Like he very often was. The cold around him, inside him, kept him from being what he needed to be. From experiencing the bliss he deserved.

There were predators and there were prey, and he’d learned which he wanted to be. Oh, he’d been weak once, but now he was powerful. He had studied and he had learned. Yet Christine had let him down like all the others. They’d been joined, so close, and she’d ruined it. It had been her fault. His rage had been so red hot, that the fire had all but blown out of his eyes. When the anger overtook him, it was hotter than any real flame. More out of control. And it wasn’t his fault.

She’d failed.

Then the darkness had taken him. When he’d come to, her face was battered and her eyes wide open. The only good thing was that he’d had an ax in his rig so he could remove her hands. None of them deserved to have hands. Hands were for loving, not hitting, and they all hit. His mother had loved to hit him.

Christine had hit him in the nose. Fighting him. He’d crushed her brain and taken her hands, and there wasn’t a thing she could do about it. It was unfortunate it took battering a skull to kill the brain, but life was life. This time, he hadn’t damaged her face as badly. She’d probably deserved it, but he’d been rushed.

It was her fault.

She’d deserved to die.

Frustration crawled like ants through his veins, and he attacked the trees with each punch, his gloves protecting his hands. When the darkness had overtaken him each time, the gloves had protected him. Not them.

The last one had died too fast. It hadn’t been enough. Even though he’d taken her hands, he was restless. Painfully so. To the point that he’d almost forgotten to leave the hands for the authorities to find. They had to be running in circles about that. Hands. Who would take hands only to leave them?

He would. He’d shove them up the women’s asses if he could but leaving them for the cops also satisfied him. Unlike the last kill. He didn’t get what he wanted.

Not even close to being complete. He hadn’t made it again. His thoughts swirled around, and he dropped to his knees, tears streaming down his face to freeze as they hit the ground. It wasn’t fair. He was good and right, and they were dirty. They had the balls to look down at him. At him!