Not All Stories Have a Happy Ending

Content Warning: Includes blood and murders/deaths

The moon hung high in the sky, half hidden by clouds. It cast a dim light across the ground, making it seem like it was coated in a layer of frost.

A lone figure was walking home, shivering from the stinging, night air. She was taking a midnight walk, wanting to get away from her messed up family, even if it only was for a few minutes. 

She was young. Way too young to be experiencing the things she was. But she was the sweetest, most loving soul you could ever find in this cruel world.

Of course, that meant that she had to be targeted by pain the most.

She was not loved by anyone, her mother had died when she was young, and her father despised her. He abused her, not physically, but mentally. Which was way worse.

He turned herself against her, hurting her so much that she had tried to commit suicide. But she had survived, which at the time seemed like a cruel joke to her.

She worked hard, earning money. But she was only 15 and couldn't move out yet.

When she saw others suffering, it brought her back to her childhood, and she promised herself that she would help those in need. No matter what it cost her. She didn’t want to see people suffer the way she had.

She thought she heard someone behind her, and whipped her head around to check. But there was no one there. She decided that it must have been the wind.

She still felt uneasy, though, and quickened her pace, until she was running towards her house.

She took deep, gasping breaths, her hands on her knees, as she arrived at her front door. She lived with her father in a cozy cabin, which had no internet or electricity. Her father was the exact opposite of her: he would rather watch her suffer and have himself suffer with her than both of them having a good life. That was how much he hated her.

She unlocked her door, stepping inside. 

She loved her cabin, even though it didn’t have electricity. She was the kind of person to not hate a place by what goes on there.

She walked to her bathroom, where she always had a supply of fresh water. She splashed water onto her tired face, when she caught something out of the corner of her eye.

She squinted, looking more closely at the mirror. It was a shape, moving towards her. The figure quickly approached her, and she could make out dark eyes behind the hood.

But more alarming, was that the figure was holding a knife. Her eyes widened, and she whipped around.

But before she could scream, the figure plunged the tip of the knife into her chest, and pulled it back out just as quickly. She fell to the ground, twitching. He raised the knife again and stabbed her, making sure she was dead.

He turned away as she stopped moving, blood pooling around her.

But what he didn’t know was that she had seen his face.

************************************************************

I was going to do it. Finally, I could get rid of that girl, she acts so sweet and innocent it makes me sick. I can’t wait until I can bury my knife deep into her skin, her blood spilling out like an overflowing sink.

I smiled, imagining the morbid scene.

She was why my wife, my beautiful Alice, was dead. 

I will never forget my wife’s last words to me: “Let’s name her April,” before she collapsed, never to be woken up again. I yelled for doctors, but they didn’t arrive in time. I watched her breath leave her body, her rising and falling chest stilling.

And I cried. I screamed. I cursed. I pleaded. But nothing would ever bring her back.

This was all April’s fault. If only she hadn’t been born, my beautiful wife would still be alive. 

Even if it had already been 15 years, everyday I saw my wife die again and again, each time with a different death. It was almost worse than her actual death, because it kept on repeating. I cried for her spirit to stop, to show me some mercy, but it didn’t.

And then one night, as she was about to die again, my wife spoke. She was already soaked by her own blood, but she managed to rasp out a few words.

Kill… April… 

And then her eyes rolled back into her head, maggots crawling into her body, tearing it apart from the inside.

I woke up in a cold sweat.

April was the problem, after all, so if I killed her, I could get revenge for my wife and she would come back! A win-win situation.

I grabbed a hood, and slowly crept into the kitchen, not making a sound. I selected a steak knife. 

I liked this power. The power of deciding when someone will die, and the last thing they would see before they do.

I walked into April’s room, but there was no one there. I growled. She must have left for a walk or something. 

I sighed. Now I had to wait.

I hid behind a dark corner, and before long, April quietly opened the front door and slid in. She went to wash up, and I followed behind her.

I lifted up the knife, and plunged it into her chest. A small noise of surprise escaped her mouth as she fell to the ground. Her warm blood soaked into my clothes, and I sighed with pleasure as the metallic smell of blood filled the air.

“This is what you get for killing the love of my life!” I stabbed her again, just to make sure she really was dead. 

And then I turned around and walked away with a smile on my face.

************************************************************

She didn’t see it coming. The car flew into her lane, pushing hers out of it. The car swerved into another lane, crashing into an unexpecting vehicle.

She screamed as she sat back helplessly, watching her car smash into another.

Please… please let my beautiful daughter April and my kind husband Seth have a nice life. Please don’t make them grieve for me for too long. She grasped her hands together, praying, as her car crashed, and everything went black.

He couldn’t believe it. His wife was dead. He shook his head, unable to digest this fact. He rummaged through his brain, trying to find ways that he had done wrong, things that he could have done better to save her. But nothing came up.

He couldn't stand the fact that there was no one to blame for her death, he frantically shook his head, everything around him blurring, and he hit the floor unconscious.

************************************************************

It was done. The deed was done! I had killed her! I grinned joyously. I needed to celebrate! I decided to keep the body on the floor to remind me of my great victory. 

I sat down at the dining table, and poured two glasses of wine.

“This is a toast for my victory!” I set one of them down in front of me and the other on in front of the other seat.

“This is for you, sweetie.” I smiled affectionately at my wife.

“So you killed her? Perfect, now we can live together without any complications.” She smiled back at me, her eyes penetrating into mine. I remember falling in love with those beautiful brown eyes of hers.

I leaned in to kiss her, but as soon as my lips brushed upon hers, my wife started to change.

Her long, blonde hair melted to a chocolate brown that was stained with a dark substance. Her eyes became a shade lighter, and looked blood-shot. She looked different, but I would still recognize that look anywhere.

The question was, how is the person I had just killed still alive?

************************************************************

“Sir… you have to take the pills! I understand you’re going through a tough time right now, but you might put the people you love that are still alive in danger!”

“My daughter is the reason why my wife is dead! If only she wasn’t born, then I would be happy!”

“You need to calm down, Seth. Your wife died of a car accident, it wasn’t anyone’s fault. I’ve dealt with patients like you before, you are just looking for someone to blame. But it wasn’t anyone’s fault, you have to remember that!”

“Why don’t you understand? I saw it! I saw Alice die right in front of me after giving birth to that child!”

“That is just a figment of your imagination! Because of your grief, your mind is making things up. Listen to me. You need to move on and love your daughter! May I remind you, she just lost her mom as well?”

“I couldn’t care less about what happens to that brat! She could die for all I care!”

“Seth. You don’t mean that. I think it would be best for you to stay at the psychiatric hospital for a while.”

“... fine”

Seth knew he couldn’t argue, but he had a plan. He was always great at acting, and would act better whenever his doctor asked him how he was. They let him out in no time.

The fools. He had thought. They should have made sure I actually swallowed my pills. Whistling, he stuck his hand in the pocket of his jeans, and held up all the pills he had missed.

************************************************************

It’s not possible. I had even stabbed her twice! How is April still alive?

I squinted at her chest, and doubled back. She still had the knife sticking out of it, a coat of dried blood on the metal.

“Father…” she tsked. “How does it feel? You have killed me, your dreams have finally come true.” Seeing my confused face, she continued. “Yes, I am dead. But that doesn’t mean I won’t get my revenge…”

She stood up. “Do you feel happy now? Do you feel powerful?” She stepped closer, and I backed up.

“Didn’t they teach you that killing people isn’t allowed?” I tripped over my chair, landing on my back.

She advanced, laughing when I started to plead. “Please, April… I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have done that and I’m sorry! I’m begging you…”

“How do you think I felt before you drove that knife straight into my heart?” She paused, looking thoughtful. “I guess you wouldn’t know, it wasn't you who got stabbed, anyways.”

I stared at her with wide, fearful eyes.

“Well, I’m going to show you how it felt.” With that, she raised the knife high above her head, poised to strike my heart. Her mouth opened up into a big, gaping black hole, full of black smoke that poured out. I felt myself being sucked into it, unable to resist.

“Any last words?” She hissed.

“Please…” the word came out as a strangled whisper.

“Goodbye, father.” She plunged the knife into me, and I watched as red bloomed on my chest, a deadly rose. The knife lay next to me, but April was gone. 

************************************************************

Guilt and grief do horrible things to a person, poisoning their minds with black hatred. The helplessness of not being able to do anything to bring your loved one back can transform a person. It’s so easy to fall down the path of blame, and once you do, you can never get back up again.

Seth had lost his beloved wife in a horrible, accident, but he wanted to blame someone. So he turned to his daughter.

His mind created a series of pictures and images of what he wanted to happen, and not what really had happened. He was admitted in a psychiatric hospital, but it didn’t help him. His own mind tortured him to his death.

His hatred for his daughter only grew, and he started to imagine numerous ways that his wife could have died. These visions only made him hate her even more, until he decided to get rid of her. But these were all just figments of his imagination.

He no longer was the father that loved his family, instead he was a psychopath who eventually killed his own daughter. But somewhere, deep inside of him, he must have felt guilt when he saw the life leave April’s eyes. His guilt was what led to his own destruction, and he decided to end his life, unable to move on.

Not all stories have a happy ending.