The October Music, Stanza 2 - Day 22

But Not Tonight

            When you decide to become a serial killer, you find out quickly what works for you and what doesn’t. There are no classes to take, no videos to watch. You can’t find a tutor unless you’re either extremely lucky or extremely unlucky. You are learning alone. Sure, you can watch documentaries online about those that came before. You can read about their mistakes, what got them caught. The problem is that you’re learning from flawed sources. They got caught. Something went wrong for them and their run is over. The best you can get from them is what not to do.

            So, what do you do? You improvise. You decide your motivation, your targets, and all of that based solely on yourself. Why are you doing it? Is it rage or hatred? If so, who are you angry with? Who do you hate? Is it yourself? Is it society? Is it your mom? If you do get caught, as is statistically more likely the longer your win streak goes, so to speak, who are you going to blame? You can’t blame yourself – that goes against every fiber of your being. And on and on. This analysis paralysis can stop you dead in your tracks, pardon the pun. 94% of all potential serial killers quit before their first kill due to logistical factors. That’s a fact.

            Above all, though – and this is something the quote-unquote experts won’t tell you – the most important factor to being a success is timing. Not just timing in terms of when to strike, but timing in terms of the amount of terror you want to extract. If you want to be one of those quick-strike, cut-and-run killers, that’s easy. Late night – around 4 AM – and preferably someone who is outside despite all logic and reason. Easy. On the other hand, if you prefer to take and torture someone, that changes the timeline significantly.

            Setting aside the difficulty of the catch and disposal afterwards, the main issue at hand is how long you keep your victim alive. Is it overnight? A week? A month? You had damn sure better not be falling in love because that screws the whole deal, believe me. What’s your end goal? Do you want to break them in short order or over a while? What level of cruelty are you working with, essentially?

            In my experience, the most effective plan is to go with the flow. You’ll know when the time is right. Let yourself be patient. Personally, it’s quite enjoyable to enter a room and see the spike of anxiety and fear from your captive about whether this is ‘it’. It very well could be, but you don’t know going in. The fun there comes from getting close, feeling their terror, and then whispering ‘not tonight’ or some variation thereof. You aren’t going to kill them, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t going to play around either. It can totally demoralize them.
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            Above all: find what works for you. Happy hunting!