Madness (Suicidal Book 3)

Chapter Four: What Does a Liar Do When He's Dead?

Kovu watches the little coyote walk out of the building. He licked his lips and giggled softly to himself. "Ssh, my pretty," he giggled again, stroking the silver blade of his knife. "We'll have some fun with this one." He turned away, the hunger raging like a forest fire in his eyes, glinting like the sun off a sheet of metal. The deeply disturbed lion opened the rickety creaking old bathroom door and walked to the chipped sink. He grabbed the small jar of Vaseline and rubbed it deep into his luxurious mane. He rubbed it onto his ears as well, and massaged it into his scalp, before setting the jar back down on the shelf above the broken sink. He placed a ratty, moth-eaten towel around his shoulders like a cape, enclosing his muscular body in the scratchy cotton fabric.  He pulled out the blue latex gloves. He had two pairs, one for this operation, and one for the fun he would have later with the animal, who didn't know about Kovu's fun plans for him yet. 

Kovu looked in the mirror as he started to apply the green hair dye. He giggled and applied the white face paint and red lipstick while he waited for the timer he had set on his watch to beep, which indicated that it was time to shower. The watch beeped loudly. Kovu turned off the alarm and got up, carefully shrugging off the towel. He walked to the shower and stood there under the cold water and washed his hair before coming back out. He smiled. H loved this new look of his. It would scare the animal. It would scare them all. 

He cackled manically, his voice rising in such a high pitch that some of the other residents in the seedy apartment building turned on the lights below and above him, shooting scared and angry looks at each other and at him. 

The coyote grumbled and muttered some lovely swear words as he tried to figure out why his car wasn't working. Little did he know that Kovu had stolen his real keys and replaced them with fake ones, some duds for a car in a junkyard back in Zootopia. 

"Hey, need some help?" 

The coyote looked up from his keys as he fumbled with the car door. A hooded stranger stood there, little strands of long green hair coming out from under his hood. He appeared to be extremely pale, almost white, where in contrast his lips were a blinding blaring bright red. 

The coyote nodded. He needed to get back to his boss quickly. He had heard rumors that her son and his boyfriend had busted out of Arkham Asylum, possibly on the run with the serial killer the Fox. The coyote shuddered. He remembered the long trail of death and bodies that had followed the Fox everywhere, until those two cops in Zootopia got him. For once, they actually did something good for the coyote and his boss, instead of constantly ruining their operations. 

The stranger held out his pale white head. "May I see the keys?" He asked. His voice was low, and had a bit of a deep bass tone like to it. The coyote nodded and handed them over. The stranger looked at them for a few minutes, then handed it back to the coyote. He took them and clicked the unlock button. Kovu had switched the fake duds with the real keys so that it actually worked this time. The car beeped and unlocked. 

"Hey, you fixed them!" The coyote said in surprise. "Thank you." He held out his hand. "Antoine d'Coolette, uh, business manager, yep." 

The stranger seemed to smirk underneath the hood, his red lips twitching up in a small unsettling grin. "Oh, I know who you are, Mr. d'Coolette." He reached into his jacket and pulled out a small American derringer pistol. A small, compact handgun usually used by female mob bosses and female criminals in general, mostly caused they easily fit in purses. "Now tell me: What does a liar do when he's dead?" 

"Are you insane, I don't know the answer to that," he snapped. His eyes darted all over the place, nervously hoping someone would come along and help him. "Now put the damn gun down and we can talk about whatever you want from me. 'Cause if it's money, I got plenty of that. No need to worry." He licked his lips nervously. 

The stranger gave a low dry chuckle. "Oh, no, Mr. d'Coolette. It's not money I'm after. It's you." He pulled the hood back and the coyote gasped in a mixture of shock, horror, disbelief, and fear. "K-Kovu? You're alive?" He gulped. "W-what happened to you?" 

Kovu chuckled, the broke into all out maniacal crazy guy laughter. "He happened to me. He showed me the truth. I used to think life was a tragedy, but not I realize it's a fucking comedy! Life's just one big joke, so WHY AREN'T YOU LAUGHING!" He screamed, spittle flying from his lips and landing on the coyote, who growled, and stared to reach for his knife on his hip, but Kovu saw and fired off two rounds, hitting him in both of the legs. 

He screamed as he fell to his knees, and started to scream even more as Kovu grabbed him and pulled him kicking and yelling into his car. The coyote tried to scream for help but Kovu grabbed a roll of duct tape and taped his mouth shut and then his head. But he left his eyes and nose open so he could watch and breathe. Kovu held up the knife and whispered into his ear. "The answer to the riddle, Mr. Antoine d'Coolette, is that he lies still." He cackles manically and starts to cut, making small slits on the coyote's arms. The lights lit up in the apartments and buildings around them as the horrendous screaming violently continued. It was a very, very long time before he stopped screaming and Kovu had finished admiring his beautiful work of art.