Authors: Lourdes Bernabe
"If I'm the Queen why am I still tied up down here?"
I inquired.
"Well, we knew you’d never come willingly. Once you're here though, we figured you might change your mind. You're a vicious cold-blooded killer which is precisely why we want you. But as they say, better to be safe than sorry," he said.
"To be fair though, I should warn you. As vicious and as cold blooded as you are my queen...so am I. I’m Derek. Derek Jeter actually... kinda funny, I know. You can laugh about it now. But I’ll tell you, there’s nothing funny about what I do. There are similarities between us. Like you, I found that I have a gut-wrenching need to kill..." he continued.
He went on some more but it was all just a tad too much to take in all at once. I decided I needed a mental inventory for fear of losing all my marbles. I liked to kill. Check. He and presumably others knew this fact. Check. And...he's a killer too. Check. The others? Who were they? What did they all want?
“Yeah. I know it’s a lot right now…”
“Ya think?” I rudely snapped.
He exhaled loudly. I could tell he
was contemplating something in his head. He did say he was like me and even though he did say that he wouldn’t hurt me, this wasn’t exactly the type of scenario where you just took someone for their word.
I was a killer after all and a
ruthless one at that. Though I couldn’t speak for all those who were like me, I knew the instinct was there. That fucking relentless tug and pull. It never just let you be. And yet, as if I did have some miniscule instinct into this man’s psyche, I honestly could not bring myself to believe that this man was here to hurt me.
Of course, I could never know for sure. Deciphering a seemingly normal person is difficult in and of itself. Trying to figure out someone like him or hell even someone like myself would prove increasingly difficult.
I decided right then and there that I would trust him for the foreseeable future. This could only go in two directions. I could be right or I could be wrong. I wanted to get this show on the road for God’s sake.
“Ok. I’ll go with
what you’ve told me thus far. Can you untie me now? It’s not exactly comfortable,” I said as calmly as I could muster given my current state.
“I would love to untie you,
and I will. But first, there’s something you need to know. Me and you? We’re cut from the same cloth. If you try to take me out or if I end up having to take you out then all this was for nothing. You really need to believe that no one here wants to hurt you. We want you alive; we want to see you’re work. We admire you. We really, really do. And while I know this will take time, I really think that you may come to admire some of our work as well.”
I must have thrown what seemed like a hundred daggers with my eyes in his direction. He held up his hands as if he were waving a white flag of surrender.
“Ok. Ok,” he said. “Now would probably be a good time for you to meet the others. Don’t worry, they don’t want to hurt you either. Believe it or not, they’re very excited to meet you. They’ve been waiting a long time for this day.”
He grabbed a ridiculously large pair of scissors and cut off the duct tape that held my arms captive for so damn long. It
had felt like an eternity. He finally cut the straps that released both of my arms. I flexed my wrists and cracked my knuckles and it had never before felt so good. I didn’t have much experience in the world of captivity but the short amount of time I spent there was nothing to write home about. I could only hope that I would never again experience my hands or legs bound by anything ever again. Well…perhaps I’d be willing to experiment with sexual bondage. There turned my sick and sadistic gears again. I shook my head rapidly to rid myself of my own obscene thoughts.
“You ok?” Derek asked concerned
. “Yeah. Just getting reacquainted with myself,” I responded still stretching and flexing my muscles.
“
Ladies first?” he asked as he swung the door wide open. Derek’s arms made a wide circular motion as he motioned for me to exit before him. “Ladies first,” he repeated this time without question. I took just two steps out of the room and waited for him to lead the way. He stepped out right behind me and grabbed a large ring of keys from the pocket of his black hoodie. Quickly, he locked the door and just like that we were on our way.
Chapter 15
We started down a long, narrow hallway. The walls looked like they were made of steel or something similar. I began to question as to where we were but I didn’t dare speak a word. There were so many other pending questions that our location seemed rather unimportant. Well, perhaps it wasn’t so unimportant but definitely not on the top of my list at the moment.
T
here were a multitude of questions I wanted to ask but I decided I would wait until I met the others before I belted out an interrogation. Of course, who these people were was a question in and of itself. Yet I believed that when in doubt, one should simply stay mute. I’ve learned over the years that the universe tends to unravel itself at its own pace. If only my waning patience would permit it.
We continued on
down the corridor, first taking a right and then a sharp left. Before I knew it, we’d made so many turns I couldn’t remember how to get back. I assumed that was the point. It didn’t matter either way. I wasn’t likely to want to go back. I feared my life was now at the mercy of this strange man who claimed to know me and my extra- curricular activities. I simply trudged on through as he led the way to wherever it was that we were headed.
“I know what you’re thinking,” he said finally breaking the daunting silence
. This, I seriously doubted. I, myself, could not fully comprehend the depths of my own thoughts. I didn’t know what to fucking think. But of course, I didn’t want to answer so crassly.
“And that would be
?” I asked. I was curious to see what he would say.
“You wanna know i
f my name is really Derek Jeter… Am I right?” he bobbed his head up and down with a cheesy grin.
I chuckled slightly. Funnily enough, I was a huge New York Yankee fan and the name did strike me as a bit odd. “Well, is it?” I asked.
“Yeah, I mean I was born before Derek Jeter was
the
Derek Jeter, but yeah, that’s my legal name,” he explained.
“Hmm…I believe you,” I said. “
Solely based on the reasoning that no serial killer would ever use such a high profile name as a disguise.” He’d already told me that we were of the same cloth. Assuming that was true, and as of now we were, then he was a bona fide serial killer. I could see the headlines now…
Derek Jeter indicted on 50 counts of murder.
Something like that would make the front page news.
Derek’s minor
attempt at providing some comedic relief likened him to me just a smidge. I enjoyed the company of men who could see humor in the unlikeliest places. It was the smiles, the laughs, and the unexpected moments of happiness that made life bearable for me and I suppose others as well.
“K,” he said enthusiastically interrupting my train of thought. He rubbed his palms up and down rapidly in anticipation. “We’re here.” And as soon as the words left his mouth, we made another left and a pair of double doors appeared. He pushed b
oth of the handle bars with minimal force and suddenly we walked into what looked to be the most heavenly place on Earth; a library.
This was no ordinary library by any means. I couldn’t even begin to imagine the number of volumes it contained. There seemed to be no end
in sight no matter which direction you took off in. The ceiling appeared to lead to heaven itself. The books went all the way up the walls culminating at a large circular window at the center of the ceiling which let me know that it was the midday.
The large brown bookcases covered every inch of every wall. There was not a spot on the wall that wasn’t occupied by a book. I imagined I could spend my entire life here and not once feel the all consuming burden of boredom. It
was truly a sight to see all these volumes on every subject imaginable in one place. Three very large dark wooden desks stood in the center of the library which held a lamp on each one along with a selection of a few random books. The double doors finally slammed behind us creating a loud crashing sound.
F
our men glided out from between the never-ending aisles into the center of the room. “Well it’s about damn time,” one of the men said. Immediately, I looked to Derek for some direction. If these were the men we supposed to meet, I was shitting bricks.
--
“Gentlemen,” announced Derek, “it is my absolute pleasure to introduce to you, Jolene Hedon, also known as, The Queen.”
The four men didn’t say a word as they stared
back at me in unison. Was that bejeweled glitter- stick coming out of my ass again? What was so god damn interesting that they stood there rendered speechless at the sight me? These men after all, were not exactly docile creatures, not by a long shot. I could tell, just by the sight of them that these men were not to be fucked with, in any sense of the word. They guys meant business. And yet, it seemed as if, no it couldn’t be. I considered myself a very good reader of faces and emotions. Were they? Was that?
There was that confusion again
. I glanced from one strange face to the next and onward to all four of them. They each gave off the same expression. Curiously, they appeared to be….humbled.
Chapter 16
Even as a young girl, a blossoming adolescent teenager, I could tell I was different. Different in the sense that I knew for sure, that my peers weren’t on the same level as I was. I knew they didn’t have the needs that I had. Nor did they have the wants that I wanted. Death introduced itself to me at a tender young age when I murdered poor Cassie Cooper. Her murder rose something wicked in me that would never again be subdued. It was a long time before I killed again. It was mostly due to not knowing how to go about it.
Firstly
, I knew that neck snapping wasn’t my style. I relived that first kill over and over again for years. I thought of the different ways I could have killed her and I regretted killing her so swiftly without truly enjoying my first time. Funny isn’t it? I cherished the first time I killed another human being more so than my first sexual experience.
Not that I didn’t enjoy the first time I had sex. Sure, it was as good as any first time for any other normal young woman. Which meant it was the worst trauma I had ever had the pleasure of
experiencing. But aside from vaginal-numbing pain, I knew something was missing. Sex as it was being done, left something to be desired. Friends made it seem so cool.
Awesome,
was how most people described it. Unfortunately, I’d been fooled by my over-zealous peers.
A
fter only a few less-than stellar performances, I knew I was missing some key ingredient to fully satiate my hunger.
The only time I could re
call that I felt anything worth feeling was when I killed that poor little girl. Once I put two and two together I developed a rather finely-tuned sexual palate. It was only then that I realized what I needed to do. Only when my orgasm paired together with the power and thrill of a kill could I truly quell the thirst that consumed me. It was at that precise moment when I became me. All that was Jolene Hedon had come together to experience life the way it was meant to be lived. Callous, I know. But death was a part of life. And it was a part I was more than happy to embrace.
But to set back down to Earth, I was nothing spectacular. I was
not the prolific Ted Bundy, BTK or even Jack the Ripper. I did nothing of any noteworthy significance. I simply went about my life as I saw fit. I minded my own business and danced to the beat of my own sick and twisted drum…Which is exactly why I could not wrap my head around the fact that these nefarious men gazed upon me in such utter disbelief. So I said the only thing there is to say to a group of people one meets under such extraordinarily strange circumstances.
“Hello
.”
I
’ll admit I should’ve come up with something with a bit more pizzazz but really, what more was there to say? I added a hesitant wave for good measure, but I didn’t want to risk too much spontaneity until I got a clearer grasp out of what I was dealing with. They looked on as if I were a carnival spectacle. My unease grew with every passing second.
D
erek sensed the tension and my growing apprehension and cracked the ice to my relief. “How bout we all grab a bite to eat and get to know each other a bit, huh?” He motioned for us to move and the four men moved fairly quickly. “I’m fuckin’ starving,” said one of the men who had an uncanny resemblance to Santa Clause.
J
ust like that, we all headed straight down one of the corridors of the library and walked outside into the parking lot. The library didn’t look quite as large from the outside but was still significantly larger than the other buildings in the area. Now that I didn’t think that I was going to be tortured, raped or murdered, I let down my guard a bit and asked the obvious, “Umm…where are we?” I looked at Derek waiting for an answer.
He contemplated
something in that mysterious brain of his and then spoke.