Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 70488 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70488 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
He grunted.
I continued to shove more meat down the long tube with my paddle.
As it ground away, meat resembling hamburger pushed out the other end into a large bucket already there waiting.
“I don’t know how long I was in there when the man came in,” I continued, feeling my stomach tighten at the words that were tumbling free of my mouth. Again, something I hadn’t ever told a single soul. “I was first aware someone was in there when I heard the crying.”
I ran out of meat, and Hux came back with more between his large hands, dumping it all into the top tray.
I stuffed more down the tube.
“My breathing had finally returned to somewhat normal, and I picked my head up off my knees and listened hard. That’s when I realized that it wasn’t crying, but like…groans.”
“Groans,” he said. “Someone was having sex?”
“Not having sex, no,” I admitted. “At least not with an alive person.”
Long, long moments passed before he said, “I really need you to explain.”
I ran out of meat again, and he turned the grinder off before pulling the tub away that’d been gathering the meat and brought it back to the table.
He dumped it on the table then pointed at the bags. “Fold them over and stuff them a pound full. The scale is right there built into the table.”
I did and kept talking.
“I got up and looked through the crack in the door.” I swallowed. “And saw a man on the floor having sex with a naked woman.”
Hux got to work cutting meat off the bone again.
I stuffed the bags exactly a pound full and set them to the side with the other bags.
“That person on the floor wasn’t moving. And for some reason, that terrified me,” I said. “Through the crack in the stall door, I could see that the person didn’t look right. Awfully pale. Like ghostly pale. The woman’s hair was greasy and kind of wrong in color. And there were these lines on the woman’s chest right here.” I made a Y outline on my chest. “Like she’d been cut and sewn closed.”
Hux stopped what he was doing. “She was a dead woman?”
I nodded.
“You’re…”
He froze, his eyes wide.
“Was it the man they’re calling Corpse Violator in the news?”
I nodded. “I was the one to give the description to the police,” I said forlornly. “When he was having sex with this dead woman, he had his hood off his face. He was kissing her. Like reverently. Like she was his long-lost love. When he was done, he tucked her underneath the long bench that held three sinks and left, pulling his hood on before he left. Once he was gone, I waited like ten minutes to be sure that he was in fact gone, then left the bathroom. I used to go to the bathrooms in the basements, because then no one could see me having an asthma attack. I just wanted to be normal, you know? I wanted no one to know how bad they were.”
He nodded, his hand gripping the knife so tight his hands were bloodless.
“It was the closest bathroom to the hospital morgue,” I said. “Where the medical examiner’s office was located.”
He breathed out a long breath, then let the knife go.
He leaned both of his fists into the stainless-steel countertop before he urged, “Keep going.”
“I found the cop that I liked a lot. He was a security guard during most of my shifts. I went up to him, and I told him what I saw, and he got this terrified look on his face. Soon after, he pulled me into a room with what felt like a hundred people inside. All of them cops. I told them what I saw. They questioned me for hours. I ended up having to sit and explain him to a sketch artist. Then they informed me that they’re pretty sure that I was the one and only person that had seen ‘Corpse Violator’ in person that was alive and able to give a description.”
“Holy fucking shit.”
Corpse Violator was number one on America’s Most Wanted List.
And for eleven months and eleven days, Corpse Violator stalked me.
That was his MO.
He would kill once a year. For eleven months and twenty-nine days, he would stalk his victim. He would let his victim know that she was being stalked. That she was his next target. She’d receive gifts. She’d receive everything that she ever could dream of. And on the last day of the year, he would capture her and torture her until she died. When she was dead, he would let her be found. When she was found, he would then steal her from the morgue and violate the woman’s body in death.
“I didn’t realize at first that Corpse Violator had set his sights on me. I thought my luck had finally turned around.” I swallowed hard. “I found my dream job. That was where I was when Birdee found me. Interviewing for it. My mortgage was paid off. Found my dream car. I won the lottery.” I laughed bitterly. “Wasn’t much. Enough to buy that dream car I’d always wanted.”