Free Darker Still by T. S. Worthington

severely? What was it about these bitches that continued to struggle against him?
    He tried to remain calm for a moment, but the damage was done. His pride had been hurt and rage had risen in its place deep inside of him.
    He curled up his fist and drove it into the whore’s stomach. She tried to scream in pain, but the air had left her body. Maybe that would teach her some damn respect. She needed to learn. They all needed to learn and he was the one to teach them.
    He grabbed her by the face and forced her close to him so he could glare into her eyes.
    “You see what happens when you misbehave?”
    The girl continued to try to move away from him. She was averting his gaze and he had the feeling that if she wasn’t gagged she would be trying to bite him. He knew she wanted to gnaw his face off.
    He would show her who was boss. She was about to become another message to his old friend John Anderson. Detective John Anderson he was now. He had been shocked to discover that John Anderson was moving back to town and even more interested to learn that he was now a cop.
    He had actually been keeping tabs on John ever since that day at the old house. John had wrecked everything for him and he’d had to start over. He hated him for that and he was damn sure not just going to let that sort of thing slide.
    He knew that one day he would punish John, but it had to be when the time was right. Killing John when he was still a child would not have proved anything. As much as he hated John for what he had done he also respected the boy. He had stood up to him and had escaped his clutches. He wanted to torture him and he wanted to challenge him.
    That was why he had bided his time. When he learned that John was coming back to Belpre then he knew that the time was perfect. He had been getting bored with the same old routine. He needed something to spice things up and this was just the perfect storm to do it. He had to laugh at the fun that was to come.
    “Now, sweetie. You are going to try to be tough, but it won’t do you any good.”
    He removed the duct tape and ball gag from her mouth. As he was doing so he gave her one last piece of advice.
    “Feel free to scream as loud as you want. No one will hear you.”
    He picked up the hunting knife and she began to scream.

Chapter 5: “Loose Ends”
     
    “How could anyone do that to another human being?” Michaels asked as he held a handkerchief to his nose. He carefully moved around the crime scene trying to make sure that he didn’t step on any evidence.
    John watched him with sorrow and disgust in his heart. He would never be able to get the ghastly image out of his head. It was another young woman. This time the killer had left the body to lie and rot in the middle of the park. She had been hung from the monkey bars on the playground. Her guts were hanging mostly out of her body. There were several strange symbols carved into her flesh on her face and the eyeballs were once again missing.
    Her head was lying on the ground beside her.
    John wanted to throw up the second he saw it. The body had been discovered by a jogger on his early morning run at sunrise. He was in total shock and had to be removed from the crime scene. John had listened to his 911 call and he could hardly speak. By the time they got there the jogger was practically catatonic.
    “Ok, there is no denying it now. There is a serial on the loose and everybody knows it,” The chief said.
    “Yea, so much for talking this over with the rest of the crew during morning briefing,” John added. They had received the call at six and the briefing usually occurred at eight. All John could really do at this point was to shake his head. He knew that there was nothing they were going to find here and that the killer was just taunting them now.
    He looked in disgust as the crew of news reporters who were all over the scene trying to get the scoop first and get their stories out there. They reminded him of bloodthirsty vultures