by Jim Goforth
Corey remembered the public outcry when Barry Thompson, an abhorrent excuse for a human being, had been released from prison after serving a lengthy jail sentence for the rape of a teenage girl.
Less than twenty four hours after his release Thompson was found slumped in the front seat of his car, throat slit ear to ear, eyes gouged out and replaced by the dead bodies of spiders-the calling card of Black Widow Justice.
The Twilight, or Toxic Twins on the other hand, while they had similar MOs to Black Widow, seemed more intent on ridding the world of an even lower breed of human scum-child molesters and pedophiles.
While Black Widow Justice did display a tendency towards graphic violence, the Twilight Twins were absolutely extreme in the violent vengeance they meted out.
Many also viewed them as heroic figures, vengeful gods who allotted the rightful justice to horrific child tormentors while still other dismissed them as lunatic indiscriminate killers who slayed people with gleeful abandon. Considering some of the victims killed by the Toxic Twins had not been convicted or arrested on child sex offences this opinion seemed to be a correct assumption.
Corey, on the other hand, always thought the Twins must have been operating with information not privy to these public assumers for he truly wanted to believe that there actually were vigilantes out there meting out savage justice to lowly beasts such as rapists and pedophiles.
His theory that the Twilight Twins knew more about their various targets than the police or anybody else was seemingly justified when a case bearing strikingly similar parallels to the Barry Thompson affair occurred.
A former primary school teacher convicted of a string of despicable offences involving very young children was released from prison after serving most of his sentence, failing to serve the remainder as he successfully appealed the conviction when lawyers discovered anomalies and other technicalities suggesting several members of the jury were pressured to find the defendant guilty.
Though this abhorrent soul was not a local, after his release he was relocated to Corey's town, the whole affair a very secret one.
Despite the fact that his conviction head been overturned, in order to ensure his safety (for many still thought him guilty) the relocation was very hush hush, very witness protection program stuff and though townspeople knew he would be there they didn't know where he'd be living.
Neither did they know his name for that was changed and a great deal of plastic surgery also significantly altered his appearance.
Nonetheless, as in the Thompson case, barely a day or two after the prison release and subsequent secret relocation of neighbourhoods, the Twilight Twins struck with a vengeance.
All of the secrecy shrouding the relocation, all of the money spent on face remodeling, all the efforts to ensure the teacher remained an anonymous figure were in complete vain.
Somehow, someway the Toxic Twins knew exactly where to find the reprobate.
The absolute carnage discovered inside the 'secret location' was described in police reports as 'gruesome and shocking', and one of the worst scenes of violent death ever witnessed.
According to one report there was barely enough remaining of the victim for anybody to make a positive identification.
These two incidents -the Barry Thompson case and that of the schoolteacher- both occurred only a couple of years ago, several years after first Black Widow Justice and then the Twilight Twins originally began their rogue vengeance crusades.
Though nothing as newsworthy as these two incidents had happened in recent times it wasn't because the various perpetrators were caught because to date neither Black Widow nor her two fellow killers had ever been captured.
It was as if after several years of terrorising felons who'd in turn terrorised women and children the two revenge factions simply disappeared off the face of the earth.
However they left behind a fearsome legacy in the blood-bathed ex-schoolteachers house and Barry Thompson's car, never mind whatever other depraved criminals had come to a violently fitting demise.
Reports of rape, sexual assault and child abuse decreased so dramatically that bar other petty crimes and misdemeanors, Corey's town was a city with one of the lowest crime rates in history.
Grudgingly many had to attribute this enviable statistic to the reigns of terror carried out by the Twilight Twins and Black Widow Justice, but though many openly embraced the anonymous killers as 'saviours' still others vehemently opposed any sort of glorification of the deeds of the two entities.
Corey and the majority of his friends were in the former group, for unlike people such as Greg Scanlon and Errol Haskell they all had a no tolerance policy on violence against women and children.
So after Melissa's next question, Corey's response was immediate.
"And what do you think about these people?" Melissa asked the boys. "Heroes or cold blooded killers?"
"Heroes," came off Corey's tongue before he'd even given it much thought.
"A necessary evil," Peter said. "Or more appropriate, a necessary means of eradicating evil. I see them as succeeding where the paltry justice system fails, despite the fact that they operated way, way outside any legal boundaries."
"I don't know," Ryan said vaguely. "They are, or were dangerous extremists. Eye for an eye sort of thing. I mean if somebody raped somebody else they didn't get raped in return, they got fucking obliterated. It's kinda scary with those sorts of people ruling themselves as judge, jury and executioner all in one. I don't disagree with their ideas of dealing out justice where the system fails, but I think I'd probably disagree with the extent they took their own justice to."
Lee remained quiet, saying nothing and nobody prodded him for an answer, probably suspecting that he felt more aligned with Ryan than the other two.
"Somebody had to," Corey murmured, though he, Pete and even Tim often debated the matter with Ryan, Lee and others in the heyday of the killings.
"What has that got to do with anything anyhow?" Ryan wanted to know.
Melissa halted her rampant pacing and stared evenly at the lads.
"Good answers'" she said to Corey and Peter. "You Ryan, not so great."
"Why?" Ryan queried. "You agree with the notion of somebody appointing themselves executioners."
"I'm not saying you don't have a right to your opinion," Melissa said. "Having said that, the fact that your opinion differs to mine might even mean you aren't going to like what I say next."
All of a sudden Corey understood perfectly why the grisly topic reared its ugly head in the first place.
CHAPTER 23
Corey knew why they were being asked to explain any feelings they had on Black Widow Justice and the Twilight Twins.
Swiveling slightly in his chair he shared with Desiree he saw her looking straight back at him, her expression even and unreadable.
Up until this point she’d failed to maintain eye contact with anyone.
She held his gaze while he tried to decipher what was going on inside her head, while he attempted to convey to her the message that he'd figured most of it out and he fully knew what Melissa was about to say.
None of the other three lads appeared to have caught on yet; they sat waiting for Melissa to resume speaking, Lee sitting silent and still as if in a trance.
"Gentlemen," Melissa said solemnly, waving her cigarette with a flourish in Blaise's direction. "Meet Black Widow Justice."
Still smiling blandly Blaise raised her hand as if tipping an imaginary hat.
"Howdy," she said. "Nowadays it's just plain old Blaise."
Ryan looked as if he'd been kicked in the chest by a Clydesdale.
His jaw dropped and he gripped the arm of his chair in a vice grip, probably fervently wishing he wasn't sitting in such close proximity to Blaise.
Peter just looked hung-over and as if he were trapped in the midst of a drunken nightmare.
Lee looked like he wished the couch he was on would suddenly swallow him up.
He tried to say
something like 'fuck', but the choked out expletive came out with three syllables.
Corey tried to keep his expression flat and neutral. After all, he'd figured out that much. Maybe not so much who was who, but he'd known what was coming, known that the three killers were right here in the room with them.
So with Blaise identified as Black Widow Justice that meant that Desiree was one half of the Twilight Twins and Melissa the narrator was the other.
Preempting Melissa's next bombshell he pointed first at her and then at Desiree.
"And you two...you're the Twilight Twins right?"
Melissa smiled, sucked the life out of her cigarette and dropped the defunct butt into the ashtray.
"Very astute Corey. To the top of the class you go. Twilight Twins, Toxic Twins, Double Trouble, Twin Terrors, we've been called a lot of things, none of them names we've coined. We've always just been Melissa and Desiree; we never saw the need to give ourselves names."
"Oh shit," Ryan babbled. "Is it too late for me to withdraw my opinion and go on record as saying I completely agree with everything the Toxic Twin...well you...have done?"
With the wry smile still plastered on her face Melissa finally ceased her rampant pacing and sat herself down on the lounge chair which currently seated Corey and Desiree.
"Ryan, you are welcome to whatever opinion you want," she said simply. "Don't feel you need to change it on our account. I don't expect everybody to agree with us."
"Tell me this then," Lee spoke up from the seat he shared with Peter, posing a question to Melissa he'd been sitting and ruminating on. "In the woods, were you lot really going to party with us if we got the other girls free or were you just going to kill us?"
Melissa looked mightily offended by the query and stared stonily at Lee until he wilted under the gaze and looked down at the carpet.
"Oh we were going to party with you alright. By no means were we going to kill you three. Ever. Let's get one thing straight right now. Despite however we've been portrayed by the media, whatever bullshit they've fed to the public, we are not and never have been man-haters. No sir. We don't hate men, in fact we love men. Especially Blaise. We were gonna party alright. You and your friends were in no danger from us."
"And let's get one other thing straight," Desiree piped up abruptly. "The people we were dealing with are not men. They're not boys and they're not animals for to call them as such is a profound injustice to the animal kingdom. They are the lowest basest creations on earth, nothing, but pond scum. So while we love men what we hate are the sick degenerate fucks masquerading as men. Besides we aren't the Twilight Twins or Black Widow Justice any longer, those people vanished when the media said they had."
"Okay," Lee was ready with another question. "If that's the case, why are you telling us about it now? Why not leave it be? Are you gonna kill us now we know?"
Shaking her head in disbelief Melissa could only laugh this time.
"You are dead certain we're out to kill you aren't you Lee? I think you'd be disappointed if I said we weren't. Well be disappointed 'cause we don't plan to kill you now or anytime in the future. We’re simply telling you because you've told us some things about yourself. Share and share alike."
"Bear in mind though," Blaise spoke. "Don't feel encouraged to go telling people outside this house. Otherwise things will be very different."
"I'm not telling nobody!" Ryan whined as if Blaise personally directed her statement at him.
"Good to hear."
Lee wasn't finished with his spate of questioning. He had one more.
"So what about these other girls?" he asked, obviously with Tasha in mind. "What is their story? Are they all vengeance killers or avenging angels or what?"
His real question which was probably 'is Tasha a killer too?’ remained unsaid.
"No, none of the others are infamous killers or anything of the sort if that's what you are asking. If you are asking about their histories, the majority of girls in our camp are runaways and that sort of thing.
Some are abuse survivors, some are wanted by various authorities for various reasons, some were at one time institutionalised, some are ex drug addicts, most of them used to be on the run for one thing or another.
If you are asking have they all participated in any events held by Black Widow Justice or the Twilight Twins then I'm afraid the answer is yes," Melissa said, her eyes firmly fixed on Lee.
That seemed to be the answer Lee was seeking or at least fearing.
If he'd been hoping that Tasha was completely innocent in any type of bloodshed then his hopes had just been dashed. Apparently every single girl in the camp had, at one time or another been involved in the pursuit of ridding the world of 'pond scum'.
"Institutionalised? Wanted by authorities?" Ryan was disturbed. "What the hell kind of camp were you people living in?"
"The kind where like-minded girls and troubled girls could band together, forget their problems and never be hassled by anybody." Melissa said. "Until some of those girls decided to plan a revolt and claim leadership of the camp as their own."
"Which is what happened tonight? "
"Yes. Though apparently it has been a plan in the working for a long time."
"What about the Plebs?" Lee asked. "Didn't they hassle you? More to the point, what the fuck are they?"
"Essentially, the Plebs are human," explained Melissa. "Though technically that probably isn't correct. Literally, most of them are not much more than zombies."
"Zombies?"
"Yeah, in a manner of speaking. You ever hear of Doctor Hans Grubel?"
"I have," Corey said, for he had. "Isn't he the scientist guy who got booted out of the field in disgrace for experimenting with human embryos and stem cells and that sort of shit?"
"That's him," Melissa confirmed. "Well, we have him, and ultimately Raven and Jett to thank for the Plebs. They're Grubel's babies. Very badly fucked up genetic experiments and clones, the lot of them."
"Christ almighty!" Corey exclaimed. "You mean Grubel experimented on humans and basically turned them into zombie mutants?"
"Something like that. Clones and mutants."
"How do Raven and Jett figure into the equation?"
"Well, they are Grubel's adopted daughters. It's through them we first came into contact with the Plebs and eventually came to set up house in the woods.
Grubel had a laboratory or some kind of experimental place out in the woods and that's where he took his subjects and kept them."
"Had? Past tense?"
"I guess the lab may still be there; I've never seen it. Grubel isn't though, he's dead."
"How'd he die?"
"I'm getting to that, hold your horses. And it wasn't us who killed him either; he was dead before we even met Raven and Jett. If you believe Raven's story, Grubel adopted her and Jett from a cosy little place where they'd been institutionalised -allegedly those two are criminally insane- because he wanted willing female helpers to procure male subjects for him, something they were both only too happy to do.
At this stage Grubel was still a respected professor in his field and his word that the two would be well looked after and monitored held a lot of sway so there was no problem him adopting them.
Raven and Jett built up quite a rapport with the captive Plebs, so much so that they decided they wanted the brainless mutant army for themselves.
With this infinite wisdom they decided to take Grubel out of the picture and free the Plebs on the condition they still existed to serve them."
"Raven killed the old guy who adopted her?" Lee could scarcely believe it.
"Sure did. Her and Jett. Playing devil’s advocate they both managed to please Grubel and do his bidding while all the while plotting to release the Plebs and yet remain in control of the brain-dead freaks. They achieved this fairly easily by killing Grubel in full view of all the Plebs, showing that they'd eradicated the enemy and simply giving themselves god status in the eyes of the simple creatures.
&
nbsp; Also the fact that Raven and Jett managed to appropriate Grubel's many guns while the Plebs remained unarmed and firearm ignorant, despite being aware of the deadly power of guns, probably helped them maintain control over the Plebs.
With guns and their new-found god status these two basically remained the chiefs of the Pleb tribe for a while.
They found the Plebs a house to live-the same house they live now-which was, and still is, virtually the only residence in the woods, bar our former place.
This house however, was owned by a large family of hippy type people who subsisted on the land, that type of shit.
No problem for the Plebs, under the guidance of Raven and Jett they slaughtered the hippies, took over the house and with an abundance of dead bodies had food for months.
And that's when Raven and Jett left them, happily established with a house of their own, food, and free of the experimental chains of Grubel."
Lee was looking a little green around the kills, possibly with the unwelcome knowledge that if the Plebs harboured cannibalistic tendencies then they might be dining on steak Tim right now.
"Ah Christ," he shuddered. "They eat people?"
"Sure do," Blaise said cheerfully. "And for a while that came in real handy."
"What? What do you fucking mean?"
"We met Raven and Jett not long after they set the Plebs up in style," Melissa continued in relaying the gruesome unnerving tale. "The three of us-Blaise, Desi and I, had hooked up with a couple of others and we hit on the idea of forming a giant gang as it were, a bunch of problem girls who could hang out and pursue similar interests, discuss various troubles and that sort of thing.
So we placed an advertisement in an underground extreme horror magazine detailing what we were looking for, where to come et cetera, et cetera.
The response was overwhelming, we had something like fifty or more women turn up at our arranged meeting place.
We had all sorts there; abused women, rape survivors, drug addicts, felons, runaways, prostitutes, career criminals, prison escapees, man-haters, lesbians, you name it. They turned up in droves. We couldn't believe it.