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END GAME
part v
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Chapter 15 - HUNGER

~

Ash Maithen,

   I suppose that if you're reading this, I'm most likely dead. But I hope you can forgive the actions for what has happened. I can't imagine what you've had to go through in this time. Though, I must confess, Jakob had kept an eye on you since he left your high school. The equipment he used to track and keep an eye on you was destroyed long ago—just before you were brought into this (hopefully) now closed case.

   He had plans for you. What specifically, I have no idea, but probably to help him cover up his tracks of more killings. I wanted to bring it all to an end before he could get away with any more killing. That's why I asked Daxton to help me on the third year of the killings. I wanted a way out—justice, I suppose—and Daxton helped give a more peaceful end to those that worked next to him. Every single one was in line to be killed eventually by Jakob, but he wanted you most of all. He obsessed over you, and I'm sorry you have to hear this in a letter from the scrawled words of a dead man. I figured that out and I talked to Daxton about it and before long we had a plan that if things went bad too quickly, we'd find a way to help you get out. But, you ended up escaping and Daxton gave me a call to keep an eye out for you—the plan went on early. We were to get you inside so you could hopefully put an end to Jakob.

   I'm so sorry that you had to get involved in the crossfire of all of this. I'm sorry you had to endure more deaths in its wake. Even when we were little and you told me what happened in that house—that your father killed your mother and you killed your father—I knew that you running away wouldn't be the last time we'd see each other. I kept an eye on you too, sort of, when I got older. Jakob sent me out once in a while to spy on his victims before they'd die. Strange, yes, but that was his twisted thinking. I know, again, all this would be the last thing you want to hear from a dead guy's writing, but you have to know. When he sent me out, I would see you in the park by the statue, just sketching. It gave me a bit of peace that you were safe without Jakob muddling it.

   I'm sorry everything had to be resolved in a way, well, like what has happened. I am so sorry you had to be a part of what Jakob did, as well as caught between Daxton and my plans to take him down. I'm sorry you had to know all of us. If I could've done anything different so you wouldn't have suffered like you did, I would've. But then Jakob would still be killing. It's a horrible draw, worse for worse for a possible ending. And I'm so sorry for that. Maybe things would have been different had I known Jakob was the one that killed Joanna Rean and Robert all those years ago. But that's the past. I shouldn't be blaming myself—you shouldn't, either.

   I'm hoping that now, with my death, everything is over and done. I'm sorry if you had to watch my death. You've seen too much in your life, and that's not fair. Everything was rigged—of a sort—to be against you when you accepted to help Daxton in the case. You were going to die either by my hands, Daxton's, or Jakob's. Neither Daxton nor I wanted you do have to endure any more pain by Jakob. But I hope you'll have found peace. I remember when my parents died, I refused to sleep. I didn't want to see my parents' faces in my dreams—nightmares is the better word. I know you might think the same, and maybe you will see the faces of those that've died. I'm sorry if you do. But I can only say this: try to breathe. Sleep. Find your peace after all of this chaos. Your calm after a raging storm. Of all the people I can think of, you've deserved it the most. You've been through hell—I'll say it. And you turned your life to help find the murderers. I found that ironic, but that's beside the point of this letter.