I’ll admit, this story wasn’t one of my best work, but I really wanted to try a different genre and a different style of writing although you might realise that towards the end I drifted back into my original style. Meh, I wanted to give up so many times but I really liked the idea I came up with so there miiiiiiiight be some plot holes here and there. Still, let me know what you think.
I left out the WP for this story because I felt it might affect a certain interpretation of this story that i’m more inclined towards, although if you’re really interested you can head on down to the link below to find out what the Prompt was.
Here’s the link to the subreddit I originally posted this story on
“Oh thank heaven I found you, it’s been so long i thought I got the wrong address and you changed so much, oh my god you have to help me I swear, please, you know I didn’t do it”
“Woah hey watch it!” I roared as my beer nearly fell out of my hand.
The sobbing girl dashed across the front lawn and slumped into my arms, it was all I could do to prop her up while making sure my beer stayed firmly in grip. She buried her head in my chest as she cried out her sorrows, all the while mumbling incoherently in between her wailings.
Nobody had moved a muscle or said a word from the moment she came in through the gate, all apparently stunned by this unexpected turn of events. I looked round at the flabbergasted faces of my friends and gave them an awkward smile while at the same time excusing myself,
“Ah, you guys go on ahead, i’ll take care of her inside the house…yup… just… carry on….”
The girl pressed herself close to my body as I carried her in a princess cradle all the way up the front porch and into the kitchen, leaving behind me the confused and more than slightly curious stares of my friends.
The moment I put her down and closed the door, I turned back to find a pistol shoved right in the middle of my forehead, the very same one pressed into my belly just minutes earlier.
I gingerly raised both my hands to show her my defencelessness.
“No, I want your hands at chest level, any higher and pop goes the weasel.” Her tone of voice was…it wasn’t icy, it sounded more business-like than anything else to be honest.
“Ok ok, hands at chest level. Look I got you into the house, please just don’t hurt my friends, please don’t hurt me.” I begged her, as the tingling sensation behind my neck grew stronger and started to flow down through my body and reached my bowels. Damn it, I think I peed my pants. Ok, at this point in time I was positively terrified.
She took a quick glance at the pooling liquid on the floor and said to me with a hint of disgust in her voice “Don’t worry, I won’t touch your friends. You heard my demands earlier?”
I nodded frantically.
“Good. Go and get them then bring me to your room, i’ll be behind you the whole time. Go.”
With my hands by my side, I quickly gathered the items she’d asked for; A pair of sunglasses, a face mask, some anaesthetic, a reel of fishing line, and some needles. I had no idea what she intended to do with those items, but prudence suggested that I should do as I was told to. Prudence is a bitch.
I’d never seen this girl in my life before that day. When she threw herself on me, I was as surprised as all my friends but just as I was about to make a big exclamation, I felt the pressure of a boxy metallic tube press into my ribcage as she whispered in a tone only I could hear,
“Play along, or your friends will need a new play mate, got it?”
Things quickly spiralled out of control from then on. I was completely under her thumb, at her beck and call to attend to her every whim and fancy, all the time threatening to unleash holy hell upon my housemates and all those I held dear every time she felt that I was showing the slightest hint of rebelliousness.
Of course my housemates noticed the presence of my mysterious guest but said nothing about it, their only concession to acknowledgement were the knowing winks every time we passed by; she never let me go anywhere alone.
I never wanted to kill. It just happened, like so much other bullshit in my life, and then it just kept going on and on, like I didn’t have any control. I had no idea what was happening. You’re the first one to listen to my story you know? I’m no fool though, you’re going nowhere until I get better, but what’s the harm eh? Who’re you gonna tell?
It started with the ‘mail man’, who caught a glimpse of her face as he delivered a package for Roy, and I was the only one available to sign for it. I saw his eyes open wide as saucers, and I turned around to see her merciless glare directed over my shoulder. I looked back only to see rage plastered across his face as he reached his hand behind his back.
“He’s the one! He has a weapon! Don’t let him go!” She screamed at me
I panicked.
I pulled the guy into the house before he even knew what was going on, and threw him onto the floor as she slammed the door shut and sat on him.
He kept crying and screaming for help
“DO SOMETHING” She ordered. “Choose one, Ben or this guy? CHOOSE NOW! He’s going to kill us all!”
I panicked again.
I tried to knock him out cold I swear, that’s all I tried to do, like you always see in the movies. I grabbed a heavy porcelain bowl off the counter and slammed it against the back of the mail man’s head. It shattered upon impact and I heaved a sigh of relief.
All was good, all was good.
As she stood up, i heard a groan escape the lips of the man on the floor. Killer? Did he say killer? I quickly looked at her for advice but she seemed not to hear his words. His eyes were open, staring directly at me. No no no, he saw her, he knew who she was, he saw her with me.
I froze in that instant, completely at a loss for what to do.
She stared me in the eye “He knows. Do it.”
I snatched up a rolling pin and before I could think too much about what I was doing, had already laid in a good 6-7 blows.
It was an accident, an accident.
We drove a few miles out to the lake and dumped the body. She directed me on how to clear the bloodstains when we got back; she was the expert after all.
I reasoned it out in my head.
I was protecting my friends, my family… She had a gun, I was at her mercy at all times, this was circumstantial wasn’t it? The courts would understand when I eventually brought her in. All I could do now was pray.
I was protecting them. The ‘mail man’ couldn’t hurt them because of me.
They abused me, used me like their play thing. I was beholden to those monsters for 7 years of my life, 7 damn years. I thought i’d received salvation after they rescued me from the orphanage, do you know how that felt? From one hell to another, tch. They brought me to their rituals and twisted gatherings, taught me how to make my first sacrifice. Jokes on them now isn’t it? I “sacrificed” them in their sleep when they least expected it, and ran for it. It wasn’t hard to find food and shelter from all the sleepy old men, 14 year old girl with nothing to her name but the clothes on her back.
“It’s alright, it’s alright. You didn’t know him that well anyway right?” her gentle soothing voice came from behind me as I piled the final mound of dirt
I tried not to think about it as beads of cold sweat rolled down my back.
It was inevitable really, it was his fault for asking so many questions.
I tried my best to protect him, to keep him away from my affairs, but Ben’s stupid brother had to keep asking where I went, why I took his truck for so long.
He asked me about the massive bag I dumped on the back seat, and of all things, she had to be standing there behind me as he blurted out that stupid piece of information I tried to stop him from revealing.
I refused to be her pawn any longer. I quickly turned around and snatched the gun from her, savouring the shocked expression on her face as she realised what I was doing. This murderer had gotten complacent while i’d learnt a thing or two from her.
Jason, slow on the uptake as usual, asked me in a confused manner “Hey man, everything alright?”
“CALL THE COPS DAMN IT JASON” I screamed at him, while wrestling with my captor
“Hey man just chill right, everything’s gonna be alright” There he was again with that damned laid back way of speaking, his bloody life was in danger!
All of a sudden she pulled out a knife as I wrenched the gun out of her hands. I caught her knife hand just in time, as she leapt towards me, directing the blade over my shoulder. I caught her with my free arm and held her tight but… No…
No… I was falling backwards, I tripped, how could I have tripped? MOVE JASON, FOR FU… NO OH MY GOD JASON, JASON????
I got up and rushed to him, the blood already pooling beneath his body as it steadily lost its warmth…
I tried to protect him, I really tried. This failure was like a knife through my heart, would I always have to play the game by her rules? I wanted to be free.
We buried the body in the woods, this time digging a proper hole instead of just dumping it in the river.
I had to protect everyone else in the long run. I failed here,
But it was an accident, an accident.
All the men were the same you know, only interested in one thing this poor defenceless girl could give them, the perverts. Well I gave them what they wanted, and more. I couldn’t stay for long, people were bound to notice, so I kept moving, always moving. But you know, these things, they always catch up to you in the end. A wrong word here, an awkward question there… The police eventually put things together, and slowly started tracing me. They’re good people you know? I didn’t want to do anything with the cops, they’re just doing their job, but I can’t let them put me in the slammer either. All those people I dealt with, they deserved it don’t you think? Honestly, they couldn’t even be called human beings, I had to protect myself in the long run… Wouldn’t you want to protect the things most important to you?
“Why hasn’t Jason been answering my calls? I’m going over to his place to check it out.”
Ben asked too many questions, he saw the bloodstains we couldn’t clean out. Damn it I tried to explain it was an accident but he didn’t see it that way. He was going to ruin everything i’d done to keep him safe, the bloody idiot. She already viewed him as the biggest threat and it was all I could do to keep her away from him.
This selfish asshole was going to put everyone else in danger.
I did it against my better judgement. Just a knife in the back. At least he went out the same way as Jason did, that should give the brothers some peace of mind.
Haha, I literally backstabbed him. Haha.
“Holy crap where did this come from?”
Roy stumbled upon one of the bloodstained knifes that damned woman was supposed to clear away, Why does she keep insisting on hurting my friends? I hate her, I hate her so much, but I need to protect everyone else. Roy can’t let our secret out.
I got him in his sleep one night, strangling him with the fishing wire while she covered his face with the pillow. He thrashed about like a dying fish but at least he was dreaming I hope.
Haha, like a dying fish. Haha.
Ben? Roy? Jason?
No, no, NO!
“YOU PROMISED ME, YOU PROMISED YOU WOULDN’T TOUCH MY FRIENDS, YOU LIAR, YOU FUCKING LIAR, I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU BITCH” I screamed at her, unable to contain my rage at all the broken promises. She hurt them, she killed my friends, how could she?
I took her in, I protected her from the evil cops, the stalkers and the perverts. I healed her wounds and listened to her story. And she dared to break her word?
“No, Brad, I never once laid a hand on your friends, wasn’t that all you?” She smiled serenely, as if explaining something to a confused child
The first time i killed a man was to save myself. The second time was in self defence. The third time…. Because it had become a necessity. They called me a serial killer, but I never killed for fun you know? Only the bad guys who deserved it, the one’s who were always causing trouble for others. Wouldn’t you want to protect the things most important to yourself?
“Hey, Matt, what’s the deal with the kid?” The officer on duty asked the SI who was filling out some paperwork on his desk.
“We linked him to a crazy string of murders in the area, 4 guys offed in as many weeks. Didn’t even bother to hide his tracks” Matt replied without looking up from his forms. “If you ask me, he’s probably destined for the loony bin. Keeps muttering about a girl named Maya, says he’s gonna kill her next and do all kinds of things to her… Had to rinse my ears out in holy water yeeurgh” He made a face
“Maya…hey I remember reading something about a Maya sometime back….some kid was asking for her case file but of course we didn’t give it to him” The officer exclaimed thoughtfully.
The Inspector looked at the duty officer and remarked, “Well just in case, keep a look out for any Maya’s that come by, God knows there aren’t any in this neighbourhood, i’ve checked already… Welsh student going crazy and raving about a girl… well it’s always about a girl innit?”
The pair chuckled humourlessly at that sobering statement and went on with their individual tasks.
[P.S. no offence to any Welsh reading this story, it’s just that there’s a significance to the MC name that requires him to be Welsh, sorry in advance]