Friends List Read online

  ***

  Lexa squirmed upon the table and violently shook her head while screaming, “I hate you! I hate you!”

  ***

  CK wiped the tears from his eyes when Bastian lifted up his head and begged, “Please. Please…”

  CK moved closer to his friend.

  “Ki…kill me, CK. Please…”

  CK wept through Bastian’s desperate plea. After a few agonizing moments, he made up his mind to show his friend mercy. He saw a large stone beside one of the trees, retrieved it, and lugged it over to the pit. He took a last look into his friend’s eyes.

  “Goodbye, Bastian.”

  CK hefted the stone up and slammed it against Bastian’s head. He kept slamming until blood and chunks of brain oozed from his friend’s shattered skull.

  After the last bit of life left Bastian’s body, CK dropped the stone and staggered toward the fork in the road.

  ***

  Lexa lay semi-conscious upon the table while Dr. Cross hovered over her. She locked eyes with Alex and pleaded, “Alex…Alex, help me.”

  Dr. Cross glanced over to where Lexa was staring and laughed. “Alex cannot help you my dear. He’s dead.”

  “No, he’s right there.”

  “No, my dear, Alex exists only in your mind.”

  Lexa felt something physically snap in her mind.

  He’s right there…

  ***

  Eight-year-old Lexa sits alone and weeping when several rescue vehicles arrive at the burning cabin.

  Tear down the wall, Lexa. Remember.

  Sometime afterward, the paramedics carry three covered bodies from the burnt cabin.

  Three bodies…

  ***

  Lexa stared achingly at Alex.

  Alex took his sister by the hand and smiled.

  Lexa’s mind felt like it was about to rip in half.

  No, it can’t be true. It’s some kind of hypnotic trick or something. It has to be.

  “No, you’re lying. Tell him, Alex. Tell him he’s lying.”

  Alex gazed down at Lexa and said, “No, he’s not.”

  “I wanted you for myself,” Dr. Cross said. “And I had you, to study and enjoy, so long as the pills kept your childhood memories dormant, and so long as Alex, how shall I say, stayed willing to compromise.”

  Lexa glared up at Cross through the blinding pain behind her eyes. “You fucking bastard.”

  “Yes, I’ll give you that, but now to business. Apparently, the stress of the Thanksgiving trip was too much for the both of you.” Cross sighed. “It’s a pity. I’m really going to miss our special sessions. Oh, but you don’t remember those, do you?”

  A burst of anger sparked life back into Alex when Dr. Cross slid his hand up Lexa’s inner thigh.

  “You only have Alex to blame,” Cross said. “He refused to listen to me anymore. He wanted to take over and run this show, and he almost did.” He rubbed his crotch with his free hand and started to breathe heavily. “I had to put a stop to that. His agenda might have eventually led the authorities to me.” Cross unbuttoned his shirt, unzipped his pants, and dropped them down around his ankles.

  Alex’s increasing rage approached critical mass, like a ripe volcano mere moments away from eruption.

  “When the police find you with your wrists slashed and a scalpel in your hand, they’ll simply put two and two together,” explained Cross. He took a folded piece of paper out of his pocket and set it down between Lexa’s legs. “If not, they’ll have your typewritten confession…” He held up the scalpel and gripped Lexa’s right arm at the wrist, “…and I’ll be in the clear.” The expression of remorse tinged Cross’s face for a fleeting moment. “It is a pity about your friends, and Claude and Amanda. But, and forgive the crude analogy, a dog can’t serve two masters.”

  When Lexa looked at Alex, he slowly dissolved before her eyes.

  Cross cast his lecherous gaze upon Lexa, licked his lips, and placed the scalpel against her wrist. “And obsession is a jealous master.”

  Lexa’s eyes shot wide open as she shouted with Alex’s voice, “Leave her alone!” She reached up and grabbed Dr. Cross’s forearms. “I said leave her alone!”

  ***

  CK ran out from the woods into the clearing, where the Rhodes’ derelict cabin sat like some obscure carcass laying on an ocean of green. Panting and soaked with sweat, he hurried over to one of the cabin’s broken windows, peeked inside, and saw Dr. Cross struggling with Lexa. He swiped an old plank leaning against the side of the cabin and charged through the front door.

  Like a man possessed, CK rushed through the cabin and swung the plank, hitting Cross square in the face.

  Cross staggered backward and fell to the floor.

  CK ran over to Lexa. His eyes bursting with love, he asked, “Are you all right?”

  “Don’t waste time with her!” Lexa shouted with Alex’s voice. “Go ahead and finish the fucker!”

  A bewildered CK took a couple of steps backward. What the fuck was wrong with her voice?

  Lexa pointed to the jagged edge of the broken plank, and then pointed at Dr. Cross lying on the floor with blood spurting from his mouth and nose. Again with Alex’s voice, she shouted, “Finish the fucker!”

  CK picked up the plank and raised it over his head, standing over Dr. Cross.

  Without the slightest bit of warning, Dr. Cross suddenly sat up and plunged the scalpel into CK’s upper thigh, dragging the scalpel down the length of his leg until he reached the knee.

  CK screamed in agony and fell to the floor.

  Using pure adrenaline to counteract Cross’s injections, Lexa hopped off the table and staggered toward the door. She threw it open and fled the cabin, with Dr. Cross closely giving chase.

  She ran blindly through the brush. After several minutes of directionless flight, she stumbled across the parking area, ran up to Dr. Cross’s car, and peered through the window at an empty ignition switch.

  “Fuck!”

  She spun around toward her uncle’s car parked behind Cross’s, but before she could check inside, she heard someone moving noisily through the brush. She crouched down next to the car and hid.

  Dr. Cross ran out of the brush. After meticulously probing the surrounding area, he called out, “There’s nowhere to run, Miss Rhodes.” He carefully listened for any sound that might give away the whereabouts of his prey. “We can’t run away from ourselves—our true selves. Good or evil, right or wrong, sane or insane, we are what we are.”

  While crouched and hidden from sight, Lexa started drawing upon every newly awakened memory of her years of rape and molestation from Cross. The rage in her head all at once spewed forth like boiling water from a covered pot.

  Lexa stood straight up and shouted, “Yes, doctor, we are!” With madness in her eyes, she rushed full speed toward Dr. Cross. When she neared him, he stood his ground and struck out at her with his scalpel. To the doctor’s surprise, Lexa slid down between Cross’s legs and swept him off his feet with her arms. He fell face first on the ground and released the scalpel.

  Lexa sneered.

  You’re dead, Dr. Cross.

  She grabbed the scalpel, rolling Cross onto his back and straddling him. “It’s like Alex always says…” She held the scalpel to his neck and grinned. “Never start what you can’t finish.” Without a second thought, Lexa sliced Dr. Cross’s throat. Arterial spray covered her as she cut deeper and deeper. Cross gurgled blood and viscera, reached toward Lexa, and breathed his last breath.

  ***

  Captain Styles sped into the parking area, slammed on the brakes, and jumped out with her gun drawn. Lieutenant Sternn hopped out from the passenger’s side and followed his captain’s lead. After scanning the area, Styles ran over to Lexa. “Are you all right?”

  Lexa nodded.

  Styles glanced down at Dr. Cross’s dead body. “Where’s CK?”

  Lexa pointed toward the trail that led to the cabin. “He saved my life.”

  �
�CK saved your life?”

  “Yes,” Lexa said. “I’d be dead if it wasn’t for him.”

  “Stay here, I’ll be right back.” Weapon in hand, Captain Styles raced for the cabin with her lieutenant in tow.

  Moments after Styles and Sternn disappeared into the woods, Alex comes out of the woods and approaches his twin sister. He and Lexa lovingly embrace.

  Without breaking her hug, Lexa says, “You saved me.”

  “No, we saved us.”

  “I love you, Alex.”

  “I love you, Lexa. And I promise, we’ll be together forever.”

  “Forever isn’t long enough.” A veil of sadness covers Lexa’s face when she breaks their hug and faces Alex.

  “What’s the matter?”

  “You’re dead. How can we be together?”

  Alex whispers into Lexa’s ear. When he finishes, his sister smiles widely.

  “Always?” Lexa takes Alex’s right hand and places it over her heart.

  “Always…” Alex repeats. “Forever?” Alex brings up Lexa’s right hand and places it over his heart.

  “Forever.”

  The tears raining down Lexa’s face recede as she falls into her brother’s eyes…

  ***

  Captain Styles and Lieutenant Sternn helped CK limp out of the cabin. When they exited the woods, they saw Lexa wrap her arms around herself and wave goodbye.

  CHAPTER

  TWENTY-NINE

  CASE CLOSED

  Three Months Later

  Captain Styles carried a box full of files into the Long Beach Police Station’s evidence room. She placed it on a shelf filled with similar boxes and wrote “Case Closed” on the label. Lieutenant Sternn entered the room carrying a large, heavy footlocker.

  “New lunchbox, Sternn?” Styles joked.

  Sternn laughed. “Ever hear of workplace harassment, Captain?” He set the footlocker down with a huff at Captain Styles’s feet. “The impound guys were giving Cross’s boat a final inspection when they found this hidden below deck.” He wiped the sweat off his brow and plopped down on top of the footlocker. “Boy am I glad this case is over, Cap. I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night knowing that psychopath was still out there on the loose somewhere. That was one seriously sick fucking guy.”

  “Have you opened it yet?” Styles asked.

  “Opened what yet?”

  “The big thing under your big ass.”

  “Nope. I thought I’d save that pleasure for you, seeing as how involved you were with this case.” Sternn took a large screwdriver out of his pocket and broke the padlock on the locker. “Bon appétit, Mon Capitan.” The lieutenant left the room.

  Captain Styles opened the footlocker. She flipped through various pediatric medical records, psychological evalutions, and explicit photographs of Lexa as a child. Her expression changed from one of curiosity to that of dread. Styles became faint and plopped down to the floor. “Oh my God…”

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  TILL DEATH DO US PART

  CK carried his blushing bride, Lexa Kane, over the threshold of the Hotel Maya’s honeymoon suite. He kicked the door closed, set her down, and adjusted the brace on his right leg.

  “Check it out,” he said, pointing up to the mirrored ceiling above the bed.

  Lexa giggled and kissed CK, long and passionately. “Now aren’t you glad we waited? Well, you’re about to be well rewarded for your patience, sir.”

  Lexa took CK’s hand and led him to the bedroom where she threw her purse on the bed next to the pillows. She embraced CK, and kissed him wantonly.

  She pushed him away, undressed down to her bridal lingerie and laid back on the bed. She moved her purse toward the headboard whilst stretching seductively across the mattress.

  After feasting his eyes on the irresistible sight posed in front of him, CK stripped off his clothes and climbed on the bed next to his new wife. Lexa giggled, pulled CK toward her, and kissed him. As their passion intensified, CK moved his hand down and caressed Lexa’s inner thigh. She responded with hushed sounds of pleasure.

  When he moved his hand up her thigh, Lexa stopped him, “Oh God. I’m sorry, I just…”

  CK shushed Lexa. “Don’t be afraid. You can trust me.”

  “Okay.” Lexa let go and resumed kissing her new husband. As their passion mounted, CK’s hand moved upward toward his wife’s genitals. Lexa moaned softly, moving her hands toward the headboard.

  CK’s hand stopped and he yanked it away from Lexa with the visage of abject disgust. “What the fuck?”

  Struggling to wrap his mind around what was happening, he stared at his bride through eyes laden with bewildered disenchantment. “How could…how could you…”

  Tears rolling down Lexa’s cheeks, she pulls a large hunting knife from her purse and plunges it into her husband’s abdomen. CK cried out in agony and fell back onto the bed.

  Lexa jumps on top of him and stabs him wildly and repeatedly while desperately pleading, “Love me! Love me! Love me!”

  The mad carnage intensifies, and a warped conversation starts up inside Lexa’s irreparably damaged psyche, one which takes place inside the hooded figure’s filthy, dimly lit room which is slowly starting to engulf in flames–the room being the mental construct where Alex’s psyche resides...Alex’s hooded psyche.

  Alex: I told you he wasn’t the one.

  Lexa: I guess you were right.

  Alex: I’m always right when it comes to us.

  ***

  In the cabin’s master bedroom, Carl and Lisa Rhodes desperately cower from the flames.

  Alex: Mom and Dad made a terrible mistake. They shouldn’t have ever tried to divide us.

  Eight-year-old Lexa struggles with Alex as the cabin burns around them.

  Alex: They didn’t understand, we’re indivisible.

  Lexa runs out of the cabin as it starts to collapse.

  Alex: You didn’t understand back then either…

  Eight-year-old Alex snatches up his father’s hunting knife and chases after Lexa.

  Back in the present, Lexa is still viciously stabbing CK and shouting incoherently…

  Alex tackles Lexa, viciously stabbing her to death as light from the blazing fire merges their shadows on the clearing’s floor.

  Alex: So I had to send you away.

  Alex gazes into Lexa’s lifeless eyes. He let go of the knife and grieved his loss.

  Alex: And then bring you back.

  Alex took off his clothes, then undressed Lexa and put on her clothes. He wrapped his hair into a ponytail and tied it with his sister’s ribbon.

  Alex: My love for you brought you back.

  Alex picked up Lexa’s body and threw it into the burning cabin.

  Alex: You were reborn and we were together again.

  Alex wept as several rescue vehicles arrived at the burning cabin.

  Moaning, Lexa continues plunging the knife into CK…

  ***

  Behind the closed doors of his home office, Dr. Cross talked with eight-year-old Alex/Lexa.

  Alex: But Cross, that fuck. When he found out the truth about us, he said he’d tell the police unless I let him…have his way.

  Dr. Cross prepared photographic equipment during one of Alex/Lexa’s sessions.

  Alex: So I had to protect you. I couldn’t let you know about the special sessions.

  Dr. Cross undressed young Alex/Lexa and then undressed himself.

  Alex: I’d put you to sleep and let the perverted fuck have his way with me.

  Dr. Cross moved toward Alex/Lexa.

  Lexa: I’m so sorry you had to go through all of that for me.

  Alex: I’d gladly burn in Hell for you.

  Unhinged and drenched in blood, Lexa slices and carves into her lifeless husband’s neck.

  Inside the darkened student apartment, hooded Alex/Lexa cut into Kimber’s neck.

  Lexa: I’m still sad for Kimber and the others.

  At the Thanksgiving feast, hooded Alex/Lexa pu
t Kimber’s head in a boiling stock pot.

  Alex: You were letting them come between us, so I had to get rid of them.

  ***

  On the Queensbay Bridge, hooded Alex/Lexa place a noose around Paige’s neck.

  Lexa: I’m sorry I allowed that. It’ll never happen again.

  Hooded Alex/Lexa take pictures while watching Palmer burn to death in the Jacuzzi.

  Alex: I know it won’t.

  Hooded Alex/Lexa carve on Cassie as she lay screaming against her apartment’s door.

  Alex: And with Claude and Amanda out of the picture, there’s no one left to keep us apart.

  Hooded Alex/Lexa enter CK’s bedroom, plug an SD card into CK’s desktop, and upload pictures of the murders.

  Alex: Now we are one.

  While sitting under the St. Vincent Thomas Bridge, hooded Alex/Lexa render Bastian unconscious with a stun gun.

  Lexa: Now we are one.

  Hooded Alex/Lexa attack Amanda and Claude in the living room.

  Alex/Lexa: Now we are one.

  Soaked in blood, Lexa stares up at the mirrored ceiling and smiles. Her cleaved reflection, one half Lexa’s face and the other half Alex’s face, smiles back down at her.

  ***

  The honeymoon suite doorbell rings. Lexa, now cleaned up and dressed in fresh white sexy bridal lingerie, approaches the door. She opens it to find Senator Storm standing in the hallway holding several wrapped gifts.

  “Senator Storm! What a nice, unexpected surprise.”

  Storm tried, but failed, to keep his eyes and other parts from bulging as he gave Lexa a quick onceover. After a few moments of wanton lust, he regained his power of speech.