High School Psychopath

Chapter 4- Who Is the Author?

Peter sat on his bed facing the journal. He had mustered all his courage and had decided to find out who the author was. But to do that he had to find clues within the pages of the book.

He gulped and reached out for the journal, the leathery surface feeling warm and alive. He nearly threw the journal away in disgust but he pushed through. He flipped through the pages and immersed himself in a macabre world of torture and pleasure.

"To efficiently skin a human being refrain from cutting the wrist and neck to avoid spilling large quantities of blood. Cut from the chest to the base of the navel. I tried this on a man covered in tattoos. Those tattoos were so pretty I wanted them so naturally I had to peel his skin off. For such a tough looking guy he sure did scream like a bitch when my knife puncture his...."

He flipped the page not wanting to read more.

"Hanging a person upside down allows them to remain conscious through the entire process since blood flows directly towards the brain. Now they won't lose consciousness halfway through the torture process and ruining the fun. I had the pleasure of testing this with a young petite brunette. Now matter how much I hacked away she never lost consciousness, only screamed in pure agony with her beautiful voice...."

He hurriedly turned the page hoping to find something less horrible.

"A rat has a biological feature that makes it try to escape whenever it senses the presence of fire or high temperatures. This makes my next experiment work wonderfully. We trapped a rat within a container that is attached the the abdomen of our victim...a middle age caucasian man. We lit the top of the container on fire, triggering the rat's biological feature and causing it to scratch straight through the abdomen of our victim. The screams were magnificent as the man's body was..."

He closed the journal, his mental strength drained. At least now he had three victims...one skinned alive, one disassembled while hanged upside down and another disfigured by a rat. With this information he could track down his identity.

He went toward the town's public library and sat in front of the computer farthest away from people. The things he was searching would surely give people the wrong impression and he wanted to avoid misunderstandings.

He sighed and began his search. He began by searching for cases similar to the ones described in the book. To his surprise and dread there were many similar cases. A cross the country many psychopaths were preying and slaughtering on innocent civilians. The world it seems was filled with madness.

He began by studying each case individually, trying to find one that fit the descriptions more accurately. The cases couldn't be too recent or too old and they couldn't be that far apart in time and in distance.

What he was looking for was a tattoo covered man who was skin alive. A petite brunette that was hacked apart while hanging upside down and finally a middle age caucasian man with hole in his stomach caused by a rat burying through his abdomen.

Finally after many long hours he found what he was looking for. Three cases that fit the description and were relatively close in distance and within a 10 year span.

He sighed in relief, he was closer to finding out who was the mass murderer and finding answers. Suddenly he realized he had a project for Mrs. Morris' class.

"Dammit!" he whispered in a loud voice as he began another frantic search through the web.

That night he sleep peacefully, without nightmares. Maybe it was all in his head.