Diaries of the Dead

26 | Epilogue

26 | E p i l o g u e 

   Dear Jessica,

   How does it feel to be dead? I imagine it’s quite marvelous. Of course, I wouldn’t know the true answer to that because – as you know – I am not dead. Well, in fact, maybe you don’t know that. Because you don’t know who I am.

   At first, I felt sorry for you. I really did. And because of that, we became friends and you actually fooled me into liking you! Ha! But after I uncovered your little secrets, I understood why everyone hated you. You do realize that everything that’s happened in your absence is because of you, right? Well if you still don’t understand … I’ll paint you a picture.

   We were great friends. I trusted you (which was a big mistake now that I look back at it). But hey, I was young … Naïve … You know, that “typical” type.

   So, one day, I came by your house but you weren’t there. I think you were at your therapist or something like that. So I decided to wait for you…when I shouldn’t have. Your dad told me I could wait. He offered me food, drinks, and all that comfort stuff. We watched TV – I think it was that one show you hated – and we talked. From our little chat I decided your dad wasn’t all that bad as you made him out to be. But, that was before he started touching me.

   I won’t go into details about what happened after that but halfway through … you returned from your session. And you saw us. I still remember seeing your face through the crack in the door. But do you want to know what you did? Do you really want to know? Nothing.

   You watched your father take advantage of me and you did absolutely nothing about it. After that, I knew I hated you. No friend would do something so cruel. And the worst part was when I saw you the next day, you acted like you didn’t see a thing.

   Now that was your mistake. And it was all because of that moment that everything spiraled from there. My hatred for you increased day after day until I finally decided to do it. You know, kill you.

   I didn’t have access to guns and I had no idea how well I would do in hand to hand combat so I decided to be a bit craftier. You, of all people, should know how creative I am.

   So you were in your car that one day, fuming after Grace told you about Mitch supposedly cheating on you. And I followed you until I found a way to swerve you off the road near that lake we used to hang at. So there you were, unconscious in your car after hitting your head on the steering wheel. You were so helpless, kind of like me when your dad sexually assaulted me.

   Then, I did it. I stabbed the butcher knife into your heart. It made a really discomforting noise but it felt really good. It felt like I was finally releasing my stress – and quite a lot that was. I used the rest of my tools to cut your body up into pieces. Then, I pushed the car into the lake where you would never be found. Until, of course, people started to look for you.

   I took your phone and kept it just to tell people you moved so they wouldn’t ask too many questions. That was only to delay the process of your body being looked for. Being the devious person that I am, I hid all of the evidence in Mitch’s toolshed to frame him. He’s sentenced to life in jail and that makes me happy. I never really liked him anyway.

   And so you were number one on my list, and I thought it would be marvelous to kill the rest of your family … As they do have a part in this as well.

   It started with Abby Lester. You know her, right? Your half-sister or whatever bullshit your parents were feeding you? Yeah, it turns out; I became pregnant with your father’s baby. I couldn’t take care of her by myself and I didn’t want anyone else to know about it, so I gave her up for adoption. And who happened to adopt her? Your loving mother and her then-boyfriend. Because I loved Abby, she died a painless death.