“I want to show you where he lives,” I said, turning down one of the more destitute streets in this neighborhood of ruined houses and overgrown vacant lots. He was close by. I could pick up the tone of his thoughts even at a distance. I tried not to listen too closely.
Bella’s eyes lit up. “You’ve picked one for tonight, then?” she asked, taking the last sip of her coffee. “Yes. He’s one of the worst of the worst. Doesn’t just rape, he kidnaps and tortures them, too,” I said. “His backyard… they’re buried there when he’s done with them. 9 shallow graves. Some smaller than the others.” Bella’s joy turned to anger. “He does this to.. children too?” she asked, her voice shaking. “His youngest victim was 11,” I say, as I park the car down a pothole-ridden alley between a boarded up crackhouse and an abandoned shopping center. “His house is just around the corner from here.”
I felt the rage burning inside of Bella. Her reaction to my words was physical, her stomach turned, her chest tightened. I knew she’d like nothing more than to help me kill this guy, or do it all by herself- slowly and painfully. She felt very strongly about what we were doing. Did she know how I felt? Did she know I didn’t really care? Maybe it’s better that way. Let her think I’m some sort of vigilante, a comic book antihero brought to life- so to speak. This isn’t a personal cause for me, though. The human victims of my prey never interested me, and I had always tried to tune out the more gruesome details. In truth, I just enjoyed hunting other hunters. They’re scum- nobody comes looking for these guys, which suits me just fine. I suppose in a way I was contributing something to society as well. I was performing a function nobody else was willing or able to. I knew who the monsters were, and I erased them. That was incidental to my main purpose of keeping myself fed, of course, but if it made Bella feel good…
“I can’t wait, Edward,” Bella said finally after a moment of awkward silence, her petite hands balled into fists. “I can’t wait to watch him die.”
