Into Insanity

6| Setting the stage

So there it was, the stage was set. Henry's plan seemed to be working pretty well for now. Okay, maybe they were working excellent. But it's time to discuss about Henry, there is little given till now and if one pieces them accordingly one might arrive at conclusions that, Henry was a psychotic, or maybe a sadist, maybe if one is a soft reader Henry may strike as a demon.

The truth is, he was just as human as everyone is. A human with a slightly dark side, this dark side kept accumulating in him ever since he started to learn. He had a natural liking towards murder, killings, and the horrible side of humanity. But we can't say Henry was a psychotic, or sadist because he liked all of this.

Then maybe blame it on the hormones. Yes, this could be true, however, unlike most Hollywood films on teenage hatred and love, one doesn't simply plan a murder of a fellow boy because the fellow kissed the heroine of the film. Hormones are there to bring change, they develop the physical appearance of the human being, the mental changes occur because we adapt to these changes. They play a small part in this.

Our interest is what drives us, it is as simple as that. It was also same for Henry, his interest, his liking for violence and horror, gave him the ammunition to think all about it. The fact that he hid all the clippings of murders from the daily newspaper under the cupboard was also something which promoted him in this way. His parents knew nothing about it. Now why did he take a sudden liking to this? A possible explanation could be him being an introvert, he hated being that because it was difficult to talk and express and he knew perfectly that he had to change it, that feeling when the answer is at the tip of the tongue but the hand raising part would catch all of their attention it was driving him crazy so tried to change his social behavior, but instead, as we see, he ended up masking it that means it was there still and it would still remind him and he was still socially awkward. So, it was only natural for him to be sharp, cunning yet shy and weak, this was also the reason he chose to act violently.

Now about the mask. If you've ever tried to put on a fake smile on a really boring sermon at the church or tried to hide the yawns at a lecture. Then you'd probably know about the mask. Interestingly Henry was exceedingly good at it. He hid a lot of things from the outside world, he was developing himself without any breakdowns or bad thoughts, he had those every day and he liked them already, so it wasn't a big problem. Problem was when he felt that he should act on those thoughts, he suppressed these thoughts and used them only as a way of entertaining his mind but to act on those was a whole new area.

But Jeremy, unknowingly of course, had pushed all the triggers, levers, and buttons in Henry to allow him to act on the feelings and that's what he would be doing henceforth, throughout his life.

*

7:45. It was evening, the caws of the crows had begun to go quiet. The ink black sky looked sinister. The trees began to look as black as their shadows. The streetlights began to turn on. The yellow lights gave a strange feeling. A girl cycled her way through the street, at dusk, everything looks black from far away even the houses and cars. She strained her eyes and slowly went past Henry's house. She looked at it and her little heart began to thump loudly in her chest. The house looked black as the others, but she could smell the foulness coming from the house, she though the foulness was green like stinky gas and that if she smelled the gas she would die. She peddled faster and soon disappeared becoming one with the darkness ahead.

Henry wore yellow hoodie with dark denim jeans, he picked some money and looked at himself, in the mirror he looked just like an underground fella only a better one than the most. He felt the excitement rise up in him, the revenge, the freedom, and the action of it all. He flexed his arm and left the house.

Sharply at 8, Henry reached the spot. It was the west side of the statue which pointed north towards Chandler street. There weren't many eating places in this area, most of them were on the east side where the park is, the west side was always a little quiet place with thorny plants and crooked trees. People who lived on this side were more or less broke families or simply those who gave no thought on the social myths in the town. The west side had the scandalous school, the one where the murder of a child had occurred. People spoke in a hushed tone about west side and especially of the school. It had only been a year and half since that incident and slowly the school was shut down.

The restaurant Henry chose was specific for his plan as was time, this restaurant was closest and took less time to drive to his school.

Henry called Rodrick on the phone and Roddy came straight to him with five people this time,

"Ready?" Roddy asked, Henry nodded.

"Here is some money, I want you to buy some cans of petroleum." Henry said giving him the money,

"How much?"

"Just spend all of the money on it. But be careful, okay, distribute the money and each of buy separately from separate stores." Henry explained.

"Then?" Roddy asked,

"Bring your cars here at 8:45 sharp, then turn on the headlights as a signal that the rest of your people have done their job. Rest of it I'll tell you later on phone." He said,

"How much am I gettin'?" Roddy asked,

"Name your price." Henry smiled as Roddy shook hands with him and the cars by which Roddy and his gang came, began to leave.

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Coming up next:- The plan get full throttle. Henry makes a confession but why is he hesitating now?