Short Story 2: Monsters
746 Words
Monsters Requested By Kate-lynn Sandilands
As kids we fear the beings sleeping under our beds, the monsters. We fear the dark believing that there are things lurking. As we grow older we out grow these fears but some people know that true monsters are sometimes humans…
Bang! Bang!
The sound carries through the sleeping town.
Bang! Bang!
There it is again. The babysitter hushes the now awake children and assures them everything is alright. The babysitter, a mere teenager, brushes the noise off as a bunch of boys making a racket with crackers. It wouldn’t be the first for the small town. When the children’s parents return she makes her way home.
When she arrives the house is still dark. If her parent’s had, had normal jobs she would have been alarmed but seeing as it wasn’t out of the ordinary for them to work late she suspected nothing. It is only when she steps through the door that she realises something is horribly wrong. The atmosphere in the house is colder than usual and when she switches on the lights, she makes a horrible discovery.
She lets out a horrid scream as her world crumbles away. She runs to her parents and tries to help them but it’s too late. Her parents were gone. The neighbour runs in and discovers the girl on her knees trembling, rocking herself back and forth. The neighbour picks the girl up and calls the cops.
The cops pitch up and the girl is swept into a whirlwind. The cops ask her questions and she answers them truthfully. Luckily her alibi adds up and the weapon isn’t found on her. They dust her for gunshot residue but the test comes back negative on her hands. Her clothes however test positive but it could have transferred when she had tried to help her parents. All in all the police can’t tie her to the crime and she is released to her aunt and uncle.
Months pass and there are no new leads on the case. The case gets placed with rest of the cold cases where it is forgotten. The girl placed in a mental facility so that she could heal.
Years pass. The girl is older. Her name changed long ago. She places the past behind her until she becomes a cop. In her free time she investigates her parents’ murder but also finds herself a companion. He too suffers from a mental disorder but they both keep it well hidden. He is older than her by five years but they get along well having almost everything in common except for one vital piece. He is able to put his past behind him, where she can’t.
More years pass and soon they are married. Her parents’ case is blown wide open when a man remembers seeing a man running towards a waiting car with a gun in his hand, the same night she heard the crackers. She questions more people of the town and discovers that many recalled the night vividly. It had been the town’s very first murder in centuries. A woman recalls a car standing in front of her house. The car had driven off as soon as a man climbed into it. She gave some details about the man but it would take years before she finally identified the man.
When she did, a part of her broke. She presents the file to the DA and he says it’s enough to press charges. She makes her way to the place she called home for years, her husband waiting on the porch for her with a smile. Her heart beats a deadly rhythm as it turns to ice. Her husband comes to her in concern but before he can say or do anything she has cuffs in her hands. The man slumps but doesn’t say a thing. He turns around and she places the cuffs on him. She recites the Miranda Warning and leads him to the waiting police cruiser. He gets in and her colleagues drive him away.
A few weeks later her husband is charged with two counts of First degree murder and sentenced to life in prison with no parole. She had managed to close her parents’ case and this gave her the chance to restart which she did. Finally putting the past behind her she moved to a different country but never forgetting what she learnt.
Humans were sometimes the worst kind of monsters…
- Writer
