His left hand was stretched out away from the rest of his body. It refused to budge when he tugged on it again. Semi-curiously he squiggled his body closer to get a better look at his hand.
In the thin light, there was a glint of metal.
Both fascinated and repulsed, he leaned his head in until it was a mere inch from his hand.
A nail.
Someone had driven a nail through the back of his hand and into the floor.
In a flash, memories came roaring back into his head.
He was changing out of his suit after work. Footsteps had sounded behind him. Before he could turn, a blow to his head had rendered him unconscious. He had woken as someone dragged him down the stairs. He had tried to fight back, but his limbs had been useless, like dead weights. He had been thrown in the trunk of a car. He must have passed out at some point because he had been ripped from unconsciousness when pain had shafted through his hand. He’d begged the man to stop, but had been ignored, and the man in black had hammered away until the nail firmly secured him to the ground. Then he must have passed out again.
Now he was awake. Awake, cold, hungry, needing to urinate, and unable to do anything about any of those things.
And most disturbing of all, he wasn't afraid for his safety.
There was only one reason for someone to abduct him and bring him here. They meant to kill him. But for him, death was merely the door through which he would enter to be reunited with his beloved wife.
* * * * *
12:22 P.M.
What was this man doing here? He had literally no recollection of abducting him and yet here he was.
The Nursery Rhyme Killer was perplexed. Well, more than perplexed actually. If he was completely honest with himself, he was a little afraid.
He was blacking out more and more.
His regular life and his hidden life were becoming more and more separated.
It was scary.
What was happening to him?
He was trying to fight it. Trying to squash his evil side. He knew it was going to bring him nothing but heartache. It was going to cost him everything that he loved. He had a real chance at happiness, a chance at a life, a chance at love, to be loved and to love another.
His inner demon was going to ruin everything.
No matter how hard he tried to fight it, it grew stronger with each passing day.
It fed on the dark sins he committed. Every murder, every time he inflicted pain on a victim, every time he fantasized about all the ways he could hurt someone.
One day soon it would consume him, and then what would happen?
Even though he tried, he didn’t think he could fight it. His bloodlust was growing. It was beginning to seep into his normal life. Whenever he was around people now all he could think about was making them scream. He could see it playing out in his head. Hitting them, stabbing them, strangling them, ripping out their eyes, peeling off their skin, chopping off their limbs, it all excited him. It made his heart race and his pulse quicken. It aroused him in a way he had never been aroused before. Some days it was all he could do not to act out those fantasies.
But he was weakening.
What if he hurther?
He didn’t want to. She was so beautiful. So sweet. So good. So perfect. She was perfection personified, and he didn’t want to lay a hand on her, but he was afraid that one day he would lose control and tear her to shreds.
He was already losing control.
He was abducting people without even being aware of what he was doing. For the life of him, he could not recall bringing this man here. When he had come up to the cabin to check on a few things he had gotten the shock of his life to open the door and find a man lying moaning on his floor.
The man was still moaning.