by Willow Rose
Before she left, she put a hand on the door and whispered:
“I’m sorry, baby.”
68
May 2016
“Why do you keep them up there? Why do you put them in that chair?”
Shannon had to try and keep her temper down. The girl’s screams were getting louder and louder and more and more insistent. She had a hard time coping with it and with the fact that the mad woman in front of her was in fact her own family, her flesh and blood.
Kimberly finished her coffee, pretending like she couldn’t hear a thing, then looked at Shannon. She cleared her throat as if she wanted to make sure Shannon was listening. Shannon’s plan was to keep her talking while she figured out how to get all of them out of there.
“I don’t get it,” she continued. “If you’re going to kill them anyway? Why not kill them right away?”
“Oh, but I’m no monster,” Kimberly said. “I keep them with me; they grow up here with me until they reach a certain age and I see traits in them come to life. Until then, we have a great time here. But, at some point, they start to change. It can be as early as six years of age as it was for Little Miss Muffit or maybe not until they are around ten, like Betsy Sue. I observe them closely, especially when they play with the dolls; if the dolls tend to get hurt a lot, if limbs are being torn off, then I know it’s about time for them to go in the chair. It’s all for their own—and for the rest of the world’s protection.”
“So you keep them up there, tied to a chair, to prevent them from what…killing someone? Is that what you think they’ll do?”
“Oh, I know they will.”
“But they die up there!”
“Oh, no. I feed them and give them water. But I have to keep them strapped down. I see the shift in their eyes. It doesn’t happen overnight, you know. It comes gradually. When it’s time, it’s time. There is nothing much I can do about it. As I said. It’s also for their own protection. But once they’re strapped down, I keep them fed and provided for. I am no monster.”
“But Bibby Libby died. They found her remains in that tunnel just the other day,” Shannon argued. She knew the woman in front of her was mad, and her answers wouldn’t make much sense, but she had to keep her talking.
“Bibby, I had to kill. Just like Rosa. Once they mess up, once they overstep the line and kill, I have to get rid of them. I tell them that when they’re younger. I tell them they have the gene in them, that they are pre-disposed to be killers, and if they do it, they will be killed themselves.”
“Who did Bibby kill?”
“Old Bryden. The man who lived across the street from us. She developed the traits so fast, it was too late once I realized it. She had snuck out through the tunnels in the kitchen and had escaped. I came too late. He was already dead when I got there. Hit his head on a rock in the back yard. She made it look like an accident, the clever girl, but it wasn’t. I was the only one who knew it wasn’t. Last night, Betsy Sue killed his son. Kicked him in the back so he’d fall to his death. Again, I came too late, but I caught her as she tried to escape the place. I placed your husband’s, sorry your fiancé’s card in his hand, to keep the police looking in the other direction, if you catch my drift. Anyway. That’s when I grabbed her and brought her back. She’s too dangerous to have running loose. All these girls are. That’s why the ravens like them so much, you know. Because they smell like death. All these little girls do.”
“So now you have to kill her, is that it?” Shannon asked, wondering if Kimberly really couldn’t hear how crazy it all sounded.
“Yes. I got the idea from a book my aunt wrote. See, it was while reading it that I realized the general didn’t punish his daughter for playing with the wrong boy. No, I researched it. Old newspaper articles at the library told me the boy died. He fell from a rooftop. So that’s when I realized why the general punished her. He had to. He must have realized that she had pushed the boy down from their roof.” She paused for effect, it seemed, then continued. “I went through the same thing myself. My daughter Rosa. I had to punish her, you must understand this, I had to do it. Once I realized she had killed her baby brother and her father. Now, I couldn’t kill her myself. I didn’t have the heart to, just like the general couldn’t kill his own daughter, so I simply left her there. I didn’t go up there till a week later when she had been quiet for at least a day.”
Shannon could hardly breathe. The gruesomeness of her stories was too much to cope with. Shannon wanted to scream and run, but knew that her aunt was crazy enough to kill her if she did.
“So, who do you have up there now?”
“Right now I have Miss Muffit up there with Betsy Sue. The worst part is the smell, you know from when they defecate themselves. It’s quite a mess. Now Betsy Sue hasn’t been fed or had a drink since I brought her back; she’s being punished for what she did to the younger Mr. Bryden, whereas Miss Muffit, I am still feeding. I only noticed her being very rough with the dolls, ripping off an arm the other day, but there is still hope for her. Alas, probably not for long.” Kimberly smacked her lips and looked into Shannon’s eyes with a smile.
“More coffee?”
69
May 2016
Shannon sipped her coffee using her bleeding arm. It hurt like crazy to even move it. Yet she managed to grab the handle of the cup with the inscription, I may look like a doll, but I’m not a toy—on top of a picture of a doll with big blue eyes. Shannon could hardly lift it and the cup was shaking heavily as she tried to reach her mouth. Shannon didn’t dare not to drink her coffee and make Kimberly upset.
She managed to get one sip in and fought long to swallow it, before she could finally put the cup back on the table. Luckily, Tyler was still asleep and didn’t seem to notice any of what was going on. Shannon was getting more and more nervous after listening to Kimberly and realizing just how crazy she really was.
Kimberly gulped down more coffee. She emptied cup after cup. Shannon noticed her lips were getting brown and dry. Every time the cup left her mouth, Kimberly wet them with her tongue, and then smacked them again.
“Heather never killed anyone, so there’s a hole in your little theory right there,” Shannon said. “With the whole gene thing.”
Who am I kidding? Trying to argue with her? Trying to reason with her?
Kimberly looked at Shannon, then smiled. “She didn’t, did she?”
“No. And neither did my mom. She never killed anyone either.”
“She didn’t, did she?”
“Stop saying that!” Shannon snapped.
Kimberly leaned back in her chair. “I’m just saying: how do you know?”
Because I know, you crazy freak!
“Plus it was my aunt Agnes’s husband who killed those three girls and the nanny – not Aunt Agnes,” Shannon said.
“Really? And just how do you know that it was him? As far as I know the murders were never solved.”
Shannon sighed. She was so tired and had no more strength to argue.
“So, what do you think?” Kimberly asked after a few minutes of silence between them. She was drumming her fingers impatiently on the table. The sound was driving Shannon nuts.
Shannon looked at her, confused. “What do you mean?”
Kimberly tilted her head and smiled. “I’m trying here, Shannon. I’m trying to involve you.”
“I…I don’t think I understand.”
Kimberly sighed, then rolled her eyes. “What do you think I should do with you two?”
Shannon stared at her aunt, scrutinizing her eyes, wondering what she would say if she simply said Let us go?
“I just want to go home,” Shannon said. “I have a daughter. I am engaged to be married. We’re supposed to be married this Saturday, as a matter of fact.”
“Tsk, tsk. And you didn’t even think about inviting your old aunt, now did you?” Kimberly said.
“I…I didn’t know where to find you,” Shannon said. “I didn’t even know you lived right here.�
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“Nice try,” Kimberly said. “No, I know my family doesn’t want me. I know they all believe I’ve gone mad. But they’ll know I’m telling the truth. Some day the world outside will understand.”
“So what are you going to do with us?” Shannon asked, trying to get the talk away from once again digging into her aunt’s crazy theories.
“I knew they never would understand why I killed Rosa,” she said, ignoring Shannon’s attempt to turn the conversation. “That’s why I put her in the tunnels after she had gone quiet. Her and her dad. I had to keep them away and pretend we had all left so no one would wonder where we were. I closed off the house and used only the back entrance when going out. My dolls and I were safe here for a little while. Until I realized that this murder gene would only spread. I read lots and lots of articles about it, and it is real. I’m not making this up, Shannon. Murderers are born with a gene that makes them more likely to kill. Scientists from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden have conducted tests on prisoners. They found that the majority of violent criminals carried the same genes. It’s true. It was published in the journal of Molecular Psychiatry, and they concluded that violent criminals have a particular set of genes, but these genes were not carried by petty criminals. So now you understand why I had to react, right? People in our family were still having children and there was no telling what they would end up like. Would they develop the gene? Would they become murderers themselves? I knew no one would ever believe me. Still, I had to protect people, protect everyone from ending up like my poor Rick and poor Joseph. No one should suffer the way I have. NO ONE!”
Kimberly hit her fist on the table as she said—well, more like yelled—the last words out in the kitchen. “So, yes, I took their babies. I observed the girls as they grew up and hoped and prayed that they wouldn’t develop into monsters, but so far they all have. The world should know I only did it to protect them.”
Shannon didn’t know quite what to say. Kimberly’s yelling scared her. It woke up Tyler, who had started to fuss. Shannon tried to calm him down by moving her arm carefully up and down.
Kimberly looked at him with a gentle smile. “And now you have given me a boy,” she said. “He looks just like my baby Rick. We used to call him Rikki Rick. Did you know that? And now he has finally come back to me.”
70
May 2016
Kimberly was holding the knife in her hand. She was staring at Shannon and Tyler, while the tip of the knife was tapping rhythmically on the table. No one had spoken for five minutes or maybe even more. Shannon tried to keep still and not say anything to offend Kimberly, to not set her off. She let her eyes run around the kitchen, looking for a way out. All the windows had bars on them; Kimberly was blocking the door to the hallway; there was no way she could get past her. But maybe there was something else she could do. Her eyes landed on the chest leaned up against the wall to the right of her. She remembered what Jack had told her after talking to Betsy Sue. An idea shaped rapidly in her head.
But what about the girls upstairs? You can’t just leave them?
She’d have to come back later for them. With the police. As long as she managed to get Tyler out with her. It was risky and she knew she risked the girl’s lives. It certainly wasn’t an easy decision. But if she didn’t do something, they might all end up dead.
“But Shannon, I hope you’ll one day forgive me for doing this to you,” Kimberly said. “But you two are too dangerous to have roaming about out there. I will have to kill you. And it’s such a shame, because I really do enjoy your music. You are my favorite singer of all time. Did you know that? Well, you are. I play your music for the girls all the time. It really is too bad. But don’t worry. I will take good care of little Rikki Rick here. We can only hope he’ll be the one to break the evil cycle, break the curse lingering upon our family, am I right?” she ended her sentence with a loud laugh.
Shannon felt like punching her in the face, but the knife in her hand scared her. She had already stabbed Shannon’s arm and she was terrified she would hurt Tyler if she tried anything. She had to think it all through.
“So, what do you say, Shannon? You’ve been so quiet the past few minutes.” Kimberly smacked her lips again.
Shannon licked her own dry lips. “I say I would like that second cup of coffee after all.”
Kimberly lit up. “Well, what do you know? I can’t deny a dying woman her last wish, now can I? I’ll have to make some more then.”
With the knife in her hand, she got up and walked to the kettle, still so close to the door that Shannon wouldn’t make it if she tried to run for it. Kimberly boiled the water, while Shannon put her plan together, drops of sweat running from her forehead. Kimberly whistled as she prepared the cup for Shannon and put it on the table in front of her. Shannon looked at it.
“But it’s empty,” she said.
Kimberly laughed. “I have been among killers for so very long, my dear. Don’t you think I know how they think? How they see every little item as a weapon? You were planning on throwing the coffee in my face, weren’t you? And then making a run for it. Tsk. Tsk. Do you really think I am that STUPID?” With the last word, Kimberly raised the knife high in the air and let it fall on Shannon’s hand, the one on the already hurt arm, pinning it to the table.
Shannon screamed in pain.
“There. Now you’re not going anywhere,” Kimberly said and sat down. She grabbed herself a new cup of coffee and sipped it, slurping every sip like it was soup. Shannon was crying now. “Please. Just let me go,” she said.
“Sorry. No can do.”
Kimberly looked into her steaming coffee cup, while Shannon reached under the table and with one leg, managed to kick the leg of Kimberly’s chair so she tipped over, the hot coffee spilling in her face.
Now it was Kimberly’s turn to scream.
Meanwhile, Shannon had to react fast. She put Tyler onto her lap, grabbed the handle of the knife with her good hand, and pulled it out of her wound with a loud scream worthy of an Amazon Warrior Woman.
Now she was the one with the power. Somehow, she managed to get Tyler up in her hurt arm so she could swing the knife in front of her, threatening Kimberly, who was slowly getting back on her feet now, her face red and burning.
“You bastard. I knew you’d try and kill me. You’re a murderer, Shannon! Just like the rest of them.”
Shannon had an almost manic look in her eyes as she stared at Kimberly, her nostrils flaring.
“Yes. Yes, I am a murderer. You better stay away from me, Kimberly, or I will make sure to show you exactly what this murder gene is capable of.”
71
May 2016
“Don’t be stupid, Shannon,” Kimberly said. “You can’t get out of here. The door is locked and I have the key. Give me the knife.”
“Get back!” Shannon yelled. Her bleeding hand was hurting like crazy, but she still managed to hold on to Tyler by clutching him close to her torso. Blood was dripping rapidly onto the floor. Shannon was getting dizzy from the loss of blood and the room soon started to spin.
Shannon tried hard to stay conscious, but had to close her eyes again and again to not fall. She swung the knife at Kimberly, hoping it would scare her, but soon she didn’t know what was up and what was down anymore. Seconds later, the floor came towards her face and she wondered why she didn’t even feel it as it smacked her cheek.
Then everything went black.
When Shannon came to, she was awakened by a loud noise. Voices, loud voices yelling, Kimberly screaming. A baby crying.
Tyler!
Shannon blinked her eyes several times to better be able to see, and as her vision slowly came back, she realized Kimberly was fighting someone, and that someone seemed to be winning. They were throwing punches at each other, kicking and screaming, but mostly Kimberly was flying through the air.
Tyler. Where is Tyler? I can hear him crying!
Shannon spotted him on the floor. He was lying on his back, c
rying helplessly, but otherwise he seemed unharmed. She dragged herself to him, using her good hand and pulled him close to her, using her body to protect him, while she turned to watch the two women fight. Kimberly now grabbed a chair and swung it at the other woman. It broke on her back and the woman fell to the ground with a thump.
Kimberly stood above her triumphantly with the knife in her hand, lifting it high in the air, ready to let it fall, when Shannon managed to get up on her good arm, grab a coffee cup with a doll image that had fallen to the floor and swing it at her. It hit Kimberly right in the head. She froze, the knife in mid-air, then her eyes rolled back in her head and she fell, stiff like a tree, to the ground.
“Gotcha!”
The woman got up, checked on the knocked out Kimberly, then came towards Shannon. Her face seemed familiar, but Shannon didn’t know where from. She was extremely strong for someone who looked like she could be in her sixties.
“Are you okay?”
The woman lifted Tyler up from the floor and handed him to Shannon, so she could hold him with her good arm. Then she grabbed a dishtowel, ripped it apart, and wrapped Shannon’s hand in it, then used the other part for her arm. “We need to get you to the hospital,” she said.
“Thank you,” Shannon said.
“Oh, by the way, I’m Melanie Vann,” she said.
Shannon blinked again. “Vann? As in Agnes Vann?”
“Here, let me help you get up,” Melanie said, and put her arm around Shannon’s back and helped her get up on a chair. “Yes, Agnes was my mother.”
“So you were the last child? The one who survived?” Shannon asked.
Melanie nodded. “Yes. I guess you’ve heard the story like most people around here. My sisters were all killed in this house many years ago. I was only four when it happened. Never saw a thing. Sound asleep upstairs. I told my mother I didn’t want the house when she died. No wonder, huh? Never could stand it. I haven’t thought about it for years, not until they called me a week or so ago from City Hall and told me the house was abandoned and had been for a long time. They had tried hard to track me down for years and they wanted to know what I wanted to do with it. It was still in Kimberly’s name, but no one had heard from her for years. I told them to tear the thing down. Nothing but bad things have happened here. Still, I wanted to come and see it for myself, you know face my demons and see if there was anything worth saving. Maybe get some closure. I flew in late this afternoon and wanted to come here right away. Get it over with. I didn’t know there would be anyone here. I heard screaming when walking down the street. The front door was locked, so I had to break down the back entrance. I’m sure glad I did. That woman was about to stab you when you were out cold.”
