Behind The Mask

Chapter 2

It's never easy killing anybody. They stay with you, every person is like a ghost that haunts your dreams, your waking life, an apparition of bubbling guilt and despair that threatens to consume your life like a bomb waiting to explode. Not that Ted had ever known. It's just what he had heard, from prisoners, from watching documentaries and from the accounts that they always said. Murderers, they often relented their crimes, said that the guilt stays with you and all that.

He got out of bed and felt different. He felt...ready, was that the word? 'Ready, steady, Teddy, let's go', he remembered his wife saying to him once. It was a terrible pun, but he couldn't help laughing at the absurdity of it. He recalled the instructions - he had to first drive to some off-road street market, head to one of the vendors selling cheap knacks and open a cardboard box. He wondered what Tauron's intentions were, why he had gotten so worked up over it. Ted wasn't sure if he could still go through with the kill. Maybe he could kill him accidentally? All he had to do was get rid of the guy, right, so he figured that as long as he 'died', Ted would be in the clear. Would they check? Maybe he could power drill his face after he was accidentally killed? Ted didn't know anymore.

He reached the street market still in a state of worry, hurried over to the vendor, making sure to keep his face down to avoid being seen just in case of an eyewitness testimony or something like that. He located the box with ease, took it back to the car, and opened it up. There was a power drill inside. It had an internal battery, and could be charged, so you didn't need to plug it in to use it. He would probably have to dispose of the weapon. He had been wearing black leather gloves, the ones that would normally be used for exercise such as weightlifting. Not that it mattered anymore, Ted guessed, since he would just dispose of those too.

He drove over to the address that the torn letter had detailed, as hard as it was to make out because he had torn it in two in the first place. Was he really willing to go through with this - to murder someone to bring Lana back? It sickened him to the core, but he froze his heart over to forget of any emotion. What would Lana say? Where was she now? "I just hope you're safe..." he muttered to himself.

The car stopped, and Ted got out. He was an amateur at this thing, and as careful as he was at concealing his tracks, he still didn't know how to get in the house. He could bust the door down or something, but that would make him a prime suspect. Perhaps one of the doors was unlocked? Or a window was left open? Ted walked around the house, pretending to be a gardener. He picked up a gardening rake and pretended to rake leaves up while he scanned the house. It made him look incredibly suspicious, but he didn't notice. His mind was too caught up in other things. Every time a person passed by, he turned away, pretending to rake up leaves and do gardening tasks, whatever gardening tasks might consist of.

"Hey," said a voice suddenly, "we didn't hire a gardener." He turned around, and met the gaze of a woman.

"Uh yes, well, I'm doing community service," he stammered.

"Community service?"

"Y'know, where we rake up leaves and all that?" 'Oh shit,' Ted thought to himself. 'She's seen my face, and I'm pretty much screwed.' He thought up a new plan of action, one that involved making sure she didn't see his face. He turned away and pointed at the back of the house, away from the eyes of passer-bys.

They walked to the back and he pointed at a tree. "You see, that tree, it uh...uh...-" He punched her, right in the face and then took a stick and smashed her head with it. He checked to see that she was still breathing, just unconscious, and then shoved her body into a wheelbarrow in the gardening shed, and barricaded the door with some logs he found. "Oh god, what did I just do, what did I just do," he suddenly babbled to himself. He fought to control his hands from shaking and he reached for his pocket, dug his hands into them and felt the comfort and security of the power drill.