Chapter 163: Karen's First Attempt
At the scrapyard, Karen gripped a baseball bat and swung it hard at a mannequin.
Bang!
A deep dent caved into its torso.
"Fuck!!!"
She screamed, her voice raw with frustration.
Eddie's death—
It should have made her feel satisfied.
But ever since what she did at the grave, Karen hadn't felt any relief at all.
Instead, it was like a fire burning inside her, with no way to let it out.
She raised the bat again, this time aiming at a nearby broken table.
But unlike the mannequin, the table was solid.
The rebound from the impact sent a jolt through her arms, making her wince slightly.
Unlike Fiona, Karen didn't cry.
Didn't lash out.
It was as if all her tears had already been shed the day Eddie called her a "whore."
Since then—
Nothing.
No matter how she tried to vent, it felt like her emotions were trapped in quicksand—heavy, suffocating, impossible to release.
"Karen… want to try this?"
William stepped forward, pulling out a USP Match pistol.
Karen paused, then walked over and took it from him.
She racked the slide.
Aimed at the table—
And started firing.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Bullets tore into the wood like they were free.
William didn't know if, in her eyes, that table was still just a table—
Or Eddie himself.
But to him, the ammo meant nothing.
If it helped calm her down, it was worth it.
Click. Click. Click.
The magazine ran empty.
But Karen kept pulling the trigger.
By now, the recoil had already left her hands trembling.
She was just forcing herself to keep going.
William was about to step forward and hand her another magazine—
When suddenly—
"AHHHHH!!!"
Karen screamed.
She sucked in a breath—
Then screamed again.
"AHHHHH!!!"
She looked like a lab rat trapped in a maze, desperately searching for an exit—
But no matter which way she turned, there was no way out.
Only then did William realize—
Something was wrong.
"Karen… are you okay?"
She didn't push him away.
Instead, she shook her head, her expression stubborn, conflicted.
"I… I don't know."
The truth was—
She wasn't okay at all.
She just didn't know how to say it.
William sighed softly and gently patted her head.
"I might have a way to help you vent all that… but it might hurt a little. Want to try?"
He looked at her sincerely.
Of course, he definitely wasn't suggesting this because he'd developed a taste for it.
Absolutely not.
Karen didn't know about things like the "oil-soaked whip."
She wasn't Fiona. She wasn't Theresa.
"What is it?"
She was curious—
Or rather, desperate enough to try anything.
"It's… hard to explain," William said vaguely. "There's… kind of a mysterious force stopping me from saying it out loud."
"If you trust me, just come with me."
He could've explained.
But saying it directly would probably get him "punished" by something unseen.
So he chose not to.
Karen nodded after a moment.
"…Alright. I get it."
She agreed.
"Here—take this. Let's head back to the car."
With that, William led Karen away—
Back toward 2118.
During the day, Fiona took Lip to work at the South Side restaurant, while Debbie and Carl stayed home to look after Liam and the daycare kids.
Ian, meanwhile, was off at Kash's convenience store, enjoying his little world with Mickey.
To avoid Debbie—the nosy little brat—figuring out that he had something going on with Karen, William parked his car outside the neighborhood.
Then he and Karen took a detour on foot, entering through the back door of 2118.
They completely avoided Debbie, who was squatting near the entrance of 2119.
"You head to the bedroom first. I need to prepare a few things."
Over the past few days, William had spent some money furnishing the place. The house was now fully livable.
"Okay."
Karen looked around as she walked inside.
Her own home wasn't exactly poor either, so she wasn't particularly impressed by the interior.
Instead, what she felt was a quiet sense of anticipation—
For what was about to happen.
After all, no one dislikes a little surprise.
---
It didn't take long before William returned, holding an oil-treated whip and some rope.
"…What's that?"
Karen froze for a second, then her mind immediately drifted to certain "films" she had watched before—
Her mother's private collection, no less.
"Mm."
William didn't explain, just gave a vague acknowledgment.
Karen's anticipation instantly spiked—she was even a little impatient now.
"Alright, what do we do first?" she asked, already starting to take off her clothes.
"Relax."
William walked to the bed with the rope and extended his hand.
"Turn around. Give me your right hand."
Karen obediently turned over, still wearing her signature sweet smile.
William took her hand and tied a loose knot around her wrist, then secured the other end to the bedpost.
One by one, he bound her limbs in place.
Strangely, Karen didn't feel uncomfortable.
Instead, the anger inside her seemed to ease slightly.
"Karen, let's agree on a word," William said calmly.
"When you say it, I'll stop immediately. Understand?"
Karen nodded.
She didn't quite get why he didn't just say it plainly, but she assumed he had his reasons.
"Then… let's use something that excites me the most," she said after a moment of thought.
"The thing that excites you the most?" William raised an eyebrow. "What is it—science?"
He couldn't help recalling her first appearance in the original story.
"Huh? How did you know?" Karen turned her head, eyes lighting up.
"Science totally gets me going!"
"…Alright. Science it is. Got it."
William nodded. "Then let's begin."
He lifted the whip and gave it a light pull.
A sharp crack cut through the air.
The sound alone made Karen tense up instantly.
"Wait—give me a second. I need to mentally prepare."
Now that the moment had actually arrived, even she felt a trace of fear.
But that didn't stop her.
After a few seconds, she took a deep breath.
"…Can I get a towel to bite on?"