To Kill a Man

My Brother and Johnathan

||Preface||

This work is a short thriller I made in my spare time. I decided I wanted to try my hand at horror. And here it is. This story includes suicide and death triggers, please read at you own discretion. Please let me know what you think or if you find any mistakes.

||To Kill a Man||

Last month my brother had decided to take his own life. He was always telling me he wanted to know what the world was, he had so many questions. I wonder if he did it because of the answers he found. Sometimes I wonder, is a bullet really enough to kill a man? It didn't seem like it. For now, his answering machine still held his voice and his home still held his things. And I still held a grudge. Everything was still there except for him.

So I had decided to push myself into work.

I felt the car sway, avoiding trees that had fallen on the unkept road.
"Just a few more minutes and we'll be there" stated my guide, Roy, as his eyes kept trained on the rough road ahead of us. "Not many of you journalists want to come out this far to the place. No ones come out here for years." I looked at my friend, Johnathan, who was staring out the window, taking notes of the surrounding scene.

"That's exactly what makes it such a good article" I replied. Roy gave me a strange glance but returned his attention back to the road. I had heard about this place many times before. Kosthern was once a city, but after a nuclear breakdown, it quickly turned to wrenching diseases, deformities and waste. Everyone wanted to forget about it, the events, the stories and those that had became trapped here, to late to run. It truly was a ghost town.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to Johnathan.
"Doing ok so far?"
I nodded and gave a smile in return.
"I think so."
It was our normal back and forth. I could tell he was having a hard time trying to figure out how to be there for me. I had been back on my feet for a while, but it seemed like no one knew how to approach me quite right. But as long as the effort was there, it didn't matter.

The path ahead finally came to an opening and the car began to come to even more of a slow. I took in the view and quickly pulled out my camera. A crumbled building sat in front of us, the top half of it scattered across the rest of the path into the town. Many buildings surrounding us shared a similar fate. Rust and moss were everywhere, the only true signs of colour. Everything else seemed dark and bland, filled with rubble and carcasses of animals. The vehicle came to a halt, leaving the only sound of my camera taking in the scene and Johnathan's constant scribbling.

"Let's go closer" said Johnathan, his writing coming to a brief pause.
"Not with the vehicle" replied Roy. "If something falls on it, we're screwed." Johnathan sighed and got out of the car. I gave an apologetic glance to our helpful guide and followed Johnathan as he began to walk towards the ruins. The entire city was surrounded by a towering forest. Every leaf that was left was brown and curled. It was fall, but I couldn't help the feeling that they were lifeless like this all year round. The branches grasped towards me, as if aching to pull me in. There was somewhat of a path gaping in the trees like the entrance of an empty stomach. Johnathan began to stray towards the trees, gently placing his hand on a trunk, peeling the bark off slightly and taking more notes. I aimed my attention back to the destruction behind me. I walked closer to one of the homes.

The door was nearly wrecked but I decided to try my luck. It hardly budged and gave a large cry as I forced myself into it. I was hit immediatly with the smell of rot and mold. I grimaced, reaching for a mask that hung from my pocket. Putting it on, I slowly pushed forward into the hallway, stepping around glass and dead bugs. Its floorboards sagged like a sad mouth, an opening waiting to be fed in the middle of the short hall. I took a picture and crept around it, entering into a pitch black room. I hesitated but put the camera up to my face once more. My camera flashed, illuminating the room and I staggered back. Mangled rotten bodies laid before me, almost completely decomposed. I could hardly tell that they were once human. They looked almost as if they strived to pull themselves out of the house that had swallowed them up and never let them out.