Family Night (5 page)

Chapter 13

     The Mask was smiling under his mask. She couldn’t see his smile of course, except for the one permanently on his outer face. Everything had gone perfectly so far. He was so proud of the kids. They had executed the plan better than he could have hoped for. He’d known Julie would bring someone with her. After checking out the area, the junkyard was the most logical place for someone to hide, and he’d been right.

     He didn’t care that he’d captured two police. No one would find these two, not until he was ready. Though he was disappointed she disobeyed him. Her cop friend would pay for that, not that any of them were going to live anyway.

     “Now Julie,” The Mask said. “I thought I told you to come alone. You must think I’m stupid.”

     He could see the fear in her eyes, and it excited him.

     “I’m sorry! I was scared. He was just going to make sure I was ok. He wasn’t going to interfere or tell anyone. I swear.” She pleaded.

     “Well, I can guarantee
he won’t tell anyone. Oh, how did his tongue taste by the way?”

     “You are sick!” Julie said. From behind them, Sarah was waking up.

     “Julie? Julie is that you?” She asked.

     “It’s me sweetie, I’m here. It’ll be ok, I promise.”

     “Now Detective, you shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep though I’ll get to you two more later. In the meantime, I need to show you what happens when you don’t follow my rules.” He looked over to his daughter and nodded. She returned the nod and walked over to Sarah and cut her loose. Sarah tumbled to the floor crying. She sat up, rubbing her wrists and looking around.

     “Now Sarah, I will need you to help me. My little girl here is going to hand you a tool. I will tell you what to do with it. Do you understand?” The Mask said.

     She nodded her head rapidly as his daughter handed her an icepick and stepped away.

     “First thing, go over to the guy,
take the ice pick and gouge his eyes out.”

     “No!” She screamed, throwing the ice pick to the ground. “I won’t do it!”

     “Well ok then, if you won’t do it to him, then I’ll do it to your girlfriend here. I’ll gouge out her pretty brown eyes. Doesn’t matter to me either way,” He said as he walked toward the ice pick.

     “No!” Sarah screamed. “I’ll do it.” As she picked it back up.

     “Sarah,” Julie said.

     “It’s ok Jules.”

     “You don’t have to do this.”

     “I’m sorry. I don’t even know him,” Sarah said. “I won’t let them hurt you.”

     Sarah walked over to male cop and held up the ice pick. The Mask looked on, enjoying watching her tremble. While he usually preferred doing the dirty work himself, there was a special pleasure in watching so called “normal” people try to do his work.

     Sarah cried as she raised the ice pick up to the man’s face. The guy had passed out but began to stir, looking at Sarah and trying to speak, but it only came out as
a garbled moan. The Mask watched as she held the trembling ice pick up with one hand, holding the man’s eyelid open with the other. Moving the ice pick closer, and then she lowered it.

     “I can’t. I can’t do it.” She said.

     “No problem. I assure you, I’ll have no trouble taking your girlfriend’s eyes.” He said as he took out a pocket knife and unfolded it, turning toward Julie.

     “No! No! Please! Don’t do this!” Sarah cried.

     “Then do what I ask.”

     “Please don’t make me. Why? Why are you doing this?”

     He sighed and turned back to Julie.

     “Ok!” Sarah said. “Fine, I’ll do it!”

     This time, she grabbed the man’s eyelid, lifted and thrust the icepick into his eye. The eyeball made a popping sound as the icepick penetrated it. Blood and fluid sprayed her face as the man let out a howl unlike any The Mask had heard before. Sarah rotated the icepick around and withdrew it. She turned, looking at The Mask and went and pierced the man’s other eye. His screams continued as she rotated the icepick around and pulled it out. She turned around, threw the icepick to the floor, fell to her knees and vomited. After throwing up until the heaving stopped, she looked up at The Mask.

     “Now we are getting somewhere,” he said.

Chapter 14

    
Sarah sat on her knees staring up at her captor. The two kids just stood in the background watching the whole thing. She didn’t know who the guy was whose eyes she just gouged out, but it was the most horrific thing she’d ever seen or done. These people in the masks just kept staring at them. The kids were especially creepy.

     “Stand up Sarah,” the man said. “This is no time for breaks.”

     She just sat, staring at him. Her body felt paralyzed and didn’t want to move at all. Before she could, the girl walked over to her, and kicked her hard in the stomach. Sarah felt the entire amount of air shoot out of her lungs as pain ripped through her abdomen doubling her over onto her side. She held onto her stomach with both hands, gasping for air as the girl stood over her watching her.

     “Haven’t you had enough play time?” The man said.

     “Leave her alone you asshole!” Julie yelled. “You’re nothing but a fucking coward.”

     He turned toward Julie and walked toward her.

     “Well, you really are feisty aren’t you?”

     “Fuck you. You think all this makes you some kind of bad ass? You think you’re tough. You’re not shit. How tall are you even? Five-three? Five-five? All you are is a tiny, pathetic little man. When was the las
t time you even got laid? I bet you wouldn’t know what to do with your tiny dick.” Julie shouted.

     The man stood looking at her. Sarah couldn’t tell if Julie had pissed him off or not. She was worried that he’d kill Julie, or cause permanent injury.
She noticed the kids were both watching Julie and their dad. Looking a few feet in front of her, she saw the icepick lying there. It was as if the icepick were speaking to her, daring her, tempting her to grab it and thrust it into the teenage girl standing just a few feet in front of her. No doubt the man would cut her to pieces, but the girl was just a kid. But she was no normal kid. She started to reach for the pick, but the girl turned around causing Sarah to pull her hand back quickly.

     The man just stared down Julie for a few minutes then turned back to Sarah.

     “Ok, are you ready to get up? Or do we have to do some more encouragement?”

     Sarah stood slowly. Behind her, she could hear the male cop moaning and sobbing. She couldn’t even imagine the pain she had just
caused him. What scared her most was wondering how long it would be before someone was causing her pain. Once she was on her feet, the little boy walked over and took her by the hand walking her back over to where she had been taped up.

     Sarah didn’t even try to cover her nakedness. She’d been hanging there or caged naked for so long already, she didn’t even care anymore. The man walked toward her holding a roll of duct tape.

     “Ok princess, time to put the kids to bed. Put your arms back up.” He commanded.

     She stood there looking away. He took his knife and stuck it in her face.

     “I can tape them up, or cut them off, which will it be?”

     She put her arms back up as he taped them each back to the pipe, this time it was almost tighter than the last time. He backed away from her looking over his work.

     “There we go. That’s enough fun for one night. You kids behave.” He said as he walked out of the sliding door, the two kids following behind him. Once they were gone, she looked over at Julie who was staring at the other cop.

     “Jules? Julie?” She said until Julie looked at her. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t want to. He was going to hurt you.”

     “It’s ok,” Julie said through her tears. “You didn’t have a choice.”

     “You know that guy?” She said, nodding toward the man. He hung there limp, blood oozing from his eyes and mouth.

     “Yeah,” Julie said. “His name is Ben, he works with me. It’s all my fault. The guy said to come alone. I had Ben follow me, and they caught him somehow. I should have listened. I need to get you out of here.”

     “It’s ok Jules. You didn’t know. You had to try.” Now they were both crying. Sarah tried to choke back the tears. Julie had always been the tough, strong one, but now she needed to be strong too. She took several deep breaths.

     “We’ll be ok Sarah. It will be fine. I love you.”

     “I love you too baby.”

     Sarah tried to think positive, but couldn’t help feel like they had just said goodbye.

Chapter 15

     Eddie was almost sad to drive home. It had been such a productive night and the kids had fun. He was so proud of how they had performed. This was a new experience for all of them and they had nailed it. Jeffrey was growing up so fast. He didn’t hesitate to use the cattle prod when it was time. Then Brandi, she kicked the woman in the stomach all on her own and hard too. It was just after 5 a.m. as he pulled up to the house.

     There was a strange car sitting in the driveway. He’d never seen it before
. A sinking feeling hit him suddenly. They were getting home several hours earlier than planned, but they were all exhausted. He pulled the car into the garage and helped the kids into the house. Both were half asleep. He got them settled onto the couches and went back to the van. Reaching into his bag, he took out his mask and dug through his tools, deciding on a hatchet.

     Walking through the house, he didn’t put the mask on yet, he wanted them to see his face. Down the hall and to the bedroom, he slowly turned the knob and pushed the door open. There fast asleep was his wife, Margie, and some guy he’d never seen before. The guy was
much younger than he, much more handsome too. He had a full head of hair, not the receding hairline like his own. He was tan and muscular, not pale and soft.

     Despite how mean Margie had been to him, he couldn’t stop the hurt he was feeling. They had once been deeply in love. He had tried his hardest to give her everything, only to fail in many areas both personally and professionally. As they got older, Margie had gotten
more bitter. She began to blame him for not having more money, for not being happier. He’d shouldered it for a long time, striving to do better.

     It was just a couple years ago when The Mask called out to him. He’s seen it in a thrift store of all places. The thick, fiberglass Guy Fawkes mask had caught his eye. He knows it didn’t literally speak to him, but it spoke nonetheless. He’d bought The Mask and his life
had never been the same since. Then gradually the mask had taken over more and more. As he stood in the doorway watching his wife in bed with this other man, another part of Eddie died.

     He stepped into the room, and shut the door, locking it. He’d shut it hard enough to wake them. Margie sat up in bed.

     “What the fuck Eddie? You’re not supposed to be home till noon,” She said.

     The man in bed with her sat up, looking surprised.

     “Uh, hey man. This isn’t what it looks like,” the man said. Eddie ignored him, just staring at them.

     “You just gonna stand there?
Aww, look at you, standing there all butt hurt. This is why I fuck other guys. Because you’re such a pussy. Just go sleep on the couch and shut the door when you leave.”

     The man in bed with her looked at
him, then back at Margie.

     “Maybe I should just go,” he said.

     “Fuck that. Just lie back down. He isn’t gonna do shit,” she said as she rolled back over.

     Eddie slipped the mask over his head and began walking toward them. Margie sat back up wide eyed.

     “What the fuck is this? You think you’re gonna scare me now. God, you really are pathetic.”

     “Dude,” the guy said. “You’re freakin me out, man.”

     He paid them both no attention. Eddie was no longer there, only The Mask. He circled around the bed toward the man, holding the hatchet to his side. The guy just watched him as he got closer.

     “Margie, what the fuck is he doing?”
The man yelled as The Mask raised the hatchet, slamming it into his forehead. Blood sprayed as the man fell to the side, onto Margie. His eyes were wide open and glazed as he tried to yell, but just made a strange stuttering sound. The Mask withdrew the hatchet and hacked at the man’s head and face several more times until what had been his head was nothing but a mangled piece of meat and bone at the end of his neck.

     Margie began screaming as the man lie partway on her.
Chunks of his hair, flesh and skull were in her face and hair. The Mask grabbed her by the hair and dragged her toward him, hanging her head off the end of the bed. He brought the hatchet down straight onto her face just as she was screaming. Her scream stopped and was replaced with a garbled grunt, then a gurgling sound as he hacked away until she was silent.

     He surveyed the room, surprised her screams hadn’t woke the kids. The two bloody bodies on the
bed were lying in a heap. You couldn’t even tell they’d ever been human. He stood, using the sheet to wipe off the hatchet. A feeling of peace and relief swept over him. No more sneaking around, no more trying to explain things, and no more having to listen to her constant bitching. The Mask had killed her. He knew with those final blows, the last of Eddie had died as well. Now it was just The Mask.