CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
He sat and looked at the mannequin, admiring it as he put the rag to the side. He’d done everything he could to make it as clean and shiny as possible, going over every single millimeter of it until he was absolutely sure he had erased every trace of whatever life it might have had before.
It was clean, but he did not take off his gloves. No, there was no point in risking getting it dirty and having to start all over again. And like this, he could be free to run his finger along the curves and smoothness of it, admiring what he had done. Knowing that everything was ready.
Tonight, he would be able to put his final mannequin in place, and everything would be complete.
Ah, everything had gone so well. Better than he ever could have hoped. No one had even been by to ask about the missing mannequins yet – because no one had noticed they were gone. He had calculated everything well. It was true that no one would notice what he was doing. It was true that no one would notice the missing bodies. And now here he was, standing on the precipice of completing his work.
To think, that all this would soon be done. That he would have finished. And, being uncaught so far, he had to assume that he would remain uncaught. That had been one of his worries, that someone would misinterpret what he was doing and try to get him into trouble. If they didn’t see the beauty in it, the magic, they might think that he needed to go away somewhere – and then he wouldn’t be able to finish. But he no longer had that worry.
No, now he was just quietly happy, ready for the final stage. Tonight he would be going to see his cousin! Wasn’t it incredible? To have spent so long without any family at all, and then to find out that you had a cousin all along!
It had been an incredible discovery. He’d thought that he had no family left at all. He only dimly remembered the concept, now – a home full of smiles and laughter when he was very young, so long ago that it felt almost like someone else’s memory. Something he had seen in a film, maybe.
He’d given up hope.
But then he’d found out about the fact he still had a relative left – and better than that, they even worked in the same place! What an incredible coincidence that was, so amazing he could barely believe it. To go your whole life looking for something, and then to find out it was right on your doorstep all along!
Well, tonight was going to be something special, and make no mistake. Tonight, he was going to have such a good time. He and his cousin were going to spend the evening together, just hanging out and getting to know one another. What a happy day it was going to be!
He was so blessed lately. Finding a cousin, such close friends, and even a lover all at once. What a lucky life. Maybe things had been hard before, but he’d really stumbled upon some luck in recent times.
He turned, catching sight of his own reflection in the windowpane, and stopped.
He looked tired. Worn down. And behind him was a mannequin – faceless, expressionless. Just a mannequin.
He was alone with a mannequin, because no one else would be around him.
He stared at his own reflection for a while, unmoving. It all flooded in on him then. It wasn’t true – none of it was. And he knew it. He was all alone here, was always all alone. He had been alone for such a long time, and no one was going to start noticing him now. Not in the way he wanted, and not before it was far too late.
He had no family. He had no friends. That was the truth of it. He was all alone.
It struck him dumb and froze him to the spot, the crushing weight of it all. Alone for his whole life with no possible end in sight. No hope of finding a special person to spend his life with – not even a friend. Because no one ever noticed him, and when they did, they turned away.
He was never going to find a person who wanted to be around him as much as he wanted to be around them. Not even one-half or one-fifth. That was what hurt the most, more than anything else he had been through. Being alone.
He looked away from his own eyes and stared at the floor, ashamed to even meet his own gaze anymore. What did he deserve to be looked at for?
Without the image to hold him in place, his hands relaxed, fists unfurling, and his shoulders slowly dropped. He turned and looked at the mannequin, still pristine and waiting. Yes. Waiting for him. That was right. He had an important thing to do tonight.
Everything was going to be amazing.
All he had to do was put the finishing touches into place now. Yes, that was right. He was going to make sure that everything was set up just perfectly for his cousin, because that was what you did for the people who were important to you in your life. He was sure his cousin would do the same for him!
He touched the mannequin one last time and then turned, avoiding his reflection this time, to start gathering his things for the truck.