Prologue
When I see the last girl in my latest circle go into the floor a shiver runs down my spine. She’s wrapped in cling foil filled with lime wedges and she looks peaceful. Her eyes are closed as I lay her down in her final resting place.
Perfect.
Memorizing the sight of her, just the way she is right now, I take a deep breath and get ready to wrap this up. Using a small spade, I start covering her with the loose soil that surrounds her. She’s completely covered up and she’s returned to the Earth from which she came.
It’s full circle with this last girl. All the girls were in their rightful places beneath the ground. I step back and take a second to take it all in. My girls. My family. It’s one of the few moments in life I feel peaceful, surrounded by them. No empty space left to fill.
When the peacefulness starts to subside, I take off my protective suit and carefully put it in the backpack to take them with me. So far nobody has found my girls, but that’s not to say it won’t ever happen. And I can’t be careful enough. I’ve got to be smart about this. I don’t want to have to go to prison. I won’t be able to visit my girls or find more of them to add to my family.
Now that this circle is full, I’ll have to start on the new burial site I have in mind. The time between the last girl to complete a circle and the first of a new one is always the shortest. Just a little less than three weeks until I have to take the next girl. It’s a stressful time each year, but I’ve learned to be well prepared. I’ve already got my sights set on a new place for the circle.
Walking up the creaking stairs, I glance over my shoulder. There really is something that feels right down there. This place has a hold over me, one I can’t fight. Just as I can’t fight the urge to collect more of them. It’s almost as if it’s meant to be. As if I was put on this Earth to take these girls, make them my own, and keep them from the rest of the world.
With a sigh I flick the light switch, covering the basement in darkness and silence once more until I step through the door and close it behind me. I’m going to miss this house. It was one of my favorites.
The only downside was the criminals who moved in next door and took some children. I found them for sale on the dark web. There aren’t a lot of things I condone, but harming children is one of them. It should always, and at all costs, be prevented or stopped. I can’t do anything without possibly giving away my location though, even if it pains me.
Once I’m upstairs, I take the blue overshoes off and put them in the backpack. The gloves don’t come off. Ever. Not when dealing with my girls.
Out of habit, I start making my rounds through the house. Make sure all the windows are closed and everything is exactly where it should be. It always is, after all, the only other people in this house are my girls, and they don’t mess things up, but you never know.
When I see that most rooms are in order, I move to the bedroom. Bed neatly made, no dust on the interior and the window closed. Then something moves in the corner of my eyes. A woman stands in the neighbor’s kitchen…
…and she takes my breath away.
For a moment, I see my mother. Alive. Beautiful. Making me so full of life it rivals the moments I make my girls take their last breaths. But as soon as the feeling comes on, it goes away again.
That’s not my mother.
It’s a woman wearing tactical gear who has an uncanny resemblance to my mother. Almost a reincarnation, if I believed in that. This raging feeling inside me wants to make her mine. Not as one of my girls, but to keep her safe.
How peculiar.
When she notices me, I make sure to get out of the room. No need for me to get involved in her business. When I made my way to the kitchen, I see everything is exactly as it should be. Everything is in its place, nothing out of order. It’s time to go, but I’m not sure if I can leave now that there are people next door.
Especially not now that I know that she’s next door. What would her name be? I bet it’s something beautiful. I wet my lips, eager to unravel the mystery of her.
I put on my backpack, ready to go the moment I can. Do I wait until they leave? Or do I risk getting out around back now? I guess my best option right now is to wait it out.
My thought process gets messed up when the doorbell rings.
Fuck.
I need to go.
Before I know it I push my shoulder against the back door, opening it so I can get out of the house. My heart is pounding so hard that it makes me feel alive, and for just a second I wonder if there are more ways to feel alive than I’ve discovered so far. I rush over the porch, jumping the steps that lead up to it. My feet pound on the ground when I cross the backyard until I’m at the fence. With three steps against the fence, I can grab the top of it and haul myself over, landing on my feet on the other side.
The adrenaline that rushes through my veins makes me hyper alert and when I hear footsteps coming in behind me, I push just that little bit harder.
On the other side of the fence large trees surround me. Pines mostly. They usually make me feel at ease, but there is no time for that right now. I make sure I’m engulfed by the forest, disappearing behind nature’s homegrown barriers. I’ve been in these woods countless times, preparing for an event just like this.
I know what to do.
I know how to get away.
So that’s what I do. I run towards the little canyon that is just a small hike away. Once I get there I’ll be able to disappear. They’ll never find me.
My girls will be found. That is a given. The loss of them feels like grief, even if I’m mostly unfamiliar with the feeling, not having experienced it myself ever since losing my mother and I don’t know what to do with it. But when I remember the look of her, everything seems forgotten.
Maybe even forgiven.
I might’ve lost these girls, but I can always get more. That was always the plan in the end. But while I’ve lost something tonight, I gained something too. Her. I need to find out who she is. I will have her in my life, one way or the other.
Her time has come.