Diary of a Sociopath

Chapter 27- Victim

For over a month, Vic was recovering. The doctors continued to explain how he was an incredibly lucky man. How the bullet appeared to miss anything vital. Ava aided him each day after work, bringing him bandages and soup-as I helped him with things around his apartment. As far as what happened-he spoke of a man being in his apartment when he entered and dressed in dark clothes, he was unable to see anything. Ava grew tearful of hearing about it-as she also felt unsafe about being at my apartment-so I installed new sets of alarms.

Arriving at two months, I began to do investigating of my own in an attempt to discover who had done it. I am sure Victor has made many enemies in his line of work-the problem was discovering who would be desperate enough to attempt to kill him-or just scare him. The first thing to do was examine the scene so I placed alarms at his apartment as well, while I looked around for anything the man may have left behind-but discovered there was nothing. Not even a drop of blood. In the hall however, a very faint stain was between his door and mine.

Returning to my apartment, I scanned through everything I could about his official statement, about those he wronged in the past-but anyone of that description was either in prison, dead, or on trial. There was no plausible suspect.

For weeks, I went over files and videos-but found nothing of note. Upon checking up on him, I noticed how he had a small security camera hidden above a light fixture in his kitchen. Making an excuse to change his bulb, I removed the SD card from inside and placed it in my laptop back at my place. For a long span, there was nothing but normal movement; his coming and going from work, the bathroom, his bedroom-making breakfast, looking over cases. But then I saw the date of note. Slowing down the video, I watched closely as he continued to move in and out of frame.

Coming up to the moments of importance, I moved frame by frame before seeing him stand in front of his door and remove a gun from his belt. Quickly, he placed something over the barrel before falling forward and then placing the weapon off camera before shooting it once more. He then crawled from his hall to the door, clutching his stomach before struggling to open the door. In small movements, he removed the lock and landed in the hall-where I had found him unconscious.

For a moment, I was beyond confused before realizing Ava was with him as I watched this video. Slamming the laptop shut, I ran across the hall before finding Victor holding a gun to her back as I busted through the door.

"I see you found my camera..." He said with a wicked grin.

"Don't hurt her."

With a deep fear behind her eyes, I saw tears on the brink of her lid as I gave her a reassuring nod.

"What will it do by hurting her? What will it accomplish?"

"If I cannot have her, nobody can..."

"So then shoot me, not here." His expression changed from confident to surprised.

"I suppose it would allow me to be with her."

"But you will never fully have her. Even if you give her everything she says she wants...she doesn't love you...she never did."

Victor held the gun in my direction as I saw the barrel of the gun pointed between my eyes.

"You know that I will not miss, don't you?"

"I am counting on it. Truth is...I don't want anything if I don't have her...so shoot me."

A tear slid down her cheek as she tried to struggle free as Victor had a tight hold upon her hand.

"But I believe, in keeping with the theatrics, I deserve to know why you did it. To the kid...he didn't deserve it."

"And I suppose you know everything about deserving death, don't you-you play God every time you leave her. I should be honest with her as it appears you never will."

"What is he talking about."

At this moment, everything I worked so hard to conceal had come out for everyone to see. There was nothing but truth to be told and it did not matter if I was ready or not. I took a deep breath before looking towards her.

"Do you remember how we read in the paper of this man who was killing killers?"

"The dexter-type?"

I nodded.

"No...No!" She fell to her knees as Victor released her.

I felt everything in my break. I had no feeling of guilt or shame-just revenge. I knew then that she would never see me as anything but a monster and I could not blame her. I begged for her trust, and she gave it-only for me to break it. And when he pushed for my secret to be revealed...I knew he broke ME.

Walking towards him, his fingers fumbled with the gun as I placed it against his chin, pushing his head up towards the sky.

"Why did you kill that kid?"

"Like you have a conscience?"

"You know why I do what I do...But you are just a loose end...and that kid's family-deserves to know the truth."

"I was gonna frame you. I gave the report of it being you. I followed you home-saw you disoriented...you tried to attack me by blaming me for her leaving you and began punching a brick wall. Your hands were covered in blood-and your curiosity with the case verified that you believed it was you."

"Why do all of it? You charmed her already."

"She cared about me...but she never loved me...she always spoke about how she felt stuck with me...but with you...she felt like you gave her a purpose-and now I destroyed that. Now she will only ever look to you with resentment-if she doesn't testify against you. And good luck explaining this to the cops." Suddenly he forced me finger down on the trigger as his body fell limp and he was at my feet. Ava leaned against the cabinet frozen as she trembled. Pulling her into my apartment, I begged to her stay as she just stared ahead on the wooden floor. Moving to the other side, I cleaned everything that would link us to the murder and placed his thumb print on the trigger after wiping it from mine. Leaving his body as is, I wiped everything that was incriminating before then moving back to her.

Upon entering, I found her with a knife pointed at me. "You are going to tell me everything."