Throat cut, eyes glassed over, the mouth frozen open in death. It's always the worst finding them like this, as if I'm the patron saint of finding dead shit. Not only dead though, no, if that were the case, I'd just call it in and move on. No, they've been...what's that word they always use on TruTV? Eviscerated. Sometimes I'll find blood and pieces of intestine some twenty feet away, weighing down an African Daisy or some Wisteria. And they're always stretched up on one of the trees. Crucified almost. The limbs are always stretched out like that old DaVinci thing with the guy in the circle, a lot of the time, the bones are broken from being bent back over the curve of the tree trunk. And always that same face full of frozen horror.
No one has ever reported anything, during the killings I mean...A park this big you would think someone would hear the screams and at least say something. Then again, it seems like it usually happens at night, so I'm betting anyone who does hear anything is either too drunk to care or figures they're better off minding their own business. Can't say I blame them, if I was sharing space at night with the people who are doing this, I'd leave 'em the fuck alone too. Still, it really makes me sad you know? What they do here in my park, killing and making a mess. Ask me a year ago, if I thought people were capable of this kind of stuff and I would have told you no, but seeing what I've seen now, yeah, I know better.
This is the worst one so far, from seeing all this, I'm starting to see that whoever is doing this is getting worse. The police have questioned me about it and all I can tell them is what I see, the aftermath. They nod and grunt and write in their little notebooks. Then a month or so down the line, I find another one and the whole thing starts over again. I've learned to cope, but this...this one is bad. It's been completely split open from head to toe, the guts have been draped over it like party streamers, and a knife has been stabbed into the crotch so many times it's completely gone, and all you can see behind it is a mangled scar of barkless tree smeared with blood and flesh and hair. They left the knife jutting out of the spot, wedged into the tree and covered from tip to handle with blood. the way it sticks out from the body is obscene, and a part of me knows that's exactly what the killers wanted. That this...this is their Mona Lisa, their masterpiece.
All the psychs on those documentary shows say this is where the killers always take the next step. once they've perfected their "art" they start to get worse and worse until they either self-destruct or the cops catch them. To be honest, I'm scared. I'm scared that the cops won't catch this one.
I take one last look at the victim before I turn and go back to my 'Gator. The smooth nose, the gaping cavity in the torso, the long, velvety ears.
I'm thinking the next one I find won't be a rabbit.
rating: 9
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