Addison Road, Houston Texas – 24^th October 2015 23:30

 

Dr Andrew Panacea hurried along the sidewalk towards the house he was renting a room in, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was being followed. It was only a short walk from the children’s hospital where he worked and in every street he heard footsteps behind him but every time he turned around there was no one in sight. Andrew had a right to be nervous as the crime rate in Houston was astronomical, also not to mention the murders over at the emergency care centre last night.

 

It had been all over the news, although no details of the victims’ identities had been released or the any suspected killer. Although interviews view hospital staff who had caught a brief sight of the crime scene had told the media it was a slaughter house. There was an interview which locally named one of the victims as Nurse Helena Richards but this had not been confirmed by the Texas Police Department. With the apparent bloody nature of the murders the Houston Chronicle tabloid had dubbed the culprit “the Texan Terror”, the name seemed to have stuck.

 

A shrill of panic washed over Andrew as a sharp metallic sound came from behind, he spun on his heels and was greeted with a shadow around two hundred metres away from him. It seemed to be dragging something across the pavement, with a metallic shriek. The shrieking continued as Andrew picked up his pace nearing the house he was staying in. Andrew thought about calling the police but decided that his priority was getting inside first then worry about alerting the authorities.

 

Andrew took out his house key from his pocket but accidently dropped it to the floor, he tripped over his own feet trying to snatch it out of mid-air. He hit ground with a wet smack and took a fraction of a second to take a look behind him. At first he thought it was just someone from the hospital on account of what looked to be someone in green scrubs, but his blood went cold when Andrew realised that it was a figure wearing a rubberised green apron. Andrews pupils dilated as he realised that the figure was dragging an axe along the pavement.

 

Andrew picked himself up from the floor, he snatched up his key and practically scrambled on his hands and knees up the driveway of the house. Reaching the front door he couldn’t get the key in the door, his rising panic mixed with the metallic dragging getting closer meant he couldn’t even perform this most simple of tasks.

 

Andrew threw the key to the ground when he realised it was his fucking locker key!  Andrew began fumbling in his pockets looking for the right key, his breathing became ragged gasps, he was sweating profusely and every millimetre of his body was shaking uncontrollably. Andrew began to panic, he started to bray his fists against the front door hoping to wake his Landlady Ms Peavey.

 

In the next few seconds he could hear the muffled shouting of Ms Peavey from upstairs, followed by the sound of the axe dragging figure closing in behind him. Then Andrew heard sirens far in the distance perhaps one of the neighbours had called the police. The axe dragging stopped abruptly and was followed by a heavy metallic clunk, unconsciously Andrew found himself turning on his heels with painful slowness to face the axe wielding figure.

 

Completing a one hundred and eighty degree turn he could clearly see the figure not twenty paces from him, and immediately he wished he hadn’t. Andrew saw that the figure wore some kind of gruesome Halloween mask, the stranger was hunched like an animal about to charge, it had the smile of the axe planted on the pavement.

 

In that moment a well of defiance sprung up inside of Andrew, he took a deep breath to calm the violent shaking and prepared to defend himself. If I’m going to die I am going out swinging. He thought to himself. His defiance disappeared as quickly as it arrived when he realised that the killer wasn’t wearing a mask at all, it was wearing a severed human female face.

 

The wearer slowly cocked its head to one side, a tongue forced its way out through the mouth of the severed face and licked at dried blood. The axe wielder visibly shook as if it had taken a strong shot of liquor, it then raised the axe from the pavement. ‘Andrew Panacea?’

 

Andrew voided his bladder as the killer with a male voice spoke his name, he felt the warm trickle of his urine spill down his trouser leg, he tried to back pedal but hit the front door. The killer took the haft of the axe in two hands then launched itself from its hunched position and thundered forwards.

 

Andrew could have counter charged, he could have darted left or right or tried to find the keys, but fear had its icy grip over him and he was frozen to the spot like a deer caught between headlights.

 

The killer was mere feet from him and closing fast, he had the axe swung behind his head ready to split Andrew in two. The killer was practically on top of him, he swung the axe forward in a downwards arc. Andrews world slowed to a crawl, he saw the axe launching for his face. Then in one second he was leant up against the door and then in the next he felt himself falling.

 

Andrew landed in the threshold of the door on his back, still as if in slow motion looking up he could see the dumfounded look Ms Peavey wore on her haggard face as she opened the door. It was the last expression she would ever wear for the killers axe smashed into her face, she wasn’t even afforded time to scream. The smile of the axe bit into her face with a sickening crunch of breaking bone, she was visibly thrown from his field of vision by the force of the blow.

 

The killer flashed passed him, trampling Andrew as the force of the blow carried the murderer into the property as the killer had overreached not expecting the door to open.

 

Andrew scrambled away from the killer in blind panic, he realised to late that instead of escaping the house he had scrabbled his way backwards, passed the killer and his victim, into the corridor of the house.

 

Andrew saw that the killer was bent double, the axe was still buried in Ms Peaveys face, worse still was the fact that she was still alive. The axe was embedded in her face diagonally, gore was spurting across the floor, he was sure that she would be screaming if the smile of the axe wasn’t jammed in her upper and lower jaw. Mrs Peavey grasped fruitlessly at the axes haft with blood slicked hands. The killer ignored Andrew entirely, instead he stared with sick fascination at the struggling woman beneath him, as if examining an ant beneath a magnifying glass.

 

Andrew had the presence of mind to attempt an escape, he tried to rise from the floor but slipped on blood splatter and crashed back down with a loud thud.

 

The killer turned from his inspection of Ms Peavey to look upon Andrew, he then growled and moved towards him. The killer was yanked back as he held the axes haft which was still embedded in the landladies skull. The killer pulled on the axe to dislodge it, but it was stuck fast in the landladies face, Ms Peavey was scratching impotently at the weapon’s haft with bloodied hands. The killer remorselessly stamped heavily on Ms Peaveys face, then using his foot as leverage he dislodged the axe sending blood in a wide arc splattering the wall and floor.

 

Even though he was sure that his life was measured in milliseconds, Andrew couldn’t take his eyes from Ms Peavey, more importantly her face. The axe had split her face diagonally from her right eye socket, through her nose, it had literally split her mandible in two. The Landlady looked almost insect like on account of her split jaw, she tried to speak but it came out as a garbled mess of spat blood and smashed teeth.

 

The killer calmly stood he twisted his neck to crack it then stretched out his shoulders as calmly began to walk towards Andrew, who in turn was rooted to the floor holding himself up by his elbows. The killer closed with him then stood astride Andrews knees, he put the smile of the axe under his chin then bent over until he was face to face with Andrew.

 

The killer stuck his tongue through the women’s mouth, he licked Andrews right cheek and stabbed him in the neck with something akin to a needle. The killer took whatever he had stabbed Andrew with out of his neck and held it in front of him, it was a mechanical device with a solid red light.

 

The killer looked to the device then to Andrew, he saw the murderers eyes alight with delight then turn deadly serious. ‘Wrong, Panacea.’

 

The killer took a lightning step back, he withdrew the axe swung it behind his back then brought it back down with a thundering strike, the smile of the axe bit into Andrews groin. The blow was so forceful it split his pelvis in two sending blood everywhere, Andrew screeched in pain.

 

The killer swung again this time hitting his waist, Andrew couldn’t fathom the pain he was feeling he was crying and screaming –his arms fell uselessly to his sides. The killer kept chopping at Andrew like a lumberjack might split wood, he was slowly and methodically splitting Andrew in two vertically.

 

 Andrews screams died when the smile of the axe split his sternum and pulped his internal organs. The killer did not stop until Andrew was literally bisected, by the time the killer was finished Andrew had been dead for over a minute.

 

The killer gazed at the two halves of Andrew for a few seconds then ever so calmly bent over and took a hold of Andrews right ankle then calmly began to walk out of the house with half of Andrew. The killer was walking down the drive with axe in one hand and half of Andrew in the other, with the gait of someone who was having a walk on a summers day.

 

Suddenly a marked police car screeched to a halt around ten feet from the killer.

 

The squad car was single crewed, the police officer jumped out with pistol drawn. The officer looked as though he was about to issue an order but being greeted with such a horrific scene in front of him he did the worst thing in the world, he hesitated.

 

The killer did no such thing he let go of Andrews leg darting to the left diagonally towards the officer side. The killers movement snapped the officer back into focus and he opened fire, the killer darted to the right avoiding the gunfire, he was on the officer in a second. While in motion the killer swung the axe from a low arc in an swift upwards strike, the smile of the axe bit into the officers stomach, disembowelling him.

 

The officer let out a scream of pain then with a wide eyed expression he dropped his pistol with a clatter to the ground as he looked down to his stomach at his looping intestines which were spilling to the floor.

 

The officer snapped his head back up to looked at the killer wearing a flayed human face, the killer didn’t look at the officers face, he was instead scrutinising the officers intestines intently.

 

‘Pretty.’ Growled the killer, then with a roar of effort the killer with axe in two hands swung it around three hundred and sixty degrees like an Olympic Hammer Thrower. On the downward arc of the swing the killer brought the smile of the axe down on the officers shoulder. The policeman was split diagonally from clavicle to sternum, jets of pressurised blood sprayed the killer.

 

The officer was standing up but he was soundly dead, it was only killer holding the axe that was keeping him upright. Realising this the killer let go of the axes haft and the policeman flopped to the floor onto his back like a wet fish into a puddle of his own lifeblood.

 

The killer didn’t retrieve his axe instead he bent over and began to pull at the officers exposed intestines.