Cheater's Paradise

by Keith Trimm

  “I’m as real as you need me to be,” his mother replied.

  Bob turned to the group sitting at the table. “Do you see her?” he asked.

  Nobody replied. It was as if they all thought he was nuts.

  “Does anyone see a sixty year old woman standing right here?” he asked.

  Cindy replied, “No.”

  Bob looked back at his mother and she was gone. At that moment, everything changed for Bob, he no longer needed to hide, he was sick of the life he was leading and needed to live again, if for only a short time. The girl in the tree weighed heavy on his mind, and he wanted nothing more than to stop Momma and her family from killing any more innocent people. He looked to Jack and said, “I’m leaving.”

  “I know,” Jack replied.

  “And you’re coming with me.”

  Jack shook his head, “You don’t have to take me, and you know you can go on your own.”

  “I need your help, I don’t know what the fuck you are, or where you came from, but if you have a soul, you’ll help me stop those motherfuckers from killing anyone else.”

  “What about Cindy?” Jack asked.

  “It’s up to her, she’s taken over the mother roll here since Anne died, and the kids need an adult.”

  Cindy spoke up, “And we need a father figure as well! I can’t take care of this place all by myself.”

  “You have Aaron, he’s capable of being the man of the house,” Bob said.

  “At fifteen?” Cindy asked.

  “I’m sorry, I can’t stay here any longer, you can come with me or stay, it’s up to you,” Bob said.

  Cindy looked at Bob in stunned silence. He was the one who brought her out here in the first place and now he was going to abandon her. “These two have only known this cabin and these woods, taking them into the real world would be devastating for them.”

  “Let them decide,” Bob said.

  Aaron and Sandra sat silent, neither one wanted to speak up.

  “I know this is short notice, and I intend to stay for a week or so, but you two need to decide so I can make plans,” Bob said.

  Aaron replied, “We’ll talk about it and let you know.”

  “Good,” Bob said. He then turned to Jack and said, “Now we need to make a plan.”

  Chapter 30

  Death in the Family

  Bob and Jack approached the largest out building at Momma’s place alone. Aaron, Sandra and Cindy all decided to stay back at the cabin. The snow was still a foot thick but it was clear on an overcast day. Bob pointed out to Jack where he had dug through the basement noting that it was now covered and repaired. The two made their way around the building to the front keeping an eye on the main house. Once at the front of the main building, they looked in the window to see what they could inside. There were lights on, but they didn’t see anyone in the large open area where the tractors usually park.

  Feeling secure, Bob opened the door slowly and walked inside. Jack followed and closed the door behind him. In the back of the building they could hear the sound of a radio playing country music and the sounds of a buzz saw turning on and off. Part of the building was partitioned off with walls to create work and office space, it was from here the noise was emanating. Together, the two men walked across the concrete floor to where the sounds were coming from, they did their best to remain silent.

  Once they reached the work area, Bob took notice of a man through a window dressed in a white apron covered in blood. On the table in front of the man was a human body in mid dissection. The buzz saw they heard was being used to cut the ribs open. Behind the butcher, hanging from the wall was another body dangling from hooks upside down draining blood into a bucket. The head and arms were removed.

  Both Bob and Jack brought hunting knives to kill, but so did the butcher from what they could see. They needed better weapons so they quickly looked around at the clutter pile against the wall to see if they could find something better. The pile was full of iron pipe and angle iron strewn with old metal fencing and car parts. Bob found a nice three foot brown pipe and picked it up, Jack found a hammer sitting on a table. Once they were satisfied, Bob confidently marched into the butcher shop and confronted the man with the saw. “Who else is here?” Bob asked shouting.

  The butcher looked up at Bob in stunned shock. “Who the fuck are you?” he asked.

  Bob raised his pipe in an offensive posture and took a step towards the butcher. “Are you alone?” he asked.

  The butcher stood silent and dropped his arms to the table.

  “I asked you a question!” Bob yelled.

  Jack broke in, “If you keep yelling we’ll find out soon enough, shut up.”

  Bob nodded his head, he was on a high and needed to calm down a bit. “Is Momma out here?” he asked the butcher.

  “Momma died last month,” the butcher replied.

  “Who’s in charge now?”

  “Henry.”

  “Where is he?”

  “In the house,” the butcher replied.

  “Who else is out here?” Bob asked.

  “Me, Henry and two others.”

  “Where are the other two?”

  The butcher stopped talking.

  “You have three seconds to tell me,” Bob said.

  “You’re going to kill me regardless, why bother?” the butcher asked.

  “You’re right,” Bob said taking a swing at the butcher. Anticipating his strike, the butcher pulled away and took a glancing blow to the left shoulder. Bob moved in close and cornered the butcher and swung repeatedly against his head and shoulders. A few good hits and the butcher was down for good with a cracked skull bleeding on the floor. “We have three more to go,” Bob said.

  Jack looked at the butcher with disgust, not only because he was cutting people up, but also the condition he was in on the floor. He looked like he had been in a car wreck. “You want to go in the house?” Jack asked.

  “Not yet, I think the other two are in this building somewhere, probably in the basement.”

  “I’ll follow you,” Jack said and the two men walked to the staircase that led to the basement. Bob had been here before and knew the layout.

  Once in the basement, the two slowly crept around the hallway listening for the sounds of the two other men. It didn’t take long before they heard the sounds of them yelling at a prisoner. At the end of the hall, they peered around the corner and saw one of the men kicking a nude man to the floor. The prisoner was bound so the kick was a chicken shit blow to show power. “You’re next,” one of them said to the prisoner. “Do you know what we’re going to do with you?” he asked.

  The prisoner lay silent on the floor.

  “We’re going to kill you, skin you and cut you up. Make sausage out of you,” the man said taunting.

  Listening to this man torture his prisoner made Bob’s blood boil. Bob had been a bouncer for years and knew how to take out unruly drunks. All he had to do now was summon his memories and do the same to these two fucks. Bob looked to Jack and nodded. He looked back around the corner and stepped out with his pipe in his hand. Before the men noticed him, he had pulled back and struck the closest man in the back of the neck with full force. Jack ran over to the second man and slammed the claw part of his hammer into his chest. He pulled the hammer out and stuck him with it again in the side of his jaw.

  The wounded man put up little fight and almost lay waiting for his fate. It was as if he knew this was coming one day and this was his day.

  “Fight! You sick fuck!” Jack yelled.

  “No, I deserve this,” the man said back on his knees, his jaw was cracked and bleeding, but he was able to speak.

  “Yes you do,” jack said and cracked him over the top of the head with the head of the hammer. With a crack and a dull thud, the man fell over onto the floor.

  Bob walked over to the prisoner who was tied and lying on the floor. “Are you alright?” he asked.

  “I’m ok, who are you?”

&
nbsp; “I was locked up in that room about six months ago, I got out, now you get to leave.” Bob took his hunting knife and cut the binds that held the prisoner allowing him to stand. “Is there anyone else locked up?” Bob asked.

  “No, there were three of us, I was the last one.”

  “Sorry to hear that, your friends didn’t make it,” Bob said. “You better get dressed and get the fuck out of here.”

  “What are you guys going to do now?”

  “I have one more fuck to take out, then I’m done,” Bob replied.

  “Can I help?” the prisoner asked.

  “If you want, but I think me and Jack can take care of one guy.”

  The prisoner took off into his cell to gather his clothes and put them on. “I want to kill that fucker just as much as you do,” the prisoner said from his cell.

  “What’s your name?” Bob asked.

  “Bill,” the prisoner said walking out of the cell dressed.

  “Ok Bill, let’s go,” Bob said leading the way back up to the main floor.

  “How do you want to do it?” Bill asked.

  “I’d like to start the house on fire and burn the bastard to death, but I want to make sure I got him.”

  “We could cover all the entries and search the house,” Bill said.

  “That could be messy, if he had a gun and saw one of us coming, he could shoot or run.”

  Jack chimed in, “You want to wait him out?”

  Bob thought for a second as they passed through the butcher shop. Bill turned his eyes away from his friends that were in mid process. “I want him to come out, I don’t want to go in. He has the advantage inside.”

  “How do we get him to come out?” Jack asked.

  “I think eventually when his family fails to return that he will come a looking. Then we ambush him.”

  “That could take all fucking day. We need to give him a reason to come here.”

  Then Bob had an idea, why burn the house when he could burn the out building instead? The smoke would draw Henry out and then they could get him in the driveway. “I have an idea,” Bob said. “Find me a lighter, or a match.”

  “I have a lighter,” Bill said.

  “Give it to me,” Bob said taking the lighter from Bill. “I want you two to hide on the sides of the house, I’m going to light this place up, when Henry comes out to check on the smoke, you guys take him out.”

  “Good idea,” Jack said.

  Bob looked around for something that would burn as Jack and Bill headed out the door. It didn’t take long to find a pile of greasy rags and set them ablaze. The grease made thick black smoke that quickly filled the air and darkened the room. Bob tossed on some boxes to get a good fire going and took off to the door, in a flash he was outside propping the door so air could get in and smoke could get out. Before he could find a place to hide, he heard, then saw a pickup pull into the driveway towards the house. Henry wasn’t inside, he was coming home. Either way, Henry was going to die and this whole butcher shop was going to end.

  Henry pulled the truck up to the house and got out, he ran over to the building where the smoke was pouring out and ran face to face with Bob who was standing waiting for him with his hunting knife in his hand. Henry took a step back as if he was going to bolt and then slipped on the snow and fell on his back. Bob took this opportunity to jump on Henry and put a knee on his chest and a knife to his throat. “Hi Henry,” Bob said. “How are you?”

  Henry gasped for breath breathing in the smoke while having his chest compressed. “I thought you were dead!” Henry said.

  “I am dead, I was dead a long time ago, just didn’t know it, now you’re going to join me,” Bob said. “I just wanted the satisfaction of looking you in the eye when I took you out. I’m sorry your mother died, I would have loved to have killed that bitch too.”

  “My mother isn’t dead,” Henry said.

  “What?” Bob asked, feeling a knife stick into his back. He turned to see Momma standing behind him, hunched over, and holding the knife that had been in his back. Henry took the opportunity to grab Bob by the arms and pull him out into the driveway. To his shock and horror, Bob saw a semi pull into the driveway. He realized there were more victims inside, and that he had done little to stop the operation. He now was going to be cut up and turned into stew meat. Momma had won, and quickly Bob faded away.

  The End