Embracing Darkness (73 page)

The man responsible for these murders was never found. Investigators discovered little if any evidence at the crime scenes, and no eyewitnesses had seen anyone with the girls prior to their disappearances. Zachary always abducted his younger victims when no one was looking. In the cases of older girls or even women his age, he would rape and kill them only if no one had seen them together earlier.

In the year Zachary was to turn twenty-six, Louis Black had had enough of him. After Zachary was accused of trying to kill a boy who had accidentally stepped on Zachary’s foot, Louis realized that something needed to be done. He had heard that four men were needed to intervene in order to stop Zachary from pounding on the child, who was left with severe brain damage. Louis Black knew that his cousin’s son was beginning to act more and more like his father, so he asked the sheriff to talk Zachary into enlisting in the Army.

“It’s a great opportunity for you, Zachary,” said Enos Lucas. “Biloxi’s just opened up, and I hear tell it’s a great place to learn self-discipline. I’ve taught you to love yourself and to treat your body well. Now it’s time for you to learn how to treat others the same way. The Army will make a man out of you as it did for me. It will humble you.”

And so it was that in early 1942 Zachary Black entered the United States Army at Biloxi, Mississippi, the same time as Rex Gunther.

Nineteen-year-old Owen Anderson was the only ally, besides Father Poole, that Zachary Black ever had. Like the priest, Owen saw something dangerous in Zachary, but none of that mattered because his regard for Zachary overpowered common sense.

They had met on their first day in the Army as they settled into their barracks. Attracted to the handsome and seemingly aloof Private Black, Owen made it a point to choose a bunk right next to Zachary’s. Owen greeted Zachary with an extended hand. Zachary sneered in repulsion, giving Owen his back while he began unpacking his things except for the pig mask he’d made, which he kept hidden at the bottom of his satchel.

Owen couldn’t keep his eyes off Zachary Black. As he made his bed, the young private was sexually aroused as Zachary bent over to tuck the corners of his sheets under the mattress. When Black turned around, Owen noticed that Zachary began watching him with clenched fists and angry yellow eyes.

Still carefully watching the homosexual private, Zachary Black walked slowly behind the wall that separated the beds from the latrine and a large shower stall. Someone was already showering on the far left. Zachary pulled off his clothes and tossed them to the side. Turning a shower nozzle on full blast, he closed his eyes and soaked in the lukewarm water. Recalling his recent encounter with Owen Anderson, Zachary had the impression of being in a cesspool of men looking to have sex with one another. Through the running water Zachary sensed that the young man at the other end of the shower had been staring in his direction but that, upon exchanging glances, he had quickly turned in the opposite direction.

“Goddamn it,” Zachary Black said under his breath. He then approached the young recruit, who after a long journey from New Hampshire was tired and only wanted to get cleaned up and take a nap before orientation.

“You!” said Zachary Black in a hostile tone.

The young man didn’t move.

“Look at me,” Zachary said in low, angry voice. “Turn around and look at me.”

The young man did so slowly, covering his crotch with one hand and his chest with the opposite arm.

“Are you hard for me?” Zachary asked.

“No,” said the young man quickly.

“Move your hand,” ordered Zachary.

“Please,” begged the soldier.

“I said move it, or I’ll make you move it.”

Slowly Rex Gunther moved his hand away, and Zachary Black saw what the young man had been hiding. It resembled half of a penis, but it wasn’t hard. Pulling Rex’s arm away from his chest, Zachary then saw what appeared to be hairy breasts. Too repulsed to think of anything to say, he walked back to his shower while Rex ran out of the stall.

Over the next few weeks Zachary led an all-out assault on Rex Gunther. He wasted no time in revealing Rex’s secret the first chance he got. “Hey fellas,” he shouted. We got us a real half and half here! He’s a freak show, she is. He’s got tits, and she’s got a prick!”

It wasn’t difficult for Zachary Black to rally all the other barracks mates around him. As Zachary knew they would, this group of young men disparaged any abnormality and were merciless in their attacks, which escalated from whistling and name-calling to towel whippings and pouring scalding water over Rex’s bed sheets while he slept.

Matters only got worse. After finding dead animals in his locker, his blanket shredded, his mattress gutted, and his shoes stripped of their soles, Rex Gunther was resigned to leaving and made this known to the others. “You won’t need to suffer my presence anymore,” he announced. “I’m leaving tomorrow.”

Zachary Black was not done with Rex Gunther just yet, however. In the middle of the night he went over to Rex’s bunk and clamped his hand over the young man’s mouth. When Rex woke up and began to struggle, Owen held down his legs while Zachary cut off what there was of Rex’s penis, forced his mouth open, and shoved the organ as far down Rex’s throat as he could. The atrocity was so well planned and executed by Zachary and his gay accomplice that none of the other privates stirred from their sleep.

A week later, after inquiries into Rex Gunther’s death had exonerated everyone, Zachary told Owen Anderson that he wanted to speak to him alone. The two entered their barracks at around 12:30 in the afternoon, a time when Zachary knew all their barracks mates would be eating lunch.

Zachary lay down on his bed while Owen stood at the foot of it. Zachary took out his small pocketknife, reached under his bed, and pulled out a sack that contained an apple. He began to peel and eat it, still watching Owen.

“What’s up, Black?” said Private Anderson, the guilt of his complicity still weighing heavily on him.

“You’ve done well, Anderson,” said Zachary, speaking through a mouthful of apple. “You’ve done everything I told you to do.”

“I didn’t like it, especially that boiling-water business. That was downright nasty. And holding him down while you… .”

Zachary grinned fiendishly. “Then why did you do it?”

Owen lowered his head. “I-I did it for you, Black. You know that.”

“Yes, I do. And I told you that as long as you do as I say, I won’t allow the others to hurt your faggot ass.”

“I know,” said Owen, his head dropping even lower.

“I think you finally understand what kind of person I am, Anderson.”

“Person?”

Zachary Black took another bite of his apple and waited to swallow before he continued. In the meantime Owen admired Zachary lying on the bed and imagined Black making love to him.

“I hate men,” declared Zachary unemotionally.

“I know.”

“No, you think I mean that I don’t like men because I’m not attracted to them.”

“You
hate
men?” said a confused Owen. “I don’t understand.”

“I mean just that.
I
hate
all
men
.”

“Mankind, you mean?”

“No, Owen.
Men
! All
males
, no matter their age or size. I’ve hated every man I’ve ever known in my life. I hated my father. I hated the priest who tried to help me change when I didn’t want to change. I hated the nigger pig farmer who told me what to do. I hated my father’s cousin who tried to make me into a well behaved, educated human being. I hated the sheriff who talked him into making me come here. I hated that half male freak I hacked up. I hate every single asshole in this barracks. And yes, Owen, I hate
you
too.”

Owen Anderson didn’t know what to say, never having heard such a tirade of rage and hatred, yet he was perversely fascinated by Zachary Black. The man was vicious and dominating, but to a subservient homosexual it was incredibly erotic. Nothing Zachary said could ever change the way Owen Anderson felt for him.

“But
you’re
a male,” He replied. “How can you hate all males if you’re one? It doesn’t make sense.”

To this Zachary smiled as he always did when the wheels of fury churned in his mind. “You’re right. I
am
a male. And if the day ever comes when I finally rid this miserable planet of every penis-equipped asshole, I’ll gladly jump into the ocean and drown myself.”

“What about women?” asked Owen, his voice betraying the excitement he felt.

“What about them?” replied Zachary, all his attention focused on the apple he was peeling.

“Do you hate
them
too?”

“I love women.”

“You
love
them?” replied Owen, sounding disappointed.

“I love them while I have intercourse with them. I love them while I destroy them. And
they
love me back. They love my face; they love my body; and they love how I love them. And they love my destroying them when I am finished with them. But now I want
you
to show me something,” said Zachary in a playful tone.

“Show you?” Owen answered nervously.

“Yes.” Zachary’s yellow eyes widened as he chomped the apple with his mouth wide open. Owen could see the mashed fruit in Zachary’s mouth, and it turned him on.

“You love me, don’t you, Owen?” asked Zachary casually.

“Very much,” confessed Owen.

“Why?”

Owen thought it over for a moment. He figured he was over the hardest hurdle, which was the admission that he loved Zachary Black. Now he needed only to explain the why behind his love.

“When I’m around you,” Owen began, “and when you speak to me, it’s incredible. I feel as though I have you for that moment, and no one else does. Like right now. You’re with me, and I have you all to myself. Nothing else in the world matters. It could end, and I wouldn’t care.”

Zachary’s face was expressionless. He observed Private Anderson for some time before continuing. “So you love me,” he said dismissively.

“Yes,” replied Owen without the slightest hesitation.

“As I said, show me.”

No sooner had Zachary finished speaking than he threw his pocketknife toward the young private. It landed at Zachary’s feet that lay just below Owen Anderson’s crotch. Owen bent down and picked it up.

“
Come
to
me
,” Zachary Black commanded.

When Owen took a step forward, Zachary put a hand up and told him to stop. “No, no. Not like that. When I tell you to come to me, I mean bring yourself closer to me. Give me a part of
you
.”

Owen looked perplexed. “I don’t understand,” he said.

“Take out your liver and give it to me,” replied Zachary in a malevolent tone. “I want it as a gift.”

Owen’s face was blank, and his mouth hung open.

“It’s just below your ribcage under your right nipple,” Zachary added, pointing to the area on his own body.

Owen didn’t know what now possessed him. Perhaps it was Zachary’s knowing about Owen’s regard for him that made Owen feel invincible. It was an intoxicating feeling whose effects were the same as those of a bottle of whiskey. Without so much as thinking about what he was doing, Owen lifted up his shirt and shoved the blade into his torso, screaming in agony before plunging the knife deeper into himself.

Zachary Black watched with as much amusement as a child at the circus while blood spewed from Owen’s body onto Zachary’s feet. As Owen collapsed to his knees, Zachary quickly sat up on his bed so as not to miss a moment of the self-mutilation he had ordered.

Owen dropped the knife and tried to insert three fingers inside the wound in order to pull the organ out, but he flopped backwards onto his back and passed out. Zachary got up slowly and picked up his few belongings. Then he walked slowly over to the dying Private Anderson, picked up his knife, wiped the blade on a clean portion of Owen’s shirt, and put it in his satchel.

Zachary Black left Biloxi knowing that it would be only a matter of time before he was suspected in the deaths of Rex Gunther and Owen Anderson.

As the night dragged on, Zachary could hear the sounds of whispering coming from down the hall on the second floor of the rectory. He got up and went to his door. He opened it slowly so as not to let the door hinge creak as it did the night he visited Ziggy in the bathroom.

He listened to Charlie and Gabe, who were talking about which comic-book superheroes were the most powerful.

“Boy,” said Gabe. “I can’t believe you think Batman is stronger than Superman. Batman’s just a regular guy, but Superman has extra special powers and ten times the strength!”

“I don’t know,” Charlie replied. “I think Batman’s got way more talent. Just look here in my comic. He can climb that building in no time at all.”

“Yeah, and Superman can
jump
over that same building without even trying.”

Zachary stood by the boys’ doorway for several more minutes, hoping they’d say something about him that would make him so angry that he’d charge into their room and kill them both, but they didn’t.

Walking down the stairs and into the dining room, he took a banana from the glass fruit bowl in the center of the table, peeled it, and strolled outside. He surveyed the scene before him. Almost the entire town of Holly and the hill were dark, with the exception of the moon, the faint twinkle of a thousand stars in the New Hampshire sky, and the porch light at the Hartleys’ house.

Suddenly he saw movement on the Hartley porch and heard a thud, followed by the sound of a girl moaning. Zachary squatted down and watched as Sue Ellen climbed back up the stairs, leaned forward, and intentionally rolled down each of the steps.

Zachary Black wanted to get Sue Ellen alone, and this was the perfect opportunity. Zachary knew he needed to kill her. If she didn’t suspect him now, she might one day. He had a feeling that it would only be a matter of time before Sue Ellen would come to the same conclusion as Jessie: that he had been the man responsible for both rapes. Then Walt Hartley would be certain to find out and by then, nothing would stop the police from coming up the hill to arrest him.