Page 124 of Unhinged Kallie

“You’re the fuck I was texting with, right? That bitch from earlier was your kid? She looked good to eat. I would’ve had her too if you hadn’t broken up the party, but you should know she came to me. She wanted my cock. Sorry Daddy-O, your girl is a nasty whore.”

I hit the next recording, and Darryl’s body jerked as Sara-Lee’s screams filled the room. His breathing quickened, and the pulse jumped at the side of his neck. The screams got louder as she called out Darryl’s name and begged me to stop. I recorded the entire session and especially loved the part where I turned on the saw.

“Sara! Sara! Let her go! Sara, I’m coming for you,” he yelled, and I smirked. Such chivalry. Who said it was dead?

“Sara-Lee cannot speak at this time. Unfortunately, she’s already dead.”

“You fucker!”

Darryl hadn’t seen anything yet. I was just getting warmed up.

The music stopped, and the room filled with only his heavy breathing. I walked across the room and sat down in my chair to watch the show.

When I hit play, the tiny projector installed at the head of the bed flicked on, showing the video of me destroying everything Darryl held dear. The beauty of being me was that I didn’t care who I hurt to get what I wanted, and I wanted Darryl to live through the same pain I did when he took my Sunshine.

As many people and as long as it took, I would break him mentally before I started on his body. My voice came on before the first image.

“I’d like to take a moment to introduce myself. My name is Cain Buchanan, but you would know me as The Chameleon. Yes, I know you’ve heard of me. I saw the clippings in your binders. The trophies of those you desired to become but were always just shy. You would never beat me.”

Darryl’s eyes were transfixed as footage of all those he idolized played on the screen. They had shared the same fate, strapped to my table, screaming for mercy. They begged a god they’d shunned or didn’t believe in as a last-ditch effort to be set free or saved. None of that happened. No savior ran through the door, no lightning bolt struck me dead, and each screamed as they drifted off into the nothingness that took them.

The first part of the film stopped, and Darryl’s heart was pounding hard. I could hear it across the room. He’d been right to be afraid at the farm. He knew that death had found him and that his reckoning was coming.

“I’m sorry,” he blurted like an idiot. That took less time than I thought. He unimpressed me further, which I hadn’t thought possible. “Did I kill your kid?” He looked around in the dark. “Answer me, did I?”

You told me once, dear, you really loved me

And no one else could come between.

But now you’ve left me and love another;

You have shattered all of my dreams:

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine

You make me happy when skies are gray

You’ll never know, dear, how much I love you

Please don’t take my sunshine away.

Standing, I opened the door wide, letting the light from the room beyond bathe me, making me look like the shadow I now knew he feared.

I turned to stare at him, his shit-brown eyes reflected in the light that reached the table.

“Tell me please, did I?”

“No, you took my Sunshine, and now you’ll know the darkness I’ve known since.”

“What the hell does that mean?” I backed out of the room. “Tell me what that means.” The door locked with a thud.

Walking over to the television I hadn’t used since I’d taken Kirby, I sat down. Turning on the camera, I peeled off the night vision and hit play on my homemade movie for Darryl. First up was his sweet Grand Mammie, but since then, I’d found six other people Darryl loved or cared for, and each one had died on my table. Now, he would spend his days for however long I chose, reliving those deaths, just as I relived Kirby’s in my mind every night since he took her from me.

His screaming started almost instantly, and it was music to my tortured mind. If he thought this was rough, wait until we got to round two.

* * *

THREE WEEKS LATER