Bloodlust Part 2: The Madness Continues

Stepping into his house, Alex hung up his keys and walked over to his cat, giving her a few strokes down her back as he always did whenever he got home from being out. She was curled up on the book he'd left on the coffee table in his living room and barely paid him any mind. He walked into the kitchen and put the pizza he'd bought for dinner in the oven, putting away his few other groceries. It'd been a month since he'd killed his first victim and he hadn't stopped thinking about it since then. Just as he'd always suspected, he was strong and didn't puke after he'd done it. He hadn't even had any nightmares beyond the usual. Everything he'd ever heard and read made murder sound like a terrible atrocity that changed the murderer forever, but all it'd been for him was a fun memory to revisit constantly.

As he was sitting on one of his kitchen counters and waiting for his pizza to finish cooking, Alex's phone went off, signalling an incoming call. He lazily fished it out of his pocket and saw that the number was unfamiliar. Sighing, he answered the phone. "Who are you and what do you want?" He hated talking on the phone so he preferred to get straight to the point, especially since the only numbers that ever called him were either telemarketers or someone involved in his psychological issues in some way. Therapists in particular were long-winded as fuck if he didn't make it clear he wasn't in the mood.

"My name is Sophie and I'm calling from the Mistwood Organization for Alex Xander." A woman replied, her tone friendly and professional.

"That's who you want, not what you want." Alex said, his tone bored and emotionless.

To Alex's surprise, Sophie gave a light laugh. "Dr. Spruce warned me that you'd likely give me a hard time."

"Spruce?" Alex realized if he'd have actually been paying attention, he'd have recognized the name "Mistwood". It wasn't exactly common.

"Yes, Mr. Xander, I'm calling on behalf of the company Dr. Spruce and I work for. After your impressive performance last month, we'd like to get you back in the lab."

Apparently everyone who worked for Mistwood liked using the "royal we". "That so." He muttered, turning on his phone's speaker so he could get his pizza out of the oven. "That sounds swell and all, but I'm not exactly inclined to trust the people I committed a murder in front of."

"Oh, for the love of, please give me the phone, Ms. Moore." Alex heard a familiar male voice say before there were the sounds of the phone shifting around. "You really don't trust us after a month of no repercussions?" Spruce asked, his tone mildly annoyed.

"How long have you been eavesdropping, doc?" Alex asked, moving the conversation to his bed after grabbing a soda from the fridge and taking a bite of his meat lover's pizza.

"If we wanted to have you arrested for what you did, we have video evidence. Isn't the fact that nothing has been done yet proof enough?"

Pausing for a moment to swallow his bite and chase it down with his soda, Alex gave a shrug even though no one but him would know he did it. "I guess. Anyway, what's got you so flustered, doc? You seem angry."

After a pause and some quiet talking, Spruce replied. "Do you recall when I told you that you were one of very few applicants to actually make it to the final stage of the study?"

"Yeah."

"Well the other few are all dead."

Swallowing his pizza harder than he'd meant to, Alex coughed a bit. "Dead?"

"Yes, dead. They killed themselves shortly after the study took place. You're the only one left."

"Wow. That's fuckin' pathetic." Alex replied flippantly, patting his cat as she "stole" a piece of pizza crust he'd set aside for her.

Now Spruce laughed and it actually took him a few hearty chuckles before he managed to compose himself. "I'm so very pleased you feel that way. I take it you've felt no negative side-effects then?"

"Nope. None of the stereotypical stuff I've heard is supposed to happen."

"No nightmares?"

"No more so than usual."

Sounding excited now instead of annoyed, Spruce moved on. "We'd like to bring you in for some follow-up tests if we could."

"Alright, when?"

"As soon as possible."

Snorting a bit despite the piece of pizza in his mouth, Alex shook his head. "How about tomorrow then?"

"That's perfect. I'll see you at ten?"

"Works for me." Alex replied, finishing his final slice of pizza and hanging up the phone. He didn't know how long it would take him to fall asleep now that he was excited for the next day so he decided to head to bed right away instead of playing video games or reading until he couldn't keep his eyes open like he usually did.

Waking up at nine the following morning, Alex got ready in record time and left the house with a little extra spring in his step. His preferred mode of transportation was walking despite the increased risk of human interaction because it gave him time to listen to music and think. All he could think about as he made his way to large, heavily fortified Mistwood building was murder. Beautiful, painful, wonderful murder.

Due in no small part to his nearly bubbly excitement, Alex made it to the building a few minutes early and signed in with the receptionist just as he had the first time he'd been there. He noticed her nametag when she smiled at him in an odd way; it was Sophie. He had no interest in making idle chit-chat with her and was saved from that possibility when Dr. Spruce came out from behind a pair of keycard activated doors.

"Mr. Xander. What prompt timing. Follow me, please." Spruce said, motioning for Alex to come as he held open one of the double doors.

Walking over and avoiding looking at the pair of armed guards that flanked the doors, Alex followed Spruce into the annoyingly white hallway and then into his office. Spruce motioned for him to take a seat so he did, slouching a bit as he was far more comfortable around the doctor than he had been the first time they'd met. "So what are the follow-up tests you mentioned last night?" He asked, watching Spruce as he sat across from him.

"First we were hoping you would fill out a brief survey for us. Then we wanted to observe you kill another subject." Spruce replied, typing something into his computer as he spoke and then fishing out two pieces of paper from his desk when he finished.

Grinning, Alex sat up straighter. "Bring on the survey then." Of all the things he could name off that he disliked about Spruce, the fact that he called the people he was sending to their gruesome end "subjects" was not one of them. He could appreciate Spruce's coldness towards human life if nothing else.

Turning his computer to face the one-eyed murderer, Spruce slid his mouse over to Alex. "Just answer the questions as honestly as you're able." He said, beginning to fill out the two papers as Alex took the mouse.

The survey consisted of questions Alex guessed were being used to gauge his mental state. He wasn't surprised since all of the other applicants, however few there had apparently been, had killed themselves. Alex made sure to think over each question before clicking on a response, not wanting to second-guess himself or regret an answer. Normally he didn't care for the truth but he knew the only way for science to gain accurate data was through honesty and though he had few passions left, he quite liked science. Once he finished, Alex gave Spruce his mouse back and looked at the two documents that were then slid towards him. Contracts. Appreciating Spruce's understanding of how his suspicious mind worked, Alex filled out what he needed to and signed both contracts before pocketing one and watching Spruce put the other into his folder. It'd gotten alot bigger since their last meeting.

Once Spruce's copy of the contract had been tucked away into Alex's file, Spruce stood and led Alex back into the hallway. They took the familiar walk to the room Alex was excited to be locked in once more and when they entered, Alex was pleasantly surprised to see that the lights had already been dimmed to an acceptable brightness. Alex took his phone out and set it up on an empty table before turning to see his victim. It was a man, tied up and with a bag over his head like the last victim, but unlike the last victim, he wasn't wearing the paper dress.

Turning back to Spruce, Alex motioned over his shoulder with his thumb. "No dress? You guys left more to the imagination with the chick."

"You disposed of the dress rather quickly last time so we didn't bother." Spruce smirked slightly. "However we kept the bag. We thought it would preserve the sense of opening a present."

"You might be more fucked upstairs than I am, doc." Alex said, almost sounding impressed.

"I'll take that as a compliment." He grabbed the door handle as he prepared to leave Alex to his own devices. "Now, do you have any questions before I lock you in?"

"Not so long as the same rules apply as last time."

Giving a nod of confirmation, Spruce stepped out of the room, jiggling the handle as he did everytime the auto-locks of the facility sounded, and headed up to the observation room where his colleagues were waiting for him.

Turning back to his victim, Alex turned his favorite playlist on, even remembering where he'd left off the last time he listened to it, and began to look around the room. The tools and weapons were much the same except that some of the things were missing. Most notably were the eyelash curler-like tools, the acid, and the rope. As he looked around, he realized there weren't any guns either. Apparently Spruce and his white coat buddies didn't want a repeat performance, they wanted something fresh. Luckily for them, there was no shortage of ideas whirring around in Alex's mind. He collected a few tools he planned on making use of and as he returned to the chair, he realized the man was awake and struggling.

"I guess they used a lower dose on you." He said, watching as the man's struggles ceased immediately. "Or maybe it just wore off quicker cuz you're bigger." Reaching over, Alex yanked the bag off of the man's head and paused. He had dark hair and light eyes and Alex found himself staring. "Wow." He finally said, dropping the bag. "You're really cute. Cuter than the last one."

"Wh-what are you talking about? Who are you? Where am I?"

Tilting his head, Alex's eye narrowed as his brows furrowed. "Why do people in these types of situations always rapid-fire questions? I never understood that." Before the man could answer, Alex took the scalpel he'd brought over and grabbed him by the jaw, digging his sharpened nails into the skin to make sure he had a firm grip. "I hate to ruin your pretty face, but I've always wanted this to be my signature." Alex's eye didn't show any of the remorse he'd spoken as he forced the scalpel into the man's mouth, which was still trying to fire off questions, and cut his cheeks into a Glasgow smile.

When he pulled back, he smiled. "There, that's actually an improvement. Now you look as happy as I feel."

"You're sick!" The man shouted, spitting out blood and crying from the pain.

"Sick? No, I'm not sick." Alex leaned in close to the man's face and pressed the scalpel very faintly into his throat to discourage movement. "Saying someone is sick makes it sound like there's a cure. There's no cure for what I've got." He moved back again, looking down at his table and ignoring the screams for help now coming from his victim. Lightly biting his lower lip as he thought, Alex eventually decided on what to do.

Picking up a box of tacks, Alex shook them a bit, liking the sound they made. The shaking also got his victims attention and another round of questions came out of his mouth. Alex continued to ignore him and opened the box before pulling up a small stool and sitting before the struggling man. He'd need to focus for what he had planned. One at a time, Alex took a tack and pushed them into his victim's chest slowly. It was a bit harder than he thought it would be, but he found that the tacks stayed in place remarkably well. Using all but two of the tacks, Alex made a heart on the man's chest. He smiled and, as an afterthought, used the remaining two tacks to give the man tiny Frankenstein bolts on either side of his neck.

Satisfied with the tacks, Alex stood and nudged the stool away before walking over to a different table and rolling it over. The new table had a shallow bowl of sorts on it with several grooves along the edge. Resting in each groove was a nail about three inches long and in the middle of the bowl was a nest of hot coals. The nails were glowing and beside the bowl on the table was a pair of tongs and a hammer. Alex picked up a nail with the tongs and quickly lined it up within the tack heart before driving it in with the hammer until only an inch of the nail was poking out. Psychologically he knew that his urge to pierce the man with things was most likely a by-product of his finding him attractive but the psychological implications didn't deter him.

As Alex drove each glowing hot nail into the man's chest, creating a smaller heart within the first, the man screamed and sobbed. He'd been fairly quiet during the tacks but was now begging for Alex to stop. His pleas fell on deaf ears. Moving back a step to examine his work once he'd finished, Alex grinned wide. "Perfect." He said happily, setting aside the tongs and hammer. He picked his scalpel back up and carved another heart within the nail heart, being careful not to burn himself and then used a curved knife to peel the skin away.

By the time he was done with peeling away the skin from the heart, his victim's struggles were weak. Alex filled a syringe with adrenaline, tapped it for bubbles, and injected it into the man's chest, watching as he perked up almost instantly. Reaching over, Alex grabbed another vial from the rack and uncorked it. He held it up so that the man's swimming eyes could read the label and knew he'd succeeded when his begging and struggling started up with renewed vigor. Alex tipped the vial of lemon juice onto the skinned heart and closed his eyes for a bit as the man's screams mixed perfectly with his music.

After taking a moment to enjoy the symphony, Alex set the vial aside with the hammer and tongs. He walked away briefly to collect a rag for a new idea he'd just got and set it down beside the vial. Deciding to save his new idea for the grand finale, Alex picked up one of the vials he'd decided he definitely wanted to use and a dropper. He collected a few drops of the vial's contents and put them into a bowl before capping the vial and grabbing another. He added a dash of that one and a dash of another, not bothering with the dropper, and grabbed a box of needles once he'd recapped the vials. After mixing the concoction briefly, Alex carefully moved his creation to a narrower, deeper bowl and then put the needles in, making sure they were dipping into the mixture but that the wouldn't fall in. The container he'd chosen was perfect.

Finally turning back to his victim, Alex smirked darkly. "Irukandji jellyfish venom, black widow venom, and viper venom." He informed, watching the expression on the man's face turn to one of complete and utter horror. This only made Alex's grin widen and he took the needles carefully from their bath. As quickly as he was able, Alex began stabbing the needles into his victim's arms and legs, hoping that the amount of venom was enough to cause pain but not enough to kill him. If the man's screams were any indication, he was definitely in pain. Alex still wasn't sure if the doses would kill him though so he decided to wrap things up.

Folding the vial that had held the lemon juice into the rag, Alex smashed the small glass container with the hammer. He took the rag as well as a box of plastic wrap and moved behind the chair the man was tied to. Alex forced the man's mouth open fairly easily as he was too weak to fight very hard and dumped the glass into his mouth. He held his mouth closed as he used his free hand to unroll the plastic wrap. Once the length was right, Alex let the man's jaw go and before he could try to spit out the glass, wrapped the plastic wrap around his face. He wrapped it several times to make sure it would stay in place but not enough so that it wasn't still fairly transparent.

Once he finished with that, he moved back around to the front of the man and watched as he suffocated under the layers of plastic wrap covering his mouth and smooshing his nose down. As the man twitched a few final times, Alex's music hit a crescendo and the effect was the same as it had been last time. As he looked upon his work, he was swept up in the moment by his music and began to laugh. He rode out the high and came down with the crescendo, turning his music off before another song could start. Alex looked up at one of the cameras and gave it a grin. "Come get me, doc."

Not too long after he'd tucked his phone away in his jean's pocket, Alex heard the door unlock and walked over as it opened. Spruce was the one who'd unlocked it just as before and, just as before, he looked pleased. "Another impressive performance, Mr. Xander." He said, leading Alex down the hall and into the small restroom.

"Thanks." Alex breathed, stepping into the restroom and turning to look at Spruce. "You guys took out some of the tools."

"You're very observant, Mr. Xander."

"Why?"

"We didn't want you to fall into any habits."

Laughing briefly, Alex shook his head. "I'm offended, doc. I've got enough in me to give a fresh performance every time I kill."

"Good to know." Spruce replied, motioning to the bag and scrubs that had been provided again. "You didn't get very dirty this time." He noted, eyeing Alex's clothes.

Emptying his pockets onto the counter, Alex shrugged. "Guess I didn't feel like getting blood out of my jeans again." He raised an eyebrow at Spruce. "Anyway, you gonna let me shower, or were you hoping for an invitation to join me?"

Face turning red, Spruce looked taken off-guard. "U-um, y-yes, right, of course." He stammered, adjusting his glasses and leaving quickly.

Having not expected that strong a reaction from Spruce, Alex had to take a moment to gather his thoughts. It had been a joke but Spruce had gotten quite flustered. "Huh. Maybe the doc is into psychos." Alex mused, stripping and washing off what little blood he had gotten on himself. He took care of more than just the blood in the warm stream of the shower, just as he had last time, and when he got out, he noticed something white on his phone. He dried off before examining it and found that it was a business card. Spruce's business card. Apparently the doctor had a thing for psychos. Chuckling to himself at the oddness of it all, Alex left, already looking forward to the next time the Mistwood Organization would call with some new experiments to run.