Ripple Effect: A Novel (34 page)

“It had to help to have an in with the authorities, right?” I say quietly. “Deputy Paxson.”

“You saw me that night. What a smart girl to keep her mouth shut.” He almost seems proud. I remember seeing him talking to Sherriff on that cold, dark night at the precinct . . . I hadn’t realized he had seen me. “Had you reported your assault, this all could have ended.”

Mocking laughter echoes through the mine. I can’t tell if there are tens of men or if it is just the acoustics of the tunnel. Either way, it sends disgusted chills down my spine.

Disappointment washes over me, but I refuse to cry. The entire time I could have said something to end this . . . . What do the other girls think of my cowardice now?

“Your brother spilled your secret,
Edward.
” Sabrina spits. “Cecily saw the coordinates on the map. You will be caught and killed—”

She cried out and the goon behind her told her to shut up, clearly hurting her.

“No, no. That was me.” Leison waves his hand down, ordering the goon to back off. “Did you know that the map has never left its place on that wall? Not since I scribbled those coordinates on it? I put it there once and haven’t touched it since.”

“Why?” whispers Stacy. She’s scared she’ll be hurt also for speaking up.

“A good killer knows when they’ve gotten away with it. You see, in all of the classrooms I’ve teach in, I leave coordinates of where the girls are hidden on the back of the maps. If someone was smart enough to take a black light to the maps, they’d find the remains of all my victims––all thirty six. But, no one is smart enough, unfortunately. Except, apparently, you girls: the Slut, the Brain, and the
Victim,
” Leison stares at me as he says the last word.

I look away from his piercing gaze. “Why did keep these girls alive for so long?”

Leison looks down at his dead brother. “Another one of his mistakes. It turned out perfect. When I told each of you girls that I had victims hidden and dying, it made you fear me. You were scared of being one of them, so you did as I said.”

Scared of you? Clearly not enough
. I bit my tongue to keep from saying it out loud.

“There were other things to it, though.” He looks at me “I made friends everywhere . . . created a band of followers. You’d be surprised at how many sick and twisted young men reside in your little town.” Again, deep chuckles echo. “It was too easy to make you think that I was spreading malicious rumors when I actually wasn’t. Not a word about you came from my lips, even though I told you it had.” A laugh of amusement sounds from him. “And your family members . . . I had no intention of touching them.”

My stomach pangs as Sabrina hisses at him. We were played, like little dolls in his sickly twisted game. We ate from the palm of his hand willingly.

“Let’s see; we had Gordon, Adie, and Billy.” Billy must have been Stacy’s person. “No one would believe Cecily because everyone thought she was a suicidal brat that sought attention. Sabrina was the common slut that slept around, so it wouldn’t surprise anyone if she slept with a teacher. Stacy couldn’t risk losing her image of good girl, unscathed by the hands of evil. And the three girls here were held hostage, killed if any of you told.”

It was a wonder that the girls were still alive.
It was obvious that we’d told. It was his way of getting his hands on us, his last hurrah of manipulative mind games. He knew we’d come to save the girls. That meant he set up the diversion with the broken machine and the caved in roof of the other crime scene. I had a feeling that he was behind it.

Stacy’s voice sounds shaky. “What would you to do with us after the school year was up?”

“Hide you in another mine and starve you to death. I’d unfortunately have to leave after that. Two seasons in one place is too risky.” Leison bent his body back to look around the jut in the tunnel where the three whimpering girls laid on the ground. “I really should take care of them. The idiot has let them live for too long.”

“Has anyone come close to finding you?” I ignore the pitying look he gives me.

“We all know Special Agent Reinhardt, don’t we?” Mockery fills his voice.

My eyes widen at the mention of the name. When I’d mentioned the possibility of her being an accomplice to Kelly, it had been a wild accusation—but she is working with him? Really?

“Agent Reinhardt was the only girl I left alive. She was eighteen. Just a baby. She was one of my first. You see, Reinhardt had spirit—she was a feisty little thing—I knew without a doubt that she’d hunt me down for the rest of her life. I also knew that I would have the pleasure of tracking her and haunting her. She really is a pathetic creature, isn’t she? That was twelve years ago and––” His eyes fill with some hidden emotion and he looks toward the entrance of the tunnel. “She’s still the temptress she was when we were kids.”

“The slut, the brain, and the victim.” My eyes slowly meet his and I try not to flinch away from such darkness. “Which one is Reinhardt?”

Leison’s eyes light with dark fire. “The one I let live. The one I’ll torture forever.”

He stares almost wistfully up the tunnel for a moment, but then he turns back to face me. His face splits into a demonic grin, and I know.

The foreplay is done. It’s time for the main event.

Judging by the hooting and hollering of men . . . we have a crowd.

He lunges for me, and I try to shove past him—get away, somehow—but he is too fast. His cold hands grip me roughly and slam me face first against the wall. Through the pain, I notice something pressing against my hip. I cry out, thinking it might be his hand, too close to the zipper of my jeans, but then I remember—the Exacto knife!

Leison flips me around and moves his lean body closer to mine, heavy with the scent of rose oil. Tears stream down my face as I hold back an instinctual sob. I can’t
just
give up. I shake my head and beg him with my eyes to not do what he is going to do.

Smiling wickedly, he strokes my cheek and moves his mouth close to my ear. “You have the fight in you, Cecily, like Reinhardt. I want to see it.”

He moves his mouth lower, and I can feel his hot, moist breath on the cold skin of my neck. I slowly start to reach down into the pocket of my jeans for the knife. Leison grabs my hands before I reach it and pins my arms against the wall.

A cry of despair sounds from me and I move my head away from his. “Don’t touch me!” I scream, my voice echoing down the tunnel.

He pauses the game of torture for a moment and smiles up at me. An enthralled look fills his face, as if I am feeding into his sick fantasy. “Are you scared, Cecily?”

Refusing to answer him, I turn my head even further. I close my eyes and plead silently to any power that can hear me.

Warm breath is on my neck once again. Within a flash, his teeth sink into my skin, pinching the tender spot beneath my jaw. I scream out first in shock—and then in pain as he bites down. I am hardly able to control the tears that stream down my face. In the back I hear the girls screaming my name, but they are silenced quickly.

Laughing loudly, he grabs my head in his hands, staring at me maniacally. “That’s only the beginning,” he promises. His hands find my collar and rip it open with disturbing ease, and he begins to grope at me with slow but determined hands, tracing the contours of my body. His eyes move downward, eagerly soaking in what little of me he can see in this semi-darkness.

As I fight to suppress the bile rising in my throat, I focus on how to get that knife. I need to stun him first—get him away from me.

I take advantage of his being distracted and slam my head into his. It hurts, but it catches him off guard—I claw at his face viciously, leaving gashes down his forehead and cheek.

“Don’t touch me!” The sound of my voice sound echoes all around me. It’s silent for once; the cat calls have paused and all are shocked that I injured their boss.

My heart is pounding as my hands reach for my pockets, but it’s no use.

Angry as ever, Leison yanks my shoulders to him. Glaring deeply into my eyes, he smashes me against the wall. I whack my already throbbing head against the jagged edge and my vision is blurred. “Cecily.” He says it mockingly, but I hear a cold fury behind his voice. He begins to move—

And then, suddenly, he’s yanked from me!

“Don’t you dare touch her!” Kelly punches him in the face.

I shake my head and blink my eyes to regain focus. Kelly, my savior, is now wrestling with the devil. I hear the scuttling of feet—the goons are coming to aid Leison.

While that’s happening, I reach for the knife, desperately trying to free it from my pocket. It’s stuck on something and won’t budge.
How can it be stuck? It’s just a pocket!
A loud cry of frustration escapes me and tears blur my vision.

Leison laughs he grabs Kelly’s head. I see shadows around us, but no faces. At this point, I can’t even discern what’s real and what is hallucination! Leison smashes Kelly’s head into the jagged wall, as if he were a ragdoll, and looks back to me. “Pathetic child.” Kelly’s body drops to the ground.

I expect snickers to sound from the goons, but it remains silent.

“Kelly!” The desperation in my voice echoes down the tunnel in both directions. My body is shaking as I strain to see any signs of life in him, but he lies motionless.

I try to fight my tears—I can’t let Leison see me weak—but I am overwhelmed by fear.

If he can knock someone strong like Kelly out with just one blow…

After flexing his hands before him, Leison gives Kelly’s motionless body a cursory glance. Those dark and soulless eyes turn to me. He wants to finish what he started.

“You’re going to wish that I only touched you.” Forcefully, he smashes me to the wall again and I fall to the ground, dizzy and sick from hitting my head over and over. I try to catch myself, but my hands hit raised railroad tracks, causing me to lose balance. I tumble awkwardly onto my side—and hard.

Strong hands pin me to the ground as I scream out for help. The cold rails beneath me somehow burn my skin, slowly imprinting across my back. Scratching and clawing at him doesn’t do anything, so I start smacking him and punching his head. His weight on top of me is too much and I let out a loud cry of despair as tears blur my vision once more.

“Stop!” I cry, pushing his face away from mine.

He pauses, which shocks me. “What’s this?” The Exacto knife is pulled from my pocket and held up in the light. Glinting eyes examine it and wicked amusement spreads across his dark face. “Did you think you’d stop me with a puny knife?”

“I hate you!” I scream, jerking beneath his body weight as I gasp in fear.

Brashly, his hand smacks across my face and I lose my vision for a moment. Everything is spinning around me and the voices of the other men become louder—

And then something sharp, the very knife I brought to defend myself, is carving into the skin on my abdomen. He starts with my right hip, then slices right across my stomach. It feels like fire licking my flesh, releasing warm blood across my cold skin. I try to jerk away, but yelp in agony when I find that that only makes him cut me deeper. My chest rises and falls rapidly as I scream, pleading for him to stop.

Leison smashes his hand down on my sternum and I cough violently. I press deeper into the metal tracks and scream louder, back arched. They dig deeper into my flesh, my muscle, surely cutting the surface. As his left hand holds me on the ground, he uses his right to put the knife in his teeth. My face pales as that same hand moves to the waist of my jeans. I gasp for air, unable to simply scream, as he Leison slowly begins unzipping them.

Sabrina screams something. I can only hear her tone and she’s desperate. A loud smack sounds and laughter rings from around me.

I cry loudly, tears streaming through the dirt that encrusts my face. “No! Please!” My attempts to push him off come to nothing; he only grins, relishing my fear and pain.

After ripping the zipper of my jeans all the way down, Leison lifts the knife into the air.

“Enough!” Kelly yells.

Silence fills the mine. All eyes are surely on the risen hero.

Leison looks to the shadows with disbelief. One hand is still on me, firmly pressed against my bleeding flesh. The other is still in the air, the knife held steadily in his fist. It glints in the minimal light, in the few spots that aren’t covered in my blood. “Another hero, huh?”

A loud shot is fired and it echoes through the tunnel, making me feel deaf once again. Red lasers cover the walls of the mine—targeting the shadowed goons of Leison’s cult.

Leison grunts as a bullet pierces the flesh of his shoulder. There is no scope on him, but he is being hit with perfect precision. A few more rounds are fired and his body jerks violently as the bullets hit him. He looks down at me through dimming eyes. I stare into those dark, soulless eyes as they go cold. He begins to choke, and blood trickles from the side of his mouth and down his chin.

The final shots sound. One pegs Leison in the neck he starts to drop toward me—his blood spilling all over.

Kelly emerges from the shadows and pushes him away before his body can fall on mine. The knife scatters across the across the floor, freed from Leison’s hand.