Page 200 of Brainwashed

Sure enough, there was Nick’s head, staring at me. Gazing up with that horrified expression I’d tried to fix with my blade.

I couldn’t believe I’d forgotten about him. I’d already thrown out most of him in separate garbage bags and different dumpsters behind restaurants and bodegas all around the area. But the heads I usually liked to save for last. I just liked having them around. Sometimes I would talk to them… When Want wasn’t feeling particularly chatty.

In my adrenaline-fueled haze, I decided I would just have to find time to get rid of Nick’s head before I got rid of Henry. It was the right thing to do.

I brought Henry into the bathroom and put him in the bath. I cleaned him up, as I usually did, which was my favorite part. His body was so nice, and he had the smoothest skin. I couldn’t even help but rub myself on him until I came.

After that, I got dressed, cut the article out of the New York Times and hung it up on my fridge, turned up the Tears For Fears and got ready to work.

Only another problem presented itself…No more garbage bags.

“Great…” I’d mumbled sarcastically, stepping into my shoes. “I have to run to the corner,” I told all of them. Nick, Henry, and Want. To Want specifically, I said, “Keep an eye on them, please.”

He ignored me, which fizzled irritation in my veins. He was just mad about me picking up Henry the way I did. Want had a tendency to get pissy when I didn’t do things his way.

“Stubborn brat,” I’d murmured on my way out of the apartment.

I was gone for only about twenty-minutes. But when I got back…

Henry Liu was gone.

After Henry Liu escaped, I was sure it was over for me.

As soon as I got back and saw that he wasn’t in the tub, I went into panic mode. I ran out of the apartment, following the trail of dripping water he’d left like breadcrumbs, searching frantically for him for all of five minutes, until I finally spotted him.

Walking naked down Atlantic Ave.

He was clearly disoriented. It was obvious from the sort of zombie-like shuffle he was doing, and the fact that he hadn’t even bothered trying to put on clothes.

I looked around to see if anyone was paying attention, trying to get close to him, but then not wanting to draw any attention to myself. But the good thing about the city has always been how little people seem to notice the strange and unusual. I suppose when you live in a place where people scream on street corners, wearing clothing made of garbage, have sex on the subway and use the stations as their own personal bathrooms, seeing a guy walking naked down one of the busiest streets in Brooklyn isjust another day in NYC.

As long as he didn’t get in anyone’s way, they’d probably never even notice him.

It had worked in my favor up until that point, but my luck was about to run out. I was only a few feet from Henry when a cop cruiser just so happened to drive by.

I quickly ducked around a corner while they came to a screeching halt with their lights on, jumping out of the car to check on the naked man with the wounded neck. I was jittering down to my marrow while I watched them calling the EMTs. I knew I needed to get out of there, but I also needed to know how bad it was.

Andyes, it was bad. But as I listened closely, I heard the two cops conversing about how Henry Liu wasunresponsiveto their questions, and hecouldn’t really speak.

Some minor relief washed over me. He must have suffered a stroke or something from lack of oxygen when I strangled him. I still couldn’t even believe he wasalive. Henry Liu was a fighter for sure. Unfortunately, it just made me like him even more.

Once the ambulance arrived and they took him away, I scurried back to my apartment and got ready to do some major cleaning. I even thought about moving, since it was only a matter of time until Henry remembered where I lived.

But as I spent the next two days scouring every surface of my apartment with bleach, I fell into a hole of nostalgia.

I didn’t want to leave apartment 213. It was myhome. It’s where I discovered my true self. If the walls could talk, they would have needed intense therapy.

I fell into a dazed depression after that. A week passed when I didn’t leave my apartment, acting like a manic crackhead or something, peering through my blinds every two minutes at every sound I heard.

And naturally that was when Want decided to speak up again.

You know what I’m going to say, right??

My jaw clenched in annoyance. “Yes. Of course I know what you’re going to say.”

You’ve become too cocky. Anyone could have seen you with Henry Liu that day, and you know nothing about him. What if his parents are super rich, and will stop at nothing to find out who did this to their son—

“I said I know!” I roared at him, stomping over and getting up in his face. “You don’t think I know that?? I fucked up, okay?!Jesus…”