Mangled

by Zachary Prescott

  She explained his function as Jake’s stalker and her alibi the entire time through which didn’t take much convincing after she found out about Jake being the serial killer on the day she murdered Susan and framed Jake for it.

  “You always did know how to find the gullible ones”, Sean sighed. “Unfortunately, Jake isn’t like Mike… this plan of yours wouldn’t work”.

  Sarah shook her head and smiled. “This has to be perfect… It has to fit my picture or I get nothing out from this”.

  Unsure of what she meant by getting something from the stage she had set, Sean reached for the gun he had hidden behind his back but she managed to kick it out immediately as soon as he held it in her direction. She sent another painful kick into his chest, causing Sean to roll on the ground, grabbing his chest and shrieking with pain.

  “That was for dumping me you asshole!” she raged before sending another kick into his chest. “That was for kicking me off the project of my life and handing it over to you fucking girlfriend!”

  Sean coughed aloud and spat out some blood before sitting up and crawling backwards to avoid any more dangerous kicks. “Susan deserved it more than you ever could… she was dedicated, focused and never goes doing half the shit you do!”

  Sarah flailed her arms in the air and shook her head while holding the gun nonchalantly. “I cut corners and use back doors to get what I want, so fucking what? I get the job done for the CIA!”

  “The CIA never asks you to fuck everyone you need information from!’ Sean yelled and found himself wincing in pain some more. “You gave away country secrets to the Russians and Susan almost died getting them back before things could get worse!”

  She held the gun high and pointed it towards him immediately. His words definitely had struck a nerve and Sean was simply chuckling as some more blood gushed out of his mouth.

  “Why did you kill Luke?” Sean asked.

  She shrugged and simply answered, “The fucking Captain had begun snooping into me and I had to nip his bud”.

  It sounded like the classic, cold and vindictive lady he knew.

  “More so, my father told me it was both your ideas and against his fucking wish to have me kicked off the program!” she added. “I worked my ass off for that project… you knew it was bound to shape the future of the CIA for years and you stole it from me!”

  Sean coughed and fell on his back with his breath slowing. “The President… the President was in danger and the security of the country was going down the drain with the information Russia conned off of you!”

  Sarah lost it and raced towards him, shoving Sean to the ground fiercely and pointing the gun in his face.

  “I will blow your brains out!” she threatened. “I was going to fix it and you know it! I was going to intercept the bastard before he handed the information to his contacts!”

  Sean didn’t care to listen as he thought of how best to maneuver the lady who had outsmarted him.

  “That wasn’t really an RPG back there was it?” Sean asked, trying to figure out where he had missed it.

  Smiling indicatively of how right he was, she answered, “You recognize the Nano trackers under development by the agency years ago… a friend of mine happened to lend me some”.

  “You mean you conniving father”, Sean retorted.

  His words landed him in trouble as she whacked him hard across the face and sent him ramming his head into the floor. “He blames me… he blames you and Susan for putting the one stain he has on his career which is having a daughter who almost crumbled his dear country’s security”.

  Sean cursed his luck for not seeing things for what they were earlier.

  “He flushed me out for you”, Sean giggled. “He fucking flushed me out for you”.

  Sarah nodded her head and got to her feet before walking over to where the unconscious Jake was. Dragging him over with grunts and show of exhaustion moving the man, she tucked her gun behind her and placed Jake a few feet from Sean before beginning to try and awaken him by slapping him.

  “Rise and shine darling!” she would say with each smack into his face.

  Jake awakened to the sight of Sean bleeding and gasping for breath.

  “Looks like your brilliant plan didn’t come out well now did it?” Jake mocked him before lunging for the man with a kick.

  Sarah managed to keep them both apart while retrieving the gun and pointing it in Jake’s direction. “Don’t make me shoot you”.

  Startled and unable to hide his expression, Jake fumed, “That’s my gun! That’s my fucking gun!”

  She took a good look at it and smiled. “I thought it would make a fitting end when I nicked it off your place”.

  She had just admitted being responsible for ransacking his home and it made him livid. His eyes shone brightly with rage and his veins doused with adrenalin as he wanted a piece of her.

  “You are dead!’ he promised her. “You are dead you hear me!?”

  She didn’t seem to care as she knelt closer to him and pinned his left hand to the ground with her knee. “This has to be perfect, or so help me God, I will blow your brains out!”

  Sean found himself dragging in and out of consciousness before settling for the latter and staring at Jake struggling with Sarah as she tried to pin his hand around the gun and aim it in his direction.

  “Let him go darn it!” Sean yelled, crawling over and hurling his entire weight forward and collapsing on Sarah.

  A loud bang erupted as silence became of everything around the trio. Sarah barely moved but continued to stare into the widened eyes of Sean. Jake scrambled away, forcing Sean to move and roll on his side with the gun he had managed to retrieve from Sarah now in his hands. He had a second hole in his stomach and could barely keep his hands steady as Sarah confidently got to her feet and knocked it out of his hands.

  “That wasn’t the way I wanted it to go but I’ll settle for anything as long as it is your death”, she smiled wickedly and pulled him closer by his collar.

  Staring into his slowly dying eyes, she planted her lips into his firmly before shoving him backwards and watching Sean struggle for air. Sean looked to Jake and smiled crawling over to where the man was and managing to get within a few feet.

  “I was… “, Sean struggled for air and paused. “… never going to hand you over”.

  Sarah broke into another feat of laughter before hurrying over towards separating Sean from Jake. Jake felt Sean slip his cellphone back into his pocket while Sean dragged away groaning and screaming in pain. It gave him time to move, and Jake took it without thinking twice. Rolling on the ground and towards the gun she had kicked away earlier, he armed himself aimed at her and waited for Sarah to turn around as he flipped off the safety.

  Sean smiled, staring her right in the face and managing the words “You are fucked now bitch”, before letting go of her shirt and falling backwards with his breath ceasing immediately. Jake firmed his grip around the gun while his heart faltered with pain upon seeing Sean die.

  “Put the gun down Jake”, she warned.

  Jake remained still and focused. “You did all these”.

  She shook her head and wore a different expression immediately as she pointed in Sean’s direction. “They ruined my life… they made me into this and chose to live their lives in peace and happiness”.

  He wasn’t buying any of it, especially seeing beads of tears running down her face. Sarah moved her hands gently behind her and away from her body, prompting Jake to take notice.

  “Jake I really like you”, she whispered and drew closer.

  “Nobody makes you evil… trust me, I know because I’ve lived with this darkness in me all through my life and it is why I let myself kill”, he explained. “You have that same darkness as me”.

  Sarah paused and drew out a long knife she had hidden away immediately, lunging towards Jake but arriving too late as he squeezed hard and let rip three round into her, striking two in
to her chest and one in between her eyes. Her body collapsed in a large heap to the ground, followed by alarming sirens from police cars approaching the house.

  Limping as he got to his feet and barely able to make proper run for it, Jake dragged himself out, just before Mike came rushing through the door with an embattled look on his face as they came to face with Sarah and Sean dead on the scene.

  “You crazy bitch!” he thought to himself. “You messed up everything”.

  He looked around for Jake but he was nowhere to be found.

  “Search everywhere for Detective Jake!” Mike commanded, sending the police officers in chase of the man immediately.

  Standing before the two bodies, Mike could tell Jake was gone for good… it was without an iota of doubt coursing through his entire body.

  “I will keep searching for you”, Mike muttered and turned around.

  ***

  Mark Hammon awakened to the familiar tone of his daughter speaking, but to an even more disturbing sight of an overhead lamp and himself being gagged atop a surgery table.

  “What in the… “, he mumbled before seeing Jake’s face slowly crawl into focus.

  Smiling and bearing a surgical blade in hand, Jake spoke, “Hello Mark”.

  Mark felt his throat clamp together and his breathing becoming increasingly difficult. Jake had been wanted for the past six month and barely been sighted but there he was, smiling and bearing the most convincing look of evil in his eyes.

  “Normally I like to work without noise or distractions but even you have to understand the need to listen to the treachery in your daughter’s words as a spur to make this more memorable for us both: Jake continued to smile.

  Mark Hammon listened to his daughter ramble on about how her father had handed her information about Susan and also managed to lure Sean Stein out of hiding so she could have her revenge and deal with those who stained his gracious name.

  “I had no part in this”, Mark pleaded. “It was all Angelina… I swear”.

  Shaking his head and placing the blade by the man’s head, Jake drew closer. ‘I have a feeling you were this convincing with Sean too before leading him like his wife to the slaughter”.

  He taped the man’s mouth before he could begin speaking immediately and stretched some bit before picking his blade again.

  Taking another look at the cellphone with which Sean had recorded all his conversation with Angelina in the meat house, Jake muttered with a tone of relief, “For Sean and Susan”.

  Mark Hammon’s scream would travel around the room but barely make it past the thickened walls. Jake had specially created the room for his work and he definitely wasn’t going to be disturbed…