The Power Left Behind

In a prison cell in New York, there is a man with a country accent talking to another man. He is heard saying, "It's bullshit I tell you. Some bastard murders my sister in some vague attempt to copy a serial killer and then I get blamed as the serial killer. I will admit, I am the person they've been looking for but for my capture to come from another's mistake. God, it's so infuriating!" The man he is talking to looks visibly disturbed. He continues, "I did not spend years, YEARS! Of my life perfecting my craft just to get caught this easily." He begins walking around the cell and then grabs the other man by the shoulders. He exclaims, "How would you feel if you got caught because of someone else's mistake!" The other man meekly says, " I would be rather pissed..." The man smiles at the other and says. "See, you get me! If you don't mind, would it be alright for me to rant about my life up to now?" The other man tries to say something but is silenced as the man starts his story. D

It all began the day my father lost all our money gambling. We were never a wealthy family but we weren't poor either. But my father decided he wanted out of the middle-class life and took mine and my sister's college funds, his and mother's savings, and a loan out from some shady men to go gamble. Of course, luck doesn't run in my family and he promptly lost it all because he bet all of it on a horse named "Cheese." Financially devastating our entire family.

Realizing his mistake, my father wanted to right all his wrongs... by jumping off the nearest bridge and leaving our mother with all the debt. We were forced to sell the house, the dog, all of Mother's jewelry, and our toys just to get by. Once the debtors were paid off, all that was left was to live the rest of our lives paycheck to paycheck in an apartment building infested with rats, cockroaches, goblins, pedophiles, and prostitutes. Swell, am I right?

That building was truly the pinnacle of engineering and social class. The walls were covered in holes and stunk of rat shit and black mold. Roaches lived with us in the same room and even had their own corner where they all bred. You could hear the neighbors too, all of them low lives that indulged in sin. I made sure to buy earplugs for my sister so she couldn't hear the neighbors, of whom I am certain were father and daughter, doing each other. Even trying to leave the building, I would be bothered by women of the night trying to sell me their bodies.

The man begins breaking down but stops and continues, "That was just the beginning!"

My mother was forced to pick up multiple odd jobs ranging from cleaning dirty toilets to walking the streets at night selling her body. Of course, I pitied my mother and helped out the best I could. I got a job at a museum as a guide. I learned a lot about history and would even take my sister there to see the exhibits. My personal favorite was always the demonic artifact exhibit, so many "DO NOT TOUCH" signs were scattered throughout the entire place that I almost got my hand chopped off by a haunted guillotine from my curiosity. My paychecks were meager but I gave my mother pretty much all of it to get us by.

Of course, working so many disgusting jobs breaks a person and my mother needed to find a way to cope with it all. Out of all the choices she had, she chose... ALCOHOLISM! She would come home every night, sloshed to the point she mistook me for one of her late-night customers. Of course, I rejected her advances and just put her to sleep every night she came home like this. Things were alright, by my standards at least because we were alive.

My job at the museum was going rather well and the owner took a liking to me because of my enthusiasm for the occult. He treated me like a son and even gave me a raise. My life was finally getting back on track and I could see light at the end of my tunnel. But then I realized how similar my mother was to my father.

I was trying to save up money to help us move somewhere nicer than that cesspit of an apartment building. I wanted to move to a place near a good school so my little sister could get an education and let my mother finally rest. However, my mother had other plans. I came home one night after getting paid, ready to put my money into my savings box. I had quite a bit saved up at this point and was planning to take a tiny bit out to treat my family to a nice dinner. I grabbed the box and noticed that it was lighter. I thought nothing of it and believed I simply got stronger because of how often I have to carry heavy boxes at work during non-rush hours. I opened it up to see all the coins I had saved up to this point were missing.