light in the middle that separated the man's and woman's bathroom, which was the one that Terry and Joshua were close to.
"That fucking nigga probably planned on sucker punch us in the dark." Terrence was quick to complain.
"Whatever, I just want him to show up already." Joshua replied while leaning on a wall besides the woman's bathroom door. He looked up at the sky, and could tell that it was going to rain again soon. He then started to remember something that he read about rain, a poem.
My life is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
My thoughts still cling to the moldering
Past,
But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast,
And the days are dark and dreary.
Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.
He recited the poem perfectly inside his head. As a result, he can feel the drops of rain falling from the sky.
"Fuck! Let's wait inside the bathroom." Terrence told him.