CHICAGO POLICE DEPARTMENT – WRIT OF CONFESSION
I was meant to live a normal, boring life. I own a corner store, downtown Chicago. 121st and 92nd . I didn’t inherit it, or anything like that. I started my business up from the ground, waking up at 5 AM every single morning, and going to bed at 12 PM for the past twenty-six years. We’ve only ever closed our doors three times, a virus outbreak, a natural disaster, and a gas main problem. I don’t have a wife, or a girlfriend, or a kid, or anything. But I’m a staple in my community, and that’s enough for me. Everyone knows me, whether they stop by before work for a cup of coffee, candy after school, groceries for dinner that night, it doesn’t matter. Everyone in the community knows me as Mr. Cruz. Truly, my real name is James Del Bosque, but which sounds better, Cruz’s Corner Store, or Del Bosque Corner Store. I’ll let you decide.
I’ve had plenty of insane occurrences inside the store. I’ve been held at gunpoint twice, robbed three times, and shoplifted from God knows how many times. I once had a druggie come in, and bash Mrs. Farnum’s skull with the coffee pot she used to pour herself a cup that morning. I once had a homeless man come into the store, and lock himself inside my freezer, and refused to leave. I once had a woman, Ms. Capri give birth next to the fresh produce section, her son David sometimes comes into the store now and then to pick up groceries for his Ma. I’ve had thousands of insane occurrences happen, but nothing ever prepared me for something like this.
On the day of December 19, 2022, it was snowing. When I say snowing, I mean it was like a blizzard. My only other employee, Victor Dovell, was out for the week, visiting family in Kentucky. That morning, I didn’t have many of my usual customers, Mr. Mahjub came in briefly for his daily coffee, two sugars, no cream. He paid with his debit card, and then hopped in his taxi to pick up some customers. Mrs. Loret came in with her daughter, Bailey, to grab a few groceries. Bread, chips, some butter, and a jug of apple juice. She paid with cash and left for her apartment above the corner store. I made sure to give her daughter a lollipop before she left. I had one more customer around lunch who came in and grabbed a soda, a Dr. Pepper, I think, and a breakfast sandwich. I thought it was sort of odd he was buying that at lunch time, but I wasn’t about to judge the man for his cravings. He paid with a credit card and left. He left his ball cap inside the store, but he’d left before I could holler for him.
I didn’t have any more customers until around 9:20 PM or so, that’s when she came in. I was in the back counting how many cleaning rags I still had left. As soon as I left the back room, I was surprised to see a woman in the store. At this point, the snow was coming down at a blinding rate. The woman was wiping her feet at the very front of the store and gave me a little wave. She went to the back and grabbed an energy drink or something. I don’t remember exactly what she bought. I’d turned around from where she was standing to rearrange some of the bags of chips, when I felt a small poke on my shoulder.
There, a woman, young in age, probably in her early twenties stood. She had pure black hair, her hair was straight, and then frayed at the bottom. It was a bit longer than shoulder length. She was wearing a longer sweatshirt, white in color, with a band logo on the front of it. She wore a pair of blue jeans, and sneakers, probably Nike. She stood at maybe 5’8, I was around 5’11. She was Asian, I think. But there were two parts of her that came off unsettling. Her weight. She was frailer than… I don’t know, she was just extremely thin. I’m all for losing body weight and all that, but… she was like, unhealthily thin. And then there were her eyes. Pure black, like her hair. Yet… emotionless. It was… purely terrifying when you stared into her eyes. All of this, yet she was still smiling at me.
“Hey, uh, was just wonderin’ if I could get a pack of smokes? Marlboro preferably.” She stood there giving off an innocent smile, as I continued to stare into her eyes.
“Huh?” I said, before quickly changing demeanors.
“Oh, yeah, for sure. Sorry, I was having a moment there.” I began walking back to the counter.
She gave a small laugh, “Hey, I getcha, everyone has those types of days.”
I walked behind the counter, and grabbed a pack of Marlboro, I don’t remember exactly which one I grabbed, though.
I scanned it and put it on the counter in front of me. She handed me her energy drink, along with a twenty-dollar bill. I scanned the drink and handed it back to her. She took it, and then I handed her the change.
“Have a good one.”
“Thanks! You as well.”
It seemed like such a normal occurrence, something that would happen every day. Yet this was different. It was like the thought of her… eyes wouldn’t leave my head. The ticking of the old clock behind me seemed to pick up in speed, and my heart rate seemed to spike. It’s hard to admit, but I grabbed a bottle of my medication, and downed way more than I should’ve. Way more. I have a severe form of ADHD, so I take Adderall. I had gotten it refilled the other day, so I had plenty still. I took a sip from my water bottle and turned on the TV behind the counter. Just some random news channel, another stick up in the area.
That’s when I heard the door creak open. She was back.
“Eugh, my car isn’t working and it’s fucking freezing out there. I think I might need some oil, or something.” she said calmly, hugging her frail, frail body, to protect herself from the cold she had just endured.
“Y- Yeah, it’s in the third aisle over, grab whatever you need.” I sheepishly said. This wasn’t like me. I wasn’t normally this nervous. Something was wrong. I grabbed the pill bottle to my right, and quickly took a few more. Probably more than I should’ve. This is the point in the story when things get a bit… hazy.
“Uh, I’m not seeing anything, you said aisle three, right?” She yelled out over the aisle dividers.
“Yeah, aisle three, to your right.” I responded, taking another deep breath.
“There’s… nothin’ here, dude.” She yelled back over the aisle.
“I’ve run this shop for years, trust me, it’s aisle three.”
She walked to aisle four, completely disregarding what’d I’d said.
“Ah, here it is.” She emerged from the aisle with a small container of car oil.
It wasn’t right. I keep my car maintenance stuff in aisle three, Mr. Delgado’s car breaks down often, and he knows I keep it in aisle three. We both know it’s in aisle three. So why is this girl saying it’s in aisle four? It’s just not right.
The ticking from the clock behind me seemed to get louder, and faster. The girl was still in aisle four, looking at something else. But as soon as I looked away, she seemed to stare right back at me. Her cold, black eyes stared right at me, whenever I looked away. I looked down at the security camera panel, where I could see her from every angle in the store. Yet this time, she was in aisle five. Just standing there. Looking straight forward, at a wall.
Then there was a crash.
“Shit! Ah, fuck, I’m so sorry!” She yelled out.
I walked slowly from behind the counter, over to aisle five. I took a deep breath, before looking into aisle five. Yet, there was no one there. It was seriously starting to get creepy. I began walking back to the counter, where I saw her. But she was in aisle one now.
“I knocked over a bunch of cans, but I’m putting them back right now. Sorry about that.”
“Oh yeah, it’s no big deal, don’t…” I stopped, I couldn’t think of the word
“Don’t worry about?” She suggested.
“Yeah, yeah, that.”
She gave a small bit of laughter, before continuing cleaning up the cans she’d spilt.
I turned around toward another shelf, and realized the chip bags were out of order. All mixed up. I thought I had fixed that. I began slowly rearranging the chips, Lays, and then Doritos, and then I was interrupted by a small poke on my shoulder.
“Hey, could I actually get some lottery ticket? May as well, right?” She looked at me, still smiling. But her eyes said otherwise. It was like she was crying, but smiling, at the exact same time.
“Sure, just follow me.” I said as I went to grab a few cheap scratchers for the woman, laying them down on the counter. She put the blue bottle of motor oil on the counter, and I began ringing her up. I scanned the lottery tickets, and then the motor oil, putting the red bottle back down on the counter.
She slid me the change she had used earlier to pay for the drink and cigarettes, and I put the cash in, and then slid it back to her. She took one of the dimes I had given back to her as change, and began scratching the tickets, one by one, agonizingly slow.
I looked back up at the news, something about money laundering or something. The TV’s glare was horrible, there was a light right next to it, as the TV was mounted on the wall behind the counter. In the glare, you could see the woman behind the counter, still scratching the card. But she was smiling again. Staring at me, with her dark, dead eyes. She was getting closer; I saw her pull something out of her pocket. It was something sharp, I don’t know what it was, but it was a weapon. She was going to hurt me.
I turned around from the TV, and there she was, using the quarter to slowly scratch the final ticket. She hadn’t moved from the spot she was at. She just slowly, slowly scratched the ticket with the nickel. She groaned and threw the tickets into the trashcan next to the counter.
“Man, thought today might be lucky.” she said, grabbing her purse from the counter, walking to the door.
“Have a good one!” She yelled out before the door swung shut behind her.
She was gone. I could take a deep breath. I walked up to my medication and took a few more pills. The clock behind me ticked faster, and louder, faster, and louder. I looked back up at the television screen. They were talking about the storm outside. I looked back at the security cameras. Nothing. I surveyed the store myself. Nothing. Except for the bags of chips still strung about that shelf. I took another deep breath, and walked up to the shelf, beginning to rearrange the bags, again.
Then, I felt a light poke on my shoulder.
I turned around immediately, and there she was. The same frail girl who had come in twice before then. Her horrifying dark black eyes stared at me, it was like they were getting bigger, I felt like I could get sucked into them. The woman wore the same black sweatpants and grey sweater she had came in with, along with her backpack. The one thing that stood out the most, though, was the antique-looking knife she held out in front of her, aimed directly at my throat.
“Hey, sorry to disturb you again, but-” I shoved her backward, into the countertop I had been behind this entire time.
“DON’T COME NEAR ME! GET THE HELL BACK!”
She looked back at me, her black eyes seemed to multiply, like she could see me from every single angle.
“What the fuck? You get away from me, you psycho!”
She said this, she sounded terrified, yet she was still smiling. The clock’s ticking seemed to just speed up. Her eyes seemed to multiply, over, and over again, they were everywhere, all around the store.
I told you earlier I’ve been robbed many, many times. I’ve bought a gun since then. I own a Glock, simple, black, I’ve never had to use it before. It’s loaded, and I keep it in the waistband of my pants. I pushed my shirt up slightly and took it out and pointed at the girl- the monster in front of me.
“Don’t fucking move, I swear to god I’ll shoot you; you devil!” I yelled out, the gun trained on her face.
“D- Don’t shoot me! Please!” She “pleaded” with me, the knife still in her hand, she slowly stood up, still smiling at me. She wasn’t blinking anymore. Her eyes were just dead.
Then the front door creaked open.
“Yo! Mr. Cruz, our car broke down out front, we’re gonna need-” Officer McHenry and Drayton walked in, dressed in their dark blue police uniform. I’d known Finn McHenry since he was eleven, he used to even work here part time when he was in high school. He introduced me to his partner probably last month, she was kind, and a bit more carefree than most cops probably should be. It was clear to me Finn might’ve had a little “crush” on her. They walked in together but stopped in their tracks. They just stared at us both.
“M- Mr. Cruz, what the fuck is happening?” He yelled out, taking his gun from the holster. His partner followed, Finn looked confused, but his partner looked serious.
“Help me the fuck out, she’s gonna kill me!” I yelled out to the two of them, my gun still trained on the girl.
“Put the weapon down, put the weapon down!” Officer Drayton yelled out, screaming at us.
Then I realized something.
They didn’t have their guns trained on her.
They had them trained on me.
The girl stood there, standing in front of the counter, smiling. Just smiling. She took a step forward, her cold, dead, horrifying, horrendous, disgusting eyes looked into mine. She took another step forward, and then another. And then she was just a few feet away from me. I clenched the trigger of the gun, not pulling it yet. I could see in the corner of my eye that both the officers were yelling something, but it was like I couldn’t hear them. All I could see was the girl in front of me. That’s a lie. All I could see in front of me were her eyes. It seemed like it was just me, the shop, and the eyes trained on me.
Then she seemed to try and pounce on top of me, the teeth that once were in a smile, seemed like they were ready to eat me. Then I realized it. The eyes were merely a distraction, it was her teeth in the smile I should have been worried about. They were going to eat me, and I wouldn’t let that happen.
So I pulled the trigger.
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NBC News
“And now we have Susan Payne reporting live outside of a corner store downtown Chicago.”
“Thanks Nathan, I’m downtown outside Cruz’s Corner Store, a beloved staple of a small neighborhood in southern Chicago. Officers Drayton and McHenry had just so happened to have walked into this exact store, where in front of them they saw Martin Del Bosque, the owner of the store, wielding a gun pointed at twenty-three-year-old Lauren Chen, a university student at the nearby Loyola University.”
“Laura Chen was known for being a smart, and kind woman, who was often seen working on the universities community garden, or volunteering at her church’s food bank. Both were well known, and beloved in there own communities.”
“Reports say Martin Del Bosque went on an incoherent rant, while police attempted to talk him down, and drop his weapon, yet failed, and shot Laura Chen dead at around 10:46 PM, a bottle of motor oil and a phone in her hands.”
“Members of the nearby community, and university students have already come to the front of the store with candles, flowers, and prayers.”
“A tragic day for both communities. Martin Del Bosque is now in police custody, after collapsing seconds after fatally shooting Laura Chen.”
“Another empty orange pill bottle from the unidentified pharmacy was found at the scene of the shooting. Back to you, Nathan.”
“Jason Rayport here, Nathan will be back on shortly, what Susan was talking about earlier was a string of violent outbreaks occurring around the city, fights, stabbings, and now a shooting.”
“While the reasoning behind the violence is unknown, it’s happened randomly across the city, at every scene a normally empty orange pill bottle being found at the scene.”
“Police now issuing a-”
“Nathan, what the fuck are you doing, put that down!”
“HIS EYES, HIS TEETH, OH GOD!”
“Nathan, were on air, calm the fuck down!”
“GET DOWN! EVERYONE, GET DOWN!”
-—————————————————————————————————————————————————-
Fox News
“And now to Vallery.”
“Thanks John, I’m outside NBC’s recording studio, where famous TV Perona, Jason Rayport was just shot dead by his co-host, Nathan Montori on air. In hand?”
“Another orange pill bottle.”