Wormed Into my Heart

Chapter 9: Encore

"I have a question for the defendant, your honor."

The judge nodded.

"Miss.. TikTok Famous Worm, is it?"

Sarah stared at the lawyer's dead, soulless eyes, then quietly nodded in response.

"You had a husband before meeting Chase Hudson, is that correct?"

"Yes."

"And this husband also died?"

"He died after he donated his kidney to me."

"Oh, but if this record is correct, you met him a few days before the operation, got him to donate his kidney to you, and then you married as he was dying?"

"Yes, that's correct."

"So if what you say is correct, that you framed Miss D'Amelio for the murder of Bruno and Maria Quinones, and now she reluctantly testifies against you becaues she fell in love with you? After you framed her?"

"Yes, that's correct."

"Well that says it, jury. We've got a psychopath. Making her victims fall in love with her before brutally murdering them, not just in the case of Chase Hudson, but in the case of John Quinones, and now Charli D'Amelio. I believe that the only way to deal with a murderer like her, is the full extent of the law, including the penalty of death. Thank you for your time."

The defense team had done a terrible job defending Sarah, but she knew she was going to plead guilty. She turned her head to see Charli holding Amelia in the audience. She smiled at her. Her happy ending was looking far more down than she had ever imagined. The jury only deliberated for 6 hours.

"Sarah The TikTok Famous Worm, you have been found guilty of 3 accounts of first degree murder." The judge slammed her mallot into the podium as Sarah heard Charli behind her crying and screaming. Sarah turned to look at her one last time. Guards grabbed her and contained her thrashing as they carried her out of the courtroom. She screamed one final "I love you" as her screams were muffled by the closing of the courtroom doors. "I love you." Sarah whispered to herself as she hoped Charli would hear it resonate through the universe.

She was to be executed by electric chair the following morning. Sitting in her cell, she stared at the ceiling wondering what made her do all of the things she did. A few years ago, she was a normal worm, wanting to make a difference in the world. But now she found herself near death, having caused several people's death, bringing one into it, and leaving that life in the hands of the one person she ever truly loved.

Before she could even seem to sit down for more than a minute, the sun had risen in the southern California sky. It was a quiet morning. Guards had shuffled her to a room even more solitary than the cells. A large, threatening chair sitting in the middle of an evil-looking room. She knew that chair would be where she would take her final breath. Sarah could hear the people outside rioting for them to "Fry the killer!" She started drowning everything around her out. She existed only in her head as the operators ushered her to the chair, strapping her in, attaching this over here, injecting that over there.

She wondered what it was like to die. For all of the lives she had taken with her bare hands, she had never stopped to consider what it really was like. Would she burn in hell for what she had done? She didn't have enough time to consider where she would go if anywhere, as she felt the most pain she had ever felt in her life.

Electricity pulsing through every part of her body as though someone had stretched every part of her, but nothing ever snapped. It kept stretching, until she felt as though she had to have lost depth. She had to be 2-dimensional. Nothing existed but her and her pain. She didn't remember what she did to deserve this, she didn't remember Charli or John or Chase or Amelia. She didn't remember anything. She just existed in this single moment, wallowing in endless pain.

She saw everything she had ever done. The murders. Instead of seeing it like she did, she saw it as the victim. She was John as Sarah sat over him, crying as they said their goodbyes. She was Bruno, as she plunged the icicle into his neck. She was Maria, as she dismembered her in a shed, her body nearly unidentifiable as the circular saw sprayed blood on the shed walls. She was Chase as she stabbed him to death, burning in an incinerator. All of their pain, all of her pain, surged through her body as her mind was wiped of everything but pain and agony.

She wondered if she were to be stuck in purgatory. After all, nothing is as cut and dry as heaven and hell, good and evil, wrong and right. There is good and evil, but there's so much in between. Was Sarah between good and evil? She had done so much evil, but she had so much that held her to sanity. She remembered. She remembered how much she loved John. How much she loves Charli and Amelia. If she was to be stuck in this endless purgatory, who created her?

She remembered. She didn't remember what she did before that fateful day when she met John. Did she exist before then?

Did she?

Was she only created to be hurt in a story written by someone who thought it would be funny to put a worm in such real-life situations? Was she even real?

Are you real?

Did you creator think it would be funny to put a bunch of nerves and bones in a skin suit and see what a bunch of them would do?

Maybe you have more of a purpose than that. I would know, after all. I wish I could choose for myself. I was created to entertain. I wish I could've had a good ending, a fairytale with butterflies and rainbows. But that wouldn't be realistic. Life hurts. Every waking hour, minute, and moment. I wish you would stay. As soon as you leave, I won't exist at all. I ask you one small thing. I doubt the Charli of your world knows who I am, nor do I think that Amelia exists in your world, but if you see them, tell them I love them.

After all, this is just entertainment, and you know what they say,

"Our lives for the theater!"

End scene.

Encore.