Copyright©2015 by Matt Shaw

Matt Shaw Publications

The moral right of Matt Shaw to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988. All Rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organisations, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

P A R A L Y S E D

M A T T    S H A W

1.

Dark eyes filled with lust watched the car parked over by the trees and hedges. Inside the rocking vehicle, with the misting windows, a couple seemingly having a passionate encounter. The voyeur licked his moustached lip. An envious wish to be in the car - not inside of the woman being fucked but rather, for the man taking charge on the rear seats to be inside of him. A want to feel his touch, a desire to have him slide in as deep as he could. The thrusting, the pumping, the strong twitch of the orgasm, he wanted it all.

A female hand hit the window - open palmed. She was getting it hard in there. Another pang of jealousy from the voyeur as he pictured himself in the woman’s position; on his back with his legs over his shoulders. He reached down to his own crotch, stiff behind buttoned-up jeans, and gave it a gentle squeeze before taking it a step further and reaching between cloth and skin. He took himself in his hand and - already hard - started to stroke with his breath quickening. A couple more strokes and he pulled his cock out completely.

The open hand moved away from the window and then slammed against it, close-fisted. It hit again, and again. The woman inside trying to get the attention of anyone who might be nearby. Not an invitation for strangers to join in - as often the case in these woods - but a desperate plea for someone to come over and interrupt them.  Someone to help her.

The man, watching, didn’t move a muscle other than his wrist; stroking back and forth with a frantic pace - a soft squelching sound from the tip of his cock, now coated in a salty pre-cum. He breathed out heavily as he sighed hard, already close to the welcome release of the orgasm.

The woman - mostly hidden beneath her long-haired lover - hit the window again, one final, desperate, slap. Her hand slowly slid down the glass and out of sight to where it flopped - lifelessly - on the seat next to her body. Her final partner released his hands from her neck and placed a kiss on her dead lips. He looked her in the eyes, a moment of complete peace between the two relative strangers, before he pulled out from her. A trickle of semen from violated pussy to leather seat.

When he had first pushed into her, she had been willing and wet. It was only towards the end, just before he ejaculated, that things took a turn and his true, murderous intentions came to light. By then, for her, it was too late. He was much stronger than her and she was already at a disadvantage, crushed beneath his weight and cramped into the back of the old Ford.

The man watching gasped out loud and his body bucked back as he shot a jet of semen out onto the dirt in front of him. Perfect timing as the car’s rear door opened and the male started to climb out, perching himself on the edge of the seat with his feet touching down upon the dry dirt of the clearing. He saw the voyeur, standing on the other side of the clearing and gave him a wink as he pulled his own trousers up. He reached into the left hand pocket for a crumpled packet of cigarettes and put one in his mouth. Pulling a small, red plastic lighter from his other pocket - he sparked up and took a deep drag, filling his lungs with the nicotine he always craved post-sex.

“How was it?” the voyeur asked, putting himself away.

“Fucking cunt scratched me,” the second man said. He moved his long hair out of his face and revealed a deep scratch to his cheek. “Didn’t have her pegged as a fighter,” he said between drags. “Good fuck though.”

“Looked like it. Looked hot from where I was standing.”

“Still warm if you want a go? Or did you already finish?”

The voyeur shook his head as he crossed the clearing. “You know me,” he said.

It wasn’t the first time he had been offered a go on his friend’s leftovers and neither was it the first time he had declined it. The closest he had ever come was - on the second drive out here - he went down on the dead girl. Not for the taste of gash but for the love of the semen that leaked from within.

“Well, I’m going to go for a walk. Stretch out the cramp if you want to take care of this?”

The man rose to his feet. His name was Ryan. Twenty-eight years old with youthful looks. Long hair that reached halfway down his back and a killer charm that could be turned on and off whenever he deemed necessary - such as evening jaunts like tonight. With the cigarette hanging from his mouth, he tied his hair into a pony-tail and - without another word - headed off into the woods; a well-rehearsed routine the two of them had played out five times prior to this.

His partner in crime - twelve years his senior and the subservient of the two - Dennis was the polar opposite to Ryan. He was clumsy with his words, balding and wore thick-rimmed glasses which framed dark soulless eyes. Where one had the charm and the looks to get most of what he wanted from life, the other had nothing but an unhealthy obsession with his friend. He stood there, by the car, watching his friend until the night’s darkness had swallowed him completely. Alone, he turned back to the car and opened the boot. Inside was a large black bag. Inside that was a hacksaw, a blunted blade splattered in dried blood from previous date-nights, other tools within the boot included a shovel and roll of heavy duty black sacks - all of which just as important as the hacksaw. All of which play their part when the time was right. For now, though, only the saw was needed.

With the large leather bag placed on the ground, by the rear door of the car, Dennis crouched down and peered into the back. The girl was lying there with her legs apart. She was wearing a pretty dress, pulled down to reveal bare breasts and hitched up to show her pussy and trimmed pubic hair. Her knickers, white and delicate, were in the footwell.

Dennis leaned down and picked them up. With a quick sniff, he pocketed them. He might not have appreciated the female form as much as the male but it didn’t make their scent any less alluring. He turned his attention back to the body and took hold of it via the dainty ankle. He gave it a gentle tug towards himself, causing the legs to part a little further - revealing more of her snatch. Pretty pink flaps, still opened from the recent penetration. A little semen leaking from the hole, down the skin between cunt and rectum.

Dennis licked his lips and leaned into the car. With his mouth close to what he desired, he parted his lips and stuck his tongue out. At his age he couldn’t manage to get hard so soon after doing so for the first time, let alone ejaculating again, but it was times like this that made him crave the ability to be able to.

“Come in my mouth,” he whispered - his hot breath warming the girl’s cold snatch. With closed eyes his imagination painting him inches away from Ryan’s erection as opposed to the body of one of his latest conquests. “Please. Do it for me. I want to taste you,” he sighed as the tip of his tongue touched the trail of still-warm spunk. As the salt exploded upon his taste buds, he pushed his tongue deeper into the vagina in order to scoop out as much as he could possibly reach. “You taste so good,” he muttered between licks. Lost in the moment, he imagined his friend standing before him - his erection having just shot the sperm into Dennis’ mouth. It was only when he opened his eyes did he snap back to reality with a close-up of a snack he hadn’t tasted properly since being at college, the days before he gave into his desires for members of the same sex. The days before his cravings forced him into an act which saw the loss of his freedom. He pulled away from the body - suddenly disgusted with himself - and wiped the sticky mess of the corpse’s juices and his friend’s semen from his face with the back of his hand. And - as though nothing had happened - he pulled back out of the car and dragged the body clean out, once again using the girl’s ankle as a handle-point. It landed on the floor with a heavy thump.

It was always like this. Ryan would have his way with the girls and - soon after - Dennis would dispose of them. What Ryan did was all down to dark desires within which had somehow been awakened by Dennis’ own dark past and then further fuelled by his own twisted imagination. Many moons ago, Dennis had raped someone - that much was true - but since that, he hadn’t forced himself upon anyone. That part of him - the monster within - was killed in the penal system. He had never killed anyone either. The fact Ryan had forced himself upon more than a few and gone on to kill some of them - that was definitely all down to him. Dennis saw himself as a monster when he was brought to justice for his crime and - yet - he failed to see Ryan as anything but a perfect man. A judgement blinded by a desire to have that which could not be taken.

The part Dennis played was because he was infatuated with Ryan, from the moment they had first met all those years ago. He’d do anything for him and if that meant disposing of Ryan’s dates then - it was fine by Dennis. So long as he got to stay close to him. And - even better - get the occasional treat such as what he’d just tasted.

He picked up the hacksaw and held it up to the moonlight to inspect the rigid teeth. If Ryan was going to carry on doing this, and it was all up to him, then Dennis would need to replace the saw. The blunter they got, the harder it was to cut through bone.

“This one’s for you,” he said out loud.

And - with that - he stuck the blade into the top of the girl’s thigh and started with a back and forth sawing motion; the blunt teeth tearing away the skin with little pressure. First the skin, than the tissue, the stringy muscle and into the hard bone whereupon the sound changed to a note similar to metal grinding through wood.

Dennis applied more pressure, pushing down with what little weight his skinny frame carried, in order to cut through the bone faster. He knew Ryan’s walks were never long and yet he always tried to get this part completed before he got back.

Ryan might have enjoyed the fucking, and even the raping but he didn’t enjoy seeing his play-things broken into many pieces. A feeling of guilt coming from seeing such a thing. In that regard, he was much like a child - keen to dissect something to see how it worked and yet heartbroken when the sudden realisation came about that it could not be put back together again. He was fine with seeing the many black bags though. All filled with bits of the dead but - with a bit of imagination - all pictured as being filled with unwanted tat. All tied neatly at the top with a pretty little bow. All easily buried and forgotten.

It was no longer getting rid of dead bodies. It was fly-tipping and - to Ryan - that was as acceptable as the initial sexual assault.

I I

Dennis blinked as he snapped back to reality. All of that had been yesterday. Last night to be exact. Today was a different day and one that he hoped to have been different. Standing in the kitchen drifting between the present and the previous night’s activities - today was his birthday yet there was no one there to wish him a happy one. Just a card, leaning against a kettle. His name - ‘Dennis’ - scrawled across the white, crisp envelope in scribbled hand-writing. He didn’t need to open it to know it was from Ryan. Eight in the morning and he’d had little to no sleep; the whole night had been spent tossing and turning - worrying, not for himself but for his best friend.

The toaster spat out charred toast with a billow of smoke. Had the batteries been in the smoke detector, it would have been going crazy by now - not that Dennis would have noticed. He plucked the burnt bread from the toaster - both pieces - and dropped it onto the waiting plates; one for him and one for Ryan.

It was his birthday and yet here he was making breakfast in bed for Ryan. Given the circumstances, though, he could be forgiven. Dennis knew Ryan would make it up to him as soon as he could. He’d never let him down before and it wasn’t his fault things had turned out this way now.

Butter knife in hand, Dennis scooped a generous helping of butter from the tub positioned by the plate and smeared it as best he could across the blackened toast.

The lid went on the butter.

The knife - after cutting the toast in half - was thrown into the sink.

The tea-bags were taken from the brewing mugs and tossed across the room, into the black bin in the corner. Already over-flowing. The kitchen was a chaotic mess of grime and food debris. Now with an extra splattering of hot tea on the tiled floor that could be cleaned at a later date.

Breakfast ready, Dennis loaded all that he could on to a tray and carried it down the long hallway of their quiet, country home - stepping over junk mail that had been scattered throughout the years. He reached the bottom of the stairs and stopped. A quick breather before carrying on up to Ryan’s bedroom.

The door - cracked wood - to Ryan’s bedroom was open and Ryan could be seen from the top of the landing. Lying on his back, with his face pointed towards the ceiling, he wasn’t moving. Dennis froze and focused in on his friend’s chest. Watching, he held his own breath and only breathed again - a sigh of relief - when he saw movement.

He walked into the room and flicked the light on by pushing back on the switch with his elbow. Ryan stirred - a groan of pain from his mouth.

“Morning,” Dennis said. An upbeat tone in his voice in an effort to keep Ryan calm.

Ryan - awake now - breathed in heavily and his chest rattled; a bubbled mixture of air and some kind of phlegm.

“I hope you slept well,” Dennis set the breakfast tray down on the bedside table.

Ryan turned to Dennis. Dennis smiled at him, doing his best to hide the concern he felt. Ryan’s face was battered. His left eye was swollen, black and puffy. His right eye bloodshot. Fresh blood coated his teeth, with one tooth at the front of his mouth missing.

Yesterday - in a crowded room - Ryan could have been one of the best looking men there, turning the heads’ of many of the ladies much to the frustration of the other men present. Today, he wasn’t a shadow of his former self. He was a broken mess.

Next to where he lay were his clothes. Cut off with a sharp pair of scissors so Dennis could assess the damage to Ryan’s body. Bruises all over where he was bleeding beneath the skin. It was a sight that both frightened Dennis and broke his heart. He knew this was serious.

Ryan tried to speak. A fresh trickle of blood spilled from the corner of his mouth, down the side of his face and onto the already dirtied pillow. He tried to speak again, “Please….”

Dennis leaned in close to his old friend, “What is it?” he asked.

“Please… Kill…. Me….”

2.

Dennis was sitting in the dark. There was a little light spilling in through the filthy window but not enough to illuminate the whole of the messy living room. There were old, mouldy mugs on the coffee table, plates of half-eaten supper, magazines - mostly television guides - strewn about the place as though read and then tossed to one side. The television itself, with a cracked screen, was nestled in the corner of the room - almost lost in the chaos. It was there that Dennis stared - not that anything played upon the screen. With tears streaming from watery eyes, he was lost in his own private show - not aired on any channel. All that the pair of them had been through together. He didn’t want it to end and yet that’s exactly what it looked to be doing. The final chapter in what had been a beautiful friendship between the two, despite an obvious age difference.

Dennis had always known it would end one day. In fairness, he was surprised it had lasted as long as it had. He thought - once Ryan was on his feet having come out of prison with nowhere else to go - he would move out of Dennis’ home and find a place of his own. And then, in the blink of an eye, Dennis pictured him settling down with a pretty woman and then - soon after - raising kids of his own; a new man who’d successfully left the darkness behind him that he’d enjoyed exploring whilst in Dennis’ company. Was the only reason he explored this darkness because of Dennis? “What was it like to rape someone?” Ryan had once asked.

The two of them sitting in the corner of the yard.

“You feel like a God. You have the power. You are in control. You can do whatever you want and no one can touch you,” Dennis had replied before continuing with, “But afterwards you feel like the Devil. A beast. A monster who’s forced another to endure what you’ve just put them through without their permission. The guilt eats at you as you realise this moment - a short time in the great scheme of things - will stay with that person forever.”

Dennis knew - from the moment he’d answered the left-field question - that Ryan hadn’t listened to the whole answer. He had only heard what he wanted to. The good side to it. The feeling of absolute power. And this was proven when they got out and Ryan raped his first victim; a pretty blonde girl who had been quick enough to accept a lift to her destination and even quicker to turn Ryan’s advances down.

That time - the first time he had raped someone - Ryan was supposed to have been going to the shops for some supplies. Dennis had waited at home. He had told Dennis, when explaining what had happened, that he’d seen the girl there and had just had to have her. He had been surprised when she had turned him down but that was when Dennis’ words had replayed in his mind and he had lost control. Before he knew it - he was raping her. He regretted nothing though. The smile on his face, the bounce in his step and the enthusiasm in his recounting of how he had left the ‘bitch’ in the bushes said as much. He didn’t feel like the monster he clearly was. He hadn’t killed her. Just left her with the promise of finding her family should she dare speak up about what had happened. The harsh words whispered in her ear that it was all her fault anyway. If she hadn’t wanted the attention of a man, she shouldn’t have dressed in such a provocative manner.

Despite living with a newly awakened monster, Dennis hated the idea of losing him but he had known that the living arrangements couldn’t last forever. He just hadn’t thought that it was going to end like this; his best friend lying in his bedroom begging for Dennis to take his life.

“I can’t,” Dennis had told him.

“You… can’t…. leave…. me….. like this….” Ryan had struggled with every word. The damage to his body was not just on the exterior. There were cuts, bruises, breaks and ruptures internally too. He needed a hospital. He had even begged to be taken to one but Dennis didn’t dare. He couldn’t. Not yet anyway. It placed them close to the crime scene. Sure the body parts were buried but if they were discovered… If they looked hard enough at the wreck of the car. The thought of being caught terrified Dennis. The thought of his friend suffering - dying - terrified him too. He hadn’t been alone for so long now that he knew he wouldn’t survive being left alone again. He needed Ryan in his life. He was what kept him going.

“You’ll get better,” he had told him. “You already look so much better,” he continued. “Another day or two and you’ll be right as rain…”

“I’m… dying…” Ryan wheezed through bubbles of blood.

Dennis openly wept in front of him and told him he wasn’t. He reassured him - again - that he was going to be just fine. He was strong and he would survive this just as he had survived everything else in his life.

“Kill… me….” Ryan had ordered him again. It was at that point Dennis had hurried from the room and down to the living room.

Ryan had struggled to tell Dennis that he couldn’t feel anything from the neck down. Anything - that is - other than a numb coldness in his heavy limbs. Dennis had told him to start small and move his little finger but it never did move. He couldn’t help but wonder whether the damage was done before he’d moved him or after. A guilty feeling in the pit of his stomach that he had potentially made his injuries much worse.

He hadn’t had a choice though. That’s what he kept telling himself.

He couldn't have left him there. He had to bring him home, into the warm, and that had meant moving him.

A shadow fell across Dennis. He looked up. Standing before him, a solemn expression on his face, was a young lad. Sixteen years old, and naked. Dried blood stuck to his skin, from arse crack down the back of his left leg. Dennis knew the boy wasn’t really there despite the daily visits. A figment of his imagination, haunting him ever since he had forced himself on…

What was his name?

He could recall the face. He even remembered the look on the boy’s face as he struck. The sound he made - the high-pitched scream - as he pushed inside him. He even remembered what shirt he was wearing; an old tee-shirt decorated with a popular cartoon franchise that Dennis had never watched himself. The name though? The name always escaped him.

“I’m not in the mood,” Dennis told the boy.

“He’s suffering.”

“He’ll be fine. He’s strong.”

“You should have taken him to the hospital.”

“I couldn’t.”

“He’s your friend.”

“He is.”

“Yet you’re happy to watch him suffer. You realise there’s a serious break there? He can’t move. He needs help before it is too late.”

“Tomorrow. He’ll be better by tomorrow.”

Dennis had been in his car, travelling behind Ryan who drove the old Ford. They always took two cars. Ryan always drove his Ford and Dennis always drove his Vauxhall. They had to take two cars due to the fact Ryan was picking up girls to take out into the woodlands. A charming guy convincing pretty girls to come for a drive. In this day and age - they should have known better. Especially at the age they tended to be (eighteen plus). But that just showed how manipulative he was able to be when he applied himself. He’d see them walking by the side of the road, he’d pull over next to them and offer a lift to wherever they needed to be. Some would say no. Some would say yes. Then, once seated next to him, he’d turn his charm on and talk them into coming out to the woods with him; the promise of seeing one of the best beauty spots in the area. And it really was one of the best spots; tall trees reaching up to the heavens. Wildlife of all shapes and sizes running through the thickets, lush greenery and flowers of varied colours. If one so desired, they could also head out a few hundred yards to the picturesque lake. Ryan’s success rate of convincing girls to come for a ride was about seventy percent. Had Dennis been in the car - it would have been reduced significantly, hence the need for two vehicles.

Ryan would park up in his usual spot and Dennis a little further away whereupon he’d leave the car and head up through the thick woodlands, right to the next clearing where his friend was usually already inside his newfound friend. A fast worker.

“He won’t survive until tomorrow,” the boy warned him.

“Stop saying that!” Dennis snapped.

Dennis knew the young lad - a figment of his own imagination - was right though. There was a good chance Ryan wouldn't survive another night. He looked like he was in a really bad shape and he sounded as though he was too but what was he to do? If he took him to the hospital and the vehicle was collected - there would no doubt be an investigation into the crash. The police would be involved.

“The vehicle isn’t registered in his name or your name. There are no links to bring the authorities here, you can deny all knowledge of the vehicle if asked. You don’t have to tell them what led him to be in this condition. You just need to take him to the hospital and let them try and fix him…”

That much was true. The vehicle was only ever used for Ryan’s date-nights. The rest of the time it was hidden within the shed; a tatty cover over it.

“They dust for prints and we’re both in the system,” Dennis argued, battling his own desire to take Ryan to the hospital and his own need to keep them both from the long arm of the law. It might have been worth the risk had it not been for the girls killed within the car. All it would take was one strand of hair.

“Would they really look that closely at a wreck?” the boy asked.

“I don’t know!” Dennis snapped again. He turned to the boy who wasn’t there. He was sitting in the room - alone. Tortured by his own thoughts. A headache pounding hard inside his skull. Yesterday he had been happier than he had been for as long as he could remember and now - today - everything had changed. His world had collapsed in the blink of an eye.

Dennis pulled himself up from the armchair and walked from living room to hallway. He stood at the bottom of the stairs and listened to any noises from up above. He could hear Ryan’s laboured breathing. Still alive. He wasn’t sure if that was a good thing, or bad. Slowly he made his way up the stairs, careful to avoid the creaking floorboards. At the top of the landing, he looked across into Ryan’s bedroom.

“Den….nis….?” Ryan wheezed.

Dennis didn’t answer. Instead he crossed the landing to his own bedroom. Inside, he closed the door to drown out the noises coming from Ryan’s room. Exhausted and emotionally drained, he collapsed on his bed and pulled the duvet close to him. It had been a long night. Damned headache pounding so hard. Things would be clearer if he could just shut his eyes for a minute.

Just a minute.

3.

The pretty girl’s head was rocking backwards and forwards with each push and pull of his hacksaw.  One minute she was looking Dennis in the eye and the next she was staring off into the distance. He pulled back on the blade, she looked at him. He pushed away - she looked elsewhere. One final push and her head rolled away from her now-naked torso - the dress already cut off with a pair of scissors from the leather bag. It was tough enough cutting through flesh and bone, he didn’t need to have to cut through the dress too. Not when it could just be cut away from her body, with the rest of her clothes (in this instance: her bra).

Dennis lifted the head by a scruff of its hair and lowered it into a new black sack. That made four bags in total; two legs in one, two arms in another - with pieces broken down into smaller, more manageable chunks - torso to go in another bag and the head in another. Each bag tied shut.

A twig snapped behind Dennis. His heart skipped a beat as he turned to look over his shoulder. Ryan stepped from the darkness; a childish grin on his face.

“Scared the shit out of me,” Dennis moaned.

“Nearly done?” he asked.

Dennis nodded. “Enjoy your walk?”

“Air is definitely fresher out here,” he said. “Want a laugh? Couple going at it a little further down there. Imagine if they had just driven a little deeper into the woods!” Ryan laughed as he nodded towards the black bags, “Bit of a passion killer, don’t you think?”

“We’re asking for trouble keep coming up here,” Dennis pointed out. “I keep telling you, it’s only a matter of time before someone sees you.”

Ryan laughed again, “You never did tell me how you came to know that it’s such a hotspot for young couples,” he said. “Bit of a dogger in your past?” Ryan laughed again, “Relax. That’s why you come with me, remember? My own little lookout. We’re a good team you and me but don’t think it’s just about what I want - you ever want to jump in the driving seat, you know I’ve got your back,” he winked.

Dennis blushed and promptly changed the subject, “Just give me a hand with the bags. We’ll load them into the car and dispose of them later.”

“Later? We’ll do it now. I’m not driving around with bags in my trunk…”

Dennis - usually the quieter of the two - argued with him for the first time in as long as he could recall, “You know I’m only too happy to help you do what you feel you need to do but this bit is done on my terms. We get rid of the bags when it is safe to do so and if there is a couple having sex, a little way down there, it’s not safe.”

“He’s balls deep. We’re good.”

“Until he comes. You know for definite how long that is going to be because I don’t. And then - what if they decide to go for a walk like you?”

Ryan smiled, “You brought extra bags, didn’t you?” He nodded towards the hacksaw on the off-chance Dennis didn’t get the reference. Dennis didn’t say anything. He just stood there, by the mess he’d cleared up, with a look of disbelief on his face. He thought the world of Ryan. He had to, to stand by him throughout all of this, but sometimes he could be an arrogant hot-head. Dennis never voiced his thoughts but sometimes he truly believed that, if it weren’t for him helping him, Ryan would already be rotting in a cell somewhere with little to no chance of parole. Ryan started to laugh, “You need to learn to lighten up. I’m playing with you. We’ll do it your way.”

“Help me put the bags in the trunk,” Dennis said. He struggled to lift the first bag into the boot of the old Ford and waited by the second bag for Ryan to give him a helping hand. Even though the bodies were cut into pieces, they were still heavy and Dennis just wanted the whole thing done, dusted and put to bed, so to speak. With Ryan’s help - it halved the time.

“I don’t know about you but I’m fucking hungry. Worked up a mean appetite.” Ryan stretched his arms above his head, cracking his back in the process. “Want to get something to eat?”

Dennis slammed the boot shut and looked at him, still with the same expression of disbelief.

“We need to get the car back to the house before we do anything else.”

“Need me some ribs,” Ryan continued, not listening to Dennis. It was always the same after he’d killed someone. He felt untouchable. Invincible. Drunk on his actions. A feeling that would stay with him for a week, two at a push, and then - slowly - Dennis would get to watch him slowly slip back into a black mood as his killing urges started consuming him from within once more. Dennis stayed by his side for both the good times and the bad.

“Get the car back to the house and then I’ll take you for a meal,” Dennis suggested.

Ryan didn’t work. He hadn’t managed to hold a job down since leaving the penitentiary. He’d go for a few days with the best intentions but it would always end the same way; a resentment building up towards the management that would see him storm out with a final threat of violence aimed at anyone who tried to block his way. Dennis should have been upset by this, considering Ryan had moved in with him after having nowhere else to go. After all, he had promised to pay rent. Yet - the fact Ryan couldn’t hold down a steady job - it pleased Dennis. It made him more controllable.

“You’re paying?”

“We take the car back to the garage first,” Dennis stood firm.

“Then what are we waiting for?” Ryan walked to the front of the car and jumped into the driver’s seat. He turned back to Dennis who was watching him with a nervous look on his face that went unnoticed by Ryan.

Dennis always hated Ryan jumping behind the wheel after he’d satisfied his urges. His God-like complex made him more of an idiot behind the wheel than he usually was. A young man in his late twenties who was seemingly catching up on all the missed years of being a young boy-racer thanks to being behind bars. Whereas most men Ryan’s age would have the boy-racer driven out of them through experience, various speeding tickets, points on licenses or plain old common sense - Ryan was still very much loving being a speed-demon. No doubt thanks to the sense of freedom he experienced when speeding down a road with the windows down and air rushing into the vehicle. A freedom he felt he’d missed out on thanks to his uncontrollable temper.

“Good to drive?” Dennis asked.

“Always. Am I giving you a lift?” Ryan asked.

Dennis shook his head, “I’m good to walk. Car isn’t that far away.”

“Suit yourself, old-timer.” He slammed the car door and rolled the window down, “I’ll see you back at the house,” he said, starting the engine up.

“Drive sensibly!” Dennis warned him, “Don’t forget what’s in the boot.”

Ryan laughed, “You worry too much.”

Dennis stepped to the side as Ryan backed-up before wheel-spinning through the mud and onto a dirt track on the other side of the clearing. The car had almost completely disappeared before the driver remembered to turn on the lights. Dennis shook his head and started his walk back to his own vehicle.

I I

A thump from the next room brought Dennis back to the real world. He opened his eyes with a start and sat up with the duvet still twisted around his body. He pulled his arm free from underneath the duvet and checked the time on his well-worn wrist watch. Ten-thirty. Still morning.

He was so tired, when he had entered his bedroom, he had felt sure he’d be able to sleep right through to the next day. In a way he wished he had. It would have been easier than having to deal with this mess.

Why the hell did I let him drive?

Because he had to. He couldn’t leave the car there and he wasn’t about to drive it back - not with all the DNA over the backseats or the body parts in the damned boot. He wasn’t getting caught behind the wheel. This was Ryan’s yearnings catered for. Dennis was happy to help but he wasn’t about to take the blame for it should he have been pulled. No way.

Dennis jumped as he felt a hand touch the back of his shoulder from behind. He rolled onto his other side and came face to face with the sixteen year old lad again.

“Do you think he would protect you if he were pulled over?”

“Of course he would. We have each other’s backs.”

“What was the saying? No honour amongst thieves.”

“He isn’t a thief.”

Another thump from the other room.

Dennis rolled back onto his other side, facing away from the boy and towards his bedroom door.

“What are you going to do?” the boy asked.

“I don’t know.”

“You said you have each other’s backs…”

“We do…”

“Then if that were the case then you’d do as he asked.”

Dennis moved to the edge of the bed and looked back, over his shoulder towards the boy. There was no one there. Just an imprint of where he himself had slept. Even though there was no one there to answer to, he offered a response anyway.

“He isn’t going to die. He’s going to be fine. He just needs a little motivation.” Dennis looked across to the wall on the opposite side of the room. There was another thump from beyond it. “And I have just the thing.”

Dennis got up from the bed, a little unsteady on his feet. He hadn’t eaten, or drunk, anything since the previous night. The breakfast he’d made earlier, still sitting on Ryan’s bedside cabinet - uneaten and stone cold. He crossed the bedroom floor in a couple of steps and walked through the door. Standing there - a moment - he looked across the landing space and into Ryan’s room.

Still breathing.

Another thump from the other room. Dennis followed the sound with a turn of his head.

He’ll be okay. He just needs the motivation to get up.

Dennis continued further down the landing to the next door on the right. Solid wood, with a metal key poking from a lock. He stood there a moment and took a couple of deep breaths and then - with a shaking hand - he reached up and twisted the key, releasing the lock. He turned the handle and then - with a single finger - he pushed the door wide open.

The woman tried to move away into the corner of the room where she felt safer but was held firm by the chain around her neck keeping her locked to the wall. She raised her bound hands to her bloodied face, as though trying to protect herself from potential harm. Dennis didn’t say anything. He just stood there, both relieved and puzzled. On the one hand, there was relief when he realised she wasn’t badly hurt. Just some superficial cuts and scratches that would heal in time. As for being puzzled, it wasn’t a case of wondering how the woman got to be in house, he knew that. He was more puzzled as to what she had been doing with Ryan. Especially given the fact he was meant to be returning the car.

“Please don’t hurt me,” she whimpered. “I didn’t see anything. I swear… Please don’t hurt me.”

“What were you doing with my friend?” Dennis asked - ignoring her terrified pleas. When she didn’t answer immediately he asked again, “What were you doing with my friend?”

4.

“All the time you help him with this, and don’t force him to pay his way - he’ll stay with you. That’s what you want, isn’t it? His company. Well you want more than his company but that’s not going to happen. It’s obvious from those he invites into the car he doesn’t like people like you…” Dennis was walking through the woods, back towards his car. The sun had set and it was getting harder to see now with just a pale moon lighting the immediate dirt-path.

Just as Ryan became arrogant after each of his dates, Dennis’ attitude to things also started to change in that he’d find himself doubting whether he was doing the right thing or not. He didn’t want to lose Ryan. He knew he couldn’t push him into finding his own place and he knew he couldn’t stop him from doing any of this. To do either would splinter their relationship. Yet… Every time he had a moment to himself - on the walk back to where he had left his car - he always questioned himself as to whether it was the right thing to do; standing by his man.

Your man? He isn’t your man. The sooner you realise that the better.

Dennis shook the nagging voice from his mind.

It’s only a matter of time before he’s caught and - then - you’ll both be going down. He won’t protect you…

Dennis just needed to make it through the night. It was always like this, with the nagging voice - sometimes accompanied by a hallucination of the little boy he attacked all those years ago - telling him he couldn’t go on and him arguing with it that everything would be fine and they wouldn’t get caught. He knew it was pathetic but he also knew that - by morning - the nagging voice would be silenced by Ryan’s improved mood. He’d be running around the house, making Dennis laugh, with a skip in his step - it was always the same; his good mood rubbed off onto Dennis and all doubts would be extinguished. Just one night to listen to them. They were bad - at the time - but when you thought about it like that, that they’d only last a single night, it wasn’t too bad. Not with the knowledge they’d be quiet by sunrise.

“Evelyn!” a male voice called out, silencing Dennis’ thoughts. A young man with dark hair stumbled from some bushes a few feet away from Dennis. The man spotted Dennis and engaged him in conversation, “I don’t suppose you’ve seen a blonde come by here, have you?”

Dennis shook his head, “No. Sorry.”

“Fuck sake.” He looked down to a mobile that was in his hand and tutted. “You at least got any signal on your phone?”

“No phone.”

“Fucking girlfriend stormed off and I can’t even call her. No signal.”

Dennis shrugged, “Sorry.”

And with that brief exchange Dennis continued on his way back to his car without giving the youth - or his girlfriend - a second thought.

Until…

I I

“If I were to guess that your name was Evelyn - would I be correct?” Dennis asked. He took a step towards the girl who - in turn - flinched, as though expecting a sudden show of violence. “I’m not going to hurt you,” he reassured her. A reassurance that fell upon deaf ears. Hard to believe a man wasn’t going to hurt you when you were chained to a wall in a strange house. Without taking his eyes off the girl, he leaned back against the wall and slid down it until he was crouched upon the floor with the wall as a back-support. “Evelyn?” he asked again.

She nodded.

“Unusual name,” he told her in the hope small talk would help her to relax a little. “In fact, I think you’re the first Evelyn I’ve ever met. My name is Dennis. Not quite as original. Lost count the number of Dennis’ I’ve met over the years.”

“What do you want from me?”

“I want to know what you were doing with my friend.” He paused a moment, “I want to know what happened.”

“And then you’ll let me go.”

He didn’t say anything for a minute. Eventually he looked down at the floor - too embarrassed to look her in the eyes - and shook his head, “You know I can’t do that.”

“Please - I won’t tell anyone.”

“Yes you will. I know you will.”

“I won’t.”

“It was written all over your face.”

“I won’t.”

“You really want to live?”

She nodded and started to cry. Dennis was unsure whether she was crying through fear for her life or the pain she must have been in. So far - all things considered - he thought she’d been very brave. A little fact that worked in her favour and had helped keep her alive up to this point. After all, had she been more of a handful - wailing and screaming - he wouldn’t have had a choice but to silence her permanently. Something he didn’t want to do but - he hadn’t asked for any of this. Last night was not supposed to have ended like this. The whole night had been a fucking mess.

“Maybe you can prove yourself useful,” he said after some thought.

In his head he had already planned through this conversation. A threat of pain - aimed at her - and she would do anything to keep him happy. If she thought he was going to let her go, she wouldn’t partake in anything he would ask of her. But - yes - if she thought she was going to die and the only way out was by helping him… She’d be putty in his hands.

“I won’t tell anyone,” she reiterated.

“Ssh.” He paused a moment and then asked the original question posed, “What were you doing with Ryan?”

I I I

Ryan slowed his car to a halt, pulled over to the side of the narrow dirt-track. He watched the pretty girl getting nearer via his rear-view mirror. He had been heading home - out of the woods - when he noticed her walking down the secluded hill, barefooted wearing a pretty dress. He turned the interior light on so - when she was close enough - she’d be able to see in. She reached the back of the car, her eyes fixed to the ground as though she were embarrassed to be seen. Ryan leaned across and opened the passenger door.

“You okay?” he called out.

The pretty girl replied without looking in, “I’m fine.”

She continued walking past the car. Ryan flung off his seat-belt and climbed from the car, chasing after her.

“Hey, wait up. It’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you. I just know how far it is to town and that it’s not a nice place for a pretty girl to be out on her own. That and I noticed you didn’t have anything on your feet,” he took a breath, “I’m just making sure you’re okay.”

“I’m good, thank you.” Standing in the light provided by the car’s headlights, he could see she’d been crying. Black smudges under her eyes that ran down her cheeks.

“It’s not a nice place for a single girl to be out by herself. At least let me drop you down to the main road if you won’t let me take you into town, or home.”

“Honestly, I’m fine - thank you,” she sniffled. She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. Another black smudge.

Ryan smiled, “Okay well… I’m not leaving you to walk into town by yourself. Wait here a minute and I’ll lock my car up,” he hurried over to his car and leaned in. A second later and both the engine and the lights switched off.

“What are you doing?” she giggled nervously.

“I’m coming with you. Keep you safe from all the monsters lurking in the woods.”

“Honestly, I’ll be…”

“Stop right there. You won’t change my mind. If you won’t let me drive you out of here, I’ll walk you out. It’s the gentlemanly thing to do and I don’t want it on my conscience if anything were to happen to you.”

“You’re a gentleman?” She looked at him with disbelief.

He held his hand out, “Ryan, pleased to meet you.”

That damned smile on his face. He’d lost track the number of girls he had lulled into a false sense of security with it now. This girl - the one who was smiling back - she was just another number.

“Evelyn.” She shook his hand. He pulled his hand away and started walking down the road towards the town. She stayed on the spot, “You’re really going to walk with me?”

“I’m not leaving a damsel in distress.”

“But what about your car?”

“It’s old. Hopefully someone will steal it. Then I get to claim on the insurance and get a newer car. Win, win if you think about it. You get company and nothing bad happens to you. I get to talk to a pretty girl, feel like I’ve done the right thing and - tomorrow - file for a new car. And, to think, when I woke up this morning - I wasn’t sure it was going to be such a great day. Funny how things turned out.” He started walking again.

“Okay wait. Yes, please. I would love a lift. But just to the main road, okay?”

He slowly turned around. That smile.

“I’m glad you said that. My feet are already aching from all this walking. How you were doing it barefooted I’ll never know… You’re a better person than I.”

Ryan walked back to his car; the passenger side. He opened the door for his new friend. She hesitated a moment before coming back to the car. She climbed in with a thank you and he carefully closed the door behind her. He walked round to his own side and climbed in, sliding the key into the ignition.

“Just to the main road then,” he confirmed.

“Thank you for this,” Evelyn said - not watching him but watching the world pass by the passenger window.

“My pleasure.” He took a minute to gather his thoughts before he asked what he really wanted to know, “So why are you walking out here by yourself then? And - more to the point - why barefooted? Not the most foot friendly terrain…”

There was a moment’s pause as Evelyn weighed up as to whether she should say anything or not. It was pathetic. It was a little embarrassing and, ignoring that, she didn’t want this stranger judging her.

“Second date ended abruptly,” she said. There was nothing to be judged for. She hadn’t gone through with her now-ex boyfriend’s plans. She had got out of the car, after his advances, and she had headed off into the night - telling him to fuck himself in the process. The more she thought back to what had happened the more she realised that she had nothing to be embarrassed about. If anyone should feel shameful, it was him; the idiot she’d left behind. Not only had he found himself on the single market again but he’d been left with his trousers round his ankles and an erection in his hand. Pathetic.

“You were brought up here for a second date? You know what this area is, right?”

Evelyn looked at Ryan, “So why are you up here?” she asked suspiciously.

Ryan laughed, “You got me. I brought my third date up here and she stormed off. I was just here licking my wounds, headed home alone, when I saw you.”

“You’re lying,” she laughed.

“Am I?”  He glanced at her with a cheeky grin on his face before turning his attention back to the road stretched out before him, winding round the picturesque trees. “Actually came up here to bury my dog,” he lied.

“What?!”

“Dog died yesterday. This was her favourite area to walk. It felt right burying her up here.”

“Are you teasing me?”

“About that? Christ, woman, that’s dark. Shovel is in the boot if you don’t believe me.”

She went quiet.

“I’m sorry,” she said - eventually.

“She had a good life.”

“Well I’m still sorry,” Evelyn said.

“So what are you doing about your date then?”

“It’s over. Trust me. Clearly he didn’t think much of me bringing me up here already. You know - he didn’t even try wooing me with romance… Just some shit music on the radio and he flopped his cock out.” She paused a moment, lost in thought, “It wasn’t even that impressive.”

Ryan laughed.

“I couldn’t believe it. I just got out of the car and walked off.”

“Without your shoes…”

“Flip-flops. I had kicked them off in the car,” she laughed. “I didn’t want to go back for them. Less of a dramatic exit when you have to go back to collect your shoes.”

“Good point.” Ryan turned on the charm, “Well he was an idiot. If I had someone like you on my arm, I would be taking her to a restaurant. We’re talking wining and dining. Candles, romantic music playing on violins - or a pianist in the corner… Good steak…”

“I’m vegetarian,” she laughed.

“Steak for me and extra lettuce for you,” Ryan flashed her a wink. “The guy is a fucking idiot.” He fidgeted in his seat as he felt the stress start to tense his body. “Getting annoyed just thinking how he treated you. What an asshole.”

“Well he has gone now.” She laughed, “Every date I have; always drama. Is it too much to ask to have a stress-free life?” she asked Ryan.

5.

Evelyn couldn’t help but to cry as Dennis continued with the questions. What she had told Ryan - in the car - was going through her head again and again, almost taunting her; the wish for a stress-free life. She was answering him yet the look on his face suggested he didn’t believe her.

“He wouldn’t have just picked you up. Not at that moment in time,” Dennis argued with her. “Maybe if he had seen you earlier but - at that moment in time - no… He wouldn’t have been so stupid.”

“I promise you that is what happened. He saw me walking. He stopped the car and offered me a lift.”

Dennis took a moment to think things through. On some levels it made perfect sense; that man had lost his girlfriend. He had moaned that she had stormed off and he was looking for her, unable to call because of the crappy network signal. Ryan could have come across her and offered a lift but having just done what he’d set out to do for the night? And with the body in the boot of his car? He was stupid but… Could he have been that stupid?

Dennis’ head was spinning.

“I promise that’s what happened.”

Dennis shook his head, “You know what… It doesn’t even matter. That’s not important anymore. What’s important is my friend is through there - in the other room - and he thinks he is dying but he isn’t. He just needs motivation to get moving again and that’s where you come in…”

“What?”

“He picked you up? That’s what you said.”

“He did. I swear…”

“What were you talking about?” Dennis pushed. He wanted to know which side of Ryan she had been a witness to, not that it really mattered anymore. A curiosity to know whether she met the charming side, or the psychotic.

“He was just saying you wouldn’t have treated me like my boyfriend had. He was saying he would have taken me out to a restaurant…”

Dennis interrupted, “Then he liked you. He chose you. And you can help him. Just as he tried helping you.”

Evelyn started to cry, “Please - I just want to go home.”

“Help me and I might be able to help you. If you don’t… I can’t make any promises.”

“I want my mum and dad.”

“Do this for me and you may get to see them again. Don’t do this and you won’t.” Dennis sighed, “I’m sorry - I want this even less than you but he is my friend and I don’t have a choice. I am trying to protect everyone here. You understand that, don’t you?” He hesitated a moment, “I’m not a bad person. I’ve made mistakes, sure I have. But I paid for them. Please don’t make me sin again. Help me, help yourself.”

“What have I got to do?” she sniffled through tears. She knew she didn’t have a choice but to help him, or at least pretend to do so. If she refused, he’d kill her. She at least needed to know exactly what was being asked - especially if it meant she could walk away from this.

Dennis hated himself for lying. He kept telling her there was a chance for her to get out of this with her life but he knew - she had to die. She had seen too much and he couldn’t trust her to keep her mouth shut if he were to let her go. If only she hadn’t seen.

I I

Dennis was driving, following the dirt-track back down towards the city lights that burned brightly beyond the sea of trees before him. A few splatters of rain teasing his windscreen before squeaking wipers brushed them away, leaving little smear marks behind. He didn’t mind that it was raining now. Rather that than have it start an hour earlier. The only time he minded being lookout for Ryan was when it was wet. He’d be standing there, miserable and soggy whilst Ryan would be in the warm car experiencing a different kind of wetness. It was the rare time Dennis found himself questioning what he was doing before the post-event guilt kicked in.

He’s in there about to have an orgasm and I’m out here, soaked through, waiting to cut the body up and dispose of it for him. How - exactly - is this fair?

Dennis couldn’t help but wonder whether the boyfriend - stalking the woods - had managed to catch up with his girlfriend yet. A fleeting thought that went just as quickly as it had popped into his mind; no doubt because he was imagining the man cursing the shitty British weather as he searched for his missing partner.

Another tight, blind bend.

Dennis slowed. Nine times out of ten there would be nothing round the bend - just more of the dirt-track stretched out before him. But on one occasion, there had been a deer standing there without a care in the world. Damned thing had scared the shit out of him, he had nearly swerved into a tree trying to avoid killing it. Funny - all things considered - that he had a problem with running down an animal yet he was fine with hacking up a dead body, even being instrumental in turning that person from alive to dead too. Instrumental in that - had it not been for him on lookout patrol - would the homicide have taken place anyway?

Nothing round the corner. He put his foot down again, picking up speed and kicking up mud behind the car.

Of course he would have still killed them. In the moment - even after it - he doesn’t think about the bigger picture.

That was Ryan’s problem. One of them at least. He never stopped to consider the bigger picture. Yes it was easy picking girls up, yes it was fairly easy talking them into having sex with him, it was even easier to rape them should they decide not to have consensual sex, but… He never stopped long to consider who the girl was, who was around watching her climb into his car and just how deep a hole should be to dispose of her once the deed was done.

“That’s more than deep enough,” Ryan had said once.

“You think?”

“She’s covered.”

“I can see her foot sticking out of the ground.”

“Okay, so she is mostly covered. Let’s go.”

His lack of forward thinking irritated Dennis and he was sure that - had it not been for him - Ryan wouldn’t have got away with the first time he had taken a life. He would have been picked up by the police in the same week and - before he knew it - back behind bars. Ryan always said that prison didn’t scare him. It was free lodgings with three meals a day and fuck-all else to worry about once you had proven to your fellow inmates that you weren’t to be messed with. But Ryan had said that on the back of a fairly short sentence. Dennis couldn’t help but wonder whether his opinion would change had he had a longer sentence to serve; a sentence - say - for murder.

Another bend.

Slow the car.

Dennis turned the corner and suddenly slammed on the brakes. His car skidded to a halt across the way from another vehicle; an old Ford up on its side - driver side trapped against the muddy ground - with smoke billowing from under the hood.

“No…. No, no, no, no….. This can’t be happening,” Dennis opened the car door and jumped out, leaving his engine running. He hurried round to the front of the car. Smashed windscreen, crumpled body, wheel still spinning thanks to a foot trapped on the pedal. Even the trunk had popped. “What did you do? What did you do?” A rhetorical question. He knew what he had done. Dennis had followed him down this route on enough occasions to know that Ryan treated it like his own private rally track. He should have known this was going to happen. It was only a matter of time.

The passenger door swung open before falling back shut again.

Dennis looked up, “Ryan?! Ryan, can you hear me?”

The door opened again. A bloody hand reached up and stopped gravity from closing it again. Dennis knew - instantly - that it wasn’t the hand of his friend. A woman - Evelyn - pulled herself out. She looked battered - a little bruised here and there - but other than that she was okay despite the tears streaming down her pale face. Shock.

“Who are you?” Dennis asked, shocked to see someone else climbing out of the car. He quickly shook the question from his mind and helped her down, “It’s okay, I’ve got you… You’re safe…” He wanted her down and out of the way - quickly - so he could see if Ryan was okay.

Down on the ground, Evelyn dropped to her knees - thankful that she was okay. Dennis turned his attention back to the car. He leaned down and looked in through the smashed windscreen. Ryan was crumpled against the side of the car, blood running down his face.

“Ryan! Can you hear me? Ryan?!”

Evelyn suddenly screamed out loud causing Dennis’ heart to skip a beat. He looked up to her and noticed she was staring off to the side. He followed her gaze to see what had caused the commotion. And there it was, a few feet from the car; black bin liners. One of them had ripped open spilling the human content out. A head was staring right back at Evelyn who screamed again.

I I I

Dennis was holding one end of the chain. The other end was still attached to Evelyn’s scrawny neck; too tight for it to be comfortable. Her hands were still bound as she was led through to the second bedroom; Ryan’s bedroom.

Both Evelyn and Dennis stood in the doorway, looking in on Ryan.

“He needs help,” Evelyn said quietly to Dennis.

“Hey, Ryan, you awake?”

Ryan breathed in with a rasp and opened his eyes slowly. Without turning his head, he tried to look towards the doorway.

“I’ve brought someone to see you,” Dennis said. He turned to Evelyn and pushed her forward. She stumbled a few paces towards the bed. Her eyes locked with Ryan’s. There was a desperation in his eyes for help; not for paramedics but for a quick death. Evelyn looked back at Dennis, seeking a little reassurance. His words playing through her mind; she helps them, he helps her. “Say hello to him,” Dennis pushed her.

She nervously turned back Ryan, “Hello.”

Ryan didn’t say anything. He was looking at her but she couldn’t tell if he actually saw her. She looked at Dennis - unsure what to do or say now.

“You remember her from the car journey, don’t you?” Dennis pushed for a response. “You picked her up,” he continued. He wanted to ask what the hell he thought he was doing collecting her when he already had an ‘ex’ in the boot that needed to be disposed of. He was meant to be driving straight home! He was meant to be taking the car back and then going out for a meal - why the hell would he pick someone else up? Now wasn’t the time. He needed Ryan to concentrate on getting better, not stress about Dennis’ mood.

Ryan hadn’t taken his eyes from Evelyn who - in turn - was looking at Dennis.

“I don’t know what else to do,” she said. “What do you want from me?”

“Just talk to him…”

The fact she hadn’t been screaming for Dennis to get her away from Ryan suggested that the conversation in the car had been - at least - pleasant right up until the point he had crashed and she had seen the dead body from the trunk. He just answered his own question from earlier; she had seen the good side of Ryan. She had seen the charming man who could woo any woman he chose into the bedroom.

Dennis continued, “Whatever you were talking about in the car… Just talk to him.”

I V

“Looks like I picked you up just in the nick of time,” Ryan turned the windscreen wipers on as the first droplets of rain hit the windscreen.

“I really do appreciate it, thank you.” Evelyn smiled at him. She hadn’t relished the idea of walking out of the woods and back into town by herself but she had preferred it to the idea of spending more time with that idiot. She reached down and pulled her mobile from where it had been tucked between bra and breast. “Yep - still no service. I’d still be walking.” She paused a moment, “I wonder if that’s why he brought me up here - no way of getting home without him. Probably didn’t think I’d walk! Makes you wonder how many other girls he had brought up here - refusing to give them a lift back until they had done something for him,” she continued with her imagination running away from her. The asshole boyfriend was turning from idiot to rapist the more she thought about it. A little unfair given she had no proof of her claims and didn’t really know the man but - even if word had got back to him with what she said - he couldn’t say anything. If he didn’t want to be perceived in such a light, he shouldn’t have acted like a creep.

“Where did you meet him?” Ryan asked.

In his own mind he had already pictured her naked. He had also imagined her doing rude things to him. Her mouth around the tip of his cock. Her hand stroking his cock. Her bent over the bonnet of the car with him on his knees behind her - his tongue stuck deep in her asshole. She didn't suspect a thing, helped by the calmness of his voice, the smile on his face and the fact he was coming across as sincere and genuine; seemingly caring about her and not what she could do for him.

She felt her face flush, “Internet.”

“What - like a dating website?”

She laughed; embarrassed.

“There are people like you on dating websites? I thought online dating was for losers.”

“Well, thanks…”

“The fact I’m surprised you were on there - take it as a compliment.” He sighed, “I can’t believe you’re on a dating site. That’s fucking tragic in itself. You should have men queuing up to take you out for a date. And I don’t mean idiots like the guy you were with tonight but a real man. The kind who’d treat you right.”

“Stop it! You’re embarrassing me,” she said with a giggle.

“Listen - I don’t mind dropping you off at your house or, if you don’t want me knowing where that is - somewhere closer at least. Save you getting a drenching if this weather kicks in which it is scheduled to do.”

“It’s fine, you’ve already helped me out. I don’t want to put you out.”

“Which means you would love a lift home but feel awkward about accepting it,” he laughed. “Well - really - it’s not a problem for me. I live on the other side of town anyway so chances are I’d be passing by where you live.” He looked at her with a cheeky smile on his face, “So what do you say?”

She smiled back at him. The evening had started with little promise and then swiftly went downhill from there but now - finally - things were starting to look up. She felt her face flush again and looked away from him - back out of the windscreen.

“Look out!” she screamed.

Ryan looked back at the road and slammed on the brakes, pulling on the steering wheel hard to avoid a fallen branch. The backend of the car drifted out of control as Evelyn screamed again. No traction on the wet mud track.

“Hold on,” Ryan shouted over her scream.

The rear wheel clipped an exposed, solid root of an old oak tree tipping the vehicle. Both Ryan and Evelyn screamed out…

6.

Evelyn didn’t know what to say. The man laying before her, unable to move, was not the man she had been getting to know in the car. The charming, charismatic guy who had selflessly helped her out was nothing but a ploy to harm her, as made evident by the dead body in the trunk.

Are there no more good guys in the world?

The nice things he had said to her - about how pretty she was and how she deserved more - were also forgotten, even if - on some fucked-up level - they were true. She couldn’t trust anything he’d previously said. This man who had supposedly gone up to the woodlands to bury his deceased dog.

Evelyn felt stupid. She had known better than to get in the car with a stranger and yet - there she was - doing it anyway and look how it turned out. Panic set in as she realised she wasn’t getting out of this alive, no matter what the other man had told her. He promised a way out if she helped him but he wasn’t going to let her go. Even if - by some miracle - hearing her voice did suddenly bring this asshole back from the brink of death… Evelyn wasn’t going home.

“Talk to him,” Dennis pushed her from the doorway. “Let him hear your voice.”

Dennis had told her to continue the conversation they’d been having in the car but Evelyn didn’t want to hear more lies or even humour the compliments he had paid her - lulling her into that blessed false sense of security. No more lies - especially if it were to be the last thing she heard. She’d rather the truth. She’d rather know exactly what type of men these were.

“Who was the girl?” she asked.

Ryan didn’t answer. Evelyn was unsure whether it was because he was struggling to breath or because he didn’t want to. Maybe he didn’t know. She looked across the room to Dennis. He looked pissed but she didn’t care. She wanted to know who she was.

“Is that what was going to happen to me? Your act of kindness nothing more than a way of getting me into the car to do whatever it is you did to her?”

What had he done to her?

“You didn’t just kill her, did you?” she asked. She was scared about the answer - no matter which of the men it came from. Why did she ask? She knew she wasn’t going to like the answer. She looked at Dennis, “Were you a part of it too?”

“I told you, you help him - I’ll be more inclined to help you. You keep this up… I can’t help you.”

“Fuck you,” she hissed. Her sudden change from victim to aggressor took Dennis by surprise.

“You help my friend!” he demanded. He crossed the room and grabbed her by the back of her collared neck. With her in hand, he pushed her towards Ryan so that her face was inches away from his. “You fucking help him!” he repeated.

“I can’t help him! I’m not a fucking doctor! He needs a doctor!”

“He just needs the right kind of encouragement!”

Dennis pushed her head down on the mattress, next to Ryan’s, so that she was bent over with her arse pointing up in the air. With his spare hand, he reached up her dress and pulled her underwear down to her ankles. She flinched and screamed as he ran his fingers over her pussy before pulling his hand back from under the dress. He sniffed his fingers to ensure there was a good amount of stink on them.

“That’s all he needs,” Dennis continued, a slow burning rage brewing within the pit of his stomach, “the right kind of encouragement!” He flung the girl to the side where she stumbled onto the floor, leaving her panties behind in a crumpled heap - still with Dennis gripping the other end of the chain around her neck. She let out a pained yelp which Dennis ignored. He had turned his attention back to Ryan.

“Here, look…” Dennis said, “This is what is waiting for you when you’re better…” Dennis put his stinking fingers under Ryan’s nose as though they were smelling salts. “She wants you inside of her. She wants you to cum deep inside. She told me so,” Dennis said. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? To be inside of her, fucking her hard? All you have to do is get up and she is yours to do with as you see fit.”

Ryan breathed in painfully - not for the scent of what he was being teased with but just to get some air. He coughed a little splatter of claret back out. Dennis felt his eyes well up at the sight of his friend in such a bad shape.

“Why did you pick her up? What were you doing?” he asked.

A tear rolled down his cheek.

“If you had just come home - like you were supposed to… You wouldn’t have had the accident. You wouldn’t have had your mind on anything but the road and what you wanted me to treat you with at dinner. Everything would be fine, right now.”

A tear also rolled down Ryan’s face. Dennis was unsure if he could even hear the words he was saying or whether it was because of the pain he was in. He hoped it wasn’t the latter. He didn’t want him to be pain.

“Kill….. me…..” Ryan whispered - his voice dry and scratchy despite the blood in his mouth.

“I can’t do that.”

“Pl….ease…”

“Please don’t ask me to do that.”

Evelyn piped up from where she’d retreated in the corner of the room, “He’s in pain. If you’re not willing to take him to a hospital, you should at least put him out of his misery!”

“He’s not a fucking dog!” Dennis screamed at her.

She answered straight back, “You wouldn’t treat a dog like this!”

She was right. You wouldn’t keep an animal in this much pain. Either you or a vet would put it out of its misery. Dennis dismissed what she said and pulled her close to him with a solid yank of the chain. She fell forward with a heavy crack from her neck and a pain that winded her.

“Get up,” he demanded. With another tug of the chain, she hopped up to her feet albeit unsteadily. Using one hand he pulled the dress off of her shoulders so that it slipped down her bruised body onto the floor, next to her underwear. He pulled on the chain again, bringing her forward and causing her to step out of the clothing. She was standing there in just a bra which - a second later - was also ripped from her body without a care for her or the clothing. She was crying, shamefully standing there naked and trying to cover herself with bound hands.

“Look, Ryan! Look! You can have this. You just need to get up!” Dennis spun the girl around so that she was facing away from his bedridden pal. “Look at her…” he told him. He turned to the girl, “You, bend over!”

Weeping, the girl did as she was told and bent over - exposing her arse and vagina to both men.

“Both holes are waiting for you. Can you imagine what it would be like to be inside of them? Just as soon as you’re better… You can do anything you choose…” Dennis bent down and sniffed up her asshole. She whimpered from both fear and embarrassment. “She smells good, my friend… She smells really good. I know why you stopped for her now… It’s obvious you wouldn’t have been able to resist her… So - come on - get up… Stop lying there… Stop letting this beat you… GET UP!” He took a moment to calm himself down. Shouting wouldn’t do any of them any good. It was scaring Evelyn, not that she was a big concern of Dennis’, and it wasn’t helping Ryan who would be feeling more under pressure to move. “Come on, start with a little finger… Just move that for me.” Dennis watched Ryan’s little finger with a glimmer of hope.

Please move. Please.

Nothing.

“You’re hurting me,” Evelyn whined from where she was still bent over.

“Shut up!” Dennis warned her. He turned back to Ryan, “I’m not going to kill you. That isn’t an option. You’re going to have to get up! You hear me, boy? I’m not giving up on you.”

“Ki….ill….. me…..”

“Don’t you want to taste this?” Dennis twisted his head so that it was in line with Evelyn’s snatch. He pushed his tongue deep into her gash. A gag at the taste of cunt; something that had long disgusted him since he had realised his preference for the opposite sex. He turned back to Ryan, “If you want - if it will help - I can get her to straddle over your face… You can just put your tongue out. Let her do the work… Start small and then - soon - you’ll be the one taking charge?” Standing up, he yanked on the chain once more, forcing the girl to stand up straight; a look of disgust and horror etched on her tired face.

“You’re hurting me!” she gasped, tugging at the chain with her bound hands.

Dennis ignored what she said, desperate to get his friend back up on his feet, “Get up on the bed,” he threatened her, ready to tug hard on the chain once more.

“What?”

“Get on the fucking bed! Let him taste you!”

“I don’t want to,” she panicked. She tried to back away from him until the chain between the two of them was tight. Dennis closed the gap. A look of pure menace on his face.

“Then I have no more use for you.”

The look in his eyes panicked Evelyn more and thoughts of her mum and dad popped into her mind. She knew the chances of seeing them again were slim, much to her heartache, but if she had any chance - no matter how slim - she had to take it. And if that meant playing nice until she was able to make a run, or help came by…

“Okay… Okay,” she wept.

Dennis backed up slightly. The chain between them went a little slack as he watched her get on the bed next to Ryan. She was just sitting there, unsure of what to do. It wasn’t what Dennis had had in mind.

“Not like that,” he told her.

“I don’t understand.” She was visibly shaking.

Ryan was doing nothing now despite all that was happening around him. His breathing, still laboured, had even gone quiet. The bubbles of blood from his mouth, not quite as frequent. His eyes - shut. If it weren’t for the occasional pop and rasp from his lungs and bubble of gore from the corner of his mouth, you could have been fooled into thinking he at least looked at peace now.

“Sit on his face,” Dennis told the girl. “Not all your weight… Squat above him. Let him taste you.”

“It won’t help…”

“Just fucking do it. Stop telling me what will and won’t work. He is my friend. I know what it best for him.”

“Please don’t make me…”

Dear mum and dad, I love you.

Dennis was clearly not going to change his mind. She stood up, shaking on the bed and struggling to keep her balance. She wondered if Dennis had completely forgotten she had been in the car too when it rolled. She might not have been in the same shape as Ryan - mainly because she had been wearing a seat-belt at least - but that didn’t mean she didn’t feel unsteady on her feet. The situation she found herself in now - the nerves flowing through her with an alarming pace - just made it that little harder to control her legs.

With a foot either side of Ryan’s battered head, she lowly squatted down until her undercarriage was just above his face - his mouth in particular.

Dennis watched Evelyn’s face - her reaction - to try and gauge what was happening down below; his view blocked from seeing for himself.

“Is he licking you?” he asked when he couldn’t determine from her face.

She shook her head, tears still streaming down her cheeks.

“Put your cunt on his mouth.”

Evelyn let out a little wail. She didn’t want to yet she knew she had no choice. She scrunched her eyes as she lowered herself more until she felt lip touch lip. Dennis watched a moment longer.

“Well?”

She shook her head again. Dennis genuinely looked disappointed. In his head he had it all figured out. A scenario playing in his mind similar to when Popeye feasted upon a can of Spinach.

Ug-Ug-Ug… I’m Popeye the sailor man…

“Get off of him,” he muttered. Before Evelyn had a chance to move he screamed at her, “GET THE FUCK OFF OF HIM!” He pulled her head, via the chain, and she fell from the bed and crashed to the floor. He momentarily released his grip on the chain as he walked to the bed and stroked Ryan’s face with a tender touch, “Please get better. I don’t want to live without you. I can’t live without you. I can’t do this.”

Evelyn seized her chance and clambered to her feet before running towards the bedroom door; her chance for freedom despite chain around neck and hands bound oh so tight.

I I

Evelyn pulled herself to her feet, using the vehicle for support, and screamed once more as the head continued staring back at her. Dennis peered round to see what the fuss was about - from the front of the car where he was trying to see Ryan. He first looked at Evelyn and then he followed her petrified gaze to the decapitated head.

Fuck.

Evelyn bolted past Dennis - and the wreckage - down the dirt road hoping to come across civilisation before he had the chance to catch up with her. Each little stone, or twig, she ran across cutting into her bare feet making full-speed painful.

“Someone help me!” she screamed out every other step. Even if she weren’t close enough to get to the main road before he caught up - at least someone nearby might help. Like her asshole boyfriend, the idiot who had brought her up here in the hope of having a quick fumble in the back of a car. Where was he now?

Please help me.

Dennis was already hot on her trail. If she did get away, he knew it was over for both him and Ryan and he couldn’t allow that.

Evelyn screamed again as she felt him close in on her. The sound of his breathing, heavy in her ear.

“Someone help me!” she screamed again.

I I I

“Get back here!” Dennis yelled. He flung himself - outstretched - onto the floor and caught a hold of the dragging chain. With strong hands, he gripped hard and yanked.

On the top of the landing, Evelyn fell backwards to the floor with both a thud and a scream.

She’s going nowhere.

She didn’t move. She knew there was little point. He was standing in the doorway now, looking down to where she lay. A look of anger on his face that suggested her move had been a foolish one.

“I’m sorry,” she whimpered.

7.

Evelyn was huddled in the corner of the room. Her knees pulled close to her chest. Her bound hands keeping them there. The chain round her neck - leading through to the centre of the room where Dennis was standing with the other end firmly in his grip. He wasn’t letting that go again.

No one was saying anything.

The only sound in the room was Ryan’s breathing and - just as it had been when Evelyn squatted over him - even that was quiet now. Evelyn knew he didn’t have much time left. God only knows what was happening inside his body.

Dennis didn’t want to think about it.

“I’m going to get us something to eat,” Dennis said, breaking the silence.

Evelyn looked up.

“I take it you’re hungry?” he asked.

She nodded despite hunger being the last thing on her mind. The only reason she nodded that she was hungry was because it meant she would be left alone again; an opportunity for her to get away from it all. Potentially - her last chance.

“Before you get any ideas,” Dennis continued, “I’ll be locking you in here.”

Evelyn felt her heart sink but tried not to show it on her face.

“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll not try anything.”

“I won’t,” she lied. She had already clocked the window. She knew she was on the second floor of the house. She had looked out of the window in the other room. She knew it would hurt to drop from that height but it wouldn’t kill her. She just hoped that - if she did it right - it wouldn’t break anything either. Just wind her. That way, she could get running. This was her one chance to get away. At least, that’s what she thought and the only one that stayed firm in her head; this is her one chance to get away.

Dennis dropped his end of the chain and looked at Evelyn with a raised eyebrow. No doubt he was curious to see if she was going to try any sudden movements. She didn’t budge.

“So I’m going to lock you in here with Ryan. You need to talk to him. Keeping talking to him…”

“I don’t know what to say to him,” Evelyn said.

Dennis shrugged, “You’ll think of something. I’m sure.”

He walked from the room, closing the door behind him. A second later and Evelyn heard the sound of the key locking. Evelyn stood up and walked over to Ryan. He was so pale; his skin like a sheet of brilliant white paper. She looked at him.

“You know - when I first met you… When you started saying all those things… I liked you. I thought you and I could… I don’t know. I thought we might have ended up as a couple, I guess. My taste in men is terrible. A sex-hungry pervert to a murderer.” She took a moment as it sunk in. “I hope you fucking die,” she said suddenly. Her voice was cold. There was no emotion there whatsoever. “Can you even hear me?” she asked. On the off-chance he had missed it she said it again, “I hope you fucking die and I hope all this… I hope it’s painful.”

Ryan opened his eyes slowly. It took a moment but he focused in on Evelyn. He opened his mouth - another bubble of blood. He tried to speak but coughed.

“It is, isn’t it?” Evelyn said. “It is painful, isn’t it?” She smiled and leaned in close to him, “Good. My only regret is that I won’t be here to see you die,” she hissed. She moved away from him and crossed the room to the window.

I I

Evelyn’s head banged the car window as Dennis turned another corner. She came to, opening her eyes. She was in the front, next to Dennis, in the passenger seat. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Ryan was laid out on the back. The driver was muttering under his breath, a series of swear words mostly aimed at Ryan’s stupidity. Ryan wasn’t making a sound. From where she was sitting, Evelyn didn’t even know if he was alive.

She closed her eyes again, pretending to still be out cold. Her head was banging from where he’d hit it against the ground, after tackling her down. She felt as sick as a dog. Nerves, shock, fear - all bubbling away; an uncomfortable concoction of negativity.

She knew she couldn’t just sit there, pretending to be asleep. She needed to get out before the driver reached his destination - wherever that was.

The car slowed down. A second later it was going around a bend, causing Evelyn to hit her head against the side once more. Then, the car sped up. That’s what she’d do, an idea popped into her head. As soon as the car slows again, she’d jump out. Consequences be damned. It was better than staying here with these two men.

The car slowed again for another bend. Evelyn sprang into action. She opened her eyes and grabbed the door handle, pulling at it. The door didn’t budge.

Dennis casually spoke from the other side of the car, “It’s locked.”

“Let me out! Please! Let me out!”

“Calm down. I’m taking you to the hospital.”

Was he?

Evelyn looked out of the window. The car was heading in the wrong direction for the hospital. They were out of the woods now and were on the wrong side of town for the main hospital. There was another one, close to where they were, but it didn’t have an Accident and Emergency Department. They wouldn’t have helped. Evelyn didn’t say anything but she knew he was lying. The proper hospital was closer than this one so it couldn’t have been a distance related reason for heading out this way. He was lying.

Without a word, she reached forward and started winding down the window. If she couldn’t get out of the door, she’d go via the window. Both lead to freedom.

Dennis slammed on the brakes and turned to his frightened passenger. There wasn’t any hint of kindness in his face, just anger - both from her attempts at getting away from him and from Ryan’s sheer stupidity.

They should have been home now - him and Ryan. They should have been at home deciding upon which restaurant to eat at. This. This shouldn’t be happening.

Dennis subdued the woman with a series of blows; clenched fist to her head. She soon stopped fighting for her freedom.

“If you try that again I’ll kill you,” he whispered. He leaned close to her so that she could see the seriousness in his eyes. “Do you understand?”

She nodded and turned away from him, looking back to the window. Her freedom taunting her from the other side. So close and yet so far. There was a desire to try again, another attempt at getting away, but she knew - if she did try it… He would react the same way again. A reaction which proved to her that she was not on her way to the hospital and - worse than that - was most likely not getting out of this with her life.

She watched the world go by through the window as Dennis continued upon his journey.

I I I

Evelyn reached out for the window with her hands still bound together with tape too tough to cut through with just her teeth (something she had tried when back in the other bedroom). With any luck it would be…. She pulled on the handle…

Not locked. There is a God.

Quietly, Evelyn pulled herself up and put both legs out on the other side of the ledge so that she was sitting there with nothing beneath her feet but a drop and the hard ground at the other end of it. Her heart was beating hard and fast. Adrenaline surging through her body. She took a deep breath and with hands - still bound - held close to her chest… She dropped off the ledge.

There was no sound other than that of Ryan’s quiet, laboured breathing.

I V

Dennis opened the passenger door. He had wanted to deal with Ryan in the back of the car but he knew - if he had - the girl wouldn’t be waiting for him to return. She’d make a run for it. Even if he locked her in - which was more than possible - she could get out of the window just by winding down the handle. That’s the problem with older cars. Not very good when it comes to securing kidnap victims.

He leaned down to talk to Evelyn who flinched away from him.

“We’re going in now,” he told her. “Are you going to be a good girl or am I going to have to hurt you?”

“Please - I won’t say anything - I just want to go home.”

“I said, are you going to be a good girl? You make this easy and I promise things will be much easier for you in the long-run. I don’t want any trouble with you. You see my friend back there? He isn’t doing so good and I am worried about him. The sooner I get you in that house there, the sooner I can deal with him. And then - I promise - when I’ve looked after him… I’ll come back to talk to you, okay?”

She didn’t say anything. The violence displayed earlier suggested he was lying - a bloody good indicator as to what was coming. The violence also suggested that - if she didn’t play ball - he would hurt her now. She knew she had to do as he said, for the time being at least. Buy herself a little time to figure out what she was going to do.

“So - do I have to drag you out of there?” he asked, clearly getting impatient.

She shook her head.

“You’ll come?”

She nodded.

“Good girl,” he said.

Dennis took a step back and held the door open for Evelyn. She took a couple of deep breaths - unsure of what to expect - and then climbed from the car with aching limbs. She glanced into the rear of the car when she was out of it and saw the state Ryan was in. Despite the fact he looked so bad, she couldn’t help but wish the roles had been reversed and that she was the one who was unconscious and - possibly - dying. At least, had it been that way round, she would have no doubt been left there to die in the bushes. A fate, she figured, that would be ten times better than what was to come.

“This is my home,” Dennis said. “And - for the time-being - it’s your home too.” He pointed up to the window on the left hand side of the second floor. “Whilst we sort things - that will be your room. I think you will find it comfortable,” he continued.

“When can I go home?” Evelyn asked.

“I told you - I need to look after my friend first. He is my first priority. In the meantime, you’re just going to make yourself comfortable, okay?”

Evelyn looked up to the window. She didn’t want to go inside. She knew that, if she did, there was a very good chance she wouldn’t be coming out again.

8.

Dennis was standing outside the front of his house with a look of shock and disbelief on his face. He had seen it from the angle of Ryan’s bedroom window but had to come down - to the front of the house - to see if he was seeing it right and, sure as Hell, he was.

He looked over his shoulder to make sure there was no one nearby witnessing this. It was quite a secluded home, out in the country, with few cars coming and going but, occasionally, they’d be the odd dog walker out and about. Not today though.

Thank God.

He looked up again. There, hanging from the chain around her neck, Evelyn swayed gently. One end of the chain around her blue neck and the other end caught on the window ledge. Her finger on her left hand, twitching its last.

“Stupid bitch,” Dennis muttered.

Just because there were no witnesses now, Dennis knew it wouldn’t be long before someone stumbled by so he hurried back in the house, up the stairs and into Ryan’s bedroom. He walked over to the window ledge and - using all his strength - freed the chain from where it had got wedged. He let it slip from his hand and - a second later - he heard the body slump to the floor. He turned around to face Ryan. His eyes were still closed. He wasn’t dead. His chest was moving. Barely moving, admittedly, but still moving.

“I know you’d see the funny side of this,” he said. “Not even going to crack a smile for me?”

Ryan didn’t move. Dennis sighed as he walked from the room. He wanted to stay by Ryan as he sensed his time was slipping by but he knew he couldn’t just leave Evelyn outside, broken in the driveway.

Doesn’t really look like a suicide when the hands are bound.

He jumped down the stairs and back out the open front door. Evelyn was lying on the ground with her head twisted at an unhealthy angle. A bone jutted from her elbow. A gash on her forehead - cut open by sharp stones on the drive. Despite the loss of the young life, he didn’t feel guilty. He felt… Amused. He also felt thankful. He hadn’t killed anyone before. He had been a part of murders, definitely, but he had never actually been the murderer. When in the kitchen, getting something to eat, he was mentally preparing himself to do it. One thing watching, quite another to actually carry it out. The stupid bitch did him a favour by trying to escape.

His conscience was still clean. Tainted, definitely. But still clean.

I I

“You should fucking try it, man.” Ryan was pacing the living room. He was excited, grinning from ear to ear like a man possessed. Dennis was watching him from the doorway. He had never seen Ryan like this before. He had seen him happy, from time to time, but never truly excited with an awakened lust for life.

“Really not my thing,” Dennis told him.

Ryan suddenly stopped pacing and turned to Dennis. “Man, I’m sorry for putting you in that position… I didn’t mean to… I didn’t mean to kill her it just felt… I don’t know… Like I couldn’t stop myself…” he stopped himself from getting over excited again, “but I shouldn’t have put you in that position and I’m sorry.”

Dennis was looking down at his hands. Blood. Her blood.

“You really came through for me though and I appreciate that. You’re a real friend.”

Dennis looked up at him and smiled.

“Best day of my life was the day I met you,” Ryan continued.

Ryan had talked Dennis into following behind his car with his own vehicle. He had told him he had a surprise for him. Dennis had had no idea of Ryan’s plans. Even when Ryan picked the woman up from the side of the street; either a girl heading out for a night out in the clubs or a streetwalker - Dennis never did get to know the answer to that one. It was only when Ryan drove up to the woods, still with Dennis following, that he realised what was about to happen.

Ryan pulled up in a small clearing. Dennis pulled up just behind. Seconds later and Dennis saw the girl struggling in the car. He saw Ryan hit her, not once but repeatedly. Dennis sat there watching as the windows misted up and the car’s suspension rocked from side to side. Five minutes, ten minutes - maybe even twenty. The door opened and Ryan came out grinning like an idiot with his pants around his ankles.

“You know that area is popular amongst doggers?” Dennis didn’t mean dog-walkers. He was referring to perverts who snuck through the woods looking out for couples fucking. Dirty old bastards who’d stand around watching, stroking themselves as the couples continued with their business - sometimes inviting the voyeurs to join in. “You do that again, only a matter of time before you’re seen by someone.”

“It’ll be okay with you by my side though, right? You can keep an eye out and… The way you dealt with that body? You’re a fucking natural, man!”

Ryan hadn’t asked Dennis to dispose of the body. He’d gone to do it himself. The first cut - deep and straight through to the bone - caused him to violently vomit. A reaction that surprised Dennis considering the man had once pummelled someone half to death with his bare fists; an act in itself which would have caused a lot of blood.

When Ryan threw up again, he was moved out of the way by Dennis who seized the saw Ryan had brought with him.

“We can’t do this again. And you should have told me that’s what you were planning.”

Ryan looked serious for a second, “I’m sorry. That was out of order and I apologise.”

“Why would you think I even wanted to see that?”

“You said you had felt like a God when you raped that boy. I wanted you to experience that feeling again by sharing the experience with me,” Ryan said.

“And I told you - if you listened - that I felt terrible afterwards.”

“Because that person had to live with the attack for the rest of his life. Well, not being a smart-ass, but she won’t be living with what I did to her.” He winked and spelt it out just in case Dennis didn’t understand, “She’s dead.”

“I know she is.”

Blood on his hands.

“And you know what - you thought you felt invincible when you raped someone? Man, fucking killing them… The buzz from that… You know - it’s not the tightness of her cunt that sent me over the edge… It was the way she struggled and choked with my hands around her neck. That made me fucking shoot…”

“That’s not really me.”

Ryan laughed, “It’s not? Why not?”

“Just never been something I wanted to do. One thing to clear up after what you did but I don’t want to do it myself…”

Ryan laughed again, “That’s what I fucking love about you, man. You’re such a beautiful person!”

All feelings that had gone before, during the conversation, disappeared from Dennis’ thoughts - all replaced with the last sentence spoken by Ryan.

He loves me?

I’m a beautiful person.

“Just promise me one thing,” Dennis said.

“Shoot.”

“If you feel the urge to do something like that again… I’m coming with you. I don’t want you going back to prison. I’ll keep lookout for you, okay? And - seeing as you can’t seem to clean up after yourself - I’ll get rid of the bodies. Okay?”

Ryan smiled again, “This is why we fucking belong to each other, man.”

I I I

Dennis dropped Evelyn’s body down on the floor next to Ryan’s bed.

Another one to cut up.

“I can see why you stopped for her. You’re an idiot for doing so but I can see why. That’s something at least,” Dennis said.

His eyes fixed on the deceased girl. Even in death, battered from what she’d gone through since meeting Ryan, she was still pretty. Definitely Ryan’s type of girl.

Dennis sighed heavily, “I wish things could have been different between us. Not our friendship but… I mean… I loved our friendship but… I just wanted more and it killed me that you never seemed to realise this. Maybe I should have told you, before this? Maybe had I spelt my feelings out you would have admitted feelings for me too?”

He sighed again lost in a world of ‘what if’.

“I loved you, you stupid son of a bitch.”

He sat on the bed next to his friend and put his hand on Ryan’s cheek. Ryan was broken. Bruised blemishes all over his face. He looked like the death that had him in its grip. A tear formed in one of Dennis’ eyes. He lifted his glasses and wiped it away before it rolled down his cheek.

“We could have been something special, you know. Had you just given me the chance.” He paused a moment, watching Ryan’s facial expression to see if there was any change. There was nothing. His chest slowly going up and down. Shallow breathing. “Did you ever love me? I mean - the same way I loved you?”

No response.

“Was there ever any true feelings for me?”

Dennis paused a moment. Slowly he leaned forward. The bed creaking under his shift in bodyweight. Inches away from Ryan’s face, he raised his hand to Ryan’s cheek and stroked it softly. Tenderly.

“Did you love me?”

Without another word he kissed him, holding Ryan’s head steady with a gentle hand. His tongue slipped into Ryan’s mouth. A taste of blood but no reaction. In Dennis’ mind, he kept replaying the amount of times Ryan had said he had loved him. Every time Dennis had done him a favour the response was always the same.

Thanks, man. Love you.

Dennis pulled away, “Did you just say it because you thought I wanted to hear it?”

“He used you,” a voice said from the doorway. Dennis didn’t turn to address the stranger. He didn’t need to. He recognised the voice. It was the young lad again. “If he had loved you - don’t you think he would have let something happen between the two of you. You made it clear you liked him. Sure you might not have said the words out loud but your body language… It was clear to everyone who saw the two of you together. He didn’t want you… He wanted people like this,” the boy pointed to the deceased.

“Fuck off,” Dennis warned him.

“Truth hurts?”

Dennis looked at the girl. “I’ll be honest, I don’t understand the fascination with them.”

He kicked her left leg away from her right, parting them in the process and revealing her snatch.

“Is it just that that you like?” his eyes were fixed on the girl’s pussy. “I mean I haven’t been in one for a long time now, years even. But people haven’t evolved that much surely? And if you haven’t been in a tight arse… You can’t say you prefer one over the other. I’ve been in both and… Well… I don’t know - maybe things have changed since I last stuck a girl? Or maybe the girl I had been with was just… different down there to other girls?”

Dennis stood up and pulled his trousers down. All the time his eyes were fixed on the dead girl’s snatch. He stroked himself only getting hard when he looked away from the girl across to the naked body of his friend.

Fully erect, he turned back to the girl, “Okay - convince me why someone like you is a better fuck than someone like me.” He dropped to the floor, between her legs and positioned his prick against her dry opening. A quick spit into his hand, he wiped it over his cock and thrust into the girl. Her head rolled to the left, almost as though - even in death - the girl didn’t want to look at her rapist. Dennis closed his eyes and got used to the feeling of cunt around cock before he started to pound back and forth, ripping the near-dry pussy in the process.

“What are you doing?” the boy asked from the doorway.

Dennis tried to block him from his mind.

He’s not there. He isn’t real.

“Stop now. Before it’s too late…. Don’t do this… All the self-restraint you’ve shown over the years…”

“Fuck you!” Dennis screamed.

I V

Dennis was lying on his right hand side, the only side that didn’t ache from the beating he’d taken earlier in the day. He’d closed his cell door. He didn’t have the luxury of locking it but at least - with it shut - he would have enough warning to get up and cower if someone tried to come in.

Curl into a ball with hands protecting head.

He knew the beating he’d received earlier - in the showers - wasn’t the last he’d be receiving. He was one of the most hated men in the joint. Rapists were despised. Homosexual rapists who’d fucked someone considered to be a child in the eyes of many? Dennis knew he was living on borrowed time. The people he shared this prison with were a mixture of robbers, car thieves and murderers. The beating had come from the robbers and car thieves. The murderers were yet to take their chunk of him but he knew it would be coming; a homemade shank stuck in his side whilst queuing for the lunch line. It was just a matter of time.

Dennis didn’t want to die.

He knew he had done wrong. He didn’t even try protesting his innocence. It was an impulse he couldn’t control even though he’d tried. Deep, dark wants that surfaced less than a month after his accident. An accident which had caused him frontal lobe damage. His defence tried using that as a reason as to his change in behaviour. Before what had happened - with the young lad - he hadn’t ever been in trouble and now… Well now everything had changed and his life would never be the same again, what little life he had left. Death was coming, it was just a question of when. A question he didn’t really want answered.

A promise, to God, that if he saw him through this… He’d never do anything like this again. Just give him the strength to get through this.

Please, God.

V

Dennis pulled his cock out of the girl. He stood up, frustrated.

“I don’t get it,” he hissed. “What’s good about that? How can you say that is better than what I had to offer? I could have given you pleasures you’d only ever dreamed of… I could have…”

He dropped to his knees and sunk his mouth over Ryan’s flaccid penis, taking it deep into the back of his mouth and sucking hard. His tongue dancing on the sick man’s shaft, greedily tasting as much as he could. He moved his hands up from the side of his body and cupped Ryan’s testicles - squeezing gently. Ryan’s body didn’t move - nor did he make a sound other than the familiar sound of the pained breathing. Still shallow. Ryan’s penis though…

Dennis looked up with hope in his eyes. He looked up to Ryan’s face but his eyes were still shut and he was still facing the ceiling.

“You can feel it, can’t you? You like it… Come on… Open your eyes and tell me how much you like it…” Dennis’ reaction was due to Ryan’s own cock starting to stiffen with the attention it was receiving. Not a reaction from lust - or love - as Dennis had hoped though but rather one of instinct. The body was mostly broken but some parts still worked, albeit briefly as the penis soon started to soften again when Dennis stopped playing.

“No, don’t you dare!” Dennis hissed, “You open your fucking eyes. You tell me how much you want this. You let me make you cum… Cum for me…” He sunk his mouth back over his friend’s penis whilst starting to wank it quickly with his hand. He pulled his mouth away, “I want you inside me. You want to go inside of me? Well you open your fucking eyes and you tell me that’s what you want. You fucking beg me for it… I’ll ride you so good…”

Ryan didn’t open his eyes.

Dennis didn’t care. Lost in the moment, filled with want and the knowledge that this was mostly likely his last chance - he positioned himself on the bed above Ryan; the only man who’d kept him safe inside. Keeping him gripped in one hand, he gently lowered himself down onto Ryan’s shaft. The wetness from his own saliva, and his relaxed state, meant it slid into his anus with only the slightest of stings. Dennis let out an audible sigh. The moment he’d been waiting for, for as long as he could remember.

“Tell me all the cunt you’ve been in… Tell me that’s all better than this. You feel how tight I am for you?” he asked, his voice soft. “What about when I do this?” he clenched his arse cheeks, gripping his friend tighter than before. “We could have been perfect together had you just given me the chance… Had you just managed to leave these whores for a while to experiment… It could have been special…”

“He won’t tell you anything,” the boy said from the doorway. “He’s dead.”

E P I L O G U E

Dennis was sitting at the long table, all seats around him empty. Many eyes fixed upon him from the other tables that were so full of hostile faces. He found it funny how people could be so judgemental of him yet each of them were in here for breaking the law one way or the other. What happened to the saying, Let he who is without sin cast the first stone?

And the murderers - how was what he had done worse than what they had done? They had taken a life. He had only taken innocence. How was - in their heads - his crime any worse? It was a question he knew he would never get the answer to. He wanted to keep the distance between him and them. He’d just put it down to one of life’s great mysteries as he continued avoiding eye-contact.

He jumped when a tray landed on the table next to his own. He’d been so busy looking down, to his slop, that he hadn’t noticed anyone approach him.

“Seat isn’t taken, is it?”

Dennis looked up. There, standing before him, was a long-haired youth. Good looking, slim build and with a charming smile on his face. Dennis looked at the rest of the faces in the hall. Many eyes still fixed upon the two of them.

“For your own sake, you might not want to sit there.”

Ryan frowned and looked around the room at the hostility aimed towards Dennis.

He smiled, “Fucked a kid?” he asked as though it were the most casual thing in the world. Dennis’ silence spoke volumes. Ryan’s smile faded. “Consensual?” He looked around the room again. “I’m guessing not given the way people are looking at you.” Ryan shrugged and took a seat regardless.

“It doesn’t bother you?” Dennis asked.

Ryan shrugged, “We’re all in here for something. No one is innocent. Well - if they are it doesn’t matter, no one believes them. So you raped someone?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Dennis said.

“I do.”

Dennis looked at this confident young lad, a look of bemusement on his face. Ryan smiled at him again with a glint of cheekiness in his eyes.

“So - you raped someone.”

“I did.” Dennis tried to defend his crime, “I had an accident and it affected the brain… Frontal Lobe Damage. Changes the way you think and…”

“What was it like?”

“I’m sorry?”

Ryan leaned close to him. The smile faded from his face and the cheekiness had disappeared from his eyes. A serious man with a genuine question. “What was it like to rape someone?”

I I

Dennis was sitting on the edge of the bed. In his hand a hacksaw fetched from the trunk of his car - having taken it from the wreckage that was Ryan’s vehicle the previous night. On the floor was the dead girl. Behind him, still on the bed, Ryan’s body. No longer breathing.

Dennis wasn’t saying anything. He was staring to the floor at nothing in particular. His mind dancing between thoughts of meeting Ryan for the first time to bringing him home in this condition. Couples in love carry each other over the threshold. When Dennis carried Ryan’s twisted body over the threshold, he couldn’t help but wish it were different reasons.

“What are you going to go?” the boy asked from the doorway.

“Leave me alone.”

“Can’t do that. We’re friends and I’m worried about you.”

“We’re not friends.”

“We shared a moment. We’re friends.”

“I raped you.”

“You opened my eyes to a world of new possibilities. Do you know what I am doing with my life now?”

“Of course I don’t.”

“I’ve finished university. I’m living my life with a good job and a good man.”

Dennis didn’t say anything. He knew it was just his subconscious trying to make him feel better about his sins. The boy wasn’t there. He was never there. The words that came to Dennis now - and before - weren’t the real words spoken.

“Leave me alone.”

“What are you going to do?” the boy pushed.

Dennis turned to the doorway poised to shout at the figure telling him to fuck off and leave him alone. Duped, for a moment, that someone was actually standing there.

Thin air.

Dennis was going to do the only thing he could in this instance. Too afraid to take his own life, he was going to try and move on. But before he could do that, he needed to dispose of the bodies. The girl on the floor here, the bits of girl still in the trunk and - with a heavy heart - Ryan.

He sighed heavily as his eyes welled up. An afternoon of work - cutting and hacking with the blunt blade and then one final journey with his friend. Seemed fitting, in his head, to take him out to the woods and bury him in the spot that he loved so much.

A lone tear rolled down his cheek, quickly followed by a second.

He looked back to his friend’s body, “Why did you pick her up?” he asked.

Another question to go unanswered.

Why couldn’t you just have gone home?”

I I I

Ryan shrugged as he sat opposite Dennis in the coffee shop, his bags of personal belongings tucked beneath the table that separated them.

“What can I say? Mum and dad don’t love me,” Ryan smiled but Dennis could tell he was putting on a brave face. The guy had lost everything because of a moment of stupidity; an angry rage causing him to lose his temper and beat someone half to death. He’d done his time, got out and then discovered his mother and father had turned their backs on him. “Least now I know why they didn’t visit me, hey.” He smiled again.

The smile of a clown. Happy on the outside, crying on the inside.

“Thank you for coming to meet me though,” Ryan continued.

“I was pleased to hear from you,” Dennis admitted. “When did you get out?”

“Yesterday.”

“So where did you sleep last night?” Dennis asked.

Ryan didn’t answer immediately. Dennis knew what his silence meant.

“Conditions of parole state you need somewhere to live,” Dennis said. “They didn’t find a place for you?”

“Place was crawling with rats and cockroaches,” Ryan said. “Don’t worry about me - I’ll find somewhere. I just wanted to see a friendly face. Seems, since getting out, there’s not a lot of those knocking around.”

Dennis didn’t say anything but he knew that feeling. He had lost everything in the years locked away inside. His mum had passed away before he went inside, his father died whilst he was serving his time. The friends he had, not that there were many - they disappeared as soon as he pleaded guilty. He didn’t blame them. Most of them had children.

“I have a spare room,” Dennis said after a sip from his coffee. He swallowed. “You’re welcome to come and stay with me for a while.”

“Seriously?”

“Company would be nice. It’s a big house. I’m just rattling round inside.”

“Man, you’d be helping me out of a hole. And - I’ll pay my way…”

“Not an issue. Like I said - company would be nice.”

“And it won’t be forever…”

I V

Dennis sealed the final bag, shutting his friend’s head in a solitary darkness whilst trying not to blame himself for his death. He had done this to himself. He had been the one who chose to pick the girl up. He had been the one to crash the car. The only thing Dennis could have done differently was to take him to a hospital but then what? That wouldn’t have meant Ryan would have survived. Chances are he’d still be dead. He would be dead and police would have found evidence of foul play at the crash site - condemning Dennis once more and forcing him back inside; this time for life.

Dennis surveyed the room. Numerous black bags and patches of blood seeping from plastic sheeting he had put down to protect the carpeted floor from difficult to clean stains. The place was a mess and - even though the floor space was filled - it felt empty. Hollow. It took a few minutes for Dennis to realise the hollowness wasn’t from the room but actually from his life.

Ryan was the only good thing he had left and - after a short car journey and a whole lot of digging - he’d be gone for good.

He didn’t say anything. He simply sat on the edge of the bed and broke down in tears.

V

“What’s wrong?” Ryan asked. He was standing in the doorway to Dennis’ bedroom. Dennis was sitting on his bed, his back to the door, with his head in his hands. He’d been crying solidly for about twenty minutes now, seemingly for no reason.

Dennis wiped the tears from his face, embarrassed at being caught.

“Sorry - I thought you were out,” he said.

Ryan entered the room and crossed over to the bed. He sat down next to Dennis and leaned down to look him in the face.

“I was. And now I am home.” He paused a moment. “Are you going to tell me what’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“Sure doesn’t look like nothing.”

“Honestly, I’m fine.”

“Said the liar. You know I love you, right?” Ryan asked. He waited until Dennis looked at him and then he continued, “Tell me what’s wrong. I don’t want you being upset.”

“It’s stupid.”

“Probably,” Ryan smiled. “Doesn’t mean I don’t care. So what is it?”

“The quiet house. The feeling of emptiness. It just makes me realise all that I lost from one stupid action.”

Ryan shrugged, “Shit happens.”

Shit happens.

It was hardly the most motivational speech Dennis had heard used to make someone feel better about their situation and yet - for some reason - he couldn’t help but to laugh.

“You lost some bits, sure. Me too. But look… We have each other,” he beamed that smile of his again.

That smile.

Ryan put his arm around Dennis and held him close to his own body.

“I was thinking about going for a drive tonight, if you wanted to follow?”

“Okay.”

It beat being alone.

V I

There was no one to make Dennis feel better now. There was just the hum of his car’s engine as he negotiated the twisted route of the old dirt-track, up to where they’d buried bodies before.

A black darkness had consumed daylight just as a darkness had swallowed Dennis’ tortured soul once more. Gone was the feeling of regret at losing his friend, gone was the feeling of solitude and loneliness. In its place was nothing but a void. A cold, emotionless vessel.

Dennis drove a little further than he’d previously driven due to a car parked up in the old spot Ryan had used before - no doubt a young couple getting frisky in the moon’s haze. He parked in a clearing that was similar to the last one though - surrounded by thickets and bushes. Shrouded in privacy.

Without a word he climbed from his car and removed the shovel from the crowded trunk. Part of him wanted someone to stumble by and see him; report him to the authorities. At least, if they had, he wouldn’t have been facing the question of what to do when all bodies were buried. The single, impossible question bouncing around his damaged brain.

What next?

He started to dig.

“You need to start living,” the boy - hidden in the shadows - said.

“Leave me alone.”

“You need to stop thinking about the past. You need to stop living with regret. It won’t make you happy. You won’t be able to move on. You need forget it and just push forward. Take this tragedy and use it to turn your life around. A fresh start will be good for you. Especially away from Ryan.”

“Don’t say his name.”

“He was a bad influence.”

“He wasn’t. He kept me going.”

“He kept you living in the past you wanted to forget. You need to move on.”

“Stop talking to me.”

“I’m trying to help.”

“I don’t want your help.” Dennis turned in the direction the boy’s voice had been coming from.

Darkness.

There was no one standing there.

There was never anyone standing there.

He paused a moment, half-expecting him to come and speak again but there was nothing but an owl hooting somewhere in the distance. He turned back to digging but with his head questioning what the boy had said. Had Ryan been holding him back and stopping him from being able to truly move on with his life? And - if that was the case - what direction did he want to go in now he no longer had him? Could he even move on without him? So many new questions starting to bounce around his head. Questions that part of him wished could have been answered with a bullet through the skull.

What do people like him do when they’re released from prison? They tend to try and go straight for a while - at least that’s according to the movies… They try and go straight and then - for some reason - they find themselves sucked back into a world of crime. Eventually they’re cornered again and sent straight back to where they started; a small cell with a tiny window into the world they’ll never see again.

Dennis stopped digging.

“What are you doing?” the boy’s voice came from the darkness again.

Dennis ignored him. He turned back to the car and violently pulled the black bin bags out, dumping them on the sodden ground without a care for the contents.

“Dennis - what are you doing?”

He closed all the doors and jumped into the front seat. The boy called out from the darkness again asking what he was playing at but Dennis simply slammed the door car and reversed, doing a quick turnaround in the clearing. A second later and the back tyres kicked up the loose dirt as he wheel spun back down the dirt-track.

Statistics were playing through his head with reference to the number of inmates inside being repeat offenders. Well, if this was what waited for Dennis - a one way trip back to prison he wasn’t going to go out a pussy, living in the shadows and dwelling in guilt. He was going to embrace the monster that he was.

A newfound erection for life.

Less than five minutes driving and he was face to face with the car he’d earlier passed. He killed his engine and opened the car door.

“Dennis… What are you doing?”

That fucking boy won’t haunt me anymore.

He climbed from the car and stormed towards the stranger’s car as it rocked backwards and forwards on its creaking suspension. Without a word, or a second thought, Dennis pulled open the back door and leaned in. The two occupants inside both screamed - disturbed by this stranger interrupting them uninvited. A young lad - in his twenties - bare arsed on top of his girlfriend who’d spread her legs upon the backseat.

Before anyone could do, or say, anything Dennis grabbed the man by the scruff of his hair and pulled him out. He tossed him to the ground like a rag doll before kicking him several times in the face until the man stopped moving. The girl - meanwhile - had simply closed her legs and pulled her knees up to her chest, rooted to the backseat out of fear. Her scream piercing the quiet night with a haunting chill.

Dennis leaned into the car, “Life is for living,” he said. “You need to enjoy it. There’s no point living with regret. It serves for nothing but to make you miserable.” And - with that - he slammed the car door, sealing the young woman in there.

Without another word, he undid his trousers and withdrew his erect penis. A smile spread across his mouth as he looked at the unconscious lad lying on the muddy floor - arse in the air. An invitation if ever he saw one.

If he was going back inside, if he was going back to jail, he’d do so with a grin on his face.

He positioned himself on top of the lad and pushed inside the tight hole with enough force to ensure he penetrated. As he slid in, balls deep, he looked up and saw - standing by his car - the little boy he’d sexually assaulted all those years ago. There was a look of sorrow on his face but Dennis didn’t care. Tonight he had lost his friend. He had lost his world. He had lost his guilt and from all the grief and darkness that he’d been through; the monster was reborn.

He increased his pace as the car door behind him opened up and the naked woman ran off into the woods.

As he pushed harder and deeper, not caring about the damage he was doing to the young lad’s rectum, Ryan leaned close to him. There was a serious look on his face. The same look Dennis had seen on his face back when he had first asked that question when they were serving time. Before he even asked the question this time though, Dennis knew what was coming. He smiled in anticipation.

“What was it like to rape someone?”

“You feel untouchable. You feel invincible… The best feeling in the world.”

END

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