“ Do you need to go shopping?”, the question stirred Sable’s eyes from the window, and she reluctantly turned her neck. ‘ Do I?’, thinking back on it, she doubted she would be needing girl supplies for at least two weeks, and she usually never forgot little things like shampoo or conditioner…’ Wait a moment.’, thinking back on the matter, Sable had completely forgotten to enter the bathroom and grab her toiletries. Her soap was still sitting on the shelf inside the shower, and her toothbrush was still by the sink. ‘ I suppose I was a little hasty…’, oh well, it would leave Lee something to remember her by, perhaps it would further his desire to protect her daughter from harm. A smirk rose to her lips at the unintended emotional manipulation this situation now caused the man.
“ Sable?”, Stirred from her thoughts, she briskly nodded once as a reply.
“ Yes. Where do you suggest we shop?”, wishing -if anything- to avoid any association with the general public, Sable stared at the floor in contemplation. A gas station might be the obvious choice; however, she detested entering such places. She was the ‘free’ woman, surely she could handle going into a grocery store or someplace simple like Wal-Mart. Oddly enough, that was where Ralph suggested, and thirty minutes later, they were at the stated location. Their journey now situated somewhere close to the New Hampshire state line.
“ Denny, can you find the goldfish?”, purposefully using ‘pet names’ to disguise themselves further, ‘Charlotte’ pressed her index finger to her lip in contemplation as her eyes ran over all the intriguing little brand names found in the grocery section. There were peanut-butter filled pretzels, party mix, and even bagged Jerky that looked particularly appetising. For a woman who once chose to live off of gummy worms, her diet had considerably improved. Out of everything she anticipated changing since the pregnancy, her diet had been the most difficult adjustment. Standing in the aisle looking quite torn, an ‘associate’ stopped by to help her.
“ Pardon me, miss, but can I help you find anything?”, At being called ‘miss’, Sable held back a scowl. No one ever liked being called ‘miss’ in her opinion, and the few that did only preferred it to ‘madam’. Which, ironically, Sable would have picked to be her preference. Smiling, if only to be polite, she looked down at the brand names set before her. Her mouth forming a squiggly line as she stood there in contemplation. ‘ Why am I feeling déjà vu?’ the sensation plopped into her stomach like a lightning bolt. Turning her head to face the blonde woman who was very poorly dressed for a wal-mart associate (as she was missing the nametag) Sable blinked and tilted her head in thought. Standing there in mid-contemplation until the woman repeated her question. ‘ I've seen this woman before...’
“ Yes, can you help me find sporting goods?”, Following the woman there simply to have more time to digest her face, Sable’s little journey ended the moment she saw the set-up camping display beside automotive. The funny thing was, this woman led Sable in a loop-de-loop across the entire store before they ‘happened’ to stumble upon the department. The entire time, Sable felt a bubbling sensation tingling from the inside of her body. ‘ This woman doesn‘t work here. She doesn‘t know sh*t about this place.’, pleased to be dealing with a ‘simpleton’, Sable nodded and thanked the woman as if she wasn’t ‘onto her schemes’. Looking at the sporting goods section and finding a very appealing set of hunting knives, her heart began to pitter-patter like it was Christmas morning. ‘ How much did I save?’, Sable didn’t even have to contemplate the answer. She had well over the amount that expensive set required, and made a purchase faster than she could blink. Eventually finding ‘Denny’ wandering about the snack-food aisles looking for her, Sable poured a great heap of peanut-butter filled pretzels, goldfish, and Jerky into the shopping cart. Ending their shopping spree by purchasing a few backpacks, Gatorades, and a large selection of TV dinners made by Lean Cuisine. If she ate only one or two of them a day, they would last her through-out the week…and that was all Sable planned on waiting before seeking out Daphne Kane.
However, the ‘blonde’ continued to hide behind Aisles as if Sable and Ralph didn’t notice her presence. The woman in her mid-thirties was following Sable’s every move. When Sable went to the women’s department, blondie was there pretending to admire a sweater. When she and Ralph stood in line to check-out, there the blonde was reading a newspaper a few lanes away before finally buying a tiny, see-through, box of orange tic-tacs. ‘ This woman is following me...’, as much as Sable was tempted to do so, killing a woman in the parking lot was too foolish an idea to contemplate. ‘ But, why is this woman following me?’, Sable questioned to herself as she lifted the final bag of purchased goods into her shopping cart...and finally, the ringing bell's tune registered in her brain. The memory flooding into her mind’s eye as her mouth formed a tiny ‘O’.
~
Laying in that infamous arm-chair inside the psychiatric hospital, Sable could remember laying down with her hair sprawled out everywhere beneath her skull. Like a furry pillow. Numb from the pain-killers that the doctors had forced down her throat, (or whatever those pills happened to be), ‘Maple’ had been ignoring the call from an orderly who constantly prodded her to ‘walk outside’ or converse with the other patients. ‘ Mmm. No. thank you. I‘ll stay right here on my lonesome.’ That was, after all, how Sable liked it best. But, unfortunately, that was not to be on that Tuesday afternoon.
“ Ms. Jamison, you have a visitor.”, Sable had raised an eyebrow at hearing such news from the orderly standing behind her chair. ‘ Me? Company? Is Lee off work early today?’, blinking her cares away for the longest moment, she was suddenly too curious not to follow the woman towards a guest room specifically made for ‘visits’ between patients and family members. The sound from the hall clock ticking every other second, as if it too were in a blank frame of mind. Turning the corner, as she knew she had very few relatives, Sable saw the blonde woman sitting in a leather armchair. Holding a pen and a notebook with a bright smile upon her face.
Wonderful…an interview…
Out of every person who tried to get Sable to state something for their paper, this woman was different. She wasn’t a ‘reporter’ she was a novelist. She genuinely wanted to know what her experience with January had been like to fuel a character for her ‘novel’. As intriguing as it was, Sable was almost tempted to spill a few beans. Not only did this woman know about January, this woman collected newspaper clippings. She remembered that ‘Maple’ had been the victim found at another crime scene. She remembered Michael Tenner.
“ Ms. Jamison, how did it feel to be a victim of not one; but, two serial killers?”, Sable refused to say anything, but she took note of the woman’s bright blue eyes and inquisitive smile. A novelist wanted to make her the heroine in her novel. Jessica Lynn wanted her story.
~
Walking out to the parking lot with the novelist in tow, Sable and Ralph exchanged a knowing glance. A devilish smirk plastered about their faces even though their mouths remained stoic and unmoving. A light twinkling in Sable’s chocolate eyes. ‘ Oh ho ho…she‘ll get a story alright.’, especially if she kept following them towards Vermont.
Driving down little back-roads instead of using the freeway, a black Toyota Camry could be seen in the reflection of Ralph’s rear-view mirror. The fool of a woman was stalking their car in the belief that their trained eyes couldn’t see her just because the woman had her lights turned off. Keeping her eyes pinned on both the side and rear-view mirrors to see if any other cars were driving down the rickety dirt roads, Sable popped a small peanut-butter filled pretzel into her mouth and pressed her teeth down to silently grind it down.
“ Is she still following us?”, Ralph asked, the worry evident in his fifty-two year old scratchy tone. Nodding before realizing that the man was paying too much attention to the road to notice her non-verbal reply, Sable kept her gaze on the mirror and bobbed her head to swallow the remaining bits of pretzel.
“ Yes.”, Sable didn’t have to move her head to see Ralph’s fingers grip and squeeze the leather steering wheel. The man wasn’t like Mike or January, Ralph was susceptible to cowardice, and he was feeling a direct assault from the unspoken enemy at this very moment. ‘ I‘d best change the subject before he has another panic attack.’, grimacing at the necessity of bringing up the topic she had wished to never speak of, Sable leaned in the back of the passenger seat and turned her head to look in Ralph’s direction. To at least appear more personable.
“ I know where Karen is.”, Ralph’s eyes bulged out slighty like a frog, and he almost lost his grip on the steering wheel. Of course bringing up the woman he -at one time- loved very dearly would have such a direct response, but it seemed to be the only subject strong enough to make him temporarily forget about Jessica stalking their every move.
“ She‘s buried in Newport Cemetary.”, Ralph’s hands began to choke the steering wheel, so Sable quickly swallowed the fluid in her mouth and summoned up her old feelings of makeshift guilt. At one time, she had actually felt the emotion as plain as day; but, the years had since ridden her of the emotion entirely. However, had she still felt guilt, this would have been something that might have inspired some remorse.
“ I want you to know something though, Ralph.”, Sable inhaled a breath as if to emotionally prepare herself to finish the ‘difficult’ statement.
“ She…slept with other guys long before I ever left.”, the ‘other guys’ being Mike himself, Sable did not wish to ruin whatever semblance of friendship the man might have still felt for his once life-time friend. Not wanting to go into any detail, as she was sure Ralph didn’t want to hear it, Sable briefly concluded.
“ I could hear it from the other room. Before Mike let me out of the basement. I‘m sorry I never told you..you had the right to know long before now.”, at that Ralph’s hands seemed to unclench from around the steering wheel, and Sable smirked the closest thing to an affectionate smile that she could make. Her heart welling up in almost glee at the idea of Ralph being in emotional pain.
“ I understand.”, Ralph replied, and Sable extended her left hand towards him. Her palm raised up expectantly.
“ So give me the gun.”, Suddenly Ralph turned his head towards her; whitewashed, and panicked. As if she had just socked the man in the stomach and the air had been stolen out of his lungs. Sable’s sadistic little smirk grew bigger, like a satanic keebler elf. She bit down on her lip and wiggled her fingers expectantly in the air. Sable was no fool, she knew the man only agreed to give her a ride in the hope of killing her. Ralph looked at her, then, as if he didn’t know what she was talking about; but, Sable knew better. His fear had already given his intentions away.
“ You didn‘t really think you could outsmart me, could you?”, the demonic, almost masculine, tone Sable used inspired the vein in Ralph’s neck to protrude out of the skin. Bulging from the expressed waves of panic that the man so poorly tried to hide. After a long moment, sweat running down from his brow, he reluctantly reached under the driver’s seat to pull out a small black handgun. Setting it in Sable’s capable hands, the black-haired murderous goddess opened the chamber to remove the bullets and fling them out of the window. ‘ Silly rabbit…’ Turning her attention back to the rear-view mirror, Sable let out a sigh before giggling her child-like giggle.
“ Pull over the car, Ralph. We need to take care of this.”
With a very worried look overshadowing his face, Ralph steered the car onto the side of the rickety road and turned off the ignition. Waiting in complete silence, the darkness of the night cast a moonlit shadow upon the inside of the car. Perhaps making the situation more awkward than it was a moment ago. Considering the detail that neither person was in the mood to flip on the radio to break the silence. Waiting almost twenty minutes for the black Toyota Camry to drive up and down the road four times waiting for them to keep driving, the car finally parked itself behind Ralph’s Volkswagen. Waiting another fifteen minutes for the woman to will herself out of the car, a voyeuristic grin settled upon Sable’s perfect mouth as the car-door slammed closed and Jessica’s feet crunched on the gravel. ‘ Such a sweet little sound…’, Sable felt excitement rush through her veins and tempt certain areas of her body in arousal.
Tap, tap, tap.
Sable manually rolled down her window and glanced up at the blonde novelist shaking there before her. ‘ Hurry up and get this over with.’, Sable mused to herself as she debated using the handle of the blade previously hidden within her sleeve in a very inappropriate manner. Once more, images of January shoving her against the wall and ravaging her overtaking her thought life. Finally, though it was only a heartbeat later, the woman introduced herself.
“ Ms. Jamison…I don‘t know if you remember me. But I‘m Jessica Lynn….We interviewed before…and I just had a question I wanted to ask you.”, Sable looked up at the woman with nothing short of pleasurable venom burning out of her almost black bird’s eyes.
“ Proceed…”, The woman didn’t waste any time.
“ Ms. Jamison. Are you planning on telling January that he‘s the father of your baby? Are you going to meet with him now?”, Sable did not even hesitate before asking the only important question she cared enough to hear the answer to.
“ Does anyone know you’re here following me?” The woman paused for the longest moment before shaking her head.
“ N…no I--”
SLASH!!!
Blood spewed across the door of the car as Sable’s hand brought Mike's perfectly sharpened blade down on the skin in-between Jessica’s neck and shoulder. Rendering the woman immobile. Turning towards Ralph, Sable sucked the blood off of the back of her hand and muttered a brisk command against her skin.
“ Shove her in the backseat.”, Ralph didn’t need to be asked twice. Using one hand to cover his groin (as neither person in the car desired to see that portion of the other), Ralph dismounted the drivers seat and followed suit. Sable’s pc muscles throbbing in excited appreciation at the sound of Jessica’s body being dragged towards the back of the car. Out of everything that had happened this day, that certainly made up for the emotional bullsh*t she had been previously subjected to. ‘ January, eat your heart out.’ Giggling so fiendishly against her skin that she sounded like an enthusiastic child, Sable raised her foot once more to rest it upon the dashboard and leaned the passenger seat back into a laying down position.
Once she heard the trunk/backseat door slam shut and Ralph’s heavy body curve back into the driver’s seat, Sable allowed herself to relax. Looking very much like a happy kitty as she kneaded her claws against her thigh and turned her pretty little neck to look in Ralph’s direction. Purposefully only staring at the man’s face in order to avoid seeing anything she did not particularly want to see if she looked down.
“There is an abandoned grove thirty minutes beside the border. You know where I‘m talking about... Drive…”, Sable’s voice was thick and sultry, and she made no efforts to hide the desire in her voice. If not for her complete repulsion of Ralph even accidentally seeing her naked form, she might have turned those wickedly torturous little fantasies she had toyed with earlier into a reality. Using the handle of her perfect blade in the most disturbing manner imaginable. At least, not counting the many other despicable things her knife had been a part of. Slitting Jessica’s skin being one of them.
A vrrrooom sounding the second Ralph pushed down on the gas petal, the man wasted no time in driving as fast as he possibly could. The drive would indeed take a few hours longer than either of them were desirous of waiting; but, to risk speeding on a night like this, with Jessica unconscious in the trunk…How foolish could Ralph be? Once more turning on the radio in case the girl woke up mid-journey, Sable grimaced as 'I can’t smile without you' blared out of the speakers. Unfortunately stuck with that whistling tune bouncing about in her head, Sable attempted to catch a few hours of shut-eye to keep from humming along to it long after the song ended to churn other old classic hits.
.......................................................................................................................
Standing at the roof of a skyscraper, Sable could see gorgeous mountains bathed in moonlight as far as the eye could see. Glancing at herself as if she was someone entirely different, watching this footage like a movie-goer in a high priced theatre, Sable watched the woman that resembled herself turn around as if hearing a sound behind her. Turning her head to try and see what the woman was seeing, Sable’s heart began to patter in her chest at the sight of January (looking quite regal and majestic) walked out of the doorway. Turning back to look at the woman who strongly resembled herself, the ‘movie’ Sable ran and leapt into his arms. Her legs folding around his waist as she repeatedly kissed his mouth. The January on the screen kissed her back to the same regard but walked forward towards the edge of the building. Suddenly, Sable felt a very cold sense of dread overtaking her gut at where this movie was going.
Watching in breathless agony, January continued to kiss the ‘movie’ Sable until he was standing close to the edge of the roof. Where he emotionlessly flung her from the side and turned around without even the courtesy of watching her body squish on the ground. As if that sight wasn’t enough for her heart to break, Sable turned her head towards the screen as January turned back around and held out his hand for someone to clasp it. Waiting in suspense as the camera moved back towards the doorway, Daphne walked out wearing her clothes. An anger, pain, that she couldn’t describe tore at her heart and Sable was left standing there with her hands on the glass ready to break her fist through the screen. ‘ How? Why?! F*cking Rat B*st*rd!’ Turning away from the screen, Sable looked up at a doorway just as footsteps alerted her that someone was entering the room. Seeing January standing there, she had the choice to make. Be foolish and run into his arms, or let him make the first move. Break the ice by saying something. Unfortunately, the dream began to fade away as if someone had poured water on top of a watercolor painting.
........................................................................................................................
The image blurring and fading away into nothing, Sable was only aware of the fact that she was awake by the crude voice of Ralph singing along to Tim McGraw. Or some male country singer that Sable had never heard of before. Mumbling a comment as she groggily woke up, Sable turned off the radio before Ralph could sing another chorus. Her hand flicking the button with a little ‘click’ noise. At the music suddenly silenced, Ralph raised an eyebrow.
“ I was listening to that you know.”, the older man laughed like the uncle-figure he was, and shook his head in play. Hearing whimpering in the backseat, that was what the man had been chuckling at and singing to keep from hearing. Hearing the moans in the back brought a grin to Sable’s face, and she leaned back to try and see the figure in the dark. Seeing a silhouette writhing in the background, Sable giggled and looked back towards Ralph.
“ How soon until we get there?”, Ralph grinned and looked up into the rear-view mirror at the broken, mangled, thing in the backseat. Sable didn’t need to look behind her to grin a smirk in reply; but, she did lean her head against the back of her seat like a purring cat.
“ Not long, now. Just a few minutes.”, being as they were now driving off of the roads, a bump in the ground forced the car to jump in the air a few feet and fall with a quiet BANG! The sudden movement of the car forced the unbuckled person laying down in the back of the minivan-like Volkswagen to hit the ceiling of the car and cry out a loud whimper of pain. The smack only that much more satisfying to the woman sitting in the front seat. Giggling once more like a happy child, Sable looked down at the blade still held in her hand and wiped the browning blood on the sleeve of her ebony hoodie.
As the car skidded aross thousands of leaves and twigs, the mechanical body wobbled back and forth before finally skidding to a stop in the middle of a forest. With the headlights left on, Ralph and Sable climbed out of the car and slammed the doors behind them. The sound echoing out into the night with a crisp tone. The cold making the noise easier to hear. Not that anyone lived out here for miles. Hearing the back door open, Sable smiled and nibbled on her lip at the agonizing screams crisply crying out of Jessica’s lungs. Sable tossed her dagger up into the air, juggling it like a pitcher tossing a baseball in preparation for a game.
Dragging Jessica’s body along the ground, Ralph ignored her kicking and wailing. The tears of pain streaming down her face. Somehow, Jessica knew she wasn’t getting out of this situation alive, and she was doing everything in her weakened state to stop it. Sable turned just as Ralph finished tying her wrists to the trunk of a tree. Walking forward, Sable stopped right in front of Jessica. Absentmindedly continuing to juggle the hunter’s knife in the air in her right hand, the blade glistened in the moonlight. Leaning down, Sable held the knife between her thighs as she unbuttoned the front of Jessica’s blouse.
“P…puh…please don‘t do this. I have people waiting for me. Kids at home…Please don‘t.”, Taking her time unbuttoning the blouse, Sable only briefly flicked her eyes at Jessica’s face when she mentioned the word ‘kids’. Ripping the button on Jesse’s jeans, Sable turned her body so that the light from the truck could shine on the woman’s lower abdomen. Seeing no caesarean scar on her skin, or the altered hip shape that would indicate child bearing, Sable grimaced and shook her head. Not appreciating the fact that Jessica had lied to her.
“ You don‘t have children.”, stabbing Jessica in the stomach, Sable ripped the flesh up her stomach along her chest in that very same ‘question mark’ that she had unintentionally made while under January’s care. Besides the fact that she had spent the last few months being trained by lee in protective self-defence to straiten her muscles, she was sloppy on purpose. To make it look like the latest ‘work’ of January Evans whenever someone happened to find the body. Taking her time ripping the knife through the skin and relishing the screams, the entire procedure took about three minutes before it reached completion. Looking down at the finished product, Sable pulled a tiny camera out of the other pocket in her hoodie and snapped one little picture. A small cut in her lip from having clamped her teeth down a mite too hard.
Remembering the reaction this happened to have on January (who may or may not have found her sexually attractive before she murdered Alex) Sable glared as seriously as her playfully voyeuristic eyes could manage as she walked to the car. Pressing the blade to her mouth to lightly taste the hot, steaming, blood against her lips, Sable climbed into the car and wiped the blade against the front of her already bloodied up hoodie. The fabric nearly soaked at this point.
“ Keep your pants on, Lee will ask questions if you don‘t get back to Maine soon.”, the don’t f*cking touch me omnipresent, Sable just leaned in the back of the car and depressingly watched that ‘special’ tree as the car started to back up and leave her body there in what would later be discovered when daylight arrived. ‘ Perhaps using my knife to cut out her organs and slam them against the tree was a little much…’, Sable held in a chuckle, remembering how she had stomped them into the ground.
And laying back down in the passenger seat, Sable closed her eyes and allowed her body to sleep through the remaining five hours of driving left on the clock.
