ONE

“What's in there?” The police officer pointed to my pantry.

“Food.”

“Ahuh.” He narrowed his eyes. “Mind if I take a look?”

“How am I going to hide a person in there?”

Chris sat on the kitchen counter, scratching his chin through his beard.

I watched him twitch and sweat.

Elise leaned against the fridge with her lips pursed into a polite smile.

“Are you going to cooperate with me?”

“I've been cooperating with you all afternoon. I've watched you go through everything I have, and I'm starting to get annoyed.”

The officer mused on this for a second, and then went for the pantry, without my blessing.

He looked around, in there, and then backed out.

“Find any- anything?” Chris tried to mock, but his voice broke.

“No. Sorry to have wasted your time, sirs.” He removed his hat. “Mam.”

Elise nodded, and stretched her smile out.

I walked the officer to the front door, and returned to the kitchen.

Chris had lit a hand rolled cigarette, and was in the process of filling the room with smoke. His shaking hand pulled the smoke from his mouth, and he said: “Damn pigs make me nervous. I can't trust them.”

“Maybe if you didn't kidnap people, you wouldn't feel this way.” I said.

Elise exhaled a laugh, in what was a rare moment ever since she had been operated on.

Chris was suddenly angry. “Yeah, well, I'll be at home, taking care of Janet.”

“That's probably a good idea.”

“When you guys want to get Jimmy, give me a call, and we'll sort things out together.”

TWO

Elise sat on my back porch, watching the rain pour from the open sky to flood my backyard.

I couldn't see her face through the window - she was facing away from me. I could still sense the depression through her poor posture. She leaned up against the wooden column, pulling her legs close to her stomach.

Her eyes seemed to be fixed upon the marble birdbath, which was overflowing with mucky water, like a fountain.

I opened the back door, and stepped out. “Hey.”

She turned and faced me for a second, with a weak greeting of a smile, and then turned back to look at the birdbath.

Her face was as wet as the yard. She had been crying.

I took a seat next to her, and watched the birdbath.

“Remember in school, when we had to play basketball?”

That smile came back to her lips.

“Mr Dunn lowered the basketball ring so we could dunk if we wanted to. Man, Jerry's dunk was so awesome.

“I remember I was trying to impress Judy. Why I thought that would be impressive, I don't know.

“You were in class that day, mocking me when I went for my run-up.”

She laughed.

“I jumped as high as I could. What hangtime.” I stretched my arm out in front of me, in the pose I had that day. “The ball shot through, and my arm hooked the ring.

“It totally got caught in there. My feet swung out forward and I crashed to the ground, on my back."

She nodded.

“And you just laughed.”

She laughed, now.

“Judy loved you. Did she ever tell you that?”

Elise shook her head.

“When I told her I was having lunch with Claire Reynolds, she almost killed me. But she never had a problem with you. You guys were like sisters.”

Elise nodded.

“Man, I miss Judy, and Ian. I'd give anything to bring them back - anything to save them.

“He's not going to get to you.” I said. “If I have to kill him, then I'll do it.”

She nodded and smiled, but those eyes didn't look convinced.

THREE

The gutters overflowed with blood. The footpath moaned in pain when I walked on it.

He was with me – the devil. He was following my every move with his invisible eyes.

I felt his presence.

Something intangible ached inside of me. It was an urge; a lust.

Revenge.

The streets were completely deserted. There were no cars – not even parked on the sides of the road; No lights on in houses.

I was in my boxer shorts, but the chill of the night barely got to me.

I unlocked my car and drove across town.

On the footpath, under the luminescence of the streetlight, three wolves – saturated in blood – barked and howled over and eviscerated man. They paid no attention to my car as it hissed by.

The front door to Chris' house was wide open. Chris was asleep on his lounge in front of a television struggling to pick up reception.

I descended the metallic stairs to the basement, and I opened the door.

Whispers and laughter bounced off the walls. The chamber reeked of metal and urine.

Janet Mills was in the corner, in her dirty clothes, chained to the wall. She was crying. When she noticed me, she tried to move to the other corner, but at the half way point the chains halted her movement.

She had her brother's jawline. She had his eyes. She looked just like him.

“He said you were coming.” She said. “He told me tonight.”

“Chris?”

She shook her head. “Satan.”

I laughed. “He spoke to me tonight. He told me to come.”

I brushed the hair away from either side of her face, so I could see her better.

Her top lip was quivering.

I put my hand on her shoulder and felt the mile-a-minute heartbeat radiate through her. I thought I could faintly hear it as well.

“You're going to die.”

“Please don't!” She pleaded, the tears now emerging.

I grabbed either side of her throat, and choked her; watching her skin fade first to red, and then to blue; watching the life vanish out of her face; watching her eyes bulge.

She slowly died, choking on the word: “Why?”

FOUR

When I woke, I saw Elise, frozen, naked and entwined in my bedsheets, staring back at me.

“Oh God, did I wake you? I didn't meant to wake you. I'm used to the nightmares. But that was-”

She just stared at me.

“I wanted do something bad, Elise. I wanted to get back at him. I wanted to kill her.”

She shook her head in disbelief. She was as afraid as Janet was in my dreams.

“Don't tell me where Chris lives. Don't tell me where I can find her. Ever.”

CONTINUE