Uncanny

Cold

I straighten up my long jacket. The breeze is cold. The draft of the apartment is chilling. I navigate the hallway finding Theodore's apartment. I know where everyone but him lives. So finding his room won't be difficult. Tonight was the night I was going to kill him. It had been a few days since I'd seen him last. And a few weeks since the station incident. I'd made sure to go down and apologize to the constable as not to look suspicious when I murdered their newest recruitment. I had just one knife on me. It was actually one I had been given by Theodore.
'To keep you safe' he had, had engraved on it. I thought the irony would be uncanny. It would be my best kill yet. I killed to escape death.

...
10 years earlier
"Hazel! Darling come help me with dinner before your father gets home!"
"Coming mother!"
My father. Home. Finally. The war was done. We need not fight any more. I run down the stairs of our house as fast as I could but not fast enough to slip. Grasping my dress behind me. My long blonde hair pulled up tight with a red bow. My mother had dressed me nicely as to impress my father. I've never met him. Well I can't remember it at least. The war lasted 7 years my father was gone for most that time. The war began the year I was born.

It was a very special night! Mother was even letting me stay up past six o'clock which is usually the time I go to sleep! I was very excited to meet my father. There was a knock at the door at 4:37pm. This must be father. I run to the door and open it. My eyes widen, this does not look like the man mother had shown me pictures and portraits of. My father was much younger, he also had red hair, not dark brown. My father had green eyes, not grey. My father had freckles, not open pores. My father wasn't very tall, this man was. Perhaps the war had made him change his appearance so his family would be safe. That's what it was! He changed himself to protect us! My mother came to the door.
"Mother look! Father is home!!" I went up to the stranger and wrapped my small body around him. I would finally have a loving big family! I could have sisters and brothers!
"Darling, that's not your father. General. What can I do for you?" My mother seemed to have already predicted what was about to come out of this mans mouth.
"Mr Barnham, he will not be returning home." What did this stranger mean? Was the war not finished?
"Your husband fought bravely on our front line. He was a good soldier and a great man. I'm sorry for your loss." With these words my mothers knees gave in and she fell to the floor. She buried herself into her legs and cried. No, she sobbed.

The next few years, this is all she did. I became a source of income. I dropped out of school to find work. Thankfully my looks deceived me and I looked as if I were just finishing high school rather than just starting it. My mother's hair went from a beautiful sandy blonde to a dark brown with gray hairs.
"Mother, shouldn't you go to the salon. Perhaps lighten your hair again?" My mother was a hermit. Not leaving the house unless absolutely required.
"Darling hazel. Too innocent. Too young."
"Mother, please. Leave the house. Just for a day. It will change your perspective on things." And so she did. The very next day mother left the house. She came home with new clothes and a new hair style.
"Hazel, darling learn this now. Don't be in fashion be above it."
"Ok mother." That night whilst we were sleeping mother was killed. A man broke into our apartment, took everything and when mother tried to defend herself, he slashed her neck. So I slashed his.........

...

Present
I found Theodore's apartment. I made sure this would be his. It had to be. There was someone in every other room bar this one. I knock. Once, twice, and a third time. Three knocks three times. He opens his door. He doesn't have three locks. He has one. He doesn't keep the door mostly closed he opens it wide.
"Uh Hazel, haven't seen you in a few days."
"Yes I know." It was apart of my plan.
"Well come on in." This gracious man invited me inside. He went straight to his kitchen, "tea? Coffee?"
"Water will do. Thank you." You can't kill on a full stomach.
He gestured me to take a seat. So I did. He grabbed two glasses from the shelf and turned the tap on. Filled both glasses to the top. He walked around the island that seperated the living space to the kitchen and sat down. He handed a glass to me and put his own on a little table in front of the chairs. He sat down in a brown leather seat.
"So, what can I do for you beautiful?"
"I was just uh-stopping by?"I hadn't really come up with an excuse for why I was here. And the nerves of being around him did not help.
"Stopping by...? Right." Scepticism flooded his voice. Had he figured out who I was? Had he figured out why I was here? Would I have to escape before I have to kill him. All I had on me was a knife. He more than likely kept his pistol on him, that meant I couldn't just stab him and run...
"You-okay?" His sweet voice snapped me back into reality.
"Yea sorry. I didn't sleep much last night. How are you?"
"I'm doing, well. Yourself?"
"Fantastic."

We spoke into the night. The conversation managed to stay alive despite my intentions. The clock struck midnight. I had only been up this late once. That was the night my mother died. I did love her, but I had come to accept that she was a terrible person who had done terrible things. I wasn't any better but sometimes I think that even murder wasn't as bad as the crimes she committed.
"Well, I best be off." Now was when I had to do it. We'd walk to the door and just as I said goodbye I would insert the knife under his rib cage, digging it into his stomach, it would be painful, but it's the way of the world.
We walked to the door. I twisted my short hair around my finger, in a flirtatious manner, this clearly gave a hint to Theodore to do the unimaginable.
He pulls the black pistol from his waistband.....