No Gein III: The Final Cut, Part Three

Chapter Three: The Last Date

I-39 North, June 11^th, 2004

“Six dollars, it’s like a dollar an hour!” Lindsey burst into laughter as her boyfriend did a spot-on impersonation of Napoleon Dynamite, the movie they’d just seen before beginning the drive home.

“Eat the food!” Lindsey chimed in with her own impersonation. Ben laughed as he watched the road ahead of him. Lindsey then watched Ben’s expression shift from laughter shift to surprise. She was taken back herself as she turned to see the normally desolate freeway dotted with pairs of red break lights. “Oh wow,” Lindsey said, “there must have been an accident.”

“Hope it wasn’t anything too serious.” Ben said as he turned up the radio and held his foot on the break. For the first time in their lives, they were in a traffic jam, something hard to come by in the state of Wisconsin, but nothing phased them these days. Life was great, they’d just graduated high school, were about to go off to college, and the possibilities were as open as the wide prairies surrounding them.

“The Reason” from Hoobastank played on the radio as Ben lit a cigarette. “Thanks for the movie.” Lindsey said as she leaned over, brushing his arm with her hand.

“No problem.” Ben said as he took a puff of his cigarette.

Remembering her recently departed great-grandmother, Lindsey asked, “Remember that time my Nana took us to the movies for my brother’s birthday?”

“Yeah, we went roller skating afterwards.” Ben recalled, tapping his cigarette on his windowsill sending the ashes to the macadam below. “I didn’t want to go because I couldn’t skate.” Ben recalled with a laugh. “Franklin really wanted to see that horror movie, but your brother didn’t want to invite him unless I was there too.”

“What, really?” Lindsey never knew this nugget of information. That was the day she first met Ben. Even back then, when they were just barely teenagers, Lindsey knew there was something special about him. “Why was that?” she inquired.

Looking out into the night illuminated by the red glow of the brake lights, he explained. “I was like his only friend back then. I guess I was supposed to keep him in line or something.” Lindsey nodded as she remembered Ben’s friend who had a reputation of being odd and intense.

“You know,” Ben then looked at his date to reveal, “I had a crush on you even back then.”

“Awww!” Lindsey leaned toward him granting a tiny taste of her lips. Pulling back, she blushed as Ben’s face was now marked with a small red smear.

As she playfully wiped his mouth with her handkerchief, she heard him say, “Yeah, Franklin used to tell me that I’d have to fight him to the death for you.”

“Oh really?” she said, putting the handkerchief back in her pocket.

“Yeah,” Ben said laughing as the traffic slowly crept forward. “You know, the thing was I think he was serious!”

“So I take it you won?”

They both laughed as he replied. “No, I just went and asked you out!”

Squeezing his hand, suddenly a memory emerged from years ago. It was such a trivial thing, but still. “There was something I never told you.” she said quietly.

“Oh yeah.”

“Remember when we went to the winter formal?”

“Of course I do. That was a great night.” She knew he was right, it was a great night. That night was the first time, for both of them.

“Franklin asked me to go with him.” she suddenly revealed.

“What?” Lindsey didn’t know how he would react. He didn’t look angry, more surprised. She supposed it didn’t matter now.

Telling more of the story, Lindsey said, “Yeah, remember that time we went to that awful Hell House that year?”

“Oh yeah, that weird church put that on.” Ben recalled. “Wasn’t that the church that closed up after Y2K didn’t and the world and all that.”

“I think so, yeah.”

“You know what? I do remember that haunted house thing. We had a fight that night.”

“We did?”

“Yeah, you were really offended and wanted to leave.” Ben recalled. Lindsey had forgotten all about that awful skit where a woman was portrayed as getting raped then going to hell. “I wanted to see it all since I paid for it!” He laughed.

“Wow, I’d forgotten all about that.” As she spoke she recalled how the big rumor around school was that they’d broken up, but those were put to rest when they arrived at the Winter Formal together. “Anyway, when I left I went to the hardware store to get some stuff for my mom, and he was there.”

“He was? Wasn’t he working at the Hell House? I remember he was all stoked about that.”

“Yes, he was, he was talking to me about one of the rooms he designed or something.”

“Oh, right.” Ben remembered. “He got kicked out that night because he got into a fight with Ken Tramer.”

“He did!” Lindsey said.

“Yeah, Ken told me about it at school the next week.”

“I never knew that. Anyway, I ran into him at the store. I think he asked me to watch a movie with him or something, and then he asked me to the dance.”

Ben jokingly asked, “Well, did you think about saying yes?”

“I was just shocked. I never had anything against the guy, but I was like, ‘How are you asking me out you know I’m dating Ben?”

Shaking his head showing complete understanding Ben said “It was like he had tunnel vision. If he wanted something, nothing else mattered.”

“I’m sorry,” Lindsey said, hoping not to offend him. “I know he was your friend.”

Ben said nothing as the traffic moved along. Their exit was soon approaching. As he and Lindsey looked around, there seemed to be no sign of an accident, no flashing red lights, no police or ambulance in sight. Still, Ben gripped the steering wheel tightly. “Ah shit!” he said, looking to his left.

“What is it?”

“I totally forgot that opened tonight.” Ben said aloud. As the traffic slowly trickled to the Plainfield exit ramp exit ramp Lindsey’s stomach turned at the image before her. A large billboard bore the image of a big burly maniac donned in a leathery like mask wielded a chainsaw. Surrounding him were scantily clad females whose cleavage spilled over, their mouths hung agape seemingly screaming in terror. Little blood or gore was displayed but the presence of meat hooks behind the women left little to the imagination. The bloody text of the roadside billboard read ‘Gein Ghoul House’.

“Wow, I’m so sorry.” Ben said, embarrassed as he knew the attention their little town had been getting made Lindsey uncomfortable.

“It’s OK.” Lindsey assured. Looking to her left at the line of cars crawling down I-39 south, Lindsey could see the actual house that was the attraction. Its Second Empire Victorian architecture looked like it belonged on a Hollywood backlot instead of the Wisconsin landscape. “You know,” Lindsey observed, “that’s not even where he lived?”

“Where who lived?” Ben asked flicking his cigarette out the window.

“You know, that Gein guy whose property they found all those bodies.” Motioning with her thumb towards the east she added, “He really lived out that way. Did you know my dad was the one who discovered all that?”

“Really? He’s the one who found the bodies?”

“Yeah, he dug them up by accident when he was working for the county.”

“Oh wow.” Ben looked relieved as they were finally getting to their exit. “Did you still want to go to the cemetery?”

“Yeah, sure.”

Most of the other cars around them used this exit to take Highway 73 west to head to the new morbid local attraction. Hence the traffic was now clear for Ben and Lindsey as they took 73 east for just a moment before making the left at 5^th avenue toward the Plainfield Cemetery. The interstate was still visible off to the west, but little to no cars were heading north of their little town. As they approached the cemetery gate, Lindsey asked. “Have you talked to Franklin recently?”

Shaking his head no, Ben answered. “Not in a long time actually. He got too weird for me, always on about serial killers and shit.” Looking toward the interstate he said “He’s probably in his glory days now. Hell, I’ll bet he’s working at that damn spook house.”

“He works at the senior center.” Lindsey replied. “He looked after Nana and Ronnie. She always said he was really good to her. Guess he wasn’t all bad.”

“That’s cool. I should probably call him sometime. I heard his parents passed.”

“Oh really, what happened?”

“I don’t know. Natural causes, I guess. From what I heard they both died at home.”

“Oh!” Lindsey got scared for a minute. Ben slammed on the breaks and looked about. Lindsey then put her hands up to her face “I’m sorry.” She giggled as she looked to her right. She felt so silly reacting to the sight of a freshly dug grave. What else would she expect to see at night in a cemetery? “I wonder who that is?” she said aloud. In their small community there had been no recent deaths. While they couldn’t make out the name on the tombstone, one word at its head of the tombstone was the most visible to the couple. That word was ‘Mother.’

“Let’s go see who it is.” Ben said as he switched off the ignition before asking. “Can you reach in the glove compartment and get my flashlight?” As both of them got out of the car, Lindsey followed Ben from behind as he shined his light toward the open grave. The sounds of traffic and beeping horns were far behind them as now the only sound they heard were crickets and the crunching of gravel under their feet. Ben’s light poured into the freshly dug grave. “Nothing down here.” He said.

“Look.” Lindsey said tugging Ben’s arm.

“What the hell?” It didn’t make sense, but a coffin rested right near them. It looked small and light, and also looked really old. “Why would they just leave this out here?” Ben wondered aloud. Lindsey gasped as she looked ahead. “What is it?” Ben asked. Her only answer was to point to the stone before them, a stone that rested here longer than any of them realized.

This grave had been here since 1953.

“Oh no, Nana!” Lindsey said in a horrific realization as she ran through the cemetery. She heard Ben calling from behind for her to wait, but she couldn’t wait. That tasteless haunted attraction was one thing, but this was too far. Their little town made national news this past year as it was discovered that decades ago, a man named Edward Gein went grave robbing undetected. He died in a house fire and his crimes went undiscovered until remains were accidentally unearthed just a year ago. Now some sick freak was looking to be a copy-cat, and all she could think of was her recently departed Nana.

Her chest heaved as she placed her hands on her hips and breathed a deep sigh of relief. There before her, was the perfectly intact grave of her relation. At least someone had left her be.

She turned around to see Ben’s light still behind her. He hadn’t caught up to her yet, in fact his flashlight seemed to be sitting in the grass. Was he checking a grave of his own relation? He did have family buried here, most of the locals did. “Ben.” She called out. “It’s OK, she’s fine, but let’s get out of here, alright?” There was no answer.

As she picked up her pace, moving quickly among the grave markers, the light ahead remained still. Then, she slowed back down as she approached it, another pile of overturned earth. Dammit, this sicko violated another grave, but that wasn’t the worst of it. The flashlight must have been carefully placed on the ground so the beam of light could shine in that exact direction, perfectly illuminating the exposed earth; and there, in front of the marble slab, sat Ben. His throat slashed and was still bleeding onto his shirt.

“Ben!” she shouted as she rushed to his side, desperately pushing her hands on the wound in a vain attempt to stop the bleeding. She shouted his name again and again, but it was too late. She sorrowfully cradled him in her arms. His blood now stained her own clothing as she took his car keys. “Oh, Ben.” she sobbed, kissing his forehead as she said goodbye to the future they imagined together, a future that was so shockingly and suddenly cut short.

Keys in hand, she ran back toward the car, her head frantically looked about but could see no assailant. Ben’s car sat ahead of her. For a millisecond she felt a sense of relief, but as soon as she set eyes on the vehicle she sensed something was wrong. Speeding closer to it, her worst fears were confirmed. All four tires were slashed.

Crying out in desperation, Lindsey leaned over with her hands on her knees. It was then she saw it. A black shape emerged from the tree line ahead of her. Long curly hair bounced in the night as the figure approached. It appeared to be carrying a long object, like a shovel.

Lindsey bolted away screaming, knowing there was no one around to help, and no way home except her own feet. With no light of her own, her eyes tried as best they could to scan the area in front of her. She feared stumbling over the white tombstones that dotted the landscape, but those fears were alleviated in a twisted manner as she fell into yet another unearthed grave. Her body hit with a hard thud as she struck the dirt wall. The sound of her ankle snapping was dulled by the loose dirt below. Now another sound was audible aside from her screams of fear and pain. It was the sound of footsteps.

Lindsey covered her mouth, smothering her screams of agony and terror as the sound of the footsteps grew louder. From above she could see another beam of light moving about. She desperately wanted to cry out for help but knew there was no help to be had.

The beam of light then fell into the pit exposing Lindsey and all her vulnerability. Looking up, she could see the shape of a person standing over her. Its long curly hair flopped down to the person’s shoulders as the shape simply stood over the open pit and stared. Lindsey could hear this person breathing as the beam of light slowly lifted up until it exposed the face the person above her wore. She didn’t know to plead for help or mercy as the face of Franklin’s mother looked down on her. At least it looked like his mother’s face, but something about it wasn’t right. Its skinned unnaturally drooped off the head as if it were placed on the wrong skull. Besides, hadn’t Ben said that she died? The figure also appeared taller than she remembered his mother being. The chest appeared perfectly flat, and the body was wiry as if she’d lost a lot of weight. None of that mattered in the moment, as Lindsey shot up her hand and cried out for help. A masculine hand pulled the strange face back, its wet skin slipping off like a glove. Laurie whaled in shock, falling back into the pit as the female face now hung from the person’s hand by its hair. Only now was the proper face of this person clear. His hair was a mess, but that was nothing new. That face stained in blood was one she knew too well.

“Ed told me about your Great Grandmother.” Franklin said as he stood over Lindsey. What he was saying was incomprehensible to her, but he babbled on. “She was a lot like you. He tried to be nice to her, and what did he get?”

The earth crumbled in her fingers as she desperately tried to reach up and crawl away. She heard a light thump, like a wet rag dropping to the ground as his mother’s face fell next to the hole. The smell of dead skin trickled down into the pit. “The same thing I got.” was the last thing Lindsey ever heard as the thick blade of the shovel pierced her skull.