Page 58 of Psycho

I was not in the superior position here, and Ray knew it, which was why he cut in, “I’d be more worried about what’s going to happen to you right now, amorcito.” Calling me amorcito still—that was a good sign, wasn’t it?

I winced as Ray grabbed me by the hair, practically pulling me from the trunk. My feet caught on the lip of the trunk, and I fell on my knees hard, scraping them on the concrete below. My eyes blinked, and I realized we were in a parking lot. The light I’d seen from the trunk was from the nearest pole. I didn’t recognize the area, but then again, I was too busy staring up at Ray to get a good look.

“Get up,” he ordered, “and look at the last present I have for you.” When I made no moves to get up, he added, “You are lucky, Ash, I’m not leaving you in the same state you left me when you called the police.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a cell phone. “They’ll be on their way here shortly, I think, but by then it’ll be too late.”

Too late? My heart nearly stopped. Was this it? Was Ray going to kill me?

And then I saw that the trunk I was in was not the only car nearby. There was another car—the same one I’d seen in the garage at the house Ray’d been bunking in. The one with the corpses in the back. The driver’s door hung open, and I heard its engine idling.

But that…that wasn’t all of it. My stomach curdled when I saw the silver chain wrapped around the car’s bumper, hanging on the concrete of the parking lot. Ten feet of chain, the links thick and shiny, trailing along the ground like a metal snake, its other end wrapped around the waist of a girl I knew.

Brooklyn. And she’d looked better. Her clothes were disheveled and stained, some parts of the clothing bloody.

Her hands were held behind her back, and I saw her neck was tied against the light pole behind her with another, separate circle of chains. She looked awful, her skin pale, her cheeks gaunt. A dirty gag rested in her mouth, and her eyes were open, staring at me. Whimpers left her every few seconds, and it was with a disgusted stomach that I noticed she was missing an entire foot.

Just…gone, a nub in its place. A nub that looked like it was cauterized in the back of a drug van or something.

“I gave you parts of her, but I’m guessing your tattooed boyfriend didn’t give them to you. If you think you’re safer with him than with me, you’re wrong,” Ray told me pointblank. Then, then his lips curled into a smile that would haunt my every dream. “I’ve been patient with you, Ash. I have, but you have to learn that my patience doesn’t last forever. The longer you wait to come back to me, the more bodies I’ll leave you with. This bitch—” He pointed at Brooklyn. “—is a gift, but also a warning. You’re mine, Ash, and if I have to kill every single person you’ve ever met to make you believe it, I will.”

My throat was dry; no words would come out of me, even if I tried to speak. I said nothing, merely watching as Ray went to the idling car, bent to lean in the driver’s side. He was bent over for only a minute, doing something under the steering wheel. He got out, straightening himself within moments, and it was then that the tires started squealing, as if he’d done something to the pedal to floor it.

The wheels rubbed against the pavement, and I knew I could probably hurry into that car and try to stop it from moving, attempt to undo whatever Ray’d done. Brooklyn knew this too, for her whimpering increased, her azure stare widening as I remained in place.

My gaze locked with hers, and even though no one deserved to meet their end at the hands of my psycho ex, it was hard for me to feel remorse over refusing to help, over just standing there and letting what would happen happen. Brooklyn had tried to kill me, tried to have me raped. She was toxic and vile, a bitch of epic proportions. Maybe I’d have nightmares over this, maybe not.

No, I wasn’t going to help her. Maybe that was just my own psychotic side poking through.

The car began moving once the wheels got traction, driving away from the light pole Brooklyn was attached to. I could not look away, even though I knew what was going to happen. Ray’s hazel eyes watched me all the while, and he said not another word as he hurried to his car. By the time it was over, he’d be long gone.

The chain attached to the bumper on the car became taut in a matter of seconds, and Brooklyn’s thin body was no match. The other end of the chain was tight enough around her waist to dig into her skin, lift her remaining foot off the ground, pulling with no give, no slack. Brooklyn screamed into the gag as the chain around her neck held her top half to the light pole, but that sound wasn’t the sound that drew my focus.

No, it was a wet sound. The sound of a spine being pulled apart and her guts loosening, her skin separating just above the chain. The car literally pulled Brooklyn apart right in front of my eyes, splattering me with her wet, warm blood. My clothes, my face. Luckily my mouth was closed. Brooklyn stopped screaming the moment her body became two pieces, and the car dragged her lower half across the parking lot—until its front end slammed into the base of another light pole further away. A thick line of blood and gore had followed it, coming from her lower half. A trail of organs and intestines splattered along the pavement too, a disgusting sight, one that I’d never forget.

My heart was nearly frozen in place as I slowly tore my gaze away from the car and the chain, away from Brooklyn’s lower half and her guts, and to the part of her still chained to the pole. Her midsection bled from her severed stomach, thick organs falling out with slimy sounds.Her head hung at a weird angle on the chain, her eyes still open.

I wanted to throw up, but I couldn’t. I could hardly breathe as I looked at her.

This…this wasn’t beautiful. I didn’t want this, even though she’d been a bitch. Though I stood back and let it happen before me, though I didn’t try to save her, this was not something I wanted. I wasn’t like Ray; I didn’t take pleasure in other’s pain. Ray had scarred me, and now he’d giftwrapped me for the police.

The image of Brooklyn’s torn-up body was imprinted in my brain by the time I heard sirens, and when a police car pulled up, its blue and red lights flashing, a man got out and shouted for me to get to my knees and put my hands on the back of my head.

Everything became a blur after that. With my hands on the back of my head, I was shoved to the ground, my face colliding with the concrete hard as my hands were grabbed and forced behind my lower back, cuffs slapped on them as the policeman called for backup.

I didn’t know it then, but that night would be the turning point in my life. After that night, nothing would ever be the same.

Chapter Twenty-Eight – Ash

They took pictures of me, asked me hundreds of questions over and over again after bringing me to the station. I told them about Ray, because what else could I do? I didn’t tell them my history with him, but at least with a serial killer on their radar, they wouldn’t look so hard at me. That’s what I thought, anyway. The truth was that I was found at a crime scene, with a girl who’d apparently been missing for weeks.

And here’s the kicker: Brooklyn’s friends had said she’d been getting into fights with a blonde girl with pink tips.

Yeah, it looked bad for me, not going to lie. I didn’t know what would happen, if I’d be arrested for these crimes, even though I hadn’t done a single thing. This was Ray’s present, dropping me with the police, leaving me with them just as I’d done to him all that time ago.

I sat by myself in a room, sitting in a cold chair and staring at the metal table in front of me. A camera sat in the corner of the room, blinking red every so often, signaling that it was on and recording. A big mirror sat on the far wall opposite me, but I knew it wasn’t a mirror. It was a window they could watch me out of.

I really hoped I gave nothing away. Exhaustion gripped my bones, but I knew I wouldn’t sleep for a long time. I knew I was in some deep trouble, but it was like after watching Brooklyn being torn apart, it wasn’t registering.

Ray.

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