Pseudosapien

Prologue

"Hope you had a good time." Chip told Anemone, who he called Annie for short. They were walking back to her house from a date, a walk through a newly opened art museum. She smiled and nodded.

"I did. How about you?" She replied as they followed the sidewalk to her place. He was looking at her intently; the large pale blue eyes, long hair that was such a light brown it looked white in the right lighting, thin face, cupids bow mouth, and small pert nose. Her face was very pleasant to look at as well as her slender frame. She was as tall as his five foot ten and she was quite a sight. Her outfit consisted of a black off-shoulder sweater that was well-fitted to her frame and stopped where her waist ended and her rear began, she had on snug light blue jeans and black two and a half inch heels that weren't too flashy. When she noticed him staring, she smiled and he saw her cheeks turn pink; easy to notice with her pale skin. He cracked a smile as they headed closer and closer to her house.

"So, what is it you do, Annie?" Chip started," I don't believe I've asked that yet." She noticed he had begun questioning her again in order to distract her from her nerves.

"I'm in the fashion design business," She responded smoothly, and he nodded. This meant that she showed what type of person she was through her clothing and the idea he got was modest yet sexy. He grinned and thought about when she had mentioned being uncertain about dating again so soon after a harsh breakup with her last boyfriend during their time in the museum. When he looked at her again, she was deep in thought, and he wondered if she was thinking about offering him a drink once they got to her house.

"What about you, Chip?" Annie inquired as she chewed on her lip.

"I go around doing odd jobs when I can pick them up. I seem to have recently become a jack of all trades," He explained, and she looked at him curiously. Chip almost grinned again.

 They walked up the steps, and she turned around when they reached the front step. She was going to let him into her house. He tried not to let his excitement show.

"Would you like to come in for something to eat or drink before you go?" She offered coyly, and he acted like he was considering it as he looked at her. Their eyes searching the others for hesitation. He nodded. 

Chip nodded.

She had, after all, voiced her interest earlier and he had chosen to take full advantage of that. She strode in and he followed casually after her, closing the door behind him.

Chip readied the piano string he'd packed along, planning to strangle her with it while she poured them drinks. Even after he'd snuck into her kitchen without anything squeaking under his steps, she still wasn't in there when he found the unopened bottle. He narrowed his brows at the object for a moment before he noticed the other entrance into the kitchen. Chip turned suddenly to flee, only to get struck in the head with a hammer. His eyes widened with shock while hers remained stable and cold as he fell backward; dead.

She looked down, hammer still in her pale hand. Annie had gotten bored of this. Chip Shilling had once been in their club, so she had to have expected something from him. The man lying motionless on her floor usually killed his female victims before having his way with them as they slowly grew cold, something she found morally wrong.

He was quite the actor, she had to admit, as he rolled away from her and stood up. The young woman immediately noticed his body wavered slightly; her hit had proven effective enough. She guessed at a possible concussion.

"You're the one whose been killing off the other club members." He breathed with a proud simper.

"You should have suspected me sooner and notified the others of your concerns."

"This was the real reason you convinced me not to tell the others we were dating," He reflected out loud, dropping the wire and making a face at her when she nodded in a way bordering on mocking.

Annie felt the air change as she eyed his abandoned weapon and prepared for him to try a different approach.

"Aw, come on, Annie. We had such a good time, and I'm sorry that my sexual preference is such a setback for our relationship."

"I was going to kill you from the beginning." She said matter of fact, and he sighed.

"Was it something I said? Something I did?" Chip knew better.

It was what he was.

"No, you should know by now, Chip, I kill without reason. I get an urge and I fulfill it." Her shoulders barely made the effort to shrug, and he shook his head.

"Can't we talk about this? I'm sorry I got excited, and this probably didn't help with your urge. I'm getting help for my sexual attraction to dead women. I'm going through therapy so we can have a decent relationship." He explicated as he sat down and she just watched him. She felt kind of bad things had to be this way, but it was the only way to stop how restless she felt. There, honestly, were a few of her exes who didn't end up dead because most of them hadn't been serial murderers, serial rapist/murderer's, or in Chip's case serial murderer rapists.

Talk about a mouthful.

"I'm sorry, Chip," Anemone muttered, her voice unapologetic as she shook her head and he rubbed the spot where she had hit him.

"I'm sorry for being too weak to kill you with one hit." She specified, her voice rising as she turned the hammer around in her hand and threw it at him. He ducked in time, and it missed him. She cursed as it clattered to the floor and ran up the steps, having the advantage of already knowing the layout of the house. Annie found a hiding spot and could hear him scuttling about below.

"Annie!" She heard him huff, obviously infuriated.

"Chip, you either leave or I kill you!" She warned, feeling tears well up in her eyes as she actually kind of cared about him. She heard him come up the steps, and bolted the lock of her door, wincing at the loud sound it made.

"Annie." He groaned, hitting his head against the door. 

That wasn't going to help his concussion.

He tried half-heartedly tried the knob, knowing it would be locked. This wasn't the first time she had done something like this, he knew. They had been seeing each other for a few months now. Never once before this time had they gone to any private area together. The last time she had an urge to kill her serial murderer boyfriend, which hadn't been Chip at the time...she had killed him in Tennessee five months after they started to date.

"Annie." He repeated softly.

"What you've got can be helped through therapy without needing to mention that you're the one who killed them in the first place. I'm a serial killer of serial killers. They can't help me, Chip, they'll just sign me up for the syringe." Anemone said, wiping her sleeve across her face to catch the snot and tears on it, and giving a loud ugly sniffing sound. She wished she could cry gracefully, but it was impossible with puffy red eyes and a runny nose. 

"Do you want me to leave?" He tested, not knowing which answer he wanted most because of the cons in both possible responses. She almost didn't know how to answer. If she said 'yes' he would leave, and she'd be alone, but if she said 'no' there was a chance they'd end up killing each other, and that would solve nothing.

"In an hour." She said instead of a direct reply to his face. They had an hour to be together with the door to her room as the only separator, and they stayed that way. Neither one talked or moved.

Anemone knew when he had left because she could practically feel him pull his head away from the door, steadily walk down the steps and out the front door, closing it behind him.

He had been quiet for so long, there was a moment she wondered if he had passed out from the damage.

"Alright," She muttered to herself as she stood and padded over to the window watching him walk away and feeling just a bit lonelier. Then she simply closed the curtains, undressed, and went to bed.

The next day, Chip was found dead in his own apartment room, the crime diagnosed as a breaking and entering mission gone wrong without any evidence tying him to Anemone Young.

He had never seen it coming.