For Nevermore Season 1

teenage headache that he had to take care of.
    This was why serial killers didn’t have a “Take your daughter to work day.”
    Noella would derail everything he had worked so hard to create. Randy was a well-respected member of the community. He had Josie, who had provided a facade of normalcy. With a burg full of unstable women and a college town in spitting distance, Randy had constant company for his carnal desires. He had it made. Nobody suspected him of being anything other than what he looked like from the outside: a normal, decent guy. An alcoholic, sure, but an average guy nonetheless. Randy had lived firmly under the radar.
    Until now.
    There was no coming back from this.
    And the worst part was that in solving one problem – Noella finding him out – he’d created a new one. It wasn’t long before people would notice Noella missing.
    Josie had seen them leave together. So he couldn’t just make Noella disappear like the others. Even if he managed to dispose of the girl without it coming back to him, he’d still be a person of interest, drawing deeper scrutiny than his armor of lies could withstand. Even if they weren’t able to tie him to anything else, he’d no longer glide above the surface of suspicion.
    While Randy had always been careful to avoid anything which could be tracked back to him, there was always a possibility that he’d overlooked a detail or two. Something that could make someone put two and two together and get to the four of his double life.
    It was only a matter of time before his house of lies came falling down around him.
    Randy screamed again, balled his right fist, then punched the drywall, leaving a gaping hole and another bruise to glaze his already-swollen knuckles.
    He stared at the hole, mesmerized by the broken drywall’s chalky guts. Something about the aperture, the insides exposed, resonated deep within Randy.
    He felt suddenly exposed, like his mask was cracking. Soon the world would be peering inside, inspecting him, dissecting his actions, and seeing him for what he truly was.
    Soon, the world will know I’m a monster.
    He clenched his eyes shut, trying not to cry, but couldn’t keep his emotions bottled any longer.
    Shame, fear, and hate blended together into a volatile brew; bubbling to his surface, ready to erupt.
    They finally did, with a long and anguished howl, more animal than human, as Randy collapsed to the concrete, curled in a fetal position with his hands cradling the cap of his head.
    He stayed that way for what seemed like forever, until anger and fear gave way to numbness.
    He stood, went to the garage, then found what he was looking for lying beneath a layer of dust on the work bench — his chainsaw.

    * * * *

CHAPTER TWO

    Nobody knows you’re here.
    You’re going to die.
    Noella’s voice was raw from her constant song of terror. Her cries were finally fading to whimpers while she waited, alone and terrified in the cold, dark cell. The basement’s only light barely bled from the hallway beyond, seeping through the eye-level slit in her door.
    Randy had been gone about 10 minutes before she finally found the courage to crack her voice and speak to the other captors. There were four rooms, but all she’d heard so far were broken cries and muffled screams that sounded as though they were blocked by a gag.
    “Tori?” Noella loudly whispered. “Are you in here?”
    There was movement in the cell beside hers, then a slight tapping on the wall, which sounded like it was taking a ton of effort. It sounded so weak it was barely even there.
    “I’m gonna get us out,” Noella said, though she had no idea how she’d manage that. Nor was she certain she believed her own lie. But she had to say something to keep the girl’s hope afloat, as well as her own. Noella had tried, without success, to cross to Dante’s world a few times already. But she had no idea how to cross over on her own.
    With the exception of the time that Dante told her to leave and forced her to go, she’d never controlled the leaps. They just happened, whether she liked it or not.
    And of course, now that she wanted to cross over and escape, she couldn’t figure out how she’d done it.
    Noella figured the woman in the cell diagonally across from her was the redhead, unless Randy had picked up another victim. The woman tried to speak, but could only manage a few muffled cries.
    “I’m going to get us all out,” Noella vowed.
    Noella had spent her first half hour