CH 23

It was a small abandoned factory on the outskirts of the city, deserted for a kilometre. David dragged Jessica out of the car and into the factory as if he were unloading a load or pulling a pig into a slaughterhouse.

I was going to ask David to leave the boy tommy in the car, but before I could say anything he was already directing me to take the boy with me to the warehouse.

Heh, unlucky boy. Maybe he's about to see his mother murdered, just like Brian did. He should be glad that I had the good sense to make the decision.

Yes, letting an innocent woman die in front of me to save my own skin. That was beyond my boundaries. Though the woman was mean and unpleasant. I hugged the boy and smiled softly. Brian seemed to be telling me he was relieved too.

Placing tommy in a far corner, several metres from the workbench where David was determined to get his hands dirty, was as far away as it was possible to get. Jessica, in shock from asphyxiation, was casually thrown to the floor by the workbench as David unzipped the tennis racket bag and pulled from it an oversized diameter roll of supermarket bought cling film.

The unfolded cling film was wide and large, and I guess the reason David chose the tennis racket bag was to hold it. The cling film was indeed a good way to avoid leaving blood at the scene, and no matter how much the victims struggled, any traces of their fallen hair, dander, or David himself, would not be left at the scene.

In retrospect, it's very similar to the technique Sheriff Harry handed to my dear brother Dexter then. It's probably common sense enough for everyone.

David fingered the clingfilm in his hand and gestured for me to come over and help. I walked over to him and pulled on the corner of the wrap, feeling a bit of a novelty.

The unfolded wrap was laid out on the worktop and David used a knife to pick open the adhesive clasp that had been holding Jessica's hands together. Tossed back and forth, Jessica looked like she was about to wake up.

David took out a pair of pharmacy-bought surgical gloves and tossed them to me, putting them on himself. Then I was asked to help him set the woman up. He began to take off Jessica's professional suit with gusto, like a Barbie doll, and folded it neatly, placing it next to his tennis bag.

The feeling of being plastered by a naked woman was disgusting, so after he had completed this series of actions, I couldn't wait to set Jessica down on the clingfilm-wrapped workbench. Jessica's hands were re-attached by adhesive clasps, which also articulated the other end and secured it to the edge of the workbench.

Finally, the woman woke up. In a daze, she noticed the figure of David standing by the workbench and let out a shrill scream. The shrill sound made me take several steps back to get away from the source of the noise. Then I heard the sound of shaky breathing from behind me where tommy was.

y was awake, and he was pretending to be asleep. I knew it, but I wasn't about to expose him. It was better to keep my eyes closed the whole time than to watch this man for the knife and me for the fish. Dexter had Brian to cover his eyes, and Brian had to watch...

So...how could he be blamed for that? People blame the naivety in his eyes for not being there, for forcibly separating him from his own brother, forcing Brian, who had only lost one family member, to lose another. Without the only pillar of support left in his heart, little Brian was locked up alone in a horrible, gloomy mental institution.

"Hmmm..." a heavy shadow appeared in front of my eyes and a sharp nerve pain in my head made a sound that I couldn't control.

Brian's memories and mine kept intersecting and overlapping, and the sights that appeared in my mind, combined with Jessica's unmistakable shrill screams, made me feel as if my head was about to explode.

Jessica's scream was abruptly cut off and I dropped my hand over my ears to look over. David, with a grin that looked like madness on his face, was enjoying himself as he put his hand around Jessica's neck.

The woman with her hands bound flopped around the workbench like a tuna fish. David watched Jessica's expression before he glanced up at me, gesturing for me to come to his side.

"Cut off this woman's ring-wearing finger, now!" David said with a sharp intake of breath and a mad laugh in his voice. "I've never tried to cut off a person's finger while they're alive!!!"

My hands trembled next to my thighs as I walked over to him and knelt down to pick up the knife he kept in his tennis racket bag.

.........

Then, I could clearly see David's man-thirsty gaze as he gazed deeply at me, and Jessica's body jerked in pain before her eyes rolled white and she fainted again.

I watched as David leaned down and brushed the tip of his nose under Jessica's, testing to see if she was still breathing. The posture was that of a jackal who has succeeded in preying. At this point the boy's breathing was nothing at all, perhaps frightened.

"Take off your gloves." David dropped the finger into his tennis bag and raised the ring to his mouth and stuck out his tongue to clean the blood from it.

I seemed to have a vague inkling of what he was going to do and placed the knife in my hand seemingly casually on the workbench, within my reach. Then I took off my left glove.

"No, right hand." David corrected. Yes, a woman wears a ring on her right hand, unlike a man.

I obediently let him grasp my hand, the cold feeling in the palm of my hand perhaps he felt it. He snorted, and with force, he slipped the ring, which wasn't actually quite my size, hard onto the ring finger of my right hand.

"Now come and take off the clothes you're wearing and change into this dress." David held up the dress he had just removed from the woman.

Because of the experience of having worked with David in a dance company, I would not have been embarrassed by taking off my clothes in front of him. But this time the sight of David was unbearable.

I put on the ol' outfit, which was sexually flirty even for a woman, and again, at David's request, did not even avoid putting on those stockings, and then I stepped towards him on my heels and, with a clattering sound, pretended not to notice and once again took the folding knife that I had put aside casually in my hand.

"Come on, stand in front of me. Let me watch you!" As he spoke, David took out his fishing line and expertly slipped it around Jessica's neck, twice, securely.

I stood to his left, close enough, close enough for me to take his life when he was defenceless! But I wasn't going to do that, I was only going to stop him. I didn't want to become a monster like him.

"Okay, Mike." I replied in a low voice.

Then David's hands started to push harder and harder to the sides, the fishing line wrapped around Jessica's neck getting tighter and tighter.

I watched as she looked at David and I with wide dead eyes, her throat making gurgling noises and the fishing line cutting into the flesh at the nape of her neck. She struggled desperately, her legs kicking out of thin air.

"Hahahahahahahahahaha, look! Brian, look! How beautiful! Still the quiet women are the best...just like when you're asleep ...... ahhhhhh ！！！！"

As David lost his guard from being so involved, I lifted my leg and ran the heels on my foot viciously into his focal point. Nothing could be more damaging than a kick to a man's vitals.

He eagerly tried to back up and curl into a ball, but the fishing line wrapped around his hand restricted his movement. In order not to suffocate Jessica in his struggle, he was strangled to death. I picked the line off with two strokes of that quick knife and David flew and fell out.

I stepped in front of him and shone a flying kick into his jaw.

Jessica's shoes were too small for her size and flew out with my movement. David also spurted blood out of his mouth. Afraid he would recover again, I crushed his hand hard with the only shoe left.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh ！！！！！ Brian you!!! ......" I watched as his pupils faded and finally passed out from the pain.

I hastily shook off the only shoes left on my feet and woefully rushed barefoot to his tennis racket bag and rummaged through it to find two rubber buckles. Not caring in the slightest that my bare feet were bleeding from cuts on the ground from shards of glass. Only by limiting his movements completely could I rest assured.

Finally, with all the strength I could muster, I bound the unconscious David's hands together.

"Ping ！！！！！！" There was a loud rumble and the big rusty iron door of the factory was kicked open.

"Don't move! FBI!" "Stand up and put your hands up!"

The police, who were forever late, finally arrived, their hands flat in the air, scanning the area with a tense look on their faces. Then their eyes fell on me.

"The culprit has been subdued ...... that's Bryan Moss, the victim too..." i heard them whisper.

"Oh... he's crying! What a poor boy, he's just so strong. And he saved two people!" One man's sympathetic words reached my ears through the dull, cold air of the factory.

The knife I had been holding so tightly in my hand fell to the ground with a clang. Slowly I raised my hands and pressed one to my cheek.

I finally realised...that I was in tears.

But I knew they weren't tears of panic and fear; from start to finish I was panicking, but my mind was so clear. I knew that I had made the most effective move and saved two lives.

The reason that brought me to tears was because I had finally learnt that I still had compassion. The most obvious characteristic of a sociopathic personality is a lack of empathy. Does that mean that Brian's influence on me is wearing thin?

Maybe one day I will actually be able to completely fade away Brian's desire to kill and allow my heart to be truly at peace.