The Skull Man: Part 3

HAZEL

His hands were always ice cold. He barely touched her, but she could tell by how the others shivered at his caress. Fear contributed to their shaking bodies, of course. That unrelenting feeling of dread pooling at the bottom of your stomach, consistently reminding you how breakable you really are beneath your mask, was nothing compared to the torture she'd be forced to put them through soon.

She almost wanted to hear them scream. To give her some kind of sign that they wanted to keep living, but she knew it wouldn't help them. They were too close to death to realize nothing they tried would change what was about to happen.

"Hazel, are you ready?" the dark figure asked, stepping aside as he handed her the sharpened ice pick, giving her the perfect view of her new victims, who were chained against the ice blocks behind them. The others had been easier to kill, their actions had brought them their violent ends, but this time she hesitated. She actually knew these people, passed them in the hallways in between classes, even went to some of their lavish unsupervised parties. She had no right to hurt them like this. But she couldn't help herself.

The Skull Man said they were here for a reason, and she was trained not to question that. Still, her hand shook with every step she took towards them.

"They don't deserve your mercy, Hazel. Their truths will come to light one day and you will thank me," he declared, as if it would make any of it easier for her. She had already used the pliers to pry their fingernails off one by one earlier, their screams filling her with an exhilaration she couldn't explain, a high that filled a need she didn't know she had until she heard the screams of her first victim.

He always said you never forget your first kill. She always wondered who had been his.

"I'm doing you a favor. Trust me," Hazel reassured all of them, while they slowly picked up their heads from their chests to look at her, with one last glance of hope. The emptiness in their gazes informed her they were close to death already, and the torture she was about to give them wouldn't make a difference. They were going to die, and she didn't want the Skull Man to be the last person they saw before she took their lives.

At least that's what she kept telling herself, as she slowly made the deep incision using the tip of the ice pick, excitement warming her frozen body as the rivers of blood trickled down their throats.

"Hazel?! Baby, you're okay. I'm here."

When she realized the familiar voice came from Carter, she allowed it to pull her out of the dark place her mind had gone to, the same place the Skull Man made sure she'd never forget, a cabin filled with the silent screams of the victims he had claimed she killed. She still had a hard time putting that piece of the puzzle together since she'd had the habit of blacking out and losing time she couldn't recall. Whenever she had woken up from that state of helplessness, her hands had always been covered in blood and a dead body stood at her feet. He had praised her sadistic methods of torture, constantly reminding her that all she was doing was embracing who she really was, a natural born killer.

Hazel could count on both hands how many times she had told that story to her doctors, begging them to believe her, pleading for them to never let her out of that nut house until she was cured. They chalked it up to the ramblings of a young girl, whose friends and family had all been slaughtered by her boyfriend. Gave her the same answer over and over again until she had convinced herself it was the truth.

What if it wasn't? What if Dante really had been innocent all along? Her heart pounded at the growing realization as she focused on the reflection in the window beside her. The sharp lines of a tattoo resembling a creepy skull at the base of the man's neck reminded her of why she had screamed in the middle of their dinner date.

"What happened?" Hazel asked her fiancé, who took her hand in his and glared at everyone in the room who's eyes had turned to look at them with curiosity.

"I was hoping you could tell me," Carter answered after clearing his throat. Hazel looked up at the window once again and the man with the skull tattoo had disappeared. Taking a good look around the bar, she noticed no one had the same tattoo that had caused her to go into full panic mode. Did she imagine it? Had she been hallucinating again?

"What time is it?" she inquired as she reached for her cup of cherry soda and finished the rest of it in a few gulps. She needed the caffeine if she planned on staying awake until her fiancé returned from his business trip in a few days. She hated being alone. It was only in her solitude that she found herself spiraling deeper and deeper into the black hole her frightening past created.

"Almost seven. Listen, Hazel, I can stay if you—" Carter began but she silenced him with her lips and rubbed his inner thigh underneath the table, trying to calm him down enough for him to forget to treat her like a fragile piece of glass.

"I'll be fine. Elle is staying with me until you get back. I can't promise the house will be same when you get back though. She's a ruthless Martha Stewart," Hazel jested, attempting to lighten up the mood with the mention of their mutual college friend, Elle Dubois. From the look on Carter's face, he wasn't entirely convinced she was okay, but he didn't push. Which was what she loved about the man since the day she ran into him in group counselling during their college days. He'd been the rambling nerd with an addiction to online gambling, while the crazy girl beside him had trouble differentiating reality from fantasy, truth from lies.

Carter had gotten over his addiction, while Hazel had kept her hallucinations and nightmares to herself, faking her recovery. No reason to add more fuel to the fire that's been burning since the day that maniacal sadistic bastard kidnapped her and kept her hostage for an entire year before she escaped.

"That doesn't really make me feel any better." His serious tone made her laugh, which was purely out of habit. She wasn't used to people giving a shit about her. Laughing broke the uncomfortable tension she had between her and everyone else who chose to be around her.

"I know what will," she alleged with a teasing grin, as she leaned in closer to his earlobe and bit the hanging tender skin, causing him to swallow hard and chuckle.

"Car?"

"Check first," Hazel reminded him, while he smirked in response and placed a twenty dollar bill on the table before grabbing her hand, and pulling her out of the booth. They had parked in the lot beside the bar, and by the time they made it to the back seat, Carter was already hard for her, ready for her greedy hands and slick folds to give him the release he needed.

While he unzipped his pants and covered his shaft with a condom, Hazel was busy looking up at the street lamp shedding light over them. She would've cursed at the rough manner Carter had entered her without warning, but she was too busy focusing on the screams inside her head, hating how it somehow fueled her desire further.

"Harder. They're getting louder..." Hazel pleaded in soft whispers, barely audible to the man pounding into her while he grunted louder and louder, and she closed her eyes, jumping right into the abyss of rage and sexual arousal she always tried to bury deep inside of her. She wanted to take it out on Carter, since he was the only outlet available to her but she couldn't let him see this side of her. He'd run for the hills and she wasn't prepared for that kind of devastation. Not when her mind wasn't all there.

"Almost there....oh...oh! Fuck, I'm coming baby...." Carter informed her in between heavy pants, as he still piped into her with his swollen cock. Her nails scratched at his lower back, letting him know he needed to go in deeper to make her climax. Once he did, Hazel looked up at the street lamp again, then closed her eyes as she pictured the man with the skull on his neck.

Her laughter echoed inside the car, as she felt her insides pull and contract while she reached her peak and the screams inside her head began to quiet down.