You Only Die Twice - By Christopher Smith Page 0,20
mission that Ted lacked. He might be younger than Ted, but spiritually, he was thousands of years older. He was sent here for a purpose. So was Ted, but only to serve him. Before they met, Ted may have experienced more kills on his own, but Kenneth obviously was his superior in every way. And his kills were more creative.
So, maybe there was a lesson to be learned here. Maybe it was deemed that Ted needed the taste of his own kill again, if only because it had been so long. If that was the case, Kenneth Berkowitz was fine with God’s decision because it would only strengthen his bond with Ted as they moved across the country and took out as many whores as they could.
Still, there was a chance that she might not be dead. Maybe she was suffering...?
He was about to start running in the direction of the shriek when a woman he remembered from his past stepped out from behind one of the trees in front of him.
Her name came to him instantly―Meredith Ward―and she looked just as she had when he took her life after following her out of a Texas bar four years ago. Same snug red dress, same sluttish show of nipples pressing against the dress’s thin material, same red high heel shoes, same smear of red lipstick coloring her full lips. Her pupils were dilated pools of black, and the hatchet he’d planted in the back of her head was still there, cleaved deep into her brain.
He wasn’t surprised to see her, because he often came upon those women he’d sent to hell.
“Meredith,” he said with a nod.
“Kenneth.”
“How have you been?”
“Recovering. Understanding. Repenting. You were right to do what you did to me. I hope you don’t regret it.”
“Are you being serious this time?”
“Of course, I am. I’ve come around. You told me to lose the sarcasm, so I’ve lost it. I understand why you did what you did and I want to thank you for it.”
He studied her for a moment, then decided that maybe she was telling the truth. “I only did it for your own good, and also to send a message to the rest of the whores in Texas.”
“I think you were successful.”
“I wish that was the case.”
“Oh, come on. Look at the press you’ve received. You and your friend are national celebrities. Everyone writes about you.”
“If Ted and I were that successful, we wouldn’t be going back to Texas to make an example of another woman when this job is done. We’re thinking Dallas this time, not Austin.”
“Dallas is filled with whores.”
“That’s right, but you’d know that, wouldn’t you? And that’s why our work will never be finished, Meredith. There are too many others like you out there. Too many others who interpret the Bible for their own means and ignore God’s will. We’ll never get them all.”
She leaned against the tree trunk and lifted her long blonde hair off her shoulders. She pulled it behind her head and seemed oblivious to the fact that it was clotted with blood and brain matter.
“You know,” she said, “I liked it when you raped me.”
“Most do.”
“Are you going to rape Cheryl Dunning?”
If she’s alive. “Of course, I am.”
“Now, I’m jealous.”
“You shouldn’t be.”
“But you were fantastic.”
“I know I am, but that’s not the point.”
“What is the point?”
“The point always has been to teach people like you a lesson.”
She cupped her breasts with her hands and cocked her head to the side. The hatchet didn’t move. It remained fixed in her head, as if the bone had somehow grown around it. “Teach me a lesson, Kenneth.” She pulled up her dress, and exposed herself and her bloody thighs to him. “Just like you did before. Teach me a lesson. Come on, baby. Mommy needs a lesson.”
So, she’d been lying to him. Fucking with him. Quietly laughing at him. “What you need to do is leave. Until you fully repent, your soul is going to rot in hell. You’ll never be free of it, Meredith. You’ll never understand the beauty that awaits you in heaven. It’s there for you, but you’ll never reach it until you fully repent.”
“Do you ever think of me?”
He was growing irritated with her. “I don’t.”
“Not even a little?”
“How about this? Not at all.”
“I don’t believe that. You told me you never got hard like that. You told me I was special. You said you could fuck me all night long with that big, thick cock of yours.”
“You’re