Katrinka's Dating Service

Meanwhile, Malcolm was outside in the parking lot, pacing and trying to calm himself. He was still registering everything that had happened: coming here, finding Adare, falling head over heels for him, becoming engaged. Looking back it felt like it was all happening so very fast. He stopped adruptly. "What if this is too fast?"

There was the BEEP-BEEP of a vehicle alarm being activated. Deborah walked up to him. He was dressed in a classic black tuxedo, complete with vest and suspenders but the jacket was nowhere to be found--Ah there it was, held up by a car's sideview mirror. She was dressed in jeans, boots, and a t-shirt with a long sleeved black shirt over it. "Tch ... Again?"

Malcolm blinked and grinned sheepishly. "Hey, Debbie. Um ... What's again?"

She sighed and shook her head. "This whole doubting thing. Didn't you say you loved the idiot?"

"Heh heh... Well, yeah but--"

She grabbed the jacket and pushed it into his arms, turned him around and pushed him in the direction of the building. "But nothing. There's a party going on for you and your loveslave and I'm not about to get lectured on how I was somehow responsible for you missing it." Malcolm and Adare's engagement was the ONLY thing her mother and her brothers ever talked about nowadays. It didn't help that Deborah had been trying to keep communication with them down to a minimum. Make that nonexistent.

"Yes, Debbie." Although he had a grin on his face, he was trying to sound as sorry as possible. He doubted Deborah was falling for it but she didn't mention it so he just kept grinning. His sudden boost of confidence nearly faltered when they entered the room and he heard Adare singing. It almost seemed magical when the crowd parted and he saw Adare there.

Behind him, Deborah gave him a swift kick in the ass that sent him staggering almost into Adare. By some miracle, he managed not to trip into his lover but then he was grinning stupidly. "I'm sorry I'm late."
 
"Now we can get the party started." Katrinka chimed in, having snuck up behind Malcolm while Adare was serenading the room. Everything for tonight's party was going perfectly. The mood, the music, the food. She couldn't have planned her own engagement party better.

Slipping away to allow the other guests to share their congratulations, Katrinka headed to the back to grab something special. She had a bottle of wine saved just for tonight, sitting in the room she stored all of the bottles to keep cool.

Most of the catering staff were leaving the kitchens to take the food out to the buffet tables. Katrinka smiled as she passed them in the hall, one even warning her that a couple of the guests had stepped back there to give a few of them a hard time. Laughing, that wasn't something out of the ordinary. Often guests got lost looking for the bathrooms or would curiously look around. And because tonight was a party for friends, she wasn't concerned about anything turning up missing or stolen.

All the way in the back of the building, Katrinka unlocked the wine room and stepped inside. There were several shelves filled with bottles. It cost her a fortune to collect a good selection for all of her events. She took pleasure in having variety and fabulous taste. Anything to make a romantic experience better. Running her fingers over dusty bottle labels, she searched around trying to find the right one.

Click!

The door opened and shut again. Katrinka paused to turn around, frowning at the dimness of the room. It was perfect for keeping the wine, but not so great for seeing. "Hello? If you're looking for the bathroom, you've got the wrong ro-Oh. It's you!"

Drake was standing there, dressed in the unassuming clothes he often wore. There was something strange about his expression, though, that gave her pause. He often looked a little sad, and scrunched up as if he were trying to make himself invisible. But tonight... his shoulder's were back, and spine straight. Katrinka had never realized he was so much taller than her before.

"Is Paris here?" he asked. The expression on his face not changing.

"No, I'm afraid she's not. Something happened with her grandfather, so she couldn't make it tonight. Malcolm and Adare are here now if you want to go give your congrats, though!"

"I've got to see Paris." he muttered, turning away to start back down the isle.

"I don't know, Drake I think she just needs some time alone." Normally Katrinka would have thought it best for someone to be with the girl, but Paris had been on edge for days prior to her grandfather's passing. She didn't think bothering her now was a good idea.

"Stop me if you want, but I doubt you will." he said, the faintest bit of humor in his voice.

"I'm not going to stop you, I just feel that she needs her family around more than any... thing... else..." Katrinka's response slowed until it became nothing more than a whisper. Stop me if you want. But I doubt you will. She remembered that phrase. There was more to it than just that. This is your fault you whore.. none of this would have to happen if you had listened. Those text messages. Those awful text messages, she was told to ignore. Tried to ignore and block from her numbers, yet always still came!

"You...!" It all suddenly dawned on her! The sound of his voice, the way he moved. How strange he behaved!

Drake must have known the moment she realized it. He rushed towards her, something silver glinting in his hands. Katrinka hissed out a shout, kicking out a foot to catch him in the stomach. She wasn't going to be a victim a second time! He bounced back quickly, though. Snatching her by the arm as she tried to rush past him. She smashed her elbow against his cheek and used her weight to shove him against the wine racks with a clanging of glass bottles. The knife he held dropped and slid somewhere across the room.

Katrinka rushed towards the door again, only getting a few feet before the back of her shirt was grabbed and she was jerked backwards. Spinning to swing a fist, she nearly hit him dead on. But he came back with his own swing. The blow hitting her hard across the cheek and sending her tumbling to the side. A CRACK of glass came down over her head and Katrinka dropped to the floor unconscious.

Drake hovered there for a moment. A sneer across his face. He stepped away to grab his knife off the floor, starting to walk back towards Katrinka, but pausing. This wasn't the one he wanted...

He wanted Paris.

Paris...
 
Sanctuary.....

The mind is the mast bastion of defense against an unjust world.

The mind the a prison for which we are ourselves the jailor.

To keep ourselves seeing out or others seeing in.

Corruption.....

NO!

Time... how much time has passed mother. You're the one always looking at the clock.... But you can't tell me because the clock has stopped, and you're dead.

Thump thump thump thump thump thump thump WHY WON'T IT SHUT UP WHY DOES IT LOVE HURT!

You're a failure.

SHUUUUUUUUUUUUUT UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUP.

Stairs.... to the top thats where her sanctuary lies.... thats where she hides. She hates you.

One step, two step, quietly quietly don't let her hear you. She thinks you're a freak.

Theres her door... not far now. Puff and puff and blow it away. Shes right.

SHUT UP I HATE YOU. But I am you and you are I.

You're there little freak boy open it up and say boo.

Drake tried the handle but found it locked.

Ooh wasn't expecting that were you? Run away home and die.

No the door is weak, old and damp too long. Give it a go... no.

Knife in hand he pounded on the door the metal handle leaving dents in the wood.

"Pariiissss." his voice wasn't the restrained speaking voice she knew, it was the one he heard scratching on the inside of his brain.

"I know who the killer is." he slammed his shoulder to the door and the old wood cracked. Again and it splintered and he was in the doorway wearing the same as the previous day and looking like he hadn't slept in months.

"And hes come out to play."
 
Paris had been in bed. She had been in bed all day. Though she knew that her grandfather had been getting old, it felt like he had been stolen from her too soon. No one at his care clinic knew what happened. They say the circumstances were really odd. No one even dreamed that it was murder, but Paris...

She wasn't sure what she believed any more. Nothing made sense and her world was upside down.

A sudden splintering crack sent her bolting up in her bed. There was a voice. Wearing nothing but a simple cotton nightgown, she rushed out of the room to see what was wrong. Her brow furrowed in confusion at seeing Drake there. Her eyes widening at the broken door at the knife in his hand. She took a step backwards.

"Dr... Drake." Paris didn't wait for a response, she turned on her heels and ran back for her bedroom!
 
He was breathing hard.

WHORE

"I have the perfect solution to our problem."

he was breathing hard adrenaline and... something else pumped though his system.

She tries to run. No different. Treat her like you did the others. They're all yours now.

He came after her his presence multiplied by inhuman expression on his face. If the mind wasn't frozen by the terrifying fact he was out to not only take another life but to completely destroy it first for no more reason then having met the girl it would have been easy to imagine something broken behind the eyes, a gear with a missing tooth, a sparking circuit, a defective brain.

She tried to close her door but with an arm gripping a knife shot between it and the frame and Drake grunted in pain as it slammed shut, before he pushed on it, forcing his way into her final sanctuary, she last place she felt safe, it wasn't anymore, never had been. And with her bastion fallen she would be his.
 
"What are you DOING Drake?!" Paris shouted back at him. She was cornered in her room. Slowly inching her way towards the window at the far side.

He looked crazy. Worse than the date they were supposed to have... There was no emotion in his face. His eyes seemed blank and empty. That knife in his hands... She choked back a cry. Faking like she was going to run left, Paris made a suddenly dive towards the window. Fighting to get the latch unlocked and lift it open!
 
He kept the door covered until she went for the window then he charged coming at her his hand grabbing her hair and pulling her away. He half push half threw her to the floor before the hand holding the knife swung around and the metal handle slammed into the side of her face. He looked down at her as the blood began to flow. He had marked her face, broken that which he once saw as perfect.

The hotel, take here there.

"Not here." this was here sanctuary but the hotel was where she liked to go because of her grandfather, the weak old man, how he had died... he was already Drake's. He grabbed her shoulder and pulled her from the floor his knife going to her throat as he dragged her from the room. Its her lucky day, she gets to watch someone die first....

Suit 274, by itself not an unusual place to wake up. The sharp sting of cold metal bit into Pars’ cheek as above her opening eyes a familiar face looked down at her.

“Drake?”

He watched her try to move, then try to figure out why she couldn’t. He watched her look at he bound wrists. Her expression changed from confusion to anger, then to fear as his hand clamped around her mouth cutting off the words she had been about to speak.

Drake put the knife he had slapped her awake with it to his lips. “Ssshhhhh shes still asleep.” He jabbed the blade at the other bed and turning her eyes in their sockets she saw another person tie to the other bed. Paris’ eyes widened as she recognized the unconscious form. Panic rose as she realized her lips were immobile, and when Drake took his had away the matt black of gorilla tape his her mouth. He almost laughed at how her eyes pleaded, but he wouldn’t. She was here to learn. “Its going to be alright Paris.” He said softly brushing the hair from her face gently. “After today everything will be alright.”

She tried to scream at him around the tape but being even stronger than duct tape it was no use. It was unclear how long he sat there, letting herself wear herself down struggling, always brushing her hair away from her face as she thrashed around in vain. When finally she was still he stood moving to the other bed. There was no gentle tapping awake he stood over Leslie knife coming down in a cruel arc sending a spray of blood flowing like a ribbon over Paris.

There was no scream, this explained why no one had noticed the murders taking place. Instead a slashed face turned towards Paris the one remaining intact eye finding Paris’ and reaching out to her for help. Her mouth taped shut just like Paris’. Drake’s hand moved to hold her head down as the blade came back sliding against her skin upwards biting in and parting the flesh like putty the muffled scream filling the room. Blood poured down her face hiding her mangled eye as drake held his prize. “Everyone always said you had nice ears.” He said letting the blood flowing out of it pool in his palm before hovering the cupped hand over Paris tilting it so that the red liquid poured over her bare stomach before his other hand rubbed in into her skin.

Drake worked faster now. With Leslie losing blood he wanted her to be awake for this. “Leslie, you know what your weakness is?” He turned the knife sideways stabbing it into her chest feeing the metal Bite into bone. He twisted the hand running it in t a line tearing her open. It was far from random torture. It ruined what people most commonly complemented. Eyes, ears, breasts. “You wear the flesh as if it matter and so make it your prison.” With a flick or his wrist the blade turned in his hand before his fingers closed around the handle stabbing into her crotch.


Her screams petered out becoming low whimpers as her flame died. Drake was still there his knife biting into Leslie’s side his hand entering her wound and tearing away a piece of her muscle. Then drake turned back to Paris gore covered hand wiping itself on her cheek. Another stab and another handful down her throat. A large slash into her stomach and both hands went inside to cover Paris’ shoulders and chest in sickly red. His fingers works around her nipples as Leslie’s breathing slowed to almost nothing.

Drake tore another piece of flesh free moving to stand over her. With a quick motion he tore the tape from her mouth and forced the meat into her mouth holding her mouth and nose closed until she swallowed using his other hand and teeth to tear another section of tape from the roll, placing it over her mouth and cutting it with the knife. “Now a part of her will always be with you.” He said his voice reaching an unnatural pitch


Then he stabbed his knife into Leslie’s chest reaching between the ribs with his hand moving back to Paris to rub it into her pussy, more for himself before he moved into her, both of them slick with blood. He took her, climaxing quickly, in his excitement before he pulled out holding Paris still as he pushed into her other hole knife, still clutched in his hand pressing into her side.
 
[DASH="#FF6EC7"]April was still having a grand ol' time at the party, making her rounds and wishing the couple well as she flitted from one person to the next, making sure that everyone was having enough champagne.

It didn't take her long however to notice that Katrinka had been absent for longer than normal, it was common for April to miss out on seeing the host for a while, it was a large party after all but it had become almost too long. She remembered seeing her head towards the wine closet, or cellar, whatever it was called April didn't care. She tapped Jon on the shoulder and let him know that she was going to look for Katrinka, but she'd be back in a little bit. Without another thought April made her way to the wine cellar.

The inside was a mess, toppled shelves and smashed bottles of what could only be very expensive wine April felt her heart jump into her throat. "Oh my gawds, someone is a klutz like me or..." her narrative was cut off from the sight of someone slumped over in the back, away from the door. It was hard to make out in the shadows but the puddle of red liquid near the woman alarmed April even more, it was either more wine or blood. Going to get someone was the last thing on the girl's mind as she rushed over to get a better look, recognizing that it was Katrinka by the outfit alone. "Miss Katrinka!" she cried out, dropping to her knees next to the woman, checking for any serious wounds, relieved that it seemed to be just wine puddled about, "Miss Katrinka! WAKE UP! What happened in here? Like, WAKE UP!" April delivered a sharp slap across the woman's cheek, hoping to wake her from her daze, although the nagging suspicion about what had really gone down had surfaced in the back of April's imagination. "Katrinka, was it like, Drake? Was it the monster?" She cried, gently shaking the woman.
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Katrinka was shaken awake. Her head pounding as blood seeped from the small wound at the back of her head. She was in one piece, dazed and confused. But as April shook her and shouted Drake's name, everything came back with crystal clarity.

"Paris...! We've got to find Paris! I've got to... call the police." Even as Katrinka struggled to get to her feet, she nearly collapsed back on the floor again. her head was pounding so hard, she could only see spots.

"The police, April! Paris is in Danger!"
 
[DASH="#FF6EC7"]April nodded in understanding, although that was so not what April was prepared to do! She retrieved her phone and dialed 911 and thrust it into Katrinka's hands, making sure she held it up to her ear. "Here, you call the cops, I'll send my brother to like, check in on you and stuff, I've got some, like unfinished business." She thrust her hand back into her purse and retrieved her pistol, making sure that it was loaded. "You like, don't croak or whatever!" She patted Katrinka's hand and set her purse down next to her, only keeping her pistol with her.

April left Katrinka battered and bruised but made her way to the ballroom. "Jon, go to the wine cellar, there's like, Katrinka in there, you need to take care of her!" She cried, heading away from the others. So like, Drake was totes being a creeper around this hotel all the time, and like he seemed to be like way into that Paris girl who worked here and her grandpa came here, so, like it'd totes make sense for him to like, come back here to be a total creepwad around here again! I bet like Paris was here somewhere for like memories and junk! But wait, there's like totes too many people but that hotel that's like, getting built would be close and perfect for his like, twisted creepy mind. She knew that since she hadn't seen Drake stalking the party that's the only logical place he would go.

April made her way to the abandoned, half-finished hotel's lobby, feeling the chill of the wind and what she thought was rain starting. Walking across the almost eerily quiet lobby she stepped towards the stairs, ready to confront the one she labelled a "monster."[/dash]
 
"April... wait...!" Katrinka's calls after the woman went unheard. As the voice of the 911 dispatch operator chimed on the phone, Katrinka immediately relayed what was happening...



Meanwhile... Bloodied, battered and bruised, Paris was vaguely coming back in to consciousness. The was a huge gash across her chest, neck to far shoulder. Blood pouring and mixing with.. with blood of some other girl... Her hands were no longer bound. No tape across her mouth. She rolled from the bed, dropping weakly to the floor and wretched. She stumbled to her feet, across the floor. Her nightgown had been tossed aside, ripped but... Paris grabbed it and pulled it over her head. All she could think of now was getting out. Out.

Slowly, limping towards the door, Paris made her way in to the hall. She heard a sound and froze. It was him. He was coming. Paris ran down the hall, her chest constricting with fear. She lurched a door open, finding a stairwell and ran upwards. Now all her thoughts were focused on running, she had no idea where she was running to...!

Paris crashed through the door at the top of the steps and on to the roof of the building. it was freezing. icy cold. Snow was still covering parts of the roof, even though the weather had warmed and was now drizzling frosty rain.

She was trapped on the roof.
 
[DASH="#FF6EC7"]The silence as April climbed the steps was unnerving to say the least, she was sure she could hear her own heart pounding in her chest, her grip on her pistol tightening as each step brought her closer to confrontation. From somewhere in the stairwell she could hear the sounds of a door slamming open and feet running. HE'S HERE! April thought, a frown crossing her face and her arm pulling up, bringing the pistol level with her chest for now, she was prepared.

She ran as quickly as her legs would carry her up the stairs, finding an open door to one of the hallways. "Is this where you're, like hiding, you monster?" She said quietly, almost a whisper under the pounding of her heart. She almost felt him near, almost smelling him in the air around her. Somewhere down the almost finished hallway another door was open and April swore she could see a faint light on in there. THIS IS IT! Her mind cried out as she charged forward towards the open door, her gun held at the ready like she'd seen on those cop shows and taught from her friends at the NRA.

What she saw as she pivoted into the doorway completely caught her off guard. It was Leslie, or at least, part of her. April's stomach fought against her and she wretched a couple of times before vomiting on the carpet of the hotel room. Tears stung at her eyes but something bubbled up after that, a fearsome blind rage, a deep urge to destroy Drake utterly and completely welled up inside her. From her lips escaped something more than a scream, it was much more than that it was a primal bloodthirsty scream, a howl of sadness and anger mixed into one scream that echoed its way through the hallway, carried out the open door of the stairwell and up to the roof where Paris had found herself with the monster.

"I'M COMING FOR YOU ASSHOLE!" She spat, anger guiding her feet as she stomped and screamed her way back to the stairwell and up the stairs, the time for reckoning was finally at hand and April would get her retribution for all of the terror that Drake had caused to her and the people that Katrinka had simply tried to help.
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Nowhere to go now.

He chased her up the straits and out onto the roof as a gust of wind buffeted the building. Droplets of water were beginning to fall. In the distance thunder muttered as Drake looked at his frightened victim. Gone was the creature of conflicting voices, gone was the self doubt, the twisted and arguing voices. He was one voice, one mind one purpose.

Wes that scream the wind?

He rushed at hr and she had nowhere to go and as she cried out as he grappled her and his knife pressed into her throat.

"Why did you have to run Paris? You were so perfect, so... different." the world shifted around him and he wasn't on the roof anymore. He wasn't a young adult anymore. Before him bruised battered and terrified was not Paris, but someone else, someone who was never real and never would be, the fallen angel of his dreams, the unattainable icon of perfection his twisted soul knew it could never be, never have.

The door slammed open behind him and he turned blade on Paris' throat. "STAY BACK." he shouted as the strengthening rain began to wash the blood for Paris' naked body. "I'M NOT LETTING YOU TAKE HER FROM ME!" There it was, the blackest creature, come to take her away. Dark suit, fake eyes dripping with insincere kindness. A heart that preached happiness and security but delivered only pain and empty promises. "YOU'RE NOT TAKING ME FROM HER I'M ALL SHE HAS CAN'T YOU HEAR HER."
 
[DASH="#FF6EC7"]The anger coursed through April like the storm that was brewing just past the walls of the stairwell that she climbed, each step bringing her closer to the end. No, not the end. HIS END. The pistol was comforting in her hand, she whispered to it sweet nothings as the final stairs passed underneath her feet. Now the only thing separating her from this end was the flimsy door leading to the roof. Her foot found itself planted squarely in the center of the door and it was sent flying back, sticking into a pile of snow and staying open. April stepped out onto the roof, each step deliberate and purposeful. No longer the airheaded bimbo from the beach, April was a vessel of rage incarnate, of pure, unadulterated hatred and destruction. The cries of the crazed man meant nothing to her, she heard them but they echoed in her ear, hollow and pointless.

"I don't give a FUCK what you want!" She shouted, the rain becoming heavier, almost torrential. Thunder rattled around them, vibrating inside of their very souls it seemed. To April it seemed as if the world about them had come screeching to a halt, leaving just the three of them on the rooftop and the uneasy noise of rain hitting the concrete beneath their feet and the occasional roar of thunder. "I'm so sick of your SHIT!" She cried, raising her gun and firing, the bullet flying straight and true, scratching the side of his cheek, nearly tearing it open with the force. His scream, if he had one was drowned in a clap of thunder, and a flash of lightning gave everything and eerie glow.

"IF I CAN'T KEEP HER, THEN NOBODY WILL!" He screamed, spinning Paris back and letting her drop towards the edge and out of April's sight.

"YOU MOTHER FUCKER!" She screamed, raising the pistol, all her anger, her rage, her heartbreak funneled into that finger wrapped so neatly around the trigger. She pulled it, and again, and again, and again, squeezing it with all her hatred for this creature, each bullet finding its way into Drake's body at one point or another, not that April was paying attention. Finally the world had seemingly gone quiet, the only sound April could hear was the lonely click of her pistol, emptied of its bullets. April's breath was haggered as she waited for something, anything to happen. Maybe she would be struck down by a stray lightning bolt, or maybe Drake would finally come after her with that knife and end everything, but all she could do now was wait.

Wait for the end.​

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He stared at her the click sounding like a relieve. He was now free to charge at her and give her the same mercy she was wiling to give him, only his feet refused to move. His hand felt his body and his finger disappeared into it, looking down and pulling it out he way the water around him red, his shirt and body punctured. Everything fell away, anger, need, hunger, frustration, his knife. He lifted his head as his body began to tremble, the suited figure was gun and there was only a woman in a wed dress... holding a gun.

The world was the last to fall away, his foot slipped and he fell heavily to the parapet before rolling off of it into the void. He through he saw Paris flash past, what was she do...

We're meant to be dead.

He opened his eyes. Everything hurt but everything was numb. There was someone there pulling his arm, bragging him away from where he was meant to die to a hidden corner shes she cradled his head in her lap her cat ears dripping with the rain as she pawed his face. "I'm sorry." he breathed "It was you all along." There were footsteps in the alley and they both looked, behind their dumpster noone could see the, but still there she was and for the second time Drake looked down the barrel of a gun. The shot came and the woman walked off and at first he shought she had missed, but then Alecia, with a soft mew slumped over.
 
EPILOGUE

Some weeks later life had returned to some sort of normalcy. The media had a field day with the identity of the Dating Service Serial Killer being known. His body found at the ground next to the hotel so bloodied, broken and mangled that the only way they knew it was him was by the I.D. in his pockets. Elswen was one again able to feel safe.

April was heralded as a hero, though she could never quite explain how she managed to solve the mystery that even the police could not crack.

Paris never quite recovered from the trauma. Going from the hospital straight in to a psychological institution. Unable to face reality and occasionally becoming violent towards others. Those that came to visit her was met with that cold rejection or even physical attack if they dared to come close enough.

Katrinka's Dating Service officially closed. Even after the capture of the Serial Killer, there was no way to repair the damaged reputation to the business.

The one silver lining was the love that was born, despite the adversity. Couples that were able to walk away and find happiness in their lives. Now free to live without fear.

THE END


.....or is it?​