The Holiday Killer ✔️

Ch. 12 I Failed

Midnight, right on cue, Leah listens to her drunk father argue with her mom. She hides in her bedroom, listening to the arguing and her mom screaming as she’s slapped by a hand or whipped with a belt. Leah tries not to run downstairs to stop her father as she did once before. Hating, she promised her mother never to go downstairs when she hears arguing late at night. She struggles to get to sleep rather than call the police.
Leah didn’t think her father would drag her out of bed by her feet and down the stairs. All she can do is scream.

She’s thrown beside her mom and half-brother, Russell. It troubled Leah that her stepfather would beat a ten-year-old as much as he would her and her mom have. The recent change in his behavior has troubled both over the past year.
“You’ve all been bad and must be punished!” The drunk man rages.
The two females look at each other and the scared boy. Saying nothing, Leah’s mom grabs the scared boy the two females run for it

They find a safe place in the park to sleep. It’s not the best, but the kids’ mom believes her kids will be safe at school tomorrow while she goes to the police. She hopes the police will help her as the three struggle to get warm.
The two kids fall asleep while their mother is terrified to sleep.
Leah insisted on staying with her mom after they took Russell to school. On their way to the police station, they encounter a man mostly covered in black, both fearing who he is. The guy pushes the two into a van, ties them up, and blindfolds them before driving off.

The woman are forced to sit on cold ground before the kidnapper takes the blindfolds off, and removes his hood and mouth covering.
“Ah, Karen, you broke up with me before we could have fun. I have been killing those who did me wrong, but maybe I’ll let you live and let her go,” Austin explains, pointing at the teenager, “though I’m crushed we didn’t have a kid together.”
Leah can only watch as Austin undresses her mom. He sees the bruises and whip marks from her husband, “someone else has claimed you?! You’re supposed to be mine!”
Leah watches in horror as the kidnapper uses her mom as a punching bag and all she hears is muffled screaming. He looks at her, then her barely conscious mother, “you know what? New plan; you get to watch me rape your daughter,” he gets his knife, “as you bleed to death!”
Austin cuts the woman enough for her to bleed to death, enjoying her muffled screaming, before walking over to Leah, taking the tape off her mouth, and taking her clothes off. Leah is too focused on her dying mother to pay attention to the fact she’s being used as a sex toy. The killer tries to get her wet and ready for his spike, hoping to use his ex’s daughter to get the child he wanted years ago. Leah can’t do anything. She doesn’t want to scream, knowing that’s what this guy wants, but he’s doing all he can to hurt her to make her scream. Leah watches, haunted by the scream, until she dies.
Once Austin is done with Leah, he drags her to the wall to be chained.
"Now, you’ll either die or show me you’re pregnant," he tells her before walking away.
“Damn it, I’m screwed. This day can’t get any worse.”

Leah doesn’t know how much time has passed before seeing how her day will worsen.
“D-dad? Y-you work for the holiday killer?”
“No, but maybe I should. I already have victims.”
He frees Leah from the chains but throws her across the floor before using her as a punching bag. Leah does all she can to fight him off and escape.
She barely makes it to an alleyway before collapsing and passing out.
“You freed my prisoner?!” The holiday killer rages.
“You had my prisoner!”
The holiday killer wastes no time disposing of his threat before burying the two bodies.

“Wait, wait, you’re telling me we came here while a killer is on the loose?!” Blades questions.
“I said I was going to D.C. to help my brother with a case,” Chase corrects, “you, Boulder, and Heatwave insisted on coming with me. Glad the mini-cons choose to stay behind.”
“I’m hoping to cross paths with the killer,” Boulder adds. Chase and Prowl give him a look of disgust, “to rescue his victims,” Boulder quickly adds.
“That better be all you want to do,” Prowl lectures, “even though this mech is worse than Sunstreaker —.”
“Oh, I forgot, Sunstreaker is on Earth!” Blades whines.
“As I was saying, that’s no reason to allow this guy to be killed without going through the legal system first. Just like in Cybertron. How do you know about Sunstreaker Blades? You never met him.”
“Uh...my fault,” Chase admits, “I’m sorry, but I was looking at every Autobot who’s on Earth’s files and thought the others would want to know who else is on Earth. Apparently, Sunstreaker’s biography was enough to frighten Blades.”
“You could always go back to Griffin Rock or see how rebuilding Cybertron is going,” Heatwave argues.
“No, I’m good.”
\
The rescue bots report to the medbay for an exam and holoform programming.
“Sorry, but we’re still not allowed to walk freely in our bipedal form,” Ratchet explains, “but you’ll like using a holoform.”
“Consider it the next step in our efforts to learn about Earth,” Chase comments.
Prowl interrupts an hour of adjusting to their holoforms.
“Emergency! Blades, Chase with me!”
They know not to argue and rush out of the medbay.
*Should we be concerned that Prowl didn’t tell you to join him?" Boulder asks.
“No idea; is my brother here, Ratchet?”

The two police mechs and Blades couldn’t believe the scene; a young girl looking to jump off the bridge. Blades’ holoform sits in his helicopter alt mode, looking to get close to the girl.
“Please don’t do this,” Blades begs.
“A guy killed my mom, my dad abused me, and I was raped! Why should I live?!”
Blades doesn’t know what to say, and he knows what she’s talking about from his training back on Cybertron. Being on Earth doesn’t make his job easier as he tries to figure out what to say.
One try, then I have to transform to grab her. Blades tells himself.
He tells her what he was taught to say during his training, which even humans would be yelling. Leah argues with Blades that there’s no point in living.
This goes on for ten minutes before all hope is lost, but everyone watches Leah fall backward, falling onto the pavement. Blades fails to transform in time to catch her, and all he can do is hold her body in his servo. A mix of regret he couldn’t save her and wishing he stayed back in Griffin Rock fills him.
Prowl and Chase try to comfort him while feeling the pain that a human thought death was the only way to deal with a situation.
Prowl isn’t looking forward to finding out who her next of kin is.