Page 4 of Reaper

REAPER (PAST)

She lays on the ground, eyes wide open, beautiful blue eyes. I haven’t checked her pulse, but I know she’s dead. I can’t stop staring at her pale skin as my brother approaches me.

“What the fuck,” Bones says, like he didn’t know I’d be here with a dead body.

With my eyes focused on the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen, I ask him the question that burns through me.

“Isn’t she pretty? I think I want to keep her eyes. That’s not weird, right?”

“Jesus Christ. You’re the one we should call Psycho. Yeah, it’s a little fucking weird, man.”

His response lets me know he definitely thinks it’s weird, but I can’t let her go. I’ve never done anything like keeping eyes before. I know most serial killers keep souvenirs, I do not. I’ve never wanted to. And now it’s too late.

“Look, if you’re going to kill people, you need to learn to dispose of the bodies. You can’t be calling me at all hours of the damn night for help.”

I nod slowly. “I know.”

Bones leans up against a gravestone. “Alright, you need to figure out a way to ditch the bodies, but make sure they won’t be found until the DNA has degraded enough that there’s no evidence. Or better yet, destroy the evidence.”

I scratch my dark hair. “What if I buy a farm?”

“Reaper, can we focus? I don’t care if you buy a farm, but you need to deal with your dead girl first.”

Not taking my eyes from her, I sneer, “I’ve done some research. A pig can eat a two hundred pound human in eight minutes.”

My brother shakes his head at me with disgust. “Is that so, Reaper? Well, you’ve got it all figured out then, don’t you? Do you know they can’t digest teeth? Hair? They leave them behind. Do you know what they use teeth and hair for, Reaper?”

My brother nods, with a smug expression on his face that does little, other than annoy me. “That’s right, brother. DNA. Evidence. If anybody ever looks on your hypothetical farm, they’ll find DNA evidence proving that you knew the dead girl.”

The not so dead girl blinks rapidly, and jumps to her feet with a terrified scream.

Fuck!

She runs like her life depends on it, and I suppose it does. Quickly, my victim bolts and disappears into the trees, while I chase after her. Whoever this woman is, she’s good, because I can’t find her anywhere, and the leaves that must be beneath her feet are silent. I listen in every direction, listening for the crunching, or a rock being kicked, since there’s so much gravel here. But there’s nothing. It’s as if she flew away and I don’t understand it. They never escape. I walk back over to where my brother is, and admit defeat, as I grab her purse from the ground. I’ll find her, that’s not even a question. Getting away from me prolonged her life, but it didn’t save it. The only thing she accomplished, other than that, was creating an obsession deep inside me. They never get free from me and neither will she. I’ll give her some time. When she begins to relax, and thinks I’ve forgotten about her, then I’ll swoop in and finish what I started here tonight.

CHAPTER FIVE

BELLA (PRESENT)

Reaper comes back to the truck and gets in, turns the ignition, and takes off without a word. After nearly fifteen minutes of his silence, I can’t take it any longer.

“Why do you want to kill me?”

He turns to me with a smirk. “Your eyes. I’m fascinated, and want to see what they’ll look like when you die. I’ve never seen any more beautiful than yours.”

I laugh, because what else can I do?

“If I die, my eyes will too.”

If I have my way, I’ll never see him again, but he can figure that out later.

“No. I’ll keep them. Preserve them.”

What? Did he just say he’s going to kill me, but cut my eyeballs out and keep them? Like in a fucking jar or something? This guy is insane.

“Have you been diagnosed with a mental illness?”

It’s probably a stupid question, because clearly there’s something very wrong with him. Mentally balanced people do not want to kill someone and cut their eyes out. That’s an extra special level of deranged.

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