Becoming...

by Jacob Rayne

  But he knew that the clown was the only person bad enough to help him take out the infamous Marshton Eight.

  He resisted his impulse, though it physically sickened him to leave the clown alive for a second longer.

  And in spite of his hatred and disgust at the clown he was thrilled at the possibilities his loathsome accomplice provided.

  ‘Beer?’ the clown asked, raising his eyebrows suggestively.

  Luke shook his head. ‘Another time,’ he said.

  ‘Hey, I was impressed there. Setting fire to him like that was fucking genius. This is going to be fun.’

  You have no idea, Luke thought, his smile hidden by the dead skin that covered his true features.

  He put a cigarette into his mouth, lighting it with the flames on the burning body. He walked back to the car, enjoying the nicotine rush – which further enhanced the much stronger rush of his triumph over two of his attackers. His blood lust was satisfied for the time being.

  He took Scotty’s corpse out of the boot, enjoying the way the dead eyes stared into the night sky, and left the body on the gravel drive.

  At the front of the house, he had a quick look to make sure that nothing looked out of place in the garden.

  He could not risk being caught until he and the clown had killed all of the gang. The thought of leaving any of them unharmed made his blood boil.

  They were all going to fucking suffer.

  Chapter 101

  An involuntary shudder went through Alfred as he watched his strange associate walk away. Something about the kid freaked him right the fuck out.

  Alfred wrapped the body in one of the tarpaulins from the garage, placing some bricks inside. He tied the tarpaulin up with a length of rope and dumped it in the pool. The black cylindrical form disappeared beneath the murky water.

  He turned back to Billy, who had stopped moving. The flames dwindled.

  Alfred got some water from the pool and poured it over the smouldering corpse. There was a loud hiss as the water put out the dying flames.

  He wrapped Billy in a tarpaulin in the same way as he had Scotty, dragged him to the pool and watched another corpse sink to its watery grave.

  He made sure that the bodies were submerged – just in case anyone happened to look in the pool. The thick layer of scum atop the water made it difficult to see the bottom.

  He covered the pool with the tarpaulin and went back into the house.

  A few hours later, a noise in the dark awoke Alfred.

  His head pounding, he opened his eyes and glanced towards the source of the noise.

  Nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw the masked man’s dead face hovering in the dark above his bed.

  ‘Shh,’ the masked man said, clasping a cold, coppery-smelling hand over Alfred’s mouth.

  Alfred’s eyes bulged as he saw the mask properly for the first time. It looked like the kid had skinned someone and was wearing their face. Seriously fucked up.

  ‘Jesus, what the hell have you got on your face?’ Alfred shouted when the figure’s hand had retracted from his mouth.

  The masked figure laughed, a low ominous sound that scraped across Alfred’s ears.

  ‘Brought you a present,’ he said. With that he switched on Alfred’s bedside lamp. The light, dim as it was, hurt Alfred’s eyes after the darkness of his bedroom.

  He found himself staring at the bound, gagged form of a pretty brunette girl. She struggled against her binds, trying to scream for help.

  Alfred’s eyes bulged as he took in the naked, shivering girl. She was wide-eyed and whimpering. Just how he liked them.

  ‘I haven’t touched her,’ the masked stranger said. ‘Feel free to have some fun with her. Think of it as a thank you for your help with the lad I set fire to.’

  Feeling like the offer was too good to be true, Alfred looked from the girl to the man and back again.

  ‘Or there’s a dead one, if that’s more to your liking?’ Luke asked.

  Alfred shook his head and looked back to the girl, salivating at the thought of getting his hands on her.

  ‘I’ll leave you to it,’ Luke said, shutting the door as he left.

  Chapter 102

  Luke gave it half an hour before he ventured back to the bedroom. He had no desire to catch the clown in the act, risking the return of the nightmares from the night his family had been murdered.

  As he reached the top of the stairs, he heard a grunt of satisfaction which sickened him.

  Again he felt the urge to run in and gut the clown like a fish, but he knew that his plan would be worth it in the long run.

  He pulled the door open to see the clown lying next to the whimpering girl.

  ‘My turn,’ he said, trying to make it sound as though he was smiling. Taking the girl by the arm, he dragged her out of the bedroom.

  Alfred was basking in the glow of his recent orgasm and felt no need to intrude on the masked stranger’s fun. He’d been good enough to bring him a naked stunner, that meant he deserved some alone time with the girl. His eyes closed and he settled back into sleep.

  Luke dragged the traumatised girl to the car and took her to his home. He led her up to the bedroom, where he chained her to the radiator before leaving her in darkness.

  He drove back to Peth Vale and let himself in using the key he had taken for the back door.

  ‘This is a reality check,’ Luke told the drowsy clown. ‘So you don’t get any ideas of turning me in. You do and I’ll drive the lady you’ve just raped right to the cop shop where, I’m sure, Marshton’s finest will hang on every word of the story of what you’ve done to her. If that’s not enough, I also have the bodies of the slut and the bouncer that you killed. If you agree to play, I’ll not only let you have them to dispose of as you wish, but I’ll keep my promise and take you to the house of a truly tasty piece of ass.’

  With that, he flashed a photo of Kate from her glamour site. Alfred couldn’t stop the strand of drool which ran down his chin. He’d loved the previous photo, but this one was even better. She was wearing the tiniest panties and nothing else.

  ‘Yes, if you play along with my game, I’ll lead you right to her door. What you do then, of course, is up to you. I’m sure you can think of something fun to do with her. So, do I have your attention?’

  Alfred nodded.

  ‘Good. Because we can have such fun together, Alfred.’

  Chapter 103

  ‘In choosing victims, there’s more thrill where there’s more danger,’ Luke said.

  Alfred thought about it and decided that the masked lunatic had a point. ‘Who do you think we should go for?’

  ‘I think these fuckers would be a good test of our skills,’ Luke said, pulling out a newspaper clipping he had of the Marshton Eight. ‘Besides, we’ve already killed two of them, the others will be looking for us.’

  ‘Fuck it. Why not?’ Alfred said.

  ‘I’m glad you said that. These twats will be fun to kill. And we’d be doing the town a favour.’

  Alfred nodded. ‘So what do we do?’

  ‘Why don’t we head out now? I know where one of them lives.’

  ‘How do I know that this isn’t a trap?’ Alfred said.

  Luke chuckled ominously. ‘You don’t, I guess. But as a show of trust, I’ll let you have the bouncer’s body. The slut’s you can have after we’ve had our fun with these wasters.’

  Alfred looked him up and down and decided he wasn’t bluffing.

  ‘And the blonde girl’s address too?’

  ‘I’ll even drive you there,’ Luke beamed.

  ‘Yeah, alright then.’

  ‘Well, let’s go,’ Luke said.

  Chapter 104

  They left Peth Vale and parked up at the end of the back alley where the Marshton Eight had beaten Luke.

  Alfred waited in the shadows while Luke walked down the alley. A wolf-whistle made him turn to see Olly standing behind him.

  Olly was accompanied by another youth, who Luk
e did not recognise, probably one of the hangers-on, the hapless wannabes who followed the Marshton Eight around, dreaming of one day being as feared and respected as the gang-members.

  Luke waved to them and then began walking away. They followed him, as he knew they would.

  He turned and looked at them again. They continued to follow. He turned a corner and waited for them.

  When they got closer, they noticed the stitches around the neck of Luke’s new skin.

  ‘What the fuck?’ Olly said, a look of terror spreading across his face.

  ‘Let’s get the fuck out of here,’ the hanger-on said.

  They both ran, but Alfred burst from behind a bin and stabbed the hanger-on in the throat. The lad went down, choking on his own blood, his hands scrabbling uselessly at the spurting wound.

  Alfred watched him die, then hid the body in a wheelie bin. He carved a cross into the side of the bin so he knew where to find the body later.

  Luke pursued Olly, who ran into a house a few streets away. Olly came back out with Pete, a fellow member of the Marshton Eight. They were both armed with baseball bats.

  ‘I think he went this way,’ Olly said, pointing to the alley where the attack had taken place.

  Luke hid under a car and watched as two pairs of feet ran past him. He waited a few minutes, then climbed out and searched until he found them in the back alley behind Pete’s house.

  ‘Who we looking for here?’ Pete asked.

  ‘I don’t know. It looked like some young girl, but dead.’

  ‘Dead? What the fuck are you talking about?’

  ‘I mean she looked dead. Like I fucking said.’

  ‘So she died and suddenly decided to walk the streets for something to do? Lay off the fucking crack pipe, Olly. I’m going back inside.’

  Luke crept up behind them. Olly was nearest to Luke, with his back to him, imploring Pete to stay outside. He was wasting his breath; Pete had already returned to the house.

  Olly turned and ran over to Luke, thrusting the bat into his ribs.

  Luke doubled over, laughing. ‘You think you can fucking hurt me?’ he said, his disturbing laugh echoing round the alley.

  Olly lost his nerve and ran, dropping the baseball bat. Luke scooped it up as he passed. Olly slipped on his friend’s blood and bumped into the wall. This slowed him enough for Luke to catch up to him and smash the bat hard across his legs.

  He fell to the floor, screaming for mercy. Luke put his lights out with a solid blow to the temple.

  He dragged his unconscious enemy to the car, the lateness of the hour making for a distinct lack of witnesses. The locals knew better than to visit the alleys after nightfall.

  At the car, he bundled Olly into the boot then followed Alfred to the body of the hanger-on. They lifted the body into the boot and Luke drove them back to Peth Vale.

  In Peth Vale’s yard, Luke and Alfred removed the corpse from the boot, wrapped it in a tarpaulin and dumped it in the pool.

  Luke dragged Olly, the corpse-to-be, out of the boot and dropped him on the floor.

  Olly awoke screaming as he saw the grinning, bat-wielding clown standing over him.

  Alfred laughed and brought the bat down hard, just as Olly thrust his arm up to protect his head. There was a snapping sound and the forearm hung at a strange angle, the white bone sticking through the skin on the side of Olly’s arm.

  ‘Nice,’ Luke remarked, watching proceedings with a sickly grin.

  Olly screamed for the clown to stop. The bat sunk into his abdomen with a nauseating crack. Alfred brought the bat down hard on his head a few times. Olly twitched, his head hanging limp on his neck.

  Alfred gave him one more smash then leant down and took his pulse.

  He was already dead.

  ‘That’s how it’s fucking done,’ Alfred shouted, adrenaline coursing through his veins.

  Smiling beneath his dead skin mask, Luke shook his head and snatched the bat from Alfred’s grasp.

  Luke laughed as he brought the bat down repeatedly on Olly’s head, refusing to stop until it was a bloody pulp.

  His face, hands and clothes coated in a thick layer of dripping gore, he stared at the body.

  ‘That was fucking incredible,’ Alfred hooted, high-fiving Luke. Drops of blood flew from his hand as the palms connected. ‘True fucking brutality,’ Alfred raved. ‘Fucking A!’

  Luke felt a euphoric rush at having battered Olly’s head to mush.

  ‘We doing any more tonight?’ Alfred said.

  ‘Na, I’m beat.’

  ‘We have been busy,’ Alfred said. His black painted grin seemed to stretch all the way to his ears. Luke looked away, feeling ill from staring at the face.

  ‘I’ll be in touch,’ Luke said. ‘And we’ll kill the rest of the bastards.’

  ‘Fucking right we will,’ Alfred smiled. He turned and went back into the house. Luke washed himself in the pool, then drove away from the house.

  He headed towards home, but then changed his mind and went back to the alley where he’d been earlier.

  Chapter 105

  After dismissing Olly’s ramblings, Pete had gone inside, neglecting to shut the kitchen blinds. He also left the back door unlocked, reasoning that Olly would eventually give up his search for the drug-induced hallucination and come in to steal a beer or two.

  He woke an hour later, on the settee, his glass of Jack and coke perched next to him.

  His sleep had been disturbed by a persistent banging sound. At first, he had thought that the young couple next door were playing one of their kinky sex games.

  The noise came again. He rubbed his eyes and got off the settee, setting his glass down on the dusty coffee table.

  In the corridor he heard another bout of banging. It sounded like the back door hitting off its frame.

  Someone was in the house with him, he could sense it.

  ‘Olly?’ he called out.

  Silence.

  He moved into the kitchen and pushed the door open.

  His eyes scanned the darkened room, looking for the knife block, which usually held a single big, sharp kitchen knife that he kept, in case anyone ever broke in.

  The knife was not there.

  He switched on the kitchen light. It flickered on for a second and he saw his own reflection in the window.

  The light flickered off for a second, before coming on properly.

  He jumped.

  The reflection in the window now showed a figure standing behind him. The intruder’s face was grotesque, its eyes full of malignant energy.

  Pete turned to see that the figure held the missing kitchen knife.

  As he stared in disbelief at the intruder’s dead face, his eyes registered a number of flashes across his vision.

  Too late, he realised that the figure was slashing the knife at him.

  There was a searing pain and then he felt blood running down his cheek. His throat let out an involuntary cry of pain. It was a pathetic sound, and it made the figure laugh at him, before the knife again carved a path towards his face.

  The blade cut into Pete’s face again and again, sending sprays of blood up the walls.

  As Pete doubled over, clutching his bleeding face, Luke grabbed him and stabbed him through the stomach.

  Pete’s eyes widened. He looked as if he didn’t think that this was really happening to him.

  Before Pete could even raise his hands to protect himself, Luke had already stabbed him frenziedly, creating a dozen eye-shaped wounds.

  The blood streamed out of Pete and he fell to the floor, struggling to breathe. Blood bubbled from his chest.

  Luke watched Pete die, wrapped him in a bed sheet and put him in the boot of the car. He drove to Peth Vale, where Pete joined his friends in the pool.

  Luke washed the blood off himself and went home. He put a couple of petrol cans in the car boot, washed himself, and sat in the grounds of the house, thinking about what he had just done.

  Chapter 106
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br />   The next day, he crossed Scotty, Billy, Pete and Olly off the newspaper photo, taking this with him when he went out in the car that night to look for the remaining gang members.

  He remembered he’d seen Billy running from a house earlier, and guessed that it was the home of one of the gang.

  Leaving the car at the end of the street, he approached the houses. He pressed his face against the window of each house in turn, spotting Otis slurping a bowlful of chilli on the settee in the fourth house.

  When Otis left the house, Luke went round to the back door and booted it off its hinges.

  He went through the house, destroying everything he saw, then got one of the jerry cans from the car and began throwing the petrol around. He lit a cigarette, then dropped the smouldering match into the petrol-soaked carpet.

  When the entire downstairs caught ablaze, he laughed then walked out into the street and watched the scene from his hiding place.

  Five minutes later, Otis returned. Luke stifled a laugh as he saw Otis looking upset and confused about the situation.

  Otis stayed for a while, trying to put out the fire with buckets of water from his outside tap. After a while, he sensed he was getting nowhere and left.

  Luke followed him and listened in as he called the fire brigade, who recognised his voice from tapes of his infamous prank calls and laughed at his plight.

  Otis slammed the phone down and went to one of his friend’s houses. The friend was not one of the Marshton Eight.

  Luke found a brick on the floor near his hiding place. He picked it up, taped the amended newspaper page to it then approached the house occupied by Otis and his friend.

  After he had checked no-one was watching him, he threw the brick at the window.

  The glass shattered, breaking the silence of the sleeping street. Luke ran away. When he reached home, he laughed till he threw up. This was more fun than he could ever have imagined.

  That night he dreamed a great deal about Bryony. She appeared to him, but she was out of focus. Her voice seemed distant, unobtainable.