• Please visit the prior chapter and follow the links from thereL

    Chapter 21

    tab The picture of my dying son fading away in my hands swirled around in my head as I drove down the ever familiar Doom's Street. Any other time, I'd look at the road mark with those rusty words and chuckle to myself. But that day, I didn't. Doom's Street had finally lived up to its name for. Doom wasn't just haunted houses. Doom was what you least expected. Your worst nightmare. For me, losing Elizabeth. Losing my family.
    tab As the traffic light turned red, I took that still moment to look up at the dangling picture of the three of us, smiling at Disney World. Like every normal family. But now...now my son was dead, killed by a speeding car, and my wife, shot down. Both nameless people. But I told myself that it would be different this time. I wouldn't let Elizabeth's death go unavenged.
    tab And I kept those hopeful thoughts in my head as I turned the curb into the parking lot, stepped out of the car, and walked towards my next interrogation of Charles. This time, I'd find all the answers.
    tab This time, I'd find the truth.

    tab "Well, what do you know. It's Chad! Her for another go, I assume?" John was ready to greet me with a peppy and sarcastic attitude. Some things never change.
    tab "Yes, John. I want to have another 'go'." He stood up, and said,
    tab "Sorry, Chad. There's a little there. You see, well, you can't see him." Not the words I wanted to hear. Not after getting so motivated in the car.
    tab "What?" I said, as if not quite comprehending what he had just told me very clearly.
    tab "As I said, you can't. I can't either. I mean, I'm sure Charles would've--"
    tab "'Would've'?" I gasped, accenting the high tone of the question at the end. "Stop beating around the bush, John. Tell me what's going on." He just gave a small shrug, and replied,
    tab "Getting a bit over this, huh? Well, if you want me to be blunt, fine. Here's a bit of bluntness." John took off his glasses and gave me this solemn look that made the next statement sound so sincere that I could not not believe it,
    tab "Chad, the reason you can't see Charles is because, well, because he's dead."

    tab There was an immediate feeling there. The feeling as though I had lost the battle. Charles was my only link to what happened. Now that he was gone, well, all I had was the few clues I could muster. But none of them could fit together, if I didn't have information to fit them together with.
    tab But there was another feeling. It was an odd feeling, considering what Charles had done to me. But, I felt a stabbing in my stomach. I actually mourned the death of Charles. Charles, in a sense, was my friend. Sure, he put on a mask, and he was never really my friend. But, in a way, I still can't quite believe that Charles had betrayed me. Charles, my best friend for two years. I still remember how we met.

    tab A rainy day. Fells like nothing good could happen this day. Like gloom is hanging in the air.
    tab Driving home is a serious pain. Rain on the road is the worst. It makes me, Chad the nervous driver, into, well, Chad the more nervous driver.
    tab Nervousness doesn't exactly prevent what you're nervous about, though, and for me, that was an accident. And that's exactly what happens. A large crash, and I'm knocked forward. A speeding driver behind me abolishes my car, though I thankfully remain fully intact with only a couple of minor bruises.
    tab I'm tempted to scream at the driver behind me, possibly even swear.
    tab The other driver, though, seems to have a different take of things. He walks up to me, apollogizes, and introduces himself as Charles. We talk, and a couple days later, I get a large check in the mail for repairs on my car. From Charles. Slowly after that, we become closer and closer, until he manages to reach the top of my friend roster.

    tab And now, he was dead. Dead like my son. Like my wife. I felt like I had hit rock bottom, and I couldn't figure out quite how to express that emotion.
    tab "How? How did this happen?" I said with steady, growing crescendo in my voice.
    tab "We're not exactly sure, but a couple investigators are busy, well, investigating his body. They comfirmed the most likely cause was poison."
    tab "What kind of lousy security to have to let a criminal sneak in poison?!" I was more than angry. I was on a rampage.
    tab "Remember, Chad, this is your wife's split-personality murderer we're talking about."
    tab "Shut up! He didn't murder my wife anyw--" I stopped in my tracks. What did he say? Split personality?
    tab "How'd you know Charles was bi-polar?" John faltered for a second, then said,
    tab "Why, you, Chad! Logically, of course, I know you wouldn't be friends with a psychopath who wanted to kill you, so I simply assumed..." I don't know what happened at that moment. I just kind of glanced around for a second, and noticed John's forms laying on the desk. I locked my eyes onto them, and immediately clicked. The handwriting...I recognized.
    tab Out of the instinct of curiousity, I took the papers, and looked at them. I wasn't interested in what they said. I was only interested in the handwriting. The smudged writing of cursive...
    tab "Hey! Chad! What are you doing?" Seemed John wasn't too happy with what I was doing. I didn't care as I pulled the paper farther away from his grasp. I reached into my pocket, and took out the note. After about 15 seconds of quick anaylisis, I found the handwriting to be extremely similar. Which meant John wrote the note.
    tab Which meant, unless a strange coincidence that was highly unlikely, was my wife's murderer.

    tab "So it was you..." I whispered, my voice filled with sounds of anger.
    tab "Have you gone mad, Chad?" [Not part of story: LAWL, IT RHYMES!] "What are you talking about?" I took the papers close to my chest. The feeling of anger burned inside me as I seethed,
    tab "You were my wife's murder...All along...all along it was you!"
    tab "Is this a joke, Chad?! 'Cause I'm not laughing!"
    tab "Look at these!" I pushed the papers forcefully into John's hands, waiting as he looked at the papers with a large question mark above his head.
    tab "What?" was his simple question. My arms flailed in the air like a dramatic cartoon character's as I announced,
    tab "The handwriting! Identical!" John just shook his head and put the papers down on the desk.
    tab "I don't know what you're talking about, Chad, but I don't even know what that note is." John was a good actor. But that's just it. He was acting.
    tab "That's the decoy note the murderer left on my fridge. The note you left on the fridge!"
    tab "Chad, this isn't a graphic novel. Crazy, unexpected plot twists don't just happen. It's just coincidence! Nothing else."
    tab "Right now," I whispered, "I'll accept any coincidence as the truth." He hesitated for a couple seconds, and then mumbled,
    tab "He really wasn't lying when he said you could do it." I gave him a curious look, and said,
    tab "What?" He looked at me gravely, yet still with that smart attitude,
    tab "You really won't back down, will you? And after I practiced my poker face in the mirror for hours. Yeah, you're right, Chad. I'm your wife's murderer." I felt a sudden since of accomplishment I growled, half angry, half fulfilled,
    tab "I know i--" Quickly, though, he interrupted,
    tab "But! What are you going to do about it? Arrest me? John, the police man?"