Suicide Hotline (The One Percent Book 2)

by Tim Miller

  He put the dog on one of the workbenches in the shed and used a box cutter to slice the dog open. He wore an apron and a pair of gloves as he performed his twisted surgery. For the next several hours, he removed the dog’s insides and examined them. He even weighed the brain, heart and lungs though he wasn’t sure why. Doctors on TV did it during autopsies. He’d just placed the organs in a pile next to the dog’s body when the door swung open. His mother was standing there. He turned to face her, startled.

  Looking down, he realized he was covered in blood. She looked at him and at the dog’s mutilated carcass on the table and screamed. He ran after her, not even trying to imagine what she thought was going on.

  “Mom! Mom, its ok! Mom! I was just doing an experiment!”

  They reached the house and he peeled off the bloody gear before going inside their large home. She was on the couch crying.

  “Mom! What’s wrong?”

  “What did you do to that dog? You butchered him!”

  “No! For real! I didn’t. I just wanted to see what he was made of. I never saw the inside of a body before. What made them tick and stuff, so I took him apart. I poisoned him before I cut him open so he wouldn’t feel any pain.

  “Oh my God.” She took out her phone and started dialing.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I’m calling your father.”

  “For what? Why? Mom!”

  “He’s got to know his son is a monster!”

  He ran up to his room and waited. A few hours later, his dad came home and walked into his room. The boy sat on the bed not looking up.

  “So your mom says you gave her a good scare today.”

  “It was just a dog. I wanted to do experiments. See what it looked like on the inside. I’m not a baby anymore. I’m sixteen. You guys act like I’m a little kid. I like animals. I just wanted to see what makes them work.”

  His dad looked around his room. The boy had posters and models of the human anatomy as well as stacks of true crime books about various serial killers.

  “So kind of like a doctor?” his dad said.

  “Yeah. Kind of like that. They experiment on dead bodies in medical school.”

  “I know. I have an idea. Your mom wanted me to come up here and beat your ass. Or to ground you. I know something better. Get your jacket.”

  “Why? Where we going?”

  “Just get it. We’re going for a drive.”

  They drove for several hours into the night. The boy wasn’t even sure where they were anymore. They turned down a gravel road where an old mill sat at the end of the winding path.

  “What is this place?”

  “Something special.”

  “It’s an abandoned mill.”

  “Nothing is what it seems, son.”

  They drove around the back side of the mill where dozens of other cars were parked. These weren’t just any cars. There were Mercedes, BMWs and even a Ferrari. Rich people’s cars, like them. When they got out of the car, two large men approached until his father took something out of his wallet and showed them. They nodded and stepped aside.

  The boy followed his dad into the mill. Once inside, the place looked totally different. They entered a dark hallway with marble flooring and a single light bulb overhead. When they walked further in, they saw a huge set of double doors. When they stepped through the double doors, you’d think they were on another planet entirely.

  The inside of the mill had been converted into an expensive ballroom. There was a deluxe stairway with plush carpeting all around. A chandelier hung from the ceiling. There were men in tuxedos standing around and muffled screams could be heard from some of the rooms upstairs.

  “What is this place?” the boy asked.

  “It’s a special place. A place for men like us.” One of the tuxedoed men approached his dad.

  “Good evening sir. I believe he’s rather young for being here, isn’t he? You know the rules.”

  “He’s sixteen, and trust me, he can handle it. His mom caught him butchering the neighbor’s dog. I know I wasn’t scheduled for tonight but you think we could get a room? I’ll pay extra.”

  “I think something can be arranged. We had a cancellation. One moment.” The man turned and walked away as the boy looked at his dad.

  “What’s going on?”

  “Look son. You’re about to learn something extremely important. Something I didn’t until I was eighteen, but I think you’re ready.”

  “Ready for what?”

  “This place is very special. But also very dangerous. They have some very strict rules. Rules that if you don’t obey, can be very seriously punished.”

  “You mean like jail?”

  “I mean worse. These are very dangerous men here. But this place is for us. It’s a good place. It’s a place we can be men, the way we were meant to be. Do you understand?”

  He looked at his dad and nodded.

  “Good. Now, I need you from here on out to do exactly what I tell you at all times. Don’t argue and don’t question it. Just do it. Ok?”

  “Ok.”

  “Also, don’t try to help anybody.”

  “Help who?”

  “You’ll see. You’ll see some people who will beg and plead for you to help them. But you can’t. Promise me you won’t.”

  “Ok. I promise.”

  “And last of all, do not take anything out of this place. Everything you see here, hear here or find here, stays here. No souvenirs. And no talking about it outside. Not even to me. You got it?”

  “I got it. Geez. What are you even talking about?”

  “You’ll see.”

  The tuxedoed man approached them again and smiled.

  “All right, gentlemen. Your room is right this way.”

  They walked up the stairs and down a long corridor. His dad’s dress shoes clicked on the tile floor as they walked to the end of the hall and to a large oak door. The tuxedo guy took out a large set of keys and opened the door. The boy followed his dad inside.

  Once in the room, the boy’s eyes went wide at the sight before him. A girl, not much older than him, was strapped to a dentist-type chair. There was a ball gag in her mouth and leather straps on each of her limbs. The girl was also completely naked. The boy tried to think; he’d never seen a naked girl in person before. Only on the internet.

  “Dad? What is this?”

  “You’ll see. Just don’t ask questions.” His dad walked to a table and sorted through a variety of tools and knives. “See, you wanted to know how the dog worked, so you cut it apart. I know that’s not the first time you hurt something. When your mom’s cat vanished last year? I knew that was you.”

  The boy was shocked at the revelation. He was right, but he didn’t think anyone had seen him. He’d killed and buried the cat and no one had been around. How could his dad have known?

  “You did?” the boy asked.

  “Of course I did. I did the same thing when I was a kid. My dad brought me here also. They call this place The Country Club. It’s very exclusive. Only people like us are allowed. People like her.” He pointed at the girl. “They are everyday people. Some are homeless.”

  “How about her?”

  “I don’t know. Don’t care. Once they are in here, they’re not human. They’re property.” His dad walked over to the table and looked things over as he pulled on the thick apron and large rubber gloves. Looking around, he shook his head. “Shit. Where is it? Where is it?”

  “Where is what?”

  “My special blades. They didn’t lay them out. Shit.” He looked around then at the boy. “I’ll be right back.”

  He went to the door and pulled the latch open to stepped outside. The boy ran to the girl and immediately undid the ball gag and removed it from her mouth. The girl started to scream but he put his hand over her mouth.

  “Shhh! I want to help you! What’s your name?” he asked.

  “Faith. My name is Faith.”

  “Ok, Faith. I’
m going to undo these straps and try to get you out of here. I’ve never been here before. I never saw this shit. This is fucking crazy!”

  He undid the straps on her hands, feet, and around her waist. What he didn’t know was there were cameras hidden in the ceiling, watching his every move. He barely had Faith out of the chair when the door swung open and his dad was standing there with two other large men. The look on his dad’s face was a combination of sadness and total disappointment.

  “Dad! This…I was just trying to help her. This is crazy. This place. I’ve never…”

  His dad put his hand out while shaking his head.

  “I thought you knew better, son. I told you. She’s nothing. She’s meat.”

  One of the men stepped forward, pulled out a gun, and shot her in the face. The back of her head exploded, splattering the side of the boy’s face with bloody chunks of flesh and skull. Her lifeless body collapsed into the chair as the boy screamed and jumped back. One of the men walked in and grabbed him by the arm.

  “Dad! What’s going on! Dad!”

  “I’m sorry, son. This was a test. I’m afraid you failed.”

  “What? Test? What kind of test?”

  “I’ve known for a long time something wasn’t right with you. So has your mom. I thought bringing you here would help. Would give you an outlet. Instead you chose to help this worthless piece of trash.”

  “Are they going to kill me?”

  “No. You’ll stay here for a long time. They’ll put you to work. You’ll learn everything about this place until it becomes a part of you. But my son is dead.”

  He turned and walked out. The boy struggled to get away from the large men but they were too strong.

  “Dad! Dad!” he screamed but they dragged him downstairs and into a dark chamber where he was locked in a cage.

  Mr. Black snapped out of his thoughts as the SUV pulled onto the tarmac. He climbed out of the SUV and onto a private jet. He climbed on board and the sole flight attendant brought him his favorite scotch on the rocks. He buckled in as the plane took off. He was the only passenger. After several recent stops, he was headed back home. The plane ride to Dallas was just over an hour.

  Once he deplaned, there was another SUV waiting to pick him up. He climbed in and once again thought back to that day when he’d first entered this line of work. Fortunately, he didn’t spend a lot of time in the cage. In a short time, the folks who ran the club saw what an asset he was. And not just at cleaning up blood and slop, either.

  He had a way with people that impressed most of the leadership. Soon he was one of the tuxedo guys even though he was barely eighteen. They had him showing people around and taking orders. Orders being just what types of victims they wanted and any particular specialties. Yes, the club had its own concierge.

  Since he’d been left there, his dad had never returned. Over the years, he’d seen the most unspeakable things you could imagine. He’d cleaned up body parts, disposed of human remains and even was forced to take part in various forms of torture and humiliation. He was no longer the nervous boy he’d been when his father had abandoned him at the club. He was something else entirely. A few years later when he finally saw his father, it was funny, he didn’t even recognize his own son. The boy had grown up quickly working at the club. At age nineteen he’d grown out a goatee and had longer hair.

  “Right this way sir,” he said. “Your room is ready.” He’d known his father was coming that night. He’d seen him on the reservation list and had made some of his own preparations. He’d prepared his father’s “order” just like he’d requested. Except before he’d come down to greet the man, the boy had cut her throat. When they’d gotten into the room his father stopped at the site of the dead body.

  “What the fuck is this? Is this a joke? She’s fucking dead.”

  The boy closed the door behind himself, locking it. As the concierge, he also had the master key so didn’t need to be buzzed out the way patrons would need to.

  “No joke, Father. No joke at all.”

  The color flushed out of his dad’s face as he suddenly recognized his own son.

  “Son? You? Oh my God. I was afraid you’d be dead. Most guys, when they get left here, try to escape and end up on somebody’s table. Look at you. You’re working your way up!”

  His dad looked at the girl and began to realize what was happening.

  “Wait. You don’t think…” Before he could finish, the boy was on him, knocking him to the ground. In the years at the club, he often jogged around the grounds for exercise. He’d spent his evenings doing push-ups and pull-ups. Hundreds a day. He’d grown strong. Much stronger than his father who was waving at the ceiling where the cameras were.

  “Oh don’t bother, dad. I’ve disabled them. I also changed the logs. As far as anyone knows, this room is vacant. So you’re all mine.”

  He punched his dad in the face with a hard right, almost knocking the man unconscious. The boy stood and flopped the dead girl out of the chair and picked up his dad, strapping him in.

  “Wait? Son. What are you doing? You can’t do this. I’m a very powerful man. People will come looking for me! You’ll ruin everything!”

  “I got it all taken care of, pops. Don’t you worry yourself one bit,” he answered as he flicked his dad’s nose. “Now, enough talking.” The boy went to the table and picked up a strand of barbed wire. He placed the wire around his father’s mouth, who screamed as the barbs cut into his cheeks and lips. Wrapping it around the back of his head, he crossed the ends over and twisted them until it was so tight, blood was running down the side of his face and head. The skin around his head where the wire was wrapped had turned white as his father tried to speak but it only came out in muffled sounds.

  “What’s that? You’re sorry you left me here to be raised by barbarians? Oh, I’m sure you are, dad. Don’t worry. I plan to show you everything I’ve learned.”

  The boy picked up a hammer from the tray, and without a second’s hesitation, smashed all the fingers on his father’s right hand. The man howled in pain, but as he screamed, the barbed wire dug in deeper, causing him to scream more, thus causing more pain. The boy took the hammer and smashed all the fingers on his other hand, then knelt down and pounded his left foot into a swollen, bloody pulp. As his father’s toes dangled in different directions. The boy took turns wiggling each one.

  “This little piggy went to market. This little piggy stayed home…”

  Each time the boy wiggled one of his toes, his father screamed and cried. He went along each toe until he got to the pinky toe.

  “And this little piggy cried ‘wee wee wee! All the way home!’ Wasn’t that fun dad?”

  The boy tossed the hammer aside and picked up a drill from the table. He revved the drill, shoved the bit into his father’s nostril, and pulled the trigger. Red chunks of flesh and tissue flew in all directions as he pushed it all the way through until it came out the top of his nose. He ripped the drill free and rammed it into his father’s upper thigh.

  Over the next several hours, he drilled, cut, slashed and flayed at his dad until the man was no longer recognizable. Once he was finished, he wheeled the large waste bin over and dumped his father’s remains inside. He proceeded to clean and sanitize the rest of the room, picking up the plastic tarps that had been in place, and preparing it for the next client. He stripped off the gloves and apron and placed them into the bin, opened the door and headed to the east wing of the facility.

  Once he arrived, he put the barrel on the hoist and lowered it into the incinerator. He watched as what was left of his father burned, along with the man’s clothing and belongings. When that was finished, he paid one of the cleaning crew to take his father’s car to a local chop shop. When he’d finished cleaning up, the club superintendent, Alexander Rhodes, a suave man in his sixties, approached the boy and patted him on the shoulder.

  “So how are things this evening?” Alexander asked.

  “Oh great. Everything i
s going great tonight. A bit slow, but gives me time to catch up on some things.”

  “Good, good. Hey. I wanted to tell you, your idea for re-opening the Texas club… I took it to the board. They really like your idea. As long as all the precautions remain in place. That last one was disastrous, but they were extremely careless.”

  “Yes. They were. I read everything I could about it. But there are so many former members there. I get emails from them daily.”

  “They liked the all women club idea. Perhaps the ladies will be more cautious. I wasn’t sold on it at first, but the board loved your proposal. So we’ve found a location and will get started on it. In the meantime, there is another expansion project they want to put you on.”

  “Oh?”

  “Yes. This is a website. They are calling it the Suicide Hotline. But it’s so much more than that. Come by my office later, and I’ll brief you. Oh, and your name, we can’t have you out and about using your family name. This new project requires total anonymity. So from now on, you are Mr. Black.”

  “Mr. Black. I like it. Thank you, sir. I like it a lot.”

  “Good. Good. I think you’ll do great.”

  The SUV drove through a large steel gate onto the ranch, completely surrounded by an eight-foot concrete fence with electric wiring running along the top. They drove up the long, winding lane to the compound. He climbed out of the car and stepped inside. Standing in the waiting room was Melissa, the concierge. He had picked her for this position, and so far she’d handled it flawlessly. She stood wearing a white, sparkling gown that hugged her every curve. She looked up at him and smiled.

  “Welcome to the Country Club, Mr. Black,” she said with a crooked smile. “Anything I can do to make you more comfortable?”

  Mr. Black removed his jacket and smiled back.