---Dennis Nilsen, Convicted Serial Killer

The battered old pickup creaked into its parking space at Jake’s Video Rental, Arcade and General Store. In the blue-green glow of the parking lot lights thousands of crickets chirped and danced over their smashed and soon to be smashed compadres. As he left the truck and walked across the asphalt they crunched satisfyingly under his boots. Cold weather was closing in. By morning a thin layer of frost would blanket the countryside. He reached for the door.

Inside the store, rows of brightly colored boxes promised laughter, suspense, romance, and a thrill a minute. A burst of giggles from the back of the store, and he was breathing harder. Drawn by the girls’ laughter, he made his way toward the back. Wearing no disguise, he felt vulnerable. Exposed. It was risky; he might be remembered. Just the same, he wanted to see. Had to see. As he walked along the row of shelves, he kept his face at a hard-to-remember angle, eyes down, as if looking at the boxes on the lower shelves.

Tight blue jeans, trim thighs, flat bellies; two wore navel rings. Four sweaters loosely draped over firm, high breasts told him they were young. But he already knew that. They were looking at videos stamped XXX. Such innocent-looking young girls, he thought. But he’d learned that here in Texas, just like back home, nothing was what it seemed.

Jake’s was a favorite of college students and dirty old men alike. Jake had bought the land out here between Denton and Dallas several years ago, because it was in a no-zoning area. This allowed him to sell liquor and rent adult movies without being overly regulated by "do-gooder" bureaucrats.

No doubt about it, Jake was a smart businessman. By owning the biggest video store around, and by offering a wide range of products that gave respectable people an excuse to come in, he could get by with stocking pornographic videos and other paraphernalia for those whose interests were a little different. Although, from Jake’s viewpoint, respectable people sometimes had surprising interests. His adult selections were his biggest moneymakers. He had studied the patterns of rentals and purchases and noted that it was only the time of day that differentiated among his customers.

Most afternoons his store was filled with housewives renting Walt Disney for the kids and taking home Debbie Does Dallas for mom and dad to watch after the kids went to sleep. Sometimes, groups of housewives would come in and buy a variety of sex toys, giggling with each other as they sorted through dildos and edible panties. By dinnertime, the store held a mixture of blue-collar workers feeding quarters into the adult and action video machines, while white-collar businessmen quietly perused the adult video section. By 8:30, the college kids and single men were making their way into the store. The kids came in to buy cheap booze and beer, and maybe rent a video for a frat party; the single guys came in to scout out the romance section, hoping to stumble over a lonely coed or divorcee’. Someone who might go for a drink then invite them over to see the movie afterward. If they weren’t lucky, they’d just take home a couple of dirty movies and a six-pack of beer. By around one in the morning, only a few lonely souls were in the store: men on their way home from titty bars in Dallas; waitresses getting off work, looking for something to help them sleep.

It was a few minutes before 9:00, and to Jake’s seasoned eye, tonight’s assortment of customers appeared typical. A group of college-aged girls was in the adult section, giggling and acting silly. A mixture of couples and families was checking out the new-release section. One man nervously worked his way back toward the girls. The local law enforcement poked his head in to make everyone just a little nervous. A middle-aged couple was looking through the adult toys. Marge Henderson was paying for her nightly pint of Blue Bell Pralines and Cream ice cream over in the liquor store, while a man waiting behind her held two cases of Miller Light. By the time the questions would be asked, this night would run together with a thousand other nights and no one would recall anything unusual.

Standing in the aisle behind the girls, the man could see that they were looking at dirty movies. A knot tightened in his belly and he tried to dry his sweaty palms on his pants. That’s when he noticed that he had an erection. Feeling disgusted, but unable to tear himself away, he continued to eavesdrop on the girls.

"Ooh, look at this one!" They all turned to see what the blond girl was holding.

The tall, auburn-haired girl was being cheered on by her friends to "do it" with her boyfriend. Staring at her back, the man tried to hear more. As the girl turned around to look at the tapes on the shelf behind her, she caught him staring.

"What are you looking at, you pervert?" She turned away, but not before rolling her eyes in disgust.

She couldn’t even look him in the eye. This was no nice girl. This was one of them, pretending to be all sweet and innocent when all the time she was just out to trap a man and control him with her body. He could always tell.

After seeing him, the girls hurriedly made their selections and got out of the store. He overheard the word pervert again followed by more giggles. Bitches! he thought. They were the ones looking at the dirty movies. He picked up a video and went to the cash register at the front of the store. From where he stood, he watched them get into a white Mustang and turn east out of the parking lot. He made a note of their license number. There were no turnoffs within a mile of the video store, so he had time to let them get out of the parking lot before he ventured out and began following them.

They turned on to I-35 and drove north toward Denton. He followed them. The Rolling Stones played on the oldies radio station. Honky-Tonk Woman. Marcus could almost see Mick Jagger prancing around on stage. He turned the radio up loud and kept an eye on the little white Mustang. Traffic on the highway was surprisingly busy, allowing him to blend in and reduce his risk of being noticed. After they exited, he stayed far enough back to keep from scaring them. Soon, they turned into a driveway in front of a large old house that had been converted into a sorority house. He parked about a block away and waited.

When the girls were safely inside the house, he sneaked into the back yard. Lights coming on tracked their movement through the house. He could see that there was a central gathering room on the main floor. Three of the girls were in one of the bedrooms, changing into their nightclothes. A fourth girl was putting a bag of popcorn into the microwave and getting some Cokes out of the refrigerator.

The dirty movies were lying on a coffee table in the middle of the room. He took out a small tape recorder.

As the girls settled in to watch the movie, their laughter drifted out to him. It was these so-called nice girls he really hated. He recalled the girls back home and how they had laughed at him. They pretend to be kind and sweet and all innocent and then when you start to trust them, they laugh at you and call you names. They enjoyed humiliating him. Killing another one of them would give him a rest. Marcus pushed the record button.

"I’m watching you," he whispered into the tape recorder. "You feel all safe and secure with your friends around, but I’ll be keepin’ an eye on you."

Marcus smiled in the darkness. He was already in control, and she didn’t even know it.

"Go ahead and laugh—for now. Soon you’ll know how it feels to be with someone who really doesn’t care how much you hurt." Marcus unzipped his pants and moved deeper into the bushes.

Winner of the Hollywood Film Festival - 2000 Opus Magnum Discovery Awards