19

On the 1st of every month, my parents deposit money into my bank account. They think I've been out traveling. They think I've been trying to find myself since Caleb died. They don't ask questions. They just support me. They always judged my decisions, but they support me. They're always there for me.

I've been running all week. They've been hunting me, driving me for some  inexplicable reason. They were never this focused before. I always felt like an afterthought in their twisted war against innocence. This week, though, I've been hunted like I've been attacked like I never have been before. Only on the 2nd did the proxies and the husks cease their assaults. Only when I started panicking about my parents' deposit not appearing in my account.

It's always been there. It's always been the one constant of my run. Sometimes it'd come in the morning, sometimes in the late evening, but there was always a little bit of money from my parents by the end of the day.

I looked in my e-mail. I checked if maybe there wasn't a note from my parents telling me to expect their support to be late. Instead, I found a message from someone I'd never heard from before. The address was a meaningless string of letters and numbers. The subject only "Concerning the 1st"; the contents merely a link.

He killed them. He was in their home and he killed them.

The Mad Ventriloquist told me a lot about David. He described him as an old friend, and an old shame. I never thought it'd lead to this, though. I never thought he'd be in my parents home. I never thought he'd kill them.

The link was to a Youtube video. It was David, walking around their house, talking about who he was. He seemed so affable at first. It's true what they say about some serial killers. There's a certain charisma about them. But he was in their home. I knew it was wrong. I knew it was all wrong.

David put my mother on camera. She was bound and gagged and bleeding. He pulled out a switchblade. That sick bastard said how good of people they are, how they let him in and fed him. Then... he started cutting. He cut off her skin. That evil man skinned her while talking about how its all my fault... all my fault.

I'm the hero. And he's the villain. So everything I love around me has to die. All my family did was be family, and he killed them. Because that's the way the world works. Black and white. Good and evil. Hero and villain.

He said all this while leaving piles of her skin on the floor.

And David did it to all of them. He slit my dad's throat while critiquing the way he ran the family business. He sang while he killed Terry. He sang as he gouged out my little brother's eyes. All because of me. My parents are dead. My little brother is dead. All because I tried to be a hero.

A hero...