Chapter 20: Erasing the Past

This was the first step.

He knew without cutting previous ties, he couldn't become what he desperately believed he needed to. No matter how much he went over it in his head, he was hesitant.

Memories he had long forgotten rushed into his head.

His first steps.

The way his mother held him when he had an injury.

When he did junior soccer, and baseball in middle school. The look of his family's proud faces as he scored his first homerun.

Every sweet, sugary moment that defined his humanity came crashing to the forefront of his brain, clouding his resolve.

He was having doubts.

Despite that, he watched his mother happily chat away on her date with her new boyfriend, and couldn't help but feel the suppressed bitterness rush up from the darkest parts of his heart. Her smiling face, as if she had completely forgotten her children and her previous duty as a parent. She had forgotten them.

No, she didn't forget.

She ignored them.

She wanted nothing to do with them anymore, and that was evident to him. He was going to get her back for that. Her and the man who was unfortunate enough to be there with her.

He was patient. He could wait until they dropped their guard.

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The house was dark. There was a lingering heat in the air when he stepped inside. His eyes bounced all around, trying to pierce the darkness, and once adjusted, he gripped the dagger in his palm tightly until his knuckles turned white.

Slowly, he tiptoed up the staircase by the kitchen, working his way around the oak wood until he reached the top floor, and began to slide his way silently down the hall.

The first door he opened was a small room. A twin sized bed, decorated with a barbie design. A small head was peeking out from the comforter.

Blonde hair.

He couldn't see much more than that from the crack of the door. Closing it silently, he moved onto the next.

He counted door number five, at the end of the hall, before he opened and peeked inside. There she was, clothes discarded, face down in the bed. The man from earlier wasn't visible, but he could hear the shower running from where he was.

Taking his chances, he slipped inside the room, dagger shining gently from the moonlight outside. He crawled on top, rolling her over gently, allowing her to groan and stir softly in the darkness. She couldn't see him, not clearly.

But she was all he saw.

"Dear… Again…?" She muttered, reaching up and touching his face. "Fine, but you have to do me this time, okay?"

Her eyes shut, waiting.

Dagger raised in the dark, he brought it down swiftly, driving it deep into her chest. Her eyes widened, but he cupped her mouth shut to stop her screams of agony and pain. His lips pushed together, he shushed her silently, letting her weakening limbs drop onto the bed before drawing the blade back out, blood dripping from the tip.

He did it.

He took her life, and it was so easy.

The bathroom door opened, light shining on the boy's back. His eyes widened when he whipped his head around, locking eyes with the boyfriend, who in turn watched the dagger and the lifeless woman in bed.

"Who the fuck are you!? What did you do to her?!"

The boy moved, tripping on the bed sheets, but finding his balance rushing at the man. The boyfriend grabbed the lamp nearby, ripping it front its socket and crashing it against the boy's head, before grabbing him by his hair and driving his knee into his nose.

Blood squirt, but he ignored the pain. He felt a harder hit before. From someone he thought he could trust.

Twirling the dagger, he swung aimlessly, hoping to hit his target before he was knocked to the floor, the man getting on top of him and throwing knuckle after knuckle into his face.

The dagger dropped, the boy stopped the man's fists and pushed him off, scrambling to grab the small blade. Hands wrapped around his ankle, pulling him back, flipping him on his side before a foot crashed into his chest.

The air left his lungs, and he lay there on the carpet trying to catch his breath. It didn't occur to him the man had moved to produce a nine millimeter handgun from one of his drawers, cocking the pistol and taking aim at the boy's head.

His eyes looked up dazed, but he had expected this. He knew about possibly running into an issue like this, and thought back to those hours of discipline he put himself through after leaving the hotel.

He moved his leg quickly, kicking the gun into the air as it fired. The bullet ripped through the man's skull, brushing his brain and exiting directly out the back and piercing the drywall. He stumbled back as the boy leapt for the dagger, grabbing it, before whipping around and driving it deep into the man's throat. With an angry cry, he dragged it across his throat, blood spewing on his face before it exited through muscle and flesh.

He fell with a thud, towel dropped and soaking the blood that stained the carpet and oozed from his throat.

The boy wiped his face of the blood with his sleeve, turning around to leave. His eyes widened when he came face to face with a little blonde haired girl, eyes half open and woozy. "Daddy… Are you up..?"

Her voice was small. She was young, about ten years old.

He straightened his jaw.

Could he really? Was he capable of doing something so awful? So cold? Though, thinking back on the plan, they both agreed to no witnesses, no matter how small there were.

Or young.

He counted to ten, taking a deep breath, before walking towards the little girl. He tossed the blade into the air, letting it come down and fall into his grip.

"I'm sorry. God abandoned you today."

He leapt at her, pinning her to the floor and driving the blade into her chest, listening to her howls of horror and pain echo into the emptiness of the night.