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Blood splatter stained the wood in their workshop. David preferred to have a clean area when he worked. "We need to get some bleach the next time we go into town. Let's clean this place up a little bit. I'm not too keen on all the blood splatter; it's starting to draw flies."
"Maybe our next victim will have a pressure washer in their shed."
"Good thinking."
Moonlight streamed in from the open windows and doors of the workshop. Her skin was already slick from sweat mixed with blood, causing it to gleam in the moonlight's glow. David took a deep breath, forcing his body to relax. Their next victim reminded him of his sweet sheriff back in Hope, Louisiana. He was trying to keep his self-control in check. He didn’t want to rush things; slow and steady.
He could see their newest victim trembling. Good, she is already scared.
The victim's blood slowed to a drip, rather than a steady flow. The Traveler and David had installed the shackles to the rafters earlier in the day. They even located some bamboo to plant underneath her. David didn’t want it growing too fast. When he read about this ancient torture technique on the internet, it enthralled him.
They had also installed meat hooks into the rafters. The meat hooks would allow them to contort the body in different positions. The workshop was now transformed into something they could be proud of.
Outside, the pigs smelled the blood in the air and began to cause a ruckus. Over the last few days, David and he had managed to trap five more, giving them a total of seven. The pigs were getting nice and hungry; the bodies should be devoured in record time, if one did finally pass away. Currently, they were all still being tortured.
The body hanging from their latest contraption was Maria Henderson, a forty year old real estate agent. One day, during their sophomore year, he had asked Maria out on a date. She had the audacity to spit in his face and laugh at him. She informed him that there was no way she would be caught dead with a country hick like him. Well, he would get the last laugh on this one. Of course, it would be fun torturing her for a while before killing her. David seemed to like her too, and The Traveler was sure he would have a lot of degrading sex acts to perform on her.
Life was looking up for The Traveler. People were slowly disappearing around town and no one had a clue as to their whereabouts.
For a single lady, Maria Henderson had a variety of useful tools and gadgets in her garage. They hit the jackpot there. She did indeed have a pressure washer, plus another generator and two freezers stocked full of food. Inside the house, they found more food, bleach, and other cleaning products. By the time they finished loading the truck and Maria’s car, there was barely any room left for her.
The truck had been a lucky find. An elderly lady had wanted to get rid of her late husband’s truck for next to nothing. With all the cash they had managed to steal from the latest victims, purchasing the truck wasn’t a problem. It also helped them stay inconspicuous around town. Eventually, someone would have recognized the motor home coming into town at least once a month.
David pulled out his journal to update today’s entries.
Macabre Torture Journal
Length of time it takes for antifreeze to kill subject – Test subject Michael has had small amounts of antifreeze added to his water. Forced him to watch, as wife was raped and sodomized.
Is it possible to stretch a subject to death? Test subject Heather has been stretched more. Several joints appear to be dislocated.
Acupuncture using long hot needles – slowly add burning candles to needles. Test subject Jill now has three needles inserted and rotating the sites of burning candles.
Bury subject where only head was exposed and remove eyelids – let ants and bugs finish off. The test subject did not respond to continued torture.
Suspend subject above bamboo shoots and wait for them to grow into test subject. Test subject Maria has been chosen for this torture. Currently waiting for bamboo to grow. As a bonus, test subject did not like being raped and cried during the process.
***
CAYLEE HABERSHAM HAD worked as the receptionist for Maria Henderson for five years now. Maria had never missed a day of work and now it had been two days since Caylee heard from her. Caylee knew Maria had been worried about several of her friends going missing, and now Caylee was worried about Maria. She walked over to the Sheriff’s Office to see if he was in.
“Is Sheriff Ourso in today?”
“He is in his office. Let me get him for you.”
It didn’t take long for Sheriff Ourso to come up front. “What seems to be the problem, Caylee?”
“Sheriff, Maria Henderson hasn’t shown up for work for two days now. I wasn’t worried when she didn’t show up yesterday, but she missed a house showing this morning and that’s not like her. If she doesn’t sell a house, we don’t get paid.”
“Do you have the address of the house she was supposed to show?”
“Yes, sir, I made you a list of where all she had talked about going yesterday and today. Yesterday, she had planned to check on some investment properties for a few clients and today she had showings.”
“Thanks, I’ll get right on this.”
After checking her house, Sheriff Ourso had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. Just like at the Redmonds’ house, Maria’s house had been wiped clean of all food. It also appeared that someone went through her shed and garage, but he wasn’t sure if anything was missing.
As of yet, no one had heard from Heather Vaughn either. He needed to obtain a search warrant and check out the interior of Heather’s house.
After opening the front door, the mustiness from the house being closed up hit Sheriff Ourso. There was a lamp on in the living room and the house wasn’t immaculate, but clean. It had a lived in look. The living room was quite large for the size of the house and filled with expensive furniture. There wasn’t an empty space left in the room.
Sheriff Ourso moved on to the kitchen. There were dishes in the kitchen sink, and from the look of it, they had been there a while, since mold was starting to grow on them. He could add Heather’s name to the growing list of missing.