Page 68 of Girl, Undone
Ella shut her eyes and put the events of the past few days in chronological order.There had to be something hiding in there, something she’d missed.‘Which brings me to another question – why am I still alive?’
‘How do you mean?You weren’t the intended victim.Derek was.’
‘But all of the other victims were killed using their personal phobias.Derek’s phobia was…’ Ella trailed off, now seeing the full picture.
‘What?’asked Ripley.
‘Drugs,’ Ella finished.‘Shit, this was supposed to be two victims in one.Me and Derek were both supposed to pass out from fear.’
‘But you weren’t drugged,’ Ripley said.‘He drugs all of his victims first.’
Under the canopy of whispering leaves, Sheriff Bartram emerged from the shadowed doorway of the cabin and made his way toward Ella and Ripley.In his hand, shielded by the sterility of an evidence bag, was a cylindrical piece of plastic.
‘Guys, we got something,’ Bartram said.He held it up to the moonlight.
Ella squinted at the object within.A rounded slab of grey with a black ring at the tip.
‘The hell is that?’Ripley asked.
Ella jumped to her feet, took the item out of Bartram's hands, and inspected it.'It's a camera.'
In that moment, a profound calm enveloped Ella.She turned the bag over in her hands, examining the camera as if it were a puzzle to be solved.
‘You okay, Dark?’asked Bartram.‘Your guy filmed this whole thing.’
‘Yes he did.Sweep it for prints then get it to the precinct.’
Bartram took it off her.‘This guy’s a sick freak.’
Ella turned to Ripley.‘I need to get back to the precinct, quickly.Meet me there when you’re done.’
‘You’re going?’
‘Yes.’Ella pointed at the camera in Bartram’s hands.‘Our killer just revealed a lot more about himself than he realizes.’
CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT
A conflicting brew of emotions emerged as he reviewed the footage.
What he had here was a visual case study.This evidence backed up his findings.If he could find a way to present this footage alongside his write-up ofExperiment #4 – Trypanophobia (Needles), the psychology community would consider it a comprehensive masterpiece.He’d tested two subjects at once, and while one of them was still alive, he hadn’t expected her to die along with the counsellor.Derek was going to die regardless, but the woman was too strong-willed to pass out from fear alone.
He replayed the first part of the footage, then began committing his thoughts to paper.
The subject exhibits a pronounced physiological response upon visual confirmation of the secondary participant's deteriorating condition.Notable increases in respiratory rate and pallor suggest an acute stress response, likely compounded by the subject's pre-existing phobic predisposition.
He paused the footage at a moment of palpable despair.The frame was frozen on the detective’s face.
Facial expressions and body language indicate a severe emotional toll, yet there is a resilience, a refusal to succumb entirely to the paralyzing effects of the fear stimulus.The subject's attempts to intervene in the secondary participant's fate, despite overwhelming evidence of the futility of such actions, provide a fascinating insight into the human capacity for hope in the face of inevitable loss.
He glanced at the clock.The relentless march of time was a reminder of the narrowing window for his final experiment.Despite the allure of the unwritten textbook that lay before him, he recognized the necessity of restraint.
There was more work to be done; one last piece of the puzzle to place before he could consider his research complete.
The thought that the detective might be closing in on him crept into his mind.He’d been careful, but if the detective had been able to trace Derek’s whereabouts as he’d planned, it meant she wasn’t completely incompetent.
It was closing in on 10 PM, and if he was able to pull this next experiment off before the night was out, he could be on his way to Europe by dawn.He wasn’t above leaving everything behind and setting sail at the first opportunity, because once this was done, there was nothing else left here for him.There was a certain liberation in the knowledge that, upon the completion of his textbook, the life he had known would be shed like an old skin.In his mind's eye, he saw himself wandering ancient cobblestone lanes while his past endeavors remained a closed chapter that no longer defined him.
He couldn’t resist the allure of finality.
