Thread: Nightfall (Trixie x Iron & Wine)

Whimpering weakly, the young woman faintly opened her eyes which looked slightly dilated like the other girls had been she was about Nora's age, maybe a year or two younger, her hazel eyes imploringly turning to Nora. The poor woman was too scared to do much of anything. Checking an old leather wallet, Nora found her name was Tressa. Judging by some of the clothes around, the makeshift pole in the corner of the room, and the young woman's thick booty and toned figure, Nora guessed she was a stripper. Thinking back to the last four victims, she recalled one of them had been a server at a club connected to a strip joint. Was it possible he was finding these girls at the same place? It seemed almost amateur-ish, but certainly the kind of simplistic plan a deranged mind like SR-0 would come up with. Then that crackling voice came over the monitor. There was a man somewhere on the other side of the live feed on the camera set up in the room, watching her approach it with a hard look in her eyes. At last the snake had emerged this was SR-0's first contact with anyone as par as Nora knew. Then again, Detective Delaney liked to play things close to the chest, so it was possible there'd been contact between him and the police force but it had been kept hush-hush. As Nightshade, that vicious look would have intimidated any lowlife scum, but the camera was objective, cold, calculating it just stood there watching her, and she had no idea what the man on the other side was thinking, no way to gauge his reaction. You do not disappoint, Nightshade. What was that breathy singsong quality to his voice? An accent? Him struggling with something in the background? A product of the voice modulation. That smell of bleach you'll notice on the camera...yes, that smell... It stung if she got her face too close, the entire camera drenched in bleach. So much for the fingertips. ...I don't need to explain to you what that's for. After all, we have commonalities. Neither of us wants to reveal our true identities. There were multiple wires extending from the camera - more than were strictly necessary - so either there were redundant live feed lines, decoys, or perhaps booby traps. Two lines ran to phone jacks, one to a computer modem, two out the window, and one to the closet. Nora suspected that last line was a decoy or some kind of jury rigged trap, maybe hitched to the fusebox. This was the most effort she had seen from SR-0 since the rapes began. What I want is simple. I would like to know you better. But words are so inferior when it comes to capturing another person's inner landscape. Whoever he was, there was a self-assurance mixed with an evolving commitment, something Nora could pick up even thru the static and voice modulation. This wasn't a man at the end of his crime spree, this was a man just getting warmed up, just realizing what he was truly capable of. For each girl you wish to save I want you to do something for the camera I set up there for you. How about we start with.... You. In the background was a muffled scream and the monitor showed a terrified blonde teenager in jean shorts and a tank top getting hauled to her feet by a brute of a man wearing a sugar skull mask. So there were two men, or perhaps the perpetrator just had cronies. Please don't hurt me...please... pleaded the teen. There was a shout, the brute grasped both her wrists and held her arms over her head so the monitor displayed a clear shot of her teary face the girl was sobbing uncontrollably, finally gasping for air long enough to say, L- Lauren. All you need to do, Nightshade, to rescue little Lauren here is to take off... the voice paused dramatically, as if he was about to ask her to reveal her identity. ...the catsuit. If you comply, I will let Lauren go, and we can continue negotiating for the release of the other two girls. If you do not, Lauren's day is going to get a lot, lot worse. The monitor zoomed in close up on the teen girl's face which shook back and forth in terror, mouthing 'no' silently as she couldn't bring words to her throat. Whatever game this psychopath was playing at, Nora noted that she probably only bought herself 45 minutes with that stunt outside before the boys in blue showed.