Bones of the Demon King

Chapter 5

Paula was gone.

The words felt like deep scratches against his heart. Paula was the woman he had always thought of when he imagined his future or remembered his past. Paula had been his eternal crush. It wasn’t until he felt something wet on his face, that Tom realized he was crying. Here he was, sitting in the dark, bawling like some kid. How pathetic.

Suddenly, a strong rush of anger hit him. Paula had left him. It didn’t matter that she never really belonged to him or that she was taken against her will. Bottom line…she was gone. She had left.

Tom stood up and turned on an old rock song from the seventies.  He let the heavy beats of the music wash over him and then started rummaging through a trunk in his closet. He tossed out old papers and pictures, letting them fall haphazardly on the floor. When he found what he was looking for, he grabbed a black sharpie from a drawer in his computer desk.

He opened his old high school year book and began looking for pictures of Paula. One by one, he colored over her picture with his dark marker as if trying to wipe out her existence in his life. Each stroke of his pen felt like a cathartic release to him. He briefly thought of who would tell Samantha about Paula, but then shrugged. It wasn’t his problem anymore. As he marked out Paula’s pictures, he noticed that there was another person marked out in his book. He shut his eyes to stop the memories from resurfacing.

“Christopher,” he whispered. Tom threw the yearbook against the wall. He made his way to the bathroom where he stared into the mirror.

As the music continued to play in the background, Tom leaned towards his reflection. He slowly took out his green colored contacts. As he stared into the pale blue eyes he abhorred, his anger began to build. He was angry that Paula left him, he was angry at himself for being alone, and he was angry about what his blue eyes reminded him of.

Without thinking, Tom lifted his fist and tried to destroy the image of his blue eyes. The mirror shattered against his fist but he didn’t feel the pain or acknowledge the small piece of skin that stayed embedded in his mirror. No, all he could feel was the overwhelming loneliness that engulfed him.

~ACROSS TOWN: LUDWIG NEWS BUILDING~

Eva Lewis sat in her living room recounting the day’s events. She was still very much shook up about the crown of flowers in her car but she reminded herself that this wasn’t the first time a reader had gone too far in the name of telling a joke. 

Once she had written a story encouraging people to recycle and to have the city charge an extra fee for residents of Ludwig to pay for recycling pick-up, only to wake up the next day and find bags of garbage thrown on her front lawn. Eva considered herself a strong person and not much scared her, but the idea of being on the radar of a serial killer wasn’t something she desired. Her friend, Detective David Wilson, thought it was just a prank. Eva hoped he was right. She relished in the idea of being the reporter that named the Demon King but didn’t want to be a victim of his.

Eva took a deep breath and walked through her house again, checking that her windows were locked and that nobody was hiding under her bed or in the closet. She would have to remind her cousin Joelynn to start setting the alarm after she left the house. Eva thought of Joelynn who had texted her earlier, “Staying at Jacob’s tonight!”

It was probably for the best that Joelynn wasn’t home. She was the only family that Eva had left. She would hate for something to happen to Joelynn because of a story that she had written. Eva picked up her phone and texted her cousin back, “OK be safe.”

As an extra precaution, Eva grabbed a knife and hid it under her pillow. She was taking no chances tonight.

~OUTSIDE THE CITY LIMITS OF LUDWIG, TX~

He couldn’t believe how things were working out for himself. He laughed as he walked to his cellar. He loved this place. It was his secret room. Nobody ever disturbed him in his cellar. It was where he could work in peace. If anyone else ever found out about it, things would be over pretty fast. In the meantime, he was able to continue his game as long as he wanted. He looked at the newspaper article from the week before “Demon King Claims Second Victim.”

If she only knew. He laughed again at the ignorance of the article by Eva Lewis.

Demon King

In his mind it was very fitting. He felt like a king and he was a demon to the core. He looked at the corner of his cellar. Remnants of his previous victims were piled up. He picked up a skull and laughed. “Second victim? I think not.”

He let the skull fall from his hands and walked back to his laptop which lay on his workbench. He logged onto a site that he had been visiting lately: Love Match. Some unfortunate woman was about to make a date with death.