“Okay, you know how we all joke around about serial killing?” I gave her an inquisitive “yes” as I got even closer to her—looking into her eyes. “It’s no joke! We have taken part in actual killings. However, we are not the ones responsible for the murders of young women in our area—only people who deserve it. You may think this is all a big act, like I am practicing for an expository round at the school tomorrow, but I assure you I am being totally honest with you.” I thought this was really fun, with part of me thinking how insane it was to joke around about this topic in this manner, but a little part of me sensed something more…the thought that maybe...I gave her a slight mocking tone, in a fun way of course, and asked her to tell me more! Nicole continued, “Now I’ll bet you are wondering why I am telling you this. Well, I sense that you are a lot like me and I am a lot like Daniel and Mark.” Nicole was silent a moment, breathing quite deliberately and acting a bit nervous—which only made the bait even more tempting to bite at.
“I think you are right Nicole…tell me everything, I promise not to say anything to anyone.” Nicole looked around to make sure nobody was eaves dropping, then I asked, before she could continue ,“Are you sure you aren’t one of the ones that have been killing co-eds?” Nicole quickly responded, “No, absolutely not! Not one of our targets has even been found, or if they have been found they are not tied together in any pattern—nobody suspects they were part of a pattern, I should say.”
Okay, this was getting more fun, dangerous fun…the kind you don’t expect and think you should turn away from, but you just can not resist. “Melanie, as I said, I’ll hold no secrets from you but you have to hold what I say as a secret from everybody.” Then I said what I think convinced her to continue, “Nicole I could never, ever do anything to hurt you.” Then I added playfully, “You’ll have to let me participate the next time you get a victim though!” Nicole then said, “That’s really possible…I feel I can trust you but I still have to warn you that any word of this and you could literally kill Mark and —speaking as one female to another—one can see you don’t want anything bad to happen to him, in fact quite the opposite I’d assume.” I was a bit speechless, not a normal trait of mine, and then gathered my words, “What do you mean by that?” She went on, “You know what I mean…you don’t need a masters in psychology to see that. However, we’ll see if you feel the same way about him when I tell you about the night Daniel discovered something at Mark’s house last year.”
My curiosity concerning what she was getting at in regards to criminality overshadowed her allegations about Mark and me—temporarily. Perhaps I resented that she knew something I dared not admit to myself, but at that moment I was less interested about exploring my alleged emotions than what it was Daniel had discovered. Was Mark some sort of pervert? And was Daniel blackmailing him in some way? I had to know now, that very instant so perhaps I was increasingly aware this was more than a creative story.
Nicole moved even closer to me and continued about how Daniel and a couple of other students once had arranged a fishing trip, and planned on getting a really early start. It had been agreed that they would stay the night at Mark’s house so they could all leave around 3 in the morning.
Mark had left that night to do some last-minute grocery shopping. The others were watching TV and Daniel had decided to explore the house, “He has a tendency to look for things where others would never explore.” Nicole said in a bragging tone about her boyfriend. He wandered down to the basement and looked at some old albums in the shelf—then, for some reason, he noticed something on the floor underneath the heating system. Nicole asked, “Know what he found Melanie? He found an old newspaper clipping about some guy who had disappeared. Nothing special about that but…then he noticed an envelop full of pictures. Now here’s where it gets interesting….again, are you sure you want me to continue?”
I sighed with impatience, “You know the answer to that, don’t you?”
Nicole continued her story in the same manner that one expected someone to tell a scary story on a campout—except no flashlight. “There were these pictures that began with a naked, middle-aged man tied up in what appeared to be some sort of cave. Next to the man was a box. And then…and this is where it gets good…the rest of the pictures that seemed to be taken with a camera with time-lapse showed rats emerging from the box and, well, you get the idea of what hungry rats would do to this guy in an enclosed area. Let’s just say it must have been a rather long and painful way to die.”
Nicole then went on to explain what was behind the rather morbid photo shoot. As I told you before, Mark had been a devoted father and husband but his wife went through some life-change and thought God was telling her to get a divorce. She wanted Mark out of the picture and enlisted some lawyer with a reputation for twisting the truth, and winning custody battles. Of course you know that Mark lost his kids.
She continued that Mark decided to get revenge on the lawyer and figuring that since a year had gone by, nobody would suspect him being involved. He studied the lawyer, staked him out, and found out he liked to go to the ocean alone every other weekend. One Saturday he followed him to even the score.
According to Nicole he followed him in an isolated area, captured him, and put him in his trunk. He drove him miles away, far into the Cascades, to a secluded lava vent he had discovered years before. Nobody else knew about it and the opening tunnel could barely fit an adult until you got into the little cavern.
Nicole was either very creative or was describing a side to Mark that was hard to imagine. I wondered if I should believe her or not. I was not sure but I wanted her to continue. I could not forget the exact way she then described the event.
“Mark mimicked a wasp in the way he took care of this guy, really impressive if you ask me. Like a wasp with a captured spider, he drugged the guy, bound him, and then pulled him into the hole. The rats were like the larva. The rest of the drama would take care of itself.” She looked to examine if I was in horror or shock—she probably noticed fascination was what I was experiencing. Yet whatever the case was, I could not take my eyes off her as she talked.
She then explained that Daniel found the photographs but he did not tell anyone. Instead he waited a while before approaching Mark. When he did, Nicole seemed to speculate here, Mark must have thought about turning himself over to the police but that is not what happened, obviously. Daniel had a grudge for someone—the person responsible for the death of his favorite cousin—the son of the uncle I told you about. It was drugs, he had become depressed and withdrawn when he met a pusher and got hooked. His life took a downward spiral and eventually he overdosed. Daniel had already considered killing the guy, but with finding his favorite role model, a substitute dad in a way, was capable of such an act, he begged Mark to work with him and do justice where the system would not. Then Nicole smiled and said, “And no trace of the meth pusher has ever shown up to this day—nor will it.”
Before I could comment she then asked, “So what’s my story in all this you wonder?” I was now thinking this had to be a big put on but still…”Okay, Nicole, I have no idea—maybe you and Daniel just got bored one evening and he said he had discovered this new activity?” I chuckled but noticed she wasn’t amused, “No, it was a bit more complicated than that.” I waited to hear more of the story and see what route it would all take—and I had to say that the whole lava vent thing was really amusing. What a way to go! I was curious as to how they allegedly took out the meth dealer but I decided not to interrupt Nicole as she continued.
She explained that she and Daniel had only been together for a short time when Mark and Daniel had started this activity together. When their relationship took the step into being serious Nicole had related to him about being abused by a neighbor as a child. This had caused her a great deal of emotional detachment, as well as trust issues until she met Daniel. He was not into her for sex, but for emotional intimacy. He did not even believe in sex prior to marriage. He listened and he underst
ood her—and the pain and confusion that she had felt. Eventually he had found out the female neighbor had molested many young girls but the police never could get her on anything. He eventually settled on proposing the solution that had worked with the meth dealer to her.
Nicole made it clear she wanted to take part in any revenge on this woman. Now a group had formed and thus began a fairly atypical serial killing association.
I just had to ask her at this point, “Okay, I guess by now that cave must really be crowded with bones.” Nicole corrected me, “Nah, there are other means by which these targets—and the ones who followed—were dispatched” I asked for details but Nicole just said, “Trust me for now. If I tell you all the details, and if you let something slip, I will wind up the play thing of some lady named ‘Burtha’ for the next 30 years, and that’s not my life goal.”
I laughed at Nicole’s comment and joked that maybe she might learn to like Burtha, to which she responded, “Melanie, there are a lot of places out there that nobody would find your body—and I really like you too. So please, I’d rather be your best friend ever than, well, you know.” I assured her that any secret shared with me that evening would not go anyplace else and she could indeed trust me forever.
“So…” I asked, “…if this is all true, why are you telling me?” She looked in my eyes again and said, “There’s something about you that makes me want you to be part of our special group in so many ways.” I continued to inquire, “So what, you need help in holding people down so you can kill them? I’m not all that strong but I suppose…” She immediately responded, “It’s more than that, trust me—you’ll see that it is way more than what you think right now.”
I, at the time, played along yet I still had that nagging feeling that this was for real. I figured that I should just wait and see what would come up next.
She changed the subject, and we kinda drifted into a somewhat uneasy conversation—I mean how could one maintain their normal patterns of thought and talk after that? Nicole seemed perfectly comfortable. Which caused me to wonder about her imagination—yet again I was nagged by the idea that maybe my new circle of friends had taken lives, multiple lives, and while it seemed far fetched, especially for Mark, I still had the “What if?” signal going off. Yet, how could someone so kind, so intelligent, as Mark have killed someone in such a brutal, yet I would have to admit imaginative, manner? Then again, we all have our dark sides—which most people keep firmly caged except for the occasional dream or fantasy.
Mark and Daniel eventually returned and settled in. Mark went up to the counter for something and while he was gone we started talking about the tournament, and the town we were in. And then, quite unexpected, Nicole motioned to Daniel and just said, “I told Melanie about the plot, you know, to our movie about serial killers.” I thought to myself “Movie?” Daniel looked at me inquisitively and asked, “Well, so what do you think Melanie, you still want to be friends? “ I thought a moment and said, “Certainly, especially if you let me join you the next time you need to do someone in.” Daniel laughed and asked, “Well then, what are your preferences? Do you like guns, knives, poison?” Playing along I responded, “Oh, I don’t know, a knife seems awful messy but in a way it’s more personal than the other techniques…maybe something like a human sacrifice would be cool.” Daniel nodded and said that could be arranged if I “really wanted it.” The topic of conversation shifted back to the tournament when Mark came back and sat down. Daniel and Nicole laughed a little bit but when Mark asked what was so funny they said it was nothing.
The mentioning of a movie mostly convinced me that this really was all part of a fantasy role play, but it still left me thinking a bit. When going to bed that evening Nicole told me she hoped I would not have any nightmares about our conversation, or be worried about my safety. I assured her I wouldn’t and I was not. She said that was nice and that nobody had better try to harm me anytime or they would have to answer to her.
The rest of the tournament was great—our inner circle took awards and Mark was really happy—not sure how he felt about the rest of the group not even placing in finals, but I could not have cared less about them personally. On the way back home I sat in the front passenger seat next to Mark and we talked about interesting topics for hours. At one point he was quickly glancing at the schedule for the upcoming events. In that moment of silence I looked at him, and for an instant tried to picture him killing someone—I tried to imagine him in rage or being able to torture someone, but stay collected enough to carry it through and never be caught. For that brief moment I found the mental picture quite enticing—and even, dare I say a bit erotic. When those thoughts popped into my mind I was relieved when the silence broke and he started talking again. Of course the temptation existed to find out if there was truth to what Nicole had said or not. I guessed that all I would have to do is ask and he would either confirm it eventually, or ask what I was talking about. Yet even if he did deny it I would assume if it were true he would be good at concealing this part of his life, and could easily lie. I asked myself if I could detect if he were telling the truth or not? I was unsure. This had to be the most interesting weekend adventure I had ever been on to say the least. I was sad when we arrived at the school, and we all said goodbye to each other.
When I got home I was exhausted, but could not sleep. I put my mind on autopilot and imagined all kinds of scenes involving if Mark if he had actually done what Nicole had claimed. The strange thing is that it did not bother me in the sense that I would fear him, or Daniel or Nicole—in fact, it intrigued me. Did that make me strange? Who knows…I just wished I could see the pictures Daniel allegedly found.
Chapter 11
When I woke up on Sunday I was disappointed that Mark had not e-mailed me—although it had only been Saturday night that we all arrived home. However, I did see a mail from Nicole, “I hope you had a great time this weekend, I sure did, and I hope we can get together for a bike ride this afternoon.” I replied with an enthusiastic “Yes!” and she showed up soon afterward. We both were anxious to enjoy the unusually beautiful weather and the ride was a nice time to talk about things in general—however, she did not bring up her “movie” thing at all.
The next day I arrived at school a bit early, so I decided to go relax in the library. Miss Green saw me there and asked how I had done at the tournament, and I told her how much fun it had been—especially to win. She seemed happy and congratulated me on my performance and then she asked about Mark. The way she asked seemed to be deeper than just professional curiosity, it was prying—she seemed to be fishing for personal information. This surprised me as I thought she was nice and all but certainly not on the same level as Mark. I went ahead and discussed things with her but nothing of real importance.
Daniel and I had lunch together without Nicole since she had some test to make up from Friday. He asked me if I wanted to see a video he found on the internet. I said I would love to so we went to the computer room.
The school computers had a block on most video sites but that was easy to bypass. The interview was on some Middle Eastern site, and featured a man employed as a public executioner. The interviewer asked how he felt about chopping people’s heads off (he admitted he had known some of the people personally) and he calmly discussed how he felt it was Allah’s will, and that it benefited society. He did not feel the least bit of guilt or bad feelings.
About half way through the video Daniel asked, “So what do you think—about what he is saying and all? I merely shrugged and said, “I have no problems with what he does—and he seems to like his job as well, why do you ask?” He sat back and responded, “Oh, I don’t know, I just thought you’d find it interesting. Also, they do seem to have a low crime rate there…if you steal anything they cut your hand off, and if you do worse things they chop your head off!” I continued to watch the video for a moment and said, “I have to admit he certainly doesn’t have a boring job!”
Daniel’s eyebrows raised
and he continued with the conversation, “So Melanie, if you were offered his job, would you take it?” I looked off to the distance and responded,”Oh, I just might consider it.” He continued, “So it wouldn’t bother you to chop off someone’s head?” I paused in silence for a moment and said, “You know, our conversations are certainly never dull, are they?” He laughed and I used that time to think and then answer, “Yeah, if someone was a bad person I could do it, and it wouldn’t bother me.” Daniel looked at me inquisitively and then with a sarcastic tone asked, “But what of a murderer’s civil rights, or even a child molester’s right to be rehabilitated—I mean isn’t it society that makes people do bad things?”
I knew he was mocking the more liberal position. I shook my head and asked him if he was going to start wearing love beads and tie-dyed shirts anytime soon. He laughed and noted that the bell had rung, and we needed to get to our classes.
When I saw Nicole in the hallway on the way to Mark’s class I asked her how her test had gone, and she was confident she had aced it. She apologized for not being at lunch as we entered Mark’s class. His lesson was on social norms and conformity, and I could not help but think about how few of the students there would even try to grasp how much a product of social conditioning they were. Yes, they had freedom of choice in so many ways, the ability to choose right from wrong for instance, but how many stopped to think in deeper terms how far their personal views were actually public? After class we talked a bit with Mark about the weekend, and the next trip, but then Mark apologized and left for some faculty meeting.
Melanie's Journey Page 11
