Chapter 60
Sixty
Edwin
This is no longer the PE block, it’s a crumbling building next to the newly built leisure centre. This land used to belong to St Benedict’s High School. Claudia will know exactly where we are and see if she remembers the exact day she started all this, only this time she gets to be the victim.
I pop the boot open and drag her out of my trusty estate. She still kicks, despite being spent and I’m sure she’s lost a lot of blood from that bust nose of hers. I don’t want to strangle her and take her to the cusp of unconsciousness again, I want her to be fully awake for the next bit.
She stumbles and thuds onto the path, yelping. I step to the side but her gaze under her swollen eyes doesn’t follow me. Her lids almost meet the bottom of her eyes, like a boxer on their final round of a fight. She lashes out at what she thinks is me but she’s hitting thin air. ‘Missed,’ I say.
I drag her to the old gate that I’ve prepared with several cut pieces of rope, all ready to tie her up with. ‘Up you get, bitch.’
She lies there, refusing to cooperate. All she has left is refusal.
I wrench her by the rope around her neck, pulling her until she does as I want.
‘Come on, be a good dog.’ In an ideal world, I’d want to be able to stand her up so I can tie her against the railings but it’s not going to happen.
I accept that all I can do is bind her to the metal rails while she slumps on the pavement so I wrap the rope around her and then the rails until she’s secured.
I tear her top and then yank at her bra before getting my pen out and drawing that cherry red smile on her face in my best permanent marker.
She spits in my direction but I don’t care.
I can’t be any more disgusted in her than I already am.
‘Smile,’ I say as I start filming, careful not to include audio.
‘How does it feel being live streamed like this. Everyone can see what’s underneath your top.
They all see the real you and the real you once did this to me.
You took photos of me in the shower at school all those years ago.
You, Mindy and Dustin, then shared them with everyone in a matter of seconds.
You laughed, you mocked and you made my life hell for the rest of my time at school.
That feeling of being powerless, it never leaves.
You can feel it now, can’t you, Claudia? ’
‘We were kids,’ she mumbles.
‘We were fifteen. You knew exactly what you were doing.’ I pause.
‘I had to leave school after that. I lost it… I lost my way. I tried to take my own life when those photos kept cropping up all over social media even years later. I’m a meme now.
A frigging meme and still you’ve never owned what you did.
You’ve never once thought about me and how it affected my life.
I’ve had to change the way I look, I’ve changed my name from Edward to Edwin to become a new person, all because of you. ’
She turns away from me.
‘I wasn’t going to take it this far. I should have been happy enough destroying Mindy’s relationship.
I have cash courtesy of her shame when I showed her the personal photos of her having sex with someone other than her partner.
You’re a lovely lot, aren’t you? Bullies and cheats.
Anyway, Mindy paid me off, then she decided to leave the woman anyway.
Why? Because I taunted her with those photos again and she knew she had to end it.
Never give blackmailers what they want.’
I laugh then pause, wondering if there’s any point to telling her all this.
She doesn’t care. Actually, I don’t care if she cares.
My therapist told me I need to talk more about the past and try to tell the people who hurt me how they hurt me.
This is what I’ve been doing and she was right, my self-esteem is up in the clouds now. Revenge is awesome.
‘I was going to let it drop after I took all Mindy’s money but when I took my dog to Chez Ursula’s last year, I saw them both together, cackling, Dustin and Mindy.
’ That day really was a turning point for me.
I thought I’d got revenge out of my system but then, I realised I’d only just begun.
‘Ursula was out at the time. They were laughing at this woman’s picture on Facebook, really having digs at her looks and Mindy dropped a comment from a troll profile under the woman’s photo saying that their poor victim should set her ugly face on fire.
It looked like Dustin didn’t approve but you know what he didn’t do? ’
She stared at me, I think. I still can’t tell from all the swelling but her nose points at my chin.
‘No answers? I’ll tell you. He didn’t try to stop her.
He didn’t tell her that she was being a bitch.
I realised then that none of you had changed.
You were all still the same nasty bullies that you always were.
And you, you started it, which is why we are here and why I saved you for my big finale. ’
I’d been having therapy for years but I knew it was never enough.
There had never been justice for what they did to me and although it sounds petty now because we were kids, I don’t care.
We are not kids now. I post the video without sound for the world to see on OpenMeSmiler.
There are thousands of people waiting for this.
Forever more, she will be humiliated. I take photos, lots of them and I post them to every social media site that I can think of.
The video will be downloaded and shared on to other platforms. The comments in the Tavern start to flood in.
My little watchers all wait eagerly for more.
They want to see the knife plunge into her.
They want me to pull the rest of her clothing off to satiate their perverse desires to see the suffering of another. They want to see her beg and plead.
Cut her, man.
More flesh, purlease…
Where is her house? I need something, anything, something of hers. Address???
Can I buy the bra – top prices paid.
When she’s done, who’s next?
Good question. The last one sits in my mind for now. There is a next and I know who it’s going to be.
‘Happy?’ She speaks with a wheeze. ‘You’re no better than me now.’ She coughs.
I shrug. ‘I never aimed to be better. The better person always gets taken advantage of. You made me become just like you. Good people are pointless. They’re there to be taken advantage of, walked all over abused and used. You taught me that, Claudia.’
I inhale sharply. The police officer I stabbed, I didn’t mean to involve him.
I’m no better than them now but I blame them for turning me into this animal.
It’s hard, but I have to remember there’s a bigger picture here and soon it will be revealed.
I grab my phone. I’m still in OpenMeSmiler so I click the big button that says execute.
I pull the morph mask from my pocket ready to start live recording. Let operation Big Picture begin. I head to my car. My fingers are so cold, I can barely get the phone in the mini tripod. Eventually it clicks into place.
I grab the knife and press it gently to her heart.
She shivers violently. ‘Episode Three, the final scene. You know what you’ve done, Claudia.
The tables have turned. I’m destroying you this time, freak.
’ I plunge the knife into her chest, screaming with rage as I twist it.
Adrenaline courses through my body. I did it.
I made all of them pay and I’m doing great work.
I run over to the recording phone, turn on the volume and speak, making sure my voice is disguised.
‘And that, folks, is a wrap, but stay tuned. I have a special surprise for you. Don’t leave now.
’ I stop the live recording as I flip to the admin page.
Yes, I’d pressed execute. Are you sure? I’m asked.
Of course, I’m sure. I built you. I created OpenMeSmiler.
Operation Big Picture – enabled. It’s over.
I did it. The timer is ticking. I turn my phone off, glance back one more time to see Claudia bleeding out against the fence.
It’s a beautiful night, cold with a frost. The railings glint like they’re diamond encrusted.
Maybe I’m an artist because this tableau is a work of art.
I get into the car and take a few deep breaths.
No one knows where I am. All I have to do is avoid ANPR, get to my destination, change and head to Edinburgh Airport where I will become a new person, get on a plane and leave this country forever, knowing that justice has been served and my crypto wallet is healthy.
As I release the handbrake and check the rear-view mirror, I gasp as the whole car is shunted backwards.
I select reverse to escape the police car that has crashed into my bumper but instead, I crash into another car.
A lithe woman with black hair gets out and sprints towards me.
On opening the door, I go to run but another woman is running right at me, leaving the lithe woman to battle with her handcuffs. ‘Police, on the ground,’ the older woman shouts.
No way. I have to get away. I dart back towards the railings where the lithe woman is trying to release Claudia.
The other way. As I go to run, the older woman is flying through the air.
She lands on me and I crash onto the road, the wind crushing out of me as she turns me onto my back, her fingers digging into my arms. She stares manically but doesn’t blink. I recognise her now.
‘I’m DI Harte. Edwin Hammond, you… under arrest… murder… kidnap…’ I can’t take it all in. ‘Do you understand?’ she yells that so loudly my eardrum feels like it’s about to burst.
My dream is over. I know what comes next.
In my mind I see the white sands, the villa, the dream – it’s slipping away as I’m turned over, my face pressed against the damp road while I’m cuffed.
Operation Big Picture. That’s all I have in the whole world now.
They can lock me up and throw away the key but I have a parting gift for the world and I can’t wait for its big reveal.