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<P align=justify>The Devil Came East</P>
<P align=justify>by Geri Fitzsimmons & Andy Stephenson</P>
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<P align=justify>Prologue</B> </P></B>
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<P align=justify>It had been a month since his last kill. The urge came creeping into his mind, causing sweat to break out above his upper lip. His tongue snaked forth to capture the moisture. He planned to leave within the week. There was no desire in him to be caught, so it was time to move on to another city-another challenge.</P>
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<P align=justify>Those thoughts were for the future, he decided; today was the here and now. He swallowed the remaining drops left in his takeout cup of coffee. The car's upholstery still smelled of factory newness, as he rubbed his gray sprinkled black hair against the plush headrest. Tapping long and manicured fingers on a leather steering wheel cover, he remembered the salesman's expression when he paid cash for the car. "Hey, man, I want a job like yours. What do you do for a living?"</P>
<P align=justify>"Hunt."</P>
<P align=justify>He commenced the hunt at about two that afternoon. The predator preferred college age women for prey, so he usually confined his hunting to campuses. He grinned now. <I>My vocation.</P></I>
<P align=justify>The windows of the sliver-gray Audi were halfway down. The car was parked in the campus parking lot. A comfortable 73 degrees on a pleasant Spring day, a slight breeze, coming from the west, played in his short spiked, salt and pepper hair.</P>
<P align=justify>He waited patiently for his next mission. There was a time, he recalled, when he'd been so nervous and anxious that the palms of his hands sweated as he waited. It was not that way anymore. Oh sure, each hunt was exciting, but nothing like it had been in the beginning. Now it mimicked, <I>Just another day at the office</I>. He smiled and winked the long lashes of his right eye. For an instant a sunbeam flashed in the windshield, and reflected itself in ice blue irises so pale they nearly faded into the whites: 'Killer eyes'. His mother smiled when she said it to him as a boy, but in later life, he began to wonder if she knew.</P>
<P align=justify>Occasionally, a person came to the parking lot, got in their car, and drove away. He saw them, often they were women, but none interested him. He waited patiently for a certain young, attractive woman. He'd know her the moment he saw her. She'd be beautiful and petite, preferably brunette, slim and nicely developed.</P>
<P align=justify>The radio dial was set to a classic rock station. He popped the tab on a Coke, took a deep drink, and then lit a Camel. The Moody Blues were playing Nights In White Satin as he took a drag from his cigarette. It was a pleasant way to spend the time.</P>
<P align=justify>It was near three o'clock, when he saw her. She left building C and her dark-brown hair bobbed as she pranced across the asphalt. "Yes, yes, yes," he whispered. She was perfection. He wasn't going to strike out today. Tight faded cutoff jeans hugged her slender hips and a snug blue knit shirt emphasized her shapely breasts. As the shirt pulled up and down with her motion, he caught glimpses of lightly tanned flesh.</P>
