At last, he managed to finish telling her about the dreams and how they made him feel. He then told her about the incident at work and the terror he felt at possibly being out of a job soon.

  “Would you say the season is having a worse effect on you this year than in recent years?”

  Elliot grunted humorless laughter. “That’s an understatement. This is the worst it’s been since ’97.”

  Lillian frowned. “That’s the year you were arrested for assault, yes?”

  “Yeah.”

  Elliot was almost twenty when Halloween time rolled around in 1997. He was living on his own for the first time, in a rundown apartment complex. The night before Halloween, he took a walk out to a nearby convenience store to buy cigarettes. There were some other young people in the store, his age or thereabouts. A couple of big jocks and their leggy girlfriends. Based on their costumes, he guessed they were on their way to a Halloween party.

  One of the girls was dressed as a sexy devil, wearing a tiny red dress, red stockings, red heels, and horns on her head. He couldn’t help staring at her as he walked into the store. She caught him looking and said something to her boyfriend, loudly calling him a “creeper”. The belligerent jock walked right up to Elliot, making him cringe as he got in his face. The guy insulted him in a lot of the usual ways and made some threats. Elliot apologized in the most obsequious, pitiful way possible. The jock laughed at him. They all laughed at him, even the foreign clerk behind the counter. The jock walked away, considering him unworthy of further attention.

  Elliot knew he should have considered himself lucky. He didn’t often get out of those situations without getting beat up. Later on, when his case went to court, the jock would say he’d only been putting on a show for his girlfriend. He’d had no interest in hurting Elliot. So he said. By then it didn’t matter. The damage had been done.

  When the jock turned away, Elliot opened a beer cooler and took out a forty ounce bottle of malt liquor. There was no conscious decision to do what he did. Something inside him just snapped. He’d been pushed around and mocked one time too many. He walked up behind the jock and smashed the bottle across the back of his head, causing him to fall unconscious to the floor. The blow opened a big gash in the young man’s head. A rapidly spreading pool of blood formed around his unmoving body. The girl in the devil costume screamed and screamed.

  Elliot fled the store, but he was soon apprehended by police. Because it was a first offense, he was sentenced to just a year in jail. He got out after six months on good behavior. His record was the biggest reason he was terrified about possibly losing his job. As a convicted felon, acquiring gainful employment was difficult verging on impossible. He’d been incredibly lucky to land the position he had. Another one like it would be hard to come by.

  Lillian’s look of concern deepened. “Are you having violent thoughts again?”

  Elliot sniffled and wiped moisture from his face. “Yes.”

  “Tell me about them.”

  Here Elliot departed from his usual policy of complete honesty with Lillian. He didn’t know how she would react to the truth. Probably with horror. But what she might think of him wasn’t what most worried him. No, his biggest concern was more practical. He didn’t want her to know specifics about his murder fantasies in the event he decided to act on them.

  Instead he told her about the increasing anxiety he’d felt throughout the month as the weather turned chillier and the trappings of the season began to appear. Seeing pumpkins piled up outside of stores made him feel sick to his stomach. He felt a deep bitterness when he saw the Halloween displays inside the stores, a revulsion at the knowledge that something so deeply tied to his suffering was a source of fun and commerce for nearly everyone else. He told her about how he sometimes wanted to hit costume-wearing young adults because they triggered his seasonal PTSD.

  He didn’t tell her about the plot he’d hatched to ruin Halloween forever—at least on a local level—by turning it into a night of unrivaled carnage and horror. He said nothing about his fantasies of chopping off the heads of alpha male types or slashing the throats of attractive young women. Nor did he say anything about how he longed to watch the blood flow from the wounds of his victims and revel in their suffering, just as so many others had reveled in hurting him over the years.

  Lillian Rosewater strongly urged Elliot to follow up with his psychiatrist and see about adjusting his various medications to better control his anxieties. Elliot agreed this was a good idea. At the time he still had hopes of turning away from his more dangerous urges. He made that follow up appointment and for several years the new meds helped.

  And then he stopped taking them.

  15.

  Five days until Halloween

  Willow Springs, TN

  The brass headboard thumped repeatedly against the motel room wall as Chuck gave it to Fawn Hightower from behind. She was holding onto headboard slats for support, which caused it to hit the wall harder than it might have otherwise each time he thrust himself into her. Chuck had a firm grip on her slim waist and was pounding her for all he was worth, eliciting shrill screams of ecstasy tinged with more than a little pain. He knew he was hurting her, but she urged him not to stop, to keep giving it to her harder and harder.

  Chuck was more than happy to oblige. Fawn had always turned him on intensely, but never more so than tonight. His dick felt like it was made of steel. He felt like he could rip her in half with it. As he continued to thrust into her and bring out more of those lovely screams, he drank in the stunningly erotic shape of her lithe little body. He loved it from any angle, but there was something especially pleasing about this view. And it wasn’t just the quivering of her upthrust ass or the hypnotic jiggle of her dangling breasts. It was also about the contours and planes of her toned thighs, tapered back, and slender shoulders.

  Her body was a work of art. This wasn’t the first time he’d had thoughts along these lines. Even when he was feeling guilty about the affair, that sense of total lust he felt for her physical form never diminished. He loved Karen and still enjoyed sex with her, but it had never quite been like this between them. The sex he had with Fawn was the best he’d ever had, no contest.

  He felt himself building toward orgasm as his hands came away from her waist and began to roam all over her body, sliding up and down the length of those smooth thighs before moving to her torso to grip her breasts. Feeling the head of his cock swelling within her, Fawn let go of a headboard slat and seized him by a wrist as she twisted her head around to look at him, flinging sweat-drenched blonde hair out of her face.

  “Come inside me.” She thrust her ass against him, bringing him closer still to release. “Come inside me, motherfucker.”

  A distant part of Chuck knew this wasn’t a good idea. He wasn’t wearing a condom and didn’t know whether Fawn was still on the pill. But he was too lost in the throes of animal passion to pay much heed to common sense. When Fawn thrust herself back against him again, it was just too much. He exploded inside her. Fawn let go of his wrist and grabbed on to the headboard slat again as he continued to pump away at her until he was spent.

  At last, after several gasping, sweaty moments, he removed his still-engorged organ from Fawn’s pussy and fell away from her. He stretched out on his back and struggled to catch his breath as he stared up at the ceiling. In another moment, Fawn let go of the headboard, shifted around on the bed, and curled herself around him.

  She walked her fingers over his hairy chest and made a low purring sound. “Mmm. That was the best ever.”

  She laughed.

  Chuck squinted in bleary-eyed exhaustion at her. He was bone-tired and it wasn’t just from the intense physical exertion of their coupling. He’d had a long, stressful day. Something possibly very sinister was happening on the periphery of his life, a thing that might be tied to a shameful episode from the distant past. He should be with his family right now, protecting them and doing whatever he could to make sure that possible threat from the past didn’t become something more serious. It was his duty as a husband and father.

  And yet here he was, in bed with his mistress in a cheap motel room on the other side of town.

  “Something funny, Fawn?”

  Smiling, she lifted one small shoulder in an amused little shrug. “Kind of, yeah.”

  A silent moment passed.

  When she failed to elaborate, Chuck prompted her. “Care to tell me what it is you’re finding so fucking amusing? Because I’m not seeing the humor in this situation.”

  Fawn’s smile morphed into a smirk. “You wouldn’t. You’re too uptight.” She laughed again. “I’m amused by how completely incapable you are of resisting me. Oh, you make a lot of noise about needing to do the right thing. You swear you’re gonna break it off with me. But in the end, we always end up right back here. Over and over.” Her smirk became more pronounced. “You’re addicted to me. You need me. Admit it.”

  Chuck stared into her twinkling eyes and said nothing for a long moment, the smugness in her expression stirring anger. Fawn’s cutting comments often got under his skin, but he knew this was because they frequently contained an element of uncomfortable truth. It hurt him to realize how truly powerless he was when it came to her. Sometimes, like now, he suspected his affair with her would come to light regardless of how desperately he tried to hide it. And then there would be plenty of emotional hurt to go around for everybody.

  He felt like such a fool.

  A wave of self-loathing came over him, causing him to abruptly extricate himself from Fawn’s embrace and swing his legs over the side of the bed. He scooted to the edge of the mattress and bent over to grab his underwear and pants from the floor.

  Fawn made a huffing sound of disappointment as he got to his feet and began to dress. “Oh, come on. You’re not going already, are you? You’re usually good for at least one more round.”

  Chuck grimaced. “Not tonight. I need to get back to my wife and kids. I made some lame excuses when I left. I should have been back hours ago.”

  Fawn glanced at his phone on the nightstand. There was a hint of that smugness in her expression again when her eyes shifted back in his direction. “Is that why you turned your phone off? So you could fuck me in peace without having to tell your family more lies?”

  Chuck’s face reddened.

  Fawn laughed softly, knowing she’d struck a nerve.

  Chuck pulled on his shirt, grabbed his shoes, and sat on the edge of the bed to pull them on. “This is the last time we’re doing this.”

  Fawn laughed again. “There’s an answer to all this, you know. A way you won’t have to tell any more fucking lies. Leave your wife. Confess everything. Tell her you’re in love with me. And that’ll be the end of it, Chuck. Think of it. No more hiding. Being together whenever we want, having amazing sex whenever we feel like it. You can’t honestly tell me you wouldn’t love that.”

  Chuck sighed and put his face in his hands. “I can’t abandon my kids.”

  The mattress shifted as Fawn got up and crawled over to him. She pressed her breasts against his back and wrapped her arms around his midsection. “You can do whatever you want,” she said, putting her lips against his ear, letting him feel her warm breath. “This isn’t the olden days. You don’t go to jail for infidelity. And they say one of the biggest mistakes people in troubled marriages make is staying together for the kids.”

  Chuck took his hands away from his face. “My marriage isn’t troubled.”

  Fawn kissed his neck, nipped at it slightly with her teeth. “Isn’t it? You fuck another woman, Chuck. You’ve admitted you like it better with me than with her. How is that not troubled?”

  Chuck groaned.

  He wished he’d never admitted that to her. It was true, but he should have known she would one day use it as psychological ammunition against him.

  Chuck disengaged himself from her and stood up. “We’ll have to leave this discussion for another day, Fawn. This isn’t the time for it. I’m expected back. We’ll talk later.”

  He headed for the back of the room.

  “Hey, Chuck?”

  He paused at the open door to the bathroom and glanced wearily back at her. “Yeah?”

  She got up from the bed and crossed the room in her slinky, sexy way, putting on a little show for him as she went to the table and picked up the bottle of expensive bourbon she’d brought with her. “I get that you have to go. Or at least feel like you do. But you can have one last drink with me.” She smiled again and this time it came across as sweet and almost demure, absent that usual tinge of smugness. “Can’t you?”

  Chuck sighed. “Sure. But just one.”

  He went into the bathroom and relieved himself. It was a good, long piss, the kind he always had to take after sex, this time exacerbated by the three glasses of bourbon he’d had prior to fucking Fawn. When he came out of the bathroom, she’d already refilled their glasses.

  She handed him a glass as he reached the table. “To us.”

  She clinked glasses with him and tossed her drink back in one long pull.

  Chuck grimaced. “I can’t drink to that.”

  Fawn rolled her eyes. “Just drink.”

  She poured more bourbon into her empty glass.

  Chuck sipped from his glass. “Don’t get too drunk. You don’t want to get a DUI on the way home.”

  Fawn smiled and moved closer to him, holding her glass with one hand and hooking the fingers of her other hand over the waist of his jeans. “Aw…you’re worried about me. How sweet.”

  Chuck took a long pull from his glass and set the half-finished drink on the table. “I don’t want you to get hurt, that’s all.” He gripped her wrist and tried to pull her hand away from his jeans, but she resisted, tightening her hold on him. “Fawn, what are you doing? Let go.”

  She arranged her features in a mock pout and shook her head. “No. Don’t wanna.”

  She downed the last of her second drink and threw the glass across the room. It shattered when it hit a wall.

  Chuck sighed. “Jesus. You’re already too drunk to drive.”

  “I know. So stay here and keep me company.”

  Chuck shook his head. He was about to remind her yet again why he couldn’t do that when he realized he was feeling woozy. “Shit. Let go. I’ve gotta sit down.”

  Fawn laughed and finally released her grip on his jeans. “So sit.”

  He reached for a chair at the table.

  She pushed his hand away from the chair and steered him over to the bed. “No, silly. Here. You’ll be more comfortable on the bed.”

  Chuck didn’t resist. He couldn’t resist. He was too dizzy. Within moments of sitting on the bed, he flopped backward and slipped into unconsciousness. When he came to an indeterminate time later, he felt groggy and bleary-eyed. He sat up and rubbed at his eyes to clear his vision. Looking around, he saw a fully-clothed Fawn sitting at the table and smoking a cigarette.

  “Jesus. How long have I been out?”

  Fawn tapped ash on the table. There was no ashtray in the supposedly non-smoking room. “About six hours.”

  “Fuck!”

  He got to his feet and, still groggy, staggered over to the nightstand, looking for his phone. It wasn’t there. Confusion tinged his mounting sense of panic. “What the fuck?”

  “Looking for this?”

  Chuck turned in Fawn’s direction. His phone was in her upraised left hand. He could see that it had been powered on. His confusion continued to deepen and he struggled to fight his way through the mental fog still gripping him. “What’s happening, Fawn?”

  She smiled and looked at the phone. “I like that you set this picture of me in your contacts. It proves what I’ve been saying all along. You need me. You can’t resist me.”

  Chuck took an unsteady step in her direction. “What did you do? Did you drug me?”

  Fawn nodded. “Yes. But that’s not all I did.”

  Chuck groaned. “Why? Why would you do this? Karen probably thinks I’ve been in an accident. She’s probably out of her mind with worry.”

  Fawn shook her head. “No. She isn’t.”

  Something in the way she said that struck terror in Chuck’s heart. “What do you mean? Why would you say that?”

  Fawn puffed on her cigarette and blew smoke in his direction. “Because it’s the truth. I had a little talk with Karen.”

  Chuck felt sick. “No.”

  Fawn smiled. “Yes.”

  “What did you tell her?”

  “What do you think? Everything.”

  Finally reaching the table, Chuck pulled out the other chair and collapsed into it. He had tears in his eyes as he stared in dumbstruck disbelief at Fawn. “I can’t believe you’d do something so underhanded. So dirty. So low. Why would you do this?”

  Fawn’s expression sharpened. She stubbed the cigarette out on the table and leaned toward him. “Because I’ve had enough. I’m sick of you stringing me along. So I decided it was time to force everyone’s hand and bring everything out in the open.” She reached for him, clasping hands with him. “I know you’re mad, Chuck, but everything will be better now. You’ll see.”

  Chuck pulled his hand away from her.

  “I can’t be around you right now. Not after this dirty fucking trick.”

  He pushed himself out of the chair and looked around until he found his wallet and keys. Once his wallet was tucked away in his pocket, he staggered over to the door.

  Fawn hurried after him, grabbing at his arm. “Chuck, you can’t leave. You’re in no shape to drive.”

  Chuck laughed bitterly. “Yeah, no thanks to you. I’m going anyway. I have to make things right. Somehow.”

  He opened the door and lurched outside, shivering at the shock of the chilly early morning October air. His head wobbled as he scanned the parking lot outside the dumpy little motel for the Odyssey. Spotting it, he set off in that direction, struggling not to look like a drunk staggering home after last call.