I started working at ‘Forever Beautiful’ because I needed a paycheque, not because I actually gave a shit about the product. They paid well enough and didn’t treat me too badly, so it worked out until I could find something better. But it was never more than just another job to me.
The owner, a lady named Claire Brooke, had started the company as a passion project in her basement and it had gotten big enough for her to graduate to a storefront.
Claire was alright, I guess. She wasn’t the best boss I’ve ever had but she wasn’t the worst either. She was somewhere between 25 and 60 (it was impossible to tell for sure). She had pale blue eyes, light blonde hair, and pale skin. That combined with her obvious botox and ever present far away smile that was just a little too toothy made her come off as incredibly fake. She could look you in the eye on a bright, sunny day and sincerely tell you: “The sky is blue.” and you probably still wouldn’t be entirely sure if she was telling the truth or not. Sometimes, she’d say the cattiest shit but in the exact same tone she always used when she was happy, angry, sad or tired, so it was impossible to know what exactly was going on in her head at any given moment.
I guess that never bothered her clients though… Most of them seemed to love her, judging by the way they spoke to her. I guess to her credit, she was very good at what she did and what she did was preservation.
She primarily advertised preserving wedding flowers. Her store was full of various samples of her work, pretty flowers frozen in blocks of resin. There were even more pictures on her website. Personally, I didn’t see the appeal of it all… It just struck me as tacky and a little bit creepy. But hey, even if I couldn’t get behind the product, I guess I could at least kinda understand why some people might be into it.
The preserved animals were where I drew the line though.
Claire didn’t advertise them as heavily, since they were a more niche interest… But she still had a few examples on display. As I said, she did what she did pretty well. The animals she’d preserved still almost looked alive. And maybe that was what made them so creepy. A bird, perched on a branch in an eerie tableau, a tarantula climbing a tree… She had bugs, turtles, and fish, all immaculately preserved lurking in the corners of her shop.
I made a point not to look at them too much when I was watching the store. I wasn’t the only one who avoided them either. Our customers reacted to them in just about one of two ways. Fascination or disgust. They’d either get in close to marvel at Claire’s work, or give them an uneasy look and a wide berth. The other guy working there didn’t really seem to like them either, Hayden would avoid them whenever he could and I really couldn’t blame him.
Hayden Braley was probably the best part of working at ‘Forever Beautiful.’ He was cute, about one year older than me, and as far as I could tell, newly single. I’d heard about his breakup a couple of weeks back and maybe it was wrong of me, but I was already thinking about how to ask him out.
So when I saw a chance about a week ago, I took it.
We usually worked alternating shifts, but Claire typically had us both in on Saturdays and Sundays, since that’s when we were busiest and she gave us both Monday off to compensate. We’d been finishing up sweeping the store and making small talk while we worked.
“So, got any fun plans for tomorrow?” I’d asked.
Hayden just shrugged.
“I dunno. Honestly, I’ll probably just sleep even though I should get up and do something. Maybe some errands? I dunno. You?”
“Eh… Help Mom around the house, maybe. But after that, I’ve got nothing…”
And that was when I realized how the stars had suddenly aligned in my favor.
“Hey, did you want to do something? Catch a movie, grab a coffee?”
You know, they say that guys don’t know when they’re being asked out but Hayden looked up at me like a deer in the headlights. I think he knew exactly where I was going with this. I could see the gears in his head turning for a few moments before a tiny little smile crossed his lips.
“That sounds nice, actually. Sure. If you want to. Yeah, I’m down.”
Mission accomplished! Houston… We have no problems.
We finished up the sweeping, and as we did, I noticed movement from the corner of my eye in the back room. Claire doing some of her work, I presumed. Hayden left me to do the mopping and headed out to catch the bus. He waved goodbye to me with a smile, telling me he’d see me tomorrow and I finished up my work with a smile on my face.
I’d just started the mopping when I heard Claire’s voice from behind the register.
“So, sounds like you’ve got a date?”
I looked over at her. She was wearing the same fake grin she always wore as she leaned on the counter. (Now that I think about it, Claire kinda looked like the kind of woman who would preserve things in resin.)
“Well, we’re just hanging out,” I said.
“Mmhm. That’s how it starts…” She tipped me a knowing wink, “Hey. I’m happy for you. Between you and me, he’s pretty cute.”
There was no possible way she could’ve said that and not sounded at least a little bit creepy… But I just kept up a smile and tried to think up an answer. I couldn’t and Claire thankfully didn’t give me much of a chance.
“Well, I’ve got to finish an order, but I wanted to say thanks for the help today! Hope you have a nice evening. Don’t have too much fun tomorrow…”
I genuinely wasn’t sure what the heck that was supposed to mean. So I just nodded. Nodding seemed like a good answer. As Claire disappeared into the back room, I finished with the mop and left.
So I’m not exactly an expert on dating, but I think that things with Hayden went pretty well for the most part.
There’s not that much to tell. It went just about exactly as planned. We met up, we saw a movie and then we got some coffee and… Well. It was nice… Mostly nice.
During coffee, we talked about our lives. He told me about how he was saving up to go back to university and finish his psychology degree. He wanted to be a doctor, he wanted to help people overcome their demons… I thought it was sweet and kinda noble. Although when he asked me about what my plans were, my answer wasn’t quite as well thought out…
“Well… I guess I’m just kinda winging it.” I said with a shrug, “Figuring it out as I go along, y’know?”
“Oh, well that’s alright too.” He said, “We all just sorta find our calling at our own pace.”
“I guess I was thinking about a couple of different things.” I said, trying a little vainly to make myself sound like I had more of a plan, “Maybe nursing. Or writing. Or maybe business.”
I didn’t expect him to laugh at that… But he did, and it was a little demoralizing. It wasn’t a malicious laugh or anything. It was more of an adorable good natured chuckle.
“That’s a pretty wide net.” He said, “You know, maybe you should just scale back a little? Maybe you should just ask yourself what it is that makes you happy?”
His answer made me pause a little.
Truth be told… I really didn’t know…
And before I had time to give a really insightful answer, my phone rang. I jolted a little bit before looking down at it. The call display just read ‘Nina’.
“Who’s that?” Hayden asked as I stuffed my phone back into my pocket.
“Nobody… It’s just my sister. We’re… Um… Not exactly on speaking terms.”
“You sure you don’t need to take that, then? Could be an emergency.”
“It’s fine!” I assured him, “She does this all the time. She calls me every now and again, leaves a sorta rambly message and then fucks off for another week or so. She’s crazy, it’s just what she does.”
Hayden raised an eyebrow… But going into why Nina was completely nuts wasn’t really pleasant coffee conversation so I tried to change the subject.
“So, you ever really been here before? I’ve heard about this place and always wanted to try it?”
Mission failed.
Hayden’s brow furrowed. I think I may have somehow inadvertently activated his training in the field of psychology because he leaned forward looking concerned.
“Sounds like there’s some baggage between you two.” He said, “Mind if I pry?”
“A little. It’s just not the nicest subject to talk about… We used to be close, I guess. But she was always a little… Out there. I dunno. She never really meshed well with people. I guess she took after our Dad in that regard. Mom sorta always just pointed to her as an example of what not to do.”
“And what exactly did she do wrong?” He asked.
“Well, for starters she had no chill. Like, her default response to everything was to just get mad. She couldn’t keep a job, she got in trouble with the cops… Look, it’s not that she was bad or anything. Sometimes… It was nice to have someone around who wouldn’t take shit from anyone. But it’s not really the way to go through life.”
I think Hayden knew I was avoiding the uncomfortable details of our relationship and I was grateful when he left those alone.
“Sounds like you still kinda miss her, from the way you talk.”
I paused for a moment before answering.
“Kinda…” I admitted, “It’d be… Nice… Y’know. To reconnect. Mom doesn’t want anything to do with her though.”
“So, do you just do whatever your Mom tells you to?”
Well shoot. There I was, speechless again. Hayden sat back in his seat. He offered a warm smile that despite everything was still a little comforting.
“Sorry! That came off as a little mean. Let me rephrase that… Maybe you should think more about what makes you happy, instead of thinking about what your Mom would and wouldn’t approve of. Y’know. Look at who you are and who you want to be. You might learn something new about yourself!”
“Christ… You would make a good shrink…” I murmured. He chuckled and took a sip of his coffee.
“Thanks. I hope I didn’t get too personal there…”
“You did and it was weird… But kinda sweet? I dunno. I didn’t… Not like it.”
“Great. I’ll send you my bill, then. Maybe dinner tomorrow night after work?”
Oh, goddamn this bastard was smooth…
I was kinda into it.
“Alright. I think I can oblige you, Doctor.” I said, half teasing. “I’d like that.”
Something told me that this was going to be the start of a beautiful friendship.
We’d agreed to meet up at a Greek restaurant in town. I’d been there a few times. It wasn’t too fancy, but it was still nice. A good place for a formal first date. I was there about twenty minutes early and I’ll admit that I dressed up a little for the occasion too. I know it was a little too late to make a first impression but… Well… I wanted to look nice for my date! I shouldn’t have to justify that!
I got a table where I could watch the door, ordered some red wine to be fancy, and waited.
And I waited.
And I waited…
And… Waited…
Hayden didn’t come.
Twenty minutes after 7, I started texting him.
‘Hey, you still coming tonight?’
‘Everything okay?’
I didn’t spam him! I didn’t want to go overboard! Obviously, something had come up. He was the one who’d asked me out. What kind of jackass stands up someone they asked out? There had to be something else going on. I once heard a story about a guy who’d been stood up by a girl at a coffee shop, and it turned out that her car was busted. They ended up getting married.
But by 7:40, when he hadn’t responded to my texts, I started to get worried… And by 8 when he hadn’t answered my calls, I was getting angry. If there was some sort of emergency, he should’ve had the common decency to tell me! We could’ve rescheduled! Maybe it was something so bad he didn’t have the chance to contact me? There was still something that didn’t sit right with me about any of this… I’d been working with Hayden for months. Sure, I couldn’t exactly say I knew him that well but he didn’t seem like the kind of guy to pull some shit like this. Right…?
Even if he was, he’d need to deal with me at work. How did he expect to explain any of this to me?No… No, something else had to be going on, right?
By 8:15, I ordered a lonely gyros platter, spanakopita and what the hell, I got too saganaki (that cheese dish where they light it on fire and yell OPA) just because I hoped that it all might make me feel better. It did not… Although it was delicious.
Hayden didn’t reply to my texts at all that night. He hadn’t replied by the next morning either. Part of me wanted to pull a Nina and leave an angry voicemail… But that kind of attitude had never gotten my sister anywhere. There’s a time and a place to get angry. This didn’t seem to be it.
I told myself to wait… A logical explanation would have to appear, and that totally wasn’t just me making excuses!
Instead of calling in to work like I wanted to, I was an adult, got dressed and went in. I figured maybe Claire might know something… Maybe Haydens phone had gotten broken and his car had died after his shift? It was unlikely, but technically possible, right?
Claire was in the backroom when I got in. I could hear her bustling around, probably working on another order.
“Deanna?” I heard her call, “Is that you?”
“Morning, Claire.” I replied, heading back to check in on her. She was at her workbench, arranging some dried out flowers into a pretty tableau to immortalize.
“How did it go the other night?” She asked, without looking up.
“Okay, I guess.” I said, “Although we were supposed to meet up again after he got off last night and he didn’t show…”
Claire paused before looking over her shoulder. Her usual ever present vacant grin was gone and replaced by a more serious expression.
“He didn’t? That’s odd… Doesn’t seem like him.”
“Did he say anything?” I asked, kinda hopeful she might know something. No luck.
Claire just shook her head.
“No… I do remember him mentioning seeing you again, although he clocked out as usual after he finished up for the night. I saw him going out to his car. Have you heard from him?”
“Nope… Nothing. I’ve called, texted.”
Claire seemed to think for a moment.
“Well, he’s supposed to be in tomorrow afternoon. Could be that something came up? I’ll let you know if I hear anything, alright?”
She left her workstation to put a hand on my shoulder.
“I’m sure it’s not something he did intentionally… You and I both know Hayden and we both know that’s not like him!”
It was honestly a little comforting to hear someone else say it…
My day drifted by in a haze. I didn’t see much more of Claire that day. She was mostly in the back, working on a larger project. I just tended the register, talked to the clients, and cleaned the store, working almost on autopilot. Whenever I got a chance, I checked for messages from Hayden. But I still had nothing.
Where was he? This was getting past infuriating and starting to become worrying. And apparently I wasn’t the only one who was worried.
I saw the first missing persons post that evening… A mutual friend had reposted something from his Mom.
And when I read it, my heart seemed to drop into my stomach.
Hayden Braley
Missing from: Mississauga Ontario
Missing since: April 11th, 2022
Age: 26
Height: 5’11
Weight: Approx 165
Hair: Short blond
Hayden was last seen leaving work, wearing a white polo shirt and blue jeans. He was last seen driving a blue 2011 Honda Civic. Please contact Peel regional police if you have any information. Callers may remain anonymous and information will be treated confidentially.
A missing person poster…
Jesus…
I felt sick, like I was going to puke.
He hadn’t stood me up, he’d gone missing!
Maybe it was a road accident? It hadn’t been that dark out, but all he needed was for a deer or another car to cut him off, to send him into a ditch. But given how crowded Mississauga can be, wouldn’t someone have found him by then? None of this made any sense! It didn’t even feel real. Part of me wasn’t convinced it was.
I spoke to the police of course and told them that I’d been planning to meet Hayden before he’d disappeared. I doubt it helped much. All my information really gave them was one more place where he definitely wasn’t.
When I got in to work the next day, I felt like I was dragging my feet behind me. Claire had said that Hayden was supposed to work the afternoon shift, and part of me seriously hoped he’d show up like nothing was wrong. I don’t know if I would’ve kicked his ass or kissed him if that had been the case. But no… No, he didn’t show up…
Usually, he’d come in while I was getting ready for lunch to take over the register. But the door remained closed. We had no customers. Hayden didn’t show up.
The store was just… Silent, save for the sounds of Claire working in the back room. I eventually settled for just quickly eating my sandwich at the register. I know Claire wouldn’t have approved but I figured it would be better than leaving it unattended.
I didn’t expect to get caught, but when I did, I caught a lot less shit for it than I was expecting. Claire’s expression just softened and she approached me, putting a hand on my shoulder.
“How are you holding up?” She asked.
“About as well as I can…” I replied. I didn’t do a good job of hiding the utter exhaustion in my voice.
“I know, dear. I know…” She crooned, “I’m sure he’ll turn up soon enough. Everyone seems to be looking for him… He probably just went looking for a fresh start.”
I looked over at her.
“A fresh start?” I repeated.
“Some people have been known to do it.” Claire said, “I knew a man who did it once… Left his wife and baby because of some crisis of identity. You never really know what demons a person is struggling with… I had been wondering if he was looking to quit. He’d seemed… Unhappy, for some time now. Maybe he needed a change of scenery.”
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I heard Nina’s voice saying:
‘What the fuck is this goddamn horseshit?’
A change of scenery? A crisis of identity? He’d been talking about going back to school! He’d set up a date with me! A guy who was considering running off to start a new life wouldn’t be making plans like that! Unless he’d been making things up the other night, why would he do that?
Claire still wore a sympathetic smile… Or at least, I assume it was meant to be sympathetic. It was hard to tell underneath all the botox… But as fake as her smile seemed, the intent behind it seemed all the more… wrong. It was like every possible alarm bell in my head went off at once. Claire had been the last person to see Hayden… Now she was suggesting he just ‘ran off.’
Christ he hadn’t even been missing for that long, and yet here she was putting on some bullshit smile and saying he ‘ran off…’ Yeah. That wasn’t suspicious at all…
‘Beat her plastic ass until you get some fucking answers!’ I heard Nina’s voice say in my head. I did not do that. Instead. I just faked a smile myself.
“Maybe…” I said.
Claire gave me one final, mechanical pat on the shoulder before turning and heading back into the back room.
“Take as long a break as you need, dear. I’ll be in the back. We just got a massive order…”
I watched her go… And when she was gone, I felt my eyes anxiously shift towards one of the perfect reisin taxidermies on display… A single, horrible thought briefly flashed through my mind but I dismissed it. That would be too much. Right…?
There was only one way to find out…
I’d never actually been to ‘Forever Beautiful’ after hours before. The longest I’d ever stayed was ten to fifteen minutes after closing to empty the register, sweep and mop the floors and do some other cleanup. But coming back after midnight felt like trespassing, even if I did have a key.
Normally, I wouldn’t have dared do it. Why the hell would I need to go inside after hours? But the feeling that something was very wrong had lingered with me for the rest of the day… I did try and talk myself out of it. But everything with Claire was way too suspicious. I don’t know what the hell I expected to find. Honestly, I was hoping that I’d find nothing. I’d be in, out and empty handed within ten minutes. This would be a simple waste of my time and it would reveal that Claire was nothing more than an insensitive idiot, which wouldn’t exactly be a shocking revelation.
The store was clean when I came in. Claire herself had probably done it after I’d left. It still smelled slightly of lemon pine. I didn’t linger too long in the storefront. The odd reflections cast by the translucent resin sculptures were even freakier at night and I’m not afraid to admit they gave me goosebumps.
I went straight for the back room where Claire usually worked. Like I said before, I wasn’t sure what I expected to find. There was no evidence of anything wrong. She’d obviously been working on an order, judging by all the flowers she had preserved. Nothing was amiss.
I almost felt stupid for even bothering to look… This had been a waste of my time, and hell, Claire would probably kill me if she knew I’d come back after hours to snoop around. She’d probably think I was trying to rob the place! I sighed and turned to leave… And as I did, my foot thudded against a piece of floor that felt wrong.
It made me pause and look down.
It was near the back of the store. The floor in the workshop was wood, and at a glance the spot where I’d stepped looked the same as everything else around it… It felt the same too when I put my foot on it, save for the way it shifted, buckling inwards as if it were meant to move… I noticed a raised section of the floor and reached down to it. It pulled up easily, revealing a rope tied to an iron ring.
A trapdoor basement…
I’d seen some of these in some old houses! They usually led down to basic dirt basements. Nothing special… But I had to look.
With a grunt of exertion, I pulled the trap door up. I was greeted by a set of stairs leading down into darkness. This wasn’t ominous in the slightest!
My rational mind briefly tried to explain this away as just an ordinary trapdoor basement that probably led to nothing more than some fuse switches and a water heater. But no… My paranoid brain had assumed complete control. This had to be some sort of dungeon! Maybe Claire was doing some sort of fucked up experiments down there?
Maybe…
Only one way to know for sure…
Against my better judgment, I started down the stairs and into the darkness.
The smell hit me almost immediately. It was… Odd. Horrible. But odd. Like rotting fish, mixed with plastic. My inner Nina was screaming at me, alternatively telling me to get out and to see what was really down there. I kept on descending the stairs. I already knew that I wasn’t going to like what I saw… But I had to see it.
I was right, the stairs did lead to a dirt basement and there was a fusebox and water heater down there.
But those were not the only things down there.
She had lit the area with Christmas lights strung to the ceiling, and everywhere I looked there was a new horror, waiting for me. I saw the first one right at the bottom of the stairs. I actually paused for a moment when I saw him, my heart skipping in my chest.
For a moment, I didn’t register what I saw… I recognized parts of it as human, but there was so much wrong! It had a masculine figure, nude and posed in a sensual manner to display his abs and muscles… But that was where his beauty ended.
White and brown tendrils snaked off his body, pushing their way through the resin that entombed him. His skin seemed to fit too tight to his body and parts of it looked like they’d shriveled back from his grayish flesh. His eyes had shrunken back into their sockets… His face better resembled a skull than an actual face. He looked like he was coming apart and it took me a few moments to realize that this probably wasn’t intentional.
He was rotting… Those tendrils were mold. The resin around him had a disgusting brownish tint to it. His body was covered in a pale, mossy overgrowth. God… How did a human even rot like this?Was this even natural?
The sight of him was too much for me. I puked… And thank God I got that over with quickly.
There were more.
So many more…
Each one was meticulously posed. Some of them almost sexually so… God, it was like flipping through a playgirl magazine from hell. Some of them were in advanced states of decay, with resin so clouded it was thankfully hard to see the corpse through the murk. Others had started to rot similarly to the first one I’d seen… A few were even worse. One had clearly burst inside the resin… His organs had devolved into a black, soupy mix that would’ve made me puke again if I had any left in me.
But the worst part was…
None of them were Hayden.
No… No, these bodies had been here long before Hayden had disappeared.
And by the time I actually found him, I knew that any dumb childish fantasies I had about coming in and rescuing him were just that… Fantasies. He was long gone.
She hadn’t finished with him yet… He was still setting. But the sight of him, stripped nude, eyes open, his legs spread in an inviting posture…
Jesus…
I…
I started crying when I saw him.
The others had disgusted me but seeing Hayden like this… Hayden, a boy who’d wanted to become a psychologist to help people, a boy done nothing to deserve this except for take a fucking job at a creepy store… Had been reduced to nothing more than a formerly living pinup model. And I cried for him. Part of it was grief… Maybe we’d never had the chance to become something but he’d still been a friend. Enough of a friend that I’d wanted to become something with him. I cried because no matter how I felt about him, he was still a human being! A human being who didn’t deserve this.
Part of it was the horror at seeing someone I knew defiled like this. And those tears stopped when I heard the voice behind me.
“Oh Deanna… What have you done?”
I spun around, clutching both hands to my mouth as I saw Claire standing at the bottom of the stairs.
“How did you find this place?” She asked. Her voice didn’t sound angry… She sounded sad. Almost disappointed.
“You…” Was the only thing I could think to say.
Claire looked around at the petrified men around her… She gently put her hand on one of them and sighed.
“Not my best work…” She admitted, “I was still so new to it with some of these. But I’ve perfected my work… Although I don’t suppose you’d care to see.”
“Why?!”
“Why not? Why shouldn’t beautiful boys stay beautiful? Time is cruel, my dear… Everything comes, just to inevitably fade away. Beauty doesn’t last forever. Nothing does. I don’t think it’s fair, do you?”
You know, I probably shouldn’t have expected a logical answer from a serial killer…
“The first one was a curiosity. I wanted to see if I could. He was so lovely… Such a beautiful man but… Well. On the outside. Not on the inside. Still, I was able to save the best part of him for a little while…” She ran a hand lovingly down the exterior of one of the more deteriorated reisin sculptures.
“The second one… I wanted to do better. And the third, and the fourth…” She paused, looking back at me, then past me at Haydens body. “Maybe I got greedy… After all. You’re here… What should we do about that?”
From her pocket, I saw her pull out a small switchblade.
My heart began to beat faster.
“I don’t want this, Deanna… I really don’t. But I promise I’ll make sure you remain beautiful. Just as you are right now… I promise…”
With that, she drew nearer to me.
My body finally began to move. I stumbled back, hearing the blood rushing in my skull. I could hear Nina’s voice in my mind, screaming at me:
‘DON’T FUCKING TAKE THIS, SIS! KICK HER PLASTIC ASS!’
But I wasn’t Nina! I wasn’t the one who flipped the fuck out whenever something went wrong! Christ… Nina probably would’ve charged Claire screaming. She probably would’ve beaten her bloody with her bare hands, ripped that knife out of her hand and stabbed her in the lung with it… Nina would’ve done that… But I wouldn’t. I couldn’t.
As I clumsily backed into another one of Claire’s preserved men… I knew that I didn’t have a choice, though. I didn’t have an answer for this. Maybe I could run past her. But she’d probably catch me on the stairs.
Claire rushed towards me.
I panicked.
Unleashing a primal scream that probably sounded more like a confused, frightened whimper, I covered my face and charged at Claire. I saw her pause for a moment, bracing herself for impact as I tackled her, violently clawing at her face. Claire and I both stumbled into one of the preserved men. I felt a searing, white hot pain below my ribs. It took me a moment to realize that she’d just stabbed me.
Oh God… She’d stabbed me!
The adrenaline kicked in. I swung my fist randomly, catching her across the face before pushing off of her. The knife was torn out of my body. Claire staggered back a step, pressing a hand to her cheek. She looked at me, moderately surprised. I pressed a hand to my wound as I scrambled to get away from her.
I saw a soft, gentle smile cross her lips as she came for me again. I wasn’t going to outrun her. She was going to get me… And she was going to kill me. Driven by blind panic, I drunkenly stumbled behind one of the preserved men, pushing him in an attempt to knock him over.
He collapsed, hitting a man beside him and blocking Claire from following me for a few precious seconds. I watched as she scrambled to go around. I could see her coming out of the corner of my eye and pushed another preserved man over.
“Stop!” I heard her cry, “You’ll damage them!”
I just pushed another one.
Claire managed to catch it, just barely stopping it from collapsing… And I saw my opening. Hand still pressed against my wound, I raced back towards her. With a cry of exertion I, pushed another one of the sculptures over, knocking it down onto the one Claire was holding.
I saw her buckle slightly under the weight. She might’ve been able to push one up… But she was struggling to support the weight of two. She looked at me, eyes wide in panic. She realized what I was doing…
I leaped up onto the murky surface of the sculpture that Claire was trying to lift. My added weight was too much for her. She could barely hold it back and at last it slipped out of her grip, forcing her down to the ground. She buckled under the weight of the two sculptures as they pinned her to the ground… I heard her try and scream. But all that came out were sudden, panicked gasps.
“Deanna… Don’t!” She pleaded, looking at me with big, horrified eyes.
As I climbed off the fallen sculpture though, I didn’t bother humoring her.
I gave her one last look as I approached the nearest man she’d preserved in resin.
“There’s something seriously fucking wrong with you, lady…” I panted, before grabbing the sculpture and pushing it towards her. Claire didn’t scream as it fell. She just looked at it… Eyes wide and transfixed as it collapsed onto her. Then there was just silence… Cold, empty silence…
I collapsed down onto the ground, hand still pressed to the wound in my abdomen, tears still streaming down my cheeks. Then, with a trembling hand I took out my phone to call the police.
They found fourteen bodies in Claires basement, dating back to 1997… Fourteen men who’d been killed just because she found them ‘beautiful.’
Christ…
I still don’t know what to say about any of this.
Honestly, I don’t even know what to do now… I’ve talked to a counselor, but I don’t think I’ll ever forget the things I saw down there. I don’t think I’ll ever get a good nights sleep again, after seeing what I saw.
I’ve thought about calling Nina… Maybe she might get it. At the very least, she’d listen… It was her voice I heard down there in that basement… Her voice in my head, telling me to fight. Maybe I should thank her for that. Maybe I’ll pick up the phone next time she calls.