Alexis

Alexis McKie held her headset at arm's length. She glared at the screen, squeezed her headset, and gently set it down. Part of her knew it was pointless and a little stupid to get mad at camping snipers, but that fucking dick hadn't moved from the same spot in 15 fucking minutes. Alexis sniffed and instinctively reached for her swear jar before remembering she didn't punish herself for thinking swears.

"Lexi!" said her mom from the door. "I'm going shopping. Do you want to come or are you still 'steamrolling noobs?’"

Lexi shook her head. "Not now, Mom. Thanks, though."

"Suit yourself."

Lexi considered pointing out that she actually was wearing a suit—a white dress shirt unbuttoned save for one button just below her breasts, dress pants, and a jacket hung over the back of her chair. She also considered pointing out that she never said she'd be steamrolling noobs. She's said she was a noob ready to be steamrolled.

Instead, she said, "All right."

Her mom left. She quit Medal of Honor and looked at her lengthening Steam library. She considered Battlefield, but the maps were so big there would be snipers on every hilltop. Counter-Strike? At least people had to wait a few rounds before buying the one-shot kill sniper, the AWP. She discarded that idea. She was a bit too pissed at snipers to play any game containing them, so she collapsed her "Shooter" category and looked at the rest. League of Legends and Dota 2 usually caused her to contribute around ten dollars to her swear jar, so she collapsed her "Rage Games" category as well, thereby eliminating all MOBAs. She looked down her list of racing games next. It was short, but she felt like it wouldn't cost her much, so she started Burnout Paradise.

The game asked her for a webcam photo for her in-game license, so she allowed the game access to her webcam. She'd seen whores on Twitch focus the camera on their tits to get cash, so she moved it up so it only saw her face and shoulders. It was too hot to button her shirt. A high-powered computer pumping out heat certainly didn't help.

She joined an online game. It was full of teenage guys yelling swears over voice chat. She smiled. She felt right at home.

"LexiRage," said one guy, reading Lexi's username. "Lexi, are you an IRL girl?"

Lexi looked around for the voice chat key before realizing it was open-mic. "Yeah," she said. "My license photo is me."

Suddenly, a car smashed into hers. She hadn't even started moving yet. The blue light on her webcam turned on and snapped a photo, presenting her surprised face both to her and her opponent. Her blond updo was coming apart and sticking to her face in the heat. Her skin glistened in the photo.

"Damn!" said one of the guys. "Lexi is fucking hot!"

Uh oh. Lexi stepped on the gas—the A key—and drove as fast as possible from every colored arrow on the map.

"Leave me alone!" she cried into her mic, laughing as she said it. She avoided three attempts on her digital life. On the fourth, her car hit a guardrail, which apparently wrecked it.

"Oh, bullshit," she said. She deposited a quarter into the swear jar. The camera caught a picture of her doing so. The guy who'd crashed into her laughed.

"You have a swear jar! That's gold, dude. That's gold."

"My mom set it up," Lexi said. "I stopped playing League because I was running out of money. Not from buying champions."

On the next crash, Lexi leaned back in her chair, sighing, listing off all the swears she knew in her mind. When the picture flashed on her screen, she saw that she'd exposed more of herself than she'd intended: the picture showed everything from her bellybutton up, including her tits, easily visible through a sweat-soaked shirt.

"Lexi, where do you live? We should meet up some time."

"What for?"

"Hardcore violent sex."

"I knew you'd say that."

"Even the hardcore and violent part?"

"Dude, every guy I've ever met thinks their kinks are hardcore."

"I'd tie you to the ceiling and fuck you in the ass till you shit blood."

"Yawn," said Lexi. "I got tired of bondage when I was twelve."

It wasn't really a lie. She'd grown bored of watching bondage porn at twelve, but hadn't had sex until she was fifteen last year.

Another car rammed into her. A second guy saw her tits and joined the conversation.

"Fuck you from behind and strangle you till you passed out?"

Lexi grinned. "Getting somewhere."

She liked the extreme nature of asphyxia, but she enjoyed being able to breathe.

"You want dangerous sex?" said a guy who hadn't spoken before. "I'll fuck you on the tailgate of a pickup driving down the freeway."

Lexi was drooling by now. She had one hand on her pussy. "Sorry, no," she said. "I don't really wanna fuck. I'm just here to play the game."

She sent a private message to the guy who'd offered to fuck her on the freeway:

LexiRage: where do u live? i want you to fuck me on the freeway.

She got a reply thirty seconds later:

S.S. Bartender: Summermount. I know you live close; I checked your Steam profile. Meet me by the entrance to the freeway.

LexiRage: kk, meet u there. want me to wear sumthin sexy?

S.S. Bartender: Whatever you want.

Lexi smiled and shut down her computer. She stripped naked, masturbated to climax, then donned a tight, revealing tank top and volleyball shorts. She was showing more skin than she would have dared even a couple years ago. She left her house and jogged toward the freeway entrance, only a couple miles away. When she got there, someone was already waiting: an unexpectedly handsome man with black hair and a short beard, maybe in his late twenties. He wore cargo shorts and a white T-shirt. Beside him stood a black-haired girl in a baggy sweatshirt and nothing else who Lexi recognized from school. This was Kayla Connelly, one of the "freaks" who drew disgusting, yet amazing pictures during class. Was she his daughter? No, he’d have to have had her when he was younger than her, unless he was older than he looked.

"Yo, Lexi," said Kayla. "Never thought I'd see the day you fucked a random stranger from the Internet."

"Never thought I'd meet you on a similar date," said Lexi. "Why are you here, anyway?" She stopped herself short of throwing out an insult too. She remembered that Kayla's best friend had been murdered not too long ago and decided not to antagonize her further. She looked at the man. "If you want us to fuck each other, I'm straight. I'm only here so you can stick your dick in me."

"I'm the driver," said Kayla. "Be nice to me or I might just hit a bump. I've always wondered what you'd look like splattered along the road."

"Dude, you always creeped me out."

"You're not alone."

Lexi had noticed it before, but especially now, Kayla's yellowish eyes shined in the sunlight. It was a natural color, she knew, but uncommon. Kayla looked almost feral. It was creepy, yet pretty.

"Get in the car," said the man. He pulled a black ski mask over his face. "Want one of these?"

"Nope," said Lexi, hopping in the truck. "I want people to see my face."

"Suit yourself."

Kayla and the man joined her in the car. Kayla drove, probably illegally, and the man sat by the door on the other side. Lexi sat between them. To her surprise, she didn't get groped immediately. Instead, the man spoke.

"Did either of you read the news today?”

“No, what happened?” Lexi said.

“Irri Snowski's corpse disappeared from the morgue yesterday."

Kayla looked over at him and nearly veered off the road. "What?"

"More to it," said the man. "Someone saw Kitty Grant walking around a few days ago. The morgue workers say her corpse disappeared around two weeks ago, but didn't want to cause a fuss. The funeral was closed-casket anyway."

"Didn't she get mauled by some animal?" Lexi said. Her companions both nodded. "Then we got a zombie or something?"

The man spoke strangely, Lexi noticed. The way he said what he said sounded natural, but his words sounded so forced.

"Don't know," said the man. "It's unconfirmed. If we see Irri walking around in a week, we'll know something's up."

Lexi's arm brushed Kayla's as they hit a bump. She was sweating, gripping the steering wheel tight. Was she one of the two people in the entire world actually afraid of zombies? It wouldn't make sense. If she could draw women spit-roasted and beheaded, she could take a zombie. Then again, the human mind was a strange place.

"Fuckin' weird," said Lexi. She instinctively reached for her swear jar and accidentally groped Kayla's breast. "Sorry," she said. "I have a swear jar and . . . well . . . forget it."

"It's just a boob," said Kayla, and kept driving. They drove a couple more miles out onto the freeway, then the man reached around and opened the back window.

"Out," he said. Lexi crawled out and immediately became wet. The wind tore her hair out of its already-loose updo. The man grabbed her breasts from behind.

"On the tailgate," he said. Lexi swallowed and stepped out onto the tailgate. Trees shot past them at eighty miles per hour. They passed several cars. The drivers almost all did a double-take at Lexi and the man in the back of the truck.

"On your knees."

Lexi knelt, glad to get off her feet. She felt her shorts pulled down, and then the man grabbed her wrists. She screamed. Her life was entirely in his hands now. He plunged his dick into her cunt, pulled her arms back, and fucked her. He let go of one arm and grabbed her hair. He let go of the other and grabbed her breast. Her screams got lost in the wind, but she didn't stop them. It felt amazing to let everything out like this. She came at least twice before he did, all over her back.

As she lay there, ass up and face down after sex, he pulled her up by her hair and pressed something over her mouth. She took a breath, eyes darting around. Suddenly, there were no cars around. Kayla must have turned somewhere, but they were still on the freeway. What was going on, then? Why were her eyelids closing on their own?

When her world went dark, part of her knew she'd never wake up again.

***

Bart started working on the chains the moment Lexi's body went limp. One for each wrist, one for each ankle. He clipped them onto the truck and slung Lexi's naked body over the edge. The chains caught and held, holding Lexi to the side of the truck, safely off the road and away from the wheels. At this point, people would start calling the police if they saw, but there was no one around. They entered a light tunnel and Bart peeked through the window.

"You're not gonna be able to draw this one," he said. "I have pictures, but I know you like to use the real thing."

"It's all right. She sat in front of me in programming class, I drew her so fucking much."

"Good. Keep your speed and shred that bitch against the wall."

Bart saw her smile in the mirror. "I've always wanted to do this," she said. Bart closed the window and looked over the side of the truck. Kayla brought it closer and closer to the wall until it was only inches from Lexi's body. He fumbled for his phone, set it to record video, and focused it on Lexi just as she hit the wall.

Lexi came apart. First, her face hit the wall. There was a puff of red, pink, and white smoke, a sound like slurping yogurt, and just like that, Bart could see the front of Lexi's skull and the very core of her brain. Her breasts hit next and squished a little before shredding against the cement. Then, Kayla finished it. She pulled over another foot. Lexi's body squished between the wall and the truck. One of the three had to give way, and it just so happened Lexi was the softest. Her body turned into red and pink slush and smoke as bits of her flew off. The rest of her head went, then her heart exploded, and what Bart thought was a lung went flying off to the side. He saw several bits of bone sail off behind the truck, a glop of intestines following closely. Sparks and blood sprayed from between the wall and the truck for just a few seconds. Bart shielded his phone, catching everything on video. When Kayla slowed and pulled away from the wall, all that remained of Lexi McKie was a splotch of blood on the side of the truck. Behind them for a mile or so, the rest of her spread along the road.

They stopped. Kayla hopped out of the truck. She took one look at the side and ran back down the tunnel, presumably looking for parts to stick up her cunt. Bart followed her.

***

The first relatively intact piece Kayla managed to find was half of her uterus. She pulled up her sweatshirt a bit and rubbed her clit. She spotted something else down the road. Taking the uterus with her, she approached it. It was big and red, but Lexi didn't quite know what it was. She kept walking, admiring the streak of blood running down the wall. Bits of Lexi were littered here and there: her stomach on the other side of the road, her intestines in a bloody glop near the wall. Kayla knelt beside what she assumed was a piece of Lexi's thigh. It still had skin attached, so she rubbed the skin against her slit till she came.

Bart approached her. "Should we leave her like this?"

Kayla tossed the bit of thigh over her shoulder. "Yeah. Give the news something to write about."

***

 
The Summermount News E-edition
July 23

Slaughterer's most grisly murder yet?

Somebody's remains were found in a tunnel on the interstate. It took the police several minutes to identify the remains as female, and an entire day to identify the victim as Lexi McKie, a 16-year-old junior in Summermount High.

"It's those goddamn video games," said McKie's neighbor, Mark Tanga. "Every day since she moved in, it was 'fuck you campers, fuck you thumpers, fuck you AWPers, fuck this, fuck that, fuck, fuck, fuck. So she finally went out and tried to live her video games in real life, and now she doesn't have one."

"All we know is that McKie was playing video games, and then she died," said mayor candidate Jane Rutherford. "While many claim video games can't be a factor in this murder, it's worth noting that McKie was playing Burn Out: Paradise [sic] shortly before her death, a violent racing game that awards points to players for killing each other."

On the other side of the fence, I talked to the mother of the victim, Angie McKie. "Lexi played video games her entire life and she's never killed anyone. Video games don't make anyone murder or get murdered. Anyone saying they do is just looking for a strawman so they can blame my daughter's death on something they don't like."

Ignoring that accusing someone of looking for strawmen doesn't exempt you from doing the same, I believe it best to leave this to the police. We know the murder matches the level of brutality of the Slaughterer's other kills, and we know Alexis McKie fit in with the killer's target demographic. I advise readers to assume nothing and focus on the real issue: that Alexis McKie was killed by the Summermount Slaughterer.

Just because I want to know how my readership feels, though, I'll include a poll. Don’t make me regret it, comments section.

Were video games a factor in Alexis McKie's death?

Yes (23 votes)

No (144 votes)

Fay Ryan, intern editor

Comments

Matt Pearson (12:30 p.m.)
Really? Are you fucking kidding me? 20 votes for yes and 11 for no? This girl just got slaughtered and people think it's because she played a goddamn racing game?

Fay Ryan (12:31 p.m.)
I played the game in question yesterday. While it does award points for crashing into other players, it doesn't feature any visible human characters.

Jaina B (12:45 p.m.)
Lol, After You Say That The Poll Reverses.

Drake M (12:52 p.m.)
Linked on r/gaming, no wonder.

Minnie Suda (12:55 p.m.)
It's Really Hard To Type Like This Why The Fuck Do People Do This God Damn It It's So Stupid.

Jaina B (12:56 p.m)
Fuck You

Minnie Suda (12:59 p.m.)
COMMENT REMOVED BY ADMIN

Fay Ryan (1:04 p.m.)
Stay on topic. Read Raymond Grant's articles if you want to comment on anything English-related. He'll be back this week.

Gary Newell (1:06 p.m.)
Wasn't he Kitty Grant's dad?

Fay Ryan (1:08 p.m.)
Yes. He left on vacation to mourn after she died.

Adrian Winters (1:10 p.m.)
didn't Someone see her walking around not too long ago?

Gary Newell (1:13 p.m.)
Yeah, I heard about that. That's so weird, but I'd be really happy if she was alive.

Adrian Winters (1:13 p.m.)
yeah, me too.