Two Page Shorts - Nick Venom (big ebook reader txt) 📗

Max came back to reality. He ended up sleeping on the table in the cabin. Joyce used the floor, away from the open hatch. Max took a peek around before deciding to move. He groaned as he moved his bandaged leg over the air and onto the floor. He drew his other leg and with a pinch of pain, he jumped and landed with a “thud”. Joyce woke up immediately with her dagger that she cradled in her arms. Her skin has patches of blood from obvious contact with the dagger. Her hair was a mess, but it wasn’t any different from when he first met her. Her baggy clothes and shapeless body panned her as a shut-in. “Oh, you’re…” Her words were interrupted by a yawn. “Sorry. Where are we going?” She asked.

“Leaving,” Max said. He moved slowly towards the door with weapons on hand. “Police tracking us.” He announced. Max walked outside of the cabin and shielded his eyes with a hand. The sun glowed overhead. The trees shielded most of the rays, but a couple bypasses the branches. The cabin was deep into the forests, but it would only take weeks, maybe days, to find the cabin. The car that Joyce hijacked stood in front of him revealed. She made no effort in hiding it. Max turned towards Joyce, who limped out of the cabin, and smacked her with an open hand.

She fell backward and onto the ground. She looked up at Max with a big red imprint of his hand on her right cheek. Max wasn’t scrawny where his punches would leave no damage to his foes. He had trained his body to near perfection to prepare for his crimes. On the other hand, Joyce was the complete opposite. She was a drunkard with a scrawny and frail body. The only reason she kept her weight was off the alcohol she ingested. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have had a chance against Marie.

Max shouted at Joyce for her foolishness. “They will track us with this!” He smacked her again similarly to pummeling her into the ground. Her open wounds, from the fight with Marie and cradling a dagger, oozed out blood. Max shouted and smacked her again breaking her face. Permanent scars showed up and blood spilled out and surrounded her body. Max winded up a final punch to end her, but a scream stopped him. He stopped and looked around. Two teenagers---both around sixteen and different sexes. One was a boy and the other was a girl whose scream originated from. Max put on a twisted smile as he took notice of them. They were high schoolers who planned to do “naughty” things in the forest where they would’ve been unsupervised. They had on their uniforms of a navy blue polo and matching pants/skirt. “If you want to serve your purpose then kill them,” He whispered. Joyce took notice and, with blood pouring out of her wounds, collected herself. She picked up her dagger and without a moment’s notice, she sprinted towards the teens. A twisted smile locked up on her face. The creepy smile of a clown sprinting at two defenseless teens.

A week later…

Joyce had killed the two teens and moved their bodies to fit with the rest of the corpses in what she called the “Corpse Pit”. The Corpse Pit held the bodies of five teens and the head of Marie. Joyce’s bruises and scars had already started healing. Some of the scars wouldn’t leave her face creating an image similar to a creepy doll with a name that started a “C” and was only a couple of feet tall. Max parked the car into the cabin with a tight snug and lit the car on fire. Max’s gut signaled to him that the police were close to finding him. He needed to dispose of the evidence and escape the area. His target was a family reunion hosted by his older brother, Logan. It was being set up in the state over. Joyce asked him the same question again. Max raised his hand and Joyce shuddered. She, for some reason, liked the pain.

Max ordered Joyce to get a new car. In the meantime, Max decided to visit a familiar location. The setting of the first crime he committed. The house, now abandoned, started to deteriorate. The brick house was slowly crumbling under its own weight. Max observed as a realtor discussed renovating plans with her company. The realtor dressed in a fancy black suit with matching high heels. The company official wore a gray suit with a nametag “Harry” on his right nipple. His slick back black hair glowed in the sun rays. The realtor’s straight black hair dipped past her waist and curled at the ends. “Do with have the budget to renovate this house?” The realtor asked.

“Our company can’t afford to renovate such a high-risk house. There was a bloody murder here only two weeks ago. You can’t expect somebody to live here yet.” He spat at the realtor. “The God damn police haven’t cleaned the place out.” he turned away from her and started walking towards his pickup truck. A red pickup with no rear license and peeling paint. The driver’s mirror was dented and the hood was floating, slightly under the guy’s line of sight. He got into the car and shouted. “If you want to renovate this house, then do it with your own money! Otherwise, leave this damn house alone!’ He drove away in a huff of smoke. The realtor stomped around in a fit of anger before getting in her red Blazer truck and hurtled away. Max disappeared without a trace. The neighbor opened his front door to see what the commotion was going outside but noticed nobody. His porch was very revealing and left little spots to hide aside from whenever the door was opened. A small hiding spot was created whenever the door fully extended and hit the wall to it's left creating a triangle of confusion. The neighbor looked around his porch and front lawn not looking at the hiding spot that he created. Fearing the safety of his family, Police officer Lo, drove his family to his parents. After attempting to stop Max from killing Allison, which failed but led to Max escaping injured. Lo waited patiently every day for Max to arrive and dish out his revenge. Two weeks and he hadn’t shown up. Lo walked into his home and closed the door not seeing Max hiding in the triangle of confusion.  

After the death of their parents, Hank and Grace Riser were relocated to their uncle’s house. Jake Riser lived the closest to their own house and was seemingly the target of Max’s frustrations after killing Toby. Jake planned to take the siblings to visit their relatives while also dispersing the paranoia of their father’s killer in the area. Logan, Jake’s older brother, was hosting a family reunion.

Lo waited in silence as he heard footsteps approach him. Lo carried his handgun. He hammered a bullet into the chamber. I have one chance to hit the bastard. This time it’ll be his head, Lo thought. Lo listened to the footsteps as they got closer. Five, six, seven, Lo counted in his head the number of steps Max took. Max stopped moving after taking fourteen steps. Lo started panicking and his hands trembled while waiting for Max to reveal himself. Lo was sitting down at an old coffee chair that let out a sigh every time he sat on it. It collected dust and started withering. Lo, a police officer without a lock of hair, wearing his uniform stood from the chair and waited. Lo watched every point waiting for Max. He heard sounds coming from outside of his right window. On the left was another window and in front of him was his television and behind it was the front door. His living room was quite small.

Lo closed in onto the window and with one hand he propped it open. He took a quick peek outside of the window when something jumped at him. He ducked and reared back. On the window stood a squirrel. Lo took in a death breath and laughed. “I wasn’t expecting a squirrel.” He said. Lo turned around to face Max. Max stood in front of him with an ax on hand.

The neighbors reported hearing screams coming from their neighbor’s house. The screams came from Lo, who was killed by a split-brain and bloodloss. Max left before being sighted.

The neighbors reported hearing screams coming from their neighbor’s house. The screams came from Marie Riser. Gunshots and bottles being smashed were also noticed. The front door was also smashed in and there was a pool of blood that police found out didn’t belong to Marie or Max. Instead, it belonged to a mentally challenged teen named Joyce Janet. The police chief picked up the reports and evidence, along with the notice of two teens disappearing, and declared a manhunt for Max and his accomplice. The East Emerald Forest Preserve was the main focus of the manhunt.

“You’re the police chief?” An FBI detective asked in his dark blue outfit. He held a case file under his right armpit. He stood in the police chief’s closed-off officer.

“Warren. You are?” The police chief responded.

"Hanson. Detective Hanson.” He took the case file out and opened it. “I’m here to investigate the case of Max Riser. Nicknamed “The Halloween Riser” correct?”

“Yes,”

I see that you’ve pinpointed his location to the forest preserve. Oh, and he might have an accomplice. A young girl, Joyce Janet.” Hanson noted. He skimmed through the file and closed it with a loud sigh. “Have you found anything in the forest?”

“No, not yet,” Warren stated.

Then, I’ll start there-” He was interrupted by a loud crash sound and quick footsteps. An officer ran in, out of breath.

He scanned the face of the detective before spilling his intel. “We found a cabin burning in the woods. We’re checking out now for any evidence that’ll lead us to Max or Joyce.” Hanson looked at Warren and when both eyes met, ran out of the officer. They got into their cars and raced off with their lights on full display. This would be the only evidence they had.

Over the radio, another officer, this one a female, called in a report. “Police officer Lo is confirmed dead. A 10-62.”

Hanson turned towards Warren, who was driving. “That’s Toby Riser’s neighbor isn’t it.” Warren nodded. Silence filled the air as they passed Lo’s house and moved towards the forest preserve. Another one fell.

Joyce got a minivan and returned to pick up Max. She smiled through her scars and laughed as if they were two teens in love running away. Max got into the car and peeked into the backseats. In it were two people. They looked vaguely familiar. He noticed the nametag “Harry” on one of the bodies. He peeled his eyes off the bodies and onto the rearview mirror. A car followed behind them. It didn’t have the obvious police car color scheme of blue and white. It was a black F150 truck. “Oh,” Joyce said taking notice of the truck behind them. “Get ready,” She said with a devious smile. She slammed on the brakes and forcing the car behind them to swerve out of the way. The truck ran into a ditch that followed parallel to the road. Joyce got out of the car and ran towards the guy.
Max shook his head. “What's wrong with her? Does she think of this as a simple field trip?” He looked around. “We need to get to the reunion as soon as we can. Not stuck here while she exacts her fantasies.” He ranted. He looked at the rearview