Blind Fate - Part 1 by Longshot (f/m, qs, grim) Melinda was excited, it was her first date in almost ten years, since the accident. Melinda was, a lovely young girl then, sixteen, she had long raven hair, sparkling green eyes, and a smile that seemed to encourage everyone else around her to be happy. She'd made the dumbest mistake of her life that night too. She had left a party with her boyfriend, who was more than a little drunk. He insisted on driving, and while she refused at first, perhaps the alcohol in her own system, but she finally conceded to letting him drive. The last thing she remembered seeing was the oncoming headlights of the tractor trailer that her boyfriend decided to share a lane with. The doctors had said she was lucky to be alive, and even luckier that the shrapnel from the windshield only permanently damaged her eyes. Somehow, she failed to see how that was lucky. For years she's refused to go out with anyone, despite coaxing from her younger sister, Cindy. However Cindy was dating a guy with a very kind seeming older brother, Kevin, and Melinda and Kevin had hit it off quickly, talking, laughing, and just enjoying themselves. After more coaxing from Cindy, she finally got Melinda to go out. Together they picked out a cute, but simple outfit for her. White silk blouse, black mini skirt, white pantyhose, and black pumps. She got dressed and got her cane and sunglasses. Both usually immediately identified her as blind, but by now she'd gotten used to it, and Kevin hasn't minded at all, matter of fact she could have sworn she felt him blush a bit as she felt his face to get an idea of what he looked like. The date had gone well, a romantic dinner at an expensive restaurant, where they'd laughed and shared stories about almost everything with one another. After they'd left he told her he wanted to take her to somewhere special to him, but she'd have to trust him to lead her. Something told her this was a stupid idea, but she went along with it anyway. He drove a while and though she'd drop little bits into the conversation along the way he refused to tell her where they were going. Finally she felt the car stop, and they got out. He opened her door for her and helped her out of the car. She giggled softly as he'd been treating her so gentlemanly all evening, she felt she could trust him with her life. It was a wonderful feeling, to feel that trust, to be able to put her life in someone's hands safely. She lay her head on his shoulder as they walked, she noticed the air was colder here, like they were near a lake. "Where are we?" she asked again. Kevin just chuckled. "We're almost there," he replied. After a short walk though the silence, she felt him suddenly let go of her. She quickly reached to where he was but there was nothing there to grab. "Kevin!" she called out a bit worriedly. "Please don't do this." She immediately regretted leaving her cane in the car. "Where are you?" she called. A voice answered it sounded like Kevin, but she wasn't completely sure. "Just ahead of you. .. walk to me, you said you'd trust me right?" She nodded "I ... Kevin ..." she sighed and took a few shaky steps forward. She knew something was seriously wrong as she felt the stems of her heels sink into the ground. She immediately realized she was standing in mud. "Damn it Kevin, these shoes were new!" she yelled at where she thought Kevin was, though there wasn't an answer. She slipped her feet out of her shoes and began to walk forward, the mud was cold and wet beneath her stocking feet... She took another step forward and felt her foot sink into the muddy ground before her. With a few curses at Kevin she pulled her foot out and turned another direction. She felt the mud suck at her foot as she tugged it out, and set it back down next to her other foot. It was then she noticed she was a bit off balance and stepped a little to the left to compensate. Then it dawned on her that her right ankle was wet, and cold. So was her left now. She began to try and pull her feet loose, but she found the mud encasing them didn't want to give them up ... It was sticky, and soft. She muttered to herself and began something that looked like an odd dance as she began to alternatively tug each foot loose from the griping mud. With each tug she found that the mud only seemed to accept more of her, it's thick slimy grip creeping up her calves and the ground below her just seeming to get softer. The mud was cold, and he pantyhose were no protection as it just seemed to soak right through them. Panic began to set in and she began to pump her legs in a desperate struggle. Meanwhile, Cindy was at home reading a magazine, when the phone rang. She looked at the caller id and smiled as she saw it was Thomas, her boyfriend. She picked up the phone and barely got "Hello?" out before Thomas began yelling at her hysterical. "Cindy! We have to find Melinda, /now!/ You have to know where they went, it's important, Cindy!" Cindy blinked and sighed. "Thomas that isn't funny. Melinda's perfectly capable of taking care of herself, just because she's blind doesn't mean ..." Thomas cut her off. "No, Cindy! Listen to me! The cops were just here. They're looking for my brother, it seems he's a mass murderer. He lures women to quiet places and kills them!" Cindy gasped as this slowly began to sink in. "Oh God ... Thomas, we have to find her!" Thomas nodded, though Cindy couldn't see him. "I know ... I asked the cops and they're gonna look, too, but I looked at a map of the city before I called. I think I know where he went." Cindy blinked. "You ... waited to call me about my sister? She could be dead already!" Thomas gave her a moment to rant then interjected. "No ... I called you as soon as I had an idea where he might take her. There's a swamp to the north of the city, rumored to be a lot of quicksand pits there. It'd be a perfect place to dispose of the body!" Cindy screamed, "Thomas!" Thomas made a face realizing what he just said. "It's still kinda early ... she's gotta be alive ... I'll pick you up in five minutes." Cindy nodded. "O-okay ... Oh God ... I hope she's okay!" Thomas spoke soothingly, "She'll be fine, but we gotta hurry!" Cindy whimpered, "Okay," then hung up the phone. Melinda found herself knee deep in the mud, and still sinking. Somewhere in her struggles she'd realized the mud underneath her almost numb feet was more liquid than when she'd first stepped into it. Something in her brain had clicked and made her realize her struggling was counterproductive. She wrapped her arms around herself, she was so cold, and this mud wasn't helping, she could barely feel her feet, and now it was sucking at her lower thighs. She thought to herself, 'This is just great I get to freeze to death if I stay still, and if I move I sink into this... mud... quicksand...' somehow the word quicksand running through her mind inspired fear again and she began trying to pull her legs out of the thick, sticky quicksand. She could hear the bog slurping at her legs as she tried to pull them free, she could feel herself sinking. "Kevin!" she screamed desperately. "Please ... help me!" Her only answer was a mocking laughter that seemed to come from everywhere. She felt the quicksand's deadly grip begin to slide up her skirt, and she screamed. Cindy almost jumped into Thomas's still moving car, as he rolled to a halt in front of her house. She had a length of rope coiled around one shoulder. "Drive Thomas!" she screamed at him as soon as she closed the door. Thomas didn't waste time or breath, knowing she was scared of losing her sister. "It'd gonna take us fifteen minutes, assuming we don't hit every light on the way." Cindy nodded. "Please ... just get to her as fast as you can," she whimpered, scared she might never see her sister again, and knowing it was her fault for encouraging her to go out with this creep. Why had she done that, she felt so stupid now. Thomas noticed the look on her face and sighed. "It's my fault more than it is yours ... But he just showed up, said he needed a place to stay for a little while, I swear I had no idea." Cindy just nodded in response, if she even heard him at all. Her mind and heart were both on her sister. Melinda was crying, the mire had taken her waist and it was starting on the rest of her. Everything from her knees down was numb, but she could still feel the soft, sticky embrace of the mud around her legs. It seemed to move with her, locking her legs into place, forming a thick immovable cast of cold mud around them. She cursed her lack of sight. If there was something to grab she'd have no idea where it was, and it seemed to make all of her other senses overcompensate, and in this case,it was terrible. She could feel the texture of the mud, each grimy particle holding her stockinged legs into place, making them wet, and cold. She could hear the mud as it popped and slurped at her. She felt like a piece of spaghetti with two giant lips wrapped around her waist, and slowly torturously sucking her into it. She swore to herself if by some miracle she got out of this, she would never eat pasta again. The mire crept up her belly, soaking her blouse, it was so cold. It was hard to fight off the natural urge to shiver, but the fear that she might shake herself into an early grave somehow did the trick. Cindy and Thomas pulled up and saw a car nearby. "That's his car!" Thomas almost yelled. "They can't be far ... stay here!" Cindy shook her head. "I'm not letting my big sister die. I'm going!" It didn't take them long to spot Melinda's shoes still half buried in the mud. Though her footprints were nowhere to be seen. "She can't be far," Cindy said softly, "probably right past those trees." As she started to walk forward Thomas grabbed her arm. "No!" he softly hissed. Cindy looked at him surprised. "Whatya mean, no?" she said louder than she intended. "/My/ sister's out there!" Thomas pulled her back and grabbed a branch, he jammed it with little effort into the ground. "That's quicksand you almost stepped into and I'm betting that's where she is." They heard the click of a gun behind them. "She is. Would you two like to join her?" Melinda heard voices, her ... sister? and Thomas? It couldn't be. Her breasts were just above the surface of the quicksand and her hair was already beginning to spread on it's surface. "Cindy?" she called out hopefully. "Cindy, please help me! I'm sinking ... and it's so cold, I can't feel my legs. Cindy ... please ... where are you?" Cindy almost burst out crying as she heard her sister calling to her. With a gun to the back of her head, there was nothing she could do. She was force marched to a nearby tree and then tied to it. Thomas lay unconscious on the ground, where Kevin had found them. Kevin laughed. "Cindy is here Melinda ... she can see you ... but she won't help you, Melinda, she's going to watch you die. Then she's going to die. I'll be back in an hour, after I disposed of my worthless brother's body." Kevin walked off and a gunshot was heard. Melinda looked around ... struggling a little, her hands still wrapped around herself. "Cindy?" she begged. "Please save me ... please!" Her breasts were beginning to sink into the mire. "I'm so cold, Cindy ... I can't feel my legs. Please!" Cindy looked at her sister, up to her armpits in the mire, looking around frantically, hoping to hear her sister's voice telling her she's safe now. She couldn't even bring herself to laughing at the irony of being tied up with the rope that was supposed to save her sister. She started crying as she said, "I can't Melinda ... I wish I could, but I can't ..." Melinda turned her head in the direction of the voice. "Cindy? Where are you?" The cold, deep quicksand had claimed her breasts, and now it wanted her shoulders, it greedily slurped at them. "I'm sinking! Cindy please ... you have to help me!" she cried. Cindy could barely see her sister though the tears. "I can't Melinda, Kevin tied me to a tree, and I can't get loose." She struggled testing her bonds, which were far too tight for her to escape from, then, a glimmer of hope, as she spied the branch just over Melinda's head. "Melinda ... let me be your eyes! There's a way ... we might get out!" Melinda nodded. "O-okay Cindy. .. please just help me!" Cindy bit her lip. "Okay sis. Get you hands outta that stuff ... you're gonna have to reach above you. There's a branch!" Melinda twisted managing to get her arms out of the quicksand, but at the cost of her shoulders. She reached up ... and felt nothing. "To your left Melinda, just a few inches!" Cindy called. Melinda's hands responded, she felt the mire claiming her neck, but that wasn't important now, she could feel the branch, it was thick, sturdy, it should be able to hold her. She began to pull move forward ever so slowly. Cindy coached, "That's a girl, sis, you can do it!" After what seemed like an eternity, she found herself, cold, wet, but on solid ground, free of the sticky mud, and exhausted. Cindy gasped, "Sis ... go hide ... to your left ... some bushes." She saw Kevin coming back. Melinda groped about then found the bush in question and drug herself to what she thought was behind it. She could hear Cindy crying now. Kevin smiled as he approached, seeing Cindy straining at her bonds, crying. "That anxious to join her are you?" Cindy snapped, "You bastard! You killed Thomas and my sister!" Kevin smiled. "I'm afraid not, the killer is that pool of mud she so ... blindly stumbled into," he snickered at his joke. He never saw her creep up behind him and when she gave him the shove forward into the mire it was so quick and surprising he dropped his gun. "See how you like it you bastard!" she yelled at him. "And for the record you talk to much. It was easy to pinpoint your location while you were yakking." Kevin struggled against the mud that quickly began to accept him. It was still quick from Melinda's desperate struggle. It speedily engulfed him and then there was silence. "I never thought I would be happy to hear the mud sucking at anything," she mumbled. Cindy sighed. "I know sis ... for once ... be glad you were blind. You didn't have to see that." "Guide me to you. I'll get you loose." Cindy nodded and gave directions. Melinda felt around the tree until she finally felt the knot and loosened it. Cindy squirmed out of her ropes and ran to her sister hugging her tight. "I'm so sorry! Oh God! I am /so/ sorry!" Melinda shook her head. "I'm never dating again." Cindy helped Melinda back to the car to find the police there waiting for them. After telling their stories, Melinda was taken to the hospital to be treated for hypothermia, and Cindy told of how her blind sister had saved both of their lives, and pushed Kevin into the quicksand. The cop nodded. "I'm really sorry this happened to you and your sister ma'am. You should feel lucky though, you lived through one of the deadliest, and smartest serial killers we've ever dealt with. We never found a trace of prints or a body. Of course now we know how he did it," he sighed. "Though we did some background checks on his brother, seems he was in on it too." Cindy gasped. "Then ... he's still out there ..." She looked to the swamp worriedly, wondering if it was really over.