Kira Malone Chronicles: Vol 1 (Slaughter USA)

by Mandi Konesni

  Forcing herself to breathe, she found it hard to avoid gagging as he pressed the edges of his fingers against her still beating heart. He was toying with her, bringing the crimson blood up to his mouth to taste her, a low rumble of approval escaping. Last time, he'd sliced a thin section of muscle from her rib cage and ate it in front of her. That would likely come next. "Please... please don't hurt me. I won't tell a soul, I swear. I'll just go on with life like you'd never existed. I promise."

  He looked at her then, bloodshot eyes meeting hers. There was no empathy in them. They were dead, soulless, a monster's eyes. No type of human expression at all. Revulsion rolled in her stomach as he licked his misshapen lips in obvious glee, his gaze scanning her body with what looked like arousal. Without even realizing she was going to do it, her mouth opened in a scream that split the silence in two.

  Jerking at the ropes holding her captive, she struggled harder. This wasn't happening. She'd escaped once before and she damn well would escape again. She gasped out loud as the ropes suddenly released, body jerking upward like a puppet on a string. Eyes wide in fear, she stared around the darkened room, the lights of electronics seeming completely out of place. The blaring of her alarm shook her from her confusion. Reaching out blindly to hit the snooze button, she stared at the softly illuminated ceiling.

  Just a dream. It wasn't real. It's the lie she told herself to make things seem better, but it had been real. She'd experienced it all. The scars didn't fade though. Neither did the memories. The nightmares woke her up often, leaving her panting in a cold sweat as she felt like he was lurking just out of sight, waiting for a chance to steal her away again.

  Letting out a slow breath, she sat up fully, taking a hasty sip of water from the bottle on her bedside table, forcing her breathing to slow. Thankfully, she hadn't woken her roommate. She hadn't shared what happened to her a few years ago with anyone at school. Who'd believe her? All her roommate knew was that she'd had a traumatic experience recently that gave her nightmares. While she mostly understood, getting too little sleep could make anyone cranky, so Kira disliked it when she woke the poor girl up.

  Sliding from bed, she grabbed her little bag of toiletries and some clean clothes, heading down to the shared bathroom for the floor. This early, there was no one there, so she was able to have relative privacy. A hot shower, and maybe she could put these visions behind her, for a few hours at least.

  Standing under the warm spray, letting the clouds of steam billow around her, she sighed, some of the tension in her shoulders easing. Pressing her forehead against the cool tile, she inhaled, letting the breath out in a slow, steady stream. One day, she'd look back and this would all be a faded memory. She wouldn't wake up fearing he was coming for her, she wouldn't have to worry about walking outside alone. One day... but unfortunately that wasn't today.

  Chapter Two

  "This has been Kira Malone, for Ominous Omens, on WXPD. Be sure to tune in next week when we discuss the zombie virus and its massive implications for the world at large."

  As the green light turned red, she pulled the microphone from her shirt, slumping in the uncomfortable chair she'd been sitting in for the past hour. While the stories could be incredibly asinine, the job itself was fantastic.

  She got college credit towards a journalism degree. The entire thing was paid for by the alumni, and best of all... free travel. After the situation a few years ago where she'd unknowingly stumbled into a wendigo hunting ground, she'd made it a hobby of sorts to keep track of the weird and unusual in the world around her. Most stories were just that... stories.

  Occasionally though, you'd find some that were just a little bit more than ghost stories. Things that couldn't be explained, deaths that made no real sense. When those happened, she'd ended up visiting the areas under the guise of getting a scoop for the network, but in actuality, she'd been writing her own journal for future reference. Habitats. Victims. Lore and legends on how to kill the bastards. After being trapped underground and used as wendigo chow, she had no illusions that there was only one of those monsters in the world. No, if there was one, there were plenty more.

  After that, she'd taken all stories of folklore and myth as having some basis in terrifying fact. If even one third of them were actual creatures that existed in the world, humanity had no chance of never having another encounter with them.

  Think about it. What if all the whispered stories you've been told of monsters and boogeyman creeping in the night were actually true? What if the monster under your bed, that you were told didn't exist, actually did? What would you do? Humans were essentially weak. When it came to the creatures that hunted in the shadows unseen, they were all woefully unprepared. Her eyes had been opened wide by her experience and she couldn't pretend that all was well. She'd been a victim once. She refused to be again.

  Hefting her backpack over her shoulder as she stood, she tossed a grateful smile to Andy, her cameraman and general all around helpful person as he called her name and handed her a cup of hot chocolate liberally laced with extra chocolate. "Mmmm. I have no idea where you find this cup of pure heaven, but I'm convinced you aren't telling me because then I'll have no use for you. This stuff is magic."

  "That is definitely true." As she headed for the door, he cleared his throat. Turning back, she raised a brow, spotting the sheath of papers in his hand. "What's that you've got there? Another neat place to check out? I've got a few days before my next lab, we're due for a road trip to weird and spooky town."

  Taking the printed out notes, she frowned slightly as she skim-read through them. "Homicides in Los Angeles. Well, that's not so strange, really. It is kind of a mess out there with gangs and drugs and whatnot, especially in the smaller pockets where these are happening." Scanning further, she raised her eyes back up to his.

  "The livers and hearts are missing, and so is the blood? Have they ruled out animal attacks at all? I mean, yeah, that's strange that an animal wouldn't take more, but it's not totally unheard of. Animals can be weird. It doesn't look like they have any leads at all."

  Shuffling through his hasty notes, she noticed another scribble in the margins, referencing that both the victims had been pregnant and the unborn fetuses were missing. "Well. That's... okay, you may be onto something here. What do you say we head out to LA, check out the sights, sneak into city offices we shouldn't be in? You got bail money, right?"

  "As always." It'd been a long running joke with them that, as his parents were filthy rich, if they got into any trouble his parents would bail them out. Since his parents were also born with silver sticks up their behinds, they were always careful when snooping to leave no trace. She was mostly after information, anyway. The more she knew about what lurked in the dark, the better she could protect herself and those she loved if she ever came into contact with one of them again.

  "Meet you at the van in 15, then?" Tossing him a nod over her shoulder in answer to his question, she beat feet to her dorm room. Part of being a college student meant not having many things of your own, so she tended to do laundry once a week and just rotated her clothes out every few weeks until they were worn bare. It helped for their little investigations because it meant she always had clean clothes to toss into her bag at a moment's notice.

  Quickly shoving a few outfits and her medications into the backpack, she unplugged the small notebook computer she used for her work., sliding it into the messenger bag stashed at the side of the desk. Gathering up chargers for her phone and laptop, she rolled them up, shoving them in as well. Quick dump of her toiletry bag into the backpack, and she was ready. Being a bit of a tomboy all her life ended up having its perks.

  Andy was already waiting at the van, checking the equipment and snack situation. Inconspicuous it was not, as it had the WXPD logo emblazoned across it's side. Still, since it was technically a company car, they could write off the gas costs as research trips as long as they managed to create a decent story from it. It definitely made up for the inability to blend i
n. Together, she and Andy were wizards at making stories out of anything they found, earning them fun weekend trips to supposedly haunted hotels and creepy destinations around the US.

  Tossing her things in the back, she clambered into the passenger seat, settling in for the long ride. Rubbing at her stomach where the incision scar had begun to itch slightly, she noticed Andy giving her a concerned look. He was one of the few she'd trusted with the truth of her experience when she'd begged to work on Ominous Omens.

  To her surprise, he'd been completely understanding of her desire to chase the unknown and bring it to light. He'd worked to get her application approved, and put his own reputation on the line for her, volunteering to be her partner and get her up to speed on the technical aspects of the small college news network.

  "I'm fine, promise. I'd tell ya if I wasn't or if something was wrong. Sometimes it just itches to remind me it's there so I don't forget it anytime soon. Like that was ever a possibility. It goes away after a bit. Rubbing it to get the nerves to stop spasming helps."

  Without a word, he dug in the first aid pack attached to the back of her seat, handing over a tube of anti-itch ointment as he returned his attention to the GPS unit. When it came to this, he might not be the strongest or fastest, but there was no one else she'd want at her side than her best friend. He was loyal, and she knew no matter what, he wouldn't back down from a fight, even if it was something not easily explained.

  "Alright Andy, I'm buckled in and ready. Let's go find a new story to play up, shall we?"

  Chapter Three

  Crunching on Cheetos, she took the exit the GPS recommended, turning into early morning traffic. Reaching over to nudge Andy awake, she motioned to the street in front of her.

  "Welcome to LA, land of traffic jams and frustrations. You got a basic location for where we're going to set up shop? Might be best to plug an actual address into this thing, or else we're going to get hopelessly lost if we follow this boulevard into the main part of the city. I'm pretty sure getting stuck in morning traffic there will undoubtedly be scarier than whatever boogeyman we're going to be researching."

  Digging through his notes, he snagged the GPS off of the dashboard, typing in the coordinates for the last attack, then searched for motels around it. It'd be the easiest way to know they were in roughly the right area. Within hours, they'd been checked in, dumped their bags, and were back on the road.

  Stopping at a breakfast cafe, they each grabbed a separate morning paper while they sat to eat, scanning through the headlines to see if they could pick up any more information. Not a shocker, the city police had no new details to release. If this was some sort of unknown monster, chances are, they wouldn't find anything they'd believe until they saw it with their own eyes anyway. Andy sipped at his coffee, flipping the pages before he paused.

  "Hey, this might be something. These attacks this month weren't the first. There were three last month too. All during the full moons. Some people are blaming superstitions and witchcraft for lack of a better answer, others are blaming drugs and people going stir crazy during the full moon."

  "Hmm."

  Spooning a forkful of scrambled eggs into her mouth, she shrugged. "Werewolf, maybe? They'd be influenced by the full moon, but I can't see them taking livers and hearts and not at least gnawing on the rest. There'd be plenty of claw and bite marks, and it'd be deemed an animal attack. I'm not seeing any references to animals in any of the released reports. There's unconfirmed rumors that the bodies were drained of blood, though. Can't rule out a moon-loving vamp screwing with people."

  Closing the paper as she finished her meal, she pondered on the myths and legends she'd taken to researching whenever she got a chance. There were lots of things that would attack humans, even pregnant ones. Plenty more that could drain a body of blood, or would eat specific organs. Until they had more information, it was mostly a wild goose chase as to which creature they were actually investigating.

  Andy pulled up his phone, searching for something. After a minute, he leaned closer. "They've all been taken to the county morgue. Looking at the schematics, I don't see any references for security once you're past the main entrance. Perhaps we should take a side trip there after they close, sneak in. If anything has more information on the deaths, it's likely the morgue logs. Surely they ran tox screens, at least."

  "You, my friend, like to live dangerously. I'm in. I assume I'll be the one creeping through a window or something again, right?" Andy, while a great friend, was also not exactly on the slim side. Neither was she, really, but she could adapt. It meant that when they had to break in places, he usually gave her a boost to get into a window or another entrance, and walked her through cutting security if need be, before she let him right in the front door.

  That's how she found herself come nightfall, standing in the middle of the dead silent morgue, listening to his whispered instructions on the walkie she carried. "Oh, come on, Andy. How am I supposed to find....oh. Scratch that." Quickly untwisting the wires he instructed her to break circuitry from, she headed to the door, inching it open to allow him entrance before she removed the face mask she'd been wearing for safety until she could kill the security system.

  Once they knew they were safe, they hurriedly headed towards the cold storage room. The bodies would likely not be here any longer, but they still had to check. To their surprise, the last victim hadn't been released yet. Pulling open the door to let the table slide out, Kira winced. This decaying body left on the outskirts of town could have been her. Had she not jumped to safety, had she not fought tooth and nail to survive, she could be this woman, her life shuttered so fast. Could be like the nameless, faceless, countless others over the years.

  Shaking herself out of her morose thoughts, she began to look over the body for any signs the medical examiner may have missed. Stealing a pair of gloves, she lifted up the woman's hands. No signs of a struggle, no broken nails. She hadn't fought it, whatever it was. There wasn't any bruising on her extremities, just the ragged, bruised flesh surrounding the exit points of her liver and heart. Nothing else had been touched. Cocking her head, she noticed a clear, oozing type of substance on the female's stomach. "Hey Andy, can I get a sample vial and a Q-Tip, please?" He dug in the drawers until he found them, bringing them over to her.

  "What'd you find?"

  Frowning as she wiped up a bit of the slimy fluid, she tucked the Q-Tip into the vial, capping it closed. "It looks like there's a puncture wound here. It's sort of hidden under the folds of the navel, but there's some kind of injection site under there." Pressing against it with her gloved fingertips, she shook her head. "I have no idea. Let's go see what the report says."

  Disposing of the gloves, she tucked the vial safely away in her pocket for future study. Opening a few doors, they finally found the office, stacked high with filing cabinets. Flicking on a small flashlight, Andy began perusing the ones near the top, searching for the drawers that contained the files they were after. Kira sat at the desk, going through the typed reports as he located them.

  "Huh. There's been two victims so far. Both were pregnant. Both have missing livers, hearts and babies. There's no record of this slimy stuff on the first victim though. I'd bet there was, they just didn't notice it." Scanning further, she flipped the pages as she searched for anything else to tie the two women together.

  "Oh here. No drugs, but they both had massive doses of Valerian in their system. The families for both said they'd never taken Valerian, and cops couldn't find any in the house, not even tea. How the hell did they get it in their system then?"

  She knew the root was a sedative, it's why it was sold as a tea for insomnia. It had also been used over the ages for anxiety and panic disorders. Thinking back on the small puncture mark, her gaze rose to Andy's. "They were drugged. Someone slipped them Valerian root through an incision. That'd make them sleepy and groggy. They wouldn't fight, wouldn't worry about what was happening to them. It'd also keep their blood pressures low so they
wouldn't bleed out too quickly. "

  Her face paled as she realized the implications of it. "If that's true this... this thing... took his time. He wanted them out of it but still alive, long enough to remove the fetus and take what he wanted from their bodies before they died. He took the babies alive."

  Chapter Four

  Sleuthing done for the night, he headed outside to wait for her as she reconnected the wires to the security system after checking that they'd left no trace of themselves in the place. They didn't really need a midnight visit from the law for breaking and entering. Once satisfied they'd be left alone, she scrambled over a desk to reach the window, shimmying through it carefully to avoid fingerprints until he caught her legs to balance her and pull her down to steady ground.

  The ride back to the motel was quiet, each lost in their own thoughts. Once they had sequestered themselves back into the relative privacy of their room, she pulled out her laptop, booting it up. She'd begun to make databases and spreadsheets with the lore she found, so if she needed to reach information quickly, she just had to do a search.