El Perro

Introduction

  With one hand on the steering wheel and another on his phone, holding it to his ear, he presses his foot lightly on the gas as he backs out of the large, empty parking lot.  A female voice is heard on the phone.

  "Yes, I know, but I can't help the fact I had work to do.  I'll be there in a minute, I promise."

  He ends the call and tosses his phone into the passenger seat.  The black haired man turns up his car stereo to an obnoxiously loud volume, which is the only thing that kept him from falling asleep behind the wheel.  The same routine had gotten to him after several months.  He would get dirty looks from other drivers who didn't particularly like his taste in music, but at the end of a work day, he could care less about other people's feelings towards him. 

  He arrived at his destination in just a few minutes.  Trotting up the stairs to the townhouse, he pressed the doorbell before remembering it was broken.  After slamming his fist on the door several times, a short girl answers and a full smile grows across her face.

  "Derek! God, it's been way too long."  She wraps her arms around him.  Derek returns the hug and they walk up into the living room together.

  "How have you been?" she rests her hand on his knee, her soft face staring insistently at him.  Derek shrugs and scratches his chest, unsure of how to respond.

  "Okay, well, I've been great, thank you for asking," she says sarcastically and reaches to rough up his already messy, curly hair.

  "Jess, stop. I'm good. Just tired. I missed you, dumbo." Finally, a smile shows on his grim face.  She quickly covers her ears with her hair, flustered and red.

  "Enough of that. I'm putting my foot down, no more calling me that. It was tolerable when you were 9 and I was 6. Your punishment is no green tea, because I had some ready, BUT, since you want to be a dick, none for you."

  It's clear they are siblings now.  They talk briefly before Jess leaves to go get herself a cup of green tea, and Derek gets up from the seats and tries to subtly get to the door while the hot faced younger sibling is in the kitchen.  He's caught in his crime when she brings him some toast with strawberry jam.  As she asks where he was going, he replies that he'll visit again tomorrow when he's not so tired.  This causes an argument between the two that only lasts a mere minute before Derek storms out of the house, rushing to his car.  Muttering to himself, he heads home, regretting ever visiting her today.  It was only to get her to stop nagging, but was that in itself really worth it?

  The sun was gone by the time he was back home in his rinky-dink apartment.  Only he knew what happened here, in this living room with the patches of wallpaper missing and broken tv.  The students he cared so deeply about, they would think of him as an evil human being if they were aware of the darkness that rests around him.  His sister, Jess, once had a twin.  Her name was Jerico, and she has been dead for 2 years due to Derek's actions.  He was corrupt on the inside and seemingly harmless on the outside.  The two siblings were never on good terms, especially because of her being one of his students.  She had caught him in the act with another student of his who he'd been having an affair with for months.  Jerico threatened to expose him to the school board.  He couldn't lose his job. His other sister, who he was close to, would disown him, and he refused to let this happen.

  Two girls found dead 8 miles apart in Manhattan, both going to the same school.  Derek stayed living this lie for 2 years, 3 days and 5 hours before things finally changed.