Excerpt: Anatomy of a Serial Killer

It took me a few weeks to heal up properly, but I was thankful when I was able to get the stitches out of my hand and the splint taken off, as I was tired of looking like I had gotten on the wrong side of some guy twice my size, when the truth was I had been put in my place by a woman half my size. There was one thing that happened in the time I was healing, that made it some what worth while, even though it distracted me from working out the kinks in my Diabolical Plan. I had returned from the emergency room at the Manhattan General Hospital that night to a care package sitting out side of my apartment, which could have only been delivered by Katherine, the one girl that I had tried to keep in contact with over the years, and I had been getting sweet on her lately, though as I had been busy with the major projects at work and trying to figure out the best way to execute my diabolical plan, I had not had much of a chance to talk to her and take her out, though I highly doubted that she would go out with me as it had been quite a long time since I had spent any length of time with her that was not did not involve a telephone conversation, and I was kind of scared of bringing her in too close, as I did not want th her to discover the Diabolical Plan, as she probably would report my suspicious behaviors to the police and law enforcement officials, and I did not want to take the chance of getting shut down before I even got started on executing the Diabolical Plan, and I also did not want to put her in danger of being accused of being my accomplice when I had no intention of bringing her in to my plans, and I certainly did not want to put her in to a position that would leave her knowing way too much about my activities that could get her thrown in jail along with me, and I certainly did not want to tell her what I was up to out of fear that she would attempt to turn me in. As I was bandaged up and in pain, it took some effort to get her care package in to my apartment, and I wondered how she had known that I was hurt and needed some tender loving care that my mother or father would not be bothered to give me even if I called and told them about my latest ordeal, but I was glad that Katherine did have me in her thoughts, and I was excited to see that the care package she had sent to me had home made soup, home made bread, what looked like a pillow that was hand made, and a few other bits and bobs, which made me smile. Katherine had a way with making people feel better, and I made a mental note to call her in the morning and thank her for the package and ask her to join me for dinner at some point in the next week or so, and I hoped that she would agree, because I wanted to be serious about starting a relationship with her and working towards having at least some sort of meaningful relationship with some one as my mother and my father had not made me feel wanted as a child growing up, and I did not want to be alone and suffering with that feeling of rejection for the rest of my life, and I knew that in order to do that, I needed to at least attempt to find some one I could spend the rest of my life with and at least try to get past the feeling of rejection with some one who could make me feel better about my self as I needed to try and forge a meaningful relationship with at least one woman in my life.

I had done a pretty good job of doing that with Katherine so far, but I knew I needed to work on it some, as even though I had connected with Katherine on some level, I still had not connected with her on the level that I had only wished for with my mother, my father and my siblings, I knew I had quite a ways to go in order to experience a deep bond with another human being, and I hoped that Katherine would be able to break through the walls I had erected around my heart and soul and over the years because of the way my father, my mother and my siblings had treated me while I had been growing up. As I waited for my soup to warm up, I collapsed on to the sofa in front of my television, and turned it on to whatever I could find, before I stopped on the Travel Channel. As I had not eaten since before I had headed to the emergency room at the Manhattan General Hospital, I kept it on, a show about a guy who visits different restaurants around the United States of America to locate the best food, and then takes on crazy food challenges that involve eating an insane amount of food in a short time period, kind of like a eating contest except with only one competitor and set up as a race against the clock. I turned it on as back ground noise and when the timer went off informing me that my soup was done, I wandered back to the kitchen and carefully carried a bowl of the soup and the bread back to the sofa, as I did not feel like attempting to eat at the table as my back was fairly sore from riding buses, sitting in uncomfortable emergency room waiting room chairs and waitin on uncomfortable beds to be seen by the emergency room doctor in order to get my pain medication and stitches in my hand. I ate slowly, as the food was hot and I did not want to burn my self and I did not want to wind up sick to my stomach on top of every thing else, which I knew would happen if I ate too fast and then took my medication for pain on top of that, and I did not want to be in more pain and misery than I already was in. I tried to pay attention to the television as I ate, but as I was tired and just wanted to get my own dinner ate so I could go to bed, I found my self not paying all that much attention to the host, Adam, and after a few more minutes, I wound up turning the television off as I did not see the point in having the television on if I was not paying attention to that it even though it did keep the silence at bay. I got up and turned the radio on instead while I finished my dinner, and once I had put the left over soup and bread away and unloaded the rest of the care package Katherine had sent me, I wrote a note to my self on a post it and stuck it on the refrigerator to remind my self in the morning that I need to call Katherine and thank her for the package and ask her over, or out to dinner some time with in the next week, as I did want to catch up with her face to face and try to start forging a better relationship with her. After I put my dishes in the sink, I turned of the lights and used the walls as a guide to find my way back to my bedroom, and after gingerly changing in to my pajamas, I climbed in to bed and got settled in for the night, even though it was kind of hard for me to find a comfortable position as my hand hurt, my side still hurt from where the lady had elbowed me, and my back was too sore to rest on it, so I tossed and turned quite a bit before finally getting comfortable enough to get to sleep. The next morning I woke up even more sore and stiff than I had been before I had made it to bed, but after some effort, I got up and around, and made it to the office before remembering that I needed to call Katherine and thank her for the care package. After I had finished my meeting with my boss, I wandered back to my cubicle and found Katherine's number in my Rolodex and punched her number in to my cell phone and leaned back in my office chair, as I listened to the line ring and waited for Katherine to pick up. I was worried that she wouldn't by the time the fourth ring rolled around, but at the very last second, I heard her musical voice on the other end, and I smiled as I said hello.

"Hi," she replied, and I knew that she was probably happy to hear from me, and I sat up a little straighter in my office chair though I knew she couldn't see me. "How are you, Tristan?"

"I'm all right," I replied, reaching for a pen and my note pad, as for some reason whenever I am on the phone I need to be doing something with my hands, as otherwise my mind wandered and I found it hard to concentrate on the conversation at hand. "I was calling to thank you for the care package I found outside of my apartment last night."

At first she did not answer me, and I began to wonder if it had been her that had given me the care package the night before, as I remembered that my neighbor had seen me return to my apartment looking like I had been through hell and back, which in a way I had, but she didn't say anything, and I had not seen her as I had left and made my way to the emergency room at the Manhattan General Hospital. I was getting ready to say some thing to that effect when Katherine spoke up.

"Oh, you did get it? You're welcome." She bit her lip as she replied, as there had always been some thing off about Tristan, and she was beginning to wonder if it was wise to continue to be his friend and work at breaking through the walls he had erected in his heart and midn because of the way he had been treated by his mother and his father and his siblings while he had grown up, but there was some thing about him that drew her to him, and though she knew it might not be wise to continue to associate with him, but as she had known him most of her life, she was wary of giving up her connection to him just because of some unfounded fears and feelings that there might not be some thing quite right about him.

"Yeah, I did. How did you know I needed some tender loving care last night?" Tristan was not sure what made him say that as he leaned back in his office chair again and propped his feet up on his desk carefully, as he considered what to say next, as he had never been very proficient when talking to other people, even though I had known Katherine for quite a large period of my life, and I knew she understood my problems when it came to relating my problems to other people, and I was grateful that she was there to listen when I might not have had other people to go to.

"I'm not sure. I just figured you would appreciate the gesture." Katherine did not really have a reason for sending Tristan the care package in the first place as she had just wanted to reach out and show him that she cared about him on some level even if his mother and father didn't in th way he probably wished they did, and she wanted to try to break through he walls he kept up around his heart as she knew that if he could see that she was capable of loving him, he might not with draw in to him self as much and attempt to do whatever it was he was always working on when she dropped by. He didn't think she noticed his scrambling to put things away and close out windows on the computer when she came around unexpectedly, but she did and she did not know how to talk to him about it as she had always been nothing more than a good friend to him, but she had the feeling that this phone conversation was going to change the way they viewed each other.

Tristan thought about how to respond to that as he did not want to give away the fact he had spent a large amount of time in the emergency room at the Manhattan General Hospital the night before and that he had been in a rough shape when he had discovered the care package. "I did. I was actually roughed up a little bit last night and I came home with sixteen stitches in my left hand, a broken nose and two black eyes." He did not know why he was going in to detail about his injuries with Katherine as he was pretty sure that she did not want to know exactly how bad of shape he was in, but he figured if he was going to try and start some thing with her, he needed to start opening up to her more and that included letting her know just how bad the previous night had been for him, beatings, emergency rooms, doctors, stitches and all. "It was nice to come home and just have something I needed to heat up and eat for dinner since I had to be in the office early this morning."

"What happened, Tristan?" Katherine was suddenly worried about him, as she did not think he was the type to go out and get roughed up in the middle of the night and have to go to the hospital to get stitches and a splint because he had broken his nose. She figured it would all be explained in a few minutes and she closed her mouth while she waited for him to explain what had happened, and she began to worry when he didn't answer her right away.

He had to think long and hard before answering, as he had yet to think of what his excuse was for showing up with stitches in his hand, black eyes and a broken nose. He had mostly blown off the co workers who had asked, but this was Katherine they were talking about and though he knew he would have to lie to her in some respects as he couldn't exactly tell her exactly what he had been up to the previous night, he didn't want to make up some ludicrous story either for the sake of having a reason for why he was so beat up. He exhaled loudly before taking a deep breath to prepare to tell Katherine exactly what was going on. "Well, the elevators weren't working last night when I went out, and I was in a hurry to catch the bus to get to the bar to meet some of my buddies, so I rushed down the stairs and I wound up tripping over my shoelaces and landing flat on my face at the bottom."

Katherine nodded, even though she knew he couldn't see her, and though his story sounded odd as the elevators had been working fine when she had gone to drop off the care package, she waited to see if he had any more to say about what had happened the previous night. "Oh. Are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. In a little bit of pain, but it turns out the elevators weren't broken at all, some boys decided to play a prank on the whole building and hung signs saying that the elevators were out of order, and no one caught on until after I had fallen down the stairs." He hoped his story was satisfactory, as he did not want to ruin his chances with Katherine by having her find out the truth to why he was as beat up as he was, before he had a chance to express his interest in her and begin to forge the beginnings of a relationship with her.

Katherine gasped as she listened to Tristan tell his story, as she was not sure what she expected but it certainly had not been that he had fallen down the stairs in a rush to get to a party he was invited to because his shoe laces were untied and some teenage boys in the building had hung signs on the elevator saying that it was out of order, even though it was actually in working condition. She was glad that she had taken the care package over to his apartment though, as she was certain he needed to be cheered up especially since he had been injured in a ridiculous way. "I'm sorry you had to go through all of that Tristan. I hope my care package made you feel better, and that you will heal up quickly."

"Thanks, Kath. I'm feeling a bit better already, and your care package did help. Say, would you like to go out to dinner with me one night this week? Or just come over for dinner?" He hoped he was not coming on too strong, but he did not want to lose this window of opportunity either, as he did not know when he might have another chance to ask her out, and he knew that if he didn't ask her now, he probably never would as he was slowly becoming more and more preoccupied with how to execute his diabolical plan and becoming one of the best known serial killers of all time, even though he was not sure he would ever achieve that dream.

Katherine had not expected to be asked out by Tristan, as even though they had known each other most of their respective lives, she did not know if she wanted to potentially start dating him, as there was something that had always seemed odd and off about him to her, and she was not sure if it would be wise to date someone she considered just as a friend. Then again, it was not as if she had any other prospects or a significant other at the moment, and she was not sure if he was even trying to date her, but she figured one dinner would not hurt, and she smiled as she answered. "Sure. Tuesday work for you?"

Tristan could not believe that she had agreed to join him, and he thought that for the first time he actually had a chance to date her and become serious about having a relationship with her, regardless of the fact that he was trying to become one of the meanest criminals of all time. He figured he would worry about the logistics of things later, as if he was serious about trying to connect with the opposite sex and other human beings for once, he would have to give Katherine a fair chance and make an effort to forge a proper relationship with her. "Yes, it does. I'll see you at 8? Your place?"

"Sure. See you then, Tristan."

Tristan hung up after wishing her a good day and saying good bye, hardly believing that he had been able to land a date and with some one he was pretty wary of becoming super close to on top of that. He was not sure what to think about this change of heart he was experiencing as he did still want to explore how to execute his diabolical plan, but after talking to Katherine, his softer side had opened up, and he was unsure as to whether or not he was going about his life in the right way when it came to avenging the wrongs that had been committed against him in the time he had been growing up by both of his parents, his siblings and his extended family, and after his failure the night before, he was also beginning to wonder if he was even cut out to do what he wanted to do with his plan, and he certainly did not want to execute the diabolical plan in a way that was completely sloppy and opened the doors to the local law enforcement officials and authorities that tipped them off that he was attempting to plan to kill several people that he had no idea who they were yet, but he did not want his notes and research to get leaked, because it would almost guarantee that he would get hauled in for questioning by the local police force, and he did not want to have the possibility of having to answer for why he had plans on how to select victims, and kill them scattered through out his house and tons of research about various other serial killers on his computer. He figured he would just play it by ear with Katherine, and try to stay on his best behavior for the next few weeks until he healed up, and then deal with what came as it came up.