Page 54 of Karma
“This chain looks familiar,” Ky says as he looks up.
Doing the same, Undertaker studies it. “I don’t know about the chain itself, but it’s the same setup as the one we found that woman in the warehouse tied up in. Probably can rig this up in his sleep.”
“Look at all these instruments,” Venom says with just a bit too much excitement in his tone for comfort. He looks at them and shrugs. “What? I can appreciate the creativity and tools while hating the owner.”
What Venom finds impressive makes Undertaker shudder. Every tool has a place on the racking on the wall. Some of them look more medieval than anything else, and he can only imagine what they’re used for.
Spikes, saws, and what looks like a device to pry things open seem to be his favorite instruments. Everything makes Undertaker sick, and he doesn’t want to know what he did with everything.
Walking towards a stack of notebooks, he picks up the first one and flips it open.
She screamed until she lost her voice when I poured the acid into her body cavity. The drugs helped keep her conscious until her body slowly shut down. With Lex, make sure to reduce the amount. She will last longer.
“Jesus Christ,” he mutters and swallows his vomit.
“What?” Ky asks and walks up to look over his arm. Reading the same passage, he growls. “Motherfucker.”
Tossing it to Venom, to read, they all watch the craziest of them process the words. Even he blanches. “Uh, guys?”
“Yeah?” Zane asks.
He flips through the pages and shakes his head. “This is Nina’s notebook. And the coroner got it wrong.”
The nausea turns to guilt, followed by pain, and Undertaker closes his eyes as he clenches his fists at his sides. It still bothers him that she tried to get his help. If he’d just told the others his real name, maybe he could have helped her. He could have stopped it before it went too far, and Nina would still be alive. Lex wouldn’t be in the hospital.
“Wrong how?” His eyes remain closed because he can’t look at Venom when he answers.
“It took her almost three weeks to die. Based on his notes, she died the same day she was found at the gas station. Just hours later.”
“How many notes are there?”
“The entire book is filled out. He has dates and times. Kept track of her stats.”
His pause makes Undertaker open his eyes. “What?”
“You don’t want to know.”
“Just say it.”
“He writes that he hopes to find the Frances she keeps calling out for. And then he documented her last words.It burns, Aaron. It’s burning.”
Falling to his knees, he can’t breathe. Nina was in this room, hung on these very chains, for weeks. He tortured her to unbearable lengths, and she probably prayed for it to end. Not to be saved because there was no coming back from it, but she had to have wished for death. Undertaker would have.
“Can you make it last that long?” he asks, tears in his eyes.
“I can make it last longer,” Venom says and grabs another notebook from the table. “And looking at this, he mapped out his plan for Lex already. Took everything he learned from all of the others, and he believed he could make it last a month.”
Zane runs a hand over his face that’s so pale, he’s nearly translucent. “I don’t want to know how.”
“Well, he gave me a blueprint, so I can follow it pretty well. Psycho and I will get together to determine where we want to add our own flair. I have a few ideas…”
“It creeps me out when you drift off like that as you’re looking at a murder how-to book,” Ky says.
He smirks, but he never looks up. Flipping through the pages, he shakes his head. “He may be a sick fuck, but I have to give him points for creativity. Too bad it’s how he’s going to end.”
“Can we make it work in the basement?”
Sniffling, he finally looks up. “We’ll have to make a few adjustments. I wanna take his stuff, though. It wouldn’t be justice if we don’t use his own shit on him.”
