The Crucifix Killer

Eight weeks, eight kills,
Each a twisted crucifixion:
Upside down, on Sunday found;
A killer with a mission.

He took them each on Friday,
Sometime in the night.
Fearful, a decree was made
To stay in when there’s no light.

But teenagers will always be
Victims of their own bravado.
In a clearing in the woods:
Bonfire, peer and bottle.

Christine never was a party girl;
But she came for friends who were.
Tommy handed her a drink that night…
All the rest’s a blur.

She remembers running,
Tears streaming down her face —
Straight into a man,
Who held her for a space;

Then he looked her in the eyes
And she realized who he was.
She remembers trying to scream,
But all the rest is fuzz.

She wakes up in a tiny room,
Tied up to a chair;
Another opposite of her:
That same man sitting there.

He smiles as she wakes
And bids her a good morning,
Apologizing for the state
Of the room — hardly warming.

He regrets the necessity of binds,
And the means he used last night:
A conk over the head,
So they wouldn’t have to fight.

He was sorry to see her
In such a state before:
Most he sees on such a night
Deserve all they get and more;

But she, he is convinced
Is made of better stuff,
And if she’ll just bear with him ’til Sunday
Then she’ll be free enough.

***

For his final victim,
Those two days were hell;
And when they found the body,
They almost couldn’t tell.

It had been lashed and stoned;
Crucified and burned.
Hung upside down
As a lesson to be learned:

That those who claim to be
Righteous, should be upright;
An evil man pretending
Deserves to tremble in the night.

So the killer believed;
And he believes it still
When he thinks about Christine.
She sometimes visits him in jail;

And that final kill, that final Sunday,
The man he killed and burned?
As somebody who could hurt her,
Tommy got what he deserved.

---

 

Well, this one was very specific — though I suspect I was not:

“Write a story about how eight murders have taken place in your character’s town in the past 8 weeks. Once a week, on the same day, at the same time. When your character gets abducted after being out past the town’s new curfew, they have only 48 hours to discover why this is happening and how to get free…all while being tortured by the murderer.”