Lies #4: Victim

Chapter 9 - Finale

Maybe I should just die, Roman thought to himself as he stared into the mirror. At the imperfections that marked his arms. At the healed holes on either side of the bridge his nose where Remus had stapled it when they were 15 to give him more "character". All of it. The person in the mirror had done so many terrible things, and yet... they looked like they had suffered so much. Like they had gone through unspeakable wrongs, things that didn't need to be done. Things they could've stopped if they'd wanted to. Maybe I should take pity on them. If I kill them, they don't have to continue suffering. I can give them mercy.

There was a sword on the floor. He'd thought about committing seppuku earlier with it and had tossed the idea away, but now... If I keep living, I'll just make more mistakes and keep hurting people. I'm sure my death will be more than enough to satisfy Remus. No, no, no... Roman couldn't do it now. Remus still needed to be apprehended. But once he was secured, Roman could do it before the police arrived. Do I have enough time? Surely, he did, right? He had to. I can't go on like this for even another day. This is all too much... if Terrence had to die for his actions, then I should too. That's the only just way to go about this.

Before Roman left the bathroom to meet his fate, though, he took out his phone again and dialed 911. I need to tell the police about what's going on. It ringed a couple times and then someone picked up. A woman's voice came over the line, "911, what's your emergency?"

"Hi," Roman managed to speak, the word feeling like it was dragged out of him. "I'm Roman Sanders. I'm at the Angelica Theatre right now. I need to tell you about everything. A lot has happened. The police aren't here yet, and they need to- they need to know before they get here." When the woman murmured a "go on", he continued. "The murderer is- was- my twin brother, Remus Sanders. And he has been killing the rest of us off. But we- Valerie Torres-Rosario, and Terrence Williams Jr., and I- figured out there was another killer. Well, Terrence knew because it was him. It was in self-defense, someone attacked him, it got messy, and he accidentally killed Dilara. I don't know her last name, but her name was Dilara. Remus called me a few minutes ago and told me to meet him at the stage. I'm going to go there and catch him for the police. Everyone else is dead."

"Sir," the woman's voice became much more alarmed. "Don't go. It could be a trap."

"It is," he clenched his fist, forcing himself not to cry. "I know it's a trap. I know that Remus will try to kill me. But that doesn't matter because my life is forfeit. After I found out Terrence killed Dilara, I tried to knock him out so I could hand him over to the police, but I... I cracked his head open and now he's dead. I'm a murderer. Either way, I'm going to die. Either Remus will kill me, or I will once I've caught him. I'm not going to let Remus get away! And I'm not going to let myself hurt any more people. Everything that happened today was my fault- I need to pay for it." Before the woman on the other end could say anything else, Roman hung up and put his phone away. There was nothing else to say; it was time for Roman to die. Taking the sword, he marched out of the bathroom and headed back to the epicenter of the disaster.

Everything was so much clearer now. Why hadn't he done this before? Why hadn't he taken a blade and stabbed himself a thousand times until he bled out on the floor of their bathroom? Remus would've loved to find that. He would've probably dissected Roman and hung up bits and pieces of his insides around the house. That had been a small hobby of his during high school, and Roman was sure he would pick it back up if such a situation presented itself. If Roman died, their parents would probably scorn him for taking the cowardly option of suicide. But they don't understand- I want their scorn. I deserve it. And I'm protecting them by doing this. Although, there was a disturbing image that wouldn't leave his head; the picture of their parents standing in front of two matching graves in an empty cemetery. Obviously, Remus wouldn't actually be dead- but would he really be alive to them if he never got to see them again? Surely, Remus would have an extremely long prison sentence, if not a lifelong one. Will they even still consider him a son after they find out what he's done?