Darker Still

by T. S. Worthington

  John remained silent. He could see the crazy look in Frank’s eyes. The man was completely out of touch with reality. It was bizarre and frightening to watch happen in front of you. A person like that was totally unpredictable and you could not tell what in the world they were going to do from one moment to the next and Frank was capable of anything. The man was a maniac.

  “To answer your question, you are only part right. I want you dead because you interfered in something that you had no business participating in. I killed your sister because it was convenient and I figured killing you would be convenient as well. You were both in the wrong place at the wrong time, as is the law of the jungle. If you come across a pride of hungry lions then you are about to die whether you intended to be there or not. It is just the law of nature, John. I did not intend for you to live a minute longer than your sister did. I would not have wanted you to live with that pain your whole life. I mean it has completely consumed you entirely. You are a bitter, angry, lost soul because of it. By running away from me you pissed in the face of Mother Nature and she let you have it with a vengeance, didn’t she?”

  “I never thought of it that way,” John said. He had to start to do some rapport building. He had to make believe that Frank believed that he was helping John in some way. He got the sense that Frank needed desperately to belong in a world that just didn’t accept him. He had probably felt that way his whole life, but now he had the power to make someone listen to him and he was not going to blow that. He was not going to allow that to get away from him.

  “I’m sorry that it has had to come to this John. Do you know that I have been thinking about and dreaming about this moment right here since that night thirty years ago? This has been a long time coming and I almost can’t believe that it has finally arrived.”

  “I know. It’s been an experience. I am curious about something though,” John said.

  “What’s that John?”

  “Why did you wait so long? I’m sure you could have tracked me down. My parents did their best to keep my name out of the papers, but I’m sure that you found a way to find out who I was and where I went. I was in protective custody for almost two years until they agreed that I was no longer in danger. It made for an interesting childhood.”

  “I’m sorry about that John, but I was so angry with you for destroying what took a lot of vision and work to build up. I had to essentially start all over and that took me a lot of work to redo, so I was distracted with that, but honestly John I didn’t want to face you until you were ready. I decided to let you grow up and to let you live in fear until you had all but forgotten about me. That way you would be able to arrive here at this time nice and fresh for me.”

  “You knew I would come back eventually?”

  “I had a sneaking suspicion that you would come back. If you didn’t do it by the time you were forty I was going to have to come after you and speed up the process,” Frank said as he let out a gleeful little giggle. Everything the man did was evil sounding. There was no other way to describe it.

  “Well, I guess I was lucky that I decided to move back here. I had to get away from that big city life style for a bit.”

  “I know how that is. I never wanted to live in a city. They are just too congested. I like my privacy. It is essential for my work of course, but it is also required for me to feel like I am still a living thing thriving and communing with nature. I am all about that sort of thing. So you can call me a hippy tree hugger if you want to, but that is just the kind of chap I am.”

  Frank began to laugh heartier now. He was completely ignoring the fact that Cheryl was in excruciating pain and was on the verge of passing out. To him she might as well have been upstairs watching sitcoms. It was all the same to him.

  “Well, anyway. I am starting to ramble a bit,” Frank said. “It has been nice knowing you and it almost makes me sad to do this because it will be over. And it has been such a big part of my life.”

  “Wait, what about Cheryl? You have to let her go.”

  “Well, I was going to let her go, but she is just so damn exquisite that she is going to be my newest project. After I kill you I will give her the royal treatment, so to speak. But don’t worry she won’t be out in public on display like the past three. I did that solely for your benefit John. I hope you appreciate that. Cheryl will just be for my eyes only.”

  “No. You can’t do that!”

  “I can do whatever I want, John. This is my show.”

  John felt the rage well up within him. He was going to bring this smug bastard down off of his high horse now. It was going to be beautiful.

  “I don’t think so, Frank.”

  Frank looked like someone had just spit in his face. It was the most amazing thing John had ever seen. It set off a song in his heart and he wanted to laugh in the man’s face.

  “That’s right, Frank Diel. We know who the hell you are. In fact there is half of a police force going through every inch of your other home as we speak.”

  The rage that flashed in Frank’s eyes was so sweet because it was backed by a fountain of fear. John saw genuine fear and worry in that smug bastard’s face. He wanted to savor it and make it last, but he knew that he couldn’t. There just wasn’t enough time. He was tipping Frank off balance, which was his intention, but now he had to get the bastard going farther to fall off the rails completely. It was easier to overpower an enraged opponent than a calm one. People who were angry were off balance already.

  “How?” Frank screamed at the top of his lungs.

  “It doesn’t matter, Frank. You are not as good as you think you are. You should have stayed hidden. You should have left people believing that you were dead or imprisoned like they have all of these years.”

  “AAAGGH!” Frank bellowed as he prepared to fire a bullet into John’s chest.

  John timed the move perfectly as Frank fired the weapon several times. John felt the breeze from the blast moving close enough over him that he got a rug burn from it as it passed just millimeters from his skin. He continued his dive backwards as he bounced flat on his back in perfect position for the next move.

  He moved his legs to kick Frank’s feet out from under him. The tall man went down landing on top of John. Before he could get a grip on what was happening and seize the top guard position that he was in John punched him square in the nose. The soft tissues of Frank’s nose broke instantly shattering the bone beneath and spraying blood all over his face.

  His eyes were instantly glossy and dazed as the blow rocked his whole world. John was not going to let him go that easily. He quickly flipped the big man over and assumed the top guard position so he was on top of Frank, twisting the gun from his grasp as he did so.

  He planted the barrel of the gun against Frank’s chest. Frank lay back on the floor half unconscious with his broken nose. He looked like a beaten up old man, which is exactly what he was now.

  John reached for his cuffs that were hidden in the back pocket of his jeans. Using one hand he opened the cuffs and ordered Frank to roll over. Frank did not respond.

  “I said roll over! Now!”

  Frank began to casually roll over. Suddenly, John saw the blade coming at him as Frank twisted back around. The blade was aiming straight for his jugular. He dropped the gun and grabbed the blade with both hands. The older man’s strength was incredible, but of course he knew that the mad often had great strength. The rage in Frank’s eyes would have terrified a whole village. He no longer resembled a human being. He had a broken nose and he was still coming after John.

  John groaned with all of his strength and pushed the knife down to the floor. He banged Frank’s hands hard against the floor, clanging the knuckles into the concrete of the basement. His grip began to loosen slightly and John intensified the struggle.

  The knife flew out of Frank’s hands, but Frank was not to be deterred. He wrapped his arm around John’s head and face as he tried to get him into a modified choke
hold. The man’s grip was incredibly strong and John had to use every last bit of strength he had to move enough out of the grip to grab the knife off of the floor.

  He almost had it, but now Frank had reached position and he had a strong choke grip wrapped around John’s neck. The oxygen was being cut off to his brain and he was starting to see black splotches appearing in his field of vision and the splotches were getting bigger and bigger. He knew that he was going to pass out soon. If this happened it was going to be all over. He had to do something.

  John struggled harder to reach the knife that was just out of his grasp. He almost had it. It was almost there. Just a few more inches.

  The drowsiness was kicking in. He could feel it in every bone in his body. He was going to sleep. There was no stopping it and there was no way out of the choke hold that Frank had on him. He was going to die and so was Cheryl. He had failed. He had failed and they were both going to pay the ultimate price.

  His hand touched the handle of the knife. He had made it. Willing his fingers to curl around the grip he operated the rest of the move as if he was a robot. He was no longer able to be fully present in the move. He had to just go by total instinct on this and hope that it worked. It was their last ditch effort and it had better count or they were dead.

  He saw himself as if in a dream performing the short, swift movement. He squeezed the handle of the knife and jerked his arm upwards and back over his head. He felt the blade of the knife strike flesh and become stuck. Then he heard a loud gurgling noise as if someone was choking. He was not sure what it was, but he felt a sticky warm liquid falling on the back of his neck.

  He was not able to decipher what it was at the time. He was too far gone, but the drowsiness was starting to leave him. He was slowly, but surely starting to get some consciousness back.

  As the room stopped spinning around him he remembered Cheryl. He found the strength to stand on his wobbly legs. He was now standing but was not sure if he was able to move or not. Everything felt like it was moving in slow motion.

  Looking down he saw Frank lying on the floor with the hunting knife protruding out of neck. It was buried in all the way to the handle. He must have hit him harder than he thought he could. Frank’s eyes were wide saucers. His body was just a lifeless bloody heap lying on the floor where he belonged.

  Frank Diel—The Valley Ripper was dead.

  John grabbed the hunting knife and yanked it out of Frank’s neck. It tore out of his neck with an odd squishy sound.

  John grabbed the ropes that held Cheryl captive and sliced through them with one quick motion of the bloody knife. She collapsed instantly as the ropes sliced apart. John dropped the knife and caught her in one fell swoop. She was safe and sound.

  Cheryl was almost unconscious, but she was lucid enough to know what was going on. She looked up at him with those amazing eyes he had fallen in love with the first moment he had seen them. She smiled sweetly at him as he held her close to him.

  He breathed slowly and deeply ignoring the pounding headache that was torturing him echoing up the back of his head. It was a small price to pay for saving the woman that you loved.

  As John sat there with Cheryl in his arms he felt avenged. He felt avenged for his sister Kelly, Cheryl’s sister Theresa, and for everyone who lost a loved one to Frank Diel’s sick compulsion.

  John dialed the chief and gave him the details.

  *

  “Alright, let’s eat.”

  Cheryl sat the turkey down on the table and John began to carve it up nice for everybody. He had never been that great at carving turkeys but he realized now that the problem had not been him; he had never had a beautiful bird like this one that was so succulent the knife melted right through it. Cheryl had made a fantastic looking bird.

  John felt a bit weird eating Turkey when Thanksgiving was five months away, but he went along with it. Turkey was considered the celebration food for some reason, although he would have been fine with a pizza and a six pack. Cheryl had wanted to celebrate their engagement the right way and she was going to have whatever she wanted. He decided that he would spend his life doing whatever it took to make Cheryl happy at any time day or night. That was what he had to do. It was his new job.

  They had invited all of their closest friends and family and so far everything was turning out to be amazing. The food was great, the atmosphere was great, the conversation was flowing—matched only by the amount of wine that was flowing—and everyone was in good spirits.

  Cheryl had made a full recovery from her injuries that she had incurred as a result of being abducted by the maniacal Frank Diel. She said that she had gone to the bedroom to take a nap and she had woken up chained to that pipe in Frank’s basement. No one had been harmed during her kidnapping except for her, which was a relief. John was thankful for everything that he could get with lucky favors. He was running in short supply these days.

  John was not sure what he would have done if something had happened to Cheryl. He knew that he could never live without her and that he would have been a shell of himself if she had been killed. He would not have wanted to live and he would have just given up and let Frank put him out of his misery. He had replayed the thing in his mind over and over and he felt that Frank had known that he loved Cheryl that much. It was amazing how a guy who was not even familiar with the basic rudiments of what it meant to love somebody or how it felt to even connect with someone could read those emotions in others so well that he could pull the strings and just manipulate them to his will.

  John would never fully understand that type of mind. He wasn’t sure that he really wanted to. It was bizarre and once you really went there it was no guarantee that you were going to be able to make it back.

  As the party began to wind down John found himself in the back yard of the house he and Cheryl had just bought together looking at the evening sky as the sunset was fast approaching. It was so gorgeous. He realized right then and there that he had never really appreciated a sunset before. There was so much beauty in the world that he was not sure how he had missed it before. He had been so wrapped up in his own pain that he was missing the life that was all around him.

  He had done that since he was a kid. It was like a sickness with him where he just shut himself off from everyone and everything and then wondered why he had not been able to find joy in the simplest of life’s pleasures like others did.

  His experience with Frank Diel had killed that behavior in him. He had seen a man who was unable to feel even the most rudimentary of human emotions and he had done unspeakable things to so many people just so he could try to understand how they felt and if somehow he could be close enough to it to feel some of it too.

  “Hey, handsome,” Cheryl’s sultry voice appeared at the door.

  He turned and smiled at her as she walked out onto the back patio and wrapped her arm around him. She kissed him sweetly on the lips and then laid her head on his shoulder. He loved it when she did that. The way her sweet little body felt against his. John felt like he finally mattered to someone. He had not realized that those feelings were lost to him before he met Cheryl. It had been a bit of an adjustment period and a rude awakening, but he was adjusting to it just fine.

  “So, how much do you think about it?” Cheryl asked.

  “What?”

  “The fight. The altercation with the Ripper.”

  “I try not to think about it ever, but it is always right there behind my eyes playing around like it’s on some damn loop that I can’t shut off.”

  “Me too,” Cheryl said. “Do you think it will ever stop? I’m not sure how much longer I can stand to relive that damn night.”

  John laughed. He looked at her right then and smiled. For a woman who always seemed to have it all together it was nice to see that she often felt a bit lost and that she needed to confide in him. It helped him process the stuff he didn’t think he could work through by reminding him that he was not alone.
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br />   They had both attended a few counseling sessions after the incident and the therapist had given them a few visualization and regression exercises that were supposed to be really effective at blocking out painful memories like those. They had tried them a few times and both ended up laughing too hard to get through it. The whole therapy thing was lost on them; they were convinced it was all a bunch of crap.

  In the end they were going to move on from the experience together because they had gone through it together. With all of John’s training and experience with the criminal element he had dealt with for all of those years in Columbus he would have liked to think that he could have been better prepared to handle something like Frank Diel.

  But he had never had to fight to protect someone he loved before. According to the therapist that was the main difference and he had to admit he was forced to agree. But that was the only thing he had agreed upon with the therapist. Beyond that everything she said was total bunk and they had both left feeling cheated.

  John kissed Cheryl on the forehead right then and laid his head on hers. This was something he often did. It was a simple gesture, but it always had such a calming effect on him and helped him feel so close to her that he felt they could accomplish anything.

  He often did this when Cheryl woke up with the night terrors she had developed since the incident. She would wake herself up screaming and shouting and trying to run off the bed. She was convinced that Frank was still alive and he was still after her.

  John had gotten pretty good at getting her settled down and back on track though. He had even developed a technique that seemed to work for her where he just began to whisper all of the amazing things about her that he loved in her ear. After a few minutes of hearing his voice she began to calm right down.

  John had kept his own nightmares to himself for the most part. He didn’t want to burden her with his issues when she was still reeling from her own. After all she was the one who had been kidnapped. She was the one who had been abducted and hung from that damn beam until she almost died.