The quaint home held an empty feeling like an important piece of the jigsaw puzzle was missing. The smell of fried chicken, corn on the cob, and fresh baked cherry pie permeated the air. Neon flashed on the mantel clock. Karl Adler paid no attention. His mind remained on the questions he desired his latest victim to answer.

The dirt road to the house ran a few miles outside of town. Adler knew the finer nuances of life were cooked up by those in charge. He set out to write his own rules. To date, no one stopped him. Adler walked the grungy basement in his faded denim. He enjoyed his unexpected visits. Not that his victims did. Adler got into their suffering.

Grime covered every ransacked room in the crackerbox. A smile broke across Adler's face. He noticed no windows built into the cellar. Fun about to occur, Adler swatted an enormous cobweb out of his way. No spider noticed, the critter lived to see another day. Adler's excited heart beat double time. He could tell the ancient dwelling had been constructrd on extensive rocks.

As though detached from his physical surroundings, Adler waited trancelike, unnoticed. He stayed in that position until the overhead light switched on and Merlin Hightower, a pillar of upper crust society, appeared. Hightower provided essential support for his community.

His pistol pointed at the surprised resident's head, Adler whispered, "Intruder in the house!"

"What the f...?" Hightower demanded. His eyes grew beady and he said, "This is unlawful entry. Get out of my house! NOW!"

Adler grinned. While they lacked pleasure, he discovered humor in Hightower's comments. He held his gun still in front of him. Adler's obsessive compulsive disorder kicked in full throttle.

"What are you doing?" Hightower beseeched.

Adler laughed a sinister chortle. "That's what they all want to know. Soon enough, they find out."

Baring his fangs, Hightower snarled, "I'm not scared of you!"

Adler nodded his head. He understood what Hightower said. "I'm going to straighten your misunderstanding out right now, once and for all."

He shoved Hightower and watched his roly-poly victim, with his robust appearance, crash to the floor in a collapsed heap.

"You getting scared of me now?" Adler inquired. He whalloped the hapless Hightower with the barrel of his gun. Blood gushed down his face in a sudden, plentiful, stream. "You real scared of me now? You don't understand much about pain, but that's going to change rapidly!"

Adler enjoyed the confrontation. He derived satisfaction from tormenting his ridiculed sufferer. "The first thing you're going to tell me is you're the one who tipped my arch nemesis Dutton off about me to begin with. What you say here in my court of law will be held against you in the strictest way, Commissioner. Start blabbering!"

Hightower looked at him. He perceived the insanity in Adler's eyes and stated, "You're psycho. You can't do this to me."

"You're smart, Hightower. But, I have no doubt a braniac like you can get much smarter over the last few hours of your life. We've only just begun," Adler vowed a solumn promise.

He yanked Hightower off the floor with violence. Adler's strength shocked the Commissioner. Immediately, he was hog-tied with rope.

"I don't like your smug "think you're superior" attitude. You aren't superior, especially to me. Maybe your constituents see you that way. I don't. What you are Hightower is a speciman for a dissected anatomical experiment. Let me show you something very creepy," Adler told him.

Hightower screamed an eerie, horrific yell as Adler sliced open his upper chest with a serrated knife. Shocked, he could not believe what Adler did to him.

Desperate, Hightower pled, "Leave me alone!"

"That's the one thing you'll never be again. I'm going to take pleasure in killing you. Then, I'm going to kill Dutton. He's getting too close. I can feel the acidic stench of his volcanic breath down my neck. Excruciatingly painful always works for me," Adler responded.

"I'll do whatever you want, just don't hurt me anymore. There has to be a deal we can make," Hightower begged.

Adler shook his head "no" and said, "I want the facts. I want you to tell me why you turned Dutton on to me, Commissioner."

"Yes. Yes, it was me," Hightower began.

"I'm not stupid. I know that. You fantasized about being my accomplice but you couldn't live up to the hype. Now, now, you can't live at all," Adler told him.

Hightower grew exhausted.

'I'm going to tell you a secret, Commissioner. You will appreciate what I say," Adler stated. He raised his knife, "I'll make your groveling like a little oinker short. We'll start with your right ear!"

Hightower knew what was coming. "NO!"