Jared stood in place staring out his bedroom window. The cold autumn wind swept at the red and orange leaves that were scattered along the small dirt road outside his house. His dark brown eyes grew wide as he thought of a plan, a plan to make her pay. He pushed his black bangs out of his face. Without any thought, he ran downstairs to his father’s gun cabinet, he was in such a hurry that he didn’t hesitate opening it. He examined every gun and bullet. His dad seemed to have a replete supply of bullets, as if he was preparing for war. Case after case the small shiny bullets seemed to smile at him. Jared shook his head in disapproval.

He hesitated as he turned to leave the room. "No, that's too quick. She deserves so much more pain after all this," he thought to himself as he took a single step back towards the gun cabinet to put the cases back in their original resting place. He wanted her pain last so long and is so painful, that it could almost compare to the pain she caused him. He slammed the cabinet door shut. He had to toil at this. It would take time; he knew he wouldn’t get a plan over night. His eyes focused at the handle to the cabinet. The door suddenly shot open and he hoarded ten cases of bullets.

‘Just in case…besides, you can never be too careful…’ Just then, Jared heard the front door, upstairs, slam shut. ‘Uh-oh,’ His head snapped nervously in every direction. He ran to the washing machine, and stuffed the cases in a pillow case. THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! His father’s heavy work boots hit hard against the basement’s wooden stairs. Clutching the pillow case tightly, Jared ran under the stairs to a small hide-out. He carefully placed the pillow case inside a small chest. As soon as his dad reached the floor, Jared bolted out from under the stairs.

“Hey, son! What are you doing down here?” Jared thought up a quick lie.

“I…was, checking the woodstove, and umm… looking for my black hoodie, YEA! That’s it.” His father gave him a suspicious look. Jared could tell his face getting bright red. He glanced side to side and could feel droplets of sweat trickling down his neck. Getting very nervous, he brushed past his dad and ran upstairs.
***

Late that night, Jared lay awake in bed, listening to his parents have some sort of discussion in the kitchen. “Listen Hunny, if I don’t find those bullets, there could be great havoc! I mean, I had sixteen cases down there, now there’s a scarcity of only six left! My huge supply has been depleted!” Jared’s eyes squinted.

“Jonathan, calm down, you’ll find them.”

“I sure hope so… you don’t think it was Jared that took them, do you?” Jared’s eyes grew wide. A shot of embarrassment and nervousness pulsed through his body. He heard his slow, heavy, and very loud heart beat, beating over and over in his head. He couldn’t believe his own father would accuse him of such a terrible thing. Then again, his father’s accusation was true. He stared at the ceiling, thinking.
‘What’s the best way I can kill her?’ This question played over and over in his head, like a broken record on repeat.
***
A few short hours later, when Jared was positive his parents were asleep; he quietly slipped out of bed. He swiftly glided down the basement stairs, and grabbed the pillow case. He made sure that every single case was still there.
‘So many bullets…’ he thought. What would he do with all these? He wasn’t starting a massacre. His mind came back to reality and he ran upstairs back to his room. He carefully shut his door and locked it behind him. He quickly loaded up every gun he had. He had quite a few for, ever since he was eight, his dad bought him a gun for his birth day. He always wanted to make sure that Jared was protected. When he finished loading his guns, he still had eight cases to spare. He put his guns and the extra cases under his bed, where he was sure no one would ever think to look. With that, he fell asleep.
***
RING! RING! RING! Jared groaned, why did the phone have to ring so early? He rolled over to get closer to the window, but fell to the floor. “JARED! It’s for you! It’s Jessica!” His mother yelled from the hallway. Just the thought of her and the sound of her name made Jared’s stomach turn. It felt as though a bucket of freezing ice water had been poured into the depths of his bowels. He began gagging; he’d kill her now if he had the chance. He pulled himself to his feet and staggered to his mother, and she handed him the phone. He grabbed it and trudged back to his room.
“What do you want Jessica?” There was a slight pause before a response.
“I wanted to say, I’m sorry…it was exactly one year ago today that you saw me well, you know…” Her voice trailed off. She hated discussing this subject.
“What did I see you do Jessica?” There was so much fiery rage in his voice. “Oh! You mean that incident at the lake when you stabbed repeatedly then drowned my best friend, Joe Maberry? Why did you kill him?! He did nothing to you!”
“He dumped me for Megan Swift!”
“Boo-Hoo! You deserved it! Joe had no choice! You wouldn’t stop flirting with other guys!”
“Well, he could’ve at least talked to me about it before dumping me! Jared rolled his eyes.
‘She’s such a drama-queen!’ I really hate her,’
“So, all you called for, was to apologize? Well, why don’t you apologize to Joe?! That’s right…you can’t!” The sarcasm in his voice began to show. He angrily hung up the phone, and threw it against the wall. It dropped to the floor like a brick, shattered in a million pieces. How he wished that Jessica was the phone right now, broken.
Jared really wanted this girl dead, on the ground, no longer breathing, and heart, no longer beating. If he could kill her now, he’d make it as painful as possible. He’d pin her to a wall and plunge knives through her hands and feet. Then, reach down her scrawny throat, grip her tongue, yank it out of her mouth, and SNIP! Then take a spoon, and slowly fish out her eye balls out of her skull, pop them into his mouth and enjoy the disgusting sensation. Next, he’d cut her Achilles tendons. He’d love the thought of her feeling an agonizing pain, but not being able to scream. He’d then rip open her chest, tear out her heart, and slowly devour it. He smiled at the thought of that kind of pain. Lastly, he would toss her body in a blazing fire, and watch her burn until she was no more…

The thought of this made him laugh. It started as small chuckles, and grew to a loud, booming, and roaring laugh, to the point when he couldn’t stop. A knock came to his door.

“Jared, sweetie? Can I come in?” Jared nodded his head, even though he knew his mother didn’t see it. She came in anyway.

“What’s up Mom?” He noticed his mother glance down at the broken phone, shattered into pieces.

“I wanted to make sure you were okay, I mean, you saw Jessica kill Joe one year ago today...I just wanted to make sure you were doing fine.”

“Fine? FINE? I am far from fine. My best friend since grade school was killed last year by the girl I’ve always hated! How do you think I feel?! Why isn’t she in jail, Mom? She deserves to rot in prison!”

“From what I understand, up to the age of seventeen, it is illegal to go to prison. How old is she…fifteen?” Jared nodded.

“But still, Mom, she committed a crime! She should be in a cell right now!”

“I don’t know Hunny…don’t worry though, she’ll get what she deserves. You are right, she didn’t have the right to kill Joe, but she did, and she will be the one who has to live with the guilt.”

“Whatever Mom…could you please leave me alone?” His mom nodded and left the room without another word. After about five minutes of sitting in complete stillness and silence, Jared got up, pulled a black hoodie over his head, grabbed his I-Pod, and went straight out the window. He tumbled through his front yard until he reached the dirt road. He walked down the road for fifteen minutes listening to the same song over and over; he was listening to Saying Sorry by Hawthorne Heights. He eventually came to a fork in the road. The left path headed into town, and the right path went to the lake, Joe’s grave.

‘Let’s take a stroll down Memory Lane,’ He thought. He went down the right path, and changed the song to Coming Undone by Korn. It described him perfectly, he felt as though he was coming undone. His life was falling apart. His own existence was slipping through his hands like sand. The problem is, he didn’t know how to save himself.

The more he thought about his life right now, the more he wished that he could get a hold of Jessica sooner. He finally reached the lake, and at first stayed in place, from a far. He hadn’t been here since last year. He slowly approached the water’s edge and looked down, hair hanging in his face.

“Hey Joe, buddy…what’s up?” He attempted a smile, but failed. “Listen, I know what Jess did to you was insane and totally terrible, but, don’t you worry, I’m going to make her pay for what she did. I know that if you were here right now, you wouldn’t approve of what I’m going to do, but trust me, she deserves this.” Tears began trickling down his cheek and splashed onto the water. “I love you Joe…good bye…”

He turned, without looking back. As he walked back home, he noticed that the sky grew dark. The sun was spilling into the tree tops and into the horizon. As he passed by, crows cawed at him. The leaves collected at his feet, but he kicked them aside as he walked on by. He thought about this whole situation, not killing Jessica, but before Jessica had killed Joe. Jared always had been led to believe that it was one hundred percent Jessica’s fault. One, because he hated her, and two, she was the one who had practically cheated on Joe. The more he thought though, the more he wondered. Was Joe’s death his fault? He always picked on, teased, and had just been down right cruel to her. Could his best friend’s death possibly be his fault? ‘Nah,’ he thought. This was all Jessica’s fault; it had nothing to do with him. He paused in place and looked side to side, could he really be completely sure of that? He shook it off. ‘I must be going crazy if I’m thinking that Joe dying was my fault.’ He continued walking along the dirt road, back to his house. At this point, absolutely nothing was going through his mind. He finally reached his home and he carried himself back to his bedroom window, and climbed back in his room.

Jared tossed his I-Pod, and in plopped down on his bed. He grabbed a note book and a pen. He started doodling on the front. He opened it, and hesitated at first, but began writing. He filled up every single page in the note book. All the pages read, “JESSICA SLATER MUST DIE!!!!” He felt his face begin to boil in a furious rage. He chucked to note book across the room, and buried his face in his hands and began bawling tears of pure anger. He had to kill her. He didn’t care if he went to jail; he didn’t care if he got prosecuted. He just wanted her DEAD. He sat up as straight as a board, eyes wide, and red, tears streaming down his cheeks. ‘What will Mom and Dad think of me? How will they feel to know that they have a murderer in the family?’ More tears came as this dreadful thought came to his mind. He didn’t want his mom and dad to know that it was him who killed Jessica.

Does this mean that he should kill them too? ‘No! I will not resort to killing my mother and father!’ He collapsed back onto his back and the tears just kept on spilling from his eyes, like a running faucet. A knock came to his door.

The door knob slowly turned and his mother slowly came in. When she saw him crying profusely, she ran to his bed side. She placed he cold hand on his shoulder. “Jared, what’s wrong?” Jared tried to stop crying, but he couldn’t.

“I…I…” He couldn’t even finish.

“Sweetie, I can’t understand what you’re saying, please try to calm down. On second thought, why don’t you try to go to sleep, I’ll check in on you later.” She got up and left the room. As soon as she left, Jared got up, breathed in and out a few times to calm himself, and picked himself up off his bed and dragged himself to his desk. Inside the bottom drawer, there was a book. Half way through the book, was a small vile that had been shaped into the book perfectly. He removed the vile and slowly twisted the cover off, and gave it a good sniff. He had stolen some cyanide from his science teacher in 7th grade, when they had done an experiment. He was planning on saving it for something important, and didn’t want to just waste it, but this was a very serious situation. He stuffed the vile in his pocket and left the room.

He moped out into the kitchen, forcing out a few small tears. He grabbed a glass from the cupboard and placed it on the counter.

“Jared, while you’re up, mind making me a cup of coffee?” Jared nodded and got his mother’s coffee. Before he gave it to her, he poured half the vile into the cup. As he walked over to his mother with the coffee, more tears came out. He handed her the poisonous cup and sat down next to her.

“Mom, I was crying because I really miss Joe…please don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine. Also, I want you to know how much I care about you, and love you.” With that said he got up and quickly turned the corner, but stayed close enough to the living room. He didn’t want to stay and watch his mother die. He heard a slurp, a few moments later, choking and gagging…after about a minute, complete silence. Heavy tears came to Jared and he crept into the living room. His mother’s dead body laying there, so still, was hard to see. His mother was a very lively person; Jared never imagined her looking like this. He grabbed the coffee, put it in the kitchen, and then returned to his mother. He picked up her body and put her in his parent’s bedroom, he made it look like she was merely sleeping.

‘Now, when Dad gets home, I’ll do the same for him…it won’t be easy…but I have to.’
***

Jared sat at his desk, waiting for his dad to get home from work. All of a sudden, he heard a truck pull up the drive way. He ran to the kitchen, made a quick cup of coffee, put in the poison, and had it all ready. Just seconds later, his dad walked through the front door.

“Hey, Jared! How was your day today? Where’s your mother?” Jared hesitated.

“My day was alright, I went to see Joe at the lake today… and Mom is sleeping, she was really tired, she was doing yard work all day, so, yea.” He scratched the back of his neck. “I made you some coffee.” His dad’s face lit up.

“That’s just what I need! Thank you!” Right before his dad took a sip; Jared ran to him and hugged him tight.

“I love you, Dad.” His father smiled.

“As do I, Jared.” Jared quickly walked to his room, and his ear pressed up against the door. A moment later, just like his mother, he heard choking, then gagging, and soon, nothing. He stepped out of his room, and approached the kitchen. His father’s dead body lay on the floor. Jared couldn’t breathe, he just killed his own parents, and how would he live with himself? He didn’t even kill Jessica yet, and he was already a murderer! He dragged his dad’s body to where his mom, and placed him on the bed, right next to her. He placed a gentle kiss on both their cheeks and left the room.

When he got back in his room, he heard his cell phone ring; he threw everything out of the way to find it. It was underneath the notebook he threw earlier. He quickly answered the call.

“Hello?” Jared asked.

“Hi Jared…listen…before you hang up…could you meet me at the lake at midnight? Please don’t ask any questions…just meet me there….bye.” The line went dead; she had hung up, and wanted Jared to meet her there.

‘This is the perfect opportunity! To get it over and done with…I must prepare,’ He thought. He pondered over the supplies he may need. He remembered his original plan; he’d need about five sharp knives, a spoon, and a match, or a lighter. With this, he would achieve his goal. He grabbed five knives, a spoon, and a lighter, and then headed out the door. By now, it was 11:30 PM; it would take about half an hour to get there. He walked up the familiar dirt road. After quite some time, of thinking, he came to the fork in the road. He casually took the right turn, as if he’d turned that way a million times.

When he arrived and the lake, he saw Jessica sitting on a tree stump. Her long black hair shimmered under the moon above. Jared stepped on a twig, and loud snap filled the area. Jessica’s head snapped, she knew it was Jared. She ran to him, wrapped her arms around him, and rested her head on his chest.

“Thank you so much for meeting me here. I know you hate me, but to tell you the truth, I never hated you. The only real reason why I dated Joe was to get closer to you. Jared…I love you.” Jared’s eyes widened in dismay ‘Didn’t see that coming!’ He thought. He processed this…all this time…did he really hate her too? Or, did he secretly have feelings for her too? Did he really want to kill her? He didn’t know, so he just stuck to the plan. He pushed her down to the ground, legs on both sides of her. He bent over, and pressed a knife up to her palm, he could quite get it through. He gave it a hard shove, and it went through. A loud, ear piercing scream came from Jessica.

“Do we really want people having to wake up in the middle of the night, just because you won’t shut up?!” He pulled out another knife, opened her mouth as wide as it would go, pulled out her tongue, and quickly cut it off. He got back on track, and plunged the other knife into her other hand. He got up, and went down to her feet. He pushed up her legs so that her feet were flat on the ground. He quickly looked up at her, her mouth was closed, tears were streaming down her face, and out of nowhere, she spit out a mouth full of blood, and it splattered onto Jared’s face.

He smiled a cold smile and forced a knife straight down into her foot, and in the ground. He did the same for the other foot. She could no longer move at all, or scream, Jared loved this. He pulled out the knife used to cut her tongue, and slowly began hacking away at her Achilles tendons, as if he was cutting down a tree. The first one, cut, he walked over to the other side and repeated the process for this tendon also. He looked back up at her, she kept spiting out the blood so that she would drown in it. He rose, and looked down at her bleeding, practically dead body. He knelt down next to her face.

“I love you too…” He whispered in her ear. He then kissed her cheek. He took the spoon from his back pocket, fished out both her eye balls and plopped them into his mouth and savored the flavor or her disgusting taste. He reached down and grabbed the knife used to cut her tongue, and he made a small incision on her chest. He tossed the knife behind him and returned to his victim. Jared put a hand on either side of the cut, and slowly tore open her chest. He eyed the real prize, the heart. He cupped both hands, and snatched it up from her chest. He first took a whiff of the organ before him. It was beet red and dripping blood. His nose scrunched up in disgust. It smelled terribly of raw meat. He cautioned taking a bite at first, this was inhumane. He stopped at first, and then took a small bite. To his surprise, he enjoyed the taste. Jared no longer hesitated as he devoured her heart. Mouth-full, to mouth-full, the slimy, blood-filled heart slithered down his throat. The delicious heart was now gone.
He rose to his feet, took out a match, stood back, and then threw it on her body. It started as a small, little fire, and then grew to blazing flames. He stood from a far, watching her burn. He chuckled. The moon shone down on the lake like a spotlight. The rippling water glimmered. Jared’s face filled with agony, love, pain, and pure enjoyment. He sat down and the cold, hard ground and watched her burn, until all that was left, was the sad reminder…in ashes. Smoke lifted from the ashes and filled the night sky, like a thick haze under the stars.
***

The next morning, Jared was awoken by sirens. He jumped and was startled by all the people. His neighbors, Jessica’s friends and family, so many people, stood away from him, terrified to go near the sick, twisted person who killed Jessica. A police officer came up to Jared.

“Morning, son.”

“You’re not my father.” Jared said coyly.

“I really don’t care about you; you’re just a worthless piece of crap that likes to kill people. Anyways, you’re coming with me.” He grabbed Jared’s arm and pulled him to the police car. He opened the door, and stuffed him inside. The officer hoped in the front seat and began driving away. They rode through town, and into the next town.

“Officer, where am I going?”

“To a place…you’ll see.” They soon arrived at a big white building. Just a plain white building, with very few windows on the outside. Jared was frightened.

“What is this place?!” Jared demanded.

“Where you’ll be spending the rest of your miserable life.”

The officer stepped out of the car, and removed Jared from the car, and took him inside. Once inside, there was a woman in a white dress holding something. She wrapped it around Jared and fastened all the buckles. “What is this? A STRAIGHT JACKET?!” Jared screamed.

The lady guided him into a small room and put him inside. She locked the door behind her. Jared looked about the room. The walls were padded, and the only “window” was on the door. It was a small cut out box with bars in the space.

“I’M NOT INSANE!” Jared fell to his knees, weeping. How dare they put him in such a place. He sat down on the squishy floor. He still wept. He could just barely hear the officer outside speaking.

“Listen…I don’t care that he’s almost 18, and can still go to jail…I want him in here, until the day he dies! He committed three murders, now, don’t you dare tell me that there isn’t something wrong with him!” Jared let out another scream.

“I’M NOT CRAZY!!” He fell over, and wept until he could no longer weep.
***

Fifty years later, Jared still lies in the same cell, in the same straight jacket. He is now rotting away. He deeply regrets doing what he did. He realized that he did love Jessica; there was no need for what he did. Yet, at the same time, he feels accomplished. That was the day that Jared got his revenge.