In The Mirror

After a few hours had passed, the sun hit me through the window, making a newfound warmth flow through my body. It was a new day, meaning her phone had to be charged. "Come on dammit, I need you to work," I muttered, holding the power button. 

As my fingers held the button tightly, the screen lit up, and the home wallpaper appeared. I was in. "Yes!" I shouted excitedly, finally able to access the phone and its contents. This was it, right? All the information I needed had to be in my hands.

Without thinking about it, I opened the camera app. When she was in class she sometimes had her gallery open, something had to be on there. Whether I wanted to see this or not, I needed to check. This was it; this was the proof I needed. 

"My name... I'm... I- I barely remember my name. It's been months since anything started, months since he first assaulted me in the classroom, months since Mr. Olfred locked me in the room with him. He- I- If you're watching this, I'm sorry. By this point, I probably took my life, but in the event I didn't take my life... It was him.

After the first time, all I could do was cry, I felt so... violated. I felt like my innocence was taken from me, I just wanted to be a normal teenager, and... and... and they let that monster do what he wanted! The Dean knew what he did, I told her through my tears, and she threatened to expel me if I ever told another person.

Even when- even when I tried to tell another person. Nobody believed me. They said a school wouldn't do that. They said… The police said that I was making it up and threatened to arrest me for false reports.

The principal was there with her, yet she stayed silent, only glaring at me without a thought in her eyes. And he... He did it again and again... almost every single day. My arms and legs were covered in scars, I begged my parents to stay home, but I had to go to school and 'get that education' as my mom put it. 

I looked in the mirror some days and saw how my reflection was battered, so bruised, I felt disgusted just looking at myself... I had to throw up whenever I saw… me, I had to throw up whenever I thought about it…

And then... And then... the Dean slapped me when I showed up to school. She told me to apologize to him and... you don't want to know the rest. I'm sorry Mom, Dad, I didn't want to leave this world... But who wants to stay in a world like this? I wish I died that first time, I wish I- I wish... I wish- God, I-"

Without letting the ten-minute recording finish, I paused it and threw the phone into the seat next to me. "Jesus fucking Christ," I muttered, tears in my eyes as the images of her scars flashed through my mind, what she had described replayed. 

Her arms and legs were more scarred tissue than skin, just bright white up and down the entire length of her body. Tears flooded down her cheeks when she lifted her sleeves and pant legs, yet her eyes didn't show any emotion. I remembered what she used to look like, we had a few classes together, and what was once bright hazel, had become a dull wood color. 

'Kill them all.' A simple command, a single order, that was what came from his voice in my mind. As much as I wanted to shout, my words were caught in my chest. I could feel my skin tighten, wrap around my muscles, my flesh, every vein, all I could do was cry as the burning sensation traveled through my nerves. 

I clawed at my seat, tears flowing down my cheeks and coating my shirt in a salty wetness. The pain was getting worse, I couldn't hold it back anymore, and I let out a scream powerful enough it could have shattered windows. 

My heartbeat sped up, beating through my shirt and tearing apart the flesh in my chest. My pale hand was barely visible through my blurry eyes, it was hard to even think, and with a final motion, the dark voice shot words through my mind. 'Lights out, Liam. It's my turn.'

"No, stop it!" I cried out, my body getting more tense as my vision began to turn black. Slowly, I felt myself lose more control over my limbs, the pain was fading away, and I was with it.

***

I flung the boy back from the chair, sending him spiraling through the air as I sat down. Taking control of the body in an instant, what he couldn't do, I sure as hell would. Without another sound, the burning tension that scraped my skin faded, the tears went away, and I sat silently, moving the leather seat under my weight. 

"Ahh, finally. It's been years since I had control, that little bastard," I spat out with a grin, flashing my teeth. It would have been nice to enjoy my time, maybe have a night with a good woman, maybe rob a store, but my sister would take over if I tried anything other than helping the little shit. "How about I get some information the fun way?"

In minutes, I was standing outside the house of the old teacher, the one who was executed. I had an idea or two, maybe three. If this didn't work, I could always just torture his wife, but my sister would complain, and I wasn't in the mood. 

'Phone, check. Flash drive, also check. Let's roll,' I thought with a smile as I crept around the back of the brick house. I could barely see through the windows, even with the kid's height of six feet, but that didn't matter. Kitchens didn't interest me, neither did the bedroom, and I had to be careful, I couldn't risk getting arrested.

I pulled up the house floor plans online, referencing an exact copy of the building, which was easy to find considering almost every house in the neighborhood was the same, and a few were for sale. 'Basement should be around here...'

With a quick kick, the window shattered inward, splashing glass all across the gray concrete floor. 'Too much strength? Eh, not that I care,' I thought to myself, punching a glass spike out of the way so I could slide in without much trouble. 

'Volgar, are you seriously breaking into someone's house right now?!' My sister screamed from beside me, trying to shove me out of the chair, but I stayed still like my legs were bolted to the ground. All the while focused on getting through the window without cutting myself.

'If you don't shut up you'll have to explain to Liam when he takes back over why there are cuts all over his stomach, now shut it, Les,' I fired back, dropping in through the opening and landing with a quiet thud without a single scratch.

I glanced around, barely able to see more than some cardboard boxes, the lighting was far too dim deeper in. Although I didn't have as much information as the other two, fortunately, I knew the teacher had died around a month ago. Meaning, that the wife would most likely still be grieving too heavily to look through anything, at least for another few days. 

'Your horrible brother!' Les shouted, but she had finally stepped away from the chair, letting me concentrate on what I was doing. Not caring for making a mess, I stepped over a box and kicked another to the side, catching a whiff of old cheese as it slid, eventually crashing into a table at the end.

"I knew it, of course, he'd be stupid enough to make the basic play of leaving a computer in his basement. If it was me, I'd have made a hidden room or-" I began to rant, but with my sister glaring hard at me, I shut up and pressed the white button with the power logo. 

'You know they're going to ask how we got this information when he presents it to the court at some point, right?' Les asked, however I was more focused on what was in the files. 

'Woah and you guys called me a scumbag!' I yelled internally, grinning like a wild animal as I accessed the photos connected to the email. Hundreds upon hundreds of videos, all showing his "adventures" with the underage students. Including a couple hundred gigabytes of CP. 

Instantly as the photos and videos appeared, my smile went away and was replaced by a grim expression of my lips curled back, almost into a snarl as heat spread through my body, igniting a fire in my chest as I felt the desire to kill him again flare.

'Can you please just put it on the flash drive and we get out of here? I don't want to look at this...' My sister complained, and I nodded in agreement. Although some would call me crazy, I wasn't interested in looking at any of that stuff. Especially with one of the titles. "First time with Emily."

I stuck the flash drive in the computer slot, clicked download, and stepped away. Curiosity had finally gotten to me and I couldn't help but want to look through the boxes. With one movement, fast enough to surprise even a cheetah, my hand stabbed through a box and I opened it up.

Inside was an older camera, but without a doubt, one capable of recording. 'I wonder...' At that thought, I opened the screen attached to its side and played the most recent recording. "Wait a second, this says it was recorded last week, and that's a teenage boy- SHIT!" 

The door to the basement flew open at my final word, footsteps sounded down the old wooden stairs, each followed by a creak and quickly getting louder. 'Fuck, fuck, fuck!' I thought, ducking behind a box. 

Sweat poured down my face, splashing against the floor as the footsteps ended, and I could see her feet planted firmly against the ground, her body facing the broken window. 'Oh, heh, I'm fucked!'

"Who's down here!?" An older voice shouted, her voice echoing against the concrete walls and bouncing around the room. I could tell it was shaky, she wasn't confident. Was this it? I finally get to commit a crime in years, and she's going to stomp it down? "COME OUT NOW YOU LITTLE SHIT!"

My heartbeat sped up and I watched her start to walk around, narrowly going past my box to look at the window closer. The one part of any crime I loved and hated the most was the thrill of being caught. 'Here I go!'

With a kick aimed at the top box, it connected and flew toward her face, hitting her nose with a loud and satisfying crunch. She whirled around, spotted me, and reached into her purse. A second later, I heard a sound I was all too familiar with, the sound of a gun's safety going off. 

"You- You stand still you bitch! My nose!" She cried out, her hand shaky as the gun pointed at my head. Blood trickled out of her nose, slid down her dress, and splattered against the floor. 

As she pointed the gun toward me, she smirked confidently, raising her sharp nose to look at me closer. "Well now, maybe I can forgive you," She mumbled, taking a step closer as a bead of sweat dripped down my chin.

I recognized her now that she was closer, one of the students reported her the year before for messaging him in private and trying to set up a "play date." A sexual meetup. 

The student was soon removed from the school, and mysteriously, all the other students who mentioned it became quiet and jumpy if you asked anything about it.

"Sorry you crazy old coot, I'm a taken man," I replied, grinning wider. My heart was beating even faster, but this is what I wanted, it's what I craved, adrenaline. This time, I had a whole lot of it. And I was never one to skip out on an opportunity for a fight, especially one with someone who had it coming.

Alan Andrews made a valid point on the news, he even got me to pay attention, and one thing he mentioned? His friend Oliver, while boo hoo his friend died, the sacrifice was admirable. Maybe if the kid was more like me he would have been fine.

As the gun got closer to my heart, she started to pull out a rope, but that was exactly what I expected. In a swift movement, I shifted the gun to the side and forced it to go off, and I quickly closed the rest of the distance, landing a kick to her cheek. 

Her body was thrown back, creating a loud crack as she slammed into the floor. The scent of gunpowder filled my nose, yet I wasn't finished yet. 

As she tried to get up, I sprinted closer, throwing myself high up into the air, and with a final punch, a loud crunch cut through the air, snapping her head into the concrete and leaving her unmoving in a small puddle of blood.

'Y-YOU KILLED HER VOLGAR!' My sister screamed, but I silently pointed to her chest which still raised and lowered itself. Not dead, knocked out.

'Shut up sis, how about we get a little confession-' I started, before turning around. The bullet had gone through the computer, cutting off the download and destroying the only real evidence we had against him, but the same couldn't be said for her. 

'Oh my god, you're insane! First, you tell jokes, and now this? We are so getting arrested because of you...' Before my sister could finish speaking, I could hear footsteps running around the side of the house, followed not far behind by sirens. 

"Heh, maybe."