No Gein III: The Final Cut. Chapter Two

Chapter Two: Desperation

Amherst, Wisconsin. April 25th^th, 2003

Stella sat at her desk drawing, trying to blot out the world around her. It wasn’t easy though. She could feel everyone’s eyes on her. Study hall was mostly quiet, but small whispers accompanied stares while she attempted to create something in her sketchbook. The school newspaper folded up on her desk advertised a student art contest. Stella knew she wasn’t good enough to win, but working on a submission would at least be something to do to pass the time. The problem was her mind was drawing a blank. She’d been in a daze the last few weeks, with no inspiration in sight. Her charcoal pencil doodled on the sketchpad, desperately trying to form some design she could work with.

There were a few giggles as a spitball hit her in the back. Slamming her pencil down in her sketchbook, she stood up. A hush fell over the study hall as the other kids wondered what she would do, if anything. Brushing herself off, she walked over to one of the computers and put on a headset.

Surfing the web, she clicked on a link for a new horror movie trailer. It would take a few minutes to download, especially with public school connection speed. Amherst was still stuck in the stone age at 56k. Waiting for her video file to download, she surfed the forums at UpcomingHorrorMovies.com while she noticed someone sitting next to her.

A few minutes later the flash player was up. The small window on the computer monitor showed a lone girl stumbling into a room where the floor was covered in bones and debris. Naturally, she screams, but it wasn’t a typical horror movie scream. It was a guttural intense scream, a scream from someone actually experiencing the moment. It looked like she really was running out of that house as fast as she could when a man grabbed her from behind. She struggled with all her might as this man brought her into another room. It didn’t even look like they filmed this movie. It looked like this was really happening, and someone just happened to be there with a camera. Someone was just standing there filming as the woman was drug helplessly toward the deadly object. My god, they really wouldn’t show this in the movie, would they? Stella looked behind her to make sure the teacher couldn’t see what she was watching. It was safe, at least for the moment. Stella looked back at the screen to see this poor girl wailing and fighting for her life as the fiend walked her closer to it. There it hung, a shiny metal meat hook.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre would be out this summer. Stella remembered when she first heard the news of this remake; she thought her and her sister would go see it. Juliana, her sister, hated horror movies, but took her to see Psycho when they were back in middle school. She remembered her sister squirming in her seat due to the obnoxious teenagers in the front. “Yeah, let’s see some titties!” one of the boys shouted at the screen while in the movie a woman was murdered in the shower.

“Hey, what is that?” Stella was brought back to the present by voice of the study hall teacher. As his footsteps approached her fingers quickly clicked on the mouse to minimize the window. Luckily, she was safe, but the kid next to her was not, as he’d just been caught looking at girly pics.

After that commotion was over, she brought the window back up and finished the video clip, the ending of which truly struck her. Its last moments featured a large burly looking man who wore some kind of strange leather-like mask; it almost looked as though he was wearing another person’s face. He had thick black curly hair and a blood-stained apron. Standing in what looked like a flat Texas field, the sun shined over head as the maniac spun his body about, frantically waving the titular chainsaw through the air. Several times Stella clicked back to re-watch these last few seconds of video, finally pausing at one particular moment. The still frame image embedded itself in the mind of this teenage girl. It was beautifully violent, a juxtaposition of man’s wickedness and the peaceful calm of his natural surroundings. It was both ugly and serene, disturbing and wondrous. It was inspirational.

Stella went home that day to find her dad sitting in front of the TV drunk again. No words were exchanged as she went upstairs. She didn’t bother going to her own bedroom, instead, she sat in her sister’s empty room. Dad hadn’t touched it since…

Juliana’s basketball trophies were getting dusty, so Stella decided to wipe them off. It was the least she could do. Her sister had this big desk in her room. Maybe it was why she had good grades. This desk had so much space to do all kinds of work on, like drawing.

Stella couldn’t bring herself to ask her dad to move it though. This was Juliana’s desk, it belonged in Juliana’s room. Sitting in that space, she got her sketchbook out again. That image from the movie trailer was still fresh in her mind. Her charcoal pencil now eagerly brushed the canvas that was her sketchbook. Time vanished as Stella found herself in an artistic zone, transferring the image in her mind onto the page with ease. She didn’t even hear the sound of the door opening behind her, nor did she hear the approaching footsteps or smell the scent of alcohol. Finally, her father grabbed her shoulder and lightly shook her. “Earth to Stella.”

Stella jumped and screamed as her father stepped back, almost dropping what he was carrying in his hand. Her pencil again dropped to the notepad, this time leaving a mark on her piece. “Jesus, dad, you scared me.” She didn’t know what he wanted, but then she noticed the aroma. It covered the scent of whisky that had been on her dad’s breath too often these days. It was a much better and more appetizing smell.

“I brought you something to eat.” Her father said, putting a paper plate on Juliana’s desk. The plate just barely held a few slices of pizza. Steam was still rising from the hot tomato sauce and garlic as it must have just come out of the microwave. Her father squeamishly smiled and said, “I made it myself.”

“Thanks.” His daughter said quietly before returning her gaze to her sketchbook. She frustratingly reached for her eraser and desperately tried to erase the stray mark.

“What are you drawing there.” Her father asked, looking over her shoulder.

“Just something for school.” she answered, maintaining her focus on her work.

“Oh, looks good. Looks scary.” her father said with a laugh.

“It’s just a first try. I’ll rework it and add color later.”

Looking over the desk, her father said, “I was thinking, would you want to have this desk? I can move it into your room if you want.”

“No, it’s fine.”

“Ok. Well, um, I won’t disturb you. Don’t stay up too late, OK?”

She said nothing as his father stumbled to the doorway, where he stopped and turned to say. “You know, I was thinking, maybe next weekend we should go out of town. Would do us both some good. Maybe we can go down to Hancock and go roller skating or catch a movie or something. I know that new X-men movie is coming out next week. You still like that stuff, right?”

“Yeah, sure dad.” Her voice expressed zero enthusiasm as she continued working on her piece.

“Stella,” her father desperately tried to find the right words. “Stella, I miss her too you know.”

Again, there was silence. Even the charcoal pencil ceased its scratching as he walked away. Stella couldn’t bring herself to admit it, but her father was right. They both needed a change of scenery. Maybe getting out of Amherst for an afternoon wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

May 2cnd, 2003

Stella again sat alone in study hall doodling in her notebook, but her listlessness was so strong even this was boring now. She stood up and walked by the computers, but they were all taken. She noticed Megan, one of the girls in study hall with her, looking at some comic book website. As Megan scrolled through the page, an image of a character Stella recognized appeared. Wolverine was shown on the cover of something called Ultimate X-men, with a logo reading FCBD on the top. Stella didn’t know what all this was, but she liked that X-men movie and was excited to go see the new one this weekend. She could also appreciate the colors and design on the comic pages as Megan continued scrolling through images of other FCBD books.

“Pretty cool huh?” Megan said as she noticed Stella staring.

“Yeah, it looks neat.” Stella replied. Then reading the text on the monitor, she asked “What is Free Comic Book Day.”

“It’s a day when publishers send a bunch of free books to comic book stores to try to attract new readers.” Megan said. “They’re having it tomorrow; some stores get industry people to appear and do signings.”

“That sounds cool.” Stella said.

“Yeah, too bad there’s no stores like that out here.” Megan complained. “I hope one of these years I can get out to Milwaukee and check one out.”

Stella nodded while she continued looking at the screen. There was an awkward silence, as Stella didn’t know what to say next. Some kids next to her were giggling a bit which added to her discomfort.

“Hey, I meant to say we all really appreciate the make up work you did for the play this spring.” Megan said.

“Thanks.” Stella said sheepishly. She wasn’t used to anyone complimenting her work.

“Did you submit something to the art contest?”

“Yeah, I did. I didn’t hear anything yet.” Stella answered. Her head then turned down toward the floor as she said, “Probably didn’t win I guess.”

“Oh, Mr. Avery got swamped this week.” Megan explained. “From what I heard, he’s going to call the winner this weekend.”

Stella already put the idea of winning out of her mind, she only did this stupid contest to pass the time anyway. That awkward silence came back, then was finally interrupted by a boy. One of the kids who was giggling earlier, said “Hey Stella, I’m done here.” He got up out of his seat and asked, “You wanna use this computer?”

She didn’t answer but sat down at the screen. Clicking on the Firefox browser, seeing the new default screen felt like getting hit in the head with a sledgehammer. She hated that website rotten.com. Horror movies were one thing, but this site was renowned for posting celebrity morgue pictures and other actual death related stuff. Everyone in school knew the highway from the pic shown on the monitor, and the site of twisted metal and shattered glass made Stella sick to her stomach.

The boys behind her howled in laughter as Stella almost fell out of her chair. She was so shocked she couldn’t even speak, but when Megan saw the screen they were all looking at she shouted, “Real mature assholes!” With tears in her eyes, Stella stormed out the room, not even bothering to take the hall pass.

Stella hated this bathroom, but it was the closest one. The smell of cigarettes made her nausea worse, as did the cigarette butts floating in the toilet. After wiping her mouth with toilet paper, she flushed the combination of wet tobacco and vomit down the commode. She could hear some girls laughing over the sound of the water swirling away.

Coming out of the stall, she saw her standing there. Lisa was the last girl she wanted to see right now, but there she was smirking as she took another puff of her cigarette while standing by the sink with her friend. “Gee bitch, you’re skinny enough as it is and now you’re in their being all bulimic.”

Stella said nothing as she walked towards the door, but she winced as smoke was blown in her face. “I’m not done talking to you.” Lisa said as she stood in front of Stella. Her friend stood to Lisa’s side blocking Stella’s way out. The timid girl froze as Lisa then stepped back and said, “Ah, you know what, I was being too hard on you.” Stella’s shoulders moved up and down as she took a deep breath. “I’m really sorry your sister died.” Stella nodded as if to say thanks. Then Lisa stepped forward, raising her voice to say, “I’m sorry she died because I was gonna kick her fucking ass! Bitch stole my man but hey,” she stretched her arms outwards to finish, “maybe I as better off. It wasn’t my guts splattered all over the highway!”

Lisa’s friend laughed as Stella rushed out into the hallway. “Don’t drink and drive.” The friend chimed in as Stella fled.

It was long past time to get out of this place “Dad I’m home.” Stella said. “Are you ready to go?” There was no response as she walked in her house, but she got all the answer she needed once she saw her father passed out on the couch. Jerry Springer played on the TV as a bottle of Jack Daniels lay open on the table in front of him. She cursed herself for even getting her hopes up. Grabbing the bottle in disgust she took it to the bathroom upstairs. This wouldn’t be the first time these past few weeks she poured her father’s alcohol down the drain, but this time, as she saw her reflection in the mirror, she realized this bottle had a better use.

She almost gagged as soon as she tasted it, it was like liquid fire going down her throat. The only reason she didn’t spit the whole mouthful back up was because she didn’t want to defile her sister’s room. “How does anybody think this is cool.” she thought to herself. Looking at her sister’s trophies again, she wondered, why did her sister think this was cool. Was it because of that boy? Was her date hot enough to convince her to get in the car with him after he’d been drinking this shit?

After another smaller sip she sat back and slowly began to understand the appeal. Normally her mind was always running, always thinking, bouncing around from one thought to the next, but now her thoughts slowed down like an empty canoe floating in a lake. Numbness washed over her as she tried another sip. Looking over her sister’s display case, as the light shined off the golden trophies Stella understood the truth. Her sister shouldn’t have died, it should have been her instead.

Everyone loved Juliana. She was the perfect daughter, good grades, lots of friends, star athlete, popular with boys, while Stella was the weird little sister everyone ignored. Most people left Stella alone on account of who her sister was, but now that Juliana was gone it was like open season on the loser sibling. No one liked this odd artsy quiet kid who liked 80’s horror movies and grind-core music. What was that slut Lisa so mad about anyway? It’s not like she didn’t have a boyfriend, several if locker room rumors were true. Stella never even had a boy hold her hand, let alone a kiss, let alone…

The world took Juliana away, and it was a terrible mistake, a mistake Stella decided she should correct. She didn’t just bring the bottle to her departed sister’s room; she also brought the pills. She’d been thinking about it for a while now. She thought about it before the accident even. Nobody gave a damn about her. Hell, maybe she would be making the world a better place.

Stella took another fiery drink before looking at the trophies one last time. She then lay down on her sister’s bed and kissed the pillow. She placed the Jack on the nightstand, next to the picture of her and Juliana, and opened the bottle of pills. She figured it would be quick. One good handful of pills washed down by one quick swig of the bottle, and it’d be lights out.

Her body lay face down on the bed when the phone rang.