I Will See You Sit Here (BMHWC)

As newly promoted Sargent Leonard Cowbel drove to the prison that Halloween night, his mind was racing with thoughts of what was about to happen. The radio was on, but he was not listening as his thoughts had over taken everything including the fact he was driving through a blizzard and that he had just done a 360 in the middle of the highway. He was reveling in the fact that he had single handedly captured the worst serial killer in modern history and tonight was to be his execution. Louis Cypher, known in the press as the Ace of Hearts Killer because he always left a black Ace of Hearts on his victims, was found guilty of murdering 365 people by cutting their throat from chin to the manubrium with an exacto Knife, throughout the State, over the course of a year. His trial was short and sweet and the verdict was returned in 20 minutes, a new record for the shortest deliberation of a jury.

As Leo turned onto Prison Rd., the last leg of his drive, he could see thousands of people standing in the freezing wind and snow holding signs. At first he could not read the signs but just knew they were those stupid “Right to Lifers” picketing the execution, as he got closer he noticed the signs read things like “Fry the Ace of Hearts 365 times”. “Well I got half right” he said to himself. “IT’S A GAS CHAMBER YOU IDIOTS” he yelled through a closed window. Just as he was pulling into a parking stall the radio once again came into focus and he heard “Halloween is cancelled due to weather”. He stopped his car, turned it off, and began to step out into the cold when he stopped and yelled at the radio in his car, “YOU CAN’T CANCEL HALLOWEEN YOU IDIOTS, POSTPONE THE FESTIVITIES? YES, BUT IT’S A SET DAY.” “Morons” he said to himself as he closed the door, slipped on the ice and fell to the ground.

Once inside, he was greeted by his Captain, Liam Shatner, Mayor Guy Handsome, Governor Ann R. Kist, and Congressman Alfonzo Kieda with smiles and handshakes. Off in the corner sat Louis Cyphers attorney with his head hung low. As the Governor was attending the execution, a stay was definitely out of the question. Random police officers and prison guards were walking the hallway, a few stopped to congratulate Leo on his capture and conviction, and it was all hustle and bustle until finally the warden walked up to the group and ushered them on to the viewing room. They took their seat in the front row facing the curtain covered glass window of the gas chamber. A few moments later the room was filled to standing space only and the moment was discussed in anticipation almost like they were awaiting a raffle drawing for a new car, a few were even taking bets.

A hush came over the room as the lights dimmed, they all sat down with popcorn, and the curtains began to part exposing a chair with arm, leg, and head straps made of darkened leather and brass buckles. Leo noticed someone had placed a pillow on the seat to make Louis comfortable for his last sit-down. “It had to have been his lawyer” he thought and just then the inner door swung open and two guards entered with Louis. Just before Louis could sit down one of the guards ripped the pillow from the seat. “Hey that was mine” exclaimed Louis, "Well what the hell are we supposed to do you Moron?!" the guard replied and laughter filled the observation room. They buckled him in and checked his straps making sure he could not loose himself then exited the room. A voice came over the loudspeaker saying, “Louis Cypher, you have been found guilty of 2 moving violations, 17 parking tickets, 37 littering tickets, 8 spattering on a public sidewalk tickets, 478 peeping tom tickets, 1298 smoking in a public place tickets, 8 camping without a permit tickets, 23 urinating in public tickets and 1 stealing from a gumball machine ticket. You have been sentenced to death. Is there anything you would like to say before your sentence is carried out?” a whispering voice in the background said, “You forgot about the murders…the murders?” The original voice said, “Huh OH Yah and 365 counts of first degree murder, anything to say?”

After a short pause, Louis looked at Leo directly in the eyes and said, “Do you have another sports jacket or is that your only one?” There was no reaction from the room except for Leo who was now looking at his jacket so he continued, “Leonard COW BELL, I will see you sitting here for the crimes I commit. I’ll be back.” And with that he closed his eyes and awaited the smoke to rise. To every ones dismay it was a rather uneventful execution. It seemed like he just put his head down and that was it. Leo had expected at least a little bit of convulsions and he felt cheated and voiced his opinion as such. The air was cleared and the doctor entered, checked his pulse, looked at his eyes and pronounced him dead. The curtains closed and the party began. Almost everyone brought out their flask and took a drink.

It was about a week later when Leo got the call. There had been a murder in an alley beside the dinner theater. As he pulled up, he saw several people standing along the police tape and about 20 officers walking around inside. He was met by his Chief just outside the tapeline. “We seem to have a copycat killer on our hands.” The Chief said, “It’s the same M.O. and here’s the card.” Leo took the card and looked at it saying, “Black Ace of Hearts.” He noticed it was made by Tricycle, a common playing card maker, the same brand as Louis had had made. That was how they got the name of who they were looking for as he had specially ordered 365 Ace of Hearts printed in black. The victim was just a random snobbish upper middle class idiot walking where he should not have been and the cut to his throat was identical to the ones that Louis Cypher had done in his spree.

The Chief could see that Leo was shaken up by this turn of events and tried to take him off the case to which Leo replied, “There is NO WAY Chief, that I am going to step aside on this one, NO WAY. I came here to drink some beer and catch a killer and since there is no beer…” And he stormed off to start making calls. "You're like my own personal brand of heroine." His Chief called after him. His first call was to the card company only to find out an order had been placed the day after the execution for 26 black Ace of Hearts in the name of Louis Cypher to Louis’s address. “They were delivered yesterday” the voice on the phone said and Leo dropped the phone.

For the next 12 days it was the same scene. Yes it was different locations and different types of people but it was the same. Same cut, same card, same pose of the body. Leo had begun to drink heavily and his stress level hit the roof. He was called into the Chiefs office for the same old speech of “I am taking you off the case turn in your badge”. ”NO...Badges? I don't need no stinkin' badges” and Leo turned toward the door to storm out. This time was different though for as he reached the door it swung inwards knocking him on the head and down he went. He was still drunk from the night before and had very little sleep so it wasn’t hard to do. “If you insist on staying on the case, I would like to introduce you to your new partner” the Chief said, “This is Aunna Bench”. “Partner? I don’t need no stinkin’ partner.” Leo said. “She doesn’t stink and she IS your partner now get out of my office and get er done” the Chief replied. Leo stormed out without another word.

It was 3 days and 3 murders later when Aunna had had enough of Leo and decided to take the case on by herself. She sat down with all the evidence and began to comb through it all. There was no rhyme or reason to any of it. No patterns of people or places, no forensic evidence, nothing, 15 murders and nothing to show for them. Then she saw it. On a little notebook sized piece of paper in the back of the first file was a witness testimony of a person seen sneaking around the previous home of Louis Cypher the night before the first murder. The description seemed very familiar to her but she couldn’t put her finger on who it was. Just then Leo walked into the office yelling and screaming at her for not being around when it dawned on her. It was him! “What are you doing anyway?” Leo yelled. “Having some pizza, learning about Cuba” replied Aunna and she stood up Ignoring Leos next comments and left the office to talk to the witness for herself.

Having spoken to the witness and confirming that it was indeed Leo that was lurking around Louis Cyphers home she decided to stake out Leos home. She saw him pull in about 8pm and he stumbled to his door obviously drunk yet again. He dropped his keys and fell over trying to pick them up, fumbled with the lock, and let himself in. she guessed he had passed out just inside the door as no lights came on and she waited and watched.

It was 3:33am when Leo was awoken by a strange sound coming from his kitchen. He struggled to stand and made his way to the kitchen door and flipped on the light. He went from a drunken, half asleep stupor to sober and awake in an instant. Standing in his kitchen was Louis Cypher himself. He was almost transparent but it was him. “Hi Leo”, Louis said, “Rough night?” Leo shook his head and rubbed his eyes trying to clear this image from his sight to no avail and he asked, “How….Who…Why are you here?” “Well,” Louis replied, “remember what I said at my execution? I said I would see you there, in that chair, for the crimes I commit. Remember?” “Yah” Leo replied. “I have been entering your body every night since my death and have put my plan into action. I used you to order my cards, I used you to pick them up when they arrived, and I have used you to kill those 15 people. Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth? Unfortunately your partner has figured you out and is waiting outside for you to leave to commit murder number 16. Oh and by the way, I am your Father” “NOoooooooo, it’s not truuuuue. It can’t be.” Leo said as he slid down the wall and put his head in his hands. “Believe it, it’s true and you are going to die” Louis said as he slipped into Leos body, stood, and walked out the door calm and sober with killing in his eyes.

Aunna followed him downtown and parked half a block away when she saw Leo pull over and get out. She got out herself and followed him from a distance. He turned down an alley but by the time Aunna had reached the alleys entrance he was nowhere in sight. She began to run down the alley looking for him but he was gone. She chose a direction and began walking up the street when she heard a scream behind her about a block away and took off running in that direction. As she came around the corner she saw Leo standing over a Woman on the courthouse steps. By the time she arrived the Woman was dead and Leo had turned around to greet her. The exacto was still in his hand and he was covered in blood. She drew her weapon and ordered him to drop the knife. “No time for the old in-out, love, I've just come to read the meter. Whatcha got there?” Leo said. “This Is My Boomstick! Now drop it” Aunna replied, which he did saying, “It’s about time someone did their job.” “I'm just a girl standing in front of a boy” she replied.

Louis remained in Leo throughout the trial so Leo could not tell his story and get off on an insanity plea and it went very quickly. A new record was set for the deliberation of the jury, in fact they never even left the courtroom. Leo Cowbel was to die in the gas chamber. It was also the belief of the jury that Louis Cypher had been framed by Leo and was exonerated of all his crimes.

It was 1 year to the day of Louis Cyphers execution that Leo was brought into the gas Chamber, buckled in and a voice over a loudspeaker said, “Leonard Cowbel, you have been found guilty of 381 counts of first degree murder, is there anything you would like to say before the sentence of death is carried out?” At that moment Louis left Leos body and stared him straight in the face. Leo was the only one to see Louis and he realized where he was. Leo began to yell and scream trying to break free and Louis said, “I see you sitting there for the crimes I committed, yeeeeeeah boiiiiiiii” as the smoke began to rise.

Damn man awesome story. Not tying to be vein or funny but it reminds me greatly of my own writing style. like me there were some things that could be cleaned up (funny how much easier it is to see another's mistakes) but over all a great story.

A tough one to top. S&F

reply to post by Agarta


Fun read! Thanks for that!

S&F

Fallen (1998) Denzel Washington

I love that movie (not a B-movie in my opinion), and this reminded me of it instantly. Pretty good.

reply to post by Shypeir


Exactly what I thought of as well.

One of my favourite movies, and this story echoed it well.

reply to post by Agarta


That was a very good story ! "Fallen" did come to mind also. I enjoyed !

S&F.

Hello Agarta

Cool short story, but one cant help but feel sorry for the main caracter.....

SS

GREAT STORY!!
It was so good Im.. as we speak.. cloning myself so you can have a cheering mob of fans.

reply to post by Agarta


Enjoyed this story very much

Very awesome!

We definitely have some gifted writers here!

S&F Buddy!

Thank you to everyones kind words and support It is greatly appreciated.

One more flag added to your tally, for a deep and complex story. While it lacked the cheesy shallowness of a B-movie, it was well done and was a satisfying read.

reply to post by Druid42


This was a story I have had in mind for a few years now but never actually wrote it out until now. I had other names and quoted statements originally in mind but altered them into the B movie theme in order to "qualify". I agree most of them were very subtle as I was having a hard time putting the B movie thing into written form. I have seen many B movies that were classified as B movies, not because the story line was of B rating but because the special effects, lines or the acting were so bad and this is what I attempted to capture. Basically I took, what I thought was a good story line, and gave the characters cheezey names and added cheezey quotes from other movies into the mix. Here is what I did....

Leonard= Sheep from the old ATS chat

Cowbel= Cow Bell also from ATS chat

Leo= LEO (Law Enforcement Officer)

Louis Cypher= Lucifer

Captain Liam Shatner= (wil)Liam Shatner/Captain Kirk

Guy Handsome= Self explanatory

Governor Ann R. Kist= Anarchist

Congressman Alfonzo Kieda= al-Qaeda

Aunna Bench= On a bench

The obvious "off" reference to the movie "Heavy Metal" when the charges against Louis are read (without the raunchiness)

The bad jokes like the Halloween comment or sitting down with popcorn for the execution

The subtle joke of 20 officers walking around inside the police tape disrupting the crime scene

"I came here to drink some beer and catch a killer and since there is no beer"= "Off" reference to the movie "Dazed and Confused"

"You're like my own personal brand of heroine."= Direct quote from the movie "Twilight"

"Badges? I don't need no stinkin' badges"= Direct quote from The Monkees episode 33 "A Nice Place To Visit" (1967) and the movie "Blazing Saddles"

“Partner? I don’t need no stinkin’ partner.”= "off" reference to the same above

“She doesn’t stink and she IS your partner"= "Off" reference to the movie "Airplane"

"began to comb through it all"= "Off" reference to the movie "Spaceballs"

“Having some pizza, learning about Cuba”= Direct quote from the movie "Fast Times at Ridgemont High"

"Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?"= Direct quote from the movie "Rush Hour"

"I am your Father” “NOoooooooo, it’s not truuuuue"= Direct quote from "Star Wars Episode 5 "The Empire Strikes Back"

“No time for the old in-out, love, I've just come to read the meter"= Direct quote from the movie "A Clockwork Orange"

“This Is My Boomstick!= Direct quote from the movie "Army of Darkness"

“I'm just a girl standing in front of a boy”= Direct quote from the movie "Notting Hill"

"yeeeeeeah boiiiiiiii”= Quoted from Flavor Flav