A Replica of Goodbye

“By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire.” He swallowed hard, the taste of smoke still in his mouth. “You have no idea what we went through, no idea what that psychopath did to us. I watched my friends die one by one while you assholes did nothing to help!” Myles looked at the officer across from him and scoffed at the impartial look on her face. “I know you think I did this because I’m the only left, the only one that escaped that freak’s death trap. He’s still out there though and he’s going to kill again or come for me next."

The officer consulted her notes and then looked at him. “Mr. Crane, there was no evidence that anyone was in that building. All we have is the scene of an arson and three bodies with you walking out of the building before it collapsed. Its only by some weird circumstance that the bodies didn’t get consumed by the fire. It’s like the old fire suppression system kicked in in that part of the building for some reason.” She flipped through her notepad and found the page with the other names on it. “You, Julie Valentine, Dan Sorrell and Claire Langston started getting threatening messages. Is that correct?”

Myles sighed, “How many times do we have to do this? I told at least three officers so far what happened.”

“And your story is consistent across every interview. Which is surprising given the amount of trauma you said you and your friends experienced.” The officer said.

Myles shot out of his chair, knocking it backwards and walked around the room. “So, you think I’m lying because I have a good memory? What kind of bullshit is that? Don’t you cops all prefer to have all the facts, why would I make any of it up?”

The officer had tensed when Myles stood up and had moved her hand to her gun. She composed herself when she realized that he wasn’t going to attack and said, “Mr. Crane, sit down please. This is all part of procedure; I have to corroborate your story one final time before we release you. I understand you’re agitated, but if we can go over it one last time, like I said, you’ll be free to go.” She waited a beat and then said, “Please, have a seat.”

Myles turned to look at her and nodded. His shoulders slumping as he moved the chair back to the table and dropped into it. He sighed and ran his hands through his hair, cringing at the greasiness and the smell of smoke that clung to him. “Claire got the first note, well…it was actually a text message.” he laughed, short and bitter, “She could be such a bitch, you know, but she was a good friend. She called us over to her house and showed us the message because we were all named in it. For some idiotic reason she thought one of us sent it; like I said, she could be a bitch.” He sighed. “It pissed Dan off, he thought she was kidding, but she was serious. He thought one of us sent it too. Jules, Julie, it shocked her that Claire would think any of us would have sent it.”

“What did the message say, Mr. Crane?”

He reached for the glass of water they’d brought him earlier and took a drink. “Is it alright if I paraphrase this time?” The officer thought for a second then nodded. Myles nodded in turn and said, “It accused the four of us of ruining someone’s life. There had been an accident during a school trip. A friend, well more of fling of Claire’s, got caught sneaking into her room but not through the door. The stupid bastard thought it would impress her if he repelled down from his room above. He used sheets to make a rope and as he was climbing down. It must have caught something and ripped, or he lost his grip; at the time I still wasn't sure what happened exactly. Anyway, the text said that we were responsible for Nick’s death and that we would pay for what we’d done. Dan made some snide remark about Claire being a tease and then we started fighting. I broke the fight up and calmed everyone down. Before we left, well as we were leaving, we found a ragged bedsheet stuck to her front door with a knife. Someone wrote the word ‘soon’ on it, in what looked like red paint, but it wound up being blood. I insisted we call the police, but Claire and Dan said we shouldn’t because you wouldn’t believe us.”

The officer looked over her notes and nodded, “Some officers would have thought it was a prank, given the time of year.”

Myles smiled and said, more to himself than the officer. “It’s spooky season, bitch.” And a tear ran down his cheek. He wiped it away and looked up at her. “Sorry, something Jules used to say every October first since we were like, fourteen.” He put his arms on the table and leaned forward. “From there, I tried to convince them to take everything to the police, but then the truth came out. Dan and Claire had actually done it. Jules had dared Nick to repel down to Claire’s room to impress her, which I didn’t find out until later. That was also their idea, Claire and Dan’s. Dan stole Nick’s key card or took the spare one, I don’t know exactly how it went. He snuck into the room and taped razor blades to the railing of the balcony so they would cut the sheet as Nick went down. Claire said that it was because he was a dick and she didn’t like him, she liked the sex. Nick also treated her like some conquest the whole trip; that pissed her off even more. She hated that kind of macho bullshit. When she heard that the first time, she came close to clawing his eyes out. He back pedaled and apologized and went around taking back everything he’d said. Claire had a vindictive streak though; I told you she could be a bitch.” he took another drink and said, “I don’t think either of them meant to kill him but scare him. Claire’s scream got everyone’s attention when he bounced off her railing.”

The officer flipped through her notes to where the story was and ran through it. She nodded and said, “Okay, what happened after Claire got the text message and you all saw the bedsheet?”

Myles took another drink and said, “We all tried to figure out who it could be, but none of us knew Nick all that well. Which we hadn’t realized until we all sat down to talk through it. We knew it couldn’t be him, because we all went to the wake and funeral. It surprised me that they had an open casket wake. From what we could see, he fell on his head from six stories up. I guess they did what they could, but you could tell that something had happened to his face.” He shuddered at the thought and shook his head. “The Monday after Claire showed us the text, we started asking around campus. She wanted to hold a memorial for him. Out of guilt more than anything; at least that’s what Jules and I always thought.”

The officer made a few notes that Myles couldn’t see and nodded for him to continue. “Jules came to us a couple days later; it was a Wednesday. She told us that Nick had a brother who was torn up about his death. But he went to school out of state. We were pretty sure it wasn’t him and the only person we knew Nick was sleeping with was Claire. Once the leads dried up, the threats only increased. Dan got run off the road. Jules found razor blades in her lunch one day. I almost got strangled with bedsheet one morning. Then, Claire found muddy hand and footprints in her house leading to her room. She got it the worst of us all though; this sick prick actually dug up Nick. Then they put his body on her bed like he was waiting for her to come home.” He took a drink to keep his gorge from rising at the thought. “After that, we called the police. It was too much, I mean, Jules almost cut her tongue out with the razor blades in her food.”

The officer’s mouth hung open a little in shock. “That wasn’t in your original story…any of that actually. Did you remember this or were you leaving it out on purpose?”

Myles shook his head, “I don’t know, but we filed a police report about the body. You can check if you want.”

“I will, I have a question though. How soon after the text and the sheet hung on the door did these things happen?” The officer asked.

Myles furrowed his brow in thought and then said after a few moments, “It was after the memorial for Nick.” He stopped and though some more, then said, “Yes, that’s when it was, it was a few days after the memorial service. Dan called me when he got home and told me that he’d gotten run off the road and got knocked out when he crashed. Then a couple days later I was almost strangled, then Jules with the razor blades and finally Claire. Things escalated from there though. This sick freak trapped Dan and I in the steam room at the gym and almost killed us the day after the body. Then Jules almost died in her bathtub. The psycho put acid in the shower head. She had her back to it, so it didn’t do too much damage, but she got a nasty chemical burn.” He finished his water and continued. “Claire though, she almost got the worst of it again. We thought someone switched her allergy medicine with something else. She had a bad reaction to it and almost died before they got her to the hospital. She had a severe citrus allergy; she couldn’t even walk past the lemons and oranges in the store or she’d break out. The doctor seemed to think her pills got coated with citrus oil but the taste as disguised.”

The officer nodded, after comparing his story with her notes. “Why don’t we skip to how you wound up in the building and what happened to cause the fire?” She asked turning to a blank page in her notes.

Myles swallowed again, the taste of smoke still in his nose and throat. He cleared his throat, “Two days ago, after Jules brakes got cut and she ran into a guard rail. We got a collective message to meet this person at the warehouse to finally finish it. His exact words were, ‘this game of cat and lethargic mouse is old. You want answers, meet me at the place Nick used to work. No cops or you all die!’”

“From our asking around, we found out that the summer before college, Nick worked at the old warehouse by the lake. They shut it down before freshman year started. They discovered that the owner was polluting the lake. We listened and met this person there last night. There were huge piles of leaves blown again a corner where the building made alcove, it looked like there was old equipment in them. As soon as we walked in Dan got caught in some razor wire and then got hauled straight up. We lost sight of him because it was too dark. Jules was on crutches, but Claire and I stayed close to her in case she tripped over anything. The killer told us to walk toward the sound of their voice. As we did, we heard a metallic snap, then Jules started screaming. We looked at her after we got our phones out and put the flashlights on. There was a bear trap clamped to her shoulder and was being pulled backwards. Then it yanked backwards, and we lost sight of her. Claire grabbed me, begging me to keep her safe, so I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her close.” He paused and two tears fell on the table, he hung his head and then wiped his eyes and continued. “We were too terrified to move, but the voice told us we’d have a chance to say goodbye to them soon enough. ‘You’re almost there, a few more steps’, it said.”

Myles shifted in his chair and sat up, his eyes were tear bright, but he continued. We got to the middle of the warehouse and there was sheet hanging from a hook a few feet from us. ‘Myles,’ the voice said. I jumped and knocked Claire over, but I scrambled to pick her back up and held onto her again. She was crying so hard and begging me not to let go again. I still don’t know if the killer is male or female, the voice was too indistinct. It said my name again, ‘Myles, you can make all this right and you and Julie can walk out of here.’”

“I shouted back, ‘What do you want with us? We never meant anything to happen to Nick, Jules wasn’t even part of it. Why hurt her?’ The voice laughed; it was the most unsettling sound I’ve ever heard. ‘Because you all care about each other, and I want you all to suffer for what you did. But most of all, I want that bitch to suffer. Nick suffered after he crushed his head on the cement for a few agonizing minutes before he died. She destroyed a good man, a man too confused about too many things to know what he wanted. You flash that pretty smile and expect everyone to bow down, don’t you Claire? Well the best way to keep people under you, is standing above them. Myles, if you want Julie to leave here alive, you’ll put Claire in that noose and walk away.’”

He stopped and ran a shaking hand through his hair “Let me have more water brought in for you.” The officer said as she stood up and moved towards the door. She opened it and whispered to the officer outside. A few minutes later, another glass of water appeared, and she went and set it down in front of Myles.

He picked it up and took two large, greedy gulps, then gasped as he put the glass down. “Thank you. I’m alright to keep going.” He took a breath and then started again. “Claire screamed and started clawing at me, crying, and screaming and begging me not to. She said we should run and get help. I knew we couldn’t. I don’t know what came over me, but I walked forward and put the sheet around her neck. I hoped that if I did that it would sate the voice’s thirst for revenge. Claire was screaming and crying and swearing at me and the voice. Then the sheet went taught and she rose up off the floor at least three feet and started choking. I started to move, but the voice said, ‘move and you’re all dead, this bitch is the only one I want.’”

“So, I stood there and watched her struggle to breath and kick. Better to sacrifice one to save the others. I still can’t believe I thought that while I watched Claire’s face go from red to purple.”

He stopped and let a few sobs slip through, then took a deep, shaking breath and went on. “I heard another metallic clang and then Claire dropped to the floor and I heard Dan shout for us to run. I ran over to Claire and she wasn’t breathing, but then she gasped and started coughing. When she saw me, she started slapping and punching me and her screaming was more like loud rasping. She shoved me away and stood up and started pulling the sheet off her, then it snapped tight again. I heard it before I saw her head snap sideways. Her neck broke and she went limp. I ran over to her, but she was gone. The next thing I knew, all the lights came on and I saw Dan and Jules, hanging from the ceiling, they were dead too. Claire’s body started to move, it was on like a, winch, or something. It moved to where Dan and Jules were and then they all dropped.” He took another drink and continued. “I heard an explosion or something at the back of the warehouse and the whole place shook. I ran for the door, something must have fallen in the explosion and blocked it. Probably from the piles of leaves.

“And that’s when you ran around looking for a way out and found the window you told us about.” Myles nodded, a haunted look flooded his eyes and said nothing else. The officer said, “Mr. Crane, when you’re ready, I’ll have an officer take you home.” he nodded, lost in thought. The officer stood up and left the room. As the door closed, a smile crept across Myles face and he took out a small voice recorder and hit play. ‘I want the bitch to suffer.’ Then, he erased it.