CHAPTER ONE // OWEN LUX WESLEY

THREE YEARS LATER 

[WORD COUNT: 4058]

[TOTAL: 7010]

THE AMAZING BANNER ON THE SIDE WAS MADE BY @PALINDROMES.

• † •

“Hello, sir?” I stared at the short, plump woman standing before me, wearing a plaid uniform that did not suit her figure in no way.

 “Yes?” I responded, instantly noticing how her neck was thicker than the others. It would take a lot of strength to snap her neck. I wondered whether she was going to be apart of this weeks massacre or not. She seemed to be eligible, I just had to see if she would pass the other tests. 

“Would you like anything else?” She asked, lines of stress appearing on her facial expression as she gestured towards my half-empty cup of coffee. “Or would you like for me to bring you the bill?” Her voice was high-pitched, quite annoying.

“The bill would be fine,” I said, calculating how much extra work it would take if she indeed was apart of my weekly massacre. Due to her large yet short figure her death would take longer than the others. It seemed to be worth it since it appeared to be that her voice was higher than average, which meant that she was a screamer. I weighed the pros and cons and quickly concluded that she was going to be apart of the massacre once I decided that she would be apart of the ‘tortured’ group instead of the ‘regulars’ or ‘quickies’ group.

You see, I usually took less than ten people–or sometimes more, depending on my mood–and separated them into three unique groups, the ‘tortured’, the ‘regulars’, and the ‘quickies’. The name ‘tortured’ spoke for the meaning itself; I usually left them for last. That group had the most amount of people. The ‘regulars’ were the ones that had deaths that were less painful than the tortured and were usually a part of a fun ‘game’ of some sort. The ‘quickies’ had the quickest deaths and died in a timespan of ten minutes or less. Those were the idiotic people that questioned every single one of my motives and usually tried talking me out of what I was doing. The quickies were used for an example for the tortured and regulars, to obey whatever I request and they’ll live. But they didn’t know that they would die in the end anyways.

The plump lady returned with a scowl on her face as she set the bill on the table. I stopped her before she left. “What’s your name?”

 “My name is Sheryl,” she replied. “Is that all?”

I felt my annoyance rise. Why was she rushing me? “No, I was wondering if you were alright. It seems like you are having a bad day with the scowl present on your face.” I fixated my gaze on her lips, which were red and slightly broken and tilted downwards near the edges.

“I’m fine, thanks for asking.” Sheryl’s tone suggested something very clear, that it was none of my business. I breathed slowly–in and out repeatedly–to calm my anger. It would be so easy. I could grab her neck and slam it on this stained table, instantly knocking her out. Then I could make everyone believe that she had fainted and that I will carry her to the hospital which is a few blocks away from here, when I would really bring her to my basement to torture the fuck out of–

“Sir?”

“My name is Lux,” Not sir. I couldn’t help but snap. My hands shook under the table as I tried not to grab her oily hair and slam it against the pearly white table. Ever since the death of my father three years ago, I had been quick to despise any name that was not Owen. I changed my name to Lux, and it would stay that way. Even small nicknames like ‘sir’, like Sheryl did annoyed me to no end.

“Well Lux, is there anything else you’d like to know?” Her tone was impatient.

I smiled, even though my fingers were begging to punch her in the face until her nose broke. Showtime. “How long have you been working here?”

Sheryl sighed. “For about a few months, why?”

“My friend Alex recommended me to this place shortly after I was diagnosed with amnesia and said that the workers here were very generous. I can’t help but agree with that statement.” My smile widened as I spoke the lie clearly and smoothly. “I would like to invite you to dinner, to get to know you better, if that’s alright with you. Ever since I was diagnosed I have been trying to get to know anyone I can to see if I can trigger a memory.”

Throughout my countlessly rehearsed speech, I noticed how Sheryl’s oblivious eyes were shining with sympathy. Bingo. “I had a cousin who had amnesia, it’s a terrible thing to go through, I’m sorry.”

I shrugged and toyed with the bill in my hand. “I’m dealing. So is this a yes or a no? I would really like to get to know you. You seem like a very generous and sweet woman.”

Sheryl finally smiled, a true genuine one. “Of course. I would love to help you get your memories back. What time should I be at your place?”

“Would seven later on today be okay?” I refrained from smirking. People were just too gullible. Sheryl nodded. “I’ll write my address here.” I slyly took one of the pens in the bill holder and wrote down the address where her death would take place. I imagined the sharp tip of this pen lodged in her thick throat and the blood spewing down her pale neck. I shivered as goosebumps appeared on my skin as I imagined how appealing and enjoyable the sight would be. I pushed the very tempting image away from my mind and placed the pen in the bill holder and shut it closed.

I gazed at her face and handed her the bill. “Throw out the receipt out when you arrive later on, we wouldn’t want someone robbing my home.” I laughed, though the reasoning was different than a mere robbery. “It was really nice meeting you, Sheryl.”

“Same for you, Lux.” Sheryl nodded and collected the bill. “Have a wonderful day.”

Oh yes, my day would definitely be wonderful.  

• † •

It was finally time. I had five people in my basement, all of which were gagged, blindfolded and tied on chairs. It was quite simple collecting them in here, all it took was fooling them with my amnesia story and they would come. Half were conscious and the other half were unconscious. I had three girls and two men. Sheryl–who came fifteen minutes earlier than planned–was promptly unconscious. It took more than two minutes for her to fall asleep, due to the fact that she had struggled and tried to knee my manhood. Her large figure made it difficult but I had managed to do it.

The others–Ashley, Maria, Joshua and Mason–were fooled by the ‘smell this’ trick earlier this week. I showed them a bouquet of roses and each one of them were fooled enough to smell it’s enticing scent, and promptly dropped to the floor like a sack of rocks. I was smart enough to spray chloroform onto the flowers, not enough so that they would be unconscious for hours, but enough so that they would be unconscious for a few minutes. The next part was easy, dragging them along the floor, to the stairs and then into the basement, where they were all gagged, blindfolded, and tied to my special chairs. They were metal and had open wires wrapped around each of the legs, which led towards a bucket of water. Electrocution at it’s finest.

Satisfied with my work in front of me, I began to snap my fingers repeatedly around the five heads. Only three whipped their heads up at the noise while the others didn’t move an inch. I smirked and removed the blindfolds for Ashley, Joshua, and Maria. Each of their eyes widened in disbelief and I couldn’t help but laugh gleefully. This was almost the best part, when they found out that I was the one responsible for everything.

“Finally,” My grin was malicious. “You all decide to wake up. How long has it been, a few hours, minutes? Well, in just a few more all of you will be dead.” Ashley was the first to try to start speaking. She had tears streaming down her rosy stained cheeks. “What was that, Ashley? I couldn’t hear you.” I laughed at my own joke and walked towards her, deciding that she would be first. I removed the gag from her mouth roughly and threw it towards the ground.

“Lux,” she gasped. “What are you doing?” She begged to know, her eyes shining with newfound betrayal. “Why are you doing this?” I didn’t put it past me to know that Joshua and Maria were both watching the scene with terrified eyes. I felt the bubbly feeling rise from the pit of my stomach, knowing that this was only the start of my fun for the night. I ignored her useless comments and followed the trail of wires to the bucket of water.

“Are you guys watching this?” I asked, knowing fully well that they were all watching my movements. “Well, the chairs you guys are sitting in are metal. Around the legs of the chair are wires which all lead up to this bucket of water… Can anyone tell me what this is?” My question was directed at Ashley, who soon realized what she was sitting in with dire realization. 

“You’re going to electrocute us?” She shrieked, and began writhing in the chair.

My grin became wider. “Bingo, Ashley. And for that, you get a prize.” I leaned down and grabbed the wire which was firmly wrapped around the legs of her chair and gave it a firm tug. Noticing my intentions, she began to scream and I shivered in pleasure. “Come on, scream louder. No one can hear you, after all.”

Giving one last firm tug, I hovered the end of the wire above the bucket of water and glanced at Ashley, who was crying hysterically. Joshua and Maria were both still watching what was happening with fear and terror in their eyes. Maria had already begun to cry while Joshua still seemed to be realizing that this was in fact real. I smirked and dipped the coil in the water with ease, my fear of being electrocuted myself gone since I was wearing a glove, gifted by Bane himself that was resistant of any electricity. Ashley–whose screams had turned into gurgles–began thriving to life, or to death in this case, in her chair. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head as her body jerked continuously. Deciding that it was enough and that she was indeed dead after I saw something white come out of her mouth, I removed the wire after a few minutes and dropped it on the ground, my smile bigger than a toddler who earned a basket full of goodies. Slowly, I walked towards Ashley’s limp figure and poked her head. It rolled to the other side, her blonde hair–which had turned a bit frizzy–following shortly. Maria was crying, although Joshua looked as if she was about to faint from fear.

Mason and Sheryl were still unconscious. I decided to awaken them with the screams and shouts of Joshua and Maria. I removed the gags from their mouths and the blindfolds from Mason and Sheryl, and watched the scene commence before my eyes proudly. If only someone else was here to see me at my best.

“You sick fuck,” Maria bit out, her brown hair covering her hazel eyes as she struggled in the tightly knotted ropes. “How can you do this?”

“Did you see what happened to Ashley?” My tone became darker. “Her death was to show that I won’t give any hesitation to kill any one of you. Don’t make me angry, Maria.”

“Lux don’t,” Joshua whispered, shaking his head back and forth. My malicious smile returned when I noticed that Mason and Sheryl were awakening. I removed their gags and threw them towards the growing pile on the ground. 

I clapped. “Now that everyone is somewhat awake, my little game can begin!”

Sheryl began to panic as her eyes met mine. “What the fuck did you do to me? To us, everyone in here!”

“Now Sheryl, you may have missed the early preview of the show,” I gestured to the limp body of Ashley. “But that does not mean you have to be so rude. Why don’t you all introduce yourself’s to everybody else.” When no one said anything, I felt my anger rise. “Oh, so no one wants to speak, huh?” My eyes followed Mason’s wire. He was the only one who hadn’t uttered a word. Perhaps he wouldn’t go the same way Ashley did on the road to her death. I turned around and grabbed a bread knife, one that was long enough to go through a leg to make my point come across, and strode towards his chair.

“No one wants to speak?” My tone was chilling as I waved the bread knife around the air. I waited two seconds and no one had responded. Instantly I stabbed the knife in Mason’s leg and immediately heard his shout of pain and the cries of terror from everybody else. He was the regular in this group.

His screams became louder when I twisted the knife. A chorus of replies ranging from ‘Stop’ to ‘Stop you sick fuck’ hang in the air and I couldn’t help but chuckling.

“Now, I’m going to ask again. Why don’t you introduce yourself to the other members of the group, or you shall suffer the same fate he has, or worse.”

It was Joshua who had spoken first. “My n-name is Joshua Abran. I’m twenty-one years old.”

“Good, now we’re getting somewhere.”

“My name is M-Maria Destiny, and I’m nineteen.”

“I’m Sheryl Larke, and I’m twenty-five years old.”

Mason struggled to speak. “I’m Mason Dupont,” he gasped. “Twenty-four.”

“Now was that so hard?” My malicious grin had returned. “I have a game for you all, a very simple one if you comply with the rules. The rules are easy to stand by. Don’t scream, don’t talk unless spoken to, and no answering for anyone else. Fail to work with these rules and I’ll electrocute you just like Ashley over here, but only momentarily. Then I’ll kill you with that–” I pointed to the knife lodged in Masons leg. “–bread knife.”

“What the hell?” Sheryl snapped. “We aren’t your toys, Lux. We are human beings and we have lives. You can’t just do this to us!”

“Oh but I can,” I smirked. “You’re lucky that the game hasn’t started, or else you would have been electrocuted.” Fear wormed it’s way in her defiant eyes. “Now, any questions?”

“What is this game about?” Maria’s voice cracked mid-sentence.

“It’s a game similar to truth or dare,” I responded. “But my own version.” I laughed. “The game begins now. Remember, if you scream, talk unless I’m speaking directly to you, or answer for someone else you get electrocuted or killed with the bread knife. Maria, let’s begin with you.” Tears were falling down her face rapidly as I began to pace slowly back and forth for a minute. “You said that you were nineteen, right? So that means you are one year older than me. You’re in college, right?”

Maria nodded.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t hear that.”

“Yes,” She said through gritted teeth.

“Great, truth or dare?”

“Truth.”

“Why did you pick truth?” 

Maria frowned. “Because I didn’t want to do a dare.”

“So you admit that you’re scared.”

Maria didn’t respond.

“I don’t hear anything, Maria. Don’t make me angry, Maria.” Her name was fun to say, almost like a lullaby you sang to a newborn child. 

“Yes, I’m fucking scared. It’s not everyday that someone uses chloroform on me and then I wake up in a–a basement with a crazy lunatic!”

I decided instantly that she was going to be apart of the tortured, instead of the regulars. That meant that the boys–Joshua and Mason– were going to die first.

“Joshua,” I said. “Since Maria stole the truth, you are left with the dare. And, I dare you to stab someone beside you with this knife.” I grabbed the pocket knife set on the table behind me and cut one of his hands loose. “If you don’t, then I’ll kill you. If you try to stab me, I’ll kill you.” For safety measures, I grabbed the gun set on the table behind me and cocked it. On Joshua’s right was Maria, and to his left was Sheryl. “All you have to do is stab one of them somewhere. Choose wisely, you only have ten seconds to decide.”

“W–What if I don’t want to stab them?” Joshua didn’t hide his fear. His eyes were wide and his body was shaking.

“Then you die.” I said, slightly getting annoyed. “I already said this earlier. You’re time begins now. Ten, nine, eight, seven–”

“That’s not fair!” Mason cried out, and I grinned. “You can’t do this to us!”

“You broke one of the rules, Mason. What was it? Oh, not to speak unless spoken to?” I laughed, and without hesitation applied pressure to the trigger. A soft pop came from the gun, due to the fact that I had installed a silencer to the end. Smack in the middle of his forehead was a hole where the bullet had landed where his head was jerked back. His head dropped seconds later where blood dropped on his already blood-stained jeans. I bit my lip and relished in the feeling of satisfaction rising in the pit of my stomach as the cries of terror furthermore built on my excitement. 

“I’m going to say the rules again,” My tone was cold, even though I had my malicious, trademark smile planted on my face. “Do not scream, do not talk unless spoken to, and most importantly, no answering for anybody else.” My ears met silence, counting out the sobs  coming from Maria. I was surprised that Sheryl hadn’t begun crying yet. She would be last.

“I’m going to count again, Joshua.” I cocked my gun and aimed for his throat. “Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two–”

“I can’t do it.” Joshua cried glancing back and forth between Sheryl and Maria. “I can’t just–just stab these people I don’t know. I can’t do it. I can’t do it.” 

“Such a shame,” I licked my lips and snatched the knife from his sweaty fingers. I placed the gun and the knife back on the table behind me and walked towards him. “Perhaps you’ll die just like Ashley.” My eyes traced the wire wrapped around the leg of the chair he was sitting on. I picked it up and dropped it in the water. He jerked, writhed, and flinched just like Ashley did and began to moan in agony. Soon all that could be heard was Maria’s annoying cries and pleas of mercy and Sheryl’s heavy breaths. She would start screaming soon.

“Game over for Joshua,” I sang and removed the wire. I walked towards Maria with a knife in my hand. “Let’s continue playing. Since there aren’t anymore truth’s or dare’s left, we’ll just have to do with who won’t scream. Whoever screams dies with this knife in their heart, twisted, just like I did with Mason over here with the bread knife. I’ll begin with you, Maria.” 

“No,” she begged, new tears pouring down her face. “Don’t, please. I don’t deserve this.”

I laughed. “You’re right, you don’t. But, I really don’t care. And for god sakes stop with the crying. It’s just death; it’s not like your life was good enough anyways.” I traced the tip of the jagged knife on her cheek and watch how it indented her pale skin. I dug it in slowly and I watched with glee as Maria struggled not to cry out in pain or to scream. “Come on, I want to hear you scream so I can shove this knife in your heart.” I removed the knife and heard a slurching sound between the contact of skin and knife. “You did good for the first try.”

“Now, Sheryl.” I dragged her name out. “Sheryl, Sheryl, Sheryl.”

“What the hell do you want?” Sheryl growled, her eyes shining with pure hatred as she writhed against the tight bindings of the rope. 

“I want you to scream,” I grinned. “And cry. Crying would be a bonus for you and better than this baby over here.” I gestured towards Maria with the knife, whose cheek was bloodied and dark red. 

“You will never hear me scream or see me cry.” She said defiantly, raising her chin.

“Oh, is this a challenge I hear between the two? Do you hear this, Maria? Sheryl here believes that she won’t die, and that you will! Why don’t we see how strong you really are, Sheryl.” I dragged her name out again. I walked to her chair and stared at her, deciding on what to do instantly. I cut her dark jeans on one of her legs so I had enough space for what I was about to do. 

I began carving her name, the six letter word on her thick thighs. I wondered whether she was going to scream or not and hoped that she will soon. It was almost midnight and I had begun to get a bit tired, meaning I had to wrap this up soon. I made the letters deeper in her skin and heard her choke and pant in pain.

“Come on, Sheryl,” I said. “Scream for me.”

“Never,” She said through gritted teeth as I finished her name. 

“This means it must get bloodier in here,” I muttered. “Now that Sheryl had upped the standards, lets see who can suffer the longest before screaming.” 

I went back and forth between Maria and Sheryl, who both seemed adamant on living and not screaming. I have to admit, it was pretty entertaining to see both of them struggle. Maria–as I predicted–was the first to scream and when she did, it was ear splitting and wonderful. 

“Yes,” I grinned as I dug the knife in her stomach and twisted it. “Scream for me, Maria.” Her screams became louder. “Looks like you did win, Sheryl.” 

I quickly lodged the knife in her heart and twisted it. Seconds later, her screams became into whispers and then nothing. I left it there. 

“Tell me, Sheryl,” Her name was fun to pronounce and tease with, more fun than Maria’s. I bet she hated her name now. “Now that you’ve won, I have a grand surprise for you. Death. How would you like to die?” 

“Screw you,” Sheryl snapped, tears unwillingly coming to her eyes as she realized that she would indeed die.

“Hmm, it really would be delightful if you’d kill yourself but I know you’d never do that willingly,” I chuckled. “You know, earlier today I was planning a bunch of ways to kill you. Snapping your neck, stabbing you with the pen I wrote my address in, and my favorite, knocking you unconscious by slamming your ugly head on the table.” 

Her eyes widened and then tears began to fall. “Yes, finally, some tears!” I clapped. “I officially broke Sheryl ladies and gents–all that’s left is for me to make her scream.” 

She cursed at me. “You sick bastard, I hope you rot in hell.” 

I rolled my eyes. “Like I haven’t heard that one before.” I decided on snapping her neck, but not yet. I wanted to hear her scream first. I got the butter knife from Mason’s leg and yanked it out. The only efficient way of making Sheryl scream was to stab her repeatedly and to not stop until she did. I had teased her earlier by making scratches and small stabs–this, was truly hell. Once I started, I didn’t stop until I heard her scream. And when she did, it was bliss to my ears.

“Fuck you, Lux.” She cried, oh how she cried. 

“Enjoy death, Sheryl.”

I ended her.

• † •

Please vote and comment if you liked this chapter!