VI Desperation
Everyone stood in the living room. Jalon stood next to the fireplace in one corner.
It was not lit. There were several sets of white couches.
Ai and Caitlyn sat in dresses on one of the couches, drinking a nice red wine.
Bailey and Beatrice stood in the middle of the room – watching the television, which was muted.
It was set to a repeat of an old football game from months ago.
Ghostkin stood next to Alexis near the entrance to the living room – the area that led to the entry foyer to Ai’s mansion.
“I suppose you want to know who did it,” Jalon said. “There are two answers to that question. The first question is: who stabbed the victims? That is easy. Carson Grey. But he did not kill them.”
“No?” Beatrice asked. “Carson Grey is Lance Grey’s older brother. He was mildly bullying to Lance growing up. Never terrible. Never psychopathic. Never enough to be called abusive.”
“No,” Jalon said. “They got along, even though Carson was less of a geek and more of a guy. Carson liked football and beer and wrestling.”
“So Carson snapped and killed his brother and his brother’s friends? So why my dad?” Beatrice asked.
“An excellent question,” Jalon said. “They are grooming you, Beatrice, to be the next killer after I die. After they kill me. They started by making you suffer.”
“So Carson murdered my father,” Beatrice said.
“No,” Jalon said. “He did not kill anyone.”
“But he stabbed them,” Beatrice said. “He stabbed my father and killed him. He murdered my father. I don’t care about his excuse or his damage. He killed my dad. He needs to pay for that.”
“And shot Lance, his brother, in the head,” Jalon said. “He did it. He killed my best friend. But he did not commit the murders. No, he was influenced.”
“Influenced?” Beatrice asked. “What the fuck do you mean? He stabbed people. He’s responsible.”
“He was controlled, brainwashed, dominated, turned into a mindless automaton, a living husk, a killing machine that has no emotions, no cares, only murderous drives – a pure killer to hunt and murder the geeks of New Liberty High School.”
Jalon stood in front of Beatrice, Ghostkin, Alexis, Bailey, Ai, and Caitlyn.
“What the?” Ai asked. “How?”
“Months of torture and programming,” Jalon said. “Instructions, punishment, breaking down of will, building up of violence and chains of behavior, learning the basics of being a monster.”
“Someone turned Carson Grey into that?” Beatrice asked.
“Yes," Jalon said.
“Why?” Beatrice asked.
“Someone was influenced into being a monster,” Jalon said. “Trained by someone and turned into a brilliant and deceptive villain. Someone who is manipulating teenagers, turning them evil and cruel.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know,” Jalon said. “Someone manipulated this person into being evil.”
“Me,” Alexis said. She stabbed Ghostkin in the back. He looked vacant, sorry, almost, as he fell to the ground.
Beatrice screamed.
“You killed someone else that I loved, you bitch,” she said. “You can’t have done that. There’s no fucking way that just happened.”
Alexis smiled. “I’m sorry, Beatrice. It’s not a bad life, being a killer. You’ll get used to it. It’s kind of an okay life.”
“Alexis? They hurt you?” Beatrice asked. “Nothing justifies this. You should have stood up to them for a thousand days, and then another thousand.”
“You don’t understand,” Alexis said.
Then Bailey turned to punch his ex-girlfriend.
Alexis backed away and made a hand gesture.
The Wolf Killer walked in from the side of the entry to the room and attacked Bailey with a huge dagger. Bailey tried to back away but could not.
The Wolf Killer stabbed Bailey in the neck repeatedly. He collapsed. He bled out on the ground, clutching at his neck.
Ai screamed.
Beatrice fell to her knees in front of Alexis. Alexis touched her hair and smiled.
Caitlyn grabbed Ai and turned to run, but the Wolf Killer stood in the way, preventing them from getting out of the room. Alexis smiled.
“You’re running out of people, Jalon,” Alexis said.
“Why do you do this?” Jalon asked.
“What?” Alexis asked. “I kill two more people, and you ask why? That’s your response to all this?”
“Yes,” Jalon said. ”I’m sorry that you do this.”
“Motivations are irrelevant,” Alexis said.
“It matters to me!” Jalon yelled. “Why you killed all my loved ones matters to me.”
“Someone convinced me,” Alexis said.
Alexis wore a white dress. She had a knife in her hand and a purse held on her shoulder. She wore flats. She looked at the Wolf Killer and gestured. He turned to Ai and Caitlyn and started towards them.
Ai and Caitlyn turned and started to run away from him, but they couldn’t get out of the room. They ran backward and were cornered by the Wolf Killer.
Jalon pulled a switchblade and nodded at Beatrice. She opened her purse.
“Where the fuck is my gun?” Beatrice asked.
“Funny,” Alexis said. “Someone must have stolen it.”
“God damn it!” Beatrice said.
“You silly girl,” Alexis said. “Training will be fun. Breaking you will be fun.”
Jalon stared at the Wolf Killer. He walked towards Jalon.
Jalon backed away a little bit, backing towards the fireplace.
Ai and Caitlyn had a chance. They ran towards the exit and bolted out of the mansion. Alexis snarled.
“Those bitches,” Alexis said. “They can’t live.”
Alexis made a gesture.
Carson Grey, the Wolf Killer, chased after them.
Jalon chased after the Wolf Killer.
Alexis yanked Beatrice’s arm. She grunted.
“No, pet,” Alexis said. “You need an education, now.”
The Wolf Killer chased the girls, but they ran fast and hard. They ran out the front door and into the front lawn, and Ai called 911 as she ran.
“911 Emergency Services, where is your location?” a voice said.
“The Takeda mansion. Carson Grey and Alexis Wright-Mitchell are murdering people with knives,” Ai said.
“Can you get to safety?”
“No!”
“Are these people armed?”
“Yes! They have daggers and are chasing us!”
“We have police on the way, ma’am,” the dispatcher said.
Ai screamed. The Wolf Killer caught up to her and punched her. Then he slammed her into the wall. She fell to the ground and lay there. She cried a little.
Jalon slammed into the Wolf Killer as he made it to the front door.
Jalon looked at them.
Caitlyn tried to get Ai and help her get up, but Ai couldn’t stand.
“Go, Cait,” Ai said.
“No,” Caitlyn said. “We’ll die together.”
Jalon stabbed the Wolf Killer in the stomach with the switchblade. The Wolf Killer punched him, and he fell to his knees.
Jalon jumped back and got to his feet as the Wolf Killer attacked him again. Jalon twisted to the right and stabbed the Wolf Killer in the lung.
The Wolf Killer punched him again. Jalon fell to the ground.
Get up, self.
He got up.
He looked at the Wolf Killer.
The slash caught him by surprise.
He couldn’t block.
It should have killed Jalon.
Then a gunshot thundered.
The Wolf Killer fell backward.
Anne Drawley, the police officer, shot the Wolf Killer.
Jalon turned the Wolf Killer over and held him down.
Anne walked over to him.
“We got him,” Anne said. “Good job.”
“You two,” Jalon said. “We need to arrest him. I don’t want to have killed anyone.”
“Same,” Anne said. “We have him.”
The Wolf Killer was then arrested by Anne Drawley, who took him into custody. Several ambulances began to arrive on the scene.
Jalon got up and walked out of the foyer and back to the living room.
Beatrice and Alexis stood there.
“No,” Beatrice said. “I won’t. I won’t help you.”
Alexis moved to drag Beatrice with her to a side corridor, but Beatrice grabbed for something, anything, to attack her with. She found nothing.
Beatrice punched Alexis.
Alexis snarled.
“Never,” Beatrice said.
Alexis dragged her towards a car she had outside - the side entrance.
Beatrice followed along with Alexis.
Jalon tried to walk up to them, but he felt dizzy. He had a concussion. He collapsed to the ground.
He called Beatrice.
Beatrice yanked at Alexis’s arm.
Alexis grunted and pushed Beatrice away.
Beatrice ran away to an ambulance and collapsed at it, right in front of several EMT’s and Anne - who was holding Carson Grey, unmasked as the Wolf Killer.
“Beatrice!” Alexis yelled. “Jalon is down. I don’t know if he will live. You have nothing. You have no one. You need to come with me.”
Beatrice stayed with Anne. She hid behind the ambulance.
“Beatrice!” Alexis yelled. She walked closer and closer to where Beatrice was hidden.
Anne shot at Alexis.
Alexis disappeared into the night.
Jalon woke up an hour later. He was in a hospital.
Caitlyn sat in a chair near him, drinking a diet soda.
“Ai is missing,” Caitlyn said. “She was unconscious in the foyer, and I went to the cops because I’m an idiot, and then she wasn’t there when we went back inside.”
“I’m so sorry,” Jalon said.
“Miserable existence and all that,” Caitlyn said.
“I know,” Jalon said.
Jalon called Alexis.
The call was answered.
“Hello,” Alexis answered. “We are going to disappear now. I will begin the education of Ai. She’s with me. I have her. You have lost, Jalon. I killed all of your friends and got away clean. The police showed up but failed to catch me.”
“Fuck you,” Jalon said. “How did you get Ai?”
“She was on the ground, collapsed, in the front foyer, when I walked back in, barely conscious,” Alexis said. “And Caitlyn had left to get help or something. It was easy to bring her with me.”
“We will stop you,” Jalon said.
“Ai wants to learn,” Alexis said. “She is an excellent student. It was necessary to beat you and kill your friends. Do you know why I did it?”
“Why?” Jalon asked.
“Beatrice was a qualified young lady to be recruited,” Alexis said.
“To become a monster. This had nothing to do with you. Hell, I killed her dad, and you thought it was anything other than trying to manipulate Beatrice? I was just destroying everyone connected to her. And then she stood up to me. Got away. Survived.”
“So you switched directions,” Jalon said.
“Now Ai will be our greatest student,” Alexis said. “This will end in pain and blood, Jalon.”
“I will hunt you forever,” Jalon said.
“Goodbye,” Alexis said.
She disconnected.
Jalon looked at the hospital.
Beatrice hugged him.
“We survived,” Beatrice said.
“Yeah,” Caitlyn said. “I don’t know if we wanted to, but we did.”
“I love you two,” Beatrice said. “I won’t do it. I won’t be a monster. No matter how many times they try to break me.”
“I know,” Jalon said.
Act Two (of Two): The Drama Kids