EXCLUDED, CHAPTER ONE: PT IV

2/23/2017

EXCLUDED, CHAPTER ONE: PT IV

EXCLUDED
CHAPTER ONE: PART IV

Continuing on with the first chapter of Excluded, check out the fourth and final installment of this sneak-peek, as I figure out what's going on with the cover work. Also, feel free to let me know what you think I should do with the new paperback and eBook designs after the story.

JUST TUNING (BACK) IN?

START OFF WITH THE 1ST THREE INSTALLMENTS

PART I

PART II

PART III

EXCLUDED
CHAPTER ONE: PART IV

Cops? Coy wondered. Too timely.

There were a man and a woman fully clothed in white. The male had a brutish Brad Pitt sort of look to him while the female seemed as dangerous as seductive. Coy would have loved to be with her for one night. There were so many things he would’ve liked to have done, including dismembering her after they slept together. Then again, maybe he would’ve felt empty again. Maybe she would not allow herself to express pain or fear like the little kid.

All in all, none of those things mattered. He had to think up a course of action just in case they were cops. At the same time Coy switched off his headlights, the woman looked at his car. They knew he was there. He needed to think up something. The coward’s way out would be to run away; travel until they were gone. The problem was that Adam Coy had too much pride. They were invading his territory. A king always defended his castle.

If Coy drove off a short way—maybe to another house nearby—he could ditch the car and sneak up on the two by cutting through the park. What was he going to take them out with, though? All he had was a wrench in his backseat.

On the other hand, if Coy could somehow manage to get into his apartment, there would be multiple weapons available to him, his favorite being a dagger. The dagger he owned was nine inches in length and was sharp enough to slice through a desk. He learned that from experience.

Over time, Coy became very handy with the dagger. He really wanted to get inside his apartment the more he thought about it. Coy remembered seeing a backdoor that led to a set of stairs which the custodians and maintenance workers used. It led to the upstairs of the apartments and could have very well been a way to the common middle floor—the place available to all of the residents much like the commons of a small dormitory.

After ditching the car across the street, Coy made his way to the back of the apartment complex. Coincidentally, a janitor was heading inside right before Coy. He didn’t have to worry about unlocking the door. There, a narrow steel staircase led to both the commons area and further up to the maintenance area.

While making his way into the commons, Coy was reminded of nice hotels, oddly enough. That was exactly what the commons looked like. Anyway, Coy was in and slowly but surely making his way into his apartment. Now Coy had to get to his door on the outside of the building without being noticed by whoever was in the parking lot.

The last time that Coy could remember trying to sneak into his apartment was after his second murder. The poor family, he had submerged them all under water until their lungs filled with liquid, leading them to their slow, terrifying deaths. He had tied them all together, all four of the family members, and then tied the rest of the rope around a large stone, which he let drop into the pond in the side lot. It was night and the family resided far away from their neighbors. The father was the mayor of the town. That night, Coy decided drowning his victims wasn’t as much fun.

When he was done drowning the family, he realized his hands had burned from the friction of the rope sliding along his palms, and there was blood from when he drove a screwdriver into the face of their oldest child. There was no way that his landlord could have seen him and let that sort of thing pass. That night, Coy learned how to get around without being seen. He followed the same methods now.
Outside, Coy stuck his back to the wall as tightly as possible. Luckily, the few creaks and rattles the metal staircase made weren’t loud enough to be heard by anyone except Coy. Coy scurried into his bedroom and grabbed the dagger.

Just then, he heard his door shut a second time after he entered. Crawling on his hands and knees, the knife held between his teeth like a stereotypical pirate, Coy tried to keep calm until he heard them walk in. Second after second passed without a single sound, excluding his breathing, which had seemingly become amplified by his paranoia.

At a certain point in the wait, Coy questioned his sanity. Obviously, he was not sane, but he didn’t think he had schizophrenia and he wasn’t insane. People really were after him. With all that was going on around his apartment, Coy was beginning to believe he was crazy, or maybe he was just hoping that. The whole idea of people coming after him seemed ridiculous. Perhaps, Coy had made it all up. That “God’s way” kid may have just screwed up his conscience.

Coy, unfortunately, knew better. The worst of all his assumptions was that there really were people in white suits after him. Coy felt weak after burning the family alive. How was he going to defend himself?The act had left him exhausted.

I’m losing it, he thought.

The floor creaked

Coy scrambled to his feet and charged with his dagger. No one was there. Through the window, a canister came crashing in and propelling some sort of gas. It burned his eyes and pores, and generally everything. Coy had felt these effects before. It was some sort of tear gas.

Who the hell has tear gas? Coy wondered. Had the government come to seize him and his property or something? Had they gotten word by the wind of his murders? Using some sort of tear gas was expected from the military or a SWAT, not from two individuals. On top of that, only one person needed to be captured. Tear gas wasn’t meant for small captures, was it?

Tear gas wasn’t going to stop him. Coy moved towards the door. Upon opening it wide, a dart connected with the side of his neck.

Everything around him faded. Then there was only black.