Decimate

It was Black Friday....the biggest shopping day of the year. Mervin loved Black Friday...he had gone to the West Valley Shopping Mall on the day after Thanksgiving three years ago to do his favorite thing....murder.

As he watched women gather at the mall door out of his Ford Bronco passenger window...he thought,"I think I will make this a family tradition." He was there at 9:45 in the morning. He thought out loud,"Last time I had to take old hog face bitchy fuck (His wife, Debbie) to the damn Dentist....didn't get here until noon!"

Mervin scanned the group of about thirty women and a couple of men. He smiled as he looked at his watch and said,"Lucky people most of you are but the little lady in the gray and red coat...isn't going to be lucky today....she was the tenth one to park in the front row....it is fate...we are bonded now....she will be even be my tenth kill."

Mervin considered the number ten to be the key of evil. He believed that every tenth female born should die. His mother was the tenth child in her family. On his tenth birthday...his mother made him eat a piece of his cake from a sheet he had wet on the night before. She had smashed the cake in the urine soaked sheet.

Mervin opened his door...looked around and stooped to let the air of of the woman's white Ford Taurus back right tire. As the valve stem hissed, he pictured a snake in his mind....a Black Snake he had as a pet....his mother killed it with a broom handle when it slithered out from under the kitchen sink. It was just one of the many reasons Mervin hated his mother.

When the tire was flat...Mervin got back in his Bronco and drove to the other side of the parking spaces. He positioned the Bronco straight across from the Taurus....about 20 feet away. He waited and waited...watching the mall door and she finally came out at around 10:30. She was carrying three holiday decorated bags from the stores and was smiling at the bright sunny day.

She walked to her car and opened the trunk with her electronic key pad. She put the bags in the trunk...closed it and got in her car. Mervin thought out loud,"Fuck...another dumb one." She pulled out and obviously felt something was wrong with the car. She stopped...got out and saw her tire was flat.

She backed back in her spot because the lot was nearly full. No sooner than she pulled out her cell phone...Merlin walked up and said,"I hate flat tires...hi..my name is Mervin...I was just in the jewelry store to get my beautiful wife a necklace for Christmas...I saw you had trouble and just thought I'd offer help...if you like?"

With a little suspicion in her voice...the woman said,"My name is Tina...yes I do have a problem...I was about to call my boyfriend...I just don't know anything about cars." Merlin grinned and said,"No problem...I can change the tire and have you out of here in five minutes...well...that is...if you have a spare." Tina hit her trunk button and moved her shopping bags to the back seat. Mervin flipped up the carpet and found the spare tire compartment. He pulled out the jack and tire.

Mervin put on a pair of Jersey gloves and began jacking the car up. Mervin looked around as he pushed the handle down slowly. He reached in his jacket pocket and they both heard a baby crying...loudly. Mervin looked up at Tina and said,"Crap...it's my daughter....she probably dropped her sippy cup again....could you get it for her...right there in the black Bronco." Tina smiled and said,"Sure...I love babies."

Tina went to the Bronco...got in the passenger side and twisted around to help the crying child. She lifted the pad cover of the car seat and said,"What the?" A blast of ether hit her in the face...instantly...she was in a cloud of gas! Mervin was watching as he dropped the tire tool...shut the trunk and walked quickly to his Bronco. Tina was wedged between the seats...gasping and barely moving. Mervin looked around...shoved her the rest of the way in...slammed the door and slowly walked around to the driver's side.

Mervin got in and flipped the AC on and rolled his dark tinted window down a couple of inches. He started up the Bronco and pulled to the far end of the lot. He remove Tina's coat and tossed it in the back seat...patted the doll in the car seat on the cheek and said,"Nice work Barbra...oh plastic daughter of mine." He strapped Tina in with the seat belt and restrained her wrists to a rope he had looped under the seat. The rope had a knot loop tied at each end. He took her long blond hair and tied it in a knot to the headrest post to hold her head up.

Mervin pulled out of the parking lot on to Highway 29. Tina was moaning a little but she would be totally out for at least another twenty minutes. Mervin began talking to her...saying,"Well Tina...that's some great cleavage you have there....nice legs too...I bet you wax...do you wax....my Debbie could use a wax but she's always too busy stuffing her fat face with...you know...foods that are saturated with fucking fat!"

He grinned and went on,"I love technology....I told myself...Mervin...if you are going to be a serial killer...you are going high tech....well..the tape recorder of the baby crying is low tech but the switch I have in my pocket is very high tech....and hey..I designed the ether delivery system myself!"

He turned off of Highway 29 on to Grassman road...saying,"I grew up in these parts....yip...good old Grassman road...path to home sweet fucking home!" From Grassman road he pulled into a lane that went deep into a wooded area where an old abandoned farm house was at the end. He said with a chuckle,"Honey we're home...I know...I know...I need to fix that gate...the Shuman's left this place in a shit hole mess."

Mervin stopped the truck...got out and told Tina he would be back in a few minutes..he needed to turn on the generator and prepare for her visit. Tina was just beginning to come out of her gas forced sleep. Mervin strutted his way back to the Bronco...opened the door and saw...Tina was almost awake...but smiling? He felt a quick pain in the back of his head and he was out like a light.

Mervin woke up in the passenger seat. He was restrained and his neck was tied to the headrest with a bungee strap.

He was groaning in pain. A man was at the driver's side window...smoking a cigarette. Mervin moaned,"Who the fuck are you?" The man grinned and said,"Hello Mervin...I'm Tina's boyfriend...you should have shut her phone off...Tina is a little dingy...sometimes she calls me and forgets to hang up....you really talk too much Mervin." Mervin painfully grumbled,"In the fucking coat...right?" The man said,"Yes...the fucking coat." Mervin asked,"Where's the bitch?

The man said,"The last I saw her... she was staggering towards my car...just around the bend over there." The man then said,"You must be the "Peace Killer"...you know....the number 10 carved on a dead woman's forehead is really kind of lame." Mervin shouted,"Fuck you...fuck you....just get it over with and call the fucking police!" The man took a long puff from his cigarette and said,"I am the police Mervin." He then held up Mervin's radio switch and tossed the cigarette on the driver's seat." Mervin shouted,"You can't do this....you fuck...I know my rights!"

The man ran about fifty yards away and shouted,"I love technology" ....then.... hit the button on the switch to the ether tank.