Chapter 55
Fifty-Five
Unknown
As Claudia turns into the clearing where the youths used to hang out, before they started playing football outside the shops, I remain still behind the thick trunk of an oak.
The sound of her panting fills my head. It’s so huffy and puffy, like she ran all the way but I suspect her car is close by.
Dainty and once sporty Claudia, I thought she’d be fitter than that.
I grab a stone and throw it in the opposite direction of where I stand, and I stifle a laugh as she flinches and steps backwards, moving ever closer to me.
‘What do you want from me?’ I need to keep her quiet.
Since I took Mindy, the place has been swarming with police but today, they stopped coming.
I seem to fly under everyone’s radar. It’s a shame it wasn’t like that years ago when we were all at school.
I’d have killed to be invisible. ‘Please let the kids go. Please, they haven’t done anything. ’
Of course. She has no idea why I took Brian and Tabby.
They weren’t a part of the plan. Dustin and Mindy had been so easy but Claudia, she didn’t fall for any of my lures.
The card I left her, she threw it in the bin.
I tried to email her with tempting things like competition wins, opportunities and job offers, love, but she wouldn’t follow the links and take the bait.
She banished me from her systems like the virus that I am, removing every attempt I made to infiltrate her tech.
I’m impressed about how secure she is online.
Shame for her that she didn’t help her nephew to be as safe.
She wasn’t a tech idiot like Mindy and Dustin.
Claudia left me with no option but to use the kids so it’s all her fault they got involved.
I step silently towards her in the darkness.
I can almost hear her blood pumping through her body as I stand behind her.
Her phone lights up as she checks it for more messages and there are none.
It’s soon back in her pocket and we are back to darkness.
She’s pumped and running on adrenaline. All she wants to do is listen for danger but her body is betraying her with its internal noise and, in doing so, it covers up the sound of my footsteps.
I imagine the boom, boom of her heart as blood pumps around her body.
Her perfume hits my nostrils, a mixture of eau-de-fear and definitely an expensive brand of something.
I reach from behind, covering her nose and mouth and then my other arm clasps around her neck burying the back of her head in my elbow, where I drag her to the ground.
One blow to the nose is all it takes. Hard and fast then I’m on top of her, pinning her down.
She has the strength of an office worker who hasn’t seen a gym in years.
She kicks and flails as her oxygen stores run low.
I’m too strong for her. All I have to do is keep my hands around her neck until she passes out on the mulch leaf carpet underneath.
She’ll be seeing stars right now, little prickles that get smaller and smaller.
Her consciousness will soon be left behind as her blood vessels start to burst, creating bloodshot in her eyes, but I’m not ready to kill her yet. I have so much to tell her.
She’s totally disorientated. I have time to drag her through the trees and straight in through the back door of my partially soundproofed lair, the same lair that sits under everyone’s noses. I told you, I’m invisible and it feels amazing.
One thing that worries me is the aching in my bones.
Executing a plan like this is exhausting but I only have to keep going a little longer.
I’m glad this is nearly over. Today, I’ve burnt out a van, dumped a body, taken two teens, which was hard work, and now I have Claudia – my prize.
Everything I’ve done has led to this moment.
The finale, the jewel in the crown, the big end to the trilogy.
She lies on a bed of damp leaves and in her dazed state, she stares at me and frowns. ‘You…’ I allow her that moment to speak, or should I say croak.
She’s the only one who recognised me before I told them who I was. I nod and stare. The morph mask is no longer needed. I’m sick of hiding who I really am. Before I drag her inside, I whisper a few words in her ear. ‘Time for Episode Three and I won’t stop until I destroy you – freak.’