Mercy Abbott - The Kiss of Death

The Chilling Mystery of the Narrow Bridge

Mercy knew she was hiding something, she could see her swollen eyes and her pretty face had lost all it's charm. But she noticed something more, there were black marks on her left arm.

"You don't look too well Amy... anything I can do to help?", she asked.

"Uh! I better get back to my room... thanks anyways...", Amy replied and walked towards her hostel room.

Mercy thought that she was being rude, she was always rude to her from the beginning. Amy would pass comments at her during classes and share rumours about her. Mercy ignored her always but something was different today. Amy was upset. Mercy felt as though a thick cloud of sadness and despair was raining upon her. But she denied her help, so she decided to forget about it and walked towards her class.

Later that evening Mercy was in her room when she heard a lot of commotion outside, she peered through her window and saw people rushing towards the other part of the hostel where Amy's rom was. Mercy went out to look. As she reached Amy's room she saw a huge crowd gathering there, something had happened. The dean and the warden were talking to the police. An ambulance had just arrived. Mercy pushed through the crowd and stood at Amy's door. What she saw turned her stomach. There was blood everywhere, Amy's body lay on the bed, her throat slashed and a pile of flowers lay right beside her. Mercy screamed at the horrible sight and she started to feel dizzy, her freinds tried to console her.

Mercy kneeled down outside and started to weep. Who would do such a horrible thing to her? She had just talked to her only a few hours ago. Why her? Why? A young police officer saw her state and walked up to her.

"You all right Miss?", he asked

Mercy didn't reply and kept sobbing.

"My name's detective inspector Lester and if it's all right with you I'd like to ask you a few routine questions..." said Lester.

Mercy took a good look at Lester. He was a fit young man probably 30-ish , carried himself well and had a kind face.

"Will you catch whoever did this to her and make 'em pay?" , Mercy asked with fire in her eyes.

"Well that's why we are here Miss... it's our job..", replied Lester kneeling down.

"Simply asking questions won't do you any good ... you need to do something quick, the killer mustn't escape...", said Mercy wiping her tears.

"I'm sure we will do our best Miss...now if you could just answer a few questions...starting with your name..." said Lester taking out his notebook.

"Amy was a calssmate of mine and besides that I knew very little of her... I had a brief chat with her only a few hours ago and she looked really sad, something was bothering her...I hope you catch the guy who did this to her..." replied Mercy

"How do you know it's a guy?", asked Lester.

"The flowers on her bed, the sheer brutality of the crime, the bruises on her arms and the fact that she was upset earlier and was trying to hide her tears... I think there's a high probability that its foul play and she was in a bad relationship...no, it's not a woman ... it must be her lover- a man, someone who could had easy access to the place ....by the way have they recovered the weapon?" , replied Mercy calming herself.

Lester was amazed.

"Um..no...not yet.. ", replied Lester.

"Don't waste your time, the killer took it with him...I hope you hurry and find him soon,... I have a bad feeling he's gonna strike again....Oh! and the name's Mercy...Mercy Abbott - I'm a postgradaute student of Criminology....Find him officer before I get to him..." said Mercy and walked away.

"What a woman!" , Lester said to himself.

She soon realised that she was sitting on a chair with her hands tied behind her. She twisted her arms but it hurt. She was in some kind of an abandoned factory. In front of her was a man- standing and watching her- he had a mask on his face- but he was dressed like a businessman, in a brand new suit- his bloodied axe was glistening in the single beam of sun light that peered in through the broken ceiling of the room.

Her skirt was half torn which revealed her beautiful brown legs. She wanted to scream and call for help but her lips won't move- she was trembling with nervous excitement and maybe with fear- maybe today was the day she would die...the man was calmly watching her as if he was undressing her with his eyes- it was creeping her out and she tried to cross her legs in embarassment.

She kept thinking how she ended up in this situation, the last thing she remembered was her getting into a taxi from the police station and a smooth manly voice of the driver asking her for her destination and everything was blurry after that. Or maybe there was something else she didn't notice.

What could it be. She shut her eyes and tried to think hard- the black taxi...the driver... was he old? No, around 40-ish. He had dark hair. And what else? Yes... there were some flowers on the seat. When she asked the driver about them he said that some previous passenger must have left them there. The flowers...yes...they looked familiar...

"Flowers?Red? ... Oh God!", she opened her eyes and looked at the man again.

"Could he be ... the serial killer?", she kept thinking.

"Am I being held captive by the same killer that I was investigating?", she swallowed hard and kept staring at the man with fear and suspense.

The man walked towards her.

"Aah... so you're awake?", he said.

"I was admiring your beauty...my my... what lovely legs you have...", said the man standing a few feet away from her with his bloody axe still in his hand.

"Agh! who the hell are you... why am I here?", Mercy asked repelled by his words.

"Patience sugar...patience...let me stare at you for a while...after all you won't be alive for long, now that you've met me..", said the man.

Mercy could feel that he was grinning underneath that horrible mask. She really wanted to kick him in the guts.

"What have I ever done to you?You creep...", she yelled in anger.

"Such anger... ah.. it turns me on...", replied the man walking behind her, "Why... you've been after me for so long ...I thought you'd want to meet me...after all you're my number one fan...".

Mercy took a good look at the man in the mask. He stood no less than 6 ft. tall and wore a black suit and had golden cufflinks,his shoes were well polished and he had black gloves on his hands. He wore a peculiar looking japanese kabuki mask on his face and his hair was dark. The short axe he was holding in his left hand has fresh blood on it. Could it be that he had killed someone recently? He had a dark devilish charm about him and he spoke quite elegantly. Is this the killer that she was after?

"Huh... so you're the serial killer that the police is looking for... tell me do you plan to kill me too?", asked Mercy boldly.

"Oh ,so you're smart too ... yes my dear, I hate to say it but I have to end your life too... You are starting to annoy me a little... ", replied the man pacing slowly across the room.

"So you killed Amy? You scroundel!! Why did you do it? Why?", yelled Mercy.

"Meh! Just for the fun I guess...I get bored easily...", replied the man calmly, as he dipped his axe into a bucket of water to remove the blood stains.

Mercy was furious and she tried to twist her arms to free herself but it was of no use, the restraints were too tight.

"And who have you murdered now?", she asked.

"A nobody...well she was a cop but still a nobody... she should have minded his own business but he interrupted me...and I hate interruptions...she even tore your dress trying to save you...ha ha! ", the man replied as he cleaned his axe and raised it in front of his face and looked at it for a while.

"You do this for fun? You demon!!", Mercy asked.

"Yes... it's just a hobby my dear... most people like to travel or to paint or play an instrument...me...I like murder...the screams, the blood of my prey...thrills me...", he replied.

"You're sick!!", she said.

"Ah! No... I'm evolved... I'm better...You see what does it matter if I kill a few people every now and then...the world is full of people anyways... stupid people, boring people... I kill them because I'm smarter... they're just prey for me and I am the king of the jungle...", he replied cleaning his axe with a piece of cloth.

"So why do you leave flowers for your prey and why do you kill only women?", she asked again.

Mercy was actually trying to buy some time by stalling him for a few minutes longer. The police would definitely notice that she was missing and they would track her through the transmitter on her necklace.

"Hmmm... so you think that by asking these questions you will be able to stall your imminent death and the police will save you? How naive you are little girl... I've already thrown away your necklace while I snatched you away... now there's no way anybody can rescue you....", he replied as he finished cleaning his axe.

Mercy was amazed.

"How did he know about the necklace?", she thought.

Mercy was dumbfounded, she had to get out of there as soon as possible- the maniac was going to kill her now! It must've been just over an hour that she was in the taxi- she was chatting with the driver about the flowers and then she suddenly fell sleepy. But she didn't understand how she was kidnapped, how she went unconscious and was brought here. Could it be that the driver was the killer who brought her here? She didn't she his face-all she heard was a voice. Or was the cab driver his accomplice? Above all she didn't understand why her limbs were all numb- maybe she was drugged? Whatever the reason, she had to think fast before something bad happens.