Vendicatore
When she was alive her name was Lauren Taylor.
Lauren had been a single mother to a beautiful sixteen-year-old girl named Rowan. Rowan was the love of her life and the single most extraordinary soul she had ever known. She volunteered at the local homeless shelter, got straight As, and was an accomplished gymnast who wanted to try out for the Olympics next year. Rowan was also driven, tenacious, witty, sarcastic, and incredibly funny. She had the most amazing laugh and a smile that could light up a room. Lauren didn't know how she had gotten so lucky. Her child had just come into the world, a swirl of color and energy and had blown her away. She liked to take all of the credit for Rowan being so wonderful, it made her look like such a great mom. The truth was, however, that Rowan didn't need Lauren really. She was just like that from the very beginning, unstoppable and full of life. Lauren had been in awe of her daughter and had always needed her more than she had needed her mom. Mom had just always wanted to bask in the warmth of her light.
When she was alive, Lauren had also been a surgeon specializing in organ transplants. She was incredibly successful and made great money but she also traveled the world performing life saving operations for free on people who couldn't afford medical care and who would have died otherwise.
Besides her daughter, her work had been the most important thing to her. She gave people a second chance a life, providing they received the organs they so desperately needed. Organs were always in short supply. Even though millions of people died every day most of their organs died with them. Either they had been dead too long for them to be harvested, or they weren't organ donors so their precious potential contributions in their death went to waste. It was heartbreaking to watch people die because they didn't get whatever it was they needed in time to save their lives. It was also the most exhilarating feeling in the world to save someone who was on the brink of death.
Those two most important parts of her life were over now. She wasn't anyone anymore, she didn't contribute anything to the world. In her death she only had a single purpose and tonight she would hopefully accomplish her goal and maybe give her own soul the tiniest amount of peace. Maybe.
She was sitting outside of his house for about the tenth time. Tonight was the night. She had to make sure everything went perfectly. By now she knew all of his habits. She knew when he came home from work. She knew he ate like shit-usually artery clogging crap like hot dogs and ribs. She knew he didn't really have any friends or anyone who visited. Lauren also knew that he had no clue that someone had been stalking him for the last three weeks or that his life was about to change forever. Most important of all she knew that he went to bed around eleven every night, right after watching the Jimmy Fallon show. Given that he was a psychopath, she thought Jimmy was an odd choice for his night time television viewing but who knew anything about anyone, really?
It was 10:50 pm. Lauren could see him through his living room window sitting in his ratty armchair and laughing. He was laughing. She was pretty sure that she would never laugh again. She also knew Rowan wouldn't for a fact. Her stomach churned at the thought of never hearing Roe's laugh again. She pushed the horrendous thought away, like always, and brought her focus back to the reason why she was sitting outside this mans house at night and spying on him through his window.
Lauren checked her bag for the fifth time that night. Ridiculously bad OCD, she thought. Yes she had everything she needed. Now she just needed him to fall asleep. Then the fun would begin. Finally. The piece of shit had no idea what was coming-that was the icing on the cake.
Jimmy got over at 11. Lauren watched as he got up, turned off the television and got a drink of water from the kitchen. Then he walked down the hallway to his bedroom. When the light went out she checked her watch and waited another twenty minutes to make sure he was asleep.
Of all of her observations of Dennis McConnell, the most important of them all had been the fact that Dennis, being overweight and broke, slept with his bedroom window open most nights. It was cool outside since it was October so she figured tonight would be no exception. She took a deep breath, grabbed her bag off of the passenger seat, got out of the car and quietly closed the door. Lauren crept to the side of Dennis's house where his bedroom was located. The window to his room was at eye level and she looked in at the heavily snoring disgusting mass that was Dennis. This was going to be a piece of cake, she thought as she cut out the screen with her xacto knife and climbed inside.
Once inside she set down her bag on the night table next to his bed. She opened it up and pulled out a syringe. Quick as a cat she injected the contents of the syringe into his arm. He didn't so much as twitch. She checked the time and waited five minutes for the drugs to completely take effect. When the timer went off she was ready to begin. He was out completely and would be out for quite some time. She was going to take her time and savor the experience. Lauren used a surgical knife that could cut through bone to remove his fingers at the second knuckle one at a time. She left the finger tips where they fell. Then off came his nose. It was really easy to cut a nose off but she made multiple cuts and slices to make sure what was left on his face looked as ragged as possible. She put the pieces of flesh that were once Dennis's nose on the night table by her bag. That would be the first things he saw when he woke up in agonizing pain. Ha! Finally she made a small incision in Dennis's abdomen. He was going to do something good with his waste of a life whether he wanted to or not.
Once her masterpiece was completed and she had finished sewing things up that were supposed to be closed, she climbed back out of the window and drove away. Lauren was trembling with adrenaline and joy. She basically drove home on auto-pilot reliving the night in her mind. She was so lost in her thoughts that she almost forgot to make a detour to the hospital. She also made a short anonymous phone call to the same hospital on one of her disposable phones.
When she got home she poured herself a glass of wine and sat down in an almost scalding bath. After the alcohol began to set in, the memories started picking away at her brain and she stopped fighting them for once. Maybe now it wouldn't hurt quite so much to remember she told herself. She was wrong of course.
The day that Lauren had died had felt like any other day. She did all of her normal things like laundry and cooking and watching t.v. When six o'clock rolled around she had walked to Rowans room, knocked on her door and told her it was time to go. Rowan had been lying on her bed texting and listening to music. They got in the car and headed to gymnastics. They talked about Lauren maybe getting her hair cut short and highlighted. Rowen told her stories about her friends from the week. They were having fun and laughing. Lauren remembered the way the light caught in Rowan's beautiful green eyes when she laughed. It would now and forever be her most vivid memory of her wonderful daughter.
They took the route they always took and had been stopped at the intersection of Franklin and Pierce when a man came out of nowhere with a gun and forced Lauren into the backseat and drove away with Lauren and Rowan still in the car. She could remember his face in great detail-the memory was so sharp. He had been a fat, ugly man with greasy hair a big red veiny nose and a scar on his left cheek. He drove around for a while like he didn't know where he was going. Rowan was crying and Lauren just kept begging him to let them go. He could take the car, her could take her money, she would even withdraw money from her account-all of it if he would just let them go. He either ignored her pleas or yelled at her to shut up. He seemed extremely agitated and nervous and kept the gun on his lap. If only she could get the gun she thought, Rowan was next to him in the passenger seat, a hysterical mess, she wasn't going to be able to do it. Lauren couldn't reach from behind and into his lap fast enough to grab it. She scanned the backseat for anything she could use for a weapon but there was nothing. For once she kicked herself for being such a clean freak. She had to do something! She waited until he seemed distracted and then she threw herself against the back of the drivers seat wrapped her hands around his neck and squeezed as hard as she could. He flailed at her with
one arm while using the other to try to keep the car on the road. Lauren yelled at Rowan to grab the gun but it was too late. He had stopped trying to get her off of him and had grabbed it. He turned into an alley and slammed on the breaks. Lauren flew forward between the front seats. She felt blinding pain in her head as he slammed the gun into the back of her skull. Everything went black.
She didn't remember anything after that until she woke up with some kind of fabric wrapped around her neck. She was lying on her back in a sunny, quiet field. It was really bright and her head was pounding. It hurt to open her eyes so she shielded her eyes with her hand and rolled onto her side. Laurens next memory was so intense that she felt pain in her chest and thought she would pass out in her bathtub. Just this once she let herself see her baby lying on the ground next to her, her brilliant green eyes staring into nothingness, the light in them extinguished.
Lauren had stumbled away in pain and dead inside. She didn't know where she was going, she just started walking. She didn't notice anyone or anything or have any thoughts, just a feeling of emptiness that ate at her insides like a flesh eating virus eats at your skin. Eventually she stumbled into a motel parking lot. She still had her wallet and money and everything. The psychotic stranger hadn't taken anything from them but their lives. Lauren checked herself in ignoring the strange looks of the people behind the counter. She went to her room and slept for three days straight.
The police never found her body but knew she had been there and had assumed her dead. Lauren had learned as much from watching the news at random diners she ate at when she finally came out of her coma. Over the next two weeks she changed her appearance and her name. She became a ghost. She formulated a plan. The murder of her daughter had happened almost two months ago on August 18th. Since then she had lived for nothing but to find this man and to make sure he would never hurt anyone again. She had found him easily enough and she had patiently waited for the perfect time to avenge Rowan.
She wasn't worried about getting caught. Everyone thought she was dead. Dennis had even believed she was dead because he had meant for her to die. She knew that from the ligature marks on her neck that took two weeks to heal. Her plan had gone flawlessly perfect and no one would ever know who had done it. Dennis would never be able to get close enough to anyone to hurt anyone again. The fact that he didn't really have any fingers anymore assured it.
Over the next few days Lauren watched the news reports about a man who was mutilated in the middle of the night for no apparent reason. The man had no idea who could have done it nor could he think of any motive. Lauren knew that wasn't true. She savored the thought of him knowing that somehow, someway, one of his victims or someone who loved them had gotten revenge. She also saw a related news story a few days later about the same man's kidney being dropped off at a local hospital the same night the man was mutilated. The cooler full of ice and a kidney had also contained the following note: from a generous donor who would like to remain anonymous. The kidney was used before anyone knew who's it was. Whoops. Organs didn't go to waste.
Lauren thought she would be done, that this would fill the abyss inside of her but it didn't. Not even close. There were lots of monsters out there, living invisibly, preying on innocent people. She was going to make sure that everyone could see on the outside what they truly were on the inside. The only people they would ever hurt again were the ones who had to look upon them. She would make sure of that. What else was she going to do? She was dead after all, she had nothing but time.