Lights Out (30 page)

Lily was blinking hard. She was trying to keep the tears from flowing
down her cheeks, willing them not to come now of all times. She flared her
nostrils as she tried to draw as much air into her lungs as possible whilst the
duct tape across her mouth tugged at the delicate skin on her lips. She lay
looking up at her bedroom ceiling; the spotlights were bright and burned her
eyes forcing them shut. She could feel the heat that they generated on her
eyelids. The back of her head felt sticky against the pillow and throbbed where
he had hit her. Her wrists were bound by thin rope and tied to the bedpost
stretching her body to its full limit. She tried rotating her wrists in an
effort to relieve some of the pressure, but it didn’t work. She only succeeded
in making the skin even more raw and bloody.

Lily wondered when he would come back again. It had been at least
five minutes she estimated. She wriggled her arms again. It was futile. She was
so tightly bound that there was no way for her to escape. She turned her head
from side to side scanning her bedroom, but knew that there was nothing close
at hand that could help her. She closed her eyes and lay back for a moment
trying to relax the muscles in her body.

She had been such a fool to think that only the Police would be
concerned with tracking her location. She hadn’t considered for a moment that
Ghost Face was smart enough to even think about it. She had underestimated him
entirely. His desire to kill her and have her removed from the Society was
immense. Ryan would just be something that he would deal with later.

He had used
her own
technology against her.
She had naively thought that she would be completely protected in her safe
house. But he was clever. He had managed to not only trace her cell phone and
pin point her location, but, with the help of her own loyal employee, she
thought bitterly, he had managed to hack into her security systems remotely
rendering her motion sensors and alarms useless. Ghost Face had simply walked
into her home completely unchallenged.

The door of Lily’s bedroom opened and Ghost Face calmly walked across
the plush white carpet to the edge of the bed and looked down at the woman
before him. He was dressed in his usual attire; black shoes and pants, white
shirt and black jacket. His black tie was loosely knotted around his neck. His
hair, perfectly slicked back and freshly dyed, looked even darker against his
pale white skin. Lily thought that he looked almost dead as she considered him
from where she lay.

His eyes devoured her body as he traced her shape through her clothes
with one hand. Lily moved and wriggled, using her free legs to push his hand
away, causing him to laugh dryly.

“I’ve been thinking about this for a long time.” He said taking a
step back, out of reach of her long legs.

“I have wondered what this moment would feel like.” He smiled at her,
an ugly dark smile.

Lily’s mind was racing. She couldn’t bear for him to touch her and
wanted to bite him and spit, but the duct tape pulled firm against her mouth.
She only had her legs free, but knew that ultimately he would be too strong for
her. She watched him through narrowed eyes as he paced at the bottom of her
bed, like a big cat stalking it’s prey. As he paced he slowly loosened his tie
and removed it over his head, throwing it onto an adjacent chair and shrugged
off his jacket, letting it drop to the floor. Then he slowly undid each button
of his shirt.

Lily felt the nausea rise in her throat as she realized what this was
leading to. She closed her eyes tightly and tried to think of something else,
wishing that she could transport herself to another place until it was all
over, or until she was dead.

Ghost Face was enjoying himself. He was in no rush this time. He
could take his time and
savour
every movement, touch
and taste. He wanted to remember it all, so that later he could draw on it at
his leisure.

Before Lily could react, she felt the pressure on her lower legs. She
opened her eyes to see Ghost Face sitting on her pinning her down to the bed.
His hands worked quickly as he fumbled with the belt on her jeans as she
struggled against him, desperate to stop this.

He was stripped to the waist now. She could see his smooth upper body
was as pale as his face. He tugged the clothes off her lower half dropping them
onto the floor, her phone falling out of her pocket and thudding silently onto
the plush carpet. Lily clamped her legs together as tightly as she could. She
was screaming at him now from behind her tape, but all that he could hear were
muffled cries. Nothing that he wasn’t used to, he thought. Pinning her down
again with his body, he lay on top of her until his face was pushed hard
against hers. Lily swiftly moved her head to the side, trying to push her neck
as far away from him as she could. She could feel his rancid hot breath against
her cheek. The throbbing in her head increased now, and she wanted everything
to black out, she wanted to faint, to sleep,
to
die.
Anything that would take her away from here.

He whispered in her ear, and she could feel his cold lips against her
face as he spoke.

“Your parents didn’t suffer”, he said, breathing heavily between
words.

Lily tried to move her face further away from him but he lay heavily
on her, restricted her movement.

“I made sure of that.” He continued, ignoring her writhing.

“It was easy to kill them, he breathed. Their routine was always the
same. Dinner at the Mandarin every Thursday, so predictable, that I don’t know
why I hadn’t thought of it sooner.”

“It took just seconds to steer them off the bridge. A gentle nudge in
the rear, and your Father lost control. The impact probably killed them”, he
mused, now oblivious to Lily twisting and turning beneath him, hatred oozing
from every pore in her body.

“Although I’m sure I recall a verdict of death by drowning. It’s
supposed to be so painful. Your chest burns as your lungs scream for air, then
your brain forces you to suck in, and all you can do
is
breathe. The cold liquid rushes in and the pain
rips
through your body. It can take up to three long, long minutes before you stop
breathing, before your mind releases you from the pain.” He finished his monologue,
bringing himself back to the moment.

He gazed sideways at Lily, enjoying the look of horror and pain on
her hot wet face.

Pulling himself up onto his knees, he slowly placed both hands around
her neck and applied pressure. Immediately the blood rushed to Lily’s head
stopping her ability to breathe. She started to gasp, her body pushing back
against him as hard as she could in an attempt to free her throat from his vice
grip. Slowly darkness started to engulf Lily as she fought helplessly. The more
she moved, the harder his grip became. Her muscles now weak and starved of oxygen were helpless against him.
Panic flushed into her mind as she realized that she would die like this. She
felt her eyes bulging. Flashes of light darted in front of her as her chest
burned, desperate for air. She began to fall deeper into a dark abyss dimly
aware of the man above her. His white face flowing in and out of her vision,
shrinking until she could no longer see him. A loud buzzing noise was all that
she could hear now as she felt her body finally submit.
The
fight in her ebbing away.

Lam pulled up to the house and saw the lights on. She had switched
off her siren and lights a few miles back, not wanting to signal her arrival.
She could just make out a police car to the left of the driveway. Poorly hidden
among some trees and bushes.

She quietly stepped out of the car and pulled out her gun. She
scanned the area and then ran quickly to the car. The two Police Officers lay
slumped on the ground. She knelt down to feel their pulses, but they were
already dead. Without wasting any time, she moved around to the start of the
driveway. It was dark, so she quickly maneuvered herself up the side of the
wall trying to offer some protection from the security camera. She reached the
front door and tried the handle. It was locked. She looked around her and saw
the garage to her left. She quickly ran to it and tried the handle. This time
it opened. She lifted it until it was high enough for her to roll under. She
closed the door behind her and felt her way through the darkness to an internal
door. Her foot connected with something hard and she knelt down to pick it up.
It was a piece of wood. She stood again feeling for the handle. She slowly
pressed on it relieved when it clicked open. She stepped through into a bright
hallway. She looked at the wood in her hand. It was covered in blood at one
end.
Not a good sign
, she thought as
she pushed it against the wall. It felt eerily quiet. She strained her ears and
thought she could hear faint talking. She moved toward the staircase and
listened again. Yes, she could definitely hear something. She tried the first
step, but her boots creaked noisily. She stepped back and worked her boots off
quickly leaving her in just her socks. She padded silently and quickly up the
staircase, the sound of the voice getting louder as she did so. When she
reached the top she scanned the landing and located what she thought was the
master bedroom. Now she could hear the voice clearly and it sent a chill down
her spine.

“Although I’m sure I recall a verdict of death by drowning. It’s
supposed to be so painful. Your chest burns as your lungs scream for air, then
your brain forces you to suck in, and all you can do
is
breathe. The cold liquid rushes in and the pain
rips
through your body. It can take up to three long, long minutes before you stop
breathing, before your mind releases you from the pain.” The voice said.

“Unless you want a bullet in the back of your head, I suggest that
you stop right now”, Lam said slowly, her hand steady, and her gun pointing at
Ghost Face.

Before she could react Ghost Face had reached down for his ankle
knife with his left hand and deftly threw it across the room as hard as he
could toward Lam. She moved and twisted her body out of the way of the knife
but it caught in her right arm, forcing her to drop her weapon as she landed
hard on her feet. Seeing the gun land, with the pain searing through her arm,
she bolted across the room, but Ghost Face was too quick. He was off Lily and already
crouching down picking it up when she got there. His eyes gleaming and sharp,
his body sweating as he stood and pointed the gun toward her.

“Interesting turn of events” he said as he watched the blood drip
down Lam’s arm.

“A knife is faster than a bullet.” he quipped.

Lam remained silent. She glanced across at Lily’s still body, fearing
the worst. She was too late, she thought.

“I should have killed you when I had the chance.” He said now,
teasing her with the gun.

“It was foolish of me, but.” he trailed off.

“At least I get the chance to kill you thoroughly this time.” He
finished.

Lam’s arm was burning with pain. The knife was pushed in deep and she
suspected that if she looked it would be protruding out the other side.

“You think you are so clever. Fooling everyone around you, all the
while building your own empire based on nothing but fear, becoming your own
Master.” She said, trying to buy time. “But to be a Master, you need respect.”
She continued getting into her stride. “Respect and loyalty.”

“I have respect and loyalty,” Ghost Face boomed. Laughing at her
pathetic parry. “You understand nothing,” he said

“You are as worthless as your partners.” He said cruelly, “And you
will die just like them. Without honor and without….”

The loud raspy gasp took them both by surprise, as they turned to
look at the bed. It was the opportunity that Lam needed. With her good left
hand she ripped the knife through her upper arm ignoring the tearing pain as
she did so. As hard as she could, she threw the knife toward Ghost Face. This
time his reaction was too slow.

The sharp point of the knife pierced his throat just below his
adams
apple. He gasped as he felt
the cool rush of air force itself into his windpipe. Dropping his gun he
frantically tried to pull the knife out. Blood was filling his mouth now. He
could taste the warm metallic liquid as it started to bubble inside him. He was
on his knees, his hands slipping on the blood soaked handle, losing his grip as
his head started to swim. Then he tumbled onto his side. He was weak; life was
ebbing away from him second by second, unable now to remove the foreign object
from his body. He watched in disbelief as the blood changed the white carpet to
red until he could see no more, until his breathing finally stopped.

Lam rushed over to Lily and giving her some dignity threw her jeans
across her naked lower half. She was disoriented and confused as she cut the
rope with a bloody knife and removed the duct tape as gently as she could from
her mouth.

“Sorry.” Lam whispered as she removed the tape pulling some of Lily’s
skin with it.

She wrapped Lily in the quilt with her good left arm and left her
propped up against the headboard.

“It’s OK, he’s dead.” She soothed. “You’re safe now.”