The murderer

The news of the psycho murderer was hitting the front pages after the recent family killings downtown.The fear had slowly started to set in on people.People lived in the denial that everything was fine and no one could harm them till then,but all of a sudden this killer had surfaced which they had seen only in the movies.The past 8 deaths in the city had left the city police baffled and confused.No threads to link them together,no sign of the killer nor any clue left behind.How he achieved this perfection was something screenplay writers would probably yearn to know.The mysteries had started spreading by mouth,when the police force had initially decided to keep the news undercovers to keep the fear of having a psychotic killer on the lose in the city.

Once the media smelled the cake,it ensured everyone had a piece of it.A little ounce of fear that formed the doubt, am I in danger?Is my family and loved ones in danger?The inability to catch this killer added more spice to the wound and each week,a body or two surfaced in a  new condition telling a story of a psychic mind.

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I felt as if someone was suffocating me.My head reeled as I tried to get back to my senses.This didn’t feel like the occasional blackouts I used to get because of my health.This pain was piercing.I could feel the hot liquid drip along my face from my head.I was injured.My eyes were swollen and I tried opening my eyes.

I could picture the blurred outline of two people as I opened my swollen eyes.The room was dark,except for the spotlights on the two people.

I tried to get up,but fell down onto my knees again.The pain was unbearable.I could see blisters on my feet and blood all around the place where I knelt.

I looked up,the picture became clearer and I was taken aback for a moment at what I saw.

My brother and my best friend were tied up on their hands and their bodies hanging with their feet slightly touch the floor,their mouths taped  and a swinging light between them.It took me a while to grasp the situation.

The note in front of me read, ’You should be honored to be my last scapegoat’ …My stomach cringed and I sensed more pain from a bruise on the chest. ‘Whom do you love the most? Show me…You have 5min’

I realized I didn’t have time to try to recollect how I ended up here.It was as if I had blackouted last evening and now here I was.This guy was a psycho indeed,the pain was unbearable and to see the two bodies in front of me and the gun placed on a small red pillow in front of me,it gave shivers.

I was asked to kill!! To pick between my brother and my best friend.Not just pick,to shoot the other.As each minute passed,the rope tying them rose higher.I had to make a choice here if I were to save atleast one.

Who do I save?Who do I kill?…………………………………………..

’You should be honored to be my last scapegoat, ‘ Whom do you love the most? Show me’

           ………………………………………..

Do I go with the blood line or do I go with the friendship.My first instinct was to save my brother.He is family afterall.How can I go back and tell my parents that I had to kill my own brother,their son.

Blood and sweat rolled down my face as I lifted the gun.Both of them were movin about a little and it seemed as if they were coming back to their senses!..God!! To kill either,looking them in the eye after all these years…how could this happen to me!?Why God!? Why create such a psycho!!

I realized I didn’t have much time in hand..raised the gun and pointed it at my friend.I could sense both of them trying to free themselves,equally shocked waking up to such a situation.A thought ran through my mind.My friend was the only son to his parents, if I saved him,then they whould be left abandoned,their dreams and hopes shattered ..Parents living to see their childs funeral.

But,if I were to point it towards my brother,it would be pain I would’ve to live with lifelong,it will be pain for my family too,but they will move on,as afterall they would’ve me,atleast one son of theirs would be alive to give them some meaning in life ,unlike the other case. Will that be a partly win- win situation if there is no way out of the solution.

…Who would you pick?...

I looked down at the paper.I stared at it for a few seconds and I made the choice..I pulled the trigger.

I had realized that what was written on the paper was true.I was the last scapegoat for the killer,which would be so only if the killer himself died. After all I had failed to recognize my own handwriting the first time I read it.I blacked out forever.