Crooked Man

S I X T Y T H R E E

We walk around for some time. Owen showing me around, telling me about the places with his soft and comforting voice. A very familiar voice.
Sounds just like dad. I think. I remember when he sang Crooked Man to me when I couldn't sleep.

I look at him. Talking so concentrated and focused on what the old town's history is.

"And so the mayor of Clemonte, which is the town you are currently walking in, he named the Library after the street I live in." He continued without taking a breath.
"In fact, Chadwick the mayor, who we mostly call Mighty Chad, was so obsessed with being in charge and having power, that he payed millions and billions of medieval dollars to a guy to make him a statue of "Mighty Chad", using only gold. He gave the poor guy only three days to finish the statue and when the guy couldn't do it, Mighty Chad killed him." He looks at me intensely.
"And you know the worst part?" He asks, looking me in the eye.

"What?" I ask.

"He killed him with the statue's arm that the poor guy had made. It was the only part of the statue that was finished  in three days." He took a deep breath. "He crushed the guy."

"Ew." I say, regretting it as I do so.

"Exactly!" He says, nodding, showing that he agrees. "And they say the soul of the guy is still around, if not in that forest. And you know what they also say?" He asks smiling.

"What?" I giggle.

"They say that the Mayor was crooked. They say that he had a crooked walk, a crooked smile... A crooked mind."

I tremble. I feel goosebumps all over me.

"They say that he had a comforting voice, too. That's how he made people trust him. That's how he made them let him slowly kill them. At night, in the dark." He looks around. We're still in front of the library.
"He once said that it was actually hard to earn the title "villain". And that he had worked for it and that he deserved it. He actually went bonkers after some time because there weren't people left in the town. He had killed them all. So he ran away into that forest you came from to never be seen again. Some actually say he lives underwater with the dead."

I gulp. All so real. For me at least. A crooked man in an underwater cave with a dead girl. That's exactly what it is. And it's all true.

Every detail of it.