The Last Chapter Killer
I carried her into the house and took her to my secret room, chaining her to the wall before she woke. I’d studied her for weeks. Gained her trust. She told me things she’d never told anyone before. They always did. Perhaps it was my charm. Or my understanding. Who the hell knew.
My first was when I was sixteen. A young girl from school.
A bright girl. Almost a genius. Her path was set until she hooked up with a guy who led her down a bad road.
I couldn’t let that happen. Her story needed to end the way people knew her.
Not the person she’d become in a matter of time.
Her last chapter needed to be written before it was too late.
Father was a drunk and an emotional abuser.
He told me repeatedly that I was invisible and that I’d never be remembered in this world.
He called me a loser. He told me I was weak, and that nobody would ever love someone like me.
He also told me that I was a disappointment, and he wished I wasn’t his son.
Once he was finished with me, he’d move on to my mother.
He called her every name in the book, degraded her, dehumanized her.
But she would never leave him. It gave him pleasure to torture us with his words until one night, when I was ten years old, he slumped over the kitchen table and into the plate of food my mother had prepared.
I knew what she had done. I’d seen the poison under the sink.
“Mom, what did you do?”
“I had no choice, honey.” She reached over and smoothed my hair.
“The longer something goes on, the more likely it is to lose what made it beautiful. Your father was a wonderful man once. He wasn’t the monster you knew.
He was beautiful, kind, and caring. Until the alcohol took over.
That’s the problem with people today. Happiness is temporary.
Marriages end. Friendships fade. Nothing stays beautiful forever. ”
“Won’t you miss him?” I asked.
“I’ll miss the man he was. Not the one he became.
I will never love again, my son,” she said, walking over to my father and sitting him upright in the chair.
She placed the napkin on his lap and placed the fork he’d dropped back in his hand.
She took his glass and the bottle of bourbon from the table and tossed them into the trash.
“There. That’s the man I used to know.” She straightened the dinner plate in front of him.
“This is his last chapter,” she quietly spoke.
“What do you mean?”
“Sometimes people stay long after they’ve stopped being who they once were,” she said. “Come on,” she held out her hand, “let’s get you ready for bed.”
I glanced over my shoulder as my mother led me out of the kitchen. My father remained at the table, exactly the way my mother had arranged him. She took out my pajamas from the dresser drawer and laid them out on the bed.
“People need to be remembered for who they were, my son. Not the person they’d become after making terrible decisions.
Endings always disappoint people in the worst ways.
Seeing your father like that at the table reminded me of who he once was.
It’s all in the arrangement, my beautiful boy. One day, you’ll understand that.”
“What are you going to do with him?”
“I’ll need your help with that.” She smiled, taking hold of my hand.
A couple of days later, two people discovered his body in the woods, propped up against a tree, perfectly posed, as my mother once knew him.
My mother thought she’d gotten away with it.
But one week later, the police showed up at our door and took her away.
She’d made a grave mistake. She didn’t control the story the way she thought she had by leaving a piece of herself behind.
The girl started to wake. Her eyes opened, and she started to scream until she realized her mouth was covered with duct tape.
“Do you know why I have to do this?”
She frighteningly shook her head.
“Your friends and family need to remember who you are, not who you’re going to become.
You’re a beautiful dancer. The drugs you’re secretly using will destroy all of that.
You didn’t need them, Jenna. Soon, your family and friends won’t recognize you anymore.
But don’t worry. I’ll make sure your last chapter ends here before the damage is done. ”
She twisted and turned as much as the chains would allow it.
“There’s a bucket over there if you need to use the bathroom while I’m gone.” I turned, walked out of the room, and shut and locked the steel door.