L & L

L & L

LaDonna was filled with the light of the Lord. Her mother named her the closest thing to ‘Madonna’ she could. LaDonna would say things like “All you need is Jesus” she would find out rather quickly in life you needed a hell of a lot more than Jesus.

“Sow the seed…”

LaDonna was only 13 when she had Leroy. She wasn’t sure how it happened but the games her hayseed cousins played with her weren’t fun.

When LaDonna’s water broke she thought she had peed herself only it was an awful lot and it smelled funny. Her stomach hurt so she ran into the shed and hid not knowing what to do. Sitting cross legged pushing out what felt to be the biggest poop ever only it wasn’t coming out ‘the back’ it was coming out ‘the front.’ She knew if she hollered the whole town would hear her so she bit her tongue, leaned forward and grabbed at her crotch.

She stuck her small fingers in there and felt something – she tried to grab it but with all the blood it slipped. She pushed again, reached in and grabbed it between her thumb and forefinger. It was a tiny foot. She’d seen movies where the babies came out head first – this little bastard was coming out wrong – it would be easier on everyone if it just died now. She pulled as hard as she could. Another foot popped out and after what seemed like an eternity a reddish – blue slimy baby slid out and started screaming on the dirt floor of that tool shed. As it kicked dead leaves and blades of dried grass from the lawnmower clung to its damp body.

She picked it up by that foot she had pulled on so hard and drug him head down like a broken doll. His soft skull hit the ground several times before LaDonna reached the back door to the kitchen. Maybe if she banged it around harder it would be dead by the time she got to the house.

A bloody LaDonna entered the kitchen and looked up at her mother the dirty child face streaked with tears that made wet tracks down her round red cheeks. Her mother shook her head saying nothing then washed him in the kitchen sink next to the dirty dishes. Her mother raised Leroy until LaDonna turned 18 and looked more the part of a ‘mother.’ LaDonna would learn later this type of birth was called ‘breach’ usually the babies don’t survive but this one sure as hell did. Leroy, like Charles Manson, was told his mother was his sister but later they both figured it out.

Doctors said lack of oxygen at birth caused him to be slow at some things but to excel in others. His mother wondered how and why he survived. Leroy was born a bad seed through no fault of his own.

He grew up in a run down cabin right off the old logging road. Leroy knew his way around those woods. They had no electricity and used kerosene lamps. With no running water Leroy carried water in jugs. He filled the jugs where ever he could find a fountain. In the kitchen on a shelved wall sat the full jugs. He proudly called it the Amazing Wall of Water.

LaDonna punished her bastard son with a leather belt that had a square brass buckle. She hung it by the buckle on a metal hook behind her bedroom door. One day Leroy decided he would bury that belt. His mother found out, marched him to the spot where he’d buried it, made him dig it up then beat him with the buckle end until his ass bled. She did it right there in the field. After that the belt remained on its hook behind the door until she died.

“They were gonna die, they just weren’t dying fast enough.”

There were three bullies at school who made Leroy’s life a living hell. They cornered him and beat him when he least expected it, and it was never a fair fight. This had been going on for so long when Leroy was a toddler these brats hung him up on a clothesline. He dangled there flailing until his grandmother noticed and took him down. All these tortures over the years took a toll on Leroy. Getting back at this older gang was difficult. The best one Leroy had ever gotten over on them was when he emptied a Raisinete candy box and filled it with rabbit poop. A couple of the boys ate the nasty ‘candy’ and became furious Reldon told Leroy they would kill him if it was the last thing they did.

Leroy knew he had to kill them first.

That Friday after school Reldon, Gilmer and Neville waited for Leroy they ambushed him in an alley beating him with clenched fists and a baseball bat. He fought back but knew his true defense was waiting in the woods near his cabin. Leroy had been busy…

After barely escaping the boys he high tailed it to his woods. Leroy scrunched down in the brush he wiped the blood off his forehead so it didn’t drip into his eye. He had a vantage point from here; he could see both ways down the thin dirt trail. The boys were racing down the path towards his spot. His thin lips, chicken lips as they’ve been called curled up ever so slightly at the corners. Timing was everything. He waited.

“Cast out the demons!”

Neville was the first one to pass. Son of a sloppy drunk Neville had failed all grades in school so many times the principal just turned him loose. People joked he had the brains of a newborn but was built so big no one gave him much lip. Leroy pulled a cord he held and Neville was swooped up by a leg snare the tight curve of the branch was such it flung him against a boulder a quarter mile away.

The next unlucky bastard Gilmer had seen his buddy get snared. This kid had seen his share of bad luck in life but today would be the topper. Years ago Gilmer, his father Tavis and Tavis’s best friend Parker went fishing on the lake. Tavis lost his balance and fell overboard. Not knowing how to swim Tavis clung to the side of the boat begging for help. His best friend and fishing buddy thought good ole’ Tav’ was joking and repeatedly hit Tav’s hands with an oar breaking not only his fingers but his pathetic grip on the boat. Gilmer’s dad’s strength waned and he sunk beneath that murky brown water his eyes still open, looking up. Gilmer sat at the back of that small metal boat watching Parker glare at him. “Say sumpthing and yore next boy!”

The next step Gil took held footing but cautious step number two gave way to a dug out pit lined with wood spikes. He had no time to react, back up or even scream. He fell face first into the pit. He didn’t notice the stone lined walls, which allowed prey to be contained within. Strategic placement of pylons provided an excellent chance of piercing a major organ if not then the infection from the dried blood and tissue matter of others spiked before will surely eat away at his quivering flesh. The actual term for this method of trapping is called a ‘pit fall’ it is a gruesome and slow way to die. Leroy slammed the metal doors shut he threw branches and leaves on top. No one would know.

“If nobody sees it – Nothing happened.”

Traps set in a series of three or more are always more likely to land you something and this theory proved correct on this day. His last trap in this series was his favorite and most complex. It involved a tall oak tree with strategic branches neatly shaved off.

A hidden platform rested at the base of the tree awaiting its ill fated passenger. He waited for Reldon to show up. Why was the ring leader always the last to show? Leroy stepped out of the brush standing tall. Reldon rumbled towards Leroy a small knife flashed in the sun light. Leroy, small but wiry, had no body fat he was pure muscle. He kicked the knife out of Reldon’s hand and quickly picked it up …he stabbed his attacker just enough to infuriate the kid. They wrestled near to the base of the tree. Leroy was able to get Reldon in the middle of the platform before he sprung back and flipped the release. The platform went up that old oak pretty rapidly using an age old pulley system weighted with rocks. It was a WTF moment as Reldon heard more branches and leaves’ rustling…it was the wood door covered with spears coming towards him at a pace he knew would pierce his hide. He was right. That sure shut Reldon’s mouth.

Leroy stood up and started walking home. For the first time in his life he had a taste of what it was like not to be a world apart but a world above.

He was a serial killer in the making.