I refused to let Allison stand up because I just wanted her to sit back and enjoy the breakfast I was about to make her. I was going to spend the rest of my life making all of this up to her and why not start with a perfect breakfast?
I was struggling to make the breakfast and I dropped pretty much all of her pots trying to find the pans. Finally, I found the pans which were in the cabinet to my left. I was surprised that Allison didn’t tell me where they were but I probably wouldn’t have paid attention anyways. I was extremely determined to make her the best breakfast ever. I was finally able to start cooking the eggs and I could tell they were turning out great.
“Hey Scott can you put on the news for me? Channel ten please.” She asked, smiling and drinking some of the coffee I had made her. Was she serious? How old were we 40? It was so strange for her to actually want to watch the news.
“The news?” I laughed accidentally. I wouldn’t keep her from watching it though, so I reached over for the remote on the counter.
“Yes the news. After you grow up in a family who is constantly watching out for animal attacks every morning it doesn’t feel like breakfast unless I watch the news.” She looked at me as if she were daring me to make fun of her. I knew not to challenge her, so I held my hands up and laughed before turning the TV on.
Quickly I turned around and continued to make her breakfast. Hopefully now that Allison had the news to watch too, breakfast would be perfect and I could slowly start making up for everything. Although, I knew that nothing would ever truly make up for it. I was trying though and that’s all that mattered. My train of though was quickly interrupted when I heard the woman on the news speaking. My heart rate sped up and my body went stiff.
Six months ago near an amusement park near a bay in San Francisco, four bodies were found brutally murdered. Police suspected it was an animal attack from the wounds found on the bodies but were puzzled at other injuries such as those found on Fred Elder. The bones in his lower arm were found crushed with finger indentations at the site. Police are still investigating what exactly caused the death of these four men. Their families were able to give little information to law enforcement pertaining to if any of these men were a target of some kind. However this case has recently been given a twist that no one was expecting. Since last week when the photos of Fred Elder, John Peterson, Robin Stark and David Tirk were finally released to the public after their families granted permission; dozens of women along the San Francisco bay have called to report that they were victims of sexual assault from at least one or all four of those men. Some victims claimed they were raped just two weeks prior to their death and some up to six years before today. Police are investigating if this has any connection to their deaths and has released a statement saying that if this death was in fact not an animal then whoever was responsible for their deaths prevented countless women from being victims of sexual assaults as the phone calls were still coming in as of ten o'clock this morning of anonymous women saying they were too scared to report it before. Every victim said it was a random act that occurred on a street corner or alley way therefore it wasn't possible to ID any of the men or to have stopped them before this day. Their families have refused to comment on the recent turn of event a-
I turned the TV off, unable to take any more of the story. Somehow I was able to turn it off but as soon as I did, my body froze again. Nothing could have killed my happy mood more than that news segment.
I had just heard and learned so many things; most of them I wished I wouldn’t have heard and I especially wished Allison wouldn’t have heard it. I had learned their names and that made everything worse. Now I knew the names of the men I had murdered in cold blood. The urge to throw up came back, but I couldn’t move so I held it in. Learning their names wasn’t the worst part. Those men had raped a lot more women than Allison. A child, they raped a child. Could you imagine being ten years old and being touched in the same ways Allison was? Ten years old?! What kind of monster could do something like that to a child? It was true, they were monsters and that made me feel slightly better. Just because they were monsters did not mean that their families didn’t love them. Love is love and nothing can change that. I couldn’t even imagine how Allison must have been feeling. The thought of those men made me sick and just as I was about to run to the bathroom, Allison beat me to it.
I broke out of the trance and bolted after Allison to the bathroom. I stopped behind her and pulled her hair back until she finished throwing up. I would just have to hold it in and let it all out later when Allison wasn’t paying attention. I waited for her to brush her teeth and when she was done, I lead her back into the kitchen.
“Scott...” Allison whispered to me.
“Yeah?” I stopped looking over at her.
“Thank you.” She murmured. Why was Allison thanking me for helping her when she was sick? Of course I would help her.
“Of course. I’ll always take care of you when you’re sick.” I said to her, holding her hand.
“That’s not what I meant…” That’s when I started to get confused. Why else would she thank me? “Scott thank you for killing them.”
I gasped looking at her. Did she seriously just say what I thought she said? How could you thank anyone for killing somebody else? I don’t care who the person is, no one deserves to die. I could just hear their families voices in my heads, I could hear what they would say if they knew. “I loved him… I love him and you murdered him in cold blood.” I covered my ears with my hands and slid to the ground slowly. I have no clue how I was able to talk but I did, “I… I blame myself for it. I convinced myself they were these normal people who had a few too many drinks… I-I don’t know what to think anymore.” That’s when I started crying.
“They said you prevented countless other girls from being raped too. Scott dozens of women have called in one week. Scott you saved us.” It was funny to me that she said “us”. Didn’t she mean them. I used all the strength I had not to tell her, ‘I didn’t save you.’ It was true I didn’t save Allison, I failed her.
Allison pulled me into her arms and I shoved my face into her neck and began to sob. There was no more holding back my emotions, if I was going to hold back from telling her how no one deserves to die and how I didn’t save her, I couldn’t hold back my tears.
“D-do you think t-their families would forgive m-me?” I whispered to her. It was kind of a rhetorical question because I knew the answer but I just wanted to feel better.
“Yes. Yes Scott I think they would. I forgave Derek for killing Kate didn’t I?” She was wrong. I know that deep down inside Allison could never forgive Derek and his family for killing hers. If someone ever killed my mother I wouldn’t care what type of person my mother was or the killer was, I would never forgive them.
“W-What about y-your mom?”
She took a breath, “Derek didn’t kill her. He had to do with her death but he didn’t kill her.” Maybe Allison could forgive but she was not those people and I knew that she was a lot sweeter because she’s the sweetest person I have ever met. She’s by far the most forgiving even if that does make her naive.
“Do you wish you had never met me? And none of this would have happened?” I whispered to her. Most of the time I wished that. I wished that I would have never came into Allison’s life. Sure, we have had amazing times together, but too much of the time we’ve been together had been misery. Enough of it was misery for me to feel that without me Allison would have been better off. She would have found someone good for her and she wouldn’t know about this world, she wouldn’t have been… raped.
“No because that would be the biggest tragedy of all.” I don’t think Allison knew how wrong she was. She was so blinded by her love that she couldn’t see the reality of this situation. I would be willing to sacrifice our love if that meant Allison could have a happy, normal, and safe life.
I guess I didn’t know what to say after that. I loved her more than anything and I just needed to tell her that, so I told her something that had been on my mind for a long time. This didn’t exactly make up for what I had done to her necklace but… “I love you to the moon and back.” I said to her looking at her eyes which were filled with tears. I had memorized everything about that locket the night she had given it to me and I knew that she would understand what I meant.
“Me too.” She said softly.
