Psych Investigation Episodes: Episode 1 (A Young Adult Scifi / Fantasy) by Kevin Weinberg Page A

of a tree trunk. It was as if an SUV parked on top of him.
How was this even possible?
    “ Understand one thing, Jack. As of
now, you are under arrest. I’d like to bring you in without having
to resort to further violence, but if I feel so much as an inkling
of threat coming from you, I won’t hesitate to crush your windpipe
and end you where you lie. Others will be here any moment to take
you with them. Cooperate until then, and I can promise you’ll
live.”
    At once, she lifted the boot from Jack’s
throat, and he looked up at the girl he had kissed. Her face
revealed an anger so terrible, so fiery, that Jack wondered how it
could be contained within a single person.
    “ Me—” he tried to speak. He choked
and coughed as his body attempted to reclaim the lost
oxygen.
    “ Melissa, is this a game or a
joke?”
    Jack didn’t think it was possible, but somehow
her anger seemed to multiply. She bent down and did the
unthinkable. With a single rowing-pull of her arm, she grabbed Jack
by the scruff of his neck and lifted him. Not just to his feet, but
off them, leaving him dangling in midair like a key on a
chain.
    “ Does this look like a joke? You
know what the real joke is? It’s that scum like you are allowed to
live in this world.”
    She released him, and he fell to his knees. The
confusion reached such a level that Jack was no longer sure he even
cared what was happening. Survival was the only thing that remotely
mattered to him.
    On his knees, he looked up at the woman of his
dreams, now the woman of his nightmares. Thoughts bounced back and
forth between the corners of his mind. His brain scrambled for any
kind of explanation, likely or otherwise, and the pain from being
thrown to the ground made the confusion worse.
    Melissa walked behind him and nudged him
forward. He fell on his chest with an
“oohf.”
Then,
he felt her hands
overlapping his as they were bound and tied.
    “ What’s happening to me?” Jack
asked.
      He was still in a daze. He
felt her hands tie his own with a thick cord.
    “ I’ve pictured this quite a few
times, but this is definitely
not
one of ways I always
imagined you tying me up.” Jack was no longer sure what words he
was spouting. Spots danced before his eyes while dizziness overtook
him.
    Melissa grunted as she sealed the knot on his
hands. “You know, I wasn’t supposed to do anything until my team
arrived, but you were trying to go running off. I couldn’t just let
you leave.”
    Jack tried to crawl away on his stomach, but
Melissa sighed and took a seat on his back, holding him in
place.
    “ I guess I’ll just sit here until
they arrive. I’ve got to say, you really disappointed me. I thought
you’d be tougher. But then again, only a pathetic slob would do
what you did to all those people. God, you sicken me.”
    A few minutes passed, and Jack’s head cleared
while the dizziness faded. His confusion remained, but at the very
least, he felt slightly more grounded in reality and aware of his
situation.
    “ Melissa, please, just tell me
what’s going on.”
    She made no attempt to respond, content to
simply sit on his back and leave him on the ground. She didn’t
speak a word, until moments later, the sound of nearby feet gliding
through grass resounded from a few yards away.
    “ It’s about time!” she
called.
    “ My, my, my. Oh what, oh what do we
have here?” a man’s voice asked. The shadows of two dark
silhouettes could be made out from a nearby brush. Jack didn’t
recognize either voice, but he was too distracted by his current
situation to care who they were.
    “ Ruin, Darling, do you have any idea
why that horse of a woman is sitting on my prey?”
    “ Not even a clue, my dearest
Requiem. Perhaps this is some kind of new sex game?”
    Two figures exited from the brush. One was a
tall, languid-looking man. He was handsome, with neatly trimmed
hair and a kind, sincere face, though Jack suspected it was all a
front. The other was one of the most