This story is dedicated to my good good friend Mrs T, without which this story would have never existed. Thanks for being my muse.
1
Snow covered the ground in a thin blanket.
2
A man in a large beige coat with large, quarter-size brown buttons sat in a silver car parked across from the Williams-Pines Elementary school, waiting.
3
Eventually a young girl in a white dress came skipping gaily out of the school building with a backpack slung over her shoulder, a pink Disney princess lunchbox swinging from her left hand and a manilla folder clasped in her right. Her golden locks bounced like springs as she made up lyrics on the spot, her feet springing quickly down the steps leading from the front door. She reached the bottom and paused, though her song continued. Her head darted quickly left and right, searching.
Across the street the man in the coat looked up as the soft sound of a child's song reached his ears. Even before he spotted her a large grin spread across his bearded face. He stepped out of his car and gestured for her to come. His heart leapt as he saw a smile light her beautiful face when her eyes tracked him. She ran towards the road before finally being led across by a woman wearing an orange vest over her police officer's uniform, stopping traffic with swift yet stiff hand gestures.
The man in the coat walked around to the passengers side of the car and opened the door. The little girl raced up to him and they embraced.
"Hello, Daddy!"
"Hey, pumpkin." He guided her into the car and closed her door before returning and sitting behind the wheel. He quickly looked around and behind before pulling into traffic. "So? How'd you do?"
Opposing a verbal response, the girl simply handed him the manila folder, barely containing her expression behind her quivering lips. He opened the folder and quickly scanned the grades marked across the various subjects. He glanced once down at his daughter, her own wide smile beaming up at him, awaiting his praise. "These are very good, sweetie. Much better than last time."
"Uh huh." She squirmed in her seat, barely able to contain her excitement.
"So, how about we go get some ice cream, sweetie? Does that sound nice?" He looked down at her, eyeing her carefully, waiting for her response, a smile trying to tug at the edge of his lips. It was as he expected. Her jaw had dropped in horrific astonishment and she looked nearly ready to cry. He couldn't help but to laugh.
"But, Daddy, you promised!"
"Don't worry, sweetie, I haven't forgotten. I only wanted to make sure you hadn't."
"Of course not, silly. I've been waiting FOREVER."
"I know. But," he said, looking at his wrist watch, "it's still too early. How about we go get some ice cream anyway, and after that it should be just about right." She clapped her hands together in excitement and her father beamed at her again, pride and love filling his heart.
4
Together, father and daughter sat in the outside dining area as they both slowly ate matching vanilla ice cream cones. Cold nipped at the both of them, but they ate on, not caring. The girl held her cone in her tiny white gloves that matched her dress while her father wore black leather gloves that protected him from the cold. The young girl ate her ice cream quickly, taking large bites and finishing before her father was halfway through. He gingerly licked away his ice cream, slowly nibbling the cone down bit by bit.
His daughter stared at him, anxious and impatient, bouncing in her chair her legs swinging back and forth to keep them warm as the cold began to creep through her leg warmers. After forever, he finally finished and she was up and out of her seat.
"You're not ready, are you?" he teased.
"Yes, Daddy! Come ON!" He laughed at her and took her hand, leading her back to the car.
"All right, sweetie, we're going."
5
Father and daughter drove slowly through town, the girl staring out the window as streets and houses slowly tapered away until they were alone on a long stretch of road. Nothing but trees could be seen on either side of the road. No cars came towards them or followed. Her father turned off onto a dirt road and finally after several minutes pulled up in front of an old house.
The house itself was of simple wood with its original white paint still adhered in places. Stretched out far as the eye could see behind it and on either side were clear fields, all surrounded by fencing. A large sign out front said clearly "Brown-Side Stables" with a description of pony renting prices detailed underneath. Her father gestured out towards the horses grazing in the field, and the young girl just stared, momentarily mesmerized. She could just see, behind the old house, a large barn where the majority of the horses were stabled, though most of this was blocked by the house. She finally shook her head, grabbed her father's hand, and nearly dragged him towards the front door of the Brown-Side Stables main office building.
Her father arrived at the door and knocked. He looked down at his daughter and smiled, and she smiled back. She was shaking she was so excited.
"Don't worry, honey, we're here now, it'll be fu-" he was cut off as the front door opened and a man shorter than her father poked his head out, his short black hair sticking out oddly from a baseball cap, his goatee untrimmed or combed.
"I'm sorry, sir. We're closed for the holidays."
"That's all right, we're not here for the horses."
The man's head snapped backwards as blood sprayed from the place where his eye has once been. He slumped heavily to the floor as her father slid the silenced pistol back into the shoulder holster hidden underneath his large jacket. Screams came from inside from three distinctive voices. Behind him his daughter clapped her hands with excitement, her eyes locked on the gaping hole in the man's head.
"Daddy, that's so awesome!" Her eyes were wide and her hands were clasped together in front of her wide grin.
"I told you, didn't I sweetie?" he said, rummaging his fingers through her hair.
"Yeah" she said distractedly as she dropped to her knees and looked more closely at the wound. She started to reach forward, but her father stopped her.
"Come on, sweetie. We've more to do." They stepped over the body at the threshold and into the foyer.
6
Before he could lead her through the foyer, a second man wielding a crowbar walked nervously through the door from the next room. He glanced between the man in the coat and the girl before his eyes fell on the first man lying on the floor, eye gone.
"Ji-Jimmy?" His eyes returned to the man in the coat. "Who-who the f-fuck are you?"
"I'd appreciate it if you didn't swear in front of my daughter." Just as he reached the word daughter he lunged forward and grabbed the crowbar. He wrenched it downward and quickly pulled it away from the man. Once he was in control of it, he swung it downward, hard, the short curved tip burying itself into the man's thigh.
Blood started soaking through the man's khaki pants. The young girl squealed with delight. He screamed, grabbed at the wound, and tried to pull it loose. The man in the coat leaned back on one leg and shoved his right foot into the man's chest, knocking him down to the floor of the foyer. Once down he kicked him again in the jaw.
He fell quiet, his body becoming limp. He reached into the right-hand pocket of his jacket and pulled out a plastic tie. He knelt beside the man, who was beginning to come to, and quickly tightened it around his wrists, his hands held out in front of him. He followed with the man's ankles, then hooked the curved end of the crowbar between the man's bound wrists and started dragging him towards the open door. It suddenly slammed shut and he heard a distinctive click as someone on the other side locked it.
He didn't pause, he simply walked up to the door and kicked it hard, the same manner in which he'd first kicked the groggy man he dragged behind him. The door's lock gave way on the first try and the door flung open, revealing a short open hallway. Directly ahead of him two women were turning to run through the kitchen at the end of the hallway. He pulled his gun out once more and shot out a window in front of them. They froze.
"Things will go much smoother if you do what I say. And what I say is for you to get, the both of you, into this room here."
He gestured to his left at a small living room that was connected to the hallway. They didn't move, so he pointed the gun down at the fallen man's face and pressed the gun into his jaw.
"Now."
The two women walked quickly into the living room. He followed them, dragging the man behind him. He dropped him in front of a love seat off to one side of the room,keeping the crowbar in his hand.
"Sit down" he ordered, gesturing to a second couch across the room from the door. They did and he reached into his pocket once more, pulled out four more plastic ties. He threw them forward so that they landed neatly on the floor in front of the women.
"Put one around your ankles, then use the others to bind each other's wrists. If you don't, I'll shoot your poor guppy-friend here."
They didn't hesitate this time. The man in the coat leaned back against the corner of the door frame and watched the two women to make sure they were doing it properly.Luckily they were too scared to do otherwise, and they were soon bound and frightened before him.
"Who are you?" one of them put forth.
"I didn't say you could talk. Sweetie, look around and see if you can find something to gag them with. I don't feel like hearing them scream." The women looked down at the little girl as she stood there smiling. Her hands were behind her back and she rocked back between her toes and heels. This was the first time they'd noticed her, and new fear crept up as she smiled at them, seemingly oblivious to their plight.
"Yes, Daddy" and she disappeared from the room.
The man in the coat walked over and sat on the arm of a love seat a few feet away from the women. He rested one leg on the floor next to the man's feet and the other on the couch's seat cushion, then leaned forward, resting his elbow on his knee and his chin in his hand. It didn't take long before the young girl returned with several pairs of panties and a roll of duct tape. The man in the coat wasted no time. He walked forward and forced wadded up panties into their mouths and then pulled duct tape tightly across their lips. He repeated this with the man on the floor before finally walking out of the living room, his daughter's hand in his.
"Let's see if we can find something fun to play with, shall we."
"Yeah!"
7
For the next several minutes father and daughter made their way through the house rummaging through drawers and looking around on tabletops and bookshelves. They took turns carrying various blunt to each other, but they couldn't come to an agreement. Failing to find anything satisfying enough, they headed out through the back door and into the horse stalls behind.
The stables turned out to be most interesting. The area was full of heavy metal objects, sharp tools, and other fun toys for them to enjoy. The father almost immediately located a small tool with a curved sharp point on one end. He handed it to his daughter to inspect and identified it as a hoof pick, used to clean the bottoms of a horse's hoof. She smiled at the idea and handed it back to her father, who pocketed it in his jacket.
They returned inside and made one last sweep through the house. This time the young girl came across something she grew instantly excited about lying on top of some books. She grabbed it and quickly brought it to her father.
"Oh, that's nice, sweetheart. Where'd you find this?"
"Over there, on top of the books" she gestured behind her.
"This is a straight razor, honey. They used to use these to shave with."
"Wow."
"Yeah. Strange we didn't come across it before. Anyway, let's go say hi to our hosts."
8
They walked together back into the living room, the young girl fiddling with the straight razor, swinging it and whispering "Whoosh!" to herself as she did. The father looked around at the three people in the room, noticing the man had regained consciousness and had managed to somewhat sit up against the love seat.
"Welcome back, sir. You had quite a bump on your head." He watched, bemused, as the man strained futilely against his restraints. "Sweetie, I'll let you pick. Which one?"
"Him" She pointed directly at the man squirming on the ground. "He's stupid."
"Stupid, huh?" He laughed softly. "Good enough."
He lifted the crowbar high over his head. Four pairs of eyes widened with anticipation, three in fear and one in eager excitement. He brought the blunt side of the weapon across the man's jaw. It cracked audibly as his head snapped sharply to the side. He slid down the couch, coming to rest on his side. He was still conscious, so the man in the coat swung again, this time bringing the sharp curved end of the tool down into the man's shoulder. He screamed as the man in the coat jerked him towards him until he lay directly beneath him. He used his foot to shove him onto his back, then braced him in place with his shoe planted firmly on his shoulder wound.
The little girl came around so she was closer, so she could watch. Her father looked at her and blew her a kiss. She returned it and then his smile vanished as he started bringing blow after blow against the man's temple, the curved blade stabbing and ripping. Blood sprayed, turning the girl's white dress into a macabre shade of pink. She clapped her hands in the blood rain that continued long after the man's cries had ceased.
Finally done, the man in the coat threw the bloodied shaft of iron to the floor. He gasped for air, tired after his physical ordeal. He looked up at the two young women, fear frozen on their features. They were pushed back as far as they could get, as if they thought they could somehow hide within the couch itself.
"Which one, sweetie?" he asked between breaths.
"That one" She pointed at the one on the left, a brunet. Her eyes widened and she tried to scream into her gag to no avail.
The man in the coat pulled the hoof pick out of his pocket and turned it over in his palm, finally gripping it so the metal end came out between his thumb and index fingers. The little girl walked over and sat on the arm of the couch, her feet resting on the cushions. The man in the coat moved forward and straddled the woman with his knees braced around her. He used the pick in two quick streaks, across the top of her right cheek followed by her left. Blood poured from the lacerations as she continuing her silent screaming. Beside him the other woman fought with her bonds, jerking and straining against them.
"I think I like this."
He thrust the sharp end up the woman's nose, jerking it back out, pulling it against her sinuses. Her eyes rolled back as she gagged, blood rushing down her throat. He flipped it around like a dagger and brought it down hard into her eye. It popped loudly sending clear fluid draining down her face. He repeated this in the other eye, then grabbed her by the hair and pulled her towards him as he stood up. He flung her to the floor and kicked her hard in the mouth. She turned over and tried to crawl away, pulling herself forward with her bound hands. He watched for a moment before finally getting down and straddling her back. He held the pick up with both hands and brought it down in the soft spot at the base of her head. He ripped it out and repeated, flesh and gore splattering onto his shirt and the floor around them. He finally thrust it into the side of her head, into her temple, and she fell quiet.
He stood up, his coat ruined with vicious streams of red. He turned to face the remaining woman. She has short blonde hair, not unlike the shade of his daughter's. He ran forward, grabbed her around the neck and stared into her eyes.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to kill you." Relief flooded her eyes and her body relaxed. "She is." Her body grew taunt once more and she started struggling again. He brought the back of his hand against her face and she calmed down, for the time.
"I am?!"
"Of course, honey. I'll let you use that fancy blade you've got there."
She squealed with delight and walked across the couch to the woman who stared at her.
"What do I do?"
"Stand behind her." She did "Now, pull her chin back towards you, and put the blade against her throat, then you jerk it across like this."
"Okay."
With her left hand she tilted the woman's head back. Her father made sure the woman didn't struggle too much, holding her in place with two hands. She tried to struggle, but he held her. The young girl placed the blade against the woman's throat. She grinned as she jerked the blade to one side.
Email this story 
Print Story 
Add to reading list
