The Mountain - XV

XV.

                “How long are we going to wait?” Greed asked from behind the one-way mirror overlooking the interrogation room. With him stood Vincent, Erika, Angela, and Victoria. After the commotion in the subway was over Greed, Angela, and Erika called in back up to secure the Butcher and to take out the body that was ripped open and heart removed.

                “I’m not sure. He should start to talk soon.” Victoria said. The air was still as they waited.

                Cairn couldn’t contain his excitement to be face to face with the Butcher. He didn’t care how he came to be there, or how he was caught he was simply excited to finally get to it. The interrogation he waited for. He cleared his throat and began.

                “What’s your name for the record?”

                “I don’t have a name, except the one you gave me.”

                “The Butcher. You like this name?”

                The Butcher nodded.

                “Interesting. And how long have you wanted to commit murder?”

                “As long as I’ve been alive.” The Butcher said matter-of-factly.

                “I see.” Cairn was a loss for words. He remembered having so many questions he wanted to ask, so much he wanted to examine and cross examine but now looking at him he was simply fascinated and awestruck. The man kept his eyes down as he spoke but Cairn could make out a faint smile.

                “Why don’t you walk me through…”

                “…how it all started?” The Butcher finished Cairn’s sentence.

                “Yes. Start from the beginning.”

                “Want me to describe my childhood? The years of school? The horrors I’ve witnessed? Want me to start there?”

                “Start wherever you wish. I am simply here to listen.”

                The Butcher chuckled.

                “It called out to me after I saw my first death.”

                “It?”

                “They saw it,” the Butcher pointed to the mirror, “he, it called out to me, when I was very young.”

                “You killed someone as a child?”

                “No, I saw someone get killed right before my eyes.”

                The back of Cairn’s neck itched.

                “Go on.”

                “That night I had a dream. It talked to me about this and that. Over the years he’d return to me and whisper. I tried to ignore him at first. It frightened me ya know? Having someone talk to you in your dreams, saying terrible things. I tried to block it out but I don’t think it worked. What do you think doctor?”

                “Apparently not, given your current state.”

                “I suppose you’re right.”

                “You were saying?”

                “Oh right, so years of this went on until a few months ago he came to me with a request. He told me that I needed to help him.”

                “By killing innocent women?”

                “Innocent? I suppose once could say there were innocent in a sense but they were used to serve a higher purpose. Only certain people are worthy you see. It was very particular in its needs. I’m surprised I could even finish the job given you kept taking the heart I needed away from me. Luckily I found a replacement.”

                “How did you know what you were doing? Did he instruct you the whole way?”

                “No I had help.”

                “Ask him about the book.” A voice came over the intecom. It was a woman’s voice that Cairn didn’t recognize.

                “You want to know about the book eh?” The Butcher asked of the mirror.

                “Yes.”

                “He told me about that too. Told me to get it and another to help me out before I started. So I took them with me when I left to get here.”

                “You’re not from here?”

                The Butcher shook his head.

                “Where did you come from?” Cairn asked. His eyes started to hurt.

                “You know.”

                “Answer the question.”

                “Boston.” The Butcher looked up and Cairn looked deep into his eyes. They were the same eyes he witnessed in the mirror, dark and lifeless, eyes of nothingness.

                “What?” Cairn asked. His vision went blank.

                “It’s just you and me now doc.”

                “What’s going on? Turn on the lights.”

                “You don’t remember do you? Maybe I did block it out.”

                “What the fuck are you talking about?”

                “The book that was stolen, the Necronomicon. I took it from that professor. I wonder if they found his body yet.”

                Cairn saw flashes of a struggle between the Butcher and another man as if the Butcher was projecting his thoughts. Was this a byproduct of the dreams? A connection? Cairn thought as his mind burned.

                “I took it with me when I left. Not sure why he wanted me to come here, or was that my idea? I can’t remember anymore. It worked out didn’t it.”

                “When I got the call to help I was already in the city.” Cairn said not sure where the words were coming from.

                “You were right you know, about the mountain. That’s where I met him the first time in my dreams as a child. He told me that I would be safe there with him until the time was right. He’d show me things in the mirror. Though I was afraid at first I came to enjoy my time there. You enjoyed it too didn’t you? The lake, the power of being up so high.”

                “How do you know that I was…”

                “That’s one thing about you doctor that I never understood.”

                “What? You don’t know me.”

                “Let me show you what I mean.”

                The sound of the man’s voice trailed off as Cairn was caught in a dream…or a memory. He saw a child standing in the dusk light, a yard away was the body of his friend and standing over him was the killer.

                “Marcus.” The Butcher’s voice returned. He was standing next to Cairn in the memory.

                “How do you know that?”

                “He was my best friend. We spent all our time together. I loved him like a brother but he was foolish and wanted to walk this way back from school. It was innocent enough playing and skipping along until this man emerged from the shadows. I could tell there was something wrong with him and I hid before he saw me but for Marcus it was too late. He was seized by the collar, lifted up, and…”

                “…stabbed. I could see the blood dripping onto the pavement. My own blood ran cold as Marcus cried out. But how could you possibly know this?”

                “Ever since that night I was afraid of the dark and never went anywhere I didn’t know until college. I felt if maybe I learned how to save people who were injured I could prevent this from happening to anyone else. So I signed up for medical classes. Being a surgeon, saving people, that’s what I would do. But during the first mock surgery I got cold feet, the…”

                “…sight of blood caused me to choke. I abandoned that the same day and went into criminal justice. If I couldn’t save the victims then I’d figure out how the criminals worked. Attack the problem from another angle.”

                “I excelled in the field. Became the top of my classes and spent years learning and understanding the mind of a criminal. All the while it talked to me in dreams. I wrote books, gave speeches, and formed theories. In the back of my head though the voice persisted and when it asked me to help it, I obliged. I crept into the professors office, he was about to leave on sabbatical and I…”

                “…wrung his neck.” Cairn choked as the words left his mouth. The image of the professor, life leaving his face, strong hands wrapped around his neck. The book lay on the desk wrapped up, ready to be transported away. The professor had an idea to take it with him, hide it somewhere, rid the school of it.

                “I couldn’t let that happen. Not when I needed it. I took it from him and came here, then I began my work. My hands were a little rusty but with the help of the other book I was able to do the work I hated most. Drawing blood. I worked in the method the book and he described taking…”

                “…pieces needed for the vessel but I did something else. I left a confession behind. Part of me knew what I was doing was incorrect. If only I was strong enough to confess, to break free from the binding it had on my mind. But I was weak.” Cairn spoke as tears started to stream down his cheeks.

                “I was nothing but a victim. A victim of that horrific scene, a victim of dreams, a victim of circumstances beyond my control. The funniest part about this whole endeavor is your desire to know the mind of a killer. All you needed do was look in the mirror.”

                Cairn’s eyes snapped open again but this time he wasn’t seated in front of the Butcher. He could see the mirror and in it he saw himself seated where the Butcher had been sitting. He tried to look at his hands but they were tied.

                “What…” as he began to speak he heard a piercing screeching noise in his head. Then a voice returned to him, the voice he recognized from his dreams. Dreams that he had for the majority of his life.

                “You served your purpose, now remember all that you’ve done. That’s my parting gift to you.” The voice was a mixture of feminine, masculine, and other sounds. They pierced his skull and bounced inside. Then as the voice faded he felt his mind swimming with memories. Playing before him like a film. He watched as his hands wrung the life from the professor, the first woman he killed and cut to pieces following closely the book about anatomy, the shrines heaped in blood, the next body and the next, taking the pieces to the abandoned subway station by his home and building the vessel in secret. The hours spent at night coming and going without a word. The mirrors where he saw his reflection change before his very eyes into someone else to conceal his movements. The final dream where he stood before the mirror on the lake of metallic water. How he awoke and struck Thorne on the head. How he dragged the man’s body down the stairs, out the back door and into the subway. How he plunged his hands into the soft flesh of his belly and reached for his heart wrenching it from the man’s body as he gasped his final breaths pleading for reprieve. Placing the heart within the vessel, and finishing his work. He remembered being led out of the subway and being viewed in the light by Greed who was taken aback at seeing his face. The curses that came when Greed saw that it was Thorne’s body when it was wheeled out of the dark. The fists he felt upon his face and the terror in the eyes of the woman who led him away.

                “I succeeded.” Cairn said into the room.

                “You don’t know what you’ve done.” The female voice returned over the intercom.

                “I set him free.” Cairn started to laugh as his mind went astray.

                I set him free.

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