Prostitute Dana Wilkins stood five foot two and weighed 105 pounds with a lean figure. Her long auburn hair framed an average looking face with dull brown eyes expressing agony. She was naked on a steel table with all her limbs restrained. She had torch burns all over her flesh. Above her loomed two men with hand torches that had been torturing and raping her for hours. Their names were Carl and Dan. Together they'd abducted, tortured, raped, and slowly burnt to death eight prostitutes over the last year in Illinois.
Carl was 43 with a stocky build and decent looks. He wore his balding brown hair short and he had dark eyes. Dan was tall and wiry with long black hair and a drooping goatee set in a homely face and hazel eyes. He resembled a rat.
Dana had managed to avoid the pair since she escaped them over a month ago. Five weeks ago she'd gotten in Carl's truck when Dan popped up behind her smothering her with a rag that had a powerful narcotic on it.Dana surprised both men by pulling her little knife to spike behind her. The blade bit into Dan's head hard, splitting his skull with a nasty gash. She jabbed a stab in Carl's arm and broke free to flee from her foes. A nearby undercover cop spotted Dana's fight and flight. The cop car got cut off in traffic and the serial killers escaped. Dana was dazed and the cop spotted Dana's fight and flight.
The cop car got cut off in traffic and the serial killers escaped. Dana was dazed by the narcotic, but she gave a fair description of Carl to the cops and feds. Dana had gone back to work prostituting and Dan had picked her up to party. She was smothered unconscious by Dan as he pinned her weapon hand. She woke up in their place being raped and tortured. Now she begged for death to escape the agony being inflicted on her.
The doorbell ding dinged.
The men looked at the TVs stacked on the counter which showed outside cameras' views. There were two women at the front door. One was a pretty blond and the other a tall sexy brunette. Both wore nice leather coats with the look of feds packing pistols in shoulder holsters.
"They look like feds," Dan blurted nervously.
"I guess we'll find out. I'm going to go out the tunnel. Text me what you see on the screens. They might have backed up." Carl ordered and grabbed his AR-15 rifle while leaving.
Outside FBI agent Sharon Quin stood five foot nine with an athletic, firm figure topped by very large breasts her sports bra worked hard to subdue. Her long blond hair framed a pretty face with
full lips and emerald eyes. She’d been an agent for almost 11 years and she was a cop before that.
Her partner Leia Muhr had long curly black hair with bangs that brushed her eyebrows. Her eyes were azure set in a sultry face. She stood six foot tall with the long and lean look of a pro volleyball player. She was 31 with seven years as an agent. She was a cop before that.
The women were watching Dana covertly in their own free time hoping to catch the killers if they nabbed Dana. "Let's do some window peeking," Sharon decided and they split up on their search. Dana might be just partying with some tricks. They hadn't seen the short struggle so they didn't have grounds for a search warrant or exigent circumstances to do a forced entry without a warrant. But they might see something through the windows to change that.
Carl exited through the basement tunnel that led to the outside garage. He slid the garage window open and used the night scope on his silencer equipped rifle. He settled his crosshairs on Sharon's skull and squeezed the trigger. The silencer greatly muffled the muzzle explosion. Through the scope's green glow he watched Sharon's skull splatter scarlet DNA debris against the house as half her head was sledgehed to shreds by the hollow point bullet. He swung his gun making the crosshairs pin and peg Leia as he squeezed the trigger again. The bullet brushed her head, searing skin and slashing her scalp without killing her.
Carl waited and watched awhile for any signs of back up. None showed. He grabbed his little Uzi machine pistol with two extra clips and slipped on his Kevlar vest. He risked rushing out on reconnaissance. He found Sharon dead. But Leia was alive. He hauled her in the house where he zip cuffed her hands behind her back and her ankles. She didn't stir.
"Are they cops?" Dan asked urgently.
Carl pulled out Leia's badge and gun."Yep."
"Shit!" Dan cursed.
"I shot another one outside that's dead. I slid her in your shrubs. This one can answer us. I don't think they brought it back up." Carl cut off all her clothes and dashed beer in her face. Leia opened her eyes to find herself nude and restrained with both men above her holding torches. Terror thrummed through her remembering what the eight prior victims looked like and what they lived through. Her head hurt with steady throbs as blood surged from her bullet wound.
"Listen closely," Carl ordered. “Your partner is dead. If you tell the truth I'll give you a quick death like her. Lie and I'll slowly burn you to death and rape you. Understood?"
Leia nodded fearfully.
"You don't have any back up here, do you?" Carl inquired.
"No.But other agents will come because our phones and car GPS will show us here." She warned him, hoping to negotiate.
Carl duct taped her mouth and spoke to Dan."I'm going to move their phones and car and hide the other body. Keep an eye on the surveillance screens. Text me about anything suspicious. Meanwhile have some fun burning and raping this fed bitch. But leave me some of her."
Leia's eyes bulged with fear.
Dan smiled and lit his torch.
*****
Scot heard what sounded like muffled gunshots near him. His psychic ability to see and hear astral souls kicked in as he watched a man carrying an unconscious woman across the lawn. A dead woman's soul glowed, flying in panic around the figures. Scot mentally reached out to the ghost and she spotted him peeking from behind the neighbor's old pickup truck. Sharon’s soul blurred over with supernatural celebrity to confront the rugged-looking, muscular, blond-haired blue-eyed teenager.
"You can see me!" Sharon said in his head.
"Yes, what happened?" Scot asked her.
"There's two serial killers in that house that just murdered me and now they're going to rape and burn my partner to death if you don't help. I need you to call the FBI for help." Sharon explained.
"Tell me the number and what to say to whoever can help." He offered and pulled out his phone. Sharon told him who to ask for and what to say. He communicated the info and hung up. Sharon made an incredibly quick flight into the house and back out.
"He's burning her now! It'll take too long for help to reach her!" Sharon cried out.
Scot glanced at the old Chevy truck he was hiding behind. He opened his fanny pack that had some car stealing tools he could use well due to his prior history of stealing and selling cars. He was swiftly inside the truck and ducked under the dash with his penlight and tools. He hotwired the 350 engine to life. He eased it forward, turning the wheel the right way until it was positioned right. He shifted it in gear after jamming the gas pedal down and jumped out. The massive monstrous machine roared and rocketed across the lawns to plow into the house. It rammed through load bearing walls making the structure sag and crumple over the stalled out truck in Dan's living room.
"If that doesn't help her I'm out of ideas." He told Sharon.
Moments later gunshots popped in the house.
****
Carl was in the garage when the truck plowed into the house. He briefly gaped and then panicked, jumping into his vehicle and fleeing the scene.
Dan ran upstairs when he heard and felt the truck bulldoze his building. He discovered the truck buried in his living room. He stood in shock briefly. Meanwhile Leia used impressive agility to bring her cuffed hands behind her back in front of her. She bunny hopped to the corner counter where her pistol lay. Dan’s footsteps came pounding downstairs and Leia dropped prone in the corner pointing her pistol at the doorway. When Dan dashed back in the doorway Leia fired at center body masher Glock popped nonstop in a swarm of shots that sock his stomach and chewed through his chest. The slugs shoved him back so his Uzi’s sputtering, strafing shots riddled the room above Leia.He tried to lower the jumping gun unsuccessfully.
He fell flat on his back blowing blood out of his flooded wounds. He died blubbering. Leia waited, ready to kill Carl if he came back.
*****
Outside, Scot watched Carl flee the scene. Sharon told him that Leia killed Dan.
"I got to go now." Scot told her while walking away.
"You're not getting away yet. I'm going to need your help." Sharon insisted.
"Go into the next tunnel of light that you see. They appear a lot here. You're dead. Go into the light and move on. Hang out in a high area above the city and you'll see another light tunnel when it appears. Hospitals, retirement homes, and bad neighborhoods have a lot of deaths. Go into the light." Scot advised and walked away.
Sharon followed him.
Bio:
Tom Kropp’s work has appeared in Chiron Review, Short-Story.Me, Churches, Children and Daddies, Down in the Dirt, Freedom Fiction, Dark Harbor, Blood Moon Rising, Flash Phantoms, Lowlife Lit, The Listening Eye, J Journal, Evening Street Review, Conceit, Spontaneous Spirits, Bracelet Charm, Spotlight on Recovery, Muscle and Fitness, Outdoor Life, Woodworker’s Journal and many other magazines. His play Jailhouse Confessions was performed at the Kennedy center in Washington, DC in 2019. You can find more of his writings at tomktopp.wordpress.com and Scars Writings websites. He has many novels published.
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