It's up to Me to Make You Bleed

The sun had started painting the sky in colorful pastels that seemed so ironically distant from where reality was right now.

Thankfully since it was still so early in the morning, there weren’t exactly many people out on the sidewalks right now. If there were people, I was almost positive they’d mistake me for someone who had just recently escaped from an asylum.

If they looked close enough they could see thin traces of bloodstains on my skin and hair. Surely there could be no explanation for my crazed expression, filled with fear, confusion, and remorse. They may wonder what had been so horrible to cause this emotional plague. They wouldn’t know that I felt like a monster, that I hated myself for becoming one of the people I swore I’d slaughter.

I wanted to scream, but it would have to wait. My lungs ached holding back the verbalization, but I persevered, sprinting down the concrete walkway, only finally being able to relinquish my screams once my head snapped backward and a hand covered my mouth while simultaneously pulling me back into a vehicle.

My instincts immediately flared. I scanned my darkened surroundings and realized that there was no one sitting in the driver’s seat, meaning this was a one-man job. How foolish.

I frantically kicked my legs in any direction they could reach hoping to make contact without being able to see my kidnapper. The man kept his hand wrapped tightly around my mouth, seemingly unfazed by my attempts. He stretched forward and closed the door beside me.

Once we were sealed inside, he let go and spun me around. “You do realize that if that was real, you’d be screwed, right?”

My heartbeat slowed ever so slightly as my eyes widened in absolute confusion. “Dad?” I whispered, feeling dual waves of relief and perplexity wash over me.

“What’s happened to you, Courtney? You and I both know that you should’ve easily been able to handle that situation.” He was giving me a stern look, one that suggested potential disappointment.

My eyes shot down to the ground. How could I admit that I’ve gotten too involved? That would only make me look more so like the failure he surely already believed me to be. “I…well…lately…” I stuttered out.

He sighed heavily. “I already know the truth. You freaked out during your earlier mission. You didn’t think clearly, and now one of them knows who you are.”

“So what am I supposed to do? I made a huge mistake tonight and now I don’t think I can…”

“Stop right there. Okay, you made a mistake. All you need to do is clear your mind and focus on your original mission. There’s no more time allotted to play. You have to take them out before you destroy yourself.”

I laughed quietly. “You make it sound so damn easy.”

“I’m not making it sound like anything,” he smirked, earning a questioning look from me. “I know it will be easy because…because I’ve decided to help you.”

*Brian’s POV*

Matt and I decided that it was best to leave the scene of the crime before we were mistaken for the culprits. Something really strange was going on around here, and it would be very difficult to figure that out behind prison bars.

The sun was almost entirely raised, which meant that visiting hours would be starting soon at the hospital. I took off sprinting down the sidewalk.

“Dude, where the hell are you going?” Matt asked, managing to keep up a pretty good running pace with me.

“We need to go tell Jimmy about this. I have a bad feeling…”

Matt stopped running and leaned against the wall. I paused to turn around and face him. It looked like he was holding back laughter. “You have a ‘bad feeling’ because someone else besides us committed a murder in Los Angeles?”

I frowned at his careless tone. Clearly he wasn’t connecting the dots. “That wasn’t an ordinary murder,” I said quietly. “You saw that guy. He was fucking headless and his blood was everywhere. Most murderers just kill the guy and call it a day.”

Matt merely shrugged and resumed walking toward the hospital. We both knew that we had a good thing going. After ten long, bloody years, we finally became established filmmakers.

If someone was starting to perform flashy murders, that could be justified as competition, regardless of whether it was being sold on film or not. Once we fill Jimmy in on the situation and he’s able to leave that damn hospital, we can take action and regain our status.

Since it was only 8:45 AM by the time we reached the hospital, we decided to wait outside and take a smoke break to kill the next fifteen minutes. Matt didn’t have his lighter on him, so I tossed him mine.

He nodded his thanks then inhaled sharply before exhaling a puff of smoke. “When we get back…I think we have some serious changes to make,” he said.

“Such as?”

He turned to face me, squinting in the sunlight, though still looking gravely serious. “We need to get back into the scene. And, more importantly, we need to get the dirt on that Chelsey girl. Now that is what you should be having a bad feeling about.”

I nodded in agreement before tossing my cigarette down on the ground and stomping out the rest of the stub. I reached into my back pocket and pulled out another cancer stick noting that I still had time for one more. The smoke clouded around us momentarily before gently floating up into the sky, leaving us behind in a gloomy gray haze.

Visiting hours had only just begun, but already the hospital was abuzz with concerned relatives chasing down their loved ones who were being transported down the sterile halls on stretchers. Matt and I strolled casually down the hall, our black clothing and multitude of tattoos contrasting with the stark white walls.

The lights were off in Jimmy’s room, but we entered anyway. The moment after I flicked the light switch, Matt gasped. I spun around to look at Jimmy’s body, shocked to find him covered in more bandages than the day before. Also, there were swollen, colorful bruises around his neck and across his face. What the fuck? This is a hospital…shouldn’t that mean he’s automatically protected from being attacked?

“Holy shit, man, what if the crazy person who killed that guy we found last night also attacked Jimmy?”

A low groan emerged from beneath the stacked blankets on the bed. Jimmy struggled to prop himself up against the pillows behind him. “A-and just where the hell were you two last night?”

Mentally, I was a little stalled by his tone, but that wasn’t enough to stop me from blurting my thoughts. “We went out just a couple hours ago, for a quick kill, and ended up in this dead guy’s apartment. Whoever the hell killed him was insane, almost worse than what we’ve done!”

Matt nodded. “Dude, his head was completely sliced off and there was blood all over the bathroom. We think we might have some competition.”

Jimmy sat frozen in place with a fixed, angered expression. His fingers kept forming tight fists. “You fuckers went out killing without me?” he growled.

“We had an urge,” I shrugged. “Besides, you’re obviously in no condition to go out anywhere right now.”

“You morons left me here to be attacked again, by a girl no less.”

“Wait, did you say it was a girl?” Matt asked.

“You’ll never guess who it was. It’s someone we all know.”

A sudden knock at the door broke up the conversation and caused each of us to turn around and identify the source. A nurse was standing at the doorframe looking slightly nervous or something. “Um, excuse me, but I need to treat the patient. You can wait in the lobby until I’m finished.”

Jimmy and I shared an intense stare as I made my way toward the door. I can damn well guarantee that as soon as this bitch finishes up, we’ll be right back in here and able to hear the truth. This will define whether Matt and I have lost our minds or not.

And even still, a noticeable portion of me desperately hoped that he wouldn’t dare utter Courtney’s name. It just can’t be.

*James’s POV*

The ride in the surveillance van was fairly silent, not much to my surprise. Out of the corner of my eye I could tell that Courtney was shaking. I don’t know exactly what went wrong on her last kill, but from what the agency told me, it was brutal, almost as if she lost all control.

This whole ordeal was really starting to take its toll on her, which is exactly why it all needed to end.

Despite the past couple of years that I’ve trained her and everything, I can still feel my guilt dissolving my insides. Maybe she was right. Maybe if I just told her and Julianne what I did for a living, then we could’ve avoided this.

But regardless of that answer, I could still make up for my past deeds by working in the present. Typically, it’s unusual for two or more assassins to share a mission, but in this case I believe an exception should be made. It had to be made.

Courtney will fall apart if she continues to fight them on her own.

“So, where exactly are we going?” she asked, maintaining her stare out the passenger seat window.

“I had some friends from work track your targets. They’ve returned to the hospital, so I figured we could give them a visit.”

“Fuck,” she muttered. “If they get to Jimmy before we do, then he’ll tell them who attacked him!”

With a satisfied smirk, I jerked the steering wheel to the right and headed down an alleyway, taking a short cut. “I have just the solution. How well have you mastered disguises?”

She sighed heavily and leaned back in the seat. “Well, I’ve supposedly fooled them into believing that I’m anyone but the girl they thought they killed. How does that sound?”

“Perfect. This time though, you’ll be playing the role of a nurse.”

***

I remained in the shadows until I saw for certain that the boys took the elevator down to the first floor. Locking the door behind me, I spun around and savored the confused expression on Jimmy Sullivan’s face.

Courtney discarded her wig and uniform in the corner and lunged forward to grab a scalpel off the metallic table near his bed. He leaped back against the headboard and glared at her.

“How dare you come back here again, Courtney,” he seethed. “What ever you and that creepy old guy in the corner are planning won’t work. As soon as they get back, I’ll tell them the truth! Then you’ll get to die all over again.”

Courtney smirked and raised the scalpel back, ready to plunge it into his throat, no doubt. Unfortunately, that would have to wait. “That’s enough, Courtney. We can’t kill him here; it’s far too public. Plus it would probably be best to kill all of them at once.”

“And who are you supposed to be?”

“Not like you really must know, but I’m James Turner, Courtney’s father.”

Jimmy snickered. “Ah, so you’re the fuck up who sent Julianne running into my dad’s arms? I guess I should be thanking you. It’s all your doing that caused your lovely ex-wife and daughter to be the stars of my production. Both of them were such screamers.”

I maintained a chillingly calm composure as I stepped over to his bedside. I already knew that he was going to get what’s coming to him, and that would have to wait until a more appropriate time and location. It was crucial that Courtney and I do what needs to be done now before we get caught.

I pulled a small syringe out of my pocket and lined the tip up with a vein in his arm. Before he could protest, I jabbed it beyond his flesh and watched as the liquid took its toll.

“What did you give him?” Courtney asked.

“Nothing, really. It’s just a formula that causes its host to forget the most recent twenty-four hours, namely when he was attacked. So now, he’ll have no idea who did this to him.”

The answer must’ve been good enough for her because we both watched silently as Jimmy struggled against the effects of the serum and eventually passed out all together.

Knowing that his friends may become impatient, we sprinted down the halls and made it safely to the van, though slightly out of breath. “Ready to go back home, then?” I asked, revving the engine to life.

“Not exactly, Dad,” she said quietly. “For one, I need to go back to their place to get my things. And also…well, there’s another girl there who I think may in danger if I piss them off too much. So I feel responsible for her safety.”

I didn’t really like the idea of her returning to that house, but she did make a point. As long as she was still able to watch her back, then she should be able to survive living there. Plus, this may also allow us to sneak security cameras into the establishment.

Reluctantly then, I agreed. “Alright, I’ll drive you back, but if I don’t hear from you at some point tomorrow, expect me to take action.”

*Jimmy’s POV*

My eyes blinked several times before I was finally able to see place the blurriness. I groaned as a hand flew up to my skull, clutching it in throbbing pain. What happened to me?

Everything seems so fuzzy.

A few minutes later, a door that was different than my own opened, and Matt and Brian walked in. With a quick scan of the room, I realized that I was somehow in a hospital.

Brian approached me with an eager look on his face. “So, who is this chick who attacked you?”

I frowned in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

“Remember…Matt and I came here earlier to tell you about our killing and discovery from last night? Then some nurse came in right before you were going to tell us who the culprit was.”

I leaned forward and gave them a stern expression, since they clearly didn’t take me seriously. “I’ve got a better question for you two. What the hell landed me in a hospital? And how dare you go killing without me!”

“Wait, are you telling us that you don’t recall being attacked almost to the point of death? You seemed so sure of everything an hour ago. Did that nurse slip something into your IV?” he wondered, stepping forward to observe the clear tube attached to me.

I was nearly killed? By a chick? Suddenly I felt like a speeding semi truck had floored me.

“Well isn’t that just fan fucking tastic. Look, I don’t know why my memory had a spasm today, but one thing’s for sure. I am beyond pissed off. Want to know what I think we should do next? I say we kill those two whores we’ve let live with us and move on to a new project.”

Of course Matt spat out a hundred and one reasons why we shouldn’t kill Sarah. Brian, however, couldn’t quite seem to compare in his defense for Chelsey. As a matter of fact both of them seemed to subtly cringe when he spoke of her.

Hmm… I think she should be the first to go, then.

*Normal POV*

Nearly all of the lights were off at their place. I stumbled around a little before actually locating a light switch. I tried searching for Sarah, but it seemed as if she was nowhere to be found. Granted, it was the middle of the day, so she probably had somewhere to be, but now really wasn’t a great time for her to be out and about.

As it turned out, my search led me back down into the basement. The TV screen was blue, suggesting it was left on standby. I grabbed the remote off the couch and pressed play upon noticing that the VCR was on.

One of the final scenes from my snuff video played on the screen before credits started rolling. I know that I put that video back after I finished watching it yesterday. That must mean that one of them has watched it since then.

But why? Were they suddenly feeling reminiscent? Or were they…

A scattered group of papers resting on the floor below the couch suddenly caught my attention. I made my way around the couch and crouched down to view the papers. At first glance it just looked like random set of articles printed off the internet, but there were also handwritten notes and arrows drawn on.

These were…articles about my death. Someone had circled certain passages that defined my cause of death. The notes in the column read something along the lines of ‘possible ways she could’ve actually survived.’

Could it be?

Have they known all along?