The X-Man by Brian R. Lundin (100 best novels of all time .TXT) 📕

X-MAN SCREENPLAY


Brian R. Lundin


EXT. STREET ON CHICAGO’S SOUHSIDE

The dark sky was highlighted by a full moon as a heavy snow mixed with rain silently covered the streets. Wearing a black hoodie and black sweats Esau Sneed slowly walked on the sidewalk, stepped over a pile of dogshit and stood behind a large tree on the dark and deserted street. He looked up at the second floor apartment of the old, rundown apartment building at 4555 South King Drive; he checked his watch, 10:00 pm. He watched the young woman silhouetted behind the thin curtain by a bright light. She wore only a bra and panties as she walked around her apartment holding the telephone between her shoulder and her chin while combing her hair.

INT. SECOND FLOOR APARTMENT

The young women suddenly wakes-up, rubs her eyes and looks around the apartment as she slowly gets out her bed, puts on a nightgown and tiptoes to the window and shiver. The strong wind blowing off Lake Michigan slammed the rain and snow against the window and she jumps back. Shaken she quietly walks into the cluttered front room and noticed the front door night chain dangling. She secured the chain to the lock and looked around before heading into the small kitchen, got a bottle of water out the refrigerator and sipped it as she walked into the bathroom. Suddenly a strong hand was around her neck, she couldn’t breathe, she tried to scream but no sound came out. She struggled trying to free herself but the hands tighten around her neck, she felt herself being dragged into the bedroom, and then there was darkness.

INT. SECOND FLOOR APARTMENT-BEDROOM

YOUNG WOMAN POV-
A splash of cold water against her face awakens her. As she regained consciousness she recognizes the scent of Irish Springs the bed perfume she uses and realized she was in her bed. He eyes focus on her body, her gown had been removed and she laid spread eagle, her feet, arms and mouth was bound by duct tape. She began trembling as tears flowed down her cheeks. She hoped she was dreaming, a nightmare from which she would soon awake but then she saw a naked blurred figure slowly moving across the darken room and she smelled a musty odor. She felt his presence as he got closer to the bed and stood over her. She heard his heavy breathing as he slowly checked the heavy gray tape.

ESAU (SMILING)
You want me don’t you? I have seen you watching me at the heath club and I saw the lust in your eyes.

YOUNG WOMAN POV-
STRUGGLING ON THE BED, CRYNG.

ESAU POV-
He looked at her brown thighs and shaven pubic area. He noticed how her frighten eyes attempted to see him but he knew it was too dark.

YOUNG WOMAN POV-
She watched in horror as he rubbed her thighs and breasts and inserted in finger into her and gently moved it around. She felt her moisture and felt his nude body on top of hers.


ESAU (SMILING)
You ready for me Peggy?

YOUNG WOMAN POV-
Tears flowed down her cheeks as she violently shook her head and her mouth became dry. She felt his hands raising her buttocks, she tried to turn her body but couldn’t.


ESAU (WHISPERING INTO HER EAR)
Now I will give you what you want,” he said as he passionately entered her, raising her buttock higher as he plunged deep inside her.

YOUNG WOMAN POV-
She felt the hardness and size of his penis as he plunged deeper and harder into her. Finally, he heard him groans as his body shook violently and she felt his fluids going into her. Tears flowed as she clenched her teeth and closed her eyes. When he was finished she felt his clammy hands moving over her shaking body, his finger searching for her clitoris as he put his lips on the tape covering her mouth. Suddenly, she was hit hard upside her head and she felt herself losing consciousness, her senses became blurred and her head hurt. Maybe someone saw him as he broke into her apartment, maybe the police are on the way, her silent prayer asked.

ESAU
No one is coming Peggy, it’s just you and me. The man struck her again and dragged her unconscious body into the bathroom and gently placed her on the floor.

INT. BATHROOM

YOUNG WOMAN POV-
When she opened her terror filled eyes she looked at the little man and pleaded with him to let her go. The man smiled as he wrapped his hands around her slender throat and he squeezed and squeezed until her body went limp. He popped open a switch blade and plunged it repeatedly into her chest causing her blood to spurt out over the walls and bed. The young woman dead eyes opened and locked on his. He felt a stirring in his loins as he looked at her naked, ripe young body.

ESAU
You want me again, huh,” he said as he mounted and entered her again. After he finished he carefully placed her body in the bath tub, folded her arms across her chest, turned on the hot water and tied a pair of her panty hose around her neck. The man closed his eyes as he covered his hands with her blood and smeared it on the walls. On the medicine cabinet mirror he painted a large bloody X. After washing the blood from his body and hands he took out a Polaroid camera and snapped a picture of Peggy and quietly left.
INT. O’HARA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT-DAY
Flight 360 landed at O’Hara Airport at nine in the morning. It had been a long bumpy flight from the FBI Academy in Quantico Virginia where Chicago Police Sergeant John Ringo had spent the last two days brainstorming with the Behavioral Units profilers. While at the Academy he had received a call from lieutenant, David O'Shea and told that there had been another killing. Ringo was anxious to get to the scene, maybe this time the killer had left a clue, and had made a mistake. He removed his overnight bag and cane from the overhead compartment and waited as the first class passengers departed, ten minutes later he was limping down the long airport concourse and noticed a black woman holding the hand of a small boy and as we passed Ringo winked and the child looking back returned the wink and gave a gap-tooth smile. Suddenly the child let out a loud laugh and I looked back and saw the child struggle loose from the woman’s grip and laughing run into the arms of a well-dressed man. Ringo watched as the two embraced and continued on. Was there anything more magical than a child’s laughter he thought and for a brief moment felt depressed. Growing up as an only child he always wanted a big family with lots of children running around the house causing havoc, but his wife Elizabeth was too busy, first going to college to get her Master’s Degree in Business Administration and then working her way up to becoming a Vice President at Abbott Laboratories, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. She often told him about how she hated his job, the late nights and the violence. We both knew that he could probably get a higher paying job as a college professor or researcher, but John Ringo loved being a police officer and on more than one occasion was told that he loved my job more than her. He guessed that it was only a matter of time before their marriage fell apart, she had her priorities and he had his. But right now his slight depression or my marriage had to be put on hold, the X-Man had killed again and that was all that mattered. He maneuvered my way through the arriving and departing passengers his mind elsewhere. He didn’t want to believe that it was the works of the same man or rather the same monster that had brutally killed five other young, black women. He had thought about little else on his flight back from the academy. I reached the automatic doors of the men’s washroom, pushed the button and entered. He splashed some cold water on my face and rubbed briskly. He pulled a paper towel from the dispenser wiped his face and looked in the mirror. His eyes were blood-shot and he needed a shave, his dark skin was still taunt, but he looked tired and older than his thirty-three years. Long ago he decided he looked better with a baldhead rather than a head of premature mingling graying-hair. He went into one of the stalls, sat on the stool and raised his left pants leg and looked at the ugly scar that ran from his calf to my his ankle. He removed a small jar from my pants pocket and gently rubbed the medication on the scar and quickly left the wash room and hurried outside, he had to get to the latest crime scene and hoped that the scene had been correctly preserved and that possible evidence not destroyed or disturbed. Curious police officers often would arrive at the scene and walk around, unintentionally destroying or disturbing valuable evidence. Precious hours had been lost and he understood the importance of examining the crime scene as soon as possible. As he exited the men’s room and looked into the sea of hurrying people and wondered if he was among them, if he was here searching, hunting for another victim, could any of them provide him with an answer, but, he was the hot-shot homicide detective sergeant considered the expert, people looked to him for answers, he was the one with a Doctor’s Degree in Criminology from the University of Virginia and considered by the big brass in the Chicago Police Department as their ace homicide investigator and he knew he was ultimately responsible for catching the killer the media had dubbed the X-Man and he also knew he would take the heat if the X-Man was not caught soon. The police department hated the term serial killer because it scared the shit out of the citizens who began arming themselves and forming neighborhood watches. Every time the X-Man struck the media had a feeding frenzy giving the name of the victim and address. Since all of the victims were black and lived in Bronzeville, the neighborhood preacher and civil right activist accused the police department of not during enough because they were black and poor, but he knew better, the department was doing all it could to catch the X-Man, but just hadn’t got lucky, he would make a mistake, something dumb, like dropping his wallet in the victim’s home, or like Ted Bundy getting stop for a traffic violation, and he knew that often luck was just as important as investigations. His partner Evetta Lunden was doubled parked at the curb and she waived as I came out the door.


KENNEDY EXPRESSWAY
Serious rain and snow had arrived, cold and unannounced; causing overworked storm drains to back up, flooding basements and in some of the poorer area in the city the streets were assailed by filth. Auto collisions played a drumbeat