The Assignment Ch. 00-01

"This life isn't a fairytale, there is no happily ever after, and I wouldn't expect to find prince charming nestled somewhere waiting to rescue you. No one is going to save you, that is something you might as well accept now, go ahead prepare yourself for the inevitable end. It's not going to be pleasant or kind, no one is going to care if you're crying or in pain. In fact they'll probably enjoy both. That is the harsh, disgusting truth of the real world and it only gets worse from there." Dr. Robinson drawls out this bit of advice in his typical bland voice which reminds me of the noise a paper shredder makes when it's clogged. Not that I don't agree with him, the real world fucking sucks. My only question is why an English literary professor would even care, aren't they supposed to live in some fantasy world? Apparently Dr. Robinson's wife left him for his father, which is not only horrible it's pretty fucking gross. Dr. Robinson himself isn't bad looking in a nerdy Johnny Depp kind of way but he is at least 50 which would put his Dad pushing 70 easy. Vomit. "I have decided to skip the typical Scarlet Letter, Wuthering Heights book report to save all of us the insane boredom that comes along with that shit. Instead I am going to ask you to write your own story. Something real, something passionate, and for fuck sakes something that won't require me to drink a 5th of gin before reading it." Dr. Robinson gave us all free reign to write the best or worst contemporary novel our 20 something year old brains could come up with. I could tell you that I never would have written this story without him but, fate has a funny way of fucking people over no matter what. So to quote the great doctor once more, "This story isn't a fairytale, there is no happy ending and prince charming is a pussy."- Rachel.

Chapter 1:

--Book--

Teagan is the average high school student that always manages to slip under the radar even though she is actually super intelligent. She would much rather watch old serial killer documentaries then solve algebraic equations and test the reactivity of Na and X, even though that combination would probably cause a pretty fucking amazing explosion. So there she was drinking bubble tea, sitting on the steps outside the local movie theater in her burn, Bundy, burn t-shirt and cut off jeans reading the latest theory on who Jack the Ripper really was when she saw something she was never meant to.

"I seem to have misplaced my phone, do you think you could call a tow truck for me?" a rather attractive looking man in his early thirties asks the brunette with the big boobs who is wearing far too little clothing and twirling her hair around her index finger like an idiot. Teagan rolls her eyes, the bitch couldn't be anymore obvious that she wants to fuck the guy. Sure he was hot, even Teagan who considered such things as sexual intercourse beneath her realized that.

"Sure, love" big boobs says in a breathy voice that made Teagan want to offer her an inhaler. The woman then looks down towards her purse when the man pulls her closer and presses two fingers to the side of her throat making her collapse into unconsciousness. Teagan's eyes widen as the man deposits the women's belongings into a near by trashcan and "helps" her into his car. To any other bystander it would look innocent like the woman had been drinking and he was her friend. "Fuck me," Teagan whispers her eyes following the man's every movement. As the man starts to back out of the parking lot his eyes meet her and they stare at one another, him recognizing that she knows what he is and her trying not to have a fucking heart attack. When he realizes that she isn't going to stop him, at least not at that moment he smirks and offers her a silent challenge. Teagan blinks and stands up quickly dropping her tea and book on the ground, the man seems to chuckle before he put the car in gear drives calmly out of the parking lot. Teagan stares at the car as it disappears onto the main highway, she can feel her heart pumping a millions beats a minute and her legs shaking as the adrenaline races through her veins. "Holy shit," she whispers trying to make sense of her own thoughts. She knew no one was going to take her seriously if she reported the abduction, not in Gainesville where college students are forever getting drunk and riding off with strangers and certainly not in Bronson where nothing that interesting ever happens. She grabs her book and tea off the ground and walks over to the trash can where she pulls out the ladies purse searching through it for her wallet. "Candace Hawthorne," Teagan reads over the women's name a few time before tossing everything back in the trash. Teagan wanted to recognize the name whenever her body was found and then she would go to the dump site herself and she would tell someone what she saw, maybe.

--Reality--

I am not sure what I was expecting to happen when I handed over the first chapter to Dr. Robinson for "approval" but, what did happen was definitely not it. "Miss. Galloway, this is an interesting start. Where do you plan to take this novel?" Dr. Robinson sets the copy of the chapter down on his desk and leans back in his chair with his arms crossed over his chest, "I assume that you are not going to make it just another boring psychological thriller where the good guy catches the bad guy and everyone flies off into the sunset on a fucking unicorn."

Sometimes I really want to punch this guy. "No, Dr. Robinson. I plan to take this story on a ride no one has ever ventured towards before." I am not sure at that moment what that ride would be but I would be damned if it would be just another happy ending.

Dr. Robinson arches a dark well plucked brow and taps the papers on his desk, "If you mean that Miss. Galloway then I look forward to continuing to read your novel. If not well, you'll be settling for a C as your final grade."

"I understand Dr. Robinson," I say through gritted teeth as I imagine slamming his smug face into his desk and knocking all of his down his throat. He waves his hand to dismiss me and I calmly stand up and walk out of his office. "Stupid fuck," I mutter when I get into the hallway. It really is no wonder his wife left him, an old floppy dick is still better than the whole person being one. I would love to write the perfect novel just to shove down his stupid ass throat but, in order to do that I was going to need some inspiration. "Fuck my life," I grumble as I climb into my car and throw my bag on the seat next to me.

--book--

Teagan shifts through webpage after webpage on abductions, none of them correlating with a white Male taking an attractive female from a public space in broad daylight. "No one does that shit," she mutters getting irritated and closing the lid on her laptop. She leans back in the chair and takes a hand through her hair before standing up and going into the kitchen ignoring her little brother who is sitting at the island eating cereal and playing a handheld video game.

"Who pissed in your cornflakes?" The brother asks without looking up from his game. It was like he had a sixth sense to know when his sister was aggravated.

Teagan sighs and turns around crossing her arms over her small breasts, "can I ask you something?"

The brother narrows his eyes and pauses his game before taking a large bite of his cereal, "sure."

"If you seen something, something bad would you tell the cops?"

"Snitches get stitches sis," he says in a matter of fact tone before shrugging and going back to his game.

Teagan rolls her eyes and pulls a bowl out of the cabinet preparing to make herself some cereal as well. If she told there was a very real chance the guy would know it was her that did so and come after her next. She wasn't particularly worried about being abducted if she didn't tell as she definitely didn't fit the profile he was looking for, the real question is did she want to sit back and wait for him to do it again? Did it make her a bad person that she didn't really have feelings either way? "I'm so fucked," she grumbled dumping captain crunch into the bowl.

--Reality--

The world of serial killers is pretty straightforward and almost always their story ends with them being caught. There are a few cases where the assailant does not get captured or it takes a very long time for the authorities to do so, but usually they are apprehended pretty quickly. None of that shit suits my purposes for my story unless I want that "c" Dr. Robinson so kindly offered. So far none of my classmates have been much help in providing alternative plotlines seeing as how their novels are all about falling in love or dying after falling in love, crap that I wasn't interested in. It wasn't like I could suddenly turn a psychological thriller into a romance novel, the idea was ridiculous. Wasn't it? Sitting back from my laptop I twirled a pen in my fingers, why couldn't the characters fall in love? I mean obviously there could be no happy ending with one of them being a psychopath and Dr. Robinson did say that in real life there was no prince charming waiting to rescue you. But what if prince charming turned out to be the villain?

What if he was the very monster that the fairy tales told you to run away from? I stop twirling my pen and pull absently at my bottom lip thinking that maybe this storyline might just work, Teagan already has a predisposition for being obsessed with the macabre. Could she fall in love with the bad guy even knowing the worst about him? The idea had merit but I also didn't want them having the typical happy ending either no matter how much they loved each other. I could make them fall in love and then have him get caught, which was an interesting idea but how and why would he fall in love with her? I tap my pen on the desk for a few moments before standing and walking into the living room where my roommate was watching TV and scrolling social media on her phone. "Devon, what makes a man attractive to you?" I ask her as I sit down on the recliner.

She looks up puzzled for a moment before shrugging, "personality mostly although looks are important too."

"Yes, but what aspects of his personality?"

"Humor for sure. Uh, dominance especially in public. Even if he is submissive in bed I want my man to open doors and let other guys know I belong to him."

I smirk at Devon's subtle way of saying she definitely wants to be the more aggressive one sexually. "What if he wasn't sexually submissive but, maybe sadistic?"

She wrinkles her nose in distaste and sits up on the couch leaning towards me, "that isn't my scene but I know at least a handful of women who have rape fantasies."

Not exactly what I was going for but I could work with that. "What if the man was an actual rapist though, what if you knew and you still fell in love with him."

"That's some fucked up shit Rach," Devon scolded but I could see the excitement in her eyes. She was a psych major after all. "I would never fall in love with a psychopath but, dozens of women believed themselves to be in love with Bundy. Hell after that Netflix movie a whole new generation of bitches are."

"So you're saying that it isn't far fetched to have woman fall in love with a man knowing he is in fact a serial killer?"

"No, not at all."

I feel a smile playing at my lips, "would you read a romance novel about it?"

She laughs and shakes her head, "You find one and I will read it in a heartbeat."