The Cannibal Bride *WattyAwards2024

27)The Loving Psycho

"Crazy in love" by Kadebostany
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"Retaliation," Tom said in a raspy whisper. He knew what the note meant immediately upon reading it.
It had been nine hours since the discovery of little Lauren's body. Time passed in a jumbled mess upon the discovery of the two men who wanted to take the children. It was when the wedding guests saw the disturbingly bloody body of the kidnapper courtesy of Alyssa that proverbial hell broke loose. People screamed, people cried, and everyone had started to look for Lauren until Alyssa had whispered to her near-husband the location of the former bubbly child.

Ian had taken her words at face value, surprisingly. Maybe he was starting to trust her, or perhaps he saw the terrified fear behind Alyssa' eyes to know she wasn't lying. Either way, Ian then quietly told his uncle to call off the search and the wedding guests were informed that Lauren was fine and currently inside the house taking a nap.
After that, the wedding goers started to evaporate. Everyone slowly began disappearing once Sheriff Stern started acting professional and telling people to head on home so he could make the arrest of the still-alive near kidnapper.

Tom Stern even in the midst of chaos kept as cool as a cucumber. He stated with just the perfect amount of fear and understanding to his guests that people would want to abduct his children due to his protocols in medicine based on his job at the pharmaceutical plant.
He explained a rival company had been sending threatening letters for weeks, and that the FBI was looking into this.
It was all a load of bullshit, Alyssa knew.
He was trying to reassure civilians not to panic while also giving enough detail that they wouldn't need any other answers. The people couldn't possibly find out the truth about the dead girl. There would be no explaining away that.

The day got worse once all the wedding guests left the area. Alyssa had to reassure multiple times she was fine with her parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles, Cory, and Luke. All of them wanted to stay and talk about what happened, but Alyssa wasn't stupid. The proverbial shit was about to hit the fan the moment the Stern's found Lauren's body for themselves and read the note. She had a limited window to drive them away.
She was successful. Alyssa threw on a false facade of strong bitchiness to drive the ones she loved away.
She forcefully reassured everyone she was fine and just wanted a shower to forget about killing the man. She didn't want anyone still at the house when everyone discovered that the girl was dead.
She didn't want the Carlings' wrath taken out on the people she cared about. Tom and Simone finding the body was much worse than Alyssa could have ever anticipated. Even though they were terrible people, they still lost a child.
Tom was sullen and completely void of emotion as he found his youngest child in that horrifying position of looking like a grotesque doll.
Simone in contrast, broke apart. She screamed loud noises of a gut-throat cry that shook Alyssa down to her very core.
Her haunting wails echoed throughout the large mansion, no doubt scaring anyone who heard them. She had been the last to be informed of Lauren's passing, no doubt because she would be the person to lose the most control.

Simone sobbed and screamed, constantly attempting to touch her daughter's dead body. But Tom wouldn't allow her to see the full extent of the girl's damages. He wouldn't allow Simone to see more than the back of the dead girls' head. Her body was far too graphic for any mother to witness. It was the evil note that finally caused Tom to strike with emotion. His eyes leaked tears as he watched the note with a stoic expression. He knew it was his fault that the girl was dead, no doubt about that. Mr. and Mrs. Fallon cried, along with Eliza. Daphne was currently off in another room, most likely crying as well.
The girls' husbands had merely stared off in shock and Nick cried in a nearby corner.

Sarah and Parker developed a newfound level of respect for Alyssa since she killed their near-kidnapper. After her shower, they huddled to either side of her while she sat on the couch as they cried for their fallen sister. All she could do was sit in stunned silence, awkwardly allowing them to cuddle against her.
Alyssa had said nothing since she drove her family and friends away. She merely stared off into space, lost in thought over the realization that Ben was not coming across as all that innocent. She found a body, botched a kidnapping and even murdered a man, and yet, the only thing on her mind was Ben's ability to pull off an amazing Jekyll and Hyde performance. He was a talented actor; Alyssa could give him that.
Ben held the ability to look and cry as brokenly and beaten down as the rest of his family over Lauren's death.

But Alyssa clearly remembered the way Ben's bright blue eyes analyzed the scene of Alyssa standing over the dead man and rescuing Parker. He had been angry. While other members of the family looked relieved to find the children safe, and even grateful, Ben looked far from joyful two children were saved.
It annoyed him to see the dead man bleeding out on the ground.
Alyssa couldn't help but wonder whether the things Ben had told her had just been a lie. Perhaps there was never a plan to break out Alyssa, Cassi, and him. Maybe Ben had planned it so very carefully that Alyssa assumed she was escaping today only for Ben to double-cross her.

She couldn't think of it too much. Alyssa developed a headache dwelling on it for too long. There were too many players in this game where nothing was making sense anymore.
She couldn't tell anymore who a liar was and who was genuine. Her attention was drawn to Ian as he returned to the room, dressed in a dirty white dress shirt that only emphasized his disarray. Alyssa's eyes scanned his figure, noting how awful he looked—sweaty, disheveled, and perhaps even a little broken. It was a stark contrast to the Ian she knew. Something was clearly wrong. Not a single member of this frightening family seemed like themselves, but Ian's transformation was the most apparent to her. All hints of his usual confidence had vanished. There was no trace of his charming smile or the hidden deviousness she once recognized; instead, he looked utterly defeated and downcast.

Alyssa knew Ian, one of the cousins, and Mr. Fallon oversaw bringing the girl's body somewhere. It had been starting to smell due to the strange chemicals that the killer used to inject into the small child. According to the low murmurs around the area, the plan was to fake Lauren's death.
They couldn't tell the truth of how she died to the public, so it was decided an alternative course of action had to take place to save image. It was said that the family would lie in a week or two saying a heart defect killed Lauren. The help of the family medical examiner downtown would help prove this. Supplying a snippet of the girls passing in the newspaper would be a nice cherry to top the cake.
Alyssa held no real care of the family's murmured discussions of what would need to be done to hide the girl's actual death. Her attention remained transfixed on Ben upon looking away from Ian.
Alyssa only prayed she had been entirely wrong that Ben hadn't been working with those terrible men. Not only would that mean Ben had his half-sister killed, but he also threw Alyssa under the bus to have her abducted. Had this all been the distraction he had been referring to...?
Alyssa diverted her gaze from Ben to watch her 'fiancé'. It was only as Ian spared Simone a long hug and then sent an awkward shoulder pat towards Tom did he leave. He shuffled towards the stairs of the enormous mansion, not looking back at anyone behind him.
Alyssa frowned slightly, realizing this was really the first time Ian was in a room with her that he paid her absolutely no attention.
There was not even a look of acknowledgement when he had entered the room or left it. She couldn't tell whether Ian was unintentionally avoiding her or purposely doing it. Either way, she noticed his expression had changed when he had first saw the body after the wedding guests were sent away.