No Gein III: The Final Cut, Part Five

Chapter Five: The Gein Ghoul House

August 27^th, 2004 Plainfield Wisconsin.

“America’s most Brutal and Bizarre Crimes,” read the neon sign at the entrance of the Gein Ghoul House. Leon, the owner of the local attraction, was happy to see the crowd of people ahead of him. Of course, the crowd was moving toward the parking lot as it was now after hours. The victim’s rights group who picketed the attraction were also packing up their signs and banners. Watching them leave, Leon chuckled to himself as he figured they hadn’t deterred any visitors. In fact, they probably attracted some.

A few months back the police questioned Leon when the Plainfield cemetery was desecrated and two youths were found murdered there. Apparently, some psycho was being a Gein copycat. There’d been no other victims since, and of course, Leon had nothing to do with it, but he welcomed the publicity. He also welcomed the jealous stares from the departing crowd as two voluptuous women walked with him to the entrance of the Ghoul House.

The attraction was designed like a simple farmhouse. Walking up the steps to the front porch with Candy and Sapphire on his arm, the trio were greeted by two skeletons sitting in rocking chairs. “You girls are gonna love this.” Leon said excitedly as he opened the door to the now empty attraction.

The first room they entered was not made up like a home but instead looked like a mental asylum. Mannequins of sinister looking Doctors and sexy nurses were set up around the room to appear as they were treating deranged patients in hospital gowns. The girls looked up at a TV hanging on the wall and saw a familiar face.

“Wow, I love Jerry Springer!” Candy said as she looked up at the screen playing America’s favorite tabloid talk show.

“Yeah,” Leon said, hugging her tight with his left arm, “look who else is up there.” Both girls looked at the screen, but it didn’t register yet. Then, they heard a familiar voice.

“No one believed her but me.” The voice from the TV said.

“Hey, that’s you!” Candy observed, her squeaky voice revealed genuine surprise.

“Yeah, no shit.” Sapphire said, taking out a pack of cigarettes from her purse as they both watched their “date” on the set of the Jerry Springer show.

“That’s right toots.” Leon said. “I worked over at Mendota Health Institute in back in the 70’s. One of our patients ran into Gein back in the day. Poor girl, no one believed her.” Leon’s voice showed no remorse as it told this story. In fact, he looked giddy as he passed the fake operating table where one of the dummy’s was getting vivisected. “Then, one day,” Leon gleefully continued, “it was just too much.” Creeping over to a door with a sign that read ‘Lobotomy Wing’ he went on. “The Doctors, those damned Doctors, they dragged her kicking and screaming to this door. I can still hear her shrieking, even now.” Leon then cradled his face with his hands. “No, please.” His voice now sounded lighter as he began his performance. Using his best acting skills, he mimicked his patient. “Please don’t take me there! Please no!”

“What did they do?” Candy asked.

A wicked smile emerged from Leon’s face as he thrust the door open and proclaimed, “They gave her a lobotomy!”

Leon’s mood went from glee to confusion as neither girl expressed any fright. In fact, Candy giggled and Sapphire took another drag of her cigarette, her boot tapped the floor not only to stomp out her ashes but to express her boredom. Leon’s head swung back; his eyes scanned the small room behind the door. The lobotomy chair sat empty, his plan of having Zeke, one of the house workers leap out at the girls had gone unfulfilled.

“Well, that was awkward.” Leon mumbled. His voice then perked back up as he said, “Let’s go to the kitchen!”

In the next room Sapphire felt Candy’s hand squeezing her tight. Even Sapphire was visually disturbed as a mock dinner scene sat before them. A ghoulish looking family feasted upon human arms and legs. A mannequin of a human head, eyes bulged in fright, it’s mouth agape as if trying to scream served as the table’s center piece. Surrounding this devilish dining scene were scantily clad female mannequins hung on meat hooks from the kitchen ceiling. “Don’t worry,” Leon said dismissively. “They’re just dummies!” Leon laughed while squeezing one of the fake plastic breasts; its body covered in fake blood lightly swung from its chain near the fake oven. With his other hand Leon then threw the oven door open, the sound of metal clanging startled Candy, who squeezed Sapphire’s hand even tighter. Leon was no longer expecting Jane to jump out as planned, and of course the mock oven was empty. However, Leon himself now appeared disturbed as he spied the door to the back entrance. “Oh, look what they did to the door!” he complained as he examined the broken doorknob while the wooden door swayed. “Can’t find good help these days. Here toots” he ordered Candy, “slide that chair over to me.” Candy grimaced as her small hands gripped the back of one of the chairs at the kitchen table were a mannequin of a maniac sat. “Don’t worry doll face that’s just a dummy it’s not gonna hurt you.” Candy still nervously pushed the chair over to him. It’s metal legs squealed on the tiled kitchen floor. Leon then carelessly pushed the mannequin off the chair and propped the seat against the back door keeping it shut.

“Won’t that make a fire hazard.” Sapphire asked.

“What are you the fucking Fire Marshall now?” Leon said sarcastically. “Come on, let’s go upstairs.”

The private show continued through a few more rooms on the second floor. The girls were treated to other figures set up wielding chainsaws, sledgehammers, and other scenes of brutality reflecting popular horror films.

One particular room seemed eerily normal. It was a clean nicely decorated bedroom with antique furnishing. Old curtains covered the windows and oil paintings decorating the walls, including one of Jesus Christ looking up at an angel. A lone figure sat in a rocking chair facing the window. Frills of the figure’s summer dress rippled as the motorized rocking chair creaked back and forth. Leon gestured his hand towards the gray wig which clung tightly to the fake skull attached to the full skeleton which sat in the rocker. “This was Ed Gein’s mother!” Leon announced as the music from the film Psycho played. Back in showmen ship mode he explained. “It was she that taught him the secrets of the dead, how to cook and devour human flesh!” Sapphire’s eyes rolled but Candy grimaced as she saw large plate resting on the lap of Ed’s “Mother” with a fake bloody dismembered arm resting atop.

Leon was still giddy like a pre-pubescent boy guiding these women through these monstrous displays. Approaching the doorway on the other side of the room, the girls followed behind as he announced, “And now for the grand finale, the Boudoir of Edward Gein!”

Even Sapphire cringed at the site of female heads posted on the bedroom wall. “Ew, gross.” Candy said upon entering. Speakers mounted on the walls projected sound effects of screams and running chainsaws. The far end of the room was not decorated save a simple curtain, but at the center of the room was the bed. Plastic skulls mounted the bedposts, and on the mattress laying face up was a female mannequin. Red makeup effects splattered the body giving the appearance of blood covering her legs to her neck, but not her head, as there was no head. Leering over the headless female was the Ghoul of Plainfield himself. The male mannequin stood upright, its trousers were pulled down it its ankles and was positioned at the edge of the bed giving the appearance of intercourse. Naked from the waist up save a red hunters cap that rested on its head, there he was in all his depraved glory, Ed Gein, the Ghoul of Plainfield.  

“Oh, that’s just nasty!” Sapphire shouted.

“I’m not paying you for your opinion. Speaking of which.” Leon pulled back the curtain which exposed not a window but a door.

“What’s behind there?” Candy asked. Leon opened the door which led to a small hallway. At the end of the corridor a half open door exposed a bathroom. “This is my office.” Leon said, leading the girls past a closed door. He checked to make sure it was locked, then took his keys out to unlock a second door.

“What’s back here, ghosts or something?” Candy asked.

“No sugar-tits.” Leon answered. “This is where we’re gonna party!”

“About time.” Sapphire said as they went in the private room. A large couch sat in front of a big screen TV. In between was a table with weed and cocaine along with bottles of whisky ready to be consumed. A small sink sat in the corner next to a mini fridge with a clear window on the door through which they could see cans of beer. Candy entered more cautiously. She looked around the room expecting more macabre sights to be found, not realizing the show was over.

“You okay sweetheart?” Leon asked as he observed Candy’s apprehension.

“Uh, yeah. Was that a bathroom down there?”

“Sure was hon.” Leon answered. “Feel free to go freshen up.”

As Candy exited, closing the door behind her Leon took a seat on the couch.

“So, you own all this?” Sapphire asked, sitting closely next to him on the couch.

“Sure do.” Leon said as he poured two glasses of whisky. “Got some money off my TV appearances and book deal and invested into this.”

“So, you’re a self-made man huh?” Sapphire said, picking up her glass.

“You got it baby.” Their glasses clinked together in a toast while Leon’s other arm wrapped around her waist. After a quick drink she scooted over and sat on his lap, wrapping her own arms around his neck. His eyes gazed at her bulging breasts almost busting out of her top. His gaze then floated to her thick red moist lips before finally resting in her dark eyes. Her head leaned in, and he squeezed her tight as he felt her tongue gliding on his neck. He closed his eyes an inhaled as he felt her body pressed against his.  Exhaling, he opened his eyes and was immediately taken out of the moment. There in his line of sight was the door to his private room, which reminded him of something he should check on.

“Hey, um,” Leon could still feel the heat from Sapphire’s breath on him neck as he pulled away and said, “why don’t you check on Candy?”

“OK baby.” She said as she stood up and grabbed her purse. “I should freshen up a minute anyway.” Before she went out the door to the small corridor outside, she turned back to say. “Don’t go anywhere.”

After taking another drink of whiskey, Leon approached the closed door ahead of him and said “Zeke, Jane?” His two co-workers were supposed to scare his “dates” as a practical joke. “You better not be boning in there!” He shouted as his hand gripped the doorknob to his private quarters. Behind this door was a small bedroom he made in the attraction for nights like these when he had company. “I’m gonna fire these fuckers” he thought to himself as he found the door to be unlocked. Presuming he was about to find the young couple in his bed; he thought if he were lucky, he would catch a good glimpse of Jane’s goods.

“Candy, you OK girl?” Sapphire said as she walked down the hallway. She didn’t find her in the bathroom. “Bitch better not have run off,” she thought to herself, wouldn’t surprise her though. Sapphire seen a lot of girls come and go in this line of work. Glancing in the cracked bathroom mirror, she reached into her purse and touched up her lipstick. Then applying a spritz of perfume around her neck she thought how this guy wasn’t hardly the weirdest client she ever had. All that mattered was that she got paid.

After touching up her makeup she was about to turn off the bathroom light and walk out when she heard it. It was a wet sliding sound, the sound of skin slipping on wet ceramic. Looking at the closed shower curtain hanging on the edge of the bathtub, it was then that she noticed the smell. It was a distinctly sweet but sickly scent, like that of rotting meat. “Candy, you in there?” she said as the moist sound came to a stop. The curtain remained still as she reached her hand toward it.

Pulling back the curtain, she found something more horrifying than any of the designed frights of this local attraction. There sat Candy in the bathtub, her throat had been cut, and cut for real. Next to her sat another body, a young girl in a Gein Ghoul house shirt. Sapphire instantly knew this was no mannequin as actual blood poured from the open wound of her face. It was also not a mannequin that stood before her in the shower, yet it did appear unreal. Its female face hung from its skull, its body draped in a long dress, and a masculine hand raised up a meat cleaver, burying it in Sapphire’s face.

Leon entered his private bedroom to find a fully clothed Zeke laying face down on the bed. “Sleeping on the job asshole!” he shouted. He was more disappointed that Jane’s naked body wasn’t lying underneath his lazy employee. “You’re fired!” Leon approached his now ex-employee who remained motionless on the bed. It was then he saw the the stains on the sheets. “What, are you trying to Punk me?” Leon asked, assuming a camera was on him somewhere and Jane was about to pop up and scare him. “Come on, show’s over.” He said shaking Zeke and turning his body over. It took his mind a moment to register what his eyes were seeing, as for a split second he presumed Zeke’s cut-throat was a merely a makeup effect and part of some elaborate prank. As Zeke’s eyes rolled to the back of his head Leon knew this was no prank, Zeke was dead.

Leon gave no thought to the girls or Jane as he ran out his private suite, dashed into the small corridor and into the mock-up of Ed’s room. He screamed and collapsed to the floor at the site of a figure standing near the opposite doorway. A young woman’s face sat atop a figure wearing a long dress. One of its hands gripped a blood-stained meat cleaver. “Dammit, it’s just one of those mannequins.” he said aloud to himself as the figure remained perfectly still. Getting back to his feet, he approached the motionless figure. This wasn’t a mannequin he recognized. Face looked cute, kind of resembled that dead girl they found in the local cemetery, wearing too many clothes though. Drawing closer, he gasped as he looked in its eyes and saw his own reflection. It was too late for him to realize who he was looking at as the real meat cleaver swung into his gut sending true blood pouring to the wooden floor below. Collapsing to the ground again, Leon looked up to see the figure standing over him, its mouth began to move.

“You know,” a male voice spoke through dead female lips, “everyone thought I should work here.” The living eyes looked around at the gaudy horror decor, “But actually, this offends me.”

“Who the fuck are you?” Leon cried out while grasping his gut.

Looking down at his latest victim Franklin said “You worked at Mendota Mental Health Institute for a few months in the 1970s before they let you go. What did you do, fool around with the patients?” His assailant then stated. “If you even knew Sally Kohler, it wasn’t for very long.”

Then, looking over at the bed, the hand gripping the meat cleaver began to shake. Franklin let out a sigh of disgust as he viewed the mannequin representing Ed Gein mimicking intercourse with a fake corpse. The mouth of Gein was posed to appear as it was biting a near exposed breast.

“Ed never ate his victims, he never had sex with them either. The bodies smelled bad.” Franklin said in a cold monotone voice.

“How the hell would you know?” Leon protested as his blood spilled onto the floor.

In a calm, manner of fact way, Franklin looked down and answered. “He told me.”

“Ahh, look man,” Leon looked at his wound he pleaded. “You know your stuff, how about you be part of the act? You’d be great.” Pressing his wound, his hand was stained red as he pleaded “I.. I can even get you a movie deal. Would you like to be in a movie?”

“Oh, there will be a movie.” Franklin replied as he removed the skin mask exposing his true face. “Ed and I will see to that,” looking around at the décor one last time he added, “but it’s going to be done right, not this farce.”

Franklin was now the only living person in the psycho house as he’d swung the meat cleaver down, burying its blade in Leon’s skull.