Page 31 of Unhinged Cain

I leaned on the table and was mildly impressed with Karen.

“You may be right. I suppose that he could’ve already dug his claws into her psyche and made it feel impossible for her to leave. Kind of like you right now.” My lip curled up as I tormented her. She looked frozen in place, her eyes wide as they focused on mine.

“What, you have nothing to say?” She reminded me of a wind-up toy.

“Please don’t do this. Please don’t kill me. I don’t want to die, please. I’m begging you,” she blubbered like a broken record. “I have a husband and a daughter, and I need to get back to them and….”

“Karen, stop.”

I leaned over her body and brought my face closer to hers as I analyzed her with an artist’s eye. Her features were nondescript, nothing that stood out as being unique, but I could picture what she looked like in her youth before the years of self-abuse. I poked at her cheekbones that had some promise with the right makeup.

“Why do you think I’m doing this to you?”

“Please,” she cried. “I’m begging you.”

“I said stop.” I smacked the table with the palm of my hand again, and she sucked in her lower lip and closed her eyes. “Now answer the question.”

“I…I…I don’t know,” she blurted out, and I shook my head at her.

“You don’t know what? You don’t understand the question, or you don’t know the answer?”

Tears poured out of her eyes and fell on the table below, the moisture now smearing her blush and the foundation she’d haphazardly caked onto her face was now a rainbow of colorful streaks. I liked the look, an idea coming to me.

“I don’t know why you’re doing this.”

Karen broke down into yet another round of blubbering, which was quite the contrast to her earlier attitude. She had been screaming at an elderly man in the convenience store about ‘being in her way.’ She used a few racial slurs about him being black and practically shoved him down an aisle. If I hadn’t been standing behind him and caught him as he fell, he surely would’ve broken something or worse. He could’ve died if he’d cracked his head.

I didn’t like people. I found them to be useless and a waste of good air, but I really didn’t like those who thought they were at the top of the food chain when in reality, they were nothing more than bullies.

This Karen not only didn’t apologize when I righted the man on his feet, but when I calmly suggested she go elsewhere to buy her armful of heart attack items, she rounded on me. Her finger waggled like a worm on a hook in my face while the six-pack of beer cans rattled with the mistreatment of being shaken. Little did she know that prey rarely knew it was prey until it was too late.

I liked this particular convenience store. It was in a low-traffic area, there were no cameras on the property, and the parking lot was around the back of the store. When this Karen poked me in the chest, I knew she was coming home with me. There were many reasons I would take one bag of skin over the next, but usually, it had to do with my mood and the opportunity that was presented.

If I had a scale of respect, ‘Karen’s’ would be at the bottom of my list. They bothered me because they were the most aggressive form of liar, and it angered me when one thought they could speak to me at all, let alone touch me. She was lucky I didn’t rip her finger right off her hand in the middle of the store. Pulling myself out of my thoughts, I sighed and laid my finger on Karen’s lips. She’d been begging nonstop the last couple of minutes.

“Karen, if you’re not careful, I’m going to rip your tongue out while you’re still breathing.” She clenched her mouth shut tight, her lips trembling under my finger. “I’m going to ask you one more time. Why do you think I’m doing this, Karen,” I asked, my voice calm.

“I don’t know, and my name’s not Karen.”

I shook my head and rubbed my eyes at the level of her stupidity. “I know your name isn’t Karen, but you are one, and I don’t care what your real name is.”

A flash of intelligence or maybe just understanding passed over her face. “I promise I won’t be such a bitch. I’ve learned my lesson.” She nodded her head like that might help me to agree with her.

I nodded along with her and then shook my head no. “Just answer my original question.”

I stepped aside to retrieve the rest of my tools. When she spotted the leather case, she let out a sound that was part word and part incoherent animal noise. Once I unrolled the leather case and all my tools of choice were on display, she lost her mind and began hysterically screaming. I sighed when it became obvious this woman was not going to answer. My eyes roamed over her jiggling, stout body as she thrashed in the restraints.

I took my time to finish wiping down Karen’s body, and she involuntarily giggled as I cleaned her feet. It was good that I was used to living on a farm with animals because she smelled like a stuck pig that had been left out in the sun all day for a maggot feast. She made me wonder if bodily hygiene had gone out of style.

I ran my fingers along the metal tools that glistened in the light and decided on the one I’d had specially made. It was like the tip of a scalpel fitted with a foot from a sewing machine, and for the fine detailing I planned for the rest of her body, it was going to be needed. This tool was best to use on those that were still alive when I did my artwork. The movement that accompanied pain and fear tended to screw up the depths of the small details on my pieces. This way, no matter what, the blade would cut at the same depth. Pretty fucking brilliant, I thought.

I visualized an assortment of screaming faces among crosses on her stomach. I was about to start my first cut when the sensor dinged to let me know someone had just arrived. Looking up at the security screen, I groaned as I saw Abel heading my way. A moment later, the outer door slammed open with a bang. He never just walked in. He always slammed my door open because he knew it angered me. I heard the song he was humming before he moseyed into the soundproof area I was working.

He stopped in his tracks as his eyes took in the woman who’d shut up long enough to see who the new arrival was, but from the whimper she made, I don’t think she was too happy to see the two of us.

“What the fuck, man? Again?”

“You need to be clearer in your questioning Abel.”