{ PART 1 }{ PART 2 }{ PART 3 }
[INCLUDES SEXUAL VIOLENCE]
I’ll spare you the details this time. Only the general. Missing eyes, the jaw was torn off and jammed into her stomach. Missing ribs, heart, and lungs and carved out private area. Right arm skinned from the elbow down. And lastly, the sun with the stick figure carved into the top of her right arm. Now, these killings have become an actual problem. Previous people have been just normal citizens and no one but the people who knew them cared. Emily Waynewood, however, continued after her husband. She continued helping the town but was a total piece of shit in the shadows. She committed tax evasion, she stole money, but at least, she wasn’t a rapist. She apparently treated the staff terribly and abused her son Hector. Whatever they did, I knew that they taught Hector and his sister Helen to follow in their footsteps. Helen was definitely more dangerous and a bigger problem than Hector but I expected them to work together.
“Who’s gonna talk to Waynewoods?” Kaley asked.
“I already questioned Summer’s family,” Johnatan stood up. “I won’t question one more,” he left the room.
“Does anyone want to?” I asked.
Kaley gently shook her head left and right.
“I sure as hell don’t want to talk to those spoiled little pieces of shit,” Elliot said looking at me. “But I do want to end this case as soon as possible.”
“I’ll go with you,” Tara told him. “I can’t let you suffer with them alone.”
Johnatan looked at her and nodded. Right at that moment, the door opened and Johnatan came back inside followed by captain Holden.
“Sit down, Johnatan,” he said in an angry stoic voice.
Johnatan sat down where he was sitting before, he left the room. Captain took a look at all of us, put his arms behind his back, deeply inhaled, and exhaled.
“Today, I was informed that a part of some… ‘special’ confiscated evidence is missing,” he said.
I immediately realized what happened. Elliot told him about the missing cocaine and believed that he’d send one of us to find out what happened.
“Last Thursday, some of the confiscated cocaine went missing. It was brought up by one of you and two of you were already proven innocent. Kaley and Elijah didn’t do it. The rest of you are suspects. Even the one who reported this to me.”
“Are you really accusing us?” Johnatan asked.
“Yes, Johnatan,” the captain looked into Johnatan’s eyes angrily. “I do. But you aren’t the only suspects. There are some cops who were in the room as well.”
“So, you want the two of us to investigate it?” I asked pointing at Kaley and myself.
“No. Not for now. Not until we solve the case of the mutilated bodies.”
Elliot and I looked at each other. He had this expression of fear and confusion since that was completely opposite of something the captain would do. As I said in my previous post, he would immediately give this case to someone. He never really gave more importance to one case over another.
“BUT! If I see any of you doing something suspicious and if I find any evidence that it’s any of you in the meantime, you’ll be spending time with people you’ve arrested. I don’t believe it would be a nice experience.”
He left the room after taking a quick look at us. When he left, Johnatan stood up while still looking at the door.
“Well… that was unpleasant,” he said and left the room.
“Let’s go question them,” Elliot told Tara. “I want to be done with that as soon as possible.”
“Who do you think did it?” Kaley asked me after Tara and Elliot left.
“One of the cops most likely,” I answered. “But then the person who gave them the key is also responsible.”
“That means that one of us still has a big problem. Then who do you think it is?”
I sighed. I didn’t want to suggest any of the detectives. Even though I didn’t really have the best relationship with Johnatan or Tara, I didn’t want to jump to conclusions.
“I don’t know,” I replied. “It could be anyone.”
“I think it’s my brother.”
I looked at her confused.
“That’s a serious accusation,” I told her. “Are you sure you want to believe that?”
“I know him better than anyone,” she looked into my eyes. “I know it was him, but we don’t have proof of it. And I don’t want to find it… but my gut told me that it is him.”
“To be honest with you, he was also first on my list, but we can’t just decide it’s him.”
“I guess it is in human nature to jump to the worst conclusion, but I feel like it is him. It feels like truth. Like nothing else could be possible.”
Suddenly, I felt pain in my right arm. I barely felt it, but it was there. It was the first time I felt it and fear followed it. Fear wasn’t because of the pain itself but of its presence. Just like Kaley knew her brother stole the coke, I knew that something was going on. Whatever it was, it was somehow connected to the murders.
“I have to go now,” I told her and stood up.
Her expression immediately turned to one of confusion but she brushed it off.
“Talk to you later,” I said and left the room.
The pain was still present and it got worse. Still, something I could withstand without showing that it hurts. I went straight for the bathroom. Bathrooms in the offices were like home bathrooms. There were no stalls. Just a sink and a toilet. There is a mirror inside so it would be easier for me to see the mark. I barged into the bathroom and locked it behind me. Since I wore a short-sleeved shirt, I just lifted the sleeve on my right arm.
The mark was still there, but it was different from before. I mentioned that it looked like it healed. It didn’t anymore. The skin was damaged and blood was flowing from it. It was only a little bit of blood but what scared me the most was where the blood flowed from. It looked like someone was dragging a knife on my skin like someone was carving the mark into my arm, but no one was there. I watched as a circle was carved along the scars and I watched it move to draw the stick man. I took some toilet paper and soaked it a bit before washing the blood off with it. The invisible knife continued to carve into my skin and I wiped more and more blood. After about half a minute, the last line was carved and I wiped off the blood a few more times. I threw the paper into the trash can and took more of it. I put it onto the cuts without soaking it in water. I put my sleeve over it and checked if it would look weird. Fortunately, it looked completely normal.
It took me a few more minutes to calm down and leave the bathroom. I went back to my office and continued with my work. I didn’t have many interactions with others that day so it was even easier to cover up the wound. About an hour later, I went into the bathroom again and removed the toilet paper. It wasn’t too messy. Just a bit of blood and I didn’t need to clean anything up. It wasn’t the most hygienic way to get rid of the wound, but it was the only thing I could do without being too suspicious. No one noticed anything and I went home after my shift was done…
I didn’t feel good that day. I was dizzy and tired but couldn’t sleep. I made myself some coffee hoping that it’ll help me get better. It didn’t. It honestly just made things worse. I was even dizzier than before. Then, like a sudden appearance of light in the dark, a message lit up my phone. It read: “Can you meet me at Mandy’s diner?” It was a text from Clara. I smiled and answered: “Be there in a few minutes.”
Mandy’s diner was the best diner in our town. The food and the staff are amazing and we can always go into heavy topics without anyone bothering us. It’s not the most popular place, but that’s an advantage in our case. We already met the owner and heard so many stories about how her grandmother Mandy became the first owner. We also told her about our story. Although a fake one, it made us kind of closer. We posed as half-siblings with the same father and different mothers. There was more to it but that isn’t important now. I pulled into the parking and saw her sitting by one of the tables. When she noticed me, she smiled and waved. I smiled back and locked my car. By the time I got there, it was evening and the night was beginning to settle so the neon sign cast the light onto the floor below. It colored it pink and gave it a special character that made you feel late summer night harmony. When I opened the door, the bell rang, and Mandy’s granddaughter shouted from the back.
“Be there soon!”
“No need,” I replied. “It’s just me.”
“Oh, welcome back, Terry,” she yelled. “Your sister already ordered everything.”
“Thank you!”
I also forgot to mention that we used different names. I turned towards Clara. She was beautiful. Honestly, I didn’t know if she actually was beautiful or was I just kind of a narcissist. She did kinda look like me. She had smaller beady light green eyes. A small straight nose and small light lips. She had long black hair tied in a bun with a few hairs falling over her right eye. She wore a hoodie with the hood pulled down. When I walked up to the table, she stood up and hugged me. After she sat back down, I took off my jacket and sat down opposite her. My bacon cheeseburger and beer were waiting for me. The bacon was still steaming and it smelt so good. Just that smell started to wear off my dizziness. I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply. A smile appeared on my face and I lifted my head towards the ceiling.
“It smells so good,” I said.
Clara didn’t reply. As soon as I noticed, I pointed my head toward her. She ordered her usual as well. Ice cream pancakes and coffee. She had a mug sitting next to her plate. She didn’t touch the coffee or the pancakes. Her eyes were pointed at the ice cream and she poked it with her fork.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
She pointed her eyes towards me while still having her head pointed towards the plate. Her eyes were filled with sadness… and fear. This wasn’t her usual behavior. Something happened.
“The usual,” she answered and turned her eyes back towards her plate. “I have visions of the moment before I go to sleep. I see myself hitting him with the rock. Honestly, I don’t know if I’m more traumatized by what he was trying to do or by what I did. I feel so bad.”
“You shouldn’t,” I told her. “You did nothing wrong. It was just self-defense.”
“I could have defended myself without killing him.”
I wanted to tell her so badly. I wanted to help her get rid of these terrible thoughts she had about herself… but I simply couldn’t. Too much time has passed without me telling her and I just couldn’t bring myself to lose her because I knew I would. I made her go through so much pain but saved her from so much worse. I was so selfish for it and I knew it, but I just couldn’t do it. At least she had someone to help her deal with it.
“It doesn’t matter. You were just defending yourself. He was going to do much worse things than just kill you.”
“Is there such a thing?” she asked.
I didn’t speak. I just nodded slowly. She looked back at her pancakes and grabbed a bit of ice cream with her fork. She put it into her mouth and it made me smile. My words somehow made her feel better. Maybe she just needed confirmation from someone else. I knew that something else was wrong.
“I’ve been having nightmares,” she said just when I was about to ask.
This immediately reminded me of my nightmare. The circle of flayed arms and the thing in the middle. It was clearly the same thing that was depicted by my scar. I tried to find solutions that make any sense, but nothing did. However, at this point, after hearing what Clara said, I was more scared for her than for me.
“What kind of nightmares?” I asked her.
“About… Cameron,” she answered. “I stand up during the night and look through my window. He’s always standing there illuminated by the moonlight. Something is dripping from his right arm and he lets out this scream. It’s so loud that it makes my ears bleed and I see him running at my house. Before I can escape, he appears in my room and jumps at me. Everything turns black and I wake up at that moment.”
“Blood,” I replied after a few seconds.
“What?”
“The liquid dripping from his right arm… it’s blood.”
“Are you sure?”
I contemplated for a second. I wanted to ask her but I didn’t know if she’d think that I’m crazy. In the end, I decided to ask her.
“Was there any other dream? One that was much weirder?” I asked her.
Her eyes told me everything at that moment. They were filled with fear and confusion. She had the dream. But I wondered what her experience with it was.
“Tell me about it?” I asked.
“I… I don’t think you’ll believe me or…”
“I’ll believe you,” I said softly grabbing her hand. “You’re like a sister to me. I care for you. You can tell me anything and I’d believe you.”
She sighed and looked around to see if anyone was nearby. She didn’t want anyone to hear it.
“At first, I walked through the endless void,” she told me after drinking a sip of coffee. “Then… some light appeared. It wasn’t like the source was emitting, but reflecting the light. I walked closer to it and I noticed that it was a circle. When I got even closer, I noticed that it was made from skinless arms. I immediately turned around and tried running away. The circle caught after me and one of the hands grabbed my right arm.”
She looked around another time and took her hoodie’s right sleeve off. She wore a short-sleeved t-shirt below the hoodie so she lifted that right sleeve as well. I already knew what it was going to be, but it still somehow terrified me. There was a circle with smaller lines protruding from it. There was a horned stickman with a third longer leg in the middle and it looked like it was carved into her skin. I just kept staring at it. I didn’t react… I couldn’t. I was too shocked. When I snapped out, Clara looked concerned.
“Is everything okay?” she asked me.
I showed her my scar and she had the same reaction as I did when she showed me hers. Now there was only one question to ask her.
“When did you wake up? And when did you get the scar? Was there any blood on your arm?”
“No, there was no blood,” she sounded confused. “The scar appeared as soon as I woke up and that should have been just after 11 AM.”
This hit me like a truck. I was scared shitless remembering the time when my scar started to bleed. It was just before 11 AM.