“The Town Murderer”
Good afternoon! Hope you’re having a wonderful day!
This short story does come with a trigger warning: This contains some physical violence such as an act of murder (blood, dead body, etc.) If you do not like reading things like this, please do not read this story. You have been warned.
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The Town Murderer
“It was me, okay?! I killed Toby.”
Several excruciatingly long seconds passed. I slowly turned around and noticed a lot of people staring at me, most of them with eyes wide open and mouths agape. Even though the music was still playing, no one was talking anymore, so it felt unnaturally quieter now. It was crazy to see just how quickly the overall party mood changed in a matter of seconds.
I was at my girlfriend Hannah’s eighteenth birthday party at her parents’ house on a sunny Saturday afternoon. She had invited all her friends over, along with some of mine.
We were all having a great time in the backyard, enjoying the clear sky of a bright July summer day. Hannah’s dad was standing by the grill, flipping hamburgers and hot dogs. Her mom was sitting down at one of the many outdoor tables, chatting and laughing with a few of Hannah’s friends. Some of my friends were playing card games at one of the tables, sipping from soda cans.
About an hour into the party, I started to feel extremely anxious. Did anyone know about what I’d done last week? I’d asked myself this question multiple times every day since “it” happened. The police were still investigating Toby’s house, but they hadn’t found anything that pointed at me being a prime suspect. They had no idea how he just disappeared. They also had no idea where he was.
I kept glancing around at everyone at the party, trying to figure out if anyone there had seen me the night Toby disappeared. I made sure no one would be around when I snuck into Toby’s bedroom that night, but maybe I didn’t do a good enough job. Maybe the thick latex gloves I wore somehow had a hole in them, and my bare finger touched Toby’s curly blonde hair as I quickly shoved his lifeless body into a large black trash bag.
Here at Hannah’s birthday party, I just kept pushing the paranoia down, hoping it wasn’t anything too serious.
Hannah and I had been talking about how senioritis was slowly settling in when Jenny, one of her friends, strolled over with a smile and a wave. Hannah and I exchanged pleasantries with her before she quickly brought up Toby’s murder.
“I still can’t believe someone from our small town could do something like this,” Jenny near-whispered, glancing this way and that before continuing. “I feel like I know almost all the locals, and none of them seem like the kidnapping type.”
“I know exactly what you mean,” Hannah agreed, crossing her arms and slightly furrowing her brow, a subtle indication that she was a bit worried. “When I first heard about it, my jaw dropped and I felt so unsafe for the first time in years.”
I kept quiet, focusing hard on keeping my arms at my sides while watching the two of them talk. My paranoia surged and threatened to overflow. I knew that if I said something, my voice would shake just a little and Hannah would know I was nervous right away. She was always very observant like that, which was one of the many reasons why I loved her so much. I couldn’t possibly tell her what I did last week. Especially not today.
Hannah continued talking to Jenny, her tone of voice low enough to almost barely be heard above the loud pop music coming from the large speaker on a small table nearby.
“I know the police said not to spread any false rumors,” she continued. “But I don’t think this is a rumor since I heard it from my older brother George.”
“What’d you hear?” questioned Jenny, her eyes becoming wide.
“I heard from George yesterday that he swore he saw someone standing just outside Toby’s bedroom window the night he…” Hannah trailed off, not wanting to finish the sentence.
Jenny gasped, fidgeting with the silver rings she was wearing on her fingers. “No way. You’re kidding.”
“I swear, I heard it from him, and you know how honest he is,” nodded Hannah.
At this point, I felt tiny beads of sweat trickle down my back. I knew it, I thought to myself. George clearly saw me, and he’s gonna snitch and tell the cops. He probably already told them yesterday evening. I started to feel a bit nauseous, but I didn’t want to just walk away from Hannah and Jenny. What if they thought I was acting weird and asked me where I was going? I’d have no response for that.
After a few more minutes of Hannah and Jenny discussing Toby’s murder, I just couldn’t take it anymore. I had to say something to get them to stop talking. I couldn’t take much more of the building pressure at the front of my brain.
“It was me, okay?! I killed Toby,” I blurted out loud, shocking myself right after saying it. Why did I just say that? What is wrong with me?
Hannah slowly turned towards me, her eyes wide open. Jenny had the exact same expression as Hannah, her mouth also hanging open. I felt my cheeks burning up, like someone was holding a red hot metal rod up to them.
Several excruciatingly long seconds passed. I slowly turned around and noticed a lot of other people were staring at me, most of them with eyes wide open and mouths agape just like Hannah and Jenny. Even Hannah’s dad was looking at me, his spatula slowly slipping from his oven mitted hand. It clattered loudly to the stone tiled patio, but he didn’t seem to care at all.
I didn’t know what to say. What could I possibly say right now, that wouldn’t result in everyone here ripping me to shreds?
I suppose I could’ve told them why I killed Toby. I had a very good reason as to why I stabbed him to death, shoved his body into a large trash bag filled with heavy rocks, and dragged him to the nearby lake to sink deep down to the bottom. The police still haven’t found his body yet, and it’s been about eight days by now.
The reason why I killed Toby Smith was because he threatened to kill me first. Last month, I accidentally saw him with some tall thug-looking guy behind our high school. I walked back there out of pure curiosity, and there Toby was, taking a few small white bags out of the thug guy’s outstretched hand. I accidentally shuffled my sneakers against the pavement, causing some pebbles to clatter against the ground, and both Toby and the thug guy turned their heads in my direction. The thug guy looked angry beyond belief, while Toby looked absolutely pissed.
I did an about-face maneuver and attempted to just walk away from the two, but Toby quickly caught up to me and placed a firm hand on my left shoulder. I immediately stopped moving and heard Toby’s gravelly voice whisper near my left ear.
“You didn’t see shit, punk,” Toby snarled, his tone menacing. “You tell anyone about this, I’ll kill you. Understand?”
Not wanting to move a muscle, I nodded my head up and down so fast I felt a bit dizzy. After a few seconds, he quietly released his firm grip on my shoulder and walked ahead, his black hoodie up, his hands shoved in his pockets.
I felt so many emotions in the span of about ten seconds. Who did he think he was, scaring me into silence? Toby Smith had always been a bit of a bully at school, but it was never this obvious. A snide comment here, an eye roll towards a teacher there. Everyone thought he was ‘sadly misunderstood’ and ‘just needed some time to mature’.
I felt like I knew him much better then, after he had threatened to kill me. So, I decided to do something about him first. I had to teach him a lesson. So, I made plans to kill him later that month. And the rest is history.
But here I was, standing in front of a couple dozens of Hannah’s closest friends at her birthday part. I finally told everyone the truth. I couldn’t take back what I’d just said, no matter how badly I wanted to.
So, I did what most murderers did after confessing to their crimes out in the open. I ran away, hopping the backyard fence, sprinting faster and faster away from the crowd. No one would ever see me in this town again. Hannah would probably never forgive me for this, and I had to painfully learn to accept that many years later.
If anyone’s reading this now, let me tell you two things. One, you will never, ever find me. And two, you shall forever refer to me as “The Town Murderer”.
