Mesmerized | ✓

20

It wasn't long before Yuli needed a new victim. Carl cried, begged, almost fell to his knees trying to persuade Yuli against it but all it took was for the boy to tease him with a promise of another kiss and Carl was compliant. He came up with the whole plan, to go with someone that was far older than Yuli's usual victim as to not draw that much attention to his crime.

Yuli wasn't happy about it. Still being bitter about his failed attempt at getting Candace to say that she loved him, he complained a lot, kept telling Carl that it didn't matter what victim he chose. As long as he could make everyone believe whatever he wanted, they were safe after all. Carl hated himself that he was unable to say no to Yuli, as twisted and sickening as his reasoning was.

"Let's make a deal then." Carl proposed using his last shreds of willpower. "We go to the beach early in the morning when it's still dark. And whoever you see first, you can have them." He was hoping that it would be some old man with one leg already in the grave. It would be still a horrific thing, one that Carl would always feel guilty about, but in his mind it was somehow better than killing a young person that still had their whole life ahead of them.

Yuli glowered at him but after some time his face cleared up. "Okay." He said at last from his place in the bed. The boy was spread out like a starfish on the sheets leaving no room for Carl. "It will be like a game. I like it."

Carl sighed in relief even though there was no guarantee that the first person they encountered wouldn't be a lost child, wandering helplessly in search of their parents.

And so early in the morning the next day they walked to the beach. It was quite cold and windy so Carl had a sneaking suspicion that they wouldn't find anybody. But what then? Carl didn't know but he didn't want to find out.

Yuli's eyes fixed on the dark waves hitting against the shore and he walked towards it with a solemn expression on his face. The boy took off his sneakers and dipped his feet in the water. Carl thought he would see some signs of relaxation or peace but he couldn't read anything from Yuli's face. "Do you miss it?" He asked at last. "The sea?"

"No." He replied immediately but his feet still remained in the water.

"What was it like?" Carl asked, curious about Yuli's past life. In the midst of all the craziness he rarely thought about Yuli's peculiar origin but he wanted to learn more. Was everyone like that down there? Or was he just a case of a regular psychopath?

"Lonely." Yuli said looking over the waves. "Cold."

Those short one-worded answers hardly did anything to satisfy Carl's curiosity. "Peaceful then."

"No." He said but despite his words he walked farther into the water, his clothes quickly becoming wet as he stood with the waves reaching his waist. Carl watched not knowing what to make of Yuli's behavior. "You don't want to know about my world."

"I do." Carl rushed to say.

He heard Yuli chuckle as he turned his head to look at him with an ironic smile on his face. "Oh, really?" He walked back towards Carl so that they were standing face to face. "Here you are, begging me not to kill some pathetic person that you neither know nor care about even though I need it for survival purposes, and you want to know about a world full of others like me?" He chuckled again. "You don't have the stomach for it." Then his eyes fixed on something behind Carl.

Carl followed his gaze and saw some older man with a fishing rod walking towards them. He wasn't as old as Carl would have liked but it was still better than another teenager. A cold shiver ran down his spine when Carl became aware of how monstrous his thoughts were. That was why Yuli was so dangerous. Not only was he a murderer but he also molded other people in his picture, like some merciless god that had received more power that he could handle.