First Kill

It had been 2 months since that fateful day where Richard got his first day of training. He had met the people who worked there, everyone seemed to enjoy his company or seeked help from him. 

He also had the luck to accustom to the job extremely fast, he had found the reason why the  was so easy to get... They were desperate because their system resembled a meat grinder. They would put the employee on one side and an exhausted employee came out the other end. Marc had been one of the only employee that didn't drop the boat since Richard was there. Probably because they had been rather deceptive with the owner of their branch and made him believe they were swamped with work. 

Despite cameras being installed in their office, they quickly realized that those cameras were dummies. They didn't monitor anything they only emitted a soft red light. One time during a calmer day, they had seen a trend on social media where people would make a broom stand upright with nothing holding it. They had spent an hour trying to replicate it before Richard got it. Since they were right in front of the cameras and no one ever told them anything, they had tried several other experiences. In the end, they confirmed that these cameras were dummies.

Of course, there were a few visits from their sweet old lady supervisor. Her name was Lyza and she was a strong woman with charisma. She was wise, professional and proud of her work ethics. Thanks to a lot of factors, they were mostly left to their own volitions. Lyza was on their side about avoiding to overwork them in order to keep a good work ethic and had helped them continue to work at a reasonable level to avoid them leaving the team. Marc and Richard were the two receptionists that held one of the biggest firm together so she tried her best to make them profit from it.

Richard was extremely satisfied with the evolution of this career. He had the chance to feel appreciated for the work he did thanks to Lyza who gave him strict yet gentle guidance towards ameliorating the branch. Richard and Marc spent hours on end fixing several years of neglect from overworked employees. Their teamwork was nearly flawless and Marc was his trusted co-worker. They had spent hours laughing and exchanging small talk about several opinions they both shared. Marc had even opened up about the difficulties he had experienced as a black man in a white people dominated world. To Richard, who had mostly been seeing people as potential targets, Marc blew that part out of him away. Marc was an honest man that said what he thought. He was always collected and courteous. Of course, the guidelines and policies of the company were insanely unfair. Their work was difficult and had nearly no payoff but at least they were good friends.

Waking up, Richard got dressed in a grey dress shirt and a pair of neat black pants. He followed his routine to the T He took his work bag and headed for his car. As he sat down, he took a deep breath, trying to smell an hint of what happened yesterday but the smell of an old car simply calmed his worries. Nothing was apparent and he started the engine to head off to work.

He showed up 15 minutes early, rolling his eyes as he passed in the parking and noticed a line of people waiting to be served once the office opened. He unlocked the door to the office, letting himself in and locking behind him. Marc wasn't there yet but it happened that he sometimes arrived late. It wasn't really an issue for him and he made sure to cover his late co-worker if needed. A satisfied grin showed up on his face when he opened the computer and started sorting his emails. It felt so good to get away with murder. After deleting the junk mails and responding to a few clients, the clock showed him he had a few minutes left before people went in. Marc showed up then, still neatly dressed and amicable. He took the time to get changed in the bathroom and then sat.

" Hey, how was your weekend Richard? " Asked Marc politely

" Great, thanks for asking. I went on a hike and took in some nature. It was really refreshing. Need anything before I open the office?" He responded with a smile on his face

"Nope, go ahead."

Following the opening of the door, the clock ticked away quickly. Many clients complained about the lack of availability for their children's driving lessons, unfortunately there's nothing that could be done. The driving school was short staffed yet continued to take in new clients. Many clients would pointed out that issue, claiming the school was scamming them and knew full well of their actions. They weren't far off, the school just cared about the money. A nice clause of the contract stated that 10% of the full price of the driving course would be kept if the contract was terminated by the client. 10% of one thousand, two hundred and sixty six dollars. It was a stupid business decision but Richard was a new guy, there was nothing in his or in Marc's toolbox to fix the issue. At one point, Richard made a mental note of a sweet young girl aged nineteen. Her name was Cindy. Since she was isolated, the feeble girl was a potential victim. Of course, in order to avoid being spotted, he had to wait until Cindy was done with her lessons to be safe and out of the police's suspicions.

Cindy had told him, half crying, that she just moved from France and desperately needed driving courses. Her goal was to get a position for this new job she was offered. He remembered this crying girl because she had a lesson with their driving instructor from hell, this demon was called Suzan. Suzan was an older woman, she was very sweet with her coworkers and even sometimes brought back some food for Marc and Richard. Unfortunately, this sweet front was only for the members of her team. With her students, Suzan was an unforgiving torturer. She would scream, belittle and basically traumatize students when they weren't good enough for her taste. Cindy didn't get the chance to practice at home and the angry old driving instructor thought it was the student's job to learn, not hers to teach. Since Cindy wasn't considered a good enough student in Suzan's eyes, she was tortured the same way. Suzan had kicked her out of the car after half an hour, storming in the office and going to the bathroom as a traumatized Cindy came to explain the situation.

Unlucky for that student, schedules were full and that angry old lady was the only one that opened up schedules for her favorite students. Needless to say the driving instructor wouldn't take her again since she deemed that Cindy sucked and was a waste of time. Richard had taken the time to file a complaint in Cindy's defense after she told the story to him. Unfortunately, Suzan had been working for the company for years and her reckless behavior was ignored in exchange for her loyalty.

Richard told her nicely that he'd keep her name in a call list and if something showed up, he'd take the time to call her. She nodded at him and then left, tears still in her eyes. The call list was a five hundred and sixty three name list with several student information. They were sorted in order of dark red for extremely urgent to white for normal. Dark red meant that they were several months late on their license completion date. Red meant that they were late, yellow meant that they would soon be late and white meant that everything was fine and dandy. It was a system that Marc and Richard came up with together and was a feature in their own office only. Other branches had a regular call list where students were thrown in haphazardly. It had shown its effectiveness. The amount of students that were in the dark red section had decreased from six hundred initially. Not all of these students were helped by the list. Some of them just canceled their contract and left.

This list had been one of Richard's favorite place to pick victims. Usually, children that ended up being so late didn't care as much for their driving classes. The present company policies and availabilities were insufficient and disrespectful. However, most clients were usually able to finish in a year and a few weeks if they spent enough time checking online and calling for availabilities. Those that ended up in the dark red section were usually troubled youths or children with little to no parent presence. They couldn't practice so Suzan wouldn't take them and their parents weren't getting involved to get the company to do something, therefore they ended up struggling to get anything. Of course, once again, there was no way for Richard to hurt any of these poor dark red clients, they were still within the driving school and having several victims taking driving classes would put a target on Richard's back.

After the initial rush of the day, it calmed down. Marc and Richard had the chance to settle down and chat a bit about their activities. Marc told him that he had spent most of the weekend getting high and relaxing with friends. Richard reiterated his initial lie about going for some hiking and doubled down adding that he barely had the chance to sleep in his bed.

In truth... Richard had been doing something much more different this weekend.

Richard smiled as he wiped the blood off his knife, a new victim was added to the count... Though it was technically his first kill since he got the new job. He just loved finding victims in order to satisfy his morbid curiosity. He enjoyed feeling blood drip from his fingertips. Its thick, slimy feel on his skin as it inundated his clothes.

It was nothing sexual. It was just addictive to the chubby young man, the feelings he felt as he tried to be discreet, anticipated, in control... They felt better than a nice slab of steak with spices and salt... Better than a high school romance that bloomed into adulthood happiness. More exciting than the first time he was with a woman.

Richard closed the trunk that seemingly contained a single box and a blanket. The box held a popular lubricant, a container of synthetic oil and a small plastic briefcase for an electric tire compressor and a big comfortable blanket was neatly folded in the depths of the trunk. Everything you'd find in a good citizen's trunk. Unfortunately, underneath that big blanket, there were  several pieces of his victim and a few digging tools, used to dig the poor soul somewhere where no one would find it. 

As usual, Richard found a nice secluded spot in the forest and started digging. It took him a little bit to dig a hole deep enough to throw a single limb in, proceeding to cover it back up in leaf and foliage and going on his next spot to 

It was around 11PM when he finally parked in the driveway to his apartment and it's with an exasperated sigh that he entered his place, threw the keys in the bowl next to the door and went to shower. Luckily, his schedule was pretty late in the day so he'd get the chance to sleep in a little bit.

With a satisfied grin, Richard laid down in his bed and slowed his breathing down until he felt relaxed. Then sleep took him. The following day, he knew he'd get the great pleasure of going back to work refreshed. After all, it had been a while since he last killed.