by Baron Sord
—: o o o :—
Holly stepped out of her shower and toweled off.
She really was ready to sleep like the dead.
Those 36 hour shifts were a killer.
They really needed to be outlawed.
Ding-Dong!
Holly’s doorbell rang.
Who the heck could possibly be ringing her doorbell this late on a Saturday?
Holly’s chest tightened with a little bit of fear.
She grabbed the big bathrobe hanging on the back of the bathroom door and belted it on. Strode through her apartment past her dark office and to the front door. She peeped out the peephole.
A beautiful woman stood outside by herself in the white-walled hallway.
She wore a funny costume and a blue mask.
“What?!” Holly snickered to herself.
Knock! Knock! Knock!
“What does she want?” Holly muttered. Wanting to put an end to this interruption, Holly flipped the hotel-style swing-bar over the metal ball and opened the door a few inches. “Yes?”
“Hi,” said the beautiful woman in a low voice. “Sorry to bother you so late.”
“Can I help you?” Holly said with quiet irritation. It was late and she didn’t want to wake her neighbors.
“My name’s Lady Liberty and I think you have an intruder.”
Holly shook her head, “I’m sorry, who again?”
“Lady Liberty. You have an intruder.”
“Um, is this a joke?” Annoyed, Holly’s eyes flicked across the blue and red costume with the white stripes.
“Nope,” Lady Liberty smiled. “No joke. This’ll just take a sec. Promise.”
“What will take a sec?” Holly tried not to sneer, highly annoyed by this late night Strip-O-Gram slut who was bothering Holly when she should already be sleeping in bed with her ear plugs and eye mask.
“Okay, this is gonna sound really, really weird,” Lady Liberty said apologetically. “You’re gonna think I’m crazy, but you’ll be glad you hear me out.”
Holly heaved a sigh and whispered, “Hear what out?”
“There’s a guy in your closet. He has an ax.”
Holly blurted a laugh, “A what?”
“Keep your voice down,” Lady Liberty muttered. “He might hear us.”
“What are you talking about?” Holly chuckled in disbelief, but she did keep her voice low.
“I know, I know,” Lady Liberty smiled endearingly. “It sounds beyond stupid. But it’s the truth. He’s gonna attack you in your asleep. You wear one of those eye mask thingies and ear plugs, right?”
Holly frowned, “How do you know that?”
“Because I’m Lady Liberty. Anyway, just let me in real quick and we’ll check your closet together. That’s it. If I’m wrong, I leave, you go back to bed, no big whoop. If I’m right?” She tittered, “You’ll be really glad if I’m right. Please? This’ll be real quick.”
Holly was no idiot. She’d scored a high 523 on her MCAT. Top 99th percentile. She smirked, “How do I know you don’t have an ax?”
Lady Liberty held up her hands and did a twirl in the hallway, her hair circling in an ebony wave.
Holly couldn’t help but notice the woman’s impeccable behind, and that hair? Shampoo commercial good.
Lady Liberty came around with a smile, “See? No ax.”
Holly was still suspicious of this entire situation.
“I know, I know,” Lady Liberty said. “I told you it’d be weird. It’ll just take like two seconds if you let me in.”
Holly smirked, “If there’s an Axman in my closet, I should probably call 911.”
“Go ahead. That’s fine. I’ll wait right here.”
Holly frowned, thinking that would’ve put this woman off and it would’ve been the end of it, but it had not. Holly smirked, “You know what? I am going to call 911.”
“That’s fine. Take your time. But can I make a teeny little suggestion first?” Lady Liberty pinched her index finger and thumb together.
“What?” Holly said, growing increasingly annoyed, but also finding this woman’s friendly charm difficult to resist.
“If the police come, they’ll arrest Mr. Axman for breaking and entering or something stupid like that. They won’t arrest him for murder or even attempted murder. He’ll sit in jail for a year or two. I kind of think he’s the kind of guy who’s gonna think about how mad he is at you the whole time, and when he gets out, he’s gonna come looking for you.”
“I might not be here in a year or two when I finish my residency,” Holly countered with an annoyed laugh.
—: o o o :—
Kristy was getting really frustrated with the blonde doctor.
Some people were so effing stubborn.
“Puh-le-e-e-e-ease,” Kristy pouted like a little girl while bouncing impatiently up and down and shaking her fists in the hallway. “Just let me check your closet then I’ll go. We’ll do it together.”
“Okay! Fine!” The doctor pushed the door closed, clacked the bar thingy, then opened the door. “What was your name again?”
“Lady Liberty. What’s yours?”
“Holly.”
“Hi, Holly.” Kristy walked past her through the door. “Stay behind me. You’ll be safer.”
“Okay,” Holly snickered uncertainly, closing the apartment door. “The closets are this way.”
“I know,” Kristy said. “I saw.”
“You saw? When?” Holly snorted in disbelief.
Kristy wasn’t gonna tell Holly that her Disaster Vision movie had already shown the Axman chasing Holly all over the apartment and chopping away at her while Holly bled all over everything as she lost limb then life.
Kristy went straight to the little office.
A big wrap-around desk filled one corner of the room.
On the other side was a wall of mirrored slider closet doors.
Kristy already knew the Axman was in the far door near the window because that’d been the only one open in Disaster Vision. She went straight to it. Glanced over at Holly, who stood in the doorframe.
Kristy said, “Stay there. I don’t want you getting hurt.”
“Hurt?” Holly chuckled. “Why would I get hurt?”
Kristy didn’t answer.
Instead, she slid the closet door open.
Said, “You can come out now.”
“There’s no one in there,” Holly laughed.
“He’s behind the coats,” Kristy said, reaching into the closet.
SWOOSH!
The hatchet came down in a blinding blur.
With Kristy’s enhanced reflexes, it was more like high-def super-slow-mo.
When the Axman’s hatchet came down in his right hand, Kristy circled her left arm around. Her thumb pointed toward the floor as she slapped her open palm around the shaft, grabbed it, and twisted the hatchet to the outside of the Axman’s hand. This move was so fast it hyper-extended his wrist and forced him to release the hatchet.
Crack!
Before he could react, Kristy punched him in the jaw.
“Oh my God!” Holly gasped and slapped her hand over her mouth.
From the closet came a rustle and a thump.
Kristy reached inside and pulled the Axman out by the lapels of his work shirt. Dragged him onto the carpet and laid him on his back near the wrap-around desk.
“Oh my God!” Holly gasped again. “How did he…? Why didn’t I…? What the hell?!” She was dancing in the doorway, stricken with an acute case of disbelief.
“Don’t worry,” Kristy said. “Everything’s gonna be fine.”
“Oh my God! I know him! That’s our maintenance man!” Holly pointed with a shaky hand then snapped her fingers repeatedly, trying to recall. “Gorman! Lester Gorman!”
“Is that his name?” Kristy asked.
“Yes! I see him here all the time! He’s always trying to flirt! He asked me out on a date once! I said no! I think it’s against the rules for him to ask, b
ut I didn’t want him getting in trouble, so I never told management!”
Kristy smirked, “You should’ve told management.”
“No shit!” Holly laughed, still dancing. “You saved me! Oh my God! I can’t believe this!”
“Aren’t you glad you let me in?”
“I am now!” Holly grinned. “I can’t thank you enough.” She lunged forward a step, arms out like she wanted to hug Kristy, then she stopped herself and jumped back when she realized how close Lester Gorman was. “I don’t know what to do right now!” Her excitement was off the charts. “You just… you just…! I don’t know what you just did!”
“Like I said,” Kristy grinned back, “no big whoop. I can take it from here.”
Lester Gorman groaned incoherently on the floor. He was coming around.
Holly said, “Should we call 911?”
Kristy said, “We can… Or I can handle things.”
Holly held her fingers up to her mouth, her eyes darted around, and she said, “Can you… can you do that?”
Kristy shrugged, “It’s up to you. You can call 911 and I’ll wait until they get here, or…”
“Or what?”
Kristy winked, “That’ll be between me and him.”
—: o o o :—
“You really shouldn’t drink so much, Lester,” Kristy said as she walked him down the hallway inside the apartment complex.
Lester moaned at her side.
Kristy had his arm over her shoulders, which she held by the wrist. Her other arm was wrapped around his waist for added support. That hand held the hatchet flat against his side because she had no pockets to carry it.
At the end of the long hallway, she found an interior stairwell and dragged him down several flights before dragging him out through the EXIT door into the night.
Where now?
Kristy spotted a multi-level parking structure that belonged to the apartment complex. Next to the structure was what looked like the back side of a bunch of stores. Between the stores and the structure was a narrow walkway, gated at this end.
Kristy walked Lester up to the gate. She peered through the gate’s tight black mesh, which was obviously meant to keep you from climbing over it. The holes were little pinholes in sheet metal, but you could see through them. The walkway beyond was empty and dark and ran out to the distant street beyond the stores and parking structure. The walkway was unlit and dim, like a little alley. Very secluded.
“This’ll work,” Kristy said.
The gate didn’t have a doorknob, but it was locked.
Kristy considered kicking it in, but she wanted privacy, and kicking it’d be really loud. She quickly checked that no one was watching, then jumped Lester over the 10 foot tall gate, landing smoothly on the other side.
The walkway walls were covered in decent graffiti.
Kristy was a big fan of quality wall art.
She would’ve liked to take a moment to enjoy it, but Lester.
“Hey,” he groaned. “Put me down.”
“Shhh,” Kristy whispered. Carried Lester down to the middle of the walkway where it was darkest and most quiet. The only sounds were the distant wind of late-night cars on the main road lying beyond a second gate up ahead. Kristy lowered Lester to sitting against the cinderblock wall.
“What happened?” Lester asked. “I was hiding in…” He clamped his mouth shut. Thought, I was hiding in Holly’s closet when… Fuck. I’m in the shit now. I heard some woman talking to Holly outside, then she came inside and… What the fuck happened then? Is this her?
Kristy said, “I’ll tell you what happened, Lester. I stopped you from doing a very bad thing.”
Lester glared at her in the darkness. A thin glint from a distant street light flecked his darting eyes.
Kristy stood over him with her legs apart and arms crossed over her chest, one hand holding the hatchet. She twisted it so the blade caught the light.
She said, “You were gonna use this to kill Holly, weren’t you?”
“I’m not sayin shit,” Lester scowled. “Who the fuck are you anyway?”
Kristy grinned, “I’m your worst nightmare, Lester.”
“Is that so?” He snorted a laugh. “Then what’s with your fucking Halloween mask? You look like a little girl. A dumb fucking kid.”
“Don’t laugh, Lester.”
Lester eyed her thigh gap, which was at his eye level and inches away. He thought, I oughta punch her in the cunt. Teach her a lesson she’ll never fucking forget. A real hard fucking lesson.
“Go ahead, Lester,” Kristy said confidently. “Take a swing. But I have to warn you… any part of you that touches any part of me will be chopped off by your own ax.” Kristy slapped the hatchet head against the palm of her glove with a leathery fwap! “What’s it gonna be, Lester? Your left hand or your right? I guess if you’re right handed like most people, you’ll probably wanna lose your left.”
“Fuck you, cunt,” Lester sneered from where he sat. Slowly, he pushed himself up the cinderblock wall and stood tall. Realized he was taller than Kristy by a few inches. “If you were gonna use the fucking ax, you woulda already.”
CRACK!
Kristy buried the head of the hatchet an inch deep into the cinderblock beside Lester’s ear. Fragments of grit exploded out and pelted Lester’s cheek, making him blink and scrunch his cheeks and eyes defensively.
“You know what, Lester?” Kristy purred. “I changed my mind. Tonight’s your lucky night.”
Lester simply cringed.
Kristy grinned, “Aren’t you gonna ask why? Hmm?”
Lester stared at her, trying not to shake.
“Not gonna answer? Okay, I’ll tell you why.” Kristy smiled and leaned in close, planting her free hand against the wall beside Lester’s other ear. She lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper, “You get to keep your hands, Lester.” Kristy released the hatchet, leaving it hanging in the wall. With the tip of her gloved finger, she tapped the tip of Lester’s nose, then his lips, chin, and dragged it slowly down his chest in a wicked caress.
“I’m gonna cut your dick off, Lester. And these.” She clamped her claws around his balls and squeezed hard.
“Ulp!” Lester choked.
Twisted.
“Uuuuuuuuuuunnh,” Lester squeaked in pain, his eyes tightly shut.
“Do you think I could pop them if I tried? Hmm? I think I could. Like little grapes, because they aren’t so big, are they?”
He couldn’t answer. His eyes had rolled back in his skull and he was shaking hard.
She said, “I heard popping them’ll kill you. The shock or something. You just… die. It takes for-ever, but you do die. Especially if no one hears you scream. Do you think they’ll hear you scream, Lester?”
Lester could barely breathe, let alone speak or scream.
Finally, Kristy relented.
Lester sagged against the wall, beads of sweat dribbling down his forehead.
From the corner of her eye, Kristy thought she saw a shadowy silhouette suddenly move on the other side of the distant mesh gate at the end of the dark alley, the same place where she’d jumped over with Lester. She watched and listened for a moment. Nothing.
Kristy turned her focus back to Lester and yanked the hatchet out of the cinderblock wall. “I’ll keep this.” She admired it. Tapped the edge of the blade against the bone in the middle of Lester’s chest several times. “I’ll be watching you, Lester. If you try to hurt Holly or anyone else ever again, I’ll be there to stop you. Same as tonight. Next time, I won’t go easy on you. Do you understand?”
Lester stared at her, shaking bad. He didn’t know what to think except, I need to fucking puke. My fucking balls are broken…
Kristy gave Lester’s chest a hard tap with the blade of the hatchet.
“Uff!” he grunted in surprise.
“Next time will be your last time, Lester.” She waited for an answer. “Are you getting it, Lester? Or do you need a demonstration?” S
he thunked the blade of the hatchet harder against his chest.
“Ayck!” Lester yelped.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” Kristy grinned with evil glee. Slammed her left hand into Lester’s neck, choking him and pinning his head against the cinderblock. Thumped her knee up in his crotch, lifting him by the balls and pinning his hips. Leaned her weight into his neck with one hand and wound up with the hatchet in the other like she was ready to split his head open.
“Stop!” Lester squealed. “STOP!”
“Shhh!” Kristy released his neck and slapped her gloved hand over his mouth. Lowered the ax. “Just, shhh.”
Lester’s eyes wheeled in fear. His bladder let go.
“Ew,” Kristy grimaced and hopped back as the wet stain darkened the leg of Lester’s work pants. Good thing she wore her riding kneepads. She’d have to soak them in bleach later.
She rested the blade of the hatchet against Lester’s chest.
“Remember, Lester,” she whispered. “I’m watching you.” She lowered the hatchet and walked away.
Lester sank down on his ass and sat in his own piss where he belonged.
—: o o o :—
Kristy hopped the gate and left Lester in the lonely alley.
She hoped this was the last time he’d ever do anything like this.
She feared it wasn’t the first.
She stopped on the sidewalk under a street light.
Seriously considered turning around to go interrogate Lester.
She could read his mind and see through his lies.
If he had ever hurt anybody, K-Cray would kill him.
That was exactly why Kristy couldn’t do it.
She couldn’t go around killing people.
That was a one-way ticket to… she didn’t know what, but she did know she didn’t want to go there.
Kristy strode down the dark street, hatchet in hand.
She really wanted to get rid of it. Was there a dumpster around here somewhere? The short street had the apartment complex on one side and houses on the other. Up ahead, she saw smaller apartment buildings packed together across the cross street. They might have dumpsters in the allies surrounding them.
