Page 141 of Love Me to Death

Lucy was shaking. She’d have known if Miller was in the WCF office, wouldn’t she? Except—she didn’t recognize him now. He’d changed not one thing, but several things. His hair. His eyes. The way his face looked.

Stacy Swanson…she remembered her, she used to come in once a week, but she hadn’t seen her in a while.

He grinned, but the expression was more terrifying than his serious face. “I know how to make people see what I want them to see.”

She whispered, “You killed Cody.”

His smile disappeared and he didn’t answer. “Walk to the fifth stall.”

She turned and staggered like a drunk, her feet burning from the cold, barely able to hold her upright.

“Turn and face right,” he said, his voice far away.

She did, and he turned on the bright overhead lights.

A headless body lay sprawled in the hay of the stall. The wall behind it was splattered with blood and bone and brain matter.

Lucy didn’t know what was worse—seeing the body, or seeing the stains all around her. Blood on every wall.

She screamed and he laughed.

“That is lesson number one. Do exactly what I say or you’ll be in the next stall. Stacy did not do exactly what I commanded.”

Lucy sprinted, her only thought to get back to the house before him and lock him out long enough to find a phone and call 911. Her feet were numb from the snow, but she ran, willing herself to keep moving.

It’s life or death—run, Lucy!

He was pursuing her, he had shoes, but worse, he had his whip. She heard the sharp crack in the cold air.

He closed the gap and used his whip to hit her. She fell to her knees.

She tried to get up, then crawl, but he was there and Lucy believed at that moment her life was over.

I tie her like an animal and drag her through the snow back to the house.

Second lesson: Do not run.

She is screaming as I walk, but no one can hear her, so I let her scream. She will lose her voice. Most do after a day or two of futile noise. No one is near. No one will come. No one cares. No one but me.

I drag her down the stairs and now she cries. I put her in the cage. She cries and does not move. I handcuff her to the bars because I do not trust her. She is not like other women. She is tainted.

But she will learn.

I walk up the stairs and turn out the lights. I listen to her sobs. Then the female shouts, “I will kill you! You fucking bastard! I will kill you!”

I freeze.

She swore at me. She spoke without my permission.

I turn the light back on. I walk down the stairs and stare at her through the bars. The anger inside grows, bubbles.

The audacity of the female to speak to me in such a manner!

“What do you want from me?” the female screams. She is scared, but she is also defiant.

I want her scared.

“I did not give you permission to speak,” I say.

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