Fragrance of Revenge (27 page)

 
Chapter 84

I knew where we were. I heard what Chris planned to do. I hope Mercedes wasn’t in the house. It was obvious Alexis was planning to kill her father and then either Chris or me. I could warn Chris, but I had already done that. If I do it again, it might tip the scale and I’ll be the one she kills.

I remembered what the doctor’s face showed when she changed him into a woman, and then his expression when she slit his throat. My only hope of staying alive for minutes, if not hours, was to play along with her. Her sister had tried to kill me, and really couldn’t bring herself to do it, but that was because of the circumstances and Melanie’s complicated split-personalities.

I tried not to think that these might be my last minutes alive. The thoughts of Mercedes in captivity were not the best thing to be thinking about right now. She was why I wanted to live and without her, what would I do?

When they headed here I knew it was Stephen’s house they were going to. Alexis wasn’t here to introduce herself, although she may do just that, but was really here to punish him for what he had done to her life. I had seen Stephen make business decisions. He made them quickly and with conviction. Thinking about why he committed Alexis to the care facility I could understand why he did it.

His wife was weak at the time. If she knew she gave birth to a deformed child it would have been crushing to her. So, he made the best decision he could, given the circumstances. It wasn’t what I would have done, but I can see him weighing the consequences and he decided it was best to hide her. It would have worked if Alexis had remained a deformed child. However, she turned into the same beautiful twin Melanie was.

I thought of my captivity by Melanie. She made me do things I wanted to resist, but she was too good at getting my body to react to her persuasions. However, cutting the arrow went too far, but I remember her eyes looking elsewhere, and I was lucky in hindsight.

I can understand why Mercedes was so upset by my nightmares. Our disagreement happened only a few days ago but it felt like weeks.

Mercedes I love you. I want you and I need you. Please God don’t let her be hurt. I promise I will never ever do another investigation. I’ve learned my lesson. I want to be with you for the rest of my life. If you still do investigations, I will support you. However, we both could find something else that would be less threatening to our future. I want to have kids and make you the happiest person in the world.

I knew it was pointless to say my prayers. What was going to happen was going to happen. However, I didn’t have much to lose by saying them.

I heard a loud thump above me and wondered what it was.

 
Chapter 85

They were walking up the sweeping staircase to what must be the upstairs bedrooms. She could feel her heart beating in her chest and looked down to make sure she wasn’t bleeding since it was pounding so hard. Chris was behind her and letting her do her thing.

At the top of the staircase there was a long hall with several doors leading off it on the right. There was a railing on the left side overlooking the lower level and two more doors beyond the railing’s end.

She stuck her head in each room, but they were obviously unoccupied. She could hear some muted classical music playing in one of the rooms down the hall. However, she kept checking out each room. She stopped when she heard the sound of someone moving in the next room to her right.

She put her hand up to have Chris stop and she moved quietly to the room she heard the noise in. She stood at the doorway and saw a woman, maybe in her fifties, sitting at a bench in front of the dresser mirror, brushing her hair. This must be her mother. She put her hand up again to Chris who was still staying right where he was. She entered the bedroom.

The woman’s eyes were closed and she was lost in the brushing. This could have been someone who loved her, but her dad never let her know she existed. She slowly opened the straight razor and took another step towards the woman.

The woman must have sensed her presence since she opened her eyes. Her expression was one of confusion and of shock. She dropped the hairbrush and turned in the seat towards her. “Melanie?” She grabbed her throat and started to get up. Then she grimaced and grabbed her chest.

Alexis realized her mother was having a heart attack. “How nice to see you mother,” she whispered. She closed the straight razor as her mother collapsed onto the bedroom floor.

She heard the sound of heavy footsteps out in the hall. She turned to see her father enter the bedroom and stop dead in his tracks. He dropped the small glass he was holding onto the bedroom floor. “Alexis…what have you done?”

“I haven’t done anything. I was just going to say hello to my mother when she collapsed.”

He was already moving to his wife’s form, but they both saw how blue her face was. He pulled the bench away and started to blow into her mouth and press rapidly on her chest. “You don’t seem that surprised to see me, Dad. Is that what I should call you? Or should it be Stephen or Mr. Strong? I think you’re wasting your breath. She needs more than you can give her now. You know what…I needed a lot more from you too.”

She opened the straight razor. “Couldn’t you have called me once, or even visited me once while I was hidden away. Dad, I needed you more than you could ever know. I had a family and you kept me from it. Why? What did I ever do wrong to you?” She hated the fact she had tears running down her face. For the first time she realized Chris was standing inside the bedroom door. “Dad, why didn’t you care about me? I was a real person and although I was ugly for many years…look at me now…I’m not that way any longer. You deserve to die for what you did to me.”

She lunged at him with the open razor, and he ducked out of the way. He went running towards the door and Chris grabbed him. She watched them fight and was frozen in position. She wanted to move, but couldn’t.

Her father made a move with his leg and both arms and Chris went flying onto his back. She saw her dad run out of the bedroom in his stocking feet and turn down the hallway. She was still frozen in position holding the straight razor when she heard a crack, followed by a loud crash.

They both left the bedroom to find the railing broken. They looked down and her father was lying in a growing pool of blood. He had obviously landed on a glass top table which had a metal frame. One of the metal frames was sticking out his back.

She dropped the razor and turned and buried her head in Chris’s chest.

“I’m sorry Alexis. I’m sorry you didn’t have the family you should have had.” She felt his arms tight around her.

“I think I saw some love in my mother’s eyes, but she only knew my image as Melanie’s. I didn’t even have time to tell her who I was. They’re both dead now.” She couldn’t stop her sobbing, and wondered why she was so upset they were gone.

Minutes later she had calmed down enough to get her thoughts together. “Chris what do we do now?”

“Well, there’s only Scott and Mercedes left,” Chris answered as she felt him push her away from his body. She bent and picked up the razor. She noticed it still had some of Scott’s blood on it. “Lick it Chris.” She watched as he studied her eyes and licked the razor with some force.

It would be so easy to kill him right now.
“I need you now Chris. I need you to lick me like you did that razor.” She dropped the razor and started running down the hall, stopping periodically to remove a piece of her clothing.

“What about Scott?” he asked.

“What about him? Do you want him to watch us?”

“No, not really.”

“Good. You can have Mercedes if we get the chance and we’ll let Scott watch. Then I’ll have Scott willingly because he will be trying to protect her. Then we’ll kill them both. You and I will start a new set of trophies. I know what parts I want of Scott’s, but you need to think about what you want of hers.” She smiled a wicked smile. “Maybe you just want her long red hair.”

She pushed him and removed the last article of her clothing and jumped on her parents’ king sized bed. She watched him bounce when he took his briefs off. “Something has made you really excited.” He started to climb onto the bed.

“Wait. I want you to do as I say. You’ll get me, but you will be even more ready. Now do what I originally told you to do.”

She watched his brain trying to remember, and then his recognition. He started towards her. “Slowly Chris…do everything very slowly.”

Chapter 86

As soon as I saw them I knew I was in trouble. They were both naked and Alexis had her straight razor in her hand. She looked miles away.

“Scott, did you enjoy your time alone with your thoughts?” Alexis asked grabbing the front of my shirt and ripped it open. “Answer me.”

“I wondered what was happening upstairs. But I guess I can tell now that you both are naked.”

She couldn’t pull the shirt completely off since my hands were tied behind the column. I heard the razor cutting through the cloth of my shirt. “Better,” she said.

I could feel my heart beating a mile a minute and wondered if she was going to kill me right here. She leaned her ear against my chest with the razor right in front of my eyes. “I wish your heart was beating because you were excited to see me, but I know you remember what I did to the good doctor and worry about what I’m going to do to you. Right?”

I knew I better respond. “Alexis, your sister was much more of a romantic. She was mean in many ways, but she treated those in her captivity with some form of love.”

“What does that mean? Do you want me to make love to you?”

“I don’t know how to explain it to you. And no, I don’t want you to make love to me.” I hoped that was the back of the razor between my legs.

“I got your attention again didn’t I?”

I looked over at Chris who was enjoying my predicament, and probably glad it was me instead of him. “Yes.”

“Chris, come over here and untie him. Let’s bring him upstairs to one of the bedrooms. I’m not finished with him yet, and I’m not going to make this easy on him by killing him here. Oh, and by the way…Stephen and his wife are both dead.”

*.*.*

Chris had a cord around my neck and my wrists were still tied behind my back, but it felt strange to be the only one of us with clothes. I’m sure that was going to change very soon.

When we got upstairs I saw the pool of blood and the metal frame protruding through Stephen’s back. I knew he was dead. It was hard to comprehend his being dead. I just talked with him a few hours ago. I’m most likely going to be the next person killed, unless she does Chris instead of me. That gave me an idea. Chris pulled on the cord and it was hard to breath. Is he going to kill me instead?

We stopped at the entrance to the master bedroom. Mrs. Strong’s body was on her back and there was no question she was also dead. “Chris, drag her body into another room. I don’t want to look at her lying on the floor,” Alexis said as she motioned with the razor.

She pushed me over to the four-poster bed which was almost three feet off the floor. “You get up on the bed.”

I backed up to the bed and lifted myself up so I was seated on the bed. I didn’t like how Alexis was looking at me, and I just stared back.

She stepped closer and ran the back of the razor down from my forehead, across my nose and rested it on my lips. “Open your mouth.” As soon as I did she had the razor laying flat against my tongue. “I should have had Chris take the rest of your clothes off before he left the room.” Chris came in almost as if he was called.

I looked at his expression as he watched what Alexis was doing.

“Chris, give me a hand.” However, he just stayed where he was. “Chris, please. Come over here and help me.” He hesitantly came over and stood beside her. “Take all his clothes off and make him more comfortable.”

He hesitated. “I thought you had some investigation stuff to do…we’re wasting time.”

“The sooner you get him tied up again, the sooner I can get on with what I was going to do. Besides, wouldn’t you like to be mean to him, so I could be nice to you?”

I watched her other hand reach between his legs and then wrap her fingers around him. “Chris, remember all the fun you had doing the things I made you do in my bedroom? Now, hurry and do what I asked you to do. You’re right, we’re wasting time.”

I knew once they had me tied to the bed and naked again, I had at best only a few hours left to live. I also realized I might not want to be alive for whatever she was planning. I made a quick move off the bed and started to run out of the bedroom. I heard Chris’ bare feet pounding on the floor rushing after me.

It was hard running down the stairs with my hands tied behind me, but I was several steps ahead of him and headed to the front entry. I got a glimpse of Stephen’s body to my right as I passed at a full run. What I didn’t see was the blood on the floor. My first step into the blood and my feet went out from under me. I landed on my back and saw Chris’ fist headed toward my face.

*.*.*

This was getting to feel like a broken record and I was the record. I could feel the pain in my back, but my extremities hurt just as bad. This time there was no play in the cords around my wrists and ankles. I opened my eyes to see Alexis sitting on my body. She was still naked and I was now too.

“You are getting to be a real problem Scott. I think Chris’ suggestion to just kill you makes a lot of sense. Give me one reason I shouldn’t just slash your throat right now.” She looked down my body and ran her fingers lightly across my stomach. “That’s one reason.” She busied her fingers lower and I could feel my body slowly responding.

“Are you going to do the research you had planned on doing?” Chris asked from the chair he was sitting in.

“I am doing research right now. I like how both of your bodies respond to my touch. In Scott’s case even when he’s trying his best to ignore what I’m doing.”

“Alexis you promised me.”

“Yes, you’re right…I did promise you. Okay Scott, you have a few more minutes to think about how you are going to be punished for trying to escape again. I know I’m getting tired of it, and I can tell Chris is getting annoyed with your presence.” She got up and then planted a kiss right where it would make Chris even madder.

“Let’s go do our investigation Chris.”