Chapter 45
Two days earlier
Molly was lying in bed trying to figure out what the hell she could do to get out of this mess. She had no clue how long she bad been in that bed or even how much longer he planned on keeping her there. All she knew was the days bled together and her heart was beginning to ache. She knew her death was approaching shortly. She recognized the date on the clock radio by her bed. It woke her up every morning to AM news radio. She listened to the sounds of the morning show hosts talk about things she couldn’t even picture in her own mind anymore. He would come in, turn the radio off and walk out the door without so much as a single word. That is, unless it was one of those days he was cutting her, burning her or something else.
The clock radio kept good time but she knew her days were numbered. He kept talking about how her life was going to end the day his daughter was conceived. Despite the state she was in, Drake had no problem telling Molly every dirty little secret he kept in that twisted mind of his.
She began wiggling her toes and fingers. She had full mobility in all her digits now. She could twist and turn, but it still caused her tremendous pain to do so.
Molly was started to take stock of everything she could see in the room. She knew getting her hands on a weapon or tool to remove her shackles was going to be a long shot. But she was still trying. Just then the door opened. It was the monster. She closed her eyes as she always did whenever he was in the room. She knew it was in her best interest to not even look into his face. Suddenly something different took place. He walked over and unlocked her legs. She began to sweat. This isn’t right, he never visits her in the morning.
He walked over to the head of the bed and unlocked her arms. This was unusual. Now she knew better than to be hopeful. Her heart began racing. Something was going on. She was more scared now than she had ever been in her entire life. What was he up to?
He sat her up on the bed. He placed a hand on her shoulder.
“You got nothing to fear, sis. We’re going to get some breakfast, that is all,” he said.
She wasn’t in the mood for asking questions. She felt a shiver moving up and down her spine. She knew something terrible was approaching. She had no clue what it might be.
He took out a key and opened the draw on the nightstand. He pulled out some clothes. Underwear, a dress and some socks.
“Let me help you get dressed, sis. No need to worry. It’s going to be a good day today,” he said.
After he dressed her he placed her in a wheel chair he kept on the other side of the nightstand. He rolled her into the kitchen. There, sitting on the table was a plate of bacon and eggs with hash browns on the side.
He poured her a cup of orange juice.
“Would you like a cup of coffee, sis?” he asked.
Molly wasn’t sure what was going on. In the entire time she had been here he had never acted this way. She knew something was fishy about it, she just didn’t know how to react without setting him off.
“No thank you,” she said. “I am fine.”
“Good, eat. Enjoy,” he said.
Molly had been eating out of a hospital feeding tube sustaining her body on God-knows-what for so long she wasn’t even sure she could handle solid food. She picked up the fork and went after the eggs first.
She was certain it wasn’t poison. He wouldn’t go through all this trouble. Instead of worry too much about what might come next, Molly decided for once she was going to live in the moment and make the best of the situation. No sense in stressing over something she can’t change anyways, she thought.
She began eating the food.
“Would you like the TV on or the radio?” Drake asked.
She listened to the radio every morning as the alarm woke her up. She figured since the only TV she had seen since she got here was the horrible video of her abduction. She certainly had no desire to see that video ever again.
She looked towards the counter in the direction of the little TV set he kept in the kitchen.
“TV, I guess,” Molly whispered.
She could tell her voice wasn’t fully ready to return. Her throat was giving her trouble with every bite she swallowed. Still, it was nice to have hot food going into her stomach for a change. For a brief second she forgot where she was and the horrors she had faced for however long it had been.
He turned the TV on and as to be expected there was the Price is Right. That same old familiar game show she vividly remembered watching over the course of her life. A tear began to form in her eye. She knew she was going to lose control, but she wanted to fight it so badly.
“Hey sis, I know we haven’t had the greatest relationship since my brother died. But, I was thinking maybe today, just today, we could relive old times. What do you say?” Drake asked.
Molly was in full blown tears at this point. She had no clue why he was casually calling her sis. Or why he was referencing his brother’s death like it was an accident or something knowing full well he murdered his own brother.
“I know, you get emotional on Sundays. It’s okay though. I figured we would go for a walk out back and sit in the garden. We could smell the flowers, listen to the birds singing songs in the trees, then maybe, if you were up for it, we could have a nice little picnic right there in the woods behind my cabin. What do you say sis, you up for it?” Drake said.
It was the tone in his voice that made her crying even more impossible to turn off at this point. He was acting like he had never laid a hand on her. Never used her for his own pleasure. Hadn’t sold her daughter to Mexican smugglers. She had no clue what was going through his mind. But she couldn’t stop crying. She knew it was only a matter of time before her crying set him off.
He handed her a box of tissues and wiped her eyes clear.
“I know, sis, it’s hard for you. Missing your husband and daughter. I get it. I lost everything too. But that’s why I wanted to give you today. One last, nice day before the sun goes down on both of us. What do you say? I’m not asking you to forgive me or anything frivolous like that. All I am asking is you have one day of peace to see if you can find your smile before we go to the ever after. You up for it?” he asked.
Molly snatched the box of tissues out of his hands and dried her eyes. If this was going to keep him placated long enough to plot her actual escape she was going to have to go along with his plan, at least for today.
“Alright, Drake, I will play your game and go on this picnic with you. I have only one request. You called me sis, so why don’t, just today, you act like a brother and keep your damn hands off me, deal?” she said.
He nodded in agreement.
“Today is all about you sis. Shall we?” he said as he motioned towards the door.
He then proceeded to push her wheelchair through the kitchen, the laundry room and heading out the backdoor. He pushed her through the winding path surrounded by trees until they came to a small pond. It had flowers all around it. There were birds singing in the trees just as he claimed. Now, it was a little cool for her liking but she wasn’t going to complain.
He took a blanket and spread it down on the ground. He placed the picnic basket off to the side in a patch of flowers. Then he slowly helped Molly out of the wheelchair and onto the blanket. Despite herself she thought briefly, this is nice. She knew she was going to have to soak up as much of the nice day as she could because in her heart she knew it was only temporary.
“Drake, can I ask you a personal question,” Molly said.
It was the first time she had taken the time to address him since that night her life ended.
“Sure sis, you can ask me anything you want. Just don’t ask about Melody. I don’t want to talk about that, okay,” Drake said.
She nodded. Molly poured herself a cup of tea from the basket and took a sip.
“What every happened between George and Ashley Taylor? I know he was talking about her the night he died. I never thought to ask because, well frankly you scare the hell out of me,” she said.
There was a long pause. Molly began to feel really uncomfortable just now. She was starting to regret asking that question. As he looked deep into her soul she could feel a twinge of fear creeping up her spine.
He was breathing heavily. Deep breaths, in and out. His nostrils would flare with each breath. Molly was too afraid to move. She couldn’t bring herself to asking anything else. She just sat there as he looked at her. She couldn’t even begin to question what must be going through his mind right now. After what felt like forever, she finally decided to do the only thing that came to her, she slowly began to sip her tea.
“Molly, I brought you out here to have a nice day,” Drake said. “I don’t want to spoil it by talking about things we can’t change. You need to be patient, sis. The time will come when I give you my last remaining secrets. For now, let’s just try to have a nice picnic.
“Drake, you keep calling me sis, you said I could ask you anything. I want to know. What is the deal with her,” Molly said.
“The only thing you need to know about Ashley is this,” Drake said. “The night you and George went on your date, that night at the fair, I hooked up with Ashley. She was in tears over seeing the two of you kiss. She practically threw herself at me. Unlike my virgin of a brother, well, I wasn’t going to let an opportunity to screw Ashley Taylor go to waste.”
The smirk that crept on his face was a look Molly had seen before. She turned her gaze away from his. It was the face he made every time he, had his way with her. Here he was admitting to her about sleeping with the woman her husband couldn’t let go of and now he was looking at her with lust.
“Molly, Molly Goldfish. You don’t have anything to worry about,” Drake said. “You see Ashley can’t h urt you any more. She can’t hurt either of us anymore. Can we try to have a nice day now?”
Molly rubbed her wrists. They were sore from being tied up. She looked down at the ground.
“I’m not that worried about what she can do to me, how much worse can it get?” Molly said. “I just want to know what kind of affect she had on the men in my life, isn’t that fair? I mean, everything that you or George have done to me keeps going back to her,.”
She knew she couldn’t make it worse. If she was going to die on the same day he fucked that bitch, she at least deserved to know what was so special about Ashley Taylor, what kind of hold did she have on the men in her life. It was something Molly was determined to figure out, she believed she had a right to know, all things considered.
Drake placed his hand on her knee gently. He told her he would tell her exactly what she wanted, as long as she was willing to face the consequences.
“If you really must know, Ashely’s story is wrapped up with yours after all,” Drake said.
As Drake began to tell the story to Molly, she finally began to realize exactly how much danger she was really in.
I took sweet Ashley under those bleachers that night my little brother was off running around with that whore, Molly Goldfish. Ashley knew George had won that goldfish for her and Molly stole it, along with her man, the same night. I slide my baby maker into her that night. She ended up pregnant right away too.
Fortunately for me she ended up sleeping with that loser football player she would end up marrying just a few days later. She told me she was going to make him think it was his, convince him she remained faithful the entire time and let the two raise the kid together. Her parents weren’t having any of that. They took the kid and sent her off to live with her aunt or something.
I had already gotten a taste for death after Brandon died and then I talked Jennifer into killing herself. That power of knowing I could decide whether a person lives or dies, it changed me, consumed me. I went to medical school so I could become a doctor, not to save lies but to savor in the lives I would lose. Sometimes I would slip up, on purpose, and let a patient die. I always made sure it looked like we did all we could.
It was the first time I operated on a thirteen-year-old girl. She came in for a fairly routine operation. As I held her life in my hands I made a decision. I accidentally dropped the instrument I was cutting her up with, it fell into her wound, I made sure I wiggled it just right getting it out she was guaranteed to bleed to death. I let out crocodile tears and I beat on her chest trying to “save her live” as I hid the joy it gave me as I felt her life slip through my fingers.
I tracked down the little whore that sprung from my loins. It was just after college. I took a field trip across the country to visit all the states. I made a little detour in Ohio where she was staying.
The child that I fathered in a night of pure lust. I sneeked into her house. I was wearing a mask and a dark hoodie. I had on these red gloves. I went into her bedroom while she was sleeping. During the course of my struggle with her I wrapped my hands tightly around her neck and strangled the life out of that poor girl. I took a gun, busted into the master bedroom and shot her aunt, uncle and their sleeping kid all in the chest while they were sleeping. I grabbed a few valuables, mostly jewelry and I fled the scene.
I went to a liquor store around the way and sold the items to a thief in a back alley. He was African-American. I gave him the gloves and hoodie and asked him if he wanted a blow job. I blew him to get his DNA, went back to the crime scene and left his stuff on her genitals. I had to make sure he was seen wearing the same hoodie and gloves, with those items in his possession and his DNA on her body. It was perfect. He took the fall while I got away with it clean as a whistle.
A few years later I ran into Ashley and her new family. One night I drugged her with this stuff hypnotists use to distort memories. I raped her daughter while she was tied to a chair, helpless, watching. I used the drug to convince her she had watched her husband commit the act and stabbed him to death when she broke free. In reality I stabbed the shit out of him right in front of her. Then I handed her the knife before I cut her loose. Once the cops showed up she was in a hysterical state. She had no idea what had happened. The kid, well she was unconscious so she didn’t know.
Today, she is locked up in a mental health clinic for a crime she didn’t commit. Here I am, with the source of my brother’s pain before me. I told George before I shot him and made it look like he shot himself on camera, I was going to torture you and then kill you. I made a promise to my dying brother because he hated you more than anything in this world.
On the operating table I have facilitated the deaths of 12 different women. I only “lose” women and girls. Outside of the doctor role. I have taken 36 lives with my own hands. You will be 37. Yours will be the perfect murder. I will be tying up all the loose ends of my past while I ensure my brothers last wish is carried out. As for you sweetheart, your death is not going to be short, or painless. It will be agonizing. You will be begging me for death before I give it to you. Until then, enjoy the rest of today. This will be the last chance you ever feel the sun shining down on your face.
Stephanie Bri 