Page 134 of Evil Hearts

Chapter Five

Francesca

H e’s a fucking clergyman. He’s with the church. He fucking knows. How long has he known? Fuck!

I dress myself as quickly as possible and return to the showroom. I don’t want to fight him, but I will do what I must to survive. Victor is dressed again, and fastening his watch.

I’m not sure how to continue. I don’t know how I am supposed to act right now. Victor is acting like this is not a big deal. Like the church hasn’t been hunting down my kind and killing us for hundreds of years. I don’t understand anything right now.

“Frankie,” he says, taking a step forward.

“Just stop right there Victor. Do not take another step towards me right now,” I say backing up.

Victor frowns and nods. “I suppose I should explain myself. I am not going to hurt you, nor am I going to allow anyone else to either.”

I look at him in utter disbelief. Clergymen and monsters don’t mix. What the fuck is going on?

“I was sent here a while ago to investigate organs being swapped. I know it was you doing it, but I have not turned you in. I have no plans to either. Because I love you, Frankie.” He takes a step forward.

“A clergyman loving an abomination. How laughable. How am I supposed to believe you? How am I supposed to believe that you weren’t just toying with me before you kill me?” I ask, standing firm.

“I was ordered to eliminate the abomination. I could never harm you, Frankie. In fact, I’m trying to protect you. If you would just allow me to do that. I have a plan to get them off of your trail. I just need you to trust me.”

“And how am I supposed to believe you? How am I supposed to believe a single word that comes out of your mouth because you have been lying to me from the start.”

“I should have told you. I should have told you who I was from the beginning. But if I did do you think we would have gotten as close? Would you have let me in? Would you have fallen in love with me?” He reaches out to me, but I withdraw.

“And who says I love you?” I ask.

“You do. In every way but verbally. It’s in your actions, the way you speak, the way you treat me. I know you love me. And I know because I feel the same as you, and I’m in love with you.”

“And you’re not here to kill me? You’re not going to hurt me?”

“I would rather die.”

I don’t know if this is beyond stupid, but I believe him. I believe that he won’t hurt me. I believe him when he says he loves me.

“Frankie...”

I can hear the desperation in his voice. And I understand the desperation because I feel it too.

“I believe you.”

“So where do we go from here? Now everything is on the table and you hold all the power,” Victor says, giving me a sad smile.

I walk straight up to him and kiss him. I kiss him so hard and so intensely, He wraps his arms around my waist.

“I hope that answers your question.”

Victor stands there in a daze for a moment before giving me his famous lopsided smile.

“That brings me to the next issue.”

“How bad is it?” I ask.

“It involves digging up a body, burning it, and planting it so it looks like I caught the reanimated quote-on-quote abomination.” He sighs.

“Instead of digging somebody up why don’t we just use one of the unclaimed corpses down in the coolers? We get them from time to time when they dredge them up out of the river. After they sit down there for so long they’re just cremated anyway. I have no problem looking the other way,” I say.

My brain is running a million miles a minute. How was I not careful enough? How did they find out? I took so many precautions.

“I have to finish this tonight,” he says as he sweetly kisses my forehead.

“Then let’s finish this. Where do we take the body to burn it?”

“There’s a clearing out in the national park. If we can tie it to a tree and light it on fire, I think we will be just fine as long as the body burns enough.” Victor shrugs.

He’s so nonchalant about it. I don’t know if I should be impressed or concerned.

“Okay. Follow me. We have a few to choose from.”

I grab his hand and take him downstairs to the morgue. I have my cooler wall organized. To the left are the upcoming services, and to the right are the Jane and John Does. I lead Victor over to the first Jane Doe.

“Will this one work? There isn’t too much bloat on her.”

“Given you usually take from females, this would be the best option.”

“Yeah, yeah. How do you want to load her up?”

“You could drive your truck around back, and I could wheel her out on a gurney and from there we just take her where we need to take her.”

The wheels in my mind are turning. Is this the best way? Why am I excited? It’s been a long time since I’ve felt like this.

“Is it just me or do you sound a little too excited about this?” Victor laughs.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. I would never be excited to desecrate an unidentified body to secure my safety,” I laugh.

“You have a weird way of dealing with stress, Frankie. I’ll go get the car and meet you at the loading bay.” Victor kisses the top of my head and turns toward the stairs.

Something tells me I’m in for one hell of a night.

Chapter Six

Victor

I pull the flower van around back and knock on the loading bay door. After a few moments, I hear the door unlocking. The sound of rattling chains lets me know that the door is about to open. It takes Frankie a second to get the loading bay door open, but when she does she’s ready with the body. I’ve never been so attracted to anyone before.

Frankie has the Jane Doe zipped up into a body bag. We buddy lift the girl and put her in the back of the flower van. Frankie locks up as I start the van. It doesn’t take us long to get to the forest after that. Frankie looks around the van and then turns to look at me.

“Tell me you have an accelerant.”

“Of course, I have an accelerant. This isn’t my first rodeo,” I laugh.

“I’m not going to ask how many times you’ve burned a body, but I will say this is my first time burning one. It is a little exciting.”

“Look at you being a little macabre.”

“I know you should be proud,” she laughs.

I pull off of the main road and onto a gravel path. I drive until the gravel turns into nothing more than a dirt road. I parked the car and turn to look at Frankie.

“Are you ready?”

“Well it’s not like I have a choice now is it?” She laughs.

“There’s always a choice Frankie. I will never take your choices from you. This is the best choice. But still, you do have a choice,” I laugh.

She kisses my cheek and smiles. “Let’s get this over with. It’s definitely the weirdest first date I’ve ever been on.”

“I’m flattered,” I chuckle.

This cute side of Frankie is new to me. She’s positively exhilarated. And who can blame her? It’s not every day that you have to burn a body to protect your identity. It also helps that this does technically count as our first date. I’m not opposed.

We both get out of the van and circle to the back. I open the doors of the flower van and we buddy lift the Jane Doe. Frankie may be small, but she is a lot stronger than she looks. I walk backwards carrying Jane Doe’s feet leading the way to the clearing. We lay her down flat in front of the tree that I plan to tie her up on and unzip the body bag. I turned to look at Frankie and smile.

“I have to go get the pine resin from the van. I’ll grab the magnesium rods and the torch while I’m there. I need you to sit with the body just to make sure an animal doesn’t get it first.”

She nods and I run back to the van. My Little Monster listens so well. By the time I get back to the body, Frankie has her sitting upright against the tree and is tying her hands to the other side to make it look like she was bound and struggling. Jane Doe’s head sags forward. Her skin has that polished blue tint to it. She’s been dead for quite some time, but with the accelerant we’re using the soft tissue will be cooked from her body. No one will know the difference. This plan should work.

We get to work covering the body in pine resin and magnesium. I turned to Frankie and hold out the blowtorch.

“Would you like to do the honors?”

She grins the biggest grin I’ve ever seen her grin. “I would love to.”

That’s my girl.

We set the body ablaze and watch it burn until all the soft tissue is gone and it’s unrecognizable. The stench isn’t something I could ever get used to. I pull my phone from my pocket and bring up Elders Kirwin’s text thread.

Me:

Abomination class reanimation eliminated.

I pull up the camera on my phone, take a picture of the burnt body, and send it to him. The church always has to have proof. I’m sure to include my Torch Tattoo in the picture so he knows it is from me.

Putting my phone away I turned to face Frankie. She takes my hand and hers and smiles at me. I love my little monster.