by Tim Miller
“Ok Picasso. Where do you want me?”
Chapter 4
“Wow,” Graves said, looking her up and down. “How about over here, by the window.”
“Just standing up? Or should I lay on the ground all twisted up.”
“Standing up is fine, I’ll paint you hanging or something.”
He set up a large easel and canvas as he brought over a case filled with brushes and paints. After several minutes, Bailey grew impatient.
“We gonna start today? I’m just standing here naked you know,” she said.
“Yeah, sorry. I wasn’t prepared to paint tonight. No model has ever been this anxious to get started. Maybe I should be worried.”
“About what? And how many girls you score with like this?”
“Score?”
“Yeah, hook up, score, have sex, fuck!”
“None to be honest. This is my art. It’s not porn, it’s not sexual.”
“So my being here naked right now doesn’t turn you on?”
“No. You look great, but a body is a body.”
She had to figure this guy out, it was obvious he was full of shit with the artist gag. Plus he had money, so he sure wasn’t a starving artist. Either way, her curiosity was piqued.
“So this doesn’t bother you?” She asked as she began rubbing her breasts. Bailey massaged her nipples before squeezing her breasts together while rolling her head back. She looked over at him to see he looked irritated. His arms were crossed as he leaned on the easel.
“You having fun?” He asked. “Maybe this was a mistake.” He bent down and started putting paints away.
“What? Hey! I’m just messing around. Just do whatever you have to do.”
“You sure? I hate to interrupt your little party there.”
“Fine, just paint or whatever.”
Finally he began as she stood against the large window holding a pose with her arms out to her sides and her hips cocked to the side. She’d never modeled before and could see why. It was boring as hell. Just standing there. After an hour she couldn’t take it anymore.
“Can I take a break?” She asked.
“Sure,” he said. “I could use one too. You want something to drink?”
“Yes please.”
He sat his brush down and walked out of the room. She walked around to see what he had so far. Looking at the painting was rather horrifying. All her features were extremely dark, he pained her eyes black and put large antlers on her. She’d heard of that before, some creature they call a Wendigo. Big ugly beast with antlers, that also has something to do with cannibalism. It stuck her as odd; she never ate people, not yet anyway.
“Oh you looked!” He said from behind her. Graves was carrying two glasses of red wine. She took one and took a sip. The warm wine tingled in her belly as she took a few more sips. He took some bigger gulps of his as she looked back to the painting.
“So this is how you see me? This Wendigo thing?”
“Wow, you recognized it, I’m impressed. I see you as someone dark, you have some dark side to you. That and I bet you devour your enemies, figuratively at least.”
“You have a point.”
“You ready to finish up?”
“Sure,” she said as she walked up the steps and back to the window. As she got to her pose, Bailey began to feel lightheaded. Looking out the window the streetlights were swirling around as her vision grew foggy. Looking down at her wine, she threw it on the floor as Graves was standing before her with a smirk on his face.
“Motherfucker,” she said just before everything went black.
When she woke up later, she was still naked and tied to a table. The room was dark with some black lights lit all around. There was some weird techno music playing in the background at a low volume. The fucking asshole drugged her. She was so stupid. She should have known better. Especially after seeing his fucked up ass paintings. Footsteps came up behind her as she looked and saw a huge Wendigo standing over her, looking down. At first she thought the drugged wine was giving her a bad trip, but the creature walked around the side of the table.
It wasn’t a wendigo, it was Graves wearing a huge deer head with a giant set of antlers coming out the top. The eyes were cut out just leaving a set of hollow black holes. She could hear Graves breathing from inside the mask. Other than the mask, she was totally naked and sporting a raging hard on. He carried a knife in his right hand, holding it over her. This dickbag was crazier than she was.
He held the knife over her and ran it across her stomach, just enough to hurt and draw a trail of blood. Her stomach tightened as the knife ran across it. He stood back and watched. She figured he was enjoying the show and trying to thrive on her fear, but she wasn’t afraid. Just angry.
Struggling against her restraints, she could feel the plastic zip ties cutting into her wrists. Her hands were bound over her head and to the table. She wiggled her wrist around, and noticed the left tie wasn’t as tight as the right one. As he waved the knife over her with one hand, he stroked his erection with the other. When that wasn’t enough, he touched the tip of his cock to her leg and ran it along the edge of her thigh all the way up her side.
His dick felt gross up against her. The guy repulsed her, and she wanted to kill him. Though he seemed pretty certain he was going to kill her first. At least she knew his fucked up paintings were real, but none of those girls were like her. Turning her left hand to the side and balling it up, she gave it a hard tug and ripped it free of the zip tie. Plastic cut through her flesh, tearing skin away as her hand came free.
He was bringing the knife over her body again when she grabbed it with her free hand. She wished she could see the expression on his face when she grabbed him. He went to pull the knife away, and he was much stronger than her, but she twisted it out of his hand, grabbed the handle and slashed at his boner, cutting the tip off in one swipe.
He doubled over, screaming through the mask as she cut her other hand free and then her legs. She jumped off the table and ripped his mask off. His hair was still in the man bun, but he looked shocked and scared as he pinched his hand over his bloody gushing dick.
“Boom motherfucker!” She yelled as she slammed her knee into the side of his head, knocking him to the ground. She grabbed him by the hair and put the knife to his throat.
“Get up bitch!” She said. “Lie on the table! You wanna play rough? You wanna play fucking rough? I’ll fucking give it to you rough asshole.”
“Please! I’m sorry! I was just messing around, like role play! I thought you wanted to mess around the way you were acting.”
“By drugging me and tying me to a table? You’re out of your fucking mind!” She pressed the knife tighter on his neck, drawing a little blood. He lie back on the table as she found the box of zip ties just under the table. She took one out and tied his near hand, zipping it so tight his hand turned blue. She finished securing him while she looked at his now headless dick.
“What are you going to do to me? You shouldn’t hurt me. My family has money. We can pay you. Just let me go!” He begged.
Bailey ignored him as she bent down and picked up the Wendigo mask. She placed it over her head and looked down at Graves. His eyes went wide with terror as he let out the most inhuman scream she’d ever heard. Beneath the mask, she smiled.
“Well,” she said. “This is more like it.”
Chapter 5
“My dick! You cut off my fucking dick! Please? Just call an ambulance!” Graves cried as he thrashed about. Bailey was unmoved.
“Are you fucking insane? You drugged me, tied me up naked and started cutting on me and you think I’m going to do anything to help your broken little dick?” She said. “Oh no. You painted me as your Wendigo, that’s what you’re going to get.”
She held the knife over him and reached into his mouth while he continued to scream. Holding his tongue with one hand, she sliced through it with the other. Blood sprayed from his mouth as she removed his tongue. He continued screaming, but
at least it was just gibberish now. Holding up the severed tongue, she examined it through the mask before she stuffed it through the deer’s mouth.
There was a tube that ran from the mask’s mouth to her own. She put her mouth on the mouth piece and sucked the severed tongue into her mouth. It was gross. Slimy and metallic tasting, she chewed it what felt like a hundred times before swallowing. She had to force it down, but it went down ok. She guessed it wasn’t the worst thing she ever ate.
She had thought about taking his eyes next, but they were filled with such terror and pain, she decided she liked seeing his fear, so she left them. Since his dick was already partly cut, she decided to go to work on his testicles. Cutting through his scrotum, he screamed and struggled.
“Hold still!” She said. “You’re gonna make it worse.” She finally had the scrotum split open and cut one of the testicles free. He yelped and howled as she held it up. It looked like a brown egg, and was firm and rubbery. Graves was heaving and suddenly threw up all over himself. His mouth was covered with his own puke and blood.
“You’re so disgusting Graves. Pull yourself together.”
His response was to cry something out in gibberish as blood and puke bubbled from his mouth. She sat his testicle on his stomach and sliced it into three pieces and ate each one. This was rubbery like the tongue, except harder. After a few tough bites, she swallowed each piece. Over the next few hours she took Graves apart one piece at a time. She ate his testicles, his cock, and went on to cut out his kidney, and even cut his intestine into slices and ate at least a foot of them.
She had no idea why exactly she was eating him. Cannibalism wasn’t something she had ever thought of or fantasized about, but him painting her as the Wendigo had made her wonder. That and she figured he was planning on eating her. As she devoured his organs though, something began to take hold. His cries at the horror of what she was doing to him, as well as the thrill of watching him suffer.
Perhaps she was eating his strength or his essence, but probably not. Whatever was happening she was enjoying it. By the time she was finished, it looked like some bizarre surgery had taken place. Graves’ torso was ripped open with entrails strewn about. She finished up by cutting out his heart and taking a few bites, but by then she was full. She wondered if she would keep all this down. None of it made her feel sick, strangely enough. Maybe she was cut out for cannibalism. Either that or maybe she was far more twisted than she had originally thought. Her mom stopped talking to her years ago. Said she scared her. Though she wasn’t sure why. She’d never lifted a finger to hurt her mom. Though she did have sex with her last boyfriend. That was another story.
She removed the mask and took a shower in Grave’s bathroom. As the blood washed off her, she looked at her hands under the running water. She liked how that mask felt. It felt good over her face, against her body. It was not just as if she were someone else, but she was no longer Bailey the empty girl. She was the Wendigo, the Lady Wendigo. As Bailey, she was just a girl, a young woman. As Lady Wendigo, she was something else entirely.
It was obvious the minute she put the mask on. The look on Graves’ face said it all. The immediate look of terror once she was under the mask was almost arousing. Once she finished in the shower, she dressed and threw a blanket over his body. She cleaned up around the apartment and grabbed his painting of her and the mask and put them in his car. After some deliberation, she folded his body into a large trunk he’d had in his bedroom and closed it up inside, before sliding it back to its place in the closet.
Once she was finished cleaning, she drove his car a few blocks away from the bar and walked to hers, drove her car back to his and unloaded her stuff into her car before heading home. If she was going to do this regularly, she would need to be more prepared. Tonight’s episode just sort of happened, but she had a lot of fun. Looking at her clock, it was just after 6 am. Yeah, this wasn’t going to work regularly. For today, she saw a sick day in her future. Thought it would be more like a sleep day.
She got home and carried her stuff inside, glad she had bought her own house last year instead of staying in the apartment. Last thing she needed was some neighbors asking why she’s carrying around a huge deer head. Once inside she put everything in her living room and headed to the bedroom where she fell asleep the instant her head hit the pillow. Her dreams were weirder than in the past. These consisted of lots of blood, body parts, and the Wendigo.
Chapter 6
Bailey awoke to the sound of knocking at her door. Whoever it was seemed intent on making sure she heard them. It was a constant barrage of banging. She sat up and looked at her phone. It was after 2 pm. Shit, she slept all day. As she stumbled to the door, she brushed the hair out of her face.
“I’m coming already! Fuck!” She yelled as she opened the door. There was a tall guy in a suit standing there looking pissed. “Who the fuck are you?”
“Bailey Hart?” He asked.
“Who wants to know?”
He reached in his jacket pocket and pulled out a badge.
“I’m Detective Schmidt, Austin PD. I need to talk to you.”
“About what?”
“About Gordon Freidman.”
“Who the fuck is Gordon Freidman?”
“He goes by Graves. His family owns Freidman Foods in Dallas.”
She knew it.
“Holy shit. I fucking knew it. Bullshit hipster artist asshole.”
“So you know him?”
“Not really. Met him at a bar last night. Went back to his place and had a few drinks, but he fell asleep. He was kind of an asshole.”
“Well his sister stopped by his apartment today and he wasn’t there. She said they always go out to breakfast on Thursdays so this was odd. So she called us.”
“And because they are rich, they put a detective right on it, right?” She said.
“So did anything happen?”
“How did you know I was with him?”
“A few people at the bar saw you with him. You paid with a credit card so here we are.”
This guy had no personality at all. Reminded her of Joe Friday from Dragnet. Yes, she was way too young to know that show, but her grandma used to have them on VHS. She always thought it was funny how stiff and straight laced Friday was. “Just the facts ma’am.” He used to say. She was waiting for Schmidt to say the same thing.
“Well aren’t you clever. Did you know I was a lawyer?”
“Yes I do.”
“So I answered your questions.”
“Would you mind coming down to the station and make a statement. In case something has happened. That way we can rule you out right away.”
“Something happened? Like what?” She asked.
“It would be best if you came down.”
“Am I under arrest?”
“No, it’s just a…”
“Bye detective,” she said as she closed the door. She stood there for a moment and looked through the peephole. He was standing there looking flustered. She could tell he was used to intimidating people into getting what he wanted. Bailey didn’t intimidate. They had nothing, hell they didn’t even know he was dead yet. They would soon once his body started to smell.
She headed into the bathroom and got dressed. First thing she needed to do was get something to eat. Last thing she ate was Graves or Gordon or whoever he was. As she dressed her phone went off. There was a text from her boss saying he needed her to come in. Fuck, can’t a girl even take a sick day? She replied saying “I’m sick.”
He replied back insisting he needed to see her today. Shit. She changed into her more work appropriate clothing. Dress slacks a blouse and a blazer, her standard go to. She left house and headed to the law firm. As she walked in, people were looking at her as if she owed them all money. When she got to her boss’ office, the old man was glaring at her from behind his desk like an angry headmaster.
“Come on in Bailey. Close the door.”
“What’s going on? I feel lik
e I just did the walk of shame out there.”
“Bailey, you’ve always done good work here.”
“Yeah, I know. I can’t take a sick day? I feel like shit.”
“I can imagine,” he said. “The police were here earlier. Seems you had quite a night.”
Fuck. So much for her sick excuse.
“Look. I wasn’t drunk ok? I just stayed out too late.”
“Yes, with that Freidman boy who is now missing? I know his dad. We went to undergrad together at UT.”
“I don’t know why he’s missing. I had nothing to do with it. The dude passed out on me. Plus, he told me he was an artist named Graves.”
“Yes. He’s always tried to shun his familial roots. Not their money though, he always takes the money. Either way, between your attitude here, Dirk told me the way you spoke to him the other day. This isn’t the first time he’s complained about your attitude.”
“Are you kidding me? That asshole calls me Bailey Baby and is always trying to get me to sleep with him. So yeah I told him where to get off.”
“I’m not aware of any such behavior. Dirk has always been a fine attorney. Between that and now whatever you’ve gotten yourself into, I’m afraid I can’t risk this firm’s reputation. I’m going to have to let you go,” he said.
“What? Are you fucking kidding me?” She shot out of her chair.
“You’re firing me over one goddamn sick day?”
“Bailey, please,” he said as two security guards appeared at the door. “These gentleman will escort you out. I’ll have your things boxed up and mailed to you.”
“Just shove them up your pasty ass,” Bailey said as she walked out of his office. The rest of the firm was dead silent, staring at her. She stopped and looked around.
“What?” She called out, but they all went back to doing their thing. Except for Dirk who had a stupid smirk on his face as he walked up to her.
“So, how about that drink now?” He said smugly.
She looked at him and smiled. His teeth were crooked and his hair always looked greasy, yet the dickhead always managed to have a hot girlfriend and always weaseled his way out of shit. Bailey had to resist the urge to stab him in the throat with a letter opener. Instead she leaned in and whispered in his ear.
