My Pretties

by Jeff Strand

  "I'm sorry, what?"

  "You heard me. It was months ago. Her parents paid for it. Jared was very supportive of her."

  "Fine," said Ken. "He was nice to some chick he knocked up. What does this have to do with us coming together as a family?"

  "You're not listening."

  "Apparently not."

  "Do you think Jared didn't know about you?"

  "I beg your fucking pardon?"

  "He didn't know you were a psychopath who locked women in cages, but he knew about your cover story. He's known about it since your first victim."

  Ken's mind was reeling. Surely she was making all of this up. Vivian just wanted to inflict psychological torture on him. She was insane.

  "If Jared is in this house, I'll..." Ken trailed off.

  "You'll what?" Vivian asked.

  "I don't know."

  "You'll hit me? Strangle me? Lock me in a cage?"

  "Is Jared here?"

  Vivian nodded. "He's downstairs."

  Ken wanted to scream "Are you out of your mind?" at her, but only the basement was soundproofed. She had to be messing with him. This couldn't possibly be real. No way would she bring their son to this house.

  "Please tell me you're lying," he said.

  "I'm not."

  "So you told him what you did?"

  "I spared him some of the details, but yes."

  "You told our son, our sixteen-year-old son, that you committed three murders today? One of them completely planned and in cold blood?" Ken couldn't believe he was asking this question.

  "Yes."

  "Oh my God."

  "He knew about the men I killed before he was born."

  "How long has he known?"

  "A while."

  "How the hell was I kept in the dark about this?"

  "I suppose you were too focused on your own playthings."

  Ken plopped down on the couch next to Charlene. Yesterday things had been so simple. Now everything was spiraling out of control. He just sat there, massaging his forehead to make the sudden splitting headache go away. He had one obvious question, and assumed that Vivian would offer the answer without prompting, but she simply watched him.

  "What did Jared say when you told him?" he asked.

  "He was happy."

  "He was happy?"

  "As happy as Jared gets, yes."

  "Okay, but what the hell did he say?"

  "He is literally fifteen seconds away from you. Why are you interrogating me instead of just going down there and talking to him?"

  "Because I'd like some sort of clue about what I'm in for."

  "I told you he was happy."

  "That's not enough information."

  "He was completely into the idea of the family kill."

  "What?"

  "Are you going to keep asking me to repeat myself, or are you going to go downstairs and talk to your son?"

  "A family kill was never on the table," said Ken. "That wasn't the deal. That was never the deal. She's mine."

  "I thought you could show him how it's done."

  "How it's done is I put her in a cage and watch. That's it. It's not a shared family experience."

  "Well, maybe you could do this one a little differently."

  "No! Why didn't you tell me any of this before I went after her? In what universe should I come home and find out that you went behind my back and invited our goddamn son to kill a woman with me? You're supposed to be the rational one in the household! Do you have any concept of how fucked up this conversation is? Any concept at all?"

  "I do, actually," said Vivian. "And I'm the one with our best interests in mind. It's all out in the open now. No secrets."

  "No secrets. Great." Ken stood up, causing Charlene's unconscious body to flop over onto its side. "Why stop here? How about the next time we decide to have sex, we invite Jared into the bedroom to watch? Huh? How about that?"

  "Don't be disgusting."

  "I don't think you get that if people had to decide which was more mentally ill, a teenage boy watching his parents fuck, or Mom, Dad, and Junior killing somebody together, almost everybody would choose the murder."

  "I suppose you took a survey on your way over?"

  "Listen to me," said Ken. "However you think this is going to play out, you're wrong. We're not going to become the goddamn family that slays together."

  "How long are we going to argue about this?" Vivian pointed to Charlene. "Until she wakes up?"

  "She's not going to wake up."

  "She will if we don't wrap this up. We can't stand around fighting forever. It's a school night."

  Ken sighed. "All right. I'll go talk to him. Shit."

  * * *

  The boy, Jared, just sat there, staring at Gertie.

  He was tall, broad-shouldered, and handsome. He looked like he should be captain of the football team, not some creepy teenager sitting in a wooden chair watching Gertie hang in the cage.

  After his mother left, Gertie had tried to reason with him. He'd told her to shut up or he'd break her neck. She'd believed him. So they sat in silence, with Jared occasionally chewing on his lip, leering at her as if she were naked. He'd been there for at least an hour.

  They both looked over as the door opened.

  The woman in Ken's arms had her head lolled over, so there was about one second where Gertie could pretend that it might not be Charlene. But of course it was Charlene.

  Gertie hadn't wept since being left alone with Jared. Now the tears began to flow again.

  "Get up," said Ken. "I need the chair."

  Jared stood up. Ken placed Charlene in the chair. She slumped over, but he straightened her before she could tumble onto the floor.

  Vivian walked into the room. She placed her hand over her nose and mouth as she recoiled at the scent. The smell of dead bodies hadn't seemed to bother Jared, even when he first walked into the room.

  Ken looked uncomfortable. Nervous, even. He fidgeted as he stood there, looking like he was trying to work up the courage to say something to his son.

  "So..." he finally said.

  "It's okay, Dad," said Jared. "We don't have to talk about it."

  "All right."

  Jared placed his hand on Charlene's shoulder. Gertie wanted to shout a vicious threat about what she'd do to him if he harmed her friend, but of course there was absolutely nothing she could do to stop him, and she'd be better off conserving her very limited energy.

  "Mom said we might kill her together," said Jared.

  "We might," said Ken, sounding very unsure of this. "Do you really think you're ready for something like this?"

  When Jared smiled, it was the creepiest grin Gertie had ever seen on an actual person. "Oh, yeah. For sure."

  "No," said Ken. "Not 'Oh yeah, for sure.' This is serious. We're talking about taking a human life. You need to be absolutely certain that this is something you want to do. We can't have you throwing up and running out of the house to confess what you've done."

  "How do you know this is my first time?" Jared asked.

  "It damn well better be."

  "All right, it is. But you don't need to treat me like a little kid. I'm not gonna start crying or turn into a tattletale. It's all good."

  "I'm not in favor of this at all," said Ken. "Not even a little bit. But I guess I'm outvoted."

  "I guess you are," said Vivian.

  "How are we going to do this?"

  "Pliers?" Jared suggested. "A lighter?"

  Ken shook his head. "No. Nothing like that. She's going to die slowly but we're not doing any of that sadistic shit. We're not gouging out her eyeball and sticking your dick in the socket or anything like that."

  "Jesus, Dad."

  "I mean it."

  "You think I was gonna take out my dick in front of Mom?"

  "Enough, you two," said Vivian.

  "No pliers," said Ken. "No lighter. No hydrochloric acid, or sandpaper, or nail gun, or anything that turns us into a pack of degene
rate hillbillies."

  "Knives, then?" Vivian asked.

  "Yes. We'll tie her to the chair and go at her with knives. Nice and simple. But we don't have any rope."

  "We do have rope," said Vivian. "We got some on the way over here."

  "Okay. Jared, go get the rope."

  "No, I'll get it. I need a break from the smell. I'll grab some knives, too." Vivian left the room.

  Gertie heard Vivian's footsteps as she went up the stairs. When the stairs stopped creaking, Jared smirked at his father. "Wow, Dad. Chicks in cages. And you got pissed at me for getting in trouble at school."

  "Is this a joke to you? Do you think this is funny?"

  "I think it's kind of funny, yeah."

  "Well, you'd better change that attitude really quick."

  "Don't worry, I get it," said Jared. He pointed to Gertie. "I liked watching her up there. She's scared as hell. I mean, look at her."

  Gertie lowered her head. Yes, she was indeed scared as hell, but she wasn't going to just sit there and let them get pleasure from her terrified face.

  "So maybe we lock the other one up there," said Ken. "You and I can come check on them whenever we want."

  "Nah. I'd rather cut her."

  Jared stood in place and leered at Gertie while Ken paced around the room. The creaking on the stairs resumed, and Vivian returned with a coil of rope, still with plastic wrap around it from wherever she'd purchased it, and three knives. She closed the door behind her.

  Gertie and Vivian watched (Gertie helplessly, Vivian with glee) as the men tied Charlene to the chair.

  Jared took the largest of the three knives from his mother. He held the knife up to Charlene's face.

  "Not yet," said Ken.

  "What's wrong?"

  "What do you mean, what's wrong? What do you think is wrong?"

  "I don't know."

  "Is she awake yet?"

  "I figured she'd wake up when I cut her."

  "We don't just start hacking away. We wake her up first. Let her become aware of her surroundings. Talk to her."

  Jared nodded. "That makes sense."

  "So we need the smelling salts."

  "Where are they?"

  "Over in that corner."

  Jared walked out of Gertie's line of sight for a moment, then returned with a small bottle. He handed it to Ken, who unscrewed the lid and held it underneath Charlene's nose.

  Charlene jolted awake, eyes wide. She thrashed around but the ropes were too tight for her to escape. Then she screamed.

  Ken put a finger to his lips. "Shhhhh. Stop it. I'll hurt you if you don't shut up."

  It took a few more moments for Charlene to stop screaming. She looked up at Gertie, and then at her three captors, and Gertie had never witnessed such raw terror. Although she might have earlier, if she'd had a mirror.

  "This is all on you," Ken told her. "If you'd stayed home and minded your own business, none of this would have happened. But you became a danger to me, which means I had to become a danger to you. So you're not getting out of this alive, and I'm not going to lie to you, it's going to be rough. But, hey, you get to be the catalyst for some family bonding time, so you've done your good deed for the day."

  "Can we cut her now?" asked Jared.

  "Yeah."

  "Can I slice off her ear?"

  "No. You don't go straight for the ear. Do you know how much blood comes out of a severed ear?"

  "No, but neither do you if you just watch them starve to death in cages."

  "I know enough to know that it bleeds a lot. Hell, I'm sure your mom has done it. She's probably the queen of severed ears. Viv, how much blood spurts out when you slice off somebody's ear?"

  "A lot," said Vivian.

  "There's your answer. So riddle me this: when you're trying to prolong somebody's death, do you want a lot of blood to spurt out of the side of their head?"

  "All right, fine," said Jared. "I get it."

  "Don't 'all right, fine' me. Answer the question sincerely."

  "No. I don't want a lot of blood to spurt out of the side of their head."

  "See? You're learning."

  "Where should I cut her, then? Her arm?"

  "Her arm is a good place to start."

  "Wait, hold on," said Charlene.

  "Okay, now she's about to start begging," said Ken. "Is that something you want to hear?"

  Jared nodded. "Sure."

  "All right, then. Listen to what she has to say. Maybe she'll make an interesting offer."

  "Let Gertie go," said Charlene. "Keep me here if you want, but let her go."

  "Now this is where your bullshit filter comes into play," said Ken. "Nobody is that selfless. She's trying to buy some time. She wants you to make a mistake."

  Charlene frantically shook her head. "No, that's not true."

  "Actually, it's very true. The logic doesn't hold up. Gertie is the one who got you into this mess in the first place, so she should be the one offering to sacrifice herself for you. The other way around doesn't make sense. Also, it's a terrible offer. We have both of you. You can't get away. You have absolutely no power to negotiate. So how is your 'keep me but let her go' offer going to change our mind? "

  "I won't resist," said Charlene.

  "Maybe we want you to resist."

  Charlene said nothing else.

  "Let her go and keep me," said Gertie from her cage. She knew they wouldn't do this, but saying it right after Ken's little speech might add confusion and frustration. Every little bit helped.

  "What the hell did I just say?" Ken asked her. "I just finished explaining that you have no negotiating power. Jesus. I guess it's nice that you two aren't trying to sell each other out, but at some point you have to face reality."

  "I'm done talking," said Jared. He swung his knife in the air in front of Charlene's face. "I'm ready to start gutting these girls."

  "You only get to kill one," said Ken.

  "Whatever. I'm ready to get to it."

  "Wait, not yet," said Vivian. "I need to get away from the smell for a minute."

  "You won't get used to it if you keep going in and out," Ken told her.

  "I know, but it's going to make me throw up. Maybe I can find a clothespin or something."

  "Just hold your nose."

  "I'll be right back," she said, leaving the room. The stairs creaked, and then Gertie heard another door open and close.

  "Do we have to wait?" asked Jared.

  "Since your mother just asked us to wait, I'm going to say that yes, that's probably what we should do."

  Jared ran his index finger over Charlene's chin. "Can I hit her?"

  "No."

  "Why not?"

  "Because it's not what we do."

  "It's not what you do. I'd like to knock out some of her teeth."

  "We're doing this one my way. You catch your own girl, you can punch her all you want."

  "Maybe I will."

  "And maybe somebody will notice that you've got bruised knuckles. Gosh, that's not suspicious at all when the police sit you down for questioning."

  "Whatever."

  "How about you ditch the attitude?"

  Jared clenched his fist, and for a second Gertie thought he was going to punch Charlene anyway. Instead he slashed his knife across her neck.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  "What the hell?" Ken demanded, as blood began to flow.

  "I didn't cut her deep."

  "Her neck is bleeding. That's deep enough!"

  Jared hadn't cut Charlene's throat, but it was a pretty awful slash across the side of her neck. Three thin trickles of blood ran down onto her shirt, joined quickly by a fourth.

  Gertie pulled at the bars of the cage, so blinded by rage and terror that she thought the burst of adrenaline might let her bend steel. Of course, it didn't. And there wasn't a damn thing she could do to stop those psychos from hacking up Charlene.

  * * *

  The wound stung and Charlene could feel the b
lood running down her neck, but with her arms bound she couldn't touch it to see how bad it was. At least she could still breathe.

  Ken looked furious. He smacked Jared on the back of the head so hard that his son dropped the knife. Jared spun around and for an instant Charlene thought the two men might come to blows, but Jared backed away, rubbing his head.

  "What was that all about?" Jared asked.

  "That is not how we do it. You don't just slash out at her like you've gone feral. How long do you think she'll live now?"

  "I thought the whole point was to kill her."

  "Not like that! If you want to slash somebody's throat, find yourself a prostitute and do it behind a Dumpster. That's not what I'm trying to teach you. Look at all that blood."

  "I didn't slash her throat. It's tiny little streams of blood. If we put a Band-Aid on it she'll be fine. I didn't realize you were so concerned about her well-being."

  "This was a mistake," said Ken. "Your mom was an idiot for bringing you here."

  "Don't call Mom an idiot."

  "I didn't call her an idiot. I said she was behaving like an idiot."

  "No, you called her an idiot."

  "Don't you dare argue with me. I know the circumstances are weird, but I'm still the father and you're still my son. As long as you live in my house and eat the food that I buy, you will respect me. Do you understand?"

  Jared seemed to realize that he'd crossed the line. "Yeah, I understand. I've been waiting for this for so long that I got excited. I shouldn't have cut her neck. I'm sorry."

  Ken placed his hand on Jared's shoulder. "It's all right. I shouldn't have snapped at you."

  Charlene couldn't believe she was witnessing this fucked-up display of father/son reconciliation. They looked like they were going to hug, burst into tears, and tell each other how much they loved them.

  "I'm going to check on your mom," said Ken. "I'll only be gone a minute, but you can do anything you want to her. I take that back—nothing sexual. Anything else is okay."

  Jared picked the knife up off the floor. "Can I jab out her eyes?"

  "If you want. It means she can't see what's going to happen next."

  "Seems like that would be scarier."

  "No. It's scarier if she can see the knife."

  "Maybe I'll only do one eye, then."