Rebel Princess - Book 2 (The Hope Saga)

by Chrissy Peebles

  “The boxing stance? Why don’t you just dance around like a moron?”

  I shot him a scowl. “This isn’t a boxing match but I’m going to take you down.”

  “Hmm. I kind of expected a long scream like the others, but you’re different. I should have known you would be.”

  The person I’d least suspected was the killer, and I was about to take my last breath if I didn’t do something quick. Unfortunately, just as I tried to kick him, I was met with the all-too-familiar sting of a taser, and it sent me crashing to the floor.

  I’m paralyzed!

  My muscles locked up and I couldn’t move. My body stiffened like a board. I felt helpless. Tingling and burning washed over my body. Electricity pulsed through me. It felt like I stuck my finger into an electric socket.

  Mr. Tams glared down at me and laughed. “Oh, Sky. Surely you didn’t think you could take me in a fight, skills or no skills.”

  “I knew a monster was walking among us,” I panted out. “I-I just had no idea it was you.”

  “Had you not knocked poor Walter out, I never would have attempted this today. He’s not supposed to be down here, but he’s the consummate workaholic. The poor guy. He’s not your killer, and he wasn’t your stalker. He’s just a sad, pathetic sap who wants to have a future with you. Personally, I think he’s a little creepy, but I’ve gotta give him credit for trying. Those diamonds were a nice touch.”

  “You knew about that?” I asked.

  “Of course. It was my idea, and I’ve been stoking the fires a little bit by telling him that you secretly adore him. As a matter of fact, I told him to make a move on you the next time he saw you and not to back down because you like things a little rough. And what’s he got to show for it? An egg on his head from a steel pipe! Oh, Sky, you are a bad, bad little girl.”

  “I can’t believe you set Walter up like that. You’re the pathetic one!”

  “I figured it’d keep you busy and off my trail,” he said with a laugh.

  I tried to move, but my muscles, still reeling from the shock, refused to cooperate. “Damn it! Why are you doing this?” I asked.

  He squatted down to look me in the eye. “We’re establishing a new world, Sky. We can’t risk any bad DNA getting in the gene pool up there. Let’s just say I’m…thinning out the herd. Bad DNA got my son killed in a gang fight by a bunch of thugs, and I mourn his loss every day.”

  “I’m sorry for your loss,” I said, “but I still don’t see how—”

  “We have to get rid of the females who will breed filth into our society.”

  “And what gives you the right to decide who’s bad?”

  “Dante. He put me in charge of it,” he said.

  “I don’t believe you!”

  “Really? That’s strange, considering how much you hate the man. You don’t believe he’d give me permission.”

  I said nothing and just glared at him.

  He continued, “You were actually first on my list, but for some reason, Dante tries to protect you.”

  “Protect me? Now I know you’re lying. He hates me.”

  He shook his head. “He kept me from killing you, but he said I was allowed to take anybody else, as long as it wasn’t more than one a month.”

  “So, if he doesn’t want me dead, then why are you defying your fearless leader now?”

  “Because,” Mr. Tams said, “contrary to what you think and say, I’m not just Dante’s yes-man.”

  “You can’t go against what he says.”

  “He’ll understand. He wants the trash gone just as much as I do. He only feels obligated to spare you because of your grandparents. I guess he figures we all owe them some sort of gratitude.”

  “How many bad eggs are on that list of yours, Mr. Tams?” I asked.

  “Only a few more,” he said, smiling evilly.

  “Now I know why the investigation has been so…lackluster. Walter started his own investigation, along with a few from the surface, but they never got anywhere.”

  “Dante doesn’t care about these girls, so he has no problem with me disposing of them. He did suggest that I have a patsy though. I picked Daryl, figuring it’d be easy enough to pin the stalking and the murders on him. It wasn’t too hard to set him up. I just planted pictures under his bed, and I made sure to kill the little tramps on Tuesdays, when he was off. I also planted lots of other evidence against him. When I finish cleaning house, he’ll be locked up for good, if not executed.”

  “You’re sick! How can you do that to Daryl? You won’t get away with it. They’ll never believe it.”

  “They won’t? Why not? You did. You were convinced he was your stalker, but it was Jeremy all along. Poor Jeremy. I guess he lost his tiny mind being stuck down here so long.”

  “And you haven’t lost yours?” I asked, furious to my core.

  “Nah. I’m doing this for the sake of our new world, a world that should only be populated by good, wholesome people.”

  “You didn’t strangle Jeremy, and he’s obviously not so wholesome. He tried to rape me.”

  “Yes, I know, and I will deal with him swiftly, just as I’ll deal with this weirdo here,” he said, pointing to Walter on the floor. “They don’t meet the right criteria, and we can’t have them soiling the gene pool up there, contaminating the new human race. Do you remember Sid?”

  “Of course. You killed her first.”

  “I had to. She was carrying Jeremy’s devil spawn.”

  I gasped.

  “It was easy enough to cast suspicion on her boyfriend. He was obviously jealous because she’d gotten herself knocked up by Jeremy, so he took revenge, right?” He snickered in a way that almost made me vomit. Then he clicked his tongue and shook his head. “Naughty boy, that Jeremy. I never liked him. I don’t see why everyone loves his family so much.”

  “They work hard around here, and they’re pillars of this community.”

  “They’re trash, Sky.”

  “You hate him, but haven’t you punished him enough? You killed his unborn baby and his lover.”

  “Why are you defending him? He tried to hurt you, rape you, and probably would have killed you. See? I’m a very good judge of character. I couldn’t have his evil seeds running amok in Vita.”

  “Mr. Tams, I think you’re leading on my aunt and your ex-wife. I bet you’re sleeping with both of them. If that doesn’t make you trash, I don’t know what does. Maybe you oughtta tie a piano wire around your own neck!”

  “It deems your aunt unworthy too. She knows how much I love my wife.”

  “Ex-wife,” I said. “Is my aunt on your hit list too?”

  “No. But I’ll be sure to comfort her when she cries over your dead body, be there to help her pick up the pieces. When I’m all finished cleaning house, Daryl will take the blame. She and everyone else in this place will hate him forever, and he’ll go down in our history as a vile villain, labeled a serial killer. Then, maybe one of those grief-stricken mothers will sneak in and finished the job for me.”

  “You’re a real piece of slime.”

  “No, I’m getting rid of the slime.

  “I don’t believe it. You’re trying to pretend you’re doing the world a favor, but there’s so much more to it.”

  “I’d love to pick your brain,” he said, smirking. “Please tell me more.”

  “You’re trying to tell yourself that this is all for the greater good of future mankind, but you’re also enjoying it at the same time. It’s why you took mementos from your victims. Why would you do that if you hated them and were only trying to rid the world of its trash?”

  “Because I do enjoy the kill. It helps me remember the thrill of watching the trash take their last breath. I replay it over and over again as I hold onto a cherished memento. For example. When I hold Annie’s turquoise ring, I remember how much she screamed and begged for her life. It’s exhilarating and there’s nothing quite like it. Until your boyfriend’s dad found my stash.”

  �
��Hard to get off on it, huh, when you don’t have your sick collection?”

  His face went blank as he peered at me. “Oh, Sky. Please don’t look at me like I’m a monster. Don’t you see? I was born to kill them. I was just filling my destiny.”

  “You need help,” I said.

  “Do you remember my second victim, Annie?”

  “Of course.”

  “She begged for her life and promised she’d be a good girl if I’d let her go. She whined and cried, telling me she’d never be like her father, but I knew better. Her old man was a murderer who killed Harvey in a fight. He had to be dealt with, so I killed him too. I couldn’t let those genes he passed on leak into our new society. She was unclean, and she had to go…just like you, Sky.”

  Something about his tone made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. “What makes me unclean?” I asked.

  “You had good breeding, but you’re rebellious. We can’t have people like you in our new world.”

  “So…you only want good little sheep, huh? Mindless drones who’ll comply with Dante’s every whim?”

  He snapped the piano cord, trying to intimidate me. “What we want, what we need are obedience and good morals. We can’t have people like you, Sky—people who break the rules and buck authority every chance you get. You’re a troublemaker, and you’ve got to be eliminated.” He slapped my face as his volcanic temper exploded.

  The whole moment seemed unreal, and I was frozen with fear. For a moment. Finally, I was able to wiggle my toe, regaining some control of my muscles. My life was at stake, and I had to overcome my temporary paralysis and fear and fight back. I knew I had to take control of the situation quickly, and I could hurt him badly, regardless of his physical strength and size. I couldn’t bear the thought of my friends attending my funeral, my Aunt Sarah sobbing. I had a sinking feeling in my stomach, but my survival instincts quickly took over. With what felt like the strength of 100 men, I charged, adrenaline surging through me. Strike hard and fast, I told myself. Show this heartless bastard no mercy.

  I drove my knee into his groin, causing him to lean forward, groaning in pain. That gave me full access to his face, so I grabbed him by his ridiculously floppy ears and drove my thumbs into his cold eyes. It was extreme, but I had to do something simple and brutally effective if I was going to survive.

  Screaming in agony, Mr. Tams fell to the ground.

  I quickly jumped on top of him and began banging his head on the floor. I refused to let him squeeze the life out of me like he had the other girls, so I slammed his head into the concrete again and again.

  Suddenly, he reached up and struck me in the throat, so hard that he left me breathless. When I stumbled back from the shock and force of the blow, he threw a punch right across my jaw.

  Pain exploded, and I toppled backward while spots danced in my vision.

  “I’ll tell ya one thing, Sky,” he said, panting, “you sure know how to show a fella a good time. I like it when a girl plays a little rough. Trying to claw my eyes out just put me in the mood!” He looked at me in a most disturbing way, and I knew there’d be no more talking. The Asha strangler then jumped on me like a lion pouncing on a helpless gazelle. He circled the piano wire around my neck twice and pulled tight, till the cord was digging into my flesh.

  I-I can’t breathe! my mind panicked. I exploded into a frenzy of clawing. I tried to scream, but no words would come out. I flailed and squirmed like a fish out of water, fighting for my life. I gasped for air, but the wire wouldn’t let any pass down my throat. I angrily clawed at his hands, desperately trying to pry his fingers loose. Oh my gosh! I’m dying. He’s really gonna kill me, I thought as I gazed helplessly up into his wild, crazed eyes that seemed to delight in watching me inch closer and closer to death with each passing second. The burning feeling in my chest increased, and my eyes felt like the might pop out of my head like corks from a wine bottle. The pain was intense, but I began to feel sleepy. How much longer do I have to live? I wondered. Thirty seconds? Things were fading fast, and I feared that if I blacked out, I would never open my eyes again.

  Chapter 29

  Suddenly, a tidal wave of memories wafted through my head. The next thing I knew, I was outside, staring up at a bright blue sky. It was so beautiful, absolutely breathtaking. Is this Heaven? I wondered. Is my mom here? I didn’t want to die at the hands of a fiend like Mr. Tams, but I’d not had a choice. I had tried my hardest to fight him off in that stuffy old warehouse, but now I was lying beneath a blue sky, with warm sunshine flooding into my face.

  “Sky!” a voice screamed in my ear.

  My eyes fluttered open, and I could barely make out a hazy outline of a tall man. My first grim thought was that Mr. Tams hadn’t strangled me long enough or tight enough. Great. Now I’ll have to go through the whole tortuous process again. Maybe I could just play dead…

  “Sky!” someone called out again, but I couldn’t make out the voice in the fog of confusion that was overwhelming me.

  My neck really hurts. It aches! Did he break it? Am I…already dead? But how can I feel pain? I wondered, and I had my answer when my fingers began to tingle and my eyes began to regain their focus. “W-Walter?” I stuttered, looking up at him groggily.

  “Don’t worry. You’re safe now,” he whispered, helping me up.

  Mr. Tams was lying on the ground, with blood gushing from a wound on his head. A lead pipe was next to him.

  “In the warehouse with a lead pipe,” I muttered, as if it was all some sick game of Clue. “Walter, you…how…you saved my life!” I hugged him tightly, realizing I’d survived only by the breadth of a hair. Thanks to Walter, I had escaped the clutches of a serial killer.

  “It’s okay, Sky,” Walter consoled, trying to calm me down as he embraced me.

  After a few minutes, I met his gaze. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I just thought—”

  “I know what you thought,” he interrupted, “but it’s okay. I’m just glad I woke up when I did.”

  I really couldn’t believe it. The Asha strangler wasn’t Walter, Melvin, or Chad. It wasn’t even Daryl or anyone else we’d really suspected. It was Mr. Tams all along, and Rachel and I never would have thought that, not in a million years. “He said Dante gave him permission, that he was supposed to get rid of anyone who might contaminate the gene pool. Is that true, Walter?” I finally ushered out.

  He looked at me, long and hard. “How can you even ask that question? Dante would never kill people for that reason.”

  Suddenly, we had a visitor. “Sky!” Daryl called.

  “Daryl!”

  “A bunch of us came in just as Walter hit Mr. Tams. I’m so sorry, Sky. This never should have happened to you.”

  “Well, I’m sorry, too. I’m sorry I ever suspected you of any of it. You must think I’m a horrible friend, and I’ll understand if you never wanna talk to me again.”

  He cupped my face. “I was framed. You followed the evidence, and it led back to me.”

  “But I still should’ve known.”

  “It’s okay,” he said. “Let’s get you to the doctor.”

  I gazed up at him. “I need Brett.”

  “He’s on his way.”

  “My neck hurts,” I said.

  “The doctor will give you something for the pain.”

  I nodded as my friend squeezed my hand reassuringly.

  Chapter 30

  Over the weeks that followed, things settled down in Asha. My neck was bruised and sore for a while, but it did eventually heal, and no nasty scars were left behind. Daryl and I made up, and he was kind enough not to hold my suspicions against me. Jeremy was sent to the surface to be punished for attacking me, and he never did come back down. I feared he might try to retaliate against me when I went up, but I’d been assured that he’d been sentenced to life behind bars and would never get out to do any harm to me or anyone else. Mr. Sallers took over Mr. Tams’s previous position, and a few people attended the memorial serv
ice that Mrs. Tams held for her murdering husband. Some people protested that he didn’t even have the right to a funeral because of the heinous crimes he’d committed, but some of his friends insisted on it. Sometimes, I still woke up with nightmares. I tried to put the horrible ordeal behind me and move on with my life, but sometimes I could still see my attacker, as clearly as if he was standing right there in front of me, holding that awful piano wire. The whole thing had made me think about how precious every moment was, so I made sure to spend more time with my family.

  My aunt pampered me, and my cousins were always trying to cheer me up.

  Brett and I grew even closer, and Rachel was as great a friend to me as she’d always been. None of us could believe Mr. Tams had been so evil, but everyone was glad the case of the Asha strangler had been put to rest—literally.

  Over a year passed, and life went on in our little underwater world.

  ***

  Brett was at home, spending time with his parents, so Rachel and I hung out in my room.

  “Wow! Look at that,” my bestie said.

  “It’s beautiful,” I said. I smiled as a school of jellyfish floated by, propelling themselves through the water outside our towering glass wall. A parrot fish in brilliant shades of green, blue, and yellow also swam past us, and off to the left, we saw a yellow, orange, and electric blue angelfish. I did get sick of looking out at sea creatures now and then, but I was thankful that so many living things had survived the asteroid collision.

  “With all these amazing creatures for neighbors, it’s a wonder we even want to return to the surface.”

  I laughed. “Yeah, it’s kinda dreamy living in a tropical aquarium. Still, I’d kill for a view of other buildings, trees, cars, fields, and rabbits and deer.”

  “Yeah, I know. I still can’t stop thinking about the sun and sky.”

  I thought back on the moment that would be etched in my mind forever. “I wish we’d had longer to look around.” I picked up a book from my bookshelf, eager to leaf through it and look at the pictures of what civilization used to be like.