CHAPTER FIVE
Adam waited without moving in the bushes outside of the small, suburban house he was watching until he was sure that the whole neighborhood was safely asleep. He wanted to make sure that nothing would disturb him while he worked. He wanted to be certain that he would have all the time in the world.
He took the time to look over the house, taking in the cameras that dotted the outside, and the telltale flickering light of an alarm system. They were impressive security precautions for a simple house, a serious attempt to keep him out, but he had dealt with that kind of thing in the past. They wouldn’t be enough to stop him.
He moved forward, hefting the bag he carried. He’d taken the time to change clothes and acquire supplies after breaking out, the means to do so already arranged as part of his plan. He had the resources he needed for this, and for everything else he needed to do. He was dressed in dark clothes, now, with black sneakers that would let him move silently, and a hooded sweater that hid his shape against the shadows of the neighborhood.
Adam crept close to the house, judging the line of his approach so that he was able to slide through the blind spots of the cameras as they swung back and forth to scan the perimeter. Would they be monitored at this time? He guessed that it was possible, but it didn’t seem likely.
In any case, once he got to the power junction for the house, it ceased to be entirely relevant. Taking insulated pliers, he cut through the main cables, and saw the alarm system go dark. It wasn’t the subtlest way to deal with things, but sometimes, the direct approach was the most effective.
That bought him a few seconds before the backups came on, and Adam was already running to the alarm box. He’d learned to disable alarms the same way that he’d learned other languages, or the best ways to render someone unconscious without killing them. He’d found it easy, when so many other people seemed to insist on how hard it was. They were all tools to let him do what he needed to without anyone trying to stop him.
The alarm’s light flickered off, the system disabled for now. The locks were next on Adam’s itinerary, and here was one part that the house’s owner hadn’t thought to upgrade. When Adam set to work with a couple of slender picks, the lock lasted barely a minute before it gave way to him, clicking open as easily as he might have forced open a padlock.
That was almost insulting. Just another reminder of how inferior the woman within was to him. How weak she was, compared to him.
He slipped inside, into a dark hallway with pictures set around it. Adam took a moment or two to look at those pictures by the light of a small flashlight, finding the ones that were of family of friends and taking them. It was one more small piece of this, one more thing to use in the moments that were to come.
With that done, Adam took more time to check the ground floor of the house, making sure that there were no unexpected surprises, that there was nothing there that might interrupt what was to come. It was better to be careful. He didn’t want anything that might stop him. Not now.
He padded upstairs in near silence, every movement carefully judged, every step precise. He heard the creak of one of the stairs, and froze in place, listening for any reaction to the sound. Only when he was certain that there had been no response did he continue on upwards.
Adam didn’t hesitate when he reached the landing. He knew which door he needed, knew the interior plan of the house perfectly. He moved over to it quickly. He set down his bag, and the pictures that he had taken from below, taking out a small bottle and a cloth. He let a few drops of the sedative seep into it, and then crept into the room.
The woman he had come to kill lay asleep on her side, a halo of hair curling around her face, one arm tucked under her head as if it made a better pillow than the one that she rested on. Her sheets were tangled, as if she’d kicked them about in the middle of a nightmare.
But then, she had every reason to have nightmares.
Adam padded closer, leaning over her, looking down, drinking her features in with his eyes, savoring this moment before he struck. In that moment, almost as if sensing his presence, her eyes snapped open.
Adam acted instantly, pushing the cloth with the sedative down over her mouth and nose. She fought, of course, because that was the kind of woman she was. She kicked out at both him and the covers frantically. Her hand flailed out towards a small side table, presumably where she now kept some kind of weapon. It was close by, but in this moment, it was out of reach. It might as well have been a thousand miles away.
There was nothing she could do to stop him now. Adam had made sure of it. It meant that slowly, under the influence of the sedative, her body seemed to accept it. She went limp, and Adam held the cloth there for another few seconds just to be sure that she wasn’t feigning unconsciousness.
Then he went to his bag and got out his ropes.
He tilted the bed on its end to give him a frame to work with, and then started to lash his victim to it, arms up and wide, so that all her weight would hang from them. He gagged her with a bundle of cloth and some tape, then set about adding more layers of rope to contort her, turning her into exactly the kind of human puppet he wanted her to be. Once he was done with that, Adam started to set out the pictures he’d found downstairs around her. Just one more small torment, seeing all the people she would lose, all the fragments of her past that caused her pain.
Her eyes opened eventually, blinking awake slowly. She started to thrash in the bonds that held her, but Adam had tied them securely. He always did.
“Hello Eloise,” he said. “It’s good to see you again.”
She tried to scream through the gag, but that didn’t work. Adam was careful about these things. He wasn’t about to allow anything that might stop this.
“You thought that you escaped me, last time,” he said. “That you were so brave and determined that you managed to hold out until help came. Isn’t that right, Eloise?”
She didn’t give him a real answer, just kept straining at the ropes. Adam could see the stress already showing on her face as she struggled to pull herself upwards. He hoped that she wouldn’t wear herself out too quickly. That would spoil the moment.
“The truth is that it was luck that saved you. Just luck, nothing else. If your boyfriend hadn’t come around at just the wrong moment… well, you’re going to see what would have happened.”
Eloise’s boyfriend had been meant to be away at a conference. Adam had checked. He’d been careful. Yet the boyfriend had come back early. Such a small thing to lose one’s freedom over. Adam would make sure that things went differently tonight.
“I notice that you broke up with him,” Adam said. “What was it? Were the nightmares too much for him? Did you scream every time he got close to you, after I’d visited you?”
She wasn’t screaming now. Instead, she was quietly whimpering, fighting to raise herself up. She would be able to manage it for now. Not for long, though.
“I’m told that the position you’re in has a similar effect to being crucified,” Adam said. “Not that the religious symbolism matters to me, much. Other positions would work just as well. Have worked, just as well. But this… achieves a pleasing effect tonight. As you sink down, your shoulders will rise up, compressing your lungs. You will slowly suffocate.”
He liked his victims to know what was going on before the end. It added nicely to their helplessness. It made them fight back, and those struggles only burned energy that they did not have. It was another pleasing way of reinforcing their position in this.
Adam moved close to her, watching the fear in her eyes. She was trying to plead with him now, as if that would achieve anything. As if it ever had, with any of his victims. She would plead, and bargain, and perhaps rage. Then, towards the end, there would be a beautiful kind of… acceptance. There would be just her and Adam there, in those last moments before her death.
There was nothing quite as beautiful as that. That moment… no one but Adam knew that moment. It was his, and his alone.
For now, though, there was the work. Adam took out a knife. It was short, and wickedly sharp. More than enough to make her move and rob her of her strength. He was in a mood to be generous about that. He held it up where Eloise could see it, letting the little light that filtered in through her bedroom window glint from the blade.
“Shall we begin?”