Twisted (48 page)

I began the descent down into the hollow which contained the old farmstead. From what I remembered, no one had lived here for quite a while. The one son the rancher had, ended up back East someplace. Although I was just a kid when his father passed away, I’d heard he didn’t even come back for the funeral. Town gossip said there was some type of estrangement or scandal there. Ya gotta love a small town. Everybody knows everything about everyone, and dark secrets make the gossip rounds. I couldn’t have been much more than a toddler when the son left, and maybe ten when Mr. Schmidt, the last remaining parent, passed away. I do remember something about the Schmidts being alcoholics and some sort of accident in which Mrs. Schmidt died a few years before her son left. I made a mental note to ask Sheriff Johnston about it. I know my dad would have known, and the sheriff would too. Thinking about the old place aroused my curiosity. It wouldn’t have been my first choice for abandoned buildings to photograph, but then again, AJ probably just wanted to check it out. I guess he’d found it by driving up the side road that lead to it. I chuckled at the coincidence of the names. I reckon Schmidt wasn’t all that uncommon.

I got a little further down into the hollow, and the road leveled out. It was almost overgrown here, with brush pressing in from both sides of the road. I could see the outline of the house up ahead. It was even more dilapidated than I remembered. The porch had collapsed and fallen forward to rest in front of the house, leaving the boarded-up front door about four feet off the ground. It looked as if there were holes in the roof. Even the parts of the roof which had no holes, sagged. The windows were all covered with plywood. As I pulled around the side of the house, I saw AJ’s car with its hood up, next to the house. As I looked at the house, I noticed that the side door had been kicked in sometime in the past. It gaped open, with the padlock hanging uselessly off the broken hasp. The wood was weathered, and it looked as if it had been kicked in quite a while ago. The door behind the gaping hole in the plywood was open a few inches. AJ was looking under the hood of his car. I pulled behind him to give the tow truck plenty of room to maneuver. I jumped out of my truck.

“Hey, Jeff, thanks again. I really appreciate your coming.”

“No worries. What seems to be the problem with your car?”

“I’m not sure. I don’t think it’s the battery, since it’s fairly new. It could be the starter. I just got the idea to look around to see if there are any loose wires. The road up here is pretty rough, and it might have knocked something loose.”

“That’s a good idea. Did you find anythin’?”

“I’m not a mechanic, so anything I do find would just be a guess. In any case, the tow truck should be here soon.”

“Want me to take a look, just in case I can figure out what the problem is?”

“Sure! I’d really appreciate that, Jeff.” He handed me a flashlight that he’d been holding as he looked under the hood. I leaned over and began to look at the motor, the battery cables, and the starter and alternator. Everything looked fine to me.

“Hmmm… I don’t see any loose wires or broken belts.” I continued looking. “This place sure is out of the way, AJ. How did you find it?”

“I grew up here.” I turned to look at him. All of a sudden I smelled a strong chemical smell, and a rag reeking of some solution was thrust in my face. I swung my fist out and felt it connect with something. Then the world went black.

I
AWOKE
slowly, pain drawing me out of a deep stupor. My head hurt like it had been hit with an ax. I felt nauseous. I began to tune in to where I was when I became aware of pain in my shoulders, arms, and back. I tried to move. As things became clearer, I realized I was tied up. My arms were up over my head, and my wrists were tied together with duct tape. I was suspended from a hook of some sort. My feet barely touched the ground. I was cold and realized I was wearing nothing but Mike’s red, threadbare longhandles. I looked around. I was obviously in an old and musty house. A couple of Coleman lanterns lit the place. Faded wallpaper was peeling off the walls. There was debris in the corners and dust on everything. A table was placed about three feet in front of me. I took a deep breath, trying to clear my head, but it made my nausea even worse. It smelled as if an animal had died in here. I looked down and saw brownish-black stains over the floor beneath and around me.

Cold, tight fingers of panic seemed to grip my chest and heart. I took another deep breath to clear my head. In the back of my mind, a thought floated through the panic.
Calm down, and think. How can you get loose and out of here?
The panic and terror subsided as I realized that it would only hinder me. I realized now that AJ was the maniac that we’d all been looking for. In that instance, rage flooded through me. Anger, white hot, made my vision swim and then clear. I made one vow to myself right then and there. From what Holder had told us, serial killers got off on the fear and helplessness of their victims. I made up my mind that no way in hell was I gonna give that motherfucking son of a bitch the satisfaction of seeing me scared. I heard some movement behind me, and AJ stepped into view.

“Are we awake now?” He giggled. It was the least amusing sound I’d ever heard. “I told you that you were on my list, and here you are.” I looked down at him. He made me want to vomit. “Aren’t we going to say anything?” He stared at me a moment, and I stared back. He finally looked away and laughed. “If looks could kill, I’d be as dead as you’re going to be. But that will come in time. You’ll beg for it after a while. Beg for me to kill you quickly, to end the pain I’ll put you through. See, Jeff, I’m going to be your worst nightmare. Rather than looking at me with such hate and anger, you’ll look at me with fear. Fear.
Fear
. And you’ll beg to die, beg for the pain to end. You’ll tremble when you see me.”

“That ain’t gonna happen, you fuckin’ piece of shit. I ain’t never been afraid of vermin, rats and slime that crawl out from under rocks.”

He smiled and pulled back and punched me in the solar plexus, as hard as he could. I saw it coming and tensed my stomach muscles. That kept me from having the wind knocked out of me, but it still hurt. “That’s just to begin with. You’re going to pay for stabbing my leg. You will cry and beg.”

“You’re beginning to sound like a broken record. You said you grew up here. You’re the son who went back East?”

“You’re smarter than you look, Jeff. I am. I escaped. I had to get out of here. Do you know what it’s like to be raped, over and over, by your father? He even forced my mother to watch, and would beat us both senseless. She never stood up for me. I got them back though. I pushed her into the creek when she was drunk, one winter night before I left. Everyone thought it was an accident. I came back one night for that filthy pedophile who called me his son. I smothered him with a pillow. I put him unconscious three times and let him wake up. He begged me to kill him. I did.” He giggled again.

“That’s really horrible, AJ. Let me down and we can get you some help. Some good folks for you to talk to, who can help you deal with all the abuse you went through.”

“Nice try, Jeff. I have dealt with it. I do deal with it. When I need to, I kill. That’s how I deal with it.” He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a box cutter. He held it in front of me, smiling maliciously.

It took every ounce of control I had to look at his eyes, not the box cutter, and to yawn.

“We’ve got all the time in the world, Jeff. I am going to break you.” He walked beside me and began to cut off my longhandles. He wasn’t very careful, and as he sliced down the arm and side and then down my leg on my right, he cut skin and some flesh with every stroke. He was giggling as he cut, and I saw the blood flowing as he cut. The cuts weren’t deep, but they hurt like hell. He walked behind me and began cutting down the other side. “Dumb, redneck hick, that’s all you are. Nobody’s going to miss you, except for maybe that little hick fuck toy of yours. I think I’ll let him live. It’ll be torture for him to think of you dying slowly, over a week or two. I’ll have to take lots of pictures and send them to him.” As he cut further down my sleeve and the side of the longhandles, the cloth began to peel away, leaving me naked and exposed. He stepped back and set the box cutter on the table in front of me. It didn’t bother me to be bare-assed, other than the cold. The lanterns were heating the place a bit though, so it wasn’t too bad. He ran his eyes up and down my body, stopping at my crotch.

“God damn, Jeff, you are hung like a horse.” He reached out and began to fondle my cock and then began rubbing my balls. His touch made my skin crawl. I stared at him balefully, forcing myself not to show the disgust I felt.

“Big balls, too. When I was watching you and Mike, I thought you were hung, but it was hard to see in the dark, and you always had your cock up his pretty little ass.”

“When you were watching me and Mike?” He kept rubbing my cock and balls. I felt more violated by his saying he’d watched me and Mike make love than I did by his touching me.

“Yeah. When I was staying at your ranch, I’d sneak up every night and very slowly and quietly crack your door open and watch you two fuck. Hell, you’re both hot, buffed, and hung, so it was better than a porn movie.” He giggled again. “Yeah, if looks could kill, I would be so dead now. But it’s you who’ll be dead.” He dropped my cock and went over to the other side of the little table in front of me. There were several boxes there. He pulled out a pair of hedge clippers. He walked back over and took my cock in one hand and used the other to rub the clippers against it. “How about we take this off, an inch a day?” He gently stroked my cock, giggling and watching me for any sign of fear. I swallowed the bile that rose in my throat and continued to glare at him. He set the hedge clippers down on the table. He walked over to the box and pulled out a pair of pliers. He set them on the table also and looked at me, giggling. He repeated that performance with several knives, a cane, a belt, and a chain. Finally he brought out a claw hammer, some spike nails, and a welding torch. By this time, he was laughing. “Look at all these fun things for us to play with!” He actually clapped his hands in glee.

“AJ, you are sure as hell one twisted and fucked-up little maggot.” He stepped toward me and drew back his arm. I tensed my abdominal muscles, but the punch hit me square in the nose. He followed it with several more. I felt my nose break. I shook my head, trying to clear it, and then that foul chemical reeking cloth was pushed in my face, and blackness closed in.

Chapter Twenty-Two

I
AWOKE
disoriented. I think it was the pain in my head which brought me back to consciousness. I looked around, and the blurry scenes surrounding me coalesced into something visible. I was still a captive of AJ, the West Coast Cutter. My heart began to race when I realized the situation I was in. Sometime, somehow, he would have to let his guard down for me to be able to get loose. I realized slowly that I was in a different position. I was no longer hanging by my wrists from a hook in the ceiling. Now I was spread-eagle over a saw horse. My wrists were secured to two legs on one side and my ankles to the two legs on the other side.

“Are you awake again, Jeffy?” The sound of Mike’s nickname for me was obscene coming from him. I heard movement off to the side, and he stepped into view. He was naked, except for a pair of motorcycle boots. He held a belt in his hands. He walked around me, giggling as he went. I did my best to just glare at him through the film of pain and nausea. He stepped up behind me and began rubbing my ass cheeks, occasionally gently fingering my hole. The gentleness of his touch, coupled with the depravity of his actions, made me want to vomit.

“You’re going to get fucked, Jeff. That’s right, big, tough, top, redneck stud is going to take it up the ass. It’s probably your first time to get fucked. Dumb fuckin’ hick, you’re going to take it up the ass, and you’ll scream.” He walked in front of me. His dick was half hard.

“You’re wrong on both counts, tiny.”

“Tiny? What in the hell are you babbling about?”

“Your dick. That tiny little thing is soooo cute.” I put as much sarcasm in my voice as I could muster. He swung the belt and it hit my shoulders. It hurt like hell, and I knew it made a welt.

“You’re going to beg me to fuck you, Jeff, just to stop the whippin’, but my dick is gonna hurt when I ram it in. The first time always hurts.” He giggled. The giggles and the hysterical laughs actually scared me more than just about anything else.

“It won’t be the first time, pin dick. Mike’s my partner, and he’s already been there. Number two, I’m not even sure if I’m gonna be able to feel that tiny little dick of yours. Is that why you’re such a twisted fuck? That tiny dick gives you a complex? Or is it your pedophile old man thought you were a little girl, since that little thingy of yours is so hard to see?” Fury crossed his face, and he walked behind me. The belt began to fall repeatedly on my ass and back. He was hitting me with the buckle. On the third or fourth stroke, he made sure the belt grazed my balls, hanging between my legs. I couldn’t help it. I yelped and writhed as much as I could, given the restraints.

“That’s it, Jeff. Holler like that again. You have no idea how much that turns me on. I am going to break you.” I clenched my jaw, trying to prevent giving him any pleasure. He finally stopped whipping me and walked around and stood in front of me. He was now hard.

“Okay, Jeffy, open up. You’re going to suck my cock, you fuckin’, asshole hick. I know you can’t breathe too well through that broken nose, so I’m going to see if I can ram my dick so far down your throat, you won’t be able to breathe. We’ll see how small it is then.”

An idea occurred to me. I pulled my head up and opened up my mouth. Unfortunately my immediately giving in was really out of character, and he picked up on it.

“Why so accommodating all of a sudden, asswipe?”

“I want to suck your dick, AJ. You’re really a grower, and you got me turned on. Let me suck it.” He looked at me suspiciously.