Do Unto Others...

Chapter 4: Mother

First National Bank, June 1st, 5:25 p.m.

As the final patrons exited the building, Pete forced a smile to replace the scowl on his lips. When the lobby was empty, he proceeded to lock the entrances and activate the alarm system, leaving only the employee entrance to be locked once the building was clear. Thankfully, that was the later shift that supervised the after hour cleaning crew and late working employees.

The first day of business of the week always made for a busy day of watching account holders, guests and clients of the bank shifted in and out of the glass doors. There had even been a scuffle just after one in the afternoon where Pete had to escort an unruly gentleman off the premises after he had thrown a fit that his soon to be ex-wife had spent their savings. The man had tried yelling at him but Pete had looked down at him while issuing a stern warning to cooperate.

Something about the icy look in Pete's eyes had encouraged the man to comply.

The high volume day had been a welcome distraction for Pete. Unlike most Gothamites, he hadn't gone away for the weekend or attended a wedding or a family reunion. He had stayed home on his small vacation, tending to his house, his car and his extracurricular activities. Choosing one had been just as easy as it had been before, only this time, he had been unable to wait until he had reached more private surroundings to tend to his work.

As a result, she had hurt him, bitten him like a savage.

Like a dog.

It really wasn't that he hadn't been able to control himself, but that he could no longer bear the sight of the Whore that had been walking beside him. The way she walked and the way she touched his arm and the way she laughed had infuriated him. The smell of alcohol and too much perfume had brought bile to his lips and when she had asked if he carried a gun when he wasn't working, he had to shut her up. He had to rid the world of another vile creature that wanted to consume all that was good and leave the waste of evil behind.

He had caught her by surprise, hitting her with the butt of his hunting knife, and he had smiled as she stumbled to her hands and knees. He had been able to drag her off of the path and into the comfort of darkness, but in the process she had bitten his bare arm. No doubt she thought she would be able to fight him off on pure instinct and will to live.

Pete had seen to it that her will to live leaked out of more holes than he could have counted.

As with the others, his body had been on autopilot as he removed another predator from the world. His mind had always been somewhere else, always recalling the first time he had met the Whore. His mother had been in her room for three days with only muted weeping slipping out from under the locked door. Pete had come home from school, his pants dirtied after being knocked over by Jacob Drexler, the creep who had started the nickname Peepee...

All Pete had wanted was to crawl into his mother's bed and to try make her happy, in doing so accomplishing something that would have made his horrible day have a silver lining. Instead, he had walked into the living room and seen his father sitting on the couch with her. The Whore had sat beside him as if she belonged there, sipping from a glass of something amber colored, her fingers tickling the back of his father's head.

The Whore had smiled at him and said in a sickly sweet voice, "Hi, Pete."

He vaguely recalled his father starting to explain but Pete had run away and hid in his bedroom for the remainder of the evening. The next morning, he had finally emerged and was shocked to see his father making waffles and a big pan of crispy bacon, something he hadn't done since before Mom had fallen ill. Over breakfast, Pete had learned her name was Angie and that she was a good friend of his. His father had said that he would be spending time with Angie, at the house and in town and that she was going to be apart of his life from then on.