Just then I heard what I thought were footsteps up the stairs. Katja eased down on Nazir’s body and I twisted his arm to rest on her back as if they were asleep. I then yanked my top off and hurriedly went through my purse to get the syringe before sitting on the couch with Adlan. However, before I could retrieve it the door opened and Aslan came in.
As he entered the room he looked over at us. I put my finger over my mouth and made the “shhhh” sound. The deception was working. When I got up and approached him he shook his head, “Quite a party I see.” I giggled, “Yeah, the only problem is that everyone gave out and I am still full of energy, if you know what I mean.” He stepped back, “You are still Nazir’s woman. It would not be right, understand?” I shook my head, “He let Adlan do me during the party while he screwed Petra so what’s the problem?” As I began to caress my body and look at him I asked, in my most seductive voice, “Can’t we have a little fun? Come on, take your shirt off and show me what you got.” He began to grin. He nodded his head and pulled off the t-shirt to expose his extremely muscular, waxed chest, covered with tattoos. My heart raced as I realized that he could probably snap me in half even without any special fighting skills. I smiled back at him and then to my purse with the syringe. I realized at that moment I might have to make a few more sacrifices of my own so I wrapped my arms around him and we began to kiss. Aslan wasted no time at all. Within a few moments of feverishly making out he reached forward and unfastened my shorts. Once they slipped off he yanked me up into the air and said, “My lucky night. I can compare the little Russian girl I had earlier with an American. We see who is best.” I nervously looked back to my purse. I needed that needle! I asked, “Can we do it over there on the floor?” He shook his head, “The floor? Dogs do it on the floor. I will move Adlan and we do it on the couch.” I became terrified. I had no choice but to ask, “Please, right here and now. Do whatever you want with me!” I began to kiss him with as much intensity as I could. He eased me down, yanked off his pants and hoisted me back into the air with seemingly no effort. I was at his mercy as I realized what was to take place. Just as he was about to violate the last thing physically unique to my relationship with Matt he grunted, “You are bigger than that little Russian was. No, I want the couch.” He sat me down and I immediately asked, “Can’t we do it on the bed over there?” He turned to me, “That is where my brother sleeps. I will not defile his place of rest.”
He rushed over and pulled the blanket off Adlan. Noticing the bindings he screamed, “What the fuck?” and looked back at me with a glare of pure hatred! He threw the coffee table separating the sofas across the room, grabbed Katja by the hair and hurled her across the room as well. He put his hand on Nazir’s throat and turned to look at me. Like a naked half-human, half animal he sprinted towards me and tackled me to the floor! He positioned himself on top of my chest and began to scream something in his native language. Suddenly he took my hair in one hand and it felt as if he were trying to pull my head off as he yanked upwards. The other hand was placed on my throat and then he began to squeeze with all his strength. I kicked and hit him with all the strength I had but every time my fist connected with his body it was as if I were encountering solid wood. He let go of my hair and effortlessly wrapped both hands around my neck. I looked up at him and saw no emotions on his face. I frantically tried to scratch at his arms and chest but nothing seemed to affect him. As I approached the moment of realizing I would soon lose consciousness I am not sure why but I stopped fighting. Instead, even with the intense pain I felt as he was crushing my neck I began to run my hand across his chest. It was if I felt a connection to him…he was the one who could put an end to my life and maybe this was some sort of intimacy. I gave up and let my arms drop. At that moment the pain disappeared. I stared into his eyes and smiled as I patiently waited for the inevitable. A strange sense of euphoria came over me. I awaited the transition from life.
Suddenly I felt his body jolt and he released my throat! He flew off my body and I rolled away. At first I tried to suck in air but for some reason the muscles in my neck would not respond. As I struggled to cough I finally managed to take in some breath. I heard a loud crash. Pain permeated my body again and I dizzily forced myself onto my knees. What I saw was Katja sprawled out on the floor next to the bed and Aslan struggling to remove the hypodermic needle from the space between the shoulder blades one can never quite reach to scratch an itch. He was screaming in Russian at Katja as he thrust towards her and lifted his leg to stomp on her head, but instead he fell to the floor onto his back onto the large Persian rug. His screams turned to moans. I stood up and tried to regain my composure and as I did Katja too stood up and began to stare with a face of rage at the struggling man before her. Before I could approach her she twisted around, grabbed a pillow and fell on Aslan! The tables were turned on him. The poison would probably have killed him but Katja took out her rage as she pressed the pillow tight against his face. His arm muscles contracted but he was unable to raise them in feeble attempts to grab onto her. This reminded me of the big man Vincent had subdued outside the bar in Nevada. Yet the next scene I would never have imagined…Katja yanked off the pillow and the weakened Aslan gasped for air. Katja looked around and found a piece of broken glass from the coffee table and grabbed the long shard. Before I could manage to either stop her, or use my voice to ask her to stop, she jumped to position herself above his groin. The next few seconds must have offered her a sense of the ultimate revenge as she proceeded to completely castrate Aslan! Blood immediately drenched the rug. He let out one last, loud groan and his body began to go into violent spasms. This horrific scene lasted at least a minute before it just stopped, and all was silent, except the sound of his last, slow sigh of death.
Finally I managed to use my vocal cords. I could only whisper but I called out, “Katja?” She turned and smiled in a dark disturbing way. She was covered in blood. I asked, “Are you okay?” She laughed, again in a disturbing fashion and held up her trophy and smiled. I was somewhat worried as she still had the shard of glass in her other hand. I wondered if she might turn it on me. There was perfect silence as she maintained her expression…focused on me; the only sound the blood running down her raised arm and dripping into a pool on the carpet. I managed to say, “We need to clean you up my love. Don’t move off the rug. I’ll go get some towels, okay?” She giggled, “We did it Melanie!” I nodded my head, “Yes we did, but we still have work to do, okay? Adlan is still alive and…” She again giggled, “Not for long. It’s his turn now.” I needed him alive. I said, “We need to find out something from him first. We need to get rid of these bodies too. There is flammable liquid in the storage room so we take the bodies away and return to burn this place to the ground. I’ve done this sort of thing before.” She looked up at the contents of her hand and suddenly released them. As they dropped to the floor she began breathing heavily before looking to me, “Melanie, I think I need a shower!” I reached out to her and took her other hand. We stared into each other’s eyes for a moment and it was then I realized I had taken her to the ultimate point of no return. I felt a rush of compassion as well as love. I wanted to express it but we needed to hurry. I asked her, “Wait just one second.” I ran into the storage closet and grabbed towels. I dried her off and then wrapped the towels around Aslan like a large diaper to catch as much blood as possible. Once I completed that task I led Katja into the bathroom. She began to cry and shake and mutter something in Russian. I was nervous and could not help but lose it, “Stop it, stop it now do you hear me?” She suddenly turned pale white and stood motionless in the tub for a few seconds before covering her mouth jumping out and collapsing in front of the toilet. Apparently her stomach just could not take it. While she was busy throwing up I went out to the living room to make sure Adlan was still alive. I then examined Nazir, just to make sure. Of course there was no doubt about Aslan.
I heard the shower turn on. As I surveyed the mess I realized there was no other way to con
ceal what had happened except to set the place on fire. When Katja returned she was clean trying to dry her hair. She complained, “It is really hard to get blood out of long hair…I felt like just cutting it all off but we don’t have time.” She looked at the mess that was now Aslan and commented in a tired, monotone, voice, “I am sorry Melanie. I don’t know what overtook me.” I was worried she might go into shock. That was the last thing I needed so I tried to comfort her, but also to raise her adrenaline levels I asked, “What did these creatures do to you?” She began to cry and embraced me. She soon loosened her hold and said, “It was not just Adlan and Aslan, but those bastard cops!” Her voice contained raw anger, which is what I wanted. We had a lot of work to do before we had the luxury to relax, or experience shock.
She explained, “Adlan told me to go with Aslan a few days ago. We drove out to some house outside of Portland. Aslan had told me that I was to provide a night of fantasy to a man who was into a lot of weird fetishes including erotic asphyxiation. He assured me I would be okay and it would all be harmless.” She continued to explain, that when they arrived at the house there were two men wearing police badges. Everyone undressed and went to a swimming pool, including Aslan. He handed her a tube, forced her underwater and handcuffed her on the pool ladder with nothing but that tube to allow her access to air. All three raped her over and over again while frequently plugging the tube. She described the event in detail that caused me to want to castrate Adlan right then and there as well. The only thing holding me back was that I needed him to answer some very important questions; oh, and it would just add to the terrible mess already in the room.
I gave Katja a re-assuring hug and said, “I’ll be there for you the rest of your life.” She quietly looked down and then straight into my eyes before giving me a gentle kiss and asking, “Do you promise?” I brushed her hair back, “Of course, I love you!” She started crying again and asked, “How can you love me? I have been drug through hell – I am not even sure I deserve to live. And look what I just did!” I raised her chin with my hand and demanded, “You never, ever talk like that again! You were the victim and these were the demons who tortured you. They got what they deserved, do you hear me? Besides, if you ever so much as threaten to hurt yourself I will kill you on the spot!” She laughed a little and asked, “Do you promise?” I rolled my eyes and said, “No, I love you too much to do that.”
I then took charge of the situation as time was not on our side. As Katja went over to her clothes I stopped her and warned her that we needed to avoid as many traces of being in that room as possible. I told her that we needed to clean up as much of the blood as possible and then shower. I told her to pack all her things, and clean up the bathroom. I would go check the desk for any signs that could point to us, including any copies of fake identifications. Of course the leg bracelets would have to be removed eventually, but that was a low priority for the moment.
I asked Katja to gather all her personal belongings while I checked the office. I took all the money in the safe – which Adlan for some reason had not closed and to my delight that is where all the employment papers had been located. I had already confiscated the security recordings, but I had to make sure there were no other cameras anywhere. I checked and checked but nothing seemed to indicate any other security. I rushed up the stairs and grabbed a few large plastic bags out of the storage. Thanks to the mess Katja had made of Aslan He would have to be carefully wrapped up before moving him. Then, just as I was about to leave the room I noticed a sign in the corner that read, “The bar is closed today for business.” I grabbed it and tossed it down the stairs before going in to Katja.
I instructed Katja to continue cleaning while I put Aslan and his severed part into a large plastic bag, then another and another. When I was through you could barely tell a body was sealed inside. Katja had thrown her things into a leather duffle bag, and once she said she had taken care of any evidence, including placing the beverage containers into the dishwasher and turning it on, I asked her to get dressed. Our next big project was moving the bodies down the stairs and then rinsing off.
We wrapped each of them, including the still-living Aslan, in blankets and carried them down the stairs. I ran outside, moved the car to the back entrance and opened the trunk. I put the sleeping bags into the back seat and made room for the new cargo. Then we quickly carried out Nazir and stuffed him into the trunk. Next was Aslan who we squeezed into the other half. We stuffed two of the sleeping bags into the trunk, and placed Adlan into the back seat – covering his body with the blanket to make it appear he might be asleep in case of any cops. Finally, I had remembered the black tape trick and carefully changed the license plate numbers so no traffic camera would place the car anywhere on the route. When completed we ran in, took one last shower, locked the doors and left the place as one would when closing, except I hung the “closed” sign in the door. My plan was to return the next night and complete the task of torching this place.
However, when getting ready to go I realized that to make it look as if the Zagriev brothers had torched their place and skipped town then it was unlikely they would leave a brand new BMW parked in the back. I instructed Katja to follow me as I retrieved the keys out of Nazir’s pocket. She at first seemed resistant to drive a car with two dead bodies and an unconscious Aslan, but there was no other way. I altered the numbers on the BMW as well.
It was near 1:30am in the morning on a weekday, so there was not that much traffic. Katja seemed to have little trouble keeping up with me. We had agreed not to use the cell phones unless absolutely necessary. Soon we were on the highway and heading out of Portland and towards eastern Oregon.
About an hour later we came to my favorite little burial spot on the Columbia River. We both pulled over and I rushed over to her to ask how she was doing. She seemed more alert and more in control of herself. I looked in the back and Adlan was stirring a bit but was still unconscious. I then instructed Katja in the art of body disposal.
Once we had removed all wallets and any other means of identification, we stuffed the corpses into separate sleeping bags. It was particularly difficult to fit Aslan in a bag since the plastic made him take up a lot of volume but we managed to stuff him in as well as a few heavy boulders. I explained the trick with the heavy rocks, using wire to make sure the bags remained closed, and using flashlights to know the bodies sank into the murky depths of the river. When it was finally time to hurl the bags over the cliff we decided to start with Aslan. As we positioned ourselves to toss him to his watery grave it quickly became apparent that Katja, while a slender young woman, was quite strong. She picked up the front with ease and after swinging him back and forth three times we launched him into the water. All the contents of the bag sank quickly – within seconds the light in the bag vanished under the enormous currents of the river.
I complimented her on her strength and she laughed, “I guess all those years of gymnastics my parents paid for came to use after all.” Maybe it was the association I had developed between this ritual and intimacy, but I had to fight the urge to grab Katja and express my primitive urges for her. I had to remind myself that we had one more body to go and then we still had to finish business with Adlan. We hurled Nazir’s body over the cliff with equal success and turned our attention to Adlan.
By this time Adlan was starting to wake up. I opened the back door and drug him out of the car – upon hitting the ground he groaned and seemed to become aware of his predicament. As we drug him away from the car he focused his attention on me and began to speak, “What in hell are you doing? Let me out of this now Amber or I swear…” I kicked him in mid-sentence and stooped down over him. I forced him to look at me and I asked, “Why did you try to kill my family?” He growled and said, “What are you talking about bitch, I have no idea who your family is!” I yelled, “Wrong answer!” and I kicked him in the side again. As he growled obscenities at me I asked, “Oh, I suppose you deny letting Aslan hold Katja, I mean, uh, Petra unde
r water so some pervert could rape her, right?” He yelled back, “What, that whore? I did not let her drown, did I?” I looked at him and shook my head. This might take longer than I had anticipated.
I asked, “Why did you abuse Katja – that’s right, her name is Katja Ivanova! Does that ring any bells you jerk?” He groaned again and said something in Russian to which Katja suddenly pounced on top of him and began hitting him in the face. She demanded, “Say it in English you fucking monster – tell her what you just said or I will crush your skull with a rock!” I pulled her off and he coughed as he growled, “Yes, I was right. I guessed last week you and that whore that died months ago were family!” Suddenly his tone changed and he began to plead for his life, and that of his brothers. He promised. “I’ll give you money…yes, lots of money. And I promise no Zagriev will ever try to find you, ever!” We just listened to his pathetic cries for mercy until I got on my knees and said, “Adlan, your brothers are already dead so I cannot help you there.” He screamed out in desperation and actually began to cry. I then grabbed his head and demanded a full explanation of the fire.
Adlan looked confused but then asked, “Who are you?” I replied, “What, you don’t even know? How many people do you try to burn alive?” Pleading for mercy he asked again, “Who are you?” I asked him, “Does the name Melanie Lindberg ring any bells?” His eyes grew wide and that is when he began another pathetic plea for mercy, “You are that politician? That cannot be – you are…” He hesitated and then, perhaps upon putting everything together in his mind he resumed his petition for his life, “I had nothing to do with the fire – that was those cops! Look, I tell you who they are and you let me go?” I replied, “I will consider it.” He said, “It was Donald Smith and Craig Meyers, they are vice cops and we have a deal – they get money and we get protection…and they also get use of the women. Look, I tell you they are sick, really sick, psychos. It was Meyers who fucked your friend in the pool, okay? It was Meyers who accidently killed that woman she is related to!”
Descent Into Darkness Page 29