Devil In A White Dress

Forty

Jake and Elsa carried the unconscious body of Emma Woodburn and dumped her into their very own TV room couch. At approximately 3:45, Elsa felt a surge of panic rise within and yet she didn't know what caused her hesitation to call nine-one-one. She kept looking into Jake's eyes for answers. Todd and Carl left the booze, admiring the perfect image of the Devil in WHITE. A magnificent killer was now under their roof. Carl let out a very inappropriate squeal. It wasn't because of the fear of having some dead stranger in their home, but the sight of a dead woman gave him shivers from top to bottom. Like a powerful crack of thunder shattered his ears and powersome lightning stroke his body.

The kid, twenty-two and in his final year of college, couldn't fight the urge to go insane at that very moment. His knees stood still and jaw stayed widened. Elsa believed she was going crazy when his heartbeat was audible as the word. It pounded her eardrums while forming a symphony. Todd and Jake could hear Carl's vitals as well but they chose not to give a damn about it. He tried uttering words, but nothing came out. Not a single sound.

From the boy's point of view, Emma's face was a bloodied red which had stained her WHITE shirt, WHITE jeans to WHITE heels. It was like staring at a dummy. Jake, being the bravest amongst the bandits, rested the side of his head onto the killer's chest to check for the heart rate. He lifted it and made a face that told them it looked like Emma wasn't breathing. With a brave young heart, Jake performed the kiss of life on the killer. Elsa fought the urge to puke at the sight of Jake tasting the blood off of Emma's lips. He breathed inside her lungs once, twice, thrice then the fourth time, when all expected a miracle to happen, nothing happened.

"S-s-s-s-s-shouldn't we call the police?", Carl stammered hard, "It l-l-l-looks like she's d-d-d-d....dead."

"We don't know shit about what happened to her, Carl," Elsa shot back at once, "It sure look like some assholes jacked her up. Prolly raped her an' finished her off for sure."

"Can we please call the police?!", Carl yelled impatiently.

"We're not calling anybody," Jake notified him in a dense tone, "If a cop enters this house, they'll find the stolen money, dumbass."

"I don't get this, Jake. That wasn't robbery," Carl pointed out in awe, The Biker Gang forgot the cash, which they probably stole. We found the stash after some stupid party, we stole some, but the Biker Gang don't know that we stole it. It's called stealing from a thief for Christ sake. Can't any of you see how fucked up this is?! Guys! There is a dead body on our couch!"

"A dead woman is the more appropriate word, Carl," Todd voiced out, desperately searching for a sense of humor in this situation," A dead woman in WHITE."

"Please take this fucking seriously," Carl growled at Todd, "Jake. You found her on the lawn, right?"

"Yeah?", he responded dryly.

"What if this is some shit the Biker Gang is pulling on us. They're prolly sending a message."

Elsa believed Carl's perspective. It had never been rocket-science. The Biker Gang must be searching for their missing pieces of the piled-up cash from the storage they infiltrated but Elsa couldn't make something out right. She swore she could have seen Emma's face before. The image imprinted in her membrane matched all her perfect descriptions. But where did she first see the Devil in WHITE?

"They prolly know where we live, Jake," Todd spoke, finally being dead serious and scared.

"Well, fuck me," he replied, "Of course they'll know where we live. How long did you think we were gonna last? It's been weeks without any dead body or any warning. The day's finally come."

"What the fuck do we do now?", Carl exclaimed.

"Guys!", Elsa shot back, feeling guilty and suspicious of the killer on their couch, "This isn't about the fucking money nor the fucking biker gang! This could be someone's mother. Someone's husband. She could be missing. Or maybe she's been missing for how long? Days? Weeks?"

"That's not possible," Todd ascertained her.

"Why?"

"Well. You just said she was jacked-up by some guys minutes ago. This can't have happened for days."

Carl was nowhere wrong in his speech. Jake had left Emma's side and walked over to the window to think. Elsa took her eyes off Emma's body. So did Todd and Carl. This was a very simultaneous circumstance where in a few seconds, Emma opened her eyes. Her bloodied face had no expression. No sign of human emotion. No pain. Just plain blank. Like a zombie, she rose and sat up comfortably, gazing at the four college students with nothing but ill contempt.

Then her next action was put to the test. What was this killer going to do in a room with all four victims? Was Emma fast enough to do the thing she had just thought of? Perhaps. Perhaps not. Elsa turned slowly and bulged her eyes wide open. Todd, Carl and Jake were still paying their diverted attention elsewhere. Jake turned his face to Elsa and saw that she was pointing to Emma's direction. Jake froze. A second later, Todd and Carl both looked at Elsa, then Emma.

The room fell oddly silent because the one invincible thought at the back of the psychopath's head was to smile. With blood still spread across almost half of her body, her WHITE dress as well, Emma etched a smiling face. Carl had never been so spooked in his life. Emma could tell his one belief. The believe that what he was looking at right now was a zombie. Jake swallowed hard as his nervousness rose but Emma broke silence.

"Where am I?", the Devil in WHITE asked in a ghostly voice. Four of them wanted nothing but to remain speechless. To them, they knew it could have something to do with the Biker gang's stolen money. Neither wanted to get involved.

"Do you remember anything? Who attacked you?", Elsa replied.

"I don't think so," Emma lied, finding it hard to blink now that her eyelids were drenched with her blood, "It's all but shattered memories. The last thing I do remember is falling from the sky..."

Todd looked lost at her last word and for the first time, he didn't feel like it was the best time to be the only one confused. He bravely asked.

"Sky? Were you flying or something'?"

"Am I not going to get a towel?", Emma alarmed them. It was going to be Jake to the rescue, but Carl raced to get the towel instead. Shallowly, he applied ice cubes on it after now seeing the visible cut on the killer's forehead. He didn't know what would be polite or impolite. Doing it himself or offering it to her. Her eyes caught his and he had never been scared in his life. The eyes he looked into resembled any ordinary human. But by the facial expression and gesture, it bore no resemblance to the humans he has been seeing every day.

"Thank you," Emma smiled oddly, savoring all the hatred for humanity that was boiling to come out. She could have snapped at any instant and ripped his nose out of his face with her bare teeth instead of saying the words Thank you. She rubbed the cold, wet towel to clean her bloodied face then remembered Jenny's blood stains on her WHITE shirt and jeans. At this sight, heated anger rose. A senseless feral outburst was being forced. Emma wanted to let out that anger by slaughtering these four alcoholics.

She scanned the room twice, right before Elsa even looked at her. Booze. Nothing but booze, cigars, packets of cigars, broken beer bottles, tattered windows and walls, graffiti, leaking ceiling and the rancid stench of more pot.

Insignificant people, Emma began muttering again, the four of you don't deserve to live. You never did.

"So, are you really sure you don't remember anything?", Jake now inquired as he forced Todd to get the First-Aid Kit, "Your name? Your family? None of that rings a bell?"

"Like I said before," Emma continued lying, "All I remember is falling."

"Do you want us to call nine-one-one?", Jake asked right before Emma began to take off her WHITE t-shirt and expose the WHITE bra underneath. For once, Jake felt intimidated. The way Emma stripped herself was intoxicating. All that there was to see in Emma Woodburn was a hideous monster but beneath that. Way beneath that, Elsa could see how beautiful the killer was.

"No. As you can see, I'm doing perfectly fine. Don't worry about me," was what Emma said. Smiling while wiping the blood stains off of her WHITE t-shirt and jeans. In her head, she meant If I were you, I'd worry about myself more. Cause I'm going to kill you all.