It's up to Me to Make You Bleed

What was happening to me? I was smiling, content with being in the arms of one of the very men who ruined my life. Sure, Brian was never actually ugly ten years ago, but damn did he improve! I don’t think it should be legal for one man to be so attractive. Especially a man who is a murderer.

As we were walking back toward the club, a larger group of people waited outside the entrance. Some more familiar faces. Zacky, Johnny, Matt, and…a girl? Unintentionally, I stopped in my tracks. So many questions exploded in my mind, I didn’t even know where to begin. A few years ago, Matt was dating a girl from our high school – Val DiBenedetto. Did he kill her and move on?

More importantly, does this girl know what she’s gotten herself into?

“Is something wrong?” Brian asked, stopping along with me and casting a downward glance.

After I finished cursing myself several obscene times in my head, I forced a smile to creep across my face and laughed it off, in perfectly contrived fashion, of course. “Nothing’s wrong. I just really need a drink. It’s been a long night,” I sighed.

He bought it.

The brightness of the bar’s neon light decorations blurred into colorful rays of pigments around me as I downed my fourth shot of Tequila. The shit tastes like weeds, but damn did it work its magic. As the night had progressed, I learned that the girl’s name was Sarah Moore and that she could hold her liquor just as well as me.

Johnny and jimmy were up on the stage, stumbling over each other as they attempted to sing 80’s karaoke songs. Matt was sitting next to Sarah, his large tattooed arm draped protectively over her shoulder. I was on her other side, with Brian next to me and his hand placed on my upper thigh. I’m not sure whether it was the alcohol or his potential realization of my true identity, but Zacky’s been MIA in the bathroom for a good twenty minutes now.

Despite the fact that I felt as if I were in a happier place, I still didn’t lose enough brain cells to forget about the past and my true mission. I shot Sarah and Matt a smile as I drunkenly waved my hand back and forth between the two of them. “How did you two love birds meet?”

They exchanged glances, both offering to tell the story. Clearly, they both had different versions to tell. Sarah leaned forward and grinned. “It was about a year and a half ago. I was traveling back from up north visiting family and had to stop at this back woods gas station in the middle of the woods. The stupid pump wouldn’t work. These guys pulled up in some flashy SUV and Matt got out of the passenger seat and offered to help since the attendant inside the gas station store was busy. It was like love at first sight!”

Of course, Sarah couldn’t be expected to remember the rest of the night when she was knocked out in the back of their car…

*Matt’s POV*

I allowed a trickle of Budweiser to trail down my throat as I listened to Sarah recite all she remembered of the evening we met. I didn’t give a shit whether or not it sounded sketchy – by all means it was true. Plus, it’s not like this Chelsey chick is going to be around long enough to figure something out. There’s no way the guys are going to be willing to allow two girls to travel and/or live with us, expecting our secret to remain such a thing.

Yes, the boys and I did first meet Sarah at a local gas station hidden deep in the woods. We were in Idaho, I think, still trying to finish off our “Red, White, and Blood” video series. Jimmy sure knew how to market that shit. Anyway, the sun was almost completely nonexistent in the sky and there was only one gas station on this road for miles. There were just two pumps at the station; one of which was already occupied.

One of the sexiest chicks I’d seen in a long time was kicking the dirt-smeared pump as hard as she could, perhaps hoping to eliminate some of her frustrations. “I’ll take care of this,” I mumbled only loud enough for Brian (the driver) to hear. “Fine, if no one’s willing to, I guess I’ll go help the damsel in distress over there,” I laughed, fully intending for the rest of the car’s passengers to hear.

The sound of the car door slamming was just enough to catch the girl’s attention. She looked up at me, her eyes burning bright with rage. But that anger quickly disappeared as she realized I may be able to assist her. “Having a hard time?”

“You don’t know the half of it, man. Just spent a three day weekend at a family reunion, it rained all the way through Montana, and now I’m stuck here, with an empty tank and an apparently dysfunctional gas pump!”

“Wow that beats my day by far. Let me take a look,” I offered, leaning over and analyzing the pump. “I think you just need a little more…force.” One swift kick to the tank gave it more than enough inspiration to spit out some gas.

“That’s so unfair. I’ve been kicking this stupid ass pump forever,” she pouted. She really was something else.

I shrugged, “I couldn’t resist helping such a pretty lady in need.”

“How kind of you,” she laughed extending an arm, “I’m Sarah.”

“Matt,” I replied, mimicking her actions. “Where are you heading?”

“Back home – California.”

“No shit? Same here. You know, I could save you some money…we have attachments at the back of the car. I can easily attach your car to ours and let you ride with us. After all, traveling alone can be incredibly boring.”

It didn’t take long for her to decide, and soon we had a seventh passenger. We planned on stopping off at a hotel on the border of the state, especially because no one in the car enjoyed spending an entire night driving along flat, boring highways.

Holiday Inn was the first place we found, and would work just fine. We got two rooms, and as it turned out, Johnny, Zacky, and Brian crashed in the first one, leaving Sarah, Jimmy, and myself in the other. Sarah positioned herself comfortably on the bed. I pulled Jimmy aside, remaining as far from the bed as possible. “Do you have any ideas on how we can possibly pull this one off being surrounded by paper thin walls?”

“Easy, my friend,” Jimmy grinned, fishing for the keys to the car. “We’ll just have to knock her unconscious and kill her that way. Believe me, I know it won’t be nearly as fun, but it’ll have to do.”

It took Jimmy fifteen minutes to find whatever substance he was searching for in the trunk of the SUV. Within that time, Sarah had tackled me to the bed, taken my clothes off, and showed me a time unlike any I’d ever had before...coming remarkably close to rivaling my time spent with Courtney back in the day. Jimmy stood frozen in the doorway with a lopsided smile as he stared at our connected, sweaty bodies. I glanced over at him and slide slowly out of the bed, content with hearing Sarah’s breathing slow down to a steady pace.

“Dude, what the fuck is wrong with you?” Jimmy asked, waving his hand in front of my face. Funny thing was, I was asking myself the same question. Was it the sex that had changed my mind about killing her?

“I…I don’t think we should do this,” I muttered, nearly ashamed of the words coming from my own mouth.

Jimmy rolled his eyes as he stalked over to Sarah and pulled her up his eye level by wrapping his fingers tightly around her strands of hair. He held the cloth over her nose and mouth, assuring that she’d remain as still as a corpse. “If you won’t do it,” he growled, throwing the portable camera at my chest, “then I will.”

He reached into his back pocket and flicked his knife open. A trail of rusted blood lined the blade, creating a heavier coat each time it slid into the skin of his victim. The camera was still turned off even as he ran the blade along her cheek bone, bending his wrist slightly every now and then to make the knife slide below the first layer of skin. She wasn’t crying or struggling in his arms. But the blood still dripped onto the bed comforter. It always did.

As fate would have it, Jimmy didn’t enjoy doing the deed without a bit of a reaction, so we made an agreement to let her stay with us, provided she kept her nose out of our business, and instead settle for double the bodies the next day.

Leslie and LeAnn, identical twins, each shared the same birthday and the same day of death. They lived on a farm, which we had stopped off at for a piss break. Brian used a rake with large metal spikes as his weapon of choice, while I grabbed the cattle brander. Jimmy held his camera eagerly in hand, capturing every moment. By the time we were done with them, they were far from recognizable. I drew in a deep breath, savoring the scent of melting flesh.

Their skin looked like bloody candle wax, dripping off their limbs and onto the hay-covered ground. Brian dug deep trails of red into their bodies, most of which actually resembled their father’s field outside of the barn. In some cases, we even got to see some of their inner organs and muscles. The bones were too hard to decipher because they were stained red. They died with identical screams, each with their broken jaws forever latched open.

*Normal POV*

3 AM came much quicker than my drunken body could’ve anticipated. The guys were dispersed among the thinning crowd on the dance floor, leaving Sarah and I at the booth, clinking glasses and throwing back shots. She and I got along pretty easily and, dare I say it, I think I’d made a friend. It’s been so long since I could say that with an honest face…

“Brian totally has the hots for you,” she giggled as she tried to point to Brian in the crowd.

I shared her laugh and almost felt excited when I heard that, even though it was truly insignificant whether Brian liked me or not. “I can’t blame him. I am one damn fine girl!”

The bar eventually prepared to close and the guys returned to our table. “Well, this has been a super night. Thanks for the drinks!” I exclaimed, stumbling into an embrace with Brian.

“Who ever said anything about the night ending right now?” he smirked.

“The bar…?” I answered stupidly.

“Chelsey…why don’t you come back to our hotel with us?”

Oh, God. Not that. No…I can’t go. It’s too risky. I….

“Yeah, Chelsey, you gotta! Don’t go home yet,” Sarah encouraged, clinging to Matt for support.

I sighed as I took a moment to analyze the situation. Everything got so much riskier and complicated than I had originally intended.

They don’t recognize me.

Brian is obnoxiously attractive and interested in me.

An innocent girl is being dragged along for the ride.

I wanted to make them pay for what they did to me. I guess maybe to do that, I’ll need to spend some quality time with them.

“Okay,” I smiled, unsure, “I’ll go.”

If anything, I’ll get a chance to get some dirt on them, right? Surely, I’m not going because I’m…interested.

Never.