IV Love
Jalon got a text from an alleged Wolf Killer. He looked at his phone as he stood just outside of New Liberty High School, walking out of school.
He knew that he should reach out to the police immediately. He didn’t, however, think that he wanted to act rationally. Part of him wanted to talk to this maniac. He was curious to ask him some pertinent questions.
WolfKiller: hey jalon - i think you are the greatest geek ever - i love you and your friends - i watch your roleplaying games when you stream them
Jalon: you killed lance
WolfKiller: yes i’m sorry i have to answer to people, i have obligations, i’m so sorry, i love you, i’m sorry, people make me do things, scary people
Jalon: you have free will
WolfKiller: no such thing you don’t know me you don’t understand you don’t know these people - you can’t disobey these people
Jalon: turn yourself in and tell the authorities about them
WolfKiller: no fuck that I’m not a moron I don’t want to get locked up
Jalon: you’ll kill again
WolfKiller: and it will be grand, absolutely marvelous, it will feel so great - it feels great - i love to work for them while i hate them for making me hurt people
Jalon: you’ll kill again and get caught by the police
WolfKiller: I will never - never - get caught by the police - they can’t find me - I know their strategies, their tactics. Those tricks won’t work on me.
Jalon: I will stop you
WolfKiller: lol you couldn’t stop me
Jalon: maybe no one will - when will you stop? Ten kills? A hundred?
WolfKiller: ten? so small a number
Jalon: ten sounds like a lot to me - i don’t know
WolfKiller: I will enjoy gutting you and watching you realize that you are dying and then watching you slowly die
Jalon: fuck yourself
Jalon looked around.
He considered tactics then.
He could try to play nice with the killer and get hints - any clue - that could help to find him. Trying to piss him could get him to attack Jalon - that was basically what happened organically during the course of the text conversation.
He saw a few jocks playing with a football.
A girl walked across the street, carrying her backpack.
Walter walked up to Jalon then.
Macmillan walked up to Jalon at the same time.
Macmillan wore a light jacket in the chilly May spring afternoon weather - it was rainy and ugly out.
He had a Chicago Bears jacket but hated sports.
His pants were brown dress pants, and his shirt was an orange dress shirt.
Macmillan had been turned down by another Hollywood agent but had a festival say that they would fund his next short film - and that it could be thirty minutes long.
He would film over the summer. It would be a character-based drama about a couple of friends - one a wild child and the other a quiet pessimist. Their lives would intertwine over the course of a year.
Macmillan had loved their notes on the script. It was art. He was making art.
“Write the hell out of your script for the summer film, Macmillan. For god’s sake, stop saying how miserable life is,” Walter said. “We get it. Life is a terrible and miserable existence.”
“But it’s true!” Macmillan said.
“Bullshit,” Walter said. “We have plenty of money, plenty of food; we play strategy games and role-play. We have fun. We have pretty incredible lives.”
“What have we learned?” Jalon asked. “There is a slasher killer butchering our loved ones. I know, our writing works are more important, but we should at least consider what we’ve learned about the killer.”
“We have learned that someone has a theory as to who did it,” Macmillan said. “The killer might be an ex-student, jealous and angry at the current high school students.”
“Whose theory is this?” Jalon asked.
“Ai Takeda,” Macmillan said. “Her theory was the most interesting and seemed like the most well-thought-out.”
“Should we talk to her?” Jalon asked.
“Definitely,” Macmillan said.
“Where can we talk to her? When can we talk to her?” Jalon asked.
“Checking,” Macmillan said. “Okay, we can go over to her family’s mansion.”
“Mansion,” Walter said. “Fancy. I rarely go to mansions.”
“Same,” Jalon said.
“Let’s head to the Takeda mansion,” Macmillan said.
“Sure,” Jalon said.
“I’m driving,” Macmillan said.
“Cool,” Jalon said.
The three of them - Jalon the lead geek, Macmillan the intellectual, and Walter the quiet, moody loner - walked to Macmillan’s old Toyota and got in.
The Toyota was a bright red hybrid. It was spotless - he made certain that there was not a scratch on his beloved vehicle, his favorite possession in existence.
He pulled out of the school’s parking lot and drove to the area to the west of the high school.
They drove up to a palatial estate. The house was huge, a giant building with multiple wings, a pool house in back, seven bedrooms, library, exercise room, living room, dining room, study, office, second office, kitchen, den, billiards room, ballroom, and the all-important parlor room.
Then there were the grounds, with a tennis court, pool, hot tub, aforementioned pool house, garden, elaborate well-designed plant life, and even a huge yard for running around and playing games.
The building was white on the outside and quite stunning.
Macmillan rang the doorbell - with Walter and Jalon standing next to him.
Ai answered the door a moment later. She was a skinny, beautiful Japanese-American girl with jean shorts and a T-shirt. She smiled.
“Come on in, studs,” she said. “I’m a big fan of all three of you.”
“No, you’re not,” Walter said.
“I did not mean to offend, Walter,” Ai said. “I apologize. Sumimasen. Shitsurei shimasu. I’m sorry. I meant that I do love and respect your group of friends. I play esports. I’m a fan.”
Ai Takeda smiled and waved them into her huge mansion.
Jalon, Walter, and Macmillan walked in with her.
Inside the mansion was an entry chamber which opened to half a dozen different rooms. She guided them into a living room with luxurious black couches, a huge television, expensive speakers, and white carpeting.
Ai’s friend Caitlyn sat in a black plush chair, wearing a bikini and playing on her phone.
Caitlyn was pretty, with bright red hair and a Christian cross around her neck. `
“What are you doing here?” Macmillan asked.
“Fucking Ai senseless,” Caitlyn said. “She’s my favorite person in all of existence, and I enjoy fucking her as often as possible.”
“And your boyfriend?” Jalon asked.
“He’s a jerk,” Caitlyn said. “We mostly broke up. We both started dating our own gender.”
“Oh?” Jalon asked.
“His is a fascinating one,” Caitlyn said. “He fucks Bailey every Friday night. They have a running bet over who will do better at the football game, and that determines who is dom for the night. They have fun with it.”
“And Alexis knows about this,” Jalon said.
“I don’t know,” Caitlyn said. “I have no idea. I don’t talk to Alexis. I’m not part of her social circles. Different group of friends.”
“Cool,” Jalon said.
“You just want to fuck Alexis,” Macmillan said to Jalon.
“I admit it; I do,” Jalon said. “And this gives me an excuse to tell her that it’s an open relationship, or he’s a cheater, and she should fuck me lots. Lots and lots.” “Do you think about anything else?” Macmillan asked.
“I often think about drinking liquor and playing strategy games with friends,” Jalon said. “And I just got a text. If we call the police, a girl dies.”
“He threatened to kill a girl?” Ai asked. “That’s out of character. He’s willing to abduct and maybe kill a kid?”
“Empty threat,” Walter said. “I’m calling bullshit.”
“That is an outrageous thing for him to say,” Jalon said.
“Or her,” Ai said. “Do we believe them?” Macmillan asked. “It could be a lie.”
“Do we take that chance?” Jalon asked. “I don’t know.”
“We have to not call the police,” Ai said.
“They are outside and convinced that we are fine in here. They trust us, and we hacked the feed. They can’t see us in here and assume that we will get them if something happens.
We won’t. We absolutely cannot lose a little girl.
She’s a little girl. The police wouldn’t want us to call them.
” “They would, actually,” Macmillan said.
“There is a gathering,” Ai said. “I am inviting all the teenagers over here who had anything to do with Lance.”
“Thanks,” Jalon said. “That’s nice. You said you thought that it was an ex-student, someone angry at the current students?
” “Yes,” Ai said. “I really think that fits the profile of this killer. He lashes out at students or parents of students, people in a certain set of social circles, people who maybe aren’t considered the connected kids or the cool kids.
People who are struggling to make it. The geeks. ”
“So you and Alexis are safe?” Jalon asked.
“No,” Ai said. “We get good grades. We are pretty girls, but we study, we watch anime, we are smart.” Caitlyn walked over to Ai’s family’s bar and grabbed a bottle - something brown - and poured herself a drink.
“I’ll take one,” Jalon said.
Jalon and Caitlyn began to drink.
Jalon groaned a little as he drank something.
“That is great,” Jalon said.
“Don’t get sloshed,” Ai said.
“I won’t,” Jalon said. “I have one on occasion. I don’t have too many. I don’t get drunk. I have one.”
“I will,” Caitlyn said.
“I don’t want to clean up puke, Cait,” Ai said.
“You won’t have to,” Caitlyn said. “I just want a little buzz. I need it. To deal with all the bullshit.”
“Okay,” Ai said.
Jalon looked at his phone. He hadn’t called the police. No one had.
Jalon had a pretty good idea that the killer would show up. He expected this place to be a showdown - a final battle with the killer. He wanted to win. He wanted to kill the Wolf Killer - regardless of whether or not he died.
People started to have a party.
Beatrice walked into an office building looking for her boyfriend.