“Hello?” I could tell she didn't remember meeting me at my old job, but she took my hand anyway.
As soon as I had her hand I spun her around so her back was facing me, covered her mouth with my other hand and dragged her through the door that said, “Employees Only.” I quickly pushed Veronica up against the wall and took my hand off her mouth to grab the gag out of my pocket. I was a little disappointed that she barely got out the beginning of a scream before I put the gag in her mouth.
I looked around the deserted kitchen and spotted what I needed. I dragged her over to the industrial meat grinder and turned it on. The terrified look on her face calmed my urge to kill enough to focus on my next task. I took off my belt and wrapped it around her right forearm and made it into a tourniquet to stop most of the bloodflow into her right hand.
She tried to resist as I forced her right hand into the machine but I easily out-powered her. The motor strained as it ground up the bones in her hand but the machine did its job and soon I had roughly a quarter pound of Ground Veronica.
I snatched it up and dragged Veronica over to the grill I had turned on earlier. I placed the meat aside and forced her bleeding stump onto the red hot grill. Taking a deep breath my nostrils were in heaven smelling her searing flesh. Satisfied that her stump was nicely cauterized, I turned my attention to the quarter pound of ground Veronica and used the spatula to make it into a nice patty and put it on the grill.
I knocked Veronica to the ground and held her still with my foot on her chest. She was too busy holding her stump in disbelief to think about escaping. Within a minute the one side of the Veronica burger was sizzling so I flipped it over and put a hamburger bun on the grill.
In another minute they were done. The patty might not be cooked all the way through but that didn't matter for my plans. I got ready to make my handburger and I realized a flaw in my plans. The ketchup and mustard were out of my reach. I would just have to make do without the condiments.
I quickly built my burger and kneeled down next to Veronica. I held the burger under her nose before removing the gag. I had hoped she would try and scream but she kept her mouth firmly closed. Holding her nose with my free hand I had to smile as she started to panic. Her panicking used up her oxygen quicker and in less than a minute she had to open her mouth to gasp for breath. That's when I shoved the burger in her mouth.
She tried to spit it out, but I held her jaw firmly shut and all she could do was chew then swallow it. I don't know if the look of disgust on her face was from the origin of the burger, or her having to chew the bits of bone that made it through the meat grinder. Whichever it was she saw the look on my face and I didn't need to hold her nose shut for the rest of the burger.
As she ate I had to share the beauty of my plan. “Once I leave I know you will tell the police. They'll be shocked at first but then they'll do standard procedure and investigate any jilted lovers you have. And you have a lot. Plenty of ex-politicians, who don't want to be investigated. Your own firm will try and dust this under the rug. And all the police will know is the crime was done by someone in a nice suit.”
“But why?” she cried.
“You got your looks from Mr. Beals in exchange for spreading misery on the world. With you he got a bargain. You helped to get rid of financial regulations kicking thousands of people out of their homes. Well, you won't be able to do that any longer. With only one hand you'll have a tough time giving politicians great sex, and when you do try, in the heat of the moment attempt to use your right hand, you'll have no choice but to remember what happened to your hand. It will be all you can do to not get sick at the thought.”
“But that will bring a visit from Beals,” I could see from the look on her face that she found that even more terrifying than what I just did to her.
“I've seen your file, you weren't ugly before the deal. Not a supermodel, but not ugly. You'll learn to live with your old looks.” I put the gag back in her mouth and took my belt off her arm. I left her in the middle of the kitchen too shocked by what had happened to do anything.
My urge to kill was abated by what I had done but it was still there. Nagging at me like a sore tooth, just painful enough to think it can be tolerated but knowing it has to be taken care of. It nagged at me on the bus ride out to a certain spot I knew where I could take care of it, for now.
After walking several blocks from the bus stop I saw I was in luck, Larry's Porsche and his coke dealer's beat up Camaro were in the parking spots at the scenic look out. Larry hadn't picked this spot at random. It looked like a very public place to do an illegal transaction, but the look out spot was out of view from the road and they would have plenty of warning if someone walked the short trail to their meeting place.
As soon as Larry's dealer emerged from the trail I briskly walked on to the path. I didn't care if the dealer saw me, he wouldn't be telling the police.
When I walked onto the lookout platform I could see Larry had heard my approach and had stashed his newly purchased coke into his suit.
“Doug?” His voice betrayed his surprise.
“Yeah Larry, I stopped by to see you.”
“Okay,” he said, nervously. “I didn't think I'd see you again after you turned me in to the authorities. Not without a lawyer anyway.”
“I've moved beyond that.” I looked down at him as I was nearly a foot taller, “I recently learned that you made a deal with Mr. Beals.”
“Oh,” The shock on his face was priceless. “How did you find out about that?”
“I have my ways,” I said, “In your file it said how you would do his bidding if you could be a powerful man. You spent all your life being picked on for being short and wanted revenge. Mr. Beals placed you in a position where you could use your forging skills to lash out on the little people who just had a dream of owning a home.”
“Forging skills you taught me.”
“I taught you the basics, but you turned it into an art form. You enjoyed it so much you forged documents for people who could get mortgages legitimately. You were actually disappointed when someone would actually qualify on their own. You didn't fudge the numbers a little, you purposely looked for people who would default on their loans so you could crush their dreams.”
“The judge didn't think so.” Larry defended himself.
“The judge was working for Mr. Beals.”
“Isn't it a little late to be talking about this?” Larry said.
“Yes it is.” I grinned in agreement, “I made a deal with Mr. Beals as well. It just so happens that I am a homicidal maniac. Mr. Beals took the irresistible urge to kill away from me, until today. Now it is back with a vengeance. The only thing that will stop it is killing someone. That's why I came here looking for you.”
“You plan on killing me?” Larry's face went white and he pulled his wallet out. “Look I'll pay you not to. A hundred and change it's all I got on me.”
I took the bills that Larry held out and said, “Thanks, but I still have to kill you. The urge is too great.”
He turned to run and I grabbed his collar. Reaching down I grabbed his belt and held him off the ground. I took him to the railing of the scenic look out.
“What do you think of your fate?” I asked looking out over the fifty foot embankment to the expressway below. Beyond the expressway was the ocean beach where a huge flock of seagulls were scrounging for food.
“For the love of god, don't do this,” Larry screamed.
“God got out of the picture when you made your deal with Mr. Beals.” I said as I backed several steps away from the railing.
“You can't do this to me,” he screamed.
“We'll see about that.” I ran towards the railing as fast as I could. I lifted Larry up and flung him with all my might. I barely caught the railing myself and almost joined him going over it.
I had hoped that I could throw him completely passed the breakdown lane but I wasn't quite that strong. He landed three-qu
arters of the way into the lane. I wish I was close enough to hear the bones crunching on impact, but I wasn't. Luckily he landed hard enough to bounce into oncoming traffic.
Whatever bones survived the impact of the fall were probably shattered by his collision with the bus doing over 50 mph. I could see his body messed up the front end of the bus as well. As he slid down the smashed grill, the damaged bumper caught his ribcage. He would have stuck there but his little legs were just long enough to be pulled under the front tire which ripped his body off the bumper separating it from his ribcage.
The front tire squeezed out his internal organs like toothpaste from a tube. The final damage was done when the rear tires rolled over his head squashing it like a watermelon.
The flock of seagulls saw the carnage and swooped in for an easy meal. Two of the gulls got into a fight over Larry's right eye as a third one came in and snatched up his left one. It was a truly beautiful sight watching it fly off into the sunset with Larry's eyeball dangling out of its beak.
I would have liked to stick around to watch the gulls feast on Larry, but I had to get moving before