Chapter 8: Murder gone Viral by Stephen Simpson
Richard is half asleep, half awake. The whole exercise of this morning has him worn out. Also, during the last week he had not had a lot of sleep with watching and following their prey, studying and writing exams. It is now starting to take its toll and he is happy that by next week he will be able to just sit back and take a break before he must go home for Thanksgiving. He is not looking forward to it, his mother married his third stepfather four months ago, and judging by the last two, he can only imagine the fun and games awaiting him. He is no longer a sad, weak little boy who had just lost his dad in a horrific car accident, a boy who is an easy target for a man with quick fists. No. That little boy is grown up now and will give back as good as he receives.
When Gareth arrives at the cabin, he pushes the hooter twice and Richard comes walking out of the front door, still a little dazed, between sleep and wakefulness.
Gareth laughs friendly when he sees him, “You having a good sleep in the middle of the day?”
“I just dozed off a little. It is about time you get here.”
“The shops were busy, and I had to stand in an hour-long line to buy the supplies. Help me get the stuff inside.”
They carry the shopping bags inside and leave them standing on the kitchen counter. They each pull a beer from the pack and then they sit down on the couch, next to each other.
“Give me a moment to catch my breath, and then we will start with the video.”
Richard throws back his head as the golden liquid rushes down his throat. He swallows the cool, refreshing liquid. “Will it be uploaded by this afternoon?”
“Easy.”
“Good. I cannot wait for the most important part to start.”
Richard walks down the steps and when he gets down into the basement, he says with an excited voice, “Okay. So, who is first?”
The tension in the room is palpable.
He walks into the first cubicle randomly, and he starts to unlock Max from his handcuffs. He takes the chain in his hand, twirling it around his fist and then he orders Max to stand up while the kid looks up at him nervously.
He pushes Max in the back hard, and Max stumbles as he tries to regain his footing. Richard nudges Max up the stairs forcefully.
When they reach the upstairs lounge area, he shoves Max onto a chair in front of a white sheet strung across a line pulled taut across the length of the room.
Max sits down in the high back chair and moves his bottom backward so that his back sits up straight with the back of the chair.
Then only does he notice Gareth, sitting behind the large flat screen computer monitor.
Gareth angles the webcam while he keeps his eyes on the monitor in front of him until he finds the perfect perspective.
Max is centred in the screen; the lighting is perfect. His black hair is long and curls up above his ears and in his neck. There are light freckles speckled across his nose, and his big grey eyes are huge and framed darkly in long lashes. His eyes are dull and sad and tell a story of heart-breaking despair.
Gareth says in a soft, encouraging voice, “You are the only one here whose name we do not know.”
Max says uncertainly, “Max.”
“So Max, tell us your story. Why were you living on the streets?”
“It’s personal.”
“Let me explain why you are here.” Gareth pauses and looks at Max thoughtful. Max feels reluctantly as if this young man cares about his well-being. “You have been carefully selected by us to participate in our online reality show. I predict this video I will be uploading later today will go viral and it will without a doubt be a worldwide internet sensation.”
Max frowns as he looks back at Gareth uncertainly.
Gareth continues in a quiet voice, “You have to make me, and the world believe you should be the one who wins at the end of the six-day run. You have to convince us why you are the perfect youngster and why you should be victorious, above the other five kids down in the basement.”
Max interrupts him, “What do I win?”
Richard laughs boisterously from the kitchen area, where he is leaning against the kitchen counter, drinking another beer.
Gareth smiles enigmatically. “Well, Max, it is really up to you. How much is your life worth to you? Does it have the same worth as a million dollars, or maybe a recording contract, fame and fortune?”
Unsure Max asks softly, “My life depends on this?”
Gareth nods his head. “It sure does, so I suggest you make a compelling argument of why viewers should choose you.” Gareth looks at the screen in front of him again and fiddles with the webcam facing Max a little bit more. When he looks up at Max again, he says, “So? Shall we start again? Why were you living on the streets, Max?”
Max moves himself back on the chair uncomfortably. “My name is Max and I am nine years old. My mom left me and my dad when I was four years old, so it used to be just me and my dad. My dad has an evil temper and sometimes he will wake up in a foul mood. Usually I stay out of his way, but sometimes I can never tell what it would be that will trigger his mood swing from being happy and smiling to hitting me with the back of his hand across my face.” Max stops nervously and looks down at his hands twined together tightly in his lap. Uneasily he fingers a long scar across the palm of his right hand. He wonders if he should say it, will it make people choose him. He continues with a stutter, “Before my gran died, she once told me I am too young to know for sure, but I like boys more than I like girls.”
Gareth asks amused, “You mean you are gay?”
Ashamed Max lowers his head even further. It is as if he shrinks into himself, and he says, barely audible, “Yes.”
Gareth chuckles. “So, speak up, Max. Be proud and announce it to the world.”
Defiantly Max lifts his head and speaks directly into the webcam, his eyes do not waver from the conspicuous lens. “My dad kicked me out of the house just after I turned seven years old because I am gay. I decided then that living on the streets, scavenging for food and shelter is better than living with him. I am not sure what constitutes a perfect young person, but I would hope choosing to live the way you want to live even though it might be difficult would be a good quality to have.”
Gareth smiles as he hovers the mouse over the screen and clicks the pause button. “Perfect Max, you will get my vote.”
Richard moves closer and pulls Max up by his arm roughly. He twists the chain hanging from Max’s arm around his hand again until it pulls tight. Prodding Max every now and again in the small of his back, he pushes him to the bathroom.
Brusquely he instructs Max, “Use the loo and be quick about it.”
The door to the little room remains a little ajar, and Max struggles to use the toilet, with his arm being pulled awkwardly away from his body.
When Max comes out of the room, Richard grabs him by the scruff of the neck and shoves him back to the door leading down into the basement.
After Richard shackles Max to the floor in his own private cubicle again, he moves to the cubicle next door and he unlocks Alex.
He prods Alex in the back. Slowly they walk up the stairs. The muscles in Richard grow stiff as he prepares himself should Alex try to swing back at him or try to make a run for it. Alex is as meek as a lamb though and walks up the stairs in front of Richard obligingly.
Alex knows his dad is already out there looking for him, and he believes with all the money his dad has, it will only be moments before the entire police force breaks through the doors and windows to rescue him.
Upstairs Alex sits down onto the chair without Richard having to push him down into it.
Again, Gareth angles the webcam until he has Alex in the centre of the screen. The light shines perfectly on his flawless features. Blond hair - perfectly trimmed in the latest fashion. Green eyes with hazel flecks, and an easy smile which lights up his eyes. He has a faultless nose, above full rose-red lips, which rest upon a strong jaw.
“So, Alex, tell us what makes you the perfect teen.”
“My dad will hunt you down and kill you. You made a big mistake making me drunk and then abducting me.”
“Now, now, let’s not get all worked up.” Gareth smiles sarcastically. “We are all here now, so let’s make the best of it,” Gareth repeats the story he told Max earlier of why they are here, and how Alex’s life depends on him convincing the viewers to choose him above the other five.
Kindly Gareth says, “So, shall we start again? What makes you the perfect teen, Alex?”
Alex squares his shoulders and he boasts, “I am a football star at my school, with scouts phoning and trying to sign me daily. I have a bright future ahead of me and I am living the American dream. My life is like a high school musical and I am the star.”
Gareth looks at him reproachfully across the monitor, and he recognizes most of the qualities and personality traits in Alex are the same as his own. He thinks he has everything, but in fact he has nothing.
Gareth asks amused, “Anything else to convince the viewers why they should choose you?”
“No. People aren't stupid, and they will choose me because I am the perfect teen.”
“Okay then.” Gareth nods his head at Richard, who is standing off to the side. “I am done with this one. Do not bring any more, I think we should let them go up into the contest two at a time. We only have thirty seconds for each video, and I doubt I will be able to make an effective video if we try to put all six of them in all at once.”
Alex asks, “Am I up against that gay-boy?”
Gareth frowns as he says, “Yes, you are.”
Alex smiles, pleased. “Easy win.”
Richard yanks him up out of the chair. He feels agitated with the boastfulness of Alex and deep down he wishes he gets voted off first, he will enjoy killing this one.
Richard pulls the chain around Alex’s arm roughly and pulls him to the basement door.
Gareth laughs amused. “Richard, toilet first.”
Richard considers this for a moment and then reluctantly he pulls Alex toward the bathroom roughly.
When Alex goes into the little room, he pushes the door closed, although it would not close properly because the metal chain is in the way.
Kicking the door open, Richard hisses, “Just do it. You have nothing I want.”
Richard leans against the wall facing away from the open bathroom door. When Alex comes walking out of the room, he pushes him ahead of him back to the basement. As they walk down the stairs, Richard suppresses the urge to kick Alex in the small of his back to send him sprawling down the stairs.
He locks the chain onto the metal ring in the floor with the industrial padlock again, and then methodically he fills the water and food bowls, ignoring the eyes looking up at him silently, pleadingly. When he walks into Emily’s cubicle she scurries across the concrete floor and cringes in the corner.
As he switches off the light, after he is finished with his tasks, he smiles when Emily cries out in panic. When he was little, he had to learn quickly that there are no monsters in the pitch black of your bedroom, the monsters walk around all day long in broad daylight. Monsters do not hide away in dark corners. They prey on the lonely rich widowed women with young kids.
When he gets upstairs, Gareth is hunched in front of the computer screen, his eyes are focused on the images, and his finger clicks wildly on the mouse as he moves it across the mouse pad.
Richard sits down and clicks the remote control to switch on the television. He settles down into the couch as he watches a horror movie about a normal alligator, which lived in a normal swamp, but then pollution leaked into his habitat and now the alligator has grown to monstrous proportions and has developed an unquenchable hunger for human flesh.
As the credits roll up onto the screen, Gareth gives a long-satisfied sigh. “Finished. Come look.”
Richard gets up off the couch and walks around to Gareth. He stands behind Gareth and wait for him to click the play icon.
Ominous piano music starts playing on a black screen, and then with an explosion of sound, a yellowish skull exPLODES out of the black background. The words: The Death Factor shimmer above and below the skull.
Richard recognizes the voice, but it is distorted and sounds like it is coming from the bottom of a deep pit. The voice announces excitedly, “Six days, six contestants and only one survivor. Which one of them will win the ultimate price, their life? Who will be your favourite? Is it the homeless nine-year-old boy with the freckles across his nose and the big, sad eyes?”
Ten seconds of the edited video show Max announcing he is gay and that his father kicked him out of the house because of this.
The voice continues, “Or will it be the handsome high school football hero?” Ten seconds play across the screen as Alex boasts he is the leading star in his own high school movie. The anonymous voice implores eagerly, “Remember, your vote is important, so vote now by entering your contestant’s number in the comments hereunder.” The video fades to black.
Excitement fills Richard. “That’s perfect.”
Gareth connects to the internet with the disposable cell phone he bought using Richard’s dead father’s name. He knows by doing this he has implicated Richard, because the police will quickly realize the connection to Richard, but he has already purchased a fake passport for himself, withdrawn most of his money from his trust fund, and packed it in the false bottoms of his three suitcases.
All of this is waiting for him in the trunk of his car at the airport. After he leaves the cabin at the end of this week, he is going to disappear forever. When the police apprehend Richard, Gareth will be long gone, living a new life with a new identity.
He loads the video onto their fake video channel and then he moves away from the desk. As he stands up, he pushes his palms in the small of his back as he stretches the stiffness from being hunched forward for so long.
Richard says disappointed, “It is such a damn shame we will never get recognition for this.”
Gareth smiles. “A little lesson I learned from my father is things done in secret gives you the biggest satisfaction.”
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