Part Fifty-Five

“How did you figure it out?” Chester asked me.

He was strapped to the stainless steel table and he knew that death would come for him soon, he just didn’t realize what I was going to do to him before he died.

“Someone sent me a text, telling me where to find that original agreement that you keep in your safe,” I said to him.

“Who?” he asked me.

“I don’t know Chester, I don’t really care, once I had that agreement, the rest was fairly easy,” I told him.

“It would’ve gone the same way, your father just beat you to it,” he said.

“That was the biggest mistake of your life, you should’ve known I’d come after you for this,” I said.

“That’s why I had Rosco, he was supposed to shoot you in the head,” he said.

“Why do you want me dead so badly?” I asked him.

“It all started with that hunter treaty, I gave them information and they took out my enemies too, you messed all that up,” he said to me.

“How? You won that case, you got the treaty,” I said to him.

“Samantha Cartwright, her father was livid that she slept with you, he kept her locked in a cage for three years after the abortion,” he said.

“What abortion?” I asked him.

“She was pregnant, she didn’t know exactly when the attack would happen, she was planning on telling you everything after you marked her. You turned her against her father and he hated you for it, that’s why he attacked your clowder,” Chester said.

“So why kill Damon?” I asked him.

“I never planned on Damon handing himself over, it was supposed to be you,” Chester spat out.

“You should’ve aborted your plan, killing Damon was your first mistake, trusting me was your second,” I said.

Chester eyed me carefully as I slipped my knife out and walked towards him, I fastened another restraint around his neck and took out my hair clippers. I proceeded to cut his hair off and I knew that he had no clue as to what I was going to do next.

“I’ve always wanted to try this Chester, you’re so lucky to be my first,” I said.

“You won’t get away with this Griffin,” he said sounding desperate.

“I already have Chester, I’m smarter than you, we ported out of that room, nobody knows I took you, I signed out of the Council building, remember,” I said as his eyes widened slightly.

“I can pay you! I’ll pay you whatever you want,” he said.

“You should have thought about that before you killed my father, there’s no going back now,” I said to him.

Chester screamed as I started cutting the outline of his face, his blood seeping down onto the table. I tried to make nice clean incisions. The idea of course was to peel the whole of his face off in one piece. Chances were slim though, it was my first time doing it.

“Hurts, doesn’t it?” I asked him.

“Did you know there are thousands of nerve endings especially in the face?” I asked him. His breath was ragged now as I started pulling on his skin, severing the nerve endings from his muscles. The pain was excruciating, I didn’t think there was anything more painful than this.

“You won’t die immediately though, it can take a few hours, your raw nerves exposed to the oxygen in the air, making it tingle a little bit more,” I said.

His body was starting to convulse on its own, trying to break free from their bonds as I worked. When I reached his nose, I left the flap of skin and made the oval incisions for his nose. He started screaming again as I pulled his skin lower.

He couldn’t blink anymore and I cut the last piece of his skin loose from under his chin and held up the mask of his face for him to see. I think he lost his mind in that moment, his face a bloody mess and I felt my stomach twist but I swallowed down the bile.

“Why don’t you take a moment to think about your sins, I need to go grab your friends,” I said as I washed my hands at the sink and left him whimpering in the shed.

I found Kane on the porch snoring and I kicked him lightly on his flank. He opened one eye as he looked at me and then closed it again. I started with Kevin and dragged him down the stairs and left his body in front of the open door of the shed.

Next I grabbed Phil and Louis and left them by the shed as well. Now I’d have to go all the way back to get Rosco. By the time all the bodies were by the shed I was covered in old congealed blood and Kevin was really starting to smell.

Rosco had chunks of flesh missing from everywhere and his ribs were sticking out awkwardly from holes in his t-shirt. Kane had really done a number on him and when I picked him up the last piece of skin and tendon snapped and his head fell to the ground.

“Thanks a lot Kane,” I murmured as I picked his head up by his hair.

“Hey Chester, I’m back, seems like your friends really are dead,” I said as I switched the incinerator on.

“Betrayal is probably the worst thing you can ever do to someone. I personally take betrayal very bad, I let my emotions rule my head, I should probably work on that,” I said as I stuffed Kevin inside first.

“While I wait for Kevin to burn, I should start cleaning the house, it’s a nice place to come back to for fishing, I wouldn’t want Sierra to find it all bloody,” I said as I left the shed again.

I started with the guest room and stripped all the bedding off, I sprayed a mixture of cola and oxygenated washing powder on the mattress and started scrubbing. The stain faded and I applied the same mixture in a paste form and left it while I went to clean my room.

“Phil’s next,” I said as Chester’s body jerked when I spoke right next to him.

I put Phil’s body in next and closed the door again. I tackled the living room and cleaned it up as best I could, washing blood from the floor and taking all the dishes to the kitchen. I cleaned the stairs and scrubbed the blood off the wooden steps.

Lastly I put Louis’s body in the incinerator and headed back to the house to clean the kitchen. Kane was on the couch now and I put the radio on while I washed the dishes. I hated disorder and mess, I looked over every room again and satisfied that everything was in its place I headed back to the shed.

“The best part of everything Chester, is, nobody will ever know what happened to all of you,” I said to him as I put Rosco on the gurney and loosened the restraints around Chester’s arms, legs and neck.

He was weak from pain and I had to pick him up as I placed him on top of Rosco. His body started to shiver and I saw the muscles in his face spasm. I felt slight disgust in my stomach at what I had done, I wanted to hurt him yes, but this was beyond cruel.

“Sweet dreams Chester,” I whispered and pushed the gurney inside the incinerator and closed the door.

I closed my eyes briefly and turned toward the steel table and turned the pressure washer on. I watched the blood as it ran down the drain in the floor, washing away all the evidence of what had happened in this room.

“Don’t forget that other idiot’s truck,” Kane said.

“Fuck,” I said out loud.

I had lost all semblance of time and I had no idea how long I had spent in that shed peeling back Chester’s face, cleaning the house and getting rid of the bodies. In normal circumstances it takes a human body about three hours to burn to ashes. It takes a supernatural body longer because our bodies were stronger and our bones denser.

I had pushed Rosco’s truck just further into the trees so it couldn’t be seen unless you specifically looked for it. Nobody really hiked in this area and if it was ever found, then I’d deal with it then. I had to wait another three hours for Chester and Rosco to burn and then I switched the incinerator off.

Next I had to remove all the bones from inside and crush them so they resembled a grainy mixture. I washed the floors once again since some of the ash had fallen out when I took the remains out. The ash was scooped into a black bag that I scattered into the water down at the jetty.

It was dark by the time I was finally finished with everything and I was exhausted. I knew that Jett would start to call me soon because I had promised to be back by now. I wasn’t going to break that promise. I locked everything up and took my phone out. It was dead and I swore under my breath.

“Kane! We need to go!” I yelled from the shed’s door.

“This is why I prefer being a cat,” he said.

“Because I do all the dirty work?” I asked him as he laughed.

“Yeah, I’m starving,” he said and my stomach twisted again.

I still had that image in my mind, Chester’s skinless face. It wasn’t going to go away soon and I resisted the urge again to vomit. Kane stepped through the portal with me and we ended up in the computer room.

I tried to push all the images of murder from my mind as I walked towards my room. The house was quiet and dark but I got the surprise of my life when I opened my bedroom door. Sierra was sitting on the couch with Jett’s arms around her.

Connor was pacing up and down in front of the bed and only Connor noticed me as I stopped abruptly and looked at him. He had pure rage in his eyes as he glared at me and I stood rooted to the spot. Even Kane had stopped behind me and growled low as he saw Jett and Sierra.

“Where the fuck were you?” Connor asked me.

“What happened?” I asked as I looked at them.

Sierra stood up not even looking at me as she talked in hushed whispers to Jett. He glared as he walked past me, pushing me with his shoulder. I turned to look at him but Connor sighed and drew my attention back to the room.

“You’re a fucking idiot,” he said and left the room as well.

“Where were you Griffin?” Sierra asked me.

“I told you, I was taking the Council members to a safe house,” I said.

“I hope you enjoyed your time, I hope it was worth all this,” she said sounding very hurt.

“Can you please just tell me what the hell’s going on? Why is everyone so pissed off with me?” I asked her.

“It’s Sunday night Griffin,” she said as my face paled.

“What?” I whispered.

“You stood me up, humiliated me in front of everyone. If you didn’t want to get married you could’ve told me before the time instead of just staying away!” she yelled in anger.

“I do want to get married, I just… I had to take care of this,” I said feeling utterly defeated.

“Now you’ll have all the time in the world to take care of your things, it seems it’ll always be more important,” she said.

“Sierra,” I said as she held up her hand.

“I reject you Griffin Woods,” she said and that familiar pain overtook me again as she walked past me. I was gasping for air and it felt like someone was squeezing the life out of my from the inside.

“I hate you Griffin,” she whispered as everything went dark.