The Eye of the Killer

The Eye of the Killer
A Short Story by Vasu Gangapalli

“Please help me…,” Lynn Wilson cried, over the phone. “He’s trying to kill me!”
“Who’s trying to kill you, miss?” Asked the cop, at the other end of the telephone line. “Did you get the address of this number? Ok, miss, we’ll be there…don’t you…”. A pickaxe snapped the telephone line, and the line went dead.

She turned and looked scared. He had broken into her house, through the window and had hurled his pickaxe at the telephone wire. Lynn took the small glass fishbowl, which had one single colourful fish in it and hurled at him. He bent down, it went and hit against the wall behind him, and broke to pieces. The fish landed on the floor, struggling to breathe, as it leaped helplessly. He pointed his finger at Lynn and then turned it at the fish on the floor. He bent down, picked and swallowed it with one gulp. As he got up again on his feet, she hit hard on his head with a wooden stool, and he fell down on the floor. She dropped the stool and tried to escape. But he leaped forward, caught hold of her left leg, and she too fell down. She turned, tried to kick him off with her other leg. But he caught hold of it too and started climbing on her and started strangling her.

Lynn’s dog ‘Tommy’ leaped at him. He picked his gun from his back trouser pocket, turned, aimed and pressed the trigger of his gun, in a fraction of a second. The bullet raced out of the gun and pierced through the right eye of the dog, and it dropped dead on the floor. He pressed his gun back into his back trouser pocket, took his pickaxe, with the help of his other hand. He licked her face, as she was struggling for her breath. He raised his pickaxe, above his head, let go the hold on her neck, and was about to bring down the pickaxe on her soft neck. When the cops broke in through the main door, with the infra-red beams of their guns flashing on him.

“Freeze!” cried one of the cop, pressing his gun against his head.” Let her go! And step aside!” He took his pickaxe from his hand.
He grinned at him wickedly, as he got back on his feet; they handcuffed and dragged him aside. One of them examined her.

“Jesus! He killed her!” He cried, looking at others. ” Alas! We’re too late!”

Jack Slatter, 28 years old, was charged with first degree murder of Lynn Wilson, a 24 year old law student, in the court of law:
“Jack, why did you do all this? I mean kill innocent young girls? What do you get from all this?” asked the Prosecuting Attorney, Mr.Graham Turner.
“Why do you make love to your wife? If you think it’s for getting some pleasure. Then this one is also the same.” Jack Slatter, replied, with a grin on his face.
“I see no pleasure in killing innocent girls, Jack!” He said.
“Neither do I see pleasure in your wife’s eyes after you make love to her, Turner.”
“Ok, Jack, let’s come to the point! Jack, can you tell us the number of your unfortunate victims?”
“Maybe one hundred.” He said.

“Maybe one hundred? Maybe one hundred, Jack? Aren’t you sure of the figure, Mr. Slatter or is it your teacher forgot to teach you how to count?”
“Counting chickens after they have hatched isn’t my job, Turner!”
“And where have you hidden all those head less bodies, Jack?”
“It’s not your problem nor mine, Turner. Let’s the cops figure it out for themselves. I mean let them trace, if they can.”
“This court,” Said the Judge, William Parker, ” does impose the death penalty on electric chair to Mr. Jack Slatter, on the 15the of May. If he has any wish, that can be fulfilled, then it shall be granted.”
“Any last wish, Jack?” asked the prosecuting Attorney.
“To make love to your wife, Turner.” He replied.
“Come on, damn it! This is no time to joke!”
“I am not joking, Turner. All right, I confess that I had been a cold-blooded son of a bitch all my life. I haven’t done a single good deed in my whole life. I wish to do one last good deed before I go.”
“And what is it, Jack? Are you going to tell us where you hid those headless bodies?”
“I already told you that is not my business. I would like to donate my right eye!”
“Why not both the eyes, Jack?”
“I need one to reach ‘Hell’, you see.”
“Don’t you think that ‘hell’ would be too small a place to accommodate a person of your caliber, Jack?”
“Yes, I know. Maybe, God will think now to create something bigger and better than the ‘hell’ after meeting a person like me.”
“Wish granted!” Said the Judge, striking the wooden hammer on the desk.

On 15th May, 9.00 AM, Jack Slatter was taken for a medical check up. The judge of this court had granted the permission to show the ‘Live telecast’ of execution of ‘Jack Slatter’, the famous serial killer. So that anyone who wants to become like him, should know what will be his end like. They took him to the chamber of the electric chair. He sat on the chair; they strapped him tightly to the chair. The camera focused on his emotionless, cold face.
“Any last words, Mr.Slatter ?” Asked the executor.
“Evil dies…but comes back !” He cried, on the top of his voice, as they pulled down a liver, and the electric current passed through the chair, and then his body, which shaked violently for one last time, before becoming still.

After a few hours later, in a hospital, Orlando, Florida. An eye operation was done and a blind woman, Martha, who was able to see again:
“May I know about my donor, please?” She asked, the doctor.
“No, He wanted to be anonymous.” He replied.
“Wanted?”
“He had passed away sometime back on a chair, you see.”
“May his soul rest in peace.”

A left diversion, 3 kms in an isolated path, away from the main road, leads to a big mountain……which seems to be in the middle of the path….it appears like a dead end from some distance…only when someone drives close will know that there is a left and a right diversion…..Both of which lead to a big mansion…next to a lake…. Inside the mansion……a big glass jar, filled with human eye balls….a big table with straps at the corners to hold hands and legs of the victim….a sharp blade above the table…which would rush down just at the press of a button on the side of the table….it would rest on a metal strip…on which victims neck would rest before the blade comes down……a man making love to a headless nude body….a chamber full of skulls, with their names and date written on the top…. Poisonous snakes resting on the skulls….same man rowing the boat in the lake, with the headless nude body besides him, singing a song…..drops the body in the middle of the lake and rows back…two crocodiles swim towards the middle of the lake…..the man holds a skull in his right hand above his head……

Suddenly, Martha opened her eyes, switched on the bed light, she was sweating in fear:-
“Oh, God! It’s just a nightmare!” She said to herself and went back to sleep.
But the nightmare came back again and again. She spent many nights staying awake.

Twenty-eight years had passed since then. One night, Martha met with a fire accident and got seriously burnt in that fire. She was admitted to the hospital. The doctors couldn’t do much, as she was fighting hard between life and death.
“Please…take my eye…,” She said, pointing her finger at her right eye and breathed her last breath.
“Doctor, I think one of the patients needs an eye.” said the nurse.
“Fine, then.Let’s do it and fulfil her last wish.” said the other doctor.

A young man in his twenties, John Fisher, who was born with his right eye blind, was operated and soon he got sight in his right eye. He was glad to see through both his eyes. But this joy was short lived, as he too started getting the same nightmare again and again.

The newspapers had the headlines that five young women aged between 18 to 24 years old went missing, without any trace. The cops were clueless how they could all vanish the same evening from different places. Each was a strikingly attractive. All but two were college students.
Shortly, 7.00 AM that morning, the sheriff called his assistants.
“James, I know you can handle this!” He said, tossing the newspaper at him, “I want you put an end to this, before CIA and FBI get into this. Do you get my point ?”
“Yes, sir.”
Meanwhile in FBI building: –
“I think and fear that another serial killer might have emerged from the dark.” Said Thomson.
“You may be right! as the last words of Jack Slatter was, evil dies…but comes back. Maybe, he might have come back again..” said Peter.
“Do you believe in reincarnation and all that kind of stuff, Peter ?”
“Mr.Thomson, many things run on our belief, including our faith in God’s existence, doesn’t it?”
“You may be right, Peter.We need to nail this ass soul, whoever is behind this, before it’s too late and many other girls do the vanishing act.”

John explained everything to his girl friend, Julie. She listened to him patiently. She was a psychiatrist, doing a research on serial killers.
“John, do you remember ‘ Jack Slatter’ ?” She asked.
“Yeah, the so called famous serial killer who claimed more than a hundred lives, right ?”
“Yes, his last wish was to donate his right eye and that wish was fulfilled. But no one knows who got his eye? I think the person, whoever had got the eye should have passed away and in turn, you got it. You never used to get these kind of nightmares before surgery, right?”
“Yes, so you mean this eye belongs to the killer.”
“Exactly! Sometimes, strange things do happen in our lives..If we go back in time, to the case of Lynn Wilson, Jack Slatter’s last victim. She had a dog by name ‘Tommy’. Incidentally, the dog was shot in the right eye when it tried to attack him, and save his master. You had born with your right eye blind. Also you told me about that peculiar dream you get, about a dog being shot dead by a stranger.”
“You mean I was ‘Tommy’ in my previous birth ?”
“Exactly!”
“Then where is Lynn Wilson ? When Jack and I have come back, she too should have come.”
“No, idea. Maybe she’ll emerge soon. Anyway, let me report this to the cops on the way back home. So that they’ll track down Jack Slatter before it’s too late.”
“You’re right. If I don’t get your call. Then I’ll think you are in trouble and come after you.”
“No need. I’ll give you a call as soon as I can.” She assured him.

At the Inspector’s office, Julie explained everything to Inspector James Hyre.
“Interesting! If what you say is true then we are that much closer to this killer. Well, I think I have seen your friend’s that place of dream. Let’s go and check it out ! Will you come with me ?”
“Sure.”
“Fine, follow me.” He said. ” I am going to track down the killer and I may need some backup when I get there, be ready and wait for my call.”
“Yes, sir.” They said, together

They went by the car and finally reached the mansion. They both got down; he took out his loaded gun and a torch. They sneaked into the mansion through the half open window. It was dark inside, so he switched on his torch and led her. Suddenly, the torch fell down and he vanished. She searched for the light switch. She saw him standing opposite to her, with a gun in his hand.

“You?” She cried, shocked. “What did you do to the inspector James Hyre ?”
“Yeah, it’s me. I eliminated him” He said, aiming the gun at her. He told her to strip her cloths. She hesitated.

He pressed the trigger of his gun. The bullet ripped through her cloths. Without harming her. Hit the glass jar with human eyeballs. It broke to pieces and eyeballs dropped on the floor.
“Alright, I’ll do it!” She said, stripping her cloths, when she reached her underclothes.
“Stop! Now, lie down on that table!” He said.
“What are you going to do to me?” She asked.
“Wait and watch!” He said.

He came towards her, strapped her hands and legs firmly to the table. He bent down and kissed on her cheeks.
“Please let me go!” She cried, terrified. “I need to go home.”
“Don’t worry, my dear. I’ll send you not to your home, but to the other world!” He said, keeping a sharp knife on her neck.
“Please don’t kill me! Please for heaven’s sake let me go!” She cried.
“Time to say ‘Goodbye’, my dear.” He said.” Say your last prayer, if any.”
She closed her eyes and prayed, as his finger reached for the button on the side of the table, and he was about to press it. Suddenly, there was a big crash. She opened her eyes and saw that John had broken in through the glass window of the mansion. He knocked him off with the baseball bat. He fell down on the floor. He went and removed her straps and pulled her off the table. She started dressing.
“John, thanks for coming in the nick of the time and saving my life.” She said, hugging him.” John, watch out!” she cried.
But it was too late, he came and striked him hard from behind with the baseball bat. John fell down on the floor. He sat on him, with the sharp knife, above John’s right eye.
“I saved you and you let me down!” He cried, bringing the knife down.
Suddenly, she hit hardly on his hand, with the baseball bat, the knife fell down. She started hitting him with it continuously, until he dropped on the floor unconscious.
They took him and strapped him tightly to the table. Slowly he opened his eyes.
“Please don’t kill me!” He cried.
“It’s too late. You need to go back from where you came from.” She said, pressing the button. “And don’t come back!”
“No!” He cried, as the blade rushed down and slew his head off his neck.
“What happened to that cop?” He asked, as they both walked out of the mansion.
“He is the God damn cop!” She said. ” You know, when I was on that table, and about to die, I had the glimpse of my last day of my previous birth. I am Lynn Wilson, in my previous birth.”
“I hope you ‘ll. stop getting those nightmares from now on.” She added.
“I hope so too.” He said, putting his hand around her shoulders and hugging her, as they walked towards the car.