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The eagerness had reached a feverish peak. The Hunter had talked nonstop about it the past two days. Since he freed The Hunter, the need had been voracious. Killing too often would eventually make the FBI aware of his activities and he didn’t want that. He had been so careful over the years to keep his existence from surfacing, but his appetite had become never ending. He could no longer fight the urge to kill.
“It is time to hunt. Nightfall is fast approaching.”
“Let’s go hunting, my friend.”
The Traveler let the cigarette smoke slowly leave his mouth and nose, while he waited and watched for his next victim. He was propped up against a tree near the women's restrooms at the rest stop. The Hunter had requested a woman this time.
The night sky was a shimmering mass of twinkling stars. The full moon cast a soft glow across the picturesque grounds of the rest stop. The Traveler took another thorough look to confirm that he hadn’t missed a security camera. He didn’t want his face caught on camera.
The Traveler spotted the Camaro pulling in and perked up. He took another long, hard drag of his cigarette and waited.
He saw the girl as soon as she exited the vehicle. She wore a tight pair of blue jeans and black turtleneck. The Traveler watched in awe as she walked in the high heel boots with ease. Her dark hair flowed behind her as she strode to the restroom in a hurry. She had a perky little bounce to her walk. She moved with a confidence that he couldn’t wait to break.
***
HARLEY ALLEN EXITED her Camaro and took a deep breath. Freedom, that’s what she smelled in the air, glorious freedom. She finally did it. She left that hell hole she had called home for eighteen years. When she opened her mail this morning and saw the acceptance letter to Virginia State, she couldn’t believe it, a full scholarship, including dorm. She grabbed what meager belongings she had and took off, never looking back. She didn’t even bother to inform her parents, they wouldn’t miss her anyhow.
This was the beginning of her new life. She no longer feared being stuck in that small town, living under her parents’ roof. She had been given the chance to improve herself, make something of her life. Best of all, she was embarking on this journey where no one knew her past, where she came from or anything else about her.
Good times in Harley's childhood had been few and far between. Early on she had learned to savor the fleeting and rare special moments, knowing it would be quite some time before something good may happen again. By the time Harley entered high school, she had learned that dreams and wishes were for fools. If you wanted something in this world, you had to make it happen. She had always been a guarded person. Trust didn’t come easy to her, she let few people inside her circle. If you ever betrayed that trust, she would write you out of her life. She saw everything in black and white, there was no gray.
Maybe her luck was about to change, though. Her dad was still passed out drunk on his recliner when she left. She doubted her mom would even know she was gone. She didn’t care if she had to live in her car until school started in the fall; she was out of that miserable place.
Harley never saw the man emerging from the shadows. He yanked her head back as he placed his arm around her neck. She felt his hand cover her mouth and nose. Something in his hand smelled cloyingly sweet.
Her heart hammered in fear. Her mind was reeling; what was happening? This couldn’t possibly be happening to her. She struggled to free herself.
Tears burned her eyes, but she refused to let them flow. She tried not to breath in whatever drug he had doused on the rag. Trepidation started to take over, replacing every sensation in her body. She kicked and twisted as she tried frantically to free herself from this maniac’s grip. However, the drug made her dazed. As the drug took over, she lost her battle to stay conscious. Soon, oblivion wrapped her in its cold embrace.
***
HARLEY AWAKENED SLOWLY, as the fog cleared from her brain. Her eyelids felt as if weights were attached to them and her mouth felt as if someone had stuffed it full of cotton. Her arms and feet were secured to a bed. She was lying spread eagle and naked. She tried to pull on the restraints, but they were too tight.
Now that her vision had cleared, she found herself in a small, stark room. All around her was nothing but a deafening, eerie silence. She yanked on the restraints one more time, but they refused to budge. All she managed to accomplish was to cut into her wrists and ankles.
Harley was confused. Where was she? With every little movement, pain zipped right through her. It cut her right to the bone. Through the darkness and the fog of her memory she struggled to remember what happened to her. Her insides were on fire, it hurt to breath. The last thing she remembered was pulling into a rest stop.
A door opened and sunlight came streaming in, blinding her momentarily. Crap, how long had she been out? It was nighttime when she pulled into a rest stop.
When the man entered the room, she would never have speculated that evil could be so handsome. Evil should be menacing, a repugnant monster. She now knew that evil could take on the look of many, many faces. It wasn’t always apparent when looking at someone, to know what lived inside their soul.
"Please, don’t hurt me." Harley saw the knife in his hand and panicked. "What are you going to do to me?"
The Traveler let out an ominous chuckle. "Me? Don’t you mean us? I have a comrade here to help me. He became quite enraptured with your beauty while you were unconscious. He couldn't wait for you to wake up and had some fun already.”
Harley had had some appalling things happen to her in the past, but nothing like this. This made being beat by her drunken dad seem like child's play. Nausea washed over her as she tried to move. Her limbs quivered from being in their position for so long.
Maybe Harley's dad had been right and she was a bad girl. After all, killers flocked to the bad girls in the movies. Every time her dad beat her he told her she brought it upon herself, that it was her fault and she had to be punished. What did she do to deserve to be punished like this?
She felt hopelessness rising up, threatening to overtake her. Something snapped inside of Harley, she refused to show her captors fear. She did not bring this upon herself. It was not her fault that someone abducted her. If she had any hopes of survival, she must show some backbone.
She felt the man's hands wrapping around her neck, squeezing the life out of her. It would be so easy to close her eyes and let death take her away. Let the darkness wash over her, taking away all the years of pain. A primal instinct bubbled up inside of her, the fight to live conquers the desire to give up and die. She wanted to live. She was starting a new life. She’d finally moved out of her parents' house and was ready to find herself.
She opened her eyes and stared into the eyes of the man strangling her. If he did kill her, she wanted her image to be the last thing he saw when he closed his eyes. She looked up at her abductor and returned his icy, emotionless stare. Looking into his eyes, she saw something that sent a shiver down her spine. In that instant, she knew she was looking into the eyes of a maniacal killer. Pure evil stared back at her. She didn’t back down from his glare. If he wanted to kill her now and end this, he would have to do it with her looking back at him.
The pain became all consuming. She allowed the pain to help keep her focused. Somehow, she had to escape. She knew his kind. They got off on fear and control. He may have the upper hand right now, but she refused to show fear. It was time to show gumption and fight back.
"You don’t scare me. You think you can do worse than what others before you have done to me? As if.” She knew she was goading him on, but so be it. If he killed her, it wouldn't be because she was docile and gave in to fear.
Vehemence flowed through The Traveler as he raised his hand and slapped her hard across the face. Pain pulsed across her face. She saw stars when he connected with her face.
She just laughed at him. "Is that the best you got?" When she spoke, her voice never faltered, no hint of the terror she felt could be heard. Even when she caught a glimpse of the other man walking towards her. That one was truly diabolical. Even the devil himself was probably petrified of him.
The Hunter handed his friend a filet knife. “Have you ever fileted a fish? It’s quite effortless you know. I’ve always wondered what it would be like to slowly filet a living person. Would you like to help me?”
“I haven’t slaughtered anything in quite some time. This could get messy. We need to cover the room in sheets, just in case we have more than a little blood splatter.”
When the darkness came to take her away, she visualized her soul leaving her body and drifting away. Harley did not fear death any longer.
***
OFFICERS HARRY PERCLE and Jacob Elroy responded to the call from dispatch regarding an abandoned vehicle at a rest stop off of I-95. The concierge noticed it when she arrived at work that morning. She had been observing the comings and goings of visitors and no one had approached it. She sent a security guard to check the restrooms and they were empty.
Officer Percle turned to his partner, “What does your gut say? Registration is for an eighteen year old girl. The parents didn’t even know she was missing. The dispatcher said the father sounded drunk.”
“She is most probably a runaway.”
“Yeah, but where is she?”
“Maybe she met up with a boyfriend, who knows. There doesn’t seem to be any signs of foul play.’’
“Let’s call in for a tow truck and at least send out a BOLO for her. Other than that, there isn’t much we can do.”