The Strange Good Girl

Chapter Seven: Innocent Curiosity

Jason sat in an old wooden chair in front of the sharpening wheel. He gave it a pull and it began to spin. The girl watched quietly. He pulled his machete from his side and sharpened it on the wheel and checked the blade in the light. When he was finished, he pulled a key from the pocket in his overly worn work pants and unlocked her restraints.

She rubbed her wrists. "Thanks. Are we leaving now?" He nodded and she jumped up from the bed. She eyed him and noticed he hadn't packed anything to take with him, all he had was his machete at his side. "You're not bringing anything with you?" He shook his head and put his hand on his machete, as if to tell her that's all he needed. "Ok..."

Jason grabbed the girl by the wrist and began to pull her along behind him. "Fuck! Let go!" He stopped and looked back at her. "Why must you constantly man handle me?! I'm not going to run away. Where would I go? You'd just catch me anyways." He knew she was right and he hesitantly released his grip. She rubbed her wrist.

"Have you ever tried to be gentle?" His eye narrowed at her. "You know gentle, the opposite of what you've been doing?" He knew what gentle was, but he never thought he'd have reason to be gentle towards anyone or anything. Mother had drilled into his head that being gentle wasn't for him anymore. Being rough and brutal to his victims always made killing them easiest. But now he had to keep this girl safe and protect her. Did that mean he'd have to be gentle with her? Not that he planned on touching her that often except when absolutely necessary.

He led the way and the girl obediently followed. The walk back to her house seemed to take forever since Jason had to stop occasionally to let the girl catch up with him. Luckily the rain had stopped and the sun was filtering through the clouds. The girl didn't say a thing to him the whole time, too absorbed in her own thoughts. He knew she was behind him every step of the way, he could hear her clumsy footing on the forest ground, but every few minutes he still looked back at her. As they broke through the trees into her yard she let out a sigh of relief. She walked over to the fire pit and poked at the wet ashes with a stick.

"It's a shame they never saw it coming... but they got exactly what they deserved..." She spat into the ashes. Going inside she stood at the door waiting for Jason to come inside before locking it behind him.

She took a few steps towards the kitchen when the metallic scent of blood filled her nose. "This is going to take forever to clean up!" She stomped down the hall and got the mop bucket, a large bottle of bleach, and the mop out of the closet. She began mopping up the trail of blood that led out the side door. Jason stood idly in the middle of the living room watching the girl.

"You know you can sit down if you want." She gestured to the couch. He looked down at the couch and shrugged. As he sat on the couch it groaned in protest under his weight.

The harsh smell of bleach stung his nostrils through his mask. He turned and watched as the girl vigorously scrubbed at the bloodstains on the floor. It seemed strange to him that she was so insistent on cleaning up all the blood. She had gotten rid of the bodies, so why bother trying to scrub every single drop of blood off the floor and walls? He continued to watch her curiously.

There were speckles of dried blood on her face, and her hair was sticking out in several odd angles. Her bangs kept falling from behind her ear and into her face. Her sleeves were rolled up to her elbows as she scrubbed the walls and cabinets in the kitchen. She had several bruises forming, one just below her eye and two very faint ones around her wrists. He couldn't remember the last time he saw bruises on any of his victims, but then again he never let them live for very long once he got a hold of them.

Lisa finally finished scrubbing all the blood off all the floors and walls. The house smelled thick with bleach. She returned her cleaning supplies to their closet and opened a few windows to try and diffuse some of the harsh bleach smell. She returned to the living room where Jason still sat idly on the couch. Looking at all the boxes she still had to unpack she sighed and looked at the clock. It was only four PM. She desperately wanted to take a shower before starting her next task.