The Mindf*ck Series

Chapter 2

𝘈𝘴 𝘢 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘺 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘶𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯
𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘦𝘹𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘴.
—𝘈𝘭𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘵 𝘌𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘪𝘯.

𝗟𝗢𝗚𝗔𝗡

I finish off my croissant while staring at the gory crime scene photos.

Blood is smeared across the walls with a paintbrush, just like the other four cases we’ve managed to link together. It’s one of the few things that remains consistent. The unsub always paints a wall red with the victim’s blood.

“How can you eat while seeing that?” Elise asks while wrinkling her nose and sitting down on the edge of my desk.

Ignoring her question, I ask, “What did they find out about Ben Harris?”

“The M.E. estimated that he was tortured for at least three days. He has parts of him that have been cut off, just like the others. Including the penis,” she sighs.

That has me cringing, just like any man would. One of these images is supposed to be a dismembered penis?

“His fingers were all cut off,” she goes on, pointing at one picture that was snapped of ten severed fingers lying on the ground. “His chest was slowly pulled off piece by piece. The unsub stopped the bleeding each time by using a barbaric method of cauterization. He wanted the victim alive for those three days specifically. His penis seems to be the last thing to have gone. Ligature marks were found again, and chains were hanging from his basement rafters. We think the unsub stayed true to his profile, leaving the victim strung up in their own home. So far, all the men have had isolated homes too far away for any neighbors to overhear or see anything.”

And he’s not devolving either. His strikes are controlled, well planned out, and meticulous in detail, even if we don’t understand the details.

“The unsub should be a female, considering the groin mutilation in all the kills,” Craig says, shuddering as he walks up on our conversation. “Only a woman could handle cutting off a man’s junk.”

“Women serial killers statistically don’t torture. They’re actually far more efficient and harder to track down because of that,” Elise says dismissively.

“Well, he has to be impotent. Most serial killers are,” Alan chimes in, joining us.

There’s a reason he and Craig are not profilers.

“I think he’s more of a sexual sadist,” Elise explains. “Impotence likely plays a part, but just calling them impotent isn’t a profile.”

“So an impotent sexual sadist?” Craig asks, confused.

“Sexual sadists are often impotent, and they seek out their sexual release through the torture. No signs of rape were found, but it’s likely the unsub hasn’t evolved and grown the confidence to rape the men yet.”