Page 63 of Brian and Mina's Holiday Hits
I can still salvage part of the plan, it’ll just be used on a different person. I put my mask back on and go up to the second floor bathroom. I’d planned not to return here, and this feels far too dangerous. There’s a risk of being interrupted, and returning to the scene of a crime is never a good thing, but I have a new plan forming.
The bathroom door is still locked and undisturbed from the last time I was here. I take one more quick look before picking the lock.
Once safely inside, I secure the door again. The bleach smell is mostly gone. I studied the entire layout of this house for countless hours during early planning, and I’m ninety percent sure I know what’s outside under this window. I lean out into the crisp fall night air and am rewarded with the sight of giant hollybushes. Perfect. And it’s on the back side of the house which no one is watching at the moment. Why would they? All the real ways into the house are closer to the front, and the Windsor Estate’s entire security detail is focused on the logistics of the party as Windsor promised they would be.
I pull back the shower curtain and let out a relieved breath when I see the body still right where I left it. Did I expect it to get up and move? With the way this night is going? Nothing would surprise me.
I remove his glasses and put them in my pocket, then I drag Windsor out of the bathtub and push him out the window, watching to make sure the body is completely covered by the shrubbery and no stray pieces of his clothes or any limbs are hanging out.
I nod, satisfied that everything is well concealed. I get the bleach and clean out the tub where he finished bleeding out. I leave the window cracked to air out the room again. With any luck no one will even step inside this bathroom until tomorrow. I make sure there’s no remaining evidence in the bathroom, then I slip downstairs to a small room near the kitchen and pull mine and Mina’s change of clothes from their hiding spot. I change into the staff uniform and go to the kitchen to get the rolling cart.
When I return to Mina, I toss the other bag of clothes to her. “Change,” I say. My tone is abrupt, and I find I can’t look at her. Now that the immediate danger is gone, I just… can’t.
She hurriedly changes out of the formal evening gown and into the clothes she normally wears when we go on these jobs together. The dress is a slinky material and seems to convert to a liquid when she puts it in the bag.
My jaw clenches as I imagine Gregor peeling that dress off her and fucking her. Had that been his intention? To defile her in the barely-lit room before I discovered them? Hewaskissing her after all. And she was letting him do it. I take anothermeasured breath. She didn’t know it wasn’t me. But it doesn’t matter how much I repeat this truth to myself. Surely some part of her had to know. Some dark place within her that she can’t acknowledge.
Am I not monster enough for her now? Before the changes in her, I never would have thought that she needed a monster in her life. Unlike the pieces of shit who had her before me, I’ve never believed she somehow wants a man who hurts her. Out of all the men in the world I was the least likely to be safe for her. And yet… here we are. But am I still safe? Am I enough for her?
I don’t know if I need to be more man or more monster to keep her, and that thought enrages me. She cost me millions to possess, but what if at the end of it all, I can’t keep her heart? I hate that I’m thinking these things, feeling these things. What the fuck is wrong with me that I should care about any of this?
I want to punish her for kissing him. For making me feel all these things I can’t process. For making me doubt myself. For twisting me up into this sad hybrid creature… not quite a man, but not quite a monster—a least not with her anymore.
“Grab his feet,” I say when she’s fully changed. Mina grabs Gregor’s feet and I grip under his shoulders, then we neatly transport my new prey onto the bottom of the rolling cart. I cover it again with the long white tablecloth and roll him out to the location we set up for the original target.
An hour has passed when my captive starts to wake and slowly rise up out of his groggy haze. I’ve got him chained up in the conservatory, several acres away from the main property. With everyone at the party, and the dark blanket of night wrapping around the gardens, it’s unlikely anyone will be out here again until sunrise… unless...
Just outside the conservatory, the Windsor Estate has a large pumpkin patch. It’s just the kind of place a couple of lovers might slip off to in order to get away from the party. But atleast for now, it seems no one has been tempted by the call of a pumpkin patch on Halloween. I guess nobody believes in The Great Pumpkin anymore.
Windsor’s body is slumped in the corner of the conservatory. I went back for him once I got Gregor secured. I want all my bodies in one place for tonight.
Mina helped, but we still haven’t really spoken—not since my initial relief at her safety. I think she senses something is very off about me, and I pray silently to any dark god who might hear my prayers that what I’m about to do will sate the beast inside demanding she be punished—that I can get all my rage out on Gregor and spare Mina my simmering wrath.
I get tired of waiting for him to fully wake up and slap him across the face. After another few seconds, his vision finally clears and he stares at me, his eyes narrowing.
“I knew it! I fuckingknewyou were bluffing!”
“Yeah,” I agree. “It was Old Man Whittaker the whole time, Scooby. If youknew, you wouldn’t be in these chains right now.”
His gaze drops to a side table and his eyes widen when he notices the hockey mask and chainsaw. What? It’s Halloween. I’m going to paint the room with this piece of shit’s intestines, and I’m far enough away from the delicate ears of witnesses that I get to use a chainsaw to do it. I am giddy with delight.
“Brian…” he says, his tone warning. As though he’s in any position to warn me about anything.
“You shouldn’t have tried to steal my contract out from under me. And youreallyshouldn’t have touched what’s mine. The first thing I might have been able to let go but not the second. In deference to you being a work colleague, I’ll make it quick.”
I put on a pair of black gloves then pick up the hockey mask and secure it in place, a thrilling rush of adrenaline surging through me. Nothing else exists right now except for me… and my prey. The only thing that matters in this moment is the killand finding out just how much blood I can squeeze out of this motherfucker. It’s sort of a macabre version of: Guess how many jelly beans are in the jar.
“Brian! Wait! If you care about her so much, you must know why I did it. You killed Vanessa!”
“She was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“I loved her! You know how hard it is for men like you and I to feel anything at all. And you took her from me.”
“Awww, such a sad story. I don’t care,” I say flatly. And I don’t. If he’d loved her so much he never would have let her fall into my path. It was simple enough to keep his kitty indoors. I ignore the judge in my head that convicts me for this same crime. I could have left Mina at home, out of harms way, and we wouldn’t even be here right now.
I shake my head, clearing it of all these encroaching thoughts seeking to pull me from my moment of bliss, and start up the chainsaw. Gregor tries to say more. He tries to plead more for his life, to reason with me.
“What’s that?” I shout over the noise. “Can’t hear you.”
