Ring, ring

Ring, ring

Ring, ring

That’s the way it has been all night at Stephen McLaughlin’s house.  He sits in front of the electric fireplace and listens to his authentic 1950’s diner phone ring. 

            After about the ninth call of the night he stands up out of his satin chair and walks into the kitchen to pour himself another glass of brandy.  As he walks down that hallway, the hallway with all of his trophies, all of the heads of the animals he has hunted down for sport. He smiles a smile with an almost animalistic aspect to it.  He shakes it off and continues into the kitchen. 

            He opens the dark cherry wood cabinets beneath the counter and pulls out an aged bottle of brandy that had obviously seen its share of empty glasses.  He starts to pour the remaining brandy into the glass, stops in mid pour and decides against another.  He replaces the bottle and returns to the fridge.

            He turns towards the stainless steel fridge and pulls on the handle lightly.  The heavy door swings open to reveal severed heads of all ages, jars of no longer attached fingers, eyes that are now missing their sockets, hearts that no longer beat fast after a scare.  Yet, Stephen ignores all of this and just reaches behind the row of pickled fingers and pulls out a carton of eggs. 

            The man turns around and turns on the stove and begins to make an omelet.  As he mixes the eggs into a velvety yellow mixture Stephen gets out a cutting board and a Swedish steel knife that could cut a single strand of hair if he wished.  He grabs a head and sets it on the cutting board.  Slowly settling the knife on the tender skin between the top of the ear and the head he slowly, with painstakingly ease, slices the ear off, onto the counter.  Stephen gets both of the ears off and begins dicing them into pebble-sized chunks.  Then he dumps the handful of chunks into the egg mixture and mixes a little longer.

After the man put the omelet on to cook he pulls out a blender and a jar containing one of the many hearts and proceeds to pour it into the blender.  He hits the button and the sloshing sounds of blood and hearts slowly morph into a single slosh of liquid.  He stops the blender and begins to drain the blender of its contents into his gullet and happily swallow with a grin of malice. 

He stops the omelet and sits down to enjoy his late night breakfast.  Stephen flips on the TV to watch the 11 o’clock news.  The top story that night was another woman missing.  Fits the same criteria that the others do, skinny, blond, blue eyes, and goes missing on a Wednesday night.  Stephen grins and chuckles with satisfaction.  Then the news lady continues on to say, “The police have no leads as of now to who the kidnapper may be.”  At this Stephen loses it and tears fall down his face as he laughs harder, and harder.

Finally after the news is over Stephen reluctantly shuts off the television and goes to bed.  He takes off his fur slippers, takes off his silk pajama shirt and lies in bed staring at the ceiling thinking about his next victim, and how he couldn’t wait to stalk his prey the next night.

The next morning he wakes up puts on his finest suit and walks out the door of his half a million-dollar home.  He opens the door to his jet black Porsche and settles into the driver’s seat.   He revs the engine and backs out of the driveway and goes to his office as Stephen McLaughlin, the nicest governor of Nevada that anyone could ask for.  Now, no one knows of the other Stephen McLaughlin, the homicidal cannibalistic man that likes to prey on defenseless beauties.

He pulls up in front off his office and walks into the building just like any other day and takes the elevator to the 5^th floor.  He steps out and is instantaneously greeted by his secretary Janice.  They trade a little small talk, she informs him of his day and he stalks off into his office. 

Once inside he sits in the quality leather chair props his feet up in the desk and watches the video feed that he has trained on his new victim, Janice.  As he sits there watching her, he decides to make this game of his a little bit more interesting.  He gets out of the chair calls his buddy Jonathon from the police station and complains about threatening letters that keep coming for him in the mail.

Officer Jonathon walks into the governor’s office with ease and comfort.  As he takes the chair opposite of the desk he starts to question him about the letters.

The officer begins, “Well, Governor I'm sorry that I can’t really do anything for you unless you happen to have an idea of who it might be.”

Stephen glances at the door and whispers, “I think that it may be Janice, she has been following me home the past couple of nights and I always feel like I'm being watched.

Jonathon looks at him and sighs, “I guess all that I can really do is question her about her alibi, and have an officer stand watch outside your house.

Stephen smiles with glee and replies, “Oh, that would be just wonderful I would be able to sleep much easier knowing that there is a cop right outside.”

            Just as Officer Jonathon stand to leave Janice come over the intercom, “Mr. McLaughlin your 3:00 appointment is here.

Stephen simply says back, “Send him in.”

            The officer leaves to question Janice and Stephen’s stocky bald-headed apprentice walks into the room.  The man puts a briefcase on the desk and opens it to reveal a magnum 20 Damascus steel blade, with the handle made from solid marble and engraved with intricate gold designs.  The blade was stained black and it too had intricate gold etchings on it.

            Stephen’s eyes glint with greed as he spots the knife that he has been after for several years..  The stocky man shuts the case and bluntly says, “This knife is going to cost you 50 grand.”

            Stephen smiles and pulls out the checkbook.  He looks at the man and says gleefully, “That is but a small price my friend to have what I need for my plans in the future.”

            The stocky man shrugs and exits the room. Stephen carefully picks up the blade and examines it with a trained eye and flings the blade across the room and it sticks into the wall perfectly erect. As he walks over to pull the blade out he is happy to see that the fly on the wall was pinned beneath the blade.  “Bulls-eye”, he whispered to himself.

            3:30 pm, it’s time for Janice to page his office and let him know that she’s going home for the night.

Right on time as always, a sweet succulent voice comes over the intercom almost lashing at him with the seduction he craves from her, “Governor, is there anything else you need before I leave for the night?”

“No, thanks Janice you just go on home and have a nice night.”

“Alright sir, goodnight”

“Night Janice”

            As the office door closes behind her, he very slowly begins to pack up all of his stuff.  Slides his papers agonizingly slow into his portfolio, sharpens the pencils before he puts them in the top drawer of his blackened oak desk drawer.  Caps all of his pens, makes sure that all of the things on his desk like his #1 Governor coffee mug is symmetrical to his marksmen trophy.

            While walking out of his office door he leaves a note on the door asking the janitorial staff to cover the oddly shaped hole in his wall, then feels the waist of his jean to find the sheath of the knife hidden beneath his suit jacket.  He hits the elevator button and as the doors begin to confine him the small metallic room he smiles the smile that sends chills down grown men, and he kept that smile the whole time he descended.

            He climbs into his beauty of a car and heads home.  Instead of going straight home he decides to take a detour to an abandoned warehouse right outside of Carson City.  He arrives at the warehouse and parks in the garage and opens the door to an older, beat up, rusty red Ford Bronco and starts the engine.

            He drives the old rust bucket precariously and about 20 miles over the speed limit.  He quietly pulls into a nice little subdivision and creeps along the roads with his headlights off.  He spots the pale eggshell blue house that he’d been searching for and parks about a block away.  He climbs out of the car and approaches the side window of the house.

            Stephen quickly and skillfully looks into the window without being noticed by nosy neighbors.  He peeks into the master bedroom of the house only to find it empty.  He curses under his breath.

Damn she must have already gotten into the shower.

            As his fingers slide under the cracked windowsill to lift it open the door to the bedroom creaks open.  In steps the stunningly beautiful Janice Philips.  Stephen’s breath catches in his lungs and ducks down stealthily awaiting for her to disrobe and enter the bathroom.  His head peaks over the sill and catches a glimpse of the bathroom door closing the rest of the way.

            Yet again, he begins to life the window the crawl in after her.  Breathing hard anticipating the fun that is about to begin he waits outside the bathroom door to hear her step into the shower after 2 minutes, like always.  A moment after the shower curtain closes he slinks into the bathroom with her and sits down on the sink just listening to the water, and imagining it cascade and caress the magnificent body of his perfect little Janice.

            20 minutes later, Janice opens the curtains to reveal her always-empty bathroom, and notice a little black smudge on the mirror; she looks at it curiously and shrugs it off without a second thought.  She wanders out of the bathroom into her bedroom drops her towel onto the burgundy carpet and begins getting dressed.  She gets on her bra and panties and stands up abruptly at a sound from behind her. 

            She is suddenly a little woozy, and can’t quite see straight.  She wobbles forward a couple of steps and spots a shadowy figure in the corner of her room.  She squints and examines it a little closer and she says to herself, I must be really tired or stood up way too fast, because that looks like the Governor wearing a doctor’s mask.

            Janice laughs a pathetic little laugh that came out as a cough and collapses onto the floor wear she lay half naked.  Stephen walks up to her motionless body and thinks to himself, It’s a shame that she will have to die wearing nothing but underwear.   He decides then and there to rummage through her closet and find a fitting dress to put her in.  He finds a little black cocktail dress and begins to lift her up and dress her as if she is an overgrown Barbie doll.

            Groggily opening her eyes, Janice starts to look around her.  All she can see are dark shadows along a molded concrete wall, no windows, and she hears footsteps of rats above her head.  She tries to hell, only to find that she can make no noise beyond a slight gurgle that sounds like a choking dog.

            A creaking noise erupts suddenly from a door behind her.  She tries to move and gets a jolt of pain down her arm and hears a jingling noise.  She looks up and to her horror her hands suspend her in mid air, and protruding from her hands are meat hooks hanging from the ceiling.  She tries yet again to scream with no more success than the last attempt.  She begins to squirm around and discovers that her toes can touch a chair nearby.

            A man walks around the corner where she assumes a door lays waiting for another person to open it again.  As the man walks towards her she realizes that she knows this man, this man wearing a rubber suit and carrying a knife.  This man is her boss, the Governor of Nevada.  She takes a closer look around the room and sees puddles of blood spotting the concrete floor, scraps of hair laying, soaking in these blood puddles, and fingernails here and there along the walls and floor. 

            The Governor reaches her and says with a chilling stone quality to his voice, “Hello, Janice.  I thought that it would be nice to invite out to some quality time.  I know that you can’t talk so I though that I would take the liberty of starting the conversations.  So, Janice, how are you doing this evening?”

            Janice tries to yell yet again, and yet again, she failed to utter anything more than a croak.

“Janice, Janice, Janice, I injected a muscle relaxer directly into your voice box, that way you can’t scream and ruin my our date tonight.  As you can see, I’ve had plenty of women down here before and they have all ruined my perfect night, so as long as you can do as I say you will survive.”

            Stephen walks to the far end of the room that is shrouded in shadows and drags a table out of the gloom.  He pulls it across the floor with a loud obnoxious screeching noise until it is directly in front of Janice’s knees.

“Now, I’ll be right back dear, I just need to grab a candle, some food, drinks, and use the restroom to wash up a little bit.”

            Right as the door closed after the Governor, Janice goes straight to work on getting off of the hooks.  She tries to lift her legs, and a terrible pain shoots down her arms.  She lifts her legs yet again and the same outcome.  She takes a deep breath and heaves her legs onto the table in front of her. 

            Her grime-covered feet leave marks all over the table and she fears of what that may make him do..  She puts the thought out of her mind and begins to work on getting her hands off of the hooks.  She lifts the slowly hearing a gut wrenching shwoop and gets them off after working them for a minute.  She can’t move her fingers but she can maneuver her arms just fine.

            She searches the room and sees the chair that was by her feet.  She scoots it across the floor and wedges it under the door, praying that it was enough to keep the crazed man out.  She takes a few steps away from the door and hears the knob twist and turn.

Bang

Bang

Bang

            Goes Stephen’s fist on the door.  An angry shout beckons from the other side, “Janice you better let me into this room or so help me God you will never leave it.”

Bang

Bang

Bang

            Janice’s breathing gets faster and faster, her hear rate is increasing.  She can feel it pulsing in her temple over and over.  Suddenly, the beating ceases and the angry shouts stop. The room itself is deathly silent.  Out of nowhere comes a gunshot, and the sounds of splitting wood.  Janice manages a quiet little yelp and jumps backwards.

            She runs around the room frantically looking for somewhere to hide.  She doesn’t manage to find one so she decides to just lurk in the shadow of the one dusky corner.  Janice runs to the corner and sits down with her knees curled up to her chest.  She sites there and can hear him saying with a sick happiness to his voice, “Janice, oh come here Janice, I just want to have a lovely time with you.”

            Janice hears the floor scraping backwards along the floor and gave up any hope of keeping him out of the room.  The door once again slowly creaks open and shuts almost immediately.  Footsteps pitter patter across the cold, stone floor and come to a stop about 15 feet on front of her.

“You didn’t honestly believe that you could hide from me, did you Janice?”

            He squats down in front of her, “tsk, tsk, tsk, all of my other dates put up more of a fight than you.   I have to say I'm pretty disappointed in you.”  He sighs, “Ah well, Janice, I guess it’s time for you to pay for ruining our perfect little date.  Stephen yanks her up by her hair and drags her across the floor and lays her on the table.  He pulls up restraints from the side and lashes her down spread eagle.

“I’m going to enjoy this much more than you will, and you should last for a couple weeks in my fridge.”

            He lifts his shirt and undoes his belt.  It appears as if he’s taking his pants off but the Janice spots a glimmer of metal..  Stephen turns around sporting his new black knife.  Smiling his coldest smile he takes the knife and slowly drags it down Janice’s left arm, from her shoulder to her wrist.  As blood begins to drain out of her arm he sets a cup beneath her arm and fills it to the rim, and downs it in one gulp.

“Janice, I'm appalled at you, your blood tastes of way too much iron. Someone hasn’t been eating their veggies.”

            Stephen lets out a crazed laugh, and resumes slicing and dicing his victim into the pieces that he desires the most.  First, he took her eyes, he beautiful ocean blue eyes that he has gazed into many times.  Then he took her fingers, the dainty woman fingers that he has innocently grazed with his own rough hands of a hard workingman. Finally he cut out her heart and says with a bit of humor, “Look, Janice…I finally got your heart.”

             A week later the new secretary walks into the office looking professional and well educated.  Sporting a knee length black skirt and v-neck short sleeve shirt, her long blonde hair in a bun, and very fitting glasses covering her pale blue eyes, Stephanie sits at her new desk.  The elevator opens up.

“Good morning, Governor. Is there anything that I can do for you this morning?”