“Another girl was raped yesterday…and her body was found charred just like 5 others in the past two week… ”, Henna Ryse’s eyes scowled and she flicked her blond fringes behind her head as she reported the mishap with a slight mixture of her own dejection. Another psychopath on lose. Oh here it comes on the screen too. She read the screen, “It looks like the work of a sociopath. All the victims were teenagers who belonged to
Joyce was imprecating under breath as she turned the TV off.
Why
She looked at the other side of her large living room. She had left the door ajar for fresh air to circulate in. Her pets, Jojo and Juana were engaged in a furry scuffle alfresco.
These little bounties of nature are too puny to protect me against a serial killer. I should close the door albeit my parents are at home.
She stood stupefied at the memory of the grotesque charred remains of the 6 girls shown on the TV.
They were so beautiful when alive.
As, she resumed to walk to close her door, she looked at a large antique mirror placed firmly on the ivory walls of her grand living room. The intricately carved and gilded frame of the mirror seemed to her like a doorway to heaven where the ivory of the wall presented whirly sea of clouds and the mirror a small lake shining with her exotic beauty. She swayed away with her vanity as Narcissus did. While she was preening herself, her Indian friend, Diane called and snapped her off her reverie.
Diane lost her parents when she was 5 in a freak road accident where she was miraculously rescued by her father’s American friend Lawrence Blackwood. Blackwoods brought her to
“At 7”, Diane informed Joyce pertly and snapped off the connection. She knew Joyce has bought a new dress from Daine’s father’s store and she would be prancing with alacrity to join the teenager party mostly crowded with long and lean newly adolescent men. So, it wasn’t required to request her to come or even remind her of the plush venue. Besides, that Joyce was too shallow to intrigue Diane.
Lawrence Blackwood was however intrigued at the first birthday party Diane was organizing and the magnitude of the crowd willing to attend it. He always thought that his daughter kept to herself and in his thoughts he dared to doubt if she had any friend at all. Her mother thought of it as the miracle of sweet sixteen. She thought, better late than never. She was overwhelmed with the joy of seeing her daughter attending Prom and even making a guy friend in her thoughts. She encouraged her daughter and helped her arrange for everything. She too was surprised at the rate of invitation acceptance. Everybody seemed to be dying to celebrate her precious little angel’s birthday anniversary. She too dared to think, so my daughter is not that repulsive to her peers. She was smug and totally inebriated with this mirth. She showered her with expensive gifts and relentlessly made efforts to beautify her. Diane was deliberately oblivious to her mother’s joy. Oh dear Marie! Yes, you should be happy. I am now ready. You will see more of me in public. It’s time. It’s time I unfolded my wings and start the game of simulation outside my mind. She smiled at her mother who thought she was smiling at her compliment. She glanced at herself in the mirror and with this glimpse one worry began and another left. She had made sure if the worry that began is not strong enough to thwart her experiment. She scared her chauffer to go away and started to drive to the venue herself.
It’s so easy to organize. Thanks father for earning a name in the society. It was easy to invite my naive acquaintances using your stationery. She laughed. And of course thanks to mother nature for evolving love and somatic pleasures to draw in young and eager humans to an informal ground where they could hope to secure a partner to the prom. Prom…what an attraction for young people!
She had analyzed her school quite well. She convinced her dad to secure Paris Hilton products, even her famous Chihuahua breed and it’s accessories, the next time he visits New York and showcase them at his fashion store. She knew how the blondes would run to grab anything to everything displayed on her dad’s showroom if she spilled the beans in the school.
Now when blondes have their attire what would they need? She smirked, a ramp to show off! A sea, where they could bathe in vanity while people would be gasping at their beauty! And yes, that’s what they found! Those who follow these blondes will follow them to my grounds too! Thanks to the culture of adulation by local scholastic paparazzi of infatuated men. The people who followed blonds are not dumb looking. They are quite a piece themselves. And they are not acquired. So who would follow their suits? The wannabes and the leftover brunettes…
She masterminded every possible connection of who would follow who and sent invitations in that order. Within a week, half the sixteens of the town had consented to attend her party. She reached at the parking lot and looked at the crowd surging inside the party premises. She could not help but commend herself for executing the success of her first ever public simulation. As she was entering inside, she met Joyce. She smiled at her to which the latter let out a smirk thinking I shouldn’t have obliged her with my presence. Diane patted her
Diane didn’t interact with anyone else in the party. She was eyeing for her only semblance of a friend to come and attend the party.
I am in the prettiest and most sociable possible form tonight. This was the lure for him to come to my party. Has my calculation failed? Is he gonna show up? He can’t bail out. According to my observations, he is always generous towards me and doesn’t flick his eyes when I am in trouble. He should be infatuated with me to do that. I need him the most today…
Her eyes dwelled at the entrance for-like-ever. She wasn’t interested in the crowd. She had collected enough data from them now she just needed his pal to arrive.
There he comes. “Oh Mike, oh Mike, you really had me waiting for so long! Thanks for coming...err...before the time ran out!” She said with such relief in her eyes that bemused Mike. Mike always thought he was never friends with her. He wasn’t sure if the invitation was even real but he knew Diane was too delicate to play a prank with anyone. He sympathized with her for the folks at the school would always mock her at her improper tan and large torso. He revered her for her sharp mind and smart grades at school. He used to always mutter to himself, yes you fools, you laugh at her! You jibe her, but see, she is strong. She never broke. Never retaliated. Never even felt self-conscious. She is well bred. She walks talks and eats with élan. She smiles unconditionally. She is a good show of mockery for you eh? But when she opens her mouth, why are you all so dumbfounded? When you see her grades why are you covered with shame?
He went to pick drinks for themselves. She thanked him, of course, perfunctorily, and then she began to talk.
“Mike! Are you aware of the serial killings going on in the town?”
Oh dearest Diane! You look so beautiful tonight! Are you going to be like this forever? Why haven’t you ever interacted with me before? See, just the way you interact with others, it’s the same to interact with me too! Did my friendship abhor you in the past? Look at you now! Now that you are interacting with me, you are confident as ever and charming even more!
Although he was quite intoxicated with Diane’s series of initiations yet he gathered courage to sputter his lips and say, “Yes”. He was now beginning to get inured to her broadside of her newly developed charms. He squinted at her firm breasts and felt uneasiness creeping from his throat through his body down to his loins. He swallowed all the entropy of his blown away mind uneasily.
“Mike, I feel I can track this sociopath down”
What on the earth! His eyes bewildered. What is she talking about?
“This is not some math problem Diane! What on the earth are you…? You are going to get killed in the pursuit!”
“Yes, I know the death sentence of being a responsible citizen”, she lied to him. She was afraid of the potency of the killer to not just rape but burn the bodies of the victims for the relatives to just smash the smoldered cadaver and retrieve the instant ash to inter. She, however, smirked, how convenient! I like this killer even more!
“Listen, if our fathers ever heard of this conversation, they will ground us forever!” “Mike, why are you so worked up? Calm down.”
I know Diane. I know you and your sangfroid very well. Hitherto they have been attracting me but right now you look like a very dangerous woman to me, quite like an Amazon!
“I knew you were such a hypocrite shooter. You are as coward as everyone else is here Mike. You should know that you are lending your father’s money in shooting training in vain and that you could never protect anyone when in real need!”
Mike was surprised at her tirade. She suddenly seemed to him a hypocritical and shrewish woman herself. Her mannerisms intrigued him. She spoke with such doctored élan that her tirade could fool any by-passer as a cogent conversation. But he cared for her, so, he had to be supportive.
She might have got angry. I should first comfort her and then ask her to back out. Maybe she is just planning on some paper work or internet search which shouldn’t be difficult to agree. Let’s see what is she up to!
So, Mikey dear Mikey, back to
“Listen, I have read all the reports and data generated within these two days regarding these killings. I have some connections with the street proximities and gofers. I have full knowledge about the victims and the parties they went to. All this data has arose my doubts on the primordial premises made by police on this case. According to the police, the man attacks only the beautiful and dainty beauties. But tonight Mike, he will attack me, if all my calculations are correct.”
“Whaaa…?” he stuttered again to which she let out a sigh.
“Let’s go home Diane.”
“I asked you to listen to me first. I am not done yet”
“Ok! Shoot!”
“It’s true he attacked only the beautiful girls. It’s also true the incidence happened after the party when the victims were returning all unaccompanied at night. But don’t you wonder, if they were so beautiful then why were they rendered all alone after the party? Why nobody accompanied them? No parents, no boyfriends, no protective guy friend nobody, not even a car to drive them back safely! All these parties were quite popular and certainly not girls night out. The first one of them was an illegal carousal. So, we can rule out parents’ intervention and so no parent ever dropped or picked up their ward. Now, a party like those is meant to ensue something besides the party. If a girl is beautiful, she is never left out. It always ends up in long walks hand in hand, long drives and sometimes in the bed. I speculated that these girls never had any guy friends in their lives albeit they were not averse to any relationships. So breakup and long walk to home all by themselves are also ruled out. They were not homosexuals even. So, what was it? Why were they going into a death trap?” She breathed heavily.
“The reason is, they were not beautiful and popular…enough. I procured the list of all the party members and perused them. Most of the teenagers were high profile and thus they want to subdue the nature of the parties fearing parents’ wrath, public ignominy, expulsion from school and other complex legal issues if got caught indulging in illegal orgy and underage imbibing. So, as it turns out, these victims were a part of the crowd they shouldn’t be under normal circumstances. For they were neither asked out by any guy nor were they interested in any illegal activity due to self inflicted austerity of propriety. Now, the question arises why were these handful of innocuous people even invited in the party?” She read his bewildered face again and let out an impatient sigh.
Probably intoxicated with my verbiage…
“It’s ‘cause they were invited for the cover up of the party-nature. Your parents do not doubt you at all however spoilt you are if you are going along with clean fishes by your side. These girls were bovine and when treated well by the party hosts, they felt that it was an opportunity to be in the crowd. As soon as the parties started nobody looked back at them. They were on their own from that very moment on and not just when they left the party. So, someone was watching them all along. Somebody who was at the party knew they would be going out all alone. I did some speculations. It’s not easy to pin point if one of the invitees were at the vantage point. These parties always have other people, like, famous local personalities, male and female strippers, DJs, party organizers and their various crews, which you would never find on a formal list. Further, it’s not viable to speculate everybody’s character for anybody could be a rapist and since this person’s gore is not years old, just two weeks old, so, you cannot even extrapolate anybody’s suspicious sadistic nature. It would be like finding a needle in the haystack.” She took a deep breath. Mike seemed to be less bewildered now.
“So, I thought I would simulate another party on a day when most auspicious parties are avoided, even the debaucheries for they are all covered up with the mask of ingenuousness. It’s on 13th of May, my birthday. This party is decoy to lure the killer. I have scrupulously eliminated any possible female who could be rendered all alone after the party. So no breakup ladies or unpopular ones. I am the only left out girl.” She said smugly.
“Seems like you are not alone honey. I am with you”, Mike said flirtatiously.
“You are so naïve Mike, let me complete”, she was exasperated.
I shouldn’t have avoided Mike before; I should have known he is not that great a fool with a gun in his holster. I should be prepared for this character. This lecture is taking so long to explain and this guy is not deducing anything himself. I am trying to make him stay rather than elucidating how he could get an opportunity to be an accomplice, utilize his skill of shooting something other than skeet, be a savior hero and win me for Prom! What a night! I should be calm and proceed with alacrity. He is just a normal teenager. He should be easy to mislead especially when he is smitten by me. Whoa! I wish I could have mastered the art of a seductress before I took this one. She sighed with sophistry and looked at Mike with contrived benignity.
“Mike!” She pulled him forward with his tie so that their chests pressed together and only a wafer thin layer of air could separate their nose. Mike’s hands started to drench. He’d never thought of Diane getting this close to him by herself. He was happy. He looked nervously around if anybody was watching them. Everyone was busy with themselves and nobody seemed to mind these two inchoate teens getting, a little beyond propriety- realm, close in their tête-à-tête.
Hah! It’s true, Diane is the least popular girl on the planet earth.
“Mike, I want you to cooperate. Are you with me?”
“Yes my lady!” As if he had any other choice.
“I want you to go away now and enjoy the party with your other friends. Make out with any girl in the party. Dance with the girls and be like a totally smashed down party animal. There is still time for the party to get over. I want to be left alone. If the killer is watching, he shouldn’t see you around me or your interest in me anymore. Your job would be to keep a close watch on me when I walk home by myself by following me discreetly. If you sense any trouble shoot the guy. Look, the killer is a rapist first. So, don’t just shoot any guy who approaches me, it will spoil my whole exercise to find out the killer. Shoot him when you sense I am being raped!”
Mike’s eyes bewildered. He pursed his lips to say anything but Diane had gone. She was sitting alone and enjoying the drinks and food nonchalantly.
You are in a deep trouble girl, don’t you realize it? I wish I could stop you but this is the first time you have ever asked anything of me...whatever it is your command my lady, I'd do it. Even if it means kissing random people, and not you. He thought grimly.
He had little choice. He went back to his friends and made out with Lily and then with Joyce. Joyce asked him what he was doing with that gaunt-face Indian, to which he replied, “I asked her if she needed anything else to arrange the party. I thanked her to hold this party. I was just being nice but she pulled me in and started gloating over how she never hold a party before and how she thought of it and arranged it!” He smirked unsympathetically that satiated Joyce. She muttered with smug while still in his arms, “Poor girl! She thought she got a companion for the night!” and with this she started guffawing like a brazen head vixen. Diane heard her roar of laughter and felt pity for the drunkard and spoilt Paris Hilton wannabe. She eyed at her
As people drove away, she smirked at her repulsion. Lonelier the better!
The time came when people started leaving in groups and pairs, only a few left behind. Lily, Joyce, Justin, Mike and she herself.
All of us have a car. Question is who would go with who? The cars are safely parked. The girls will never take their cars. Looks like Justin will drop the girls at their respective places and Mike will take his car to follow me. I should wait for all of them to go.
But, nobody left. Joyce got closer to Mike and he was inadvertently driving her off.
Apparently, Joyce wants to go with Mike. Phew! Mike why are you so popular? You mystify them. You never get caught by these damsels and always elude then with élan. Saving yourself for me...eh? But you hurt their vanity, now see, you are hurting my plan!
I gotta do something fast. What if the situation repels the killer away?
She turned around and started to proceed towards the entrance. This gave a signal to Mike, he broke lose of Joyce and went in opposite direction towards the parking lot. Justin was Mike’s good friend, he sensed something cooking between the two. Diane saw Mike approaching the parking lot, she quickened her pace and began calculating in how much time mike would begin following her. If she went much farther away from his reach, she would greatly jeopardize her life. Mike was practically running to get to the parking lot as fast as he could. Justin chased Mike and intercepted him. Lily and Joyce followed.
“Are you going to abandon Joyce Mike?” “And for whom? Diane?”
“She shouldn’t go out alone at night Justin, a rapist killer is at large!”
“It’s she who should be taking care of herself not you Mike! She has a car and if she chooses to walk down the road to reduce her flab, why should you mind? What is she to you? Has she hypnotized you or what? Are you going to abandon me for her just so she could be saved from the incorporeal Nigerian demon of
“I do not doubt your updation with the daily news and her face’s intricacy but I need to be with her.” Mike wanted to hurry up and catch up with Diane as soon as possible.
“What are you? Her protector or something?” Justine asked derisively, “Or do you wanna sleep with her? I saw you two getting too close at the party. I saw the way she pulled you towards herself! She is a bitch Mike, an ugly witch trying to bewitch you and make you her benefactor.” Scowl lines marked his disdainful forehead.
“First you decide whether she is a bitch or a witch Justin!” he circumvented his conjectures.
“Justin, my father is Diane’s Godfather. It’s our family’s job to protect her. I am just doing my job.” He said grimly. “Now if you don’t mind, you have to get away from my way as I got some catching up to do. If any anything happens to Diane just ‘cause you encumbered my way, I would never forgive you in my life!” Mike ran away to the parking lot in fury.
Oh Diane, Diane! Where art thou? He muttered to himself while searching for her in the dark…
He woke up in the morning in his well equipped room. Electronic gadgets were strewn all around his bed. He rose up groggily and looked outside his window in the pleasant spring of May, 2010. He looked at his wrist watch. He almost defenestrated himself!
It read 14th May, 2010.
Where is Diane? What happened last night? How the hell did I get home?
“Mom! Dad!” He started yelling frantically as he descended the stairs. The living room downstairs was empty and so was the porch. He felt as if he was still in his dreams. “C’mon guys! Where on the earth are you?”
“…the killer is still at large…” the TV was roaring in the living room. He squinted at it and saw Diane’s photo being flashed on the TV and reporters were discussing amongst themselves about the anomaly of the killer to have killed a-not-so-pretty girl last night. He collapsed on the floor. He couldn’t believe Diane died.
Oh Diane! Oh Diane! He was too shocked to think anything clearly. He called his dad up, his parents were at Blackwoods, dutifully arranging for the funeral.
So Diane was right! The killer did track her down and killed my beloved Diane! Diane you imbecile girl! You masterminded everything and forgot if anything could happen to your sole protector and he may end up getting up in his bed without protecting you! I am a mortal, I must have got sozzled and collapsed and then Justin would have picked me up and got me here!
Suddenly he saw his car parked outside. He got confused. Bereaved, he turned off the merciless TV who dared to call her dead friend ugly finally and went into his room to ruminate.
So, Justin didn’t bring me here. Oh yeah! I remember I got on the car and sped past by them in anger and then? Then what happened? I was searching Diane in the dark and then? I couldn’t find her.
He got tired of pondering over too much. His head was aching with last night’s hangover. He got into his bath and took out some vicodin off the shelf. He nibbled the pills, washed his face and looked at himself in the mirror. His eyes were blood red. His face was gaunt and emaciated. Suddenly he started to laugh. He looked at himself in the mirror, he wasn’t laughing, yet he stood there and he was laughing louder and louder. He looked around to see if someone else was there. He staggered on the floor and held basin to balance himself.
“Don’t you remember it?” Someone hissed at his ears. He looked around wildly.
“Don’t you get it?” The voice grew deeper and more staccato with infiltrated laughter. You did it Mike! Didn’t you ravish her all the while? Why are you looking in the mirror Mike? You and I did it! You had been saving yourself for her for so long! You didn’t consider the approach others made at you. You didn’t even think of me Mike! I had needs Mike and you too had needs. We went out Mike, after the party looking out for any girls as abandoned as your Diannnne… The voice started the staccato chortle again.
“Who are you? You leave my Diane alone! Who are u?” Mike ran into his room to searched for his pistol. He found a lighter he had never seen before. He stumbled upon his boots and he scowled for his boots reeked of gas. He sat on the floor befuddled. The voice started again. “We couldn’t resist the other Dianes Mike. How could we resist this one? The real Diane! You should not feel guilty. I told your parents that you lost the trail of Diane when you came back. I am happy to have Diane. She was ingenious, wasn’t she? She found me out! She started to run away when she saw me smirking at her through you! He was yelling and she threatened me Mike! She threatened me, she would tell her parents if I didn’t go away. She knew our secret Mike! She was never going to be formally or informally yours. She was a threat too. I had to sack her. But she was so mouth watering Mike! You and I have always desired her! Don’t you remember how we devoured her Mike? She smelled so good and tasted even better!”
“Stop this nonsense whoever you are! Turn yourself to Police!” Mike shouted and put the pistol onto his forehead!
“Wake up Mike. Wake up! You are at the diabolic end of your soliloquy, solitude, somnolence and somnambulation. You desired her from your childhood. You shut yourself from the aspirations of your family and probably from yourself when Diane was being baptized and your father was declared her protector. You assumed a role for yourself and denied everything that came your way. That’s how I was born. You kept backlashing with me when I wanted to be with others. This is why you have hated Joyce the most as I backlashed fiercely with you for not having her when she’d offered herself so many times to you! I have had Diane to quench your thirst for her. I have killed her for retaining your dignity and taking my revenge. I couldn’t bear to see you deny yourself anymore for her. Couldn’t you see? That was the first time she spoke to you and tried to use you as her guard. You should have sent the magnitude of her curiosity to see the killer, to see if she was correct, if she solved the puzzle. She was playing with you! The moment she was revealed the secret of the killer, she started running away! She wasn’t true to you. You were abstemious all your life but you ever thought why did she deny everything? She voluntarily didn’t want any love and mocked at people’s vulnerability to fall for love. She mocked at your love. She mocked at us! I had to kill her to liberate you, to tell you that you are not bound by any insolent witch anymore. I am going and letting you free. Open your eyes and see the new world around you Mike.”


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