An unexpected guest.

Content warning: violence

On 25th July 1965, it was raining heavily. A Ford Mustang GT 350 was moving at high speed with high beam light on. The car enters a thick forest area. The signboard says, “WELCOME TO THE SHELBY’S FOREST, WATCHOUT FOR WILD ANIMALS.” With a Leopard picture on it. In the car, with a high volume “Wooly Bully” song will be played. The speedometer shows a reading of 40mph. Suddenly a black panther jumps in front of the car. Immediately, the driver turns the steering wheel to the right and applies brakes to save the Panther. The car tire screeches, The car hits the tree. The driver becomes unconscious.

A bolt of lightning struck the forest, due to that loud noise driver woke up in a startle, finds that his left hand has seriously injured might be a fracture and his forehead will be bleeding with cuts and puncture. In that appalling state, he starts to look around. He tries to open the door, but it was stuck due to the impact of hitting the tree. With a lot of struggle manages to open the opposite door with his right hand and comes out. Drenching in the rain looks surrounding. At a distance in that thick forest, he saw a light glow. Thought that light might be from forest officer camp, he takes his torchlight from the car and started to run towards visible light.

As he moved closer to the light, he was astonished to see a humongous house. He opens the gate and walks to the door. Knocks on the door. There will be no response. After 5 minutes, a voice comes from the other side of the door says,

“Who is it?”.

“My name is Barron Martin. I met with an accident nearby. Saw the light and walked to it. If possible, can I get some help with first aid and shelter to stay for the night? Sorry to bother you.”  

After a long pause, a man with a clean shave, 6 foot tall, wore a green night robe, opens the door and points a shotgun at Martin. Looks at Martin’s bruises, wounds. Lowers the weapon and asks him to get in.

Martin sat on a wooden chair in front of the hearth, water drops dripping from his trousers, and will be shivering. “Sir, your name?” Asks Martin. Placing a red robe, white towel on the teapoy, “I am Sharon, Sharon Shelby. Towards 2^nd left bathroom is there, even First aid is there.” Says Shelby.

Martin got up from the chair, picked up the towel, robe, and walked to the bathroom. He got fresh applied Tincher to the wound on the forehead, with his right hand applied the crepe bandage to his broken left hand. Put on the red robe and walks to the living room.

Shelby will be pouring himself a Dalmore 62 and signs to Martin asking if he needs some. He nods his head in agreement. Shelby poured whiskey handed over the glass to Martin. Martin sat on the wooden chair near the hearth, Shelby sat on the couch.

“Thank you for the help on this atrocious night.”

“That’s fine. Where were you headed to at this night?” asks Shelby.

“Enjoyed the weekend at the farmhouse. Was returning to the town, a panther barged in front of the car. You can see the result of saving it.” Says Martin and smiles.

“So, Martin, what do you do for a living?”

“I am an automobile engineer. What about you, Shelby?”

“I am a surgeon.”

“That’s amazing!” exclaims Martin.

Shelby points towards the Whisky, asks “Want some more?”

“No, I am good. So, you live alone in this forest?”

“Yes, this house and the forest is my ancestor’s property. My family got killed in the riots of 1955, since then living alone.”

A wood squeaking sound comes from the basement.

“What was that noise?” Asks Martin.

“That must be rats,” says Shelby in an irritating tone.

Shelby finishes his drink.

“To the first right of the aisle, there is a bedroom you can use that for tonight. I’ve got some work to do.” and walks away.

Martin becomes suspicious but walks to the room and will be relaxing on the bed, falls asleep. A thunder strikes very loudly. Martin woke up hearing the loud noise. He walks to the table and pours a glass of water, and takes a sip.

He hears a woman scream just for a second, becomes suspicious, and will walk out of the room quietly. Hears moaning of woman and walk towards the stairs which lead to a dark basement. Martin quietly placed his feet on the steps and moves. Shelby wearing the surgeon coat will be skinning a woman alive. Her mouth was stuffed with a thick cloth. As Martin ran towards Shelby, He slit her throat. Martin took the surgical tray with his right hand and swung it against Shelby’s head. Shelby falls unconscious. Martin checks the adjacent room. It will be cold like a mortuary and finds numerous women dead bodies, skinned and throat slit.

Martin finds a rope and ties Shelby’s hands, legs. Walked to the kitchen, Gets a jug of water. Splashed the water on Shelby’s face, Shelby opened his eyes. “10 years ago, I read that skinning serial killer vanished from the city. I decided to catch the killer and started my research on you.” Says Martin.

“Who the hell are you!?” Asks Shelby.

“I am an investigative journalist. Due to sting operation, I had to lie about my profession.”

“How did you reduce the search area to this!?”

“Once the killings had stopped in the town, knowing that you can’t resist yourself from filling for a long time. So, collected information regarding frequently missed females from various regions. With the help of the police, I was able to catch the killers. None of the murders were matching your style. Surprisingly in the village next to this forest, we could not find the women nor their bodies. Seems like nature helped me to find you.”

Shelby Grins and laughs out loudly. “I have reached my target of skinning 100 women alive; I don’t care what happens to me now. Let me tell you a secret my family did not die in the riots. They found me while I was skinning our maid, so couldn’t spare them”.

“How can a surgeon turn out to be like this, so cruel and barbaric?” Martin punches him in Shelby’s face.  

“Do you remember Sheena, your 3^rd victim?” Asks Martin

Shelby gives an evil smile, with his nose bleeding.” Yes, I remember her. She had the most supple skin out of all. I enjoyed every second of skinning her. Those screams of her still put a smile on my face.” Saying this, he laughed loudly.

Hearing his laugh, Martin could not control his anger. He takes the pliers from the toolbox and pulls out Shelby’s three toenails. Shelby screams in agony. “She was my sister, you son of a bitch!” Saying this, he pulled out the other two toenails. Shelby starts laughing again. Martin takes the hammer and hits Shelby’s nail-less toes until the toe bones get smashed and blood splatters all around. He starts to remember his sister’s beautiful smile and the condition in which her body was recovered from the garbage skinned and throat slit. With the same anger, he hits Shelby’s jaw with the hammer, and his jaw dislocates. Shelby becomes unconscious.

Martin takes Shelby’s pager, sent the message to his cop friend. Which says, “In Shelby’s forest found the serial killer whom we were searching for, I want this tip to be anonymous.” Martin wiped his fingerprints from the weapon, throws the pager, the glass, robe, cotton, crepe, and towel which he used into the hearth, and pours some more fuel to burn them into ash. He wears his clothes, runs in that heavy rain, and goes to the accident location.

After 25 minutes, Martin sees the police car arriving. They stop next to Martin, his friend smiles at him. Another cop question’s Martin by seeing the wrecked car “What’s the matter?”. “Met with an accident because of a Panther,” Martin replies. Martin’s friend tells another cop, “Please drop this man at the hospital. The other 2 follow me.”

Martin will be struggling to hold the newspaper which says, “THE SERIAL KILLER, WHO SKINNED AND KILLED 100 WOMEN, WAS FOUND IN SHELBY’S FOREST WITH MAJOR INJURIES.”