Prey Drive (32 page)

Joe walked back over to Selene, knife in one hand, her accomplice’s twitching, pulsating heart in the other. Selene lay with her mouth hanging open where he had left her, draped across Nathan’s belly. Her eyes were wide with terror, watching Joe walk toward her, drenched in blood and viscera. Joe seized her by the hair and rolled her over, bending her over Nathan’s corpse. He let go of her hair and lubed his cock with the dead Italian’s blood. He lifted Ponytail’s heart to his mouth and took a bite, silencing the still- twitching organ. He spread Selene’s ass cheeks and spit in the crack of her ass then and slid his cock in her anus.

Selene gasped and tried to inch away from him. He grabbed her by the hip with one hand and thrust, driving his cock balls-deep in her asshole. She cried out and closed her eyes and bit her bottom lip. Joe fucked her savagely, mercilessly, plundering her rectum with his mesomorphic sexual organ while he cannibalized Ponytail’s heart.

The monster roared and so did Joe. His muscles locked and trembled as he ejaculated in Selene’s bleeding anus. Just as Selene had done after her orgasm, the notorious sexual sadist and cannibalistic murderer, Joseph Miles, wept. He wept for his humanity, which was now forever lost.

Selene was panting heavily, completely spent, when Joe leaned down and whispered in her ear. “I know you killed Dirk.”

Forty-Seven 

They were back on the road. The radio was tuned to National Public Radio and updates of their recent escapades dominated the news. The bodies of escaped inmate Nathan Fillizi and multiple convicted felon with suspected mafia ties, Vincent Damiano, were found in an abandoned warehouse. Earlier, NPR reported on the brutal killings and mutilation of two corrections officers at Seattle’s Maximum Security prison. They had even interviewed Fausto.

“What was Joe like? Well, like, he was a cool dude. He never tried to eat me or nothing, you know, right? He just seemed like a regular guy trying to do his time, but dudes were always tryin’ to mess with him, you know, right? Like the guards, other inmates, and stuff, right? He didn’t start fights with nobody, but people were always starting fights with him. I think they were just trying to make a name for themselves, you know, right? The screws included.”

Joe smiled. It was funny that none of the reports mentioned the bodies had been partially eaten. They probably didn’t want to frighten the public, which was stupid. Everyone knew who he was and what he did. The name Joseph Miles had recently become as widely associated with human cannibalism as Hannibal Lecter and Jeffrey Dahmer. Just because they didn’t come right out and say it, that wasn’t going to fool anyone.

They pulled up in front of an all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant on Divisidero Street in the Lower Haight Ashbury district called
Barracuda Sushi
. The head chef, Jiro Saggawa, had often written to Joe while he was in prison, asking for details of his crimes and suggesting new recipes for the preparation of human flesh. There was one Joe was particularly interested in. A technique called “Ikuzukuri.”

Selene didn’t protest at all when Joe lifted her from the SUV. The duct tape secured around her mouth had seen to her silence. She squirmed a bit, but the duct tape wrapped around her legs and arms up to her knees and elbows held her firm. Joe greeted Jiro at the backdoor.

“Joe?” asked a diminutive Japanese man in his mid-fifties with long ,wild, black hair like a rock star and delicate hands with long, slender fingers like a pianist. Joe had never met the man before, but he looked just as Joe would have pictured him.

“Hello, Jiro.”

Jiro’s smile was quick and genuine and instantly infectious. Joe felt his spirits immediately lighten. Jiro patted Joe’s chest and looked up into his ice blue eyes, still smiling.

“You really big man. Like a giant to me. Oh! And you brought us some fresh meat. We’ll prepare her together. Okay? Come in! Come in!”

Joe carried Selene through the back door and into the empty kitchen. The place was remarkably clean. Stainless steel implements shined, as did everything from the newly polished tile floor to the pots and pans and even the stove and the oven. Jiro cleared a table and Joe laid Selene down gently, careful not to bruise her skin.

“I am so excited! This is great honor for me,” Jiro said, beaming like a kid on Christmas morning as his eyes crawled lasciviously over Selene’s nude form.

“I am the one who is honored, Jiro. I have wanted to try this ever since you sent me your letter. Have you done this before?”

“Many time, with carp and lobster, even octopus, but never with human.”

Joe smiled and patted Selene on her well-rounded ass. It was beautiful. It reminded Joe of Alicia’s so much he felt a pang in his heart. Joe had the heart of an artist and was prone to romantic thoughts. He fell in love as easily as others fell out of it.

“We need to wash her first and shave her too. Hair no good for sushi.”

As casually and deftly as if he were preparing sushi, Jiro began scrubbing Selene down with soap and water, careful to get every nook and cranny except what was covered by the duct tape. He then selected one of the many lethal-looking sushi knives and used it to shave her. Selene struggled and the knife cut her.

“We need to knock her out. This no good. We always knock the fish in the head before we cut. Just be careful not to kill her.”

Joe grabbed one of the heavy steel pots and whacked Selene over the head. Her eyes rolled and her nose and ears began to bleed.

“No good. She still feel everything. It hard to cut when she squirm. We need drugs. Maybe saki help.”

Joe smiled. “I’ll be right back. I think I may have something.”

He walked back out into the parking lot, to the SUV, and rummaged through Selene’s purse. The Rohypnolol was right on top. There were only four tablets left. Selene had been a busy girl. He returned with the package and handed it to Jiro, who dissolved all four of them in saki.

“She need drink it now.”

Joe pinched her nose shut and waited until she opened her mouth before pouring the saki down her throat, effectively waterboarding her with it. She jerked her head from side to side. Joe spilled more saki on her than down her throat.

“It’s okay. Saki make her taste better. Like drunken shrimp.”

Joe knelt down and looked Selene in the eye. “You hear that, Selene? Like drunken shrimp.”

The head injury was still bleeding and Selene’s eyes had become glassy. The pupils had widened to the size of nickels.

“Good. That’s very good. Okay, now we continue.”

Jiro never stopped smiling as he and Joseph shaved every inch of hair from Selene’s body with filleting knives.

“She very pretty. Very beautiful. Where you find her?”

“She found me.”

Jiro smiled and nodded. “That’s good. She love you?”

“She said she does.”

“Good sushi always made with love. Love make the meat more tender.”

Joe didn’t doubt that Jiro was right.

“Okay, now we cut. I’ll show.” Jiro sliced down the center of Selene’s torso, peeling the meat and fat from her ribcage and exposing the bones beneath. Selene shrieked, but she didn’t squirm nearly as much. The roofies had done their job after all. Either that or it was the concussion.

Jiro lifted off one entire side of her torso, breasts and all. Her heart and lungs were still working.

“That’s amazing, Jiro.”

Jiro quickly sliced the meat into sushi-thin sections and then dipped them in wasabi and soy sauce. He served them with pickled daikon and ginger.

“You try,” he said, handing a small plate to Joe along with a pair of chopsticks.

Joe took the chopsticks and lifted a small slice of meat from the plate. He dipped it in the soy sauce and wasabi and popped it into his mouth. It was amazing. The meat literally melted on his tongue. Joe closed his eyes as bursts of pleasure spread from his taste buds down to the root of his manhood like tiny explosions.

“Incredible, Jiro! You are truly an artist. That was the most incredible thing I’ve ever experienced.”

Jiro beamed with pride.

“Good! Good! I try now.”

Jiro, took a piece of meat that had once been part of Selene’s breasts and slurped it down. He chased it with a small glass of saki and smiled ebulliently. “Mmmm. I told you. Love make the meat more tender.”

Joe nodded. Selene was watching him with eyes full of pain. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she sobbed uncontrollably.

“Mind if I try?” Joe picked up another filleting knife and flensed the muscle tissue and bubbly yellow fat from the other half of Selene’s torso. He removed the tape from Selene’s mouth first. He wanted to hear her lubricious screams pealing from her throat as he carefully unmade her, taking painstaking care not to injure any of her vital organs. He wanted her to live as long as possible.

The groans and shrieks were like a symphony of pain. The perfect accompaniment to the meal. She was bleeding so heavily it wouldn’t be long before she was gone, but Joe wanted her to see as much of her own destruction as possible before she perished. She was trembling, going into shock from the tremendous injury to her body and the overwhelming loss of blood. Joe sliced her thigh down the center and peeled her vastus muscles away from the femur. He sliced up the fatty meat just as he had watched Jiro do moments ago. Selene began to convulse. Joe made eye contact with her as he ate her piece by piece. He kissed her slowly on the lips and she breathed her last and final breath into his mouth, tasting her own blood and flesh on his tongue.

Forty-Eight

Dear Lana,

By now, I’m sure you’ve learned of my escape. The media has acquired a sudden preoccupation with my case. They have exaggerated a great many things. I hope it has not caused you any sleepless nights. I promise that you are safe. I have done enough harm to your family. I would never harm you. I have not hurt anyone in weeks. I am trying my best to abstain from sexual violence. It is hard. I have to stay away from people as much as possible. Just the sight of bare thighs, or even a bare calf, a neck, the scent of freshly bathed skin, they all make me want to ... act out.

I’ve read that relapse is normal during any recovery. Let’s hope that’s not the case. I started attending Sex Addicts Anonymous again. I found a new group right here in—whoops! I guess I shouldn’t tell you where I am. It sucks not to be free to be completely honest with you. After your last letter, I felt like we were really coming to understand each other. But staying free has to remain my top priority, that and finding my grandfather. I have located him by the way.

He lives not far from you, actually. I have considered coming to visit you after I see him, but I’m afraid that would be a recipe for relapse.

I’m still uncertain whether there really is a curse. Selene’s behavior has begun to make me suspect I may have been right about it and how it is transmitted. I wanted to clarify what the news has been saying about Selene and I. I was not in love with her. Your sister, Alicia, is the only woman I have ever loved that way, Lana. You have to believe me. Selene was a very sick, very demented woman. She did terrible things to people. She isn’t traveling or hiding out with me either. The news got that wrong too. Selene was the last time I acted out. But like I said, I’ve been good ever since.

I watched you last night through your bedroom window. You are magnificent. As gorgeous as Alicia ever was. No one could ever replace your beautiful sister in my heart, but if anyone could, you would be the one. That’s why I have to stay away from you. But it’s so hard. It’s just so hard.

Sincerely,

Joseph Miles

Wrath James White is a former World Class Heavyweight Kickboxer, a professional Kickboxing and Mixed Martial Arts trainer, distance runner, performance artist, former street brawler and professional bad-ass who is now known for creating some of the most disturbing works of fiction in print. Wrath’s most recent books are Pure Hate, The Reaper, Skinzz, and Like Porno for Psychos. He is also the author of The Resurrectionist, Yaccub’s Curse, Succulent Prey, Everyone Dies Famous In a Small Town, The Book of a Thousand Sins, His Pain, and Population Zero. He is the co-author of Teratologist co-written with the king of extreme horror, Edward Lee, Orgy of Souls co-written with Maurice Broaddus, Hero co-written with J.F. Gonzalez, and Poisoning Eros co-written with Monica J. O’Rourke. Wrath lives and works in Austin, Texas with his two daughters, Isis and Nala, and his son Sultan.

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