CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Those men! How could they know who he was? He had a ball cap on, and he’d disguised himself. They couldn’t be smarter than he was.

The woman he was after. She would have been perfect for his finale tonight. After all, she was already dressed for the holiday. Her skintight outfit made her look like the whore she was. That satin blouse was showing off her breasts, her nipples poking through the thin fabric.

He tried to be kind, woo her with his charm, but she kept pulling away from him on the dance floor. How dare she do that!

When he was certain he’d lost the men from the bar, he slowed the tiny boat down and shone the lights into the bayou. It was easy to get lost back here, but the bar had been kind enough to point the way for those wanting to visit. He just needed to get back to the dock where he’d stolen the boat and to his car. Then, he could head back into town and find what he needed.

It was now after midnight. The parties were in full swing, and everyone was probably too drunk to recognize what he was doing or capable of. As always, the Quarter would provide what he needed most. Blood.

It was really simple. Blood turned him on. It made him excited. It made him want more. It made him thirsty, hungry, and feeling adventurous. A little bit of blood, and he was a happy man. Blood from a sinner was even better, and thankfully, there was no shortage of those.

He recognized the irony of his thoughts. He wasn’t stupid. Killing others was a sin but not if they were bigger sinners and needed to be removed from the planet. That was his duty as a man of God.

The statement almost made him laugh. When the prison told him he’d never leave unless he showed remorse, he saw his chance. Turn to God, or at least pretend to, and counsel others.

So, that’s what he did. He studied the bible, got ordained online, and began counseling his fellow inmates.

He never expected that it would be his biggest opportunity to learn from them. Murderers, rapists, kidnappers, and everything in between were at his fingertips. He’d have them confess their sins and tell him in detail what those sins actually were.

And he took notes of everything.

He parked the boat at the dock, carefully stepped out, and walked slowly, calmly toward his car. Even along the bayou there were huge bonfires as people danced and drank in the revelry of the night.

“Sinners,” he muttered, “all sinners.”

He still held the dummy grenade in his hand and tossed it behind him into the bayou. Those fools at the bar thought it was live. He was superior to them all. He wondered how his guests in his little home were doing and decided to pop in and see.

Disappointment at what he found only sparked his anger. They were all dead. He hadn’t even had his fun yet, and they’d died on him!

Even angrier now, he kicked their dead bodies and dragged them all to the car. He could barely close the trunk but didn’t care if their bodies were broken by the force of him slamming the hatch on them.

The entire drive to the water, he cursed them for ruining his night. One by one he unloaded them, shoving them into the water. As the last one was pushed out into the bayou, a dark pair of eyes emerged from the water coming at him rapidly.

He jumped back, realizing it was an alligator.

“You scared me, big fella,” he laughed.

The alligator continued to come toward him and ran to the car door, slamming it behind him. The gator didn’t back down, hissing from his perch by the door. It was as if he were attacking, and normally, alligators didn’t just attack at random.

“Fine. I won’t dump them here again.”

Stupid alligator just continued to hiss and glare directly at him. It was as if he were giving him a warning, telling him that this was his land, his water.

But as he drove away from the murky water, the alligator never moved as if watching his direction. You could still hear him and his hissing sounds, and unless he was mistaken, there were others behind him.

When the eyes finally faded, the good reverend pointed the car in the direction of the city and toward his ultimate finale.