Flypaper Con: Dark Psychological Thriller - Book 4

by C. K. Vile

  The son of a bitch had this kid so snowed. If there was a line to piss on Clark’s tombstone, Delbert would be the first one in it. He’d be there weeks early, like those people who lined up for Star Wars tickets or Black Friday deals.

  Nick shook his head and pleaded at the side of Brundle’s head with his eyes. The hilarity of the situation didn’t escape him. His survival hinged on there still being a human being inside this Maggot.

  Brundle looked at him again. Nick nodded his head as enthusiastically as he could. Wump wump wump. The bed nodded with him.

  Yes. Look around you kid. This is a bad scene. He’ll kill us both.

  And again, Brundle looked away.

  “Okay, well I don’t know if I’ll be able to sit around and watch you fuck the guy up.” Brundle looked at the floor.

  Come on, kid.

  Then again, who knew? Maybe he was having second thoughts about the whole thing. Maybe he’d wise up and go tell someone where Nick was.

  It was wishful thinking at its finest, but it was all Nick had. His right arm throbbed with every pulse. The pain from his darkening hand creeped toward his shoulder.

  Delbert was quiet for a moment. The silence was made worse by the dog mask. It was impossible to know what he was thinking.

  Dammit, he’s going to kill this kid right here and now.

  “Nah, stay here.” Delbert gestured at the bed. “Help keep the bed still. He isn’t inclined to listen to me.”

  Nick screamed some more. Bad as his throat hurt, why did he bother? It seemed like a lot of discomfort for little return.

  Brundle sat on the bed next to Nick. The kid took painstaking efforts not to look at him.

  “Okay, here we go.” Delbert’s body tensed. He took a deep breath.

  Knock knock knock.

  Delbert and Brundlefly looked at each other. Nick didn’t need to see Delbert’s eyes within the mask to know neither of them expected company.

  “Shit.” Delbert stood up.

  Any return was better than no return. Nick screamed for the mountaintops. The back of his throat felt like enflamed sandpaper.

  Delbert tossed a pillow to Brundlefly. “I’ll take care of whoever it is. Quiet him up, however you need to.”

  Nick and Brundle’s eyes met again as Delbert moved for the door.

  Help me, kid. We can still get out of this.

  For a moment, Nick thought he got through. For the briefest of moments, the kid looked… remorseful.

  Then the pillow came down.

  Chapter 17

  Corpse knocked at the door again. She was less nice about it this time. Open up or I will open fucking up for you.

  Hellen threw her a look.

  “What? I know they’re in there, I heard moaning.” Corpse ignored her and rapped her fist against the thick wood. “Hear me? We know you’re in there.”

  Hellen moved away from the door. “I want to find him as much as you do—”

  “I doubt that.” Corpse gave the door a good kick with the nose of her combat boot.

  “—but this isn’t the way to help him even if he is in there. We just gave them a heads up.”

  Corpse paused for a moment. The Hell-bitch had a point. She gripped her bat in both hands—I missed you too, Princess—then reared back on one leg, ready to throw the other into the door full force.

  The door unlatched and swung open.

  Jane, dressed in some impressive dominatrix gear, pushed her razor-straight hair behind her ears and looked up and down the hallway. She wilted. “Aw. I’m disappointed Nick didn’t come.” She looked from Hellen, to Corpse and then the bat. “But I’m definitely open-minded.”

  Brian’s voice called from inside the room. “Who is it, hon?”

  Jane flung a shoulder back and called to him. “It’s just Hellen. And uh… Purple-Hair.”

  Corpse lowered her bat slightly. The vibe was creepy, but not psycho kidnapper creepy. If it was a disarming tactic, it was an effective one. “We can’t find Nick. He uh—you wouldn’t happen to have him would you?”

  Jane screeched. “You lost Nick?”

  Corpse raised her bat. “Okay, first off, I didn’t lose shit.”

  Hellen shoved herself in front of Corpse before she could really get going. “We don’t know where he is and he could be in trouble. This was pretty much the only place we could think to look. Can we have a peek around? It would put our minds at ease. Since you’d invited me over anyway?” She batted those ridiculous lashes of hers at Jane.

  Jane shrugged and smiled. “Sure thing. Come on in. I have to warn you though, you caught us playing.”

  Corpse followed Jane into the room and thought,maybe honey catches flies better after all. The webmaster gripped her bat’s handle and steeled herself for what would be—best case—some weird sexual shenanigans.

  As she walked up the short hallway into the room proper, she saw bare feet at the end of the bed. For a split-second, she dared to hope that she’d found Nick alive and well and that he was a good swing of the bat from freedom.

  Then she saw the rest of the naked figure on the bed.

  Sweet fuckity biscuits.

  Corpse looked away, but it was too late. Bare flesh, stainless steel, and plastic tarps all melded into a single image of medically questionable foreplay and forever burned itself into her retinas. “Oh god no, my eyes.”

  Hellen was close behind her. “Oh my fuck, I didn’t even know they coulddo that.”

  Brian casually lounged on the bed in a position that was anything but casual. “Hello, ladies.”

  “Jesus, Jane, do you have like, a medical license or something? That looks dangerous.” Hellen took in the entire scene, eyes wide, mouth slack in wonder.

  “Focus, Hellen.” Corpse looked around the room the best she could without looking directly at Brian. She dropped to the floor and looked beneath Jane and Brian’s love bunk, or examination table, or whatever the hell the appropriate term was. “He’s not under here.” She got up and explored the closet, loathe to touch anything in the room.

  “Okay, so getting back to—you lost Nick?” Jane repeated, the squeak in her voice increasing with each word. “How did that happen?”

  Satisfied, Corpse turned to leave. She poked her head into the bathroom on the way out. No Nick in there, either. “He disappeared on his way to see the Dipshit of the Dark, here. I’d hoped he’d willingly or unwillingly made his way to you.”

  “Have you asked around?” Bless Jane’s sadistic little heart, she wanted to be helpful. Corpse doubted her ability to do that unless Nick was hiding in Brian’s urethra. Or lower colon. She seemed to have all of the major lower orifices covered.

  Corpse walked out into the hallway and paced back and forth.

  Shit shit shit. Nick. Where are you?

  Hellen and Jane joined her. Hellen reached out to touch her, but then thought better of it and pulled back. “Corpse?”

  If someone had taken Nick and hid him away in the darkest corners of the internet, she could probably find him, or at least know where to start looking. In meat space? Forget it. Jane and Brian’s love shack was the only lead she had.

  Brundle was another good place to start, but only if one of the wonder twins here knew his name. Then she could at least dig her way into the hotel’s computers again and—

  “Corpse.” Hellen repeated.

  Corpse lashed out. “What?”

  Jane asked again. “Have you asked around?”

  The webmaster waved a hand. “That’s what we’re doing, but so far all we’ve found is like, years of nightmares. Thanks for that by the way.” She moved for the elevators. “Sorry to interrupt… whatever that was.”

  Jane tottered after her on her comically high heels. “No, I mean have you gone to the boards? I’d start by asking if anyone knows where that Brundlefly kid is.”

  Every crackling synapse in Corpse’s cranium urged her to start on the first floor of rooms and wander up and down the hallways kicking in doors in a
mad frenzy, but her body wouldn’t cooperate. Sleep deprivation, combined with the crash of cans upon cans of Power Up, was like piss in the gas tank.

  There was something to be said for healthy living after all.

  Jane was right, of course. Corpse considered her suggestion to tap into Myiasis and pitted it against the alternative of searching every room—every floor—of the hotel herself. There were more efficient ways of covering thousands of square feet. An army of technologically-advanced fanboys and girls, hyper-connected to an almost hive mind degree was one.

  Truthfully, they were more like bees than flies in that regard. The idea of what they could collectively do on a bad day—the perfect set of terrible circumstances—was enough to keep Corpse up at night, if she were the type to sleep at all.

  But with the right motivation—pointed in the right direction—they could be useful. A thousand eyes and ears, under the direction of a single brain. It was currently Nick’s last, best hope.

  If they could be trusted.

  Big if.

  Jane seemed to read Corpse’s mind. “We’re not all bad, I promise. A lot of us will only want to help. Please let us.”

  The high-strung dominatrix talked a lot of sense. The end days were surely upon them.

  Note to self: this is how supervillains are born. Must resist urge to dominate globe with Maggots.

  Corpse grumbled. “Okay. Let’s give Myiasis a try.”

  Chapter 18

  Nick sucked what air he could through his nose. The pillow Brundlefly held over his face made it harder than it needed to be.

  At the door, Delbert spoke calmly to whoever had come knocking. “Sorry, we were, uh, adjusting the bed. Didn’t mean to bother you.”

  The mystery voice wasn’t as calm. A deeper voice. Male. “Come for God’s sakes. What are you on? Viagra? Do you know what time it is?”

  Noise complaint?

  Noise complaint. Probably the room next door. Their neighbor could hear him. He thought there was sex happening instead of a kidnapping-torture sort of deal, but still, it was something.

  Nick rocked his body back and forth, slamming the headboard against the wall. He wailed as loudly as he could into the cloth pressed against him.

  Help me, come on, I’m in here.

  Delbert raised his voice to drown out Nick. “Sorry, we’re having a little party. Do you want to come in and watch?”

  Please be a Brian. Please be a Brian. Those four words were Nick’s new mantra. Nick’s lungs ached. Whether the guy at the door heard him or thought they were love moans, Nick didn’t care, he screamed anyway.

  “Sick. No. Just keep it down or I’m calling management.”

  Fuck no no no no hear me hear me. Hear my muffled screams, the bed on the wall, anything.

  The guy in the hall’s voice went up in pitch. “I’m sorry, but what exactly are you doing in there?”

  In opposition, Delbert’s voice went down. It became a growling, snarling vocalization of spite. “Here, actually let me show you.”

  The slam of a door shook the room. Light and air flooded back into Nick’s life as Brundle lifted the pillow away. The slamming in the hallway continued along the walls and culminated in the forceful open and close of the door to the next room over.

  Nick begged at the kid with his eyes and tried to form words around the ball in his mouth.

  He’s not the Administrator.

  It came out “Eh ah ee aieeiiaaor.” Not even close.

  Brundle squinted. He tried to make out what Nick had to say. It was a start.

  He’s not the Administrator.

  More garbled whining. Brundlefly turned his nose up. “I still can’t understand you.”

  Nick cocked a head to one side and threw Brundlefly a come on, really look. He rolled his eyes downward at the ball gag over his mouth.

  Brundle glanced at the door. “If you scream—if you make any noise at all—I’ll put it back.”

  Nick shook his head. He definitely wasn’t going to scream. If Delbert lost control of the situation, he’d probably kill them both in a blind rage.

  A thunderous crash from next door rattled the room. Muffled screams reverberated through the drywall separating them from the madness on the other side.

  Brundle reached for Nick’s head while keeping his body as far away as possible. He grabbed the strap at either side and popped the ball free of Nick’s mouth. It rested on his chin. Annoying, but serviceable.

  Nick sucked in air and smacked his lips together. “Fuck me, I think he’s killing the poor guy next door.” He looked at the kid. “That guy is not The Administrator. Come on. You have to see that.”

  The kid watched Nick warily. “How do you know? You’d say anything right now.”

  Nick made a fist with the hand that wasn’t pinned in a vise. He’d deck this kid if he could.

  Calm. Stay calm.

  His heart threatened to escape his chest. He resisted the urge to lose his shit. “I’m telling you. It’s Delbert Williams. Clark’s Cancer Man. The guy with the crabs. It’s him and he’s really fucking pissed about it.”

  Brundle processed this new information, but the skepticism was etched onto his brow.

  A prize fight took place on the other side of the wall behind the headboard. And if Nick had to take a guess, the poor bastard from next door would lose. Hard.

  He struggled to maintain his composure. “We don’t have time for you to figure this out on your own. I know you want very badly to be the smartest guy in the room, but right now you need to stop thinking and listen.”

  Brundle looked offended. The wall behind the headboard shook with the impact of something roughly the size of an adult male. Nick glanced backward. They didn’t have time for Brundle to be butt-hurt. “Look, forget everything else. If you don’t believe another word I ever say, believe this. That guy is fucking crazy and he’s going to kill me, and I’m pretty sure he’s going to kill you.”

  One final shudder of the wall. Nick was surprised the poor bastard next door didn’t come through from the other side.

  The kid wore the unmistakable look of a person who knew shit had gotten real. He was no Maggot. Not a real one. Not like Clark or the others. He wasn’t nuts. Just lonely and confused and suddenly treading water in the deep end of the crazy pool.

  Nick waved his left hand around at the wrist. “Hey, over here. Get me the fuck up.”

  Brundlefly was a deer in headlights—damn near useless in the face of the scenario he’d found himself in. Nick snapped. “Kid.”

  “Shit.” Brundle grabbed the strap on Nick’s left hand and unbound it. “Shit, shit, you’d better be right.”

  The door to the next room over slammed again.

  “No, no, no. Okay. You’ll never get the others in time. Cover the loose hand with the pillow. Nick mouthed at the red ball on his chin. “And the ball gag. Put the ball back. Fucking hurry.”

  Brundle’s hands trembled as he grabbed the straps on either side of Nick’s face. “I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do.”

  Nick lowered his voice. “Put the ball back. Get out. Get help. Go.”

  The kid pulled the straps back into place and the ball slid back into Nick’s mouth as the door to the room opened.

  Delbert stomped into the room, covered from dog mask to pants in blood. “Fuck it.” His fists, dark-red balls of fury, vibrated at the speed of hate. “Fuck it. Let’s skip to the good stuff.”

  Chapter 19

  CorpseFlower sat at her laptop. That was typical.

  Less typical; she sat in the hallway of the fifth floor in a strange hotel, in a strange city, surrounded by Maggots.

  Myiasis was only a website. A community united by love, admiration or general obsession, all centered around Nick Dawkins. In its years-long history, it had never been a physical place a person could visit.

  But this was close. Really, entirely, too fucking close.

  Maggots roamed the hallways of the building, wandering in and o
ut of each other’s rooms, and each one with a single purpose in mind: Find Nick Dawkins.

  Corpse muttered to herself. “What a shitshow.” She must have been insane, or desperate, or both, to attempt to control such a beast.

  Hellen stood over her and watched multiple live feeds scroll and refresh and update across the laptop’s screen.

  Corpse’s eyes darted from side to side, taking it all in.

  Useless.

  Nothing.

  Fuckery.

  Reeks of bullshit.

  An endless feed of garbage information, half-truths, and speculation. It was like looking at the pieces of a hundred different jigsaw puzzles in search of the corner of a specific one. Way too much information, not enough time or organization, even for her.

  The Hell-bitch spoke. “Do you really read that fast?”

  More nonsense. A buzzing in her ear. But Corpse indulged it. “You can’t read this fast? Shit, I slowed it all down so you could keep up.”

  Hellen tapped her foot. “Not necessary. Just find him.”

  Corpse suppressed her instinct to turn violent. “I’m trying. I have two-dozen live phone-based video feeds to monitor, a stream of approximately two tweets per second, a thread on Myiasis averaging one post every four seconds, and now an idiot jabbering in my ear. And none of it’s giving me anything I can use.”

  Jane walked out of her room and took in the Maggot-based activity overwhelming the hallway. She handed Hellen a glass of water. “This is amazing. I can’t believe you organized all this.”

  “Me neither.” Corpse rearranged several windows on her screen. “Nick is gonna shit a kitten if we get him back alive. I should never have let him out of my sight. Not here.”

  Hellen sipped from her glass. “We’ll find him, and don’t be so hard on yourself. You’re not his mother, you know.”

  Corpse glanced up at Hellen. “Holy shit, you really wanna go there, Hellvira?”