NOVEL NEXT Chapter 37: Beverly’s Playroom
Beverly… What a piece of work.
She had integrated into the village well, using her past as a schoolteacher for all it was worth. Of course, the people of the time--people like Riggs, Lorio, and Pitter--would want to help her. She was a pitiful, wayward soul who had wandered in after crashing her car. Probably didn't tell anyone about the man that chased her. That part wasn't in there. Just her lies.
At first, all was well. She laughed and learned alongside the other residents, shared meals with them, and helped. But her impulses would flare when she came across her preferred target… And back then, there were a few. Each and every one of their faces--I knew them now...
That first kill was the hardest one, but where there was a will, there was a way.
Beverly endeared herself to the children who were here at the time, and one of them—she got that sweet little boy with the brown hair and a missing tooth to keep a secret with her.
She waited in the woods one day, and when that little boy sneaked out to go see an amazing place—
***
The Bloody Past
"Mmm!" Beverly said, hugging her stripped down to her underwear self.
A lantern hung on one of the timbers supporting the ceiling of this subterranean room. Light leaked in from above, slipping between the planks of the hidden hatch.
This room—one that once saved Beverly's life was now her most precious playroom.
"This is the most amazing place," she said, turning on her heels, almost dancing.
Her eyes narrowed as her wicked grin widened. In her sights was the little boy who shouldn't have been there, gagged and tied to a chair, his old button-up shirt ripped off, his knees scoffed, and his eyes leaking tears without stop.
"I love you," Beverly whispered as she straddled the child, wrapping her arms around his tiny frame. "You're such a good boy. You're helping me so much."
Beverly pulled a sharpened knife out.
"You're helping me, oh so much."
She sliced the boy's shoulder open. Her eyes became like that of a beast as she pushed the screaming boy's head to the side and plastered her lips against the wound.
Tears flowed from her eyes as she sucked the blood like it was nectar from the gods. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head. The boy struggled. She kept going.
…
..
.
"Ha…" Beverly breathed out, wiping the corners of her lips with a wet towel she kept nearby. "I feel rejuvenated…"
She glanced at the child. He was still breathing, though thoroughly exhausted and limp. Beverly had taped a rag to the wound she made, beaming with pride at her handiwork.
"Good boy," she whispered before glancing to the side. "This boy here. He'll last me two more encounters, at least. Please don't touch him."
"Shhh," responded the strange, hunched-over man who would slip in and out of the shadows of this room. His arrival had surprised Beverly earlier. His staying there until she was done surprised her further.
He had just watched without interfering, an act which gave Beverly confidence. He was a "friend."
"I've never had someone like you," Beverly told him. His reply was the same one he always gave.
"Shhh."
Did he know what was going on? Beverly didn't care. All that mattered was that he didn't stop her. He was just a monster that would watch and ask for silence.
"Now... please be a good boy and sit still," she would tell her victims.
***
Those were the memories of her first kill, one of the many memories floating in the Vengeance. The boy ended up dying after two more encounters with Beverly. Of course, the villagers searched for the child for days, but with Beverly a part of the search party, they never got close.
This place was hell for everyone else, but for Beverly—calling it a feeding pit would be apt.
The most important thing from this first kill, however, was what happened after Beverly succeeded in killing the child and getting away with it. She got a Personal Goal—and that goal's reward changed Beverly's relationship with this place forever.
***
Present Time
"Huh?" Beverly, now blindfolded, mumbled as she woke up. "What the? Why am I bound? Hello?" asked the blindfolded woman. "Hello?" she asked again, her voice a little more frantic.
I chuckled as I watched the woman I stripped naked struggle on the same wooden chair she had once strapped children to.
"Who's there?!" she yelled. "Who are you?! Untie me!"
I pulled the blindfold from her face.
"You!" she barked, anger twisting her expression into that of a foul demon's. "What are you doing?! Have you gone mad?"
"Maybe ♡"
I looked around, my hands out and marveling at this little hiding hole of hers.
"I didn't know we could have such wonderful upgrades to our homes, Beverly," I joked. The way she winced was perfect. "Imagine my surprise when I was shuffling around your basement, only to find that false wall and a passage that led all the way here. How did you get to be so lucky?"
I already knew the answer… It was all because of that Goal she had received…
[Kill again without getting caught.
Reward: A Valuable Passage]
That one memory—it gave me so much. Beverly was valuable just because of the Vengeance she gave me, but that Goal in her memories? She was like a fragment of a Rosetta stone. The way this place worked became just a little clearer to me. My actions here--they would confirm many things.
I wanted to speed up the process. I wanted to ask, I wanted to think out loud, I wanted to truly understand all the implications, but now wasn't the time. No, now was the time to put on an act. In the off chance that this place couldn't read my mind, then I had to sell it on a false reality. I needed to create an alternate narrative.
"Beverly… How did you get so lucky?"
