Murder Case.

Pg 30

"I know you think I'm wicked and after what you all have put me through, I am wicked" Mr Barlow said.

" how did we make you wicked and how is Brian a part of this?" Lydia said.

He looked on, snubbing Lydia's question, then with a teary eyes, he narrated; "I was the only child of my parents. I was seen as a creep. I never could fit into any activity. In school, I was bullied and at home my parents hated me. I had to run away" he paused to see if his audience were interested and Lydia was listening. Satisfied, he continued, his face tilted up dramatically again; "I ran away. And no matter where I ran to, I still never fitted in. And so, I came back. Luckily for me, my parents accepted me back and I finally settled down"

"I got married, had kids and they all got killed by my own best friend" he sniffed.

Lydia sat confused about his story and Mr Barlow smiled; "intriguing un? My best friend ruining my life. And you don't have to ask what I did, because I took laws into my hands and I killed him. And then...then... That was when I knew what he had done. Killing him didn't bring my wife, it didn't back my children, it didn't bring back my job. Heck! It didn't bring back my life. I was dead to me." He paused, then repeated; "I was dead to me"

He stood up and squatted right at her front then said; "you know his secret? He's a serial killer, a mental disorder...... Of killing people and replacing them with a plate of yellow soup and a short letter which read "Enjoy" He used me as a victim for his disorder, killing my family and to rub it on my face, he replaced them with a fucking soup with a note, Enjoy?!" he roared, then calming himself, he watched her reaction, she was shocked.

He continued; "I started all over again with my life but I couldn't succeed. The bully resumed. Even at my age, I was bullied and humiliated and despised" he watched with great intensity; "after watching my life slip away from my hands for several years, I vowed that the next person who would humiliate me would die exactly the way my family died, replaced with a plate of yellow soup" he smiled, seeing the way Lydia's eyes grew wide.

"What I would never regret, was making him teach me how to make the yellow soup before killing him" he exhaled then rapped; "do you know what it means to be humiliated, brought down and looked on as a creep and untop of all that be betrayed by your own very best friend? Hell! I took him as a brother!"

"So you made the soup and used it to replace people you murdered?" Lydia felt irritated by this man.

"Correct" he replied, walking back to his sit. "Correct miss" he sat down.

Lydia was more than grateful that moment, that she wasn't tempted to shook her finger inside the soup and taste it at the bar yesterday. "And you lie to people that it's a family thanksgiving stuff" she couldn't help but remember when Rachael explained that to her.

"Oh, would you rather I tell people that I kill people and replace them with it?" He asked, standing up.

"How does the truth sound in your ears?" Lydia asked him and he raised to her and hit her on her cheeks, watching her moan in pain. "You're a beast!" She cried out.

"How would you feel, if you learnt your entire family got killed by your best friend?!" He asked her sharply.

Lydia's mind raised at Ann and Mary, her roommates in school, they were the only two best friends she had.

"Brian doesn't still have anything to do with this"  she said, wincing in pain as she grabbed her cheek that hurt and gasped for air, swallowing the blood that potruded from her torn lips.

"Have you forgotten when Brian and his pals insulted me in the bar before leaving?" He asked her.

Lydia took her mind back to the afternoon at the bar, just before Brian and his friends where about leaving. She remembered Mr Barlow yelling something like;  "Hey! Ger outta here doop-holes!" and Brian immediately mimicking him with a; "Hey ger yen yen yen doop- holes"

*****

Brian mimicked and they all laughed.

"More like doo hoes" Jason said and they laughed.

"Roger Mr Borrow!" Red said and they burst out laughing in crescendo.

******
She remembered everything. She remembered seeing Mr Barlow looking at them with a glimpse of evil in his eyes as they left the bar that afternoon. She remembered sighting Mr Barlow packing the soup inside a big cooler when she's leaving, grumbling some words to himself. And now it struck her, he wasn't only grumbling, she remembered glancing at his face; he had a line - shaped mouth and a dubious eyes, like he had something planning. She had thought he was only grumbling because he had found out that his yellow soup got burnt. Her face felt cold at the realization.