Behind These Walls

by Paul Anthony Williams

  Sam stumbled to his senses after being hit across the head...the blood was still sticky and wet, as it trickled from the wound....he groaned as he struggled to his feet using the wall for balance.....he eventually got up and could see through his blurry vision that the door to the outside of the warehouse had been opened. The distant blare of police car sirens could be just heard approaching....

  “Back-up....better now than never!” mumbled Sam as he started to limp towards the exit...

  “Do you hear that!....there’s no escape this time....straight back to Misty Eyes for you freak!” cackled Patrick as he set off a few more shots into the shadows, before reloading...

  “There will be no capture....no return to the Asylum for me, we shall burn and burn together!” I cackled at Patrick as he fired shot after shot again...before the click of an empty gun rang out....

  Before he could reload again I jumped from the shadows and sliced his right leg with my knife, Patrick fell wincing in pain, as the blood trickled from the wound in his leg. I kicked the gun away from him....

  “You see the path has led you not only to me...but also to your death and you and the ‘girl’ shall face punishment how I see fit....yours will be by fire and you shall die in the flames of shame that you have carried all these years.” I snarled evilly towards the helpless Patrick...

  “Your name was on that final document....the Witness Protection File of Karl Summers, you signed it so he could disappear but he didn’t quite disappear did he....the game became the same...just the rules changed and the borders shifted into his favour.” I hissed in Patrick’s direction...

  “You needed to keep my crimes fixed into people’s heads....have an new plan to keep the Dark Poet alive in their minds...so the copycat killer was born.” I replied...

  “Every related crime...every similar murder you were the leading Detective, yet things didn’t go to plan when young Karl Davis came on the scene...the murders began to look sloppy....amateurish and unlike me in everyway...” I replied.

  “But Karl Summers wasn’t gonna have his plan fall to ruins was he?, so a new plan was born...a plan to get me to come from the safety of my cell into the world beyond the walls...it was a good plan...but with all good plans there are always loose threads....threads to catch and once caught...start to unravel.” I explained...

  “The plan was gonna work...but Sam had to start snooping around...he shouldn’t have found that file.” Patrick screamed back in pain...

  “That’s the problem with a good Detective....once a Detective, always a Detective.” I smirked towards Patrick, as he struggled to one knee...trying to fight the pain shooting through his body...I swiped at the other leg with my knife sending Patrick tumbling once more to the ground as blood trickled from the new wound in his left leg...

  “You see the world has changed since I have been inside....technology has changed the world we live in...but even after all the shiny new layers are placed....if you scratch deep enough there will always be the past waiting beneath and that is Karl Summers today...or shall we call her ‘Michelle’.” I replied...

  “You see he had to find a way to get close to me, and what a way than sexual reorientation...change his sex by medical procedure...and that’s when Karl Summers became Michelle Banks...the very name upon the Witness Protection Form hidden away in the Records Department in the Police Headquarters.. I must admit she tricked me at the start, but I knew something was afoot but couldn’t put my finger on it.” I explained as Patrick with tears in his eyes tried to fight through the agonizing pain from his wounds to get to his feet...

  “But you let her escape....and now you have nothing!” screamed out Patrick towards me...

  “Oh no my dear Patrick...I allowed her to escape, her punishment shall visit her when she least expects it.” I replied...

  “What do you mean?” Patrick asked...

  “All roads lead to a finale....and love is a journey too...people will do anything for love and will take a journey to find it too.” I replied cryptically...

  “But now is your finale...to see your life burn in the flames of your own doing..the end of it all...are you ready?” I softly spoke looking deep into the scared eyes of the fallen Detective....

  “No!!!!!!” Patrick screamed....

  Sam had just managed to struggle to stagger from the warehouse, as the Police cars screeched to a halt. Tommy was the first to attend to Sam...

  “Detective Mallows...where’s Detective Malley?” asked Tommy.

  “Inside somewhere with Hal the Dark Poet....” replied Sam.

  But before they could venture inside the warehouse....the entire building exploded into flames, huge clouds of pitch black smoke and tall leaping flames covered the entire building as the walls began to crackle and fall inwards.

  The flames were too fierce and viscous, and when the fire brigade arrived it took them several hours to contain and extinguish the fire, a couple bodies were found all charred and twisted. One was identified by dental records as Detective Patrick Malley and the other was undetermined due to the damage inflicted.

  The recovery crews spent several days searching every piece of rubble at the site of the fire...no other bodies were recovered and I knew that both Michelle and Hal had escaped the fire somehow, and I knew Hal wouldn’t rest until his revenge was satisfied....

  My concentration was broken by Officer Tommy carrying something in his hand..

  “Detective Mallows...this arrived for you!” replied Tommy as he passed the envelope to me.

  “Thanks Tommy.” I replied as I recognised the handwriting on the envelope, I took a big deep breath and opened the letter....

  Chapter Twenty One: A Surprise Package

  It was the early morning sunshine that trickle past her eye... how long had she been sleeping for, she glanced down at herself and realised she was still in the same clothes...

  The same clothes coated with Karl Davis’s blood after she had pounded him to death....

  Her hands were also encrusted with his dried blood...she staggered towards the bathroom and washed...scrubbed...and washed the blood and memories from her hands...

  Michelle stared deep into the mirror at her reflection...

  “Well Karl...I guess we gotta disappear again...as long as Mallows knows the truth, we will be hunted now and forever, I guess we better leave town while we still can.” she replied...

  She returned to the bedroom and began to started packing a few things into a bag...

  Outside a pair of footsteps began climbing the steps towards Michelle’s apartment drawing closer and closer to her door. Michelle had finished packing her clothes into a travel bag and was now gathering some cash and credit cards and few personal items before she would leave..

  The doorbell to the apartment began to chime....

  Michelle stopped dead in her tracks and the room fell silent...

  The doorbell continued to chime....

  Michelle stared deep and hard at the door...

  The doorbell chimed a third time....

  Michelle broke the silence...

  “Hello, whose there?” Michelle asked.

  “Parcel delivery Ma-am” the voice replied. “ I have a special delivery for a Michelle Banks.” the voice continued.

  Michelle cautiously walked towards the door, and peered through the spyhole out to see who was there.

  Standing beyond the door was a dark haired woman holding a clipboard and a reasonable sized parcel, she was adorned in a generic parcel delivery uniform. Michelle slowly opened the door, as the dark haired woman smiled gracefully back towards her...

  “Good Morning!, I have a package for a Miss Michelle Banks, if you could just sign here and there, and I will be out of your hair...” replied the woman.

  “Ok....there you go!” answered Michelle as she signed for the parcel and using her foot closed the door behind her...but she was too interested in the parcel to notice the delivery woman open the door and enter the apartment.


  Michelle opened the parcel to find a mountain of packaging foam within and beneath the foam was a book titled ‘All Good Things Comes To Those Who Wait’ and attached was a note. She opened the note and began to read it...

  ‘To Michelle/Karl,

  Did you think I forgot about you...

  Remember everything has a place in this world and others do not...

  Best Wishes

  Hal

  The Dark Poet

  Look Behind You!!!’

  Michelle turned slowly around to face the delivery woman smack a nearby statue across her head, knocking her to the ground, the statue had cracked nastily against the side of her head...she was very groggy and through the blurry vision she had she could see the shadow of the delivery woman walking towards her with a knife in her hand.

  She quickly swiped at Michelle’s left leg as the knife cut through her leg like it was butter, Michelle screamed in agony as she began to crawl towards the phone to call for help... the knife swiped again at the right leg this time as the blood began to seep from both wounds...

  “Sweetie pie....sweetie pie....kissed the girls and made them cry....but he loves me every time....every time...”

  The body was still warm....coughing blood and spew up from deep within the soul of her body...Michelle gasped with all her strength but the life was fading from her body...fading fast. The figure was standing over her dying body, giggling with a childish cackle and brandishing the shining knife in her right hand.

  “Bitches are witches, destined to die...he loves me and this thing you have is nothing but a lie.” cackled Kirsten as she mocked Michelle as she dragged herself from the doorway into the apartment, leaving a thick trail of blood behind her.

  “Where you going honey?....there’s nowhere to run...nowhere to hide, you just gotta let it go and just fucking well die!!” mocked Kirsten as she sliced the back of Michelle’s legs with the knife. Michelle yelped as the steel sliced deep into the soft but bloodied flesh of her skin, she mustered all the strength she could to drag herself towards her phone...if she could just reach it....reach the redial button and call Mallows...he was her only hope now...

  but she could feel the life ebbing slowly away from her...her vision was fading as well like a sheet of black falling before her eyes...

  “Don’t you fade on me bitch...the fun has just begun.....” cackled Kirsten. “Shall I tell you a story...as that miserable life seeps from the sad shell you call a body.” Kirsten replied.

  “Once upon a time there was a poor little boy, whose Mummy was murdered by a Genius, now after a few years moving from care home to care home, the boy became angry with the world and with his Mommy’s killer. So a plan formed to get close to the Killer, which involved killing people the way the Poet use to do...but the Poet found out and was very angry. So the boy decided on a new path of revenge...he would become a girl and use her charms to influence people to get close to the Poet, but when she did...she chickened out and pissed her panties.” Kirsten explained.

  “But the girl didn’t reckon upon the Killer escaping the Asylum, and come looking for you...” Kirsten replied.

  “If you are here to kill me.....then just fucking kill me, my deed is done and the Dark Poet is dead and buried.” snarled Michelle as she glared deep into her eyes...

  Kirsten sent a hard smack across Michelle’s face....and then another....and another....until the glow of red bloody raw cheeks were exposed....

  “Stupid Bitch!!, did you really think he died so easily?...He planned everything from the start to the end and now the end has come for you.” replied Kirsten who sent a couple more smacks across Michelle’s face as small traces of blood began to seep from beneath the bruises...

  Kirsten took the sharp knife and sent it straight through the heart of Michelle...whose body stuttered but soon fell dead, as Kirsten began to mutilate the body by slicing Michelle’s eyes away from the sockets and cut away her clothes to leave her naked upon the floor...surrounded by the river of her own blood....Kirsten took the knife one last time and carved two initials into her chest....’DP’.

  Kirsten stared for a moment at her handiwork and with a evil smile, walked quietly from the apartment and into the glory of a beautiful day....

  Sam finished reading the note passed to him by Officer Tommy.

  “Bad news Sir?” asked Tommy.

  “Depends....lets just say this case is over.” replied Sam.

  “But with everything that has happened I believe the fireworks are just beginning!” Sam explained.

  “What do you mean Sir?” asked Tommy.

  “The end is never usually the end!” replied Sam.

  As the two men walked away from the remains of the warehouse, a rumble from an aeroplane filled the sky....

  Chapter Twenty Two: All Roads Lead To The Past

  It had only been a few hours since the destruction of the warehouse and I had escaped unharmed, though I knew that the police would be desperately searching the remains for bodies including my own.

  And now as I finished writing the note and addressed it to Sam Mallows, I gave it a last glance over...

  ‘My dear friend...

  If you are reading this then you must have realised that I am not among the deceased within the rubble, and no doubt you will try to trace this letter but it will lead you to nowhere...

  I thank you for your help with finding the true copycat killer, but also know she has also escaped capture...though she no doubt knew that her time was up and is no doubt also looking to escape but it will do her no good as everything has been prepared for...

  You may be wondering how I knew it was her as there was hardly any evidence at the Home or the Records Department, her fault was her own as I entered her apartment and found the evidence in her safe.

  I maybe not known as a thief but I knew she was hiding something and low and behold it was all there within that safe. There were various cuttings from her mother’s murder and also medical documents showing the procedure she went through with her initials written upon it before and after. So it showed the journey that she took from Karl Summers to Michelle Banks...

  But the one thing she couldn’t remove or hide was her Adam’s Apple...I noticed it from the first time we met at the Asylum...I knew then she had secrets she wanted to keep from the world..

  I don’t regret her revenge but there is one secret she will never know and that is why I cannot bring myself to harm her even though she wanted to kill me for her mother’s death. She was just a baby the first time I met her eyes and maybe the darkness within her is due to me....

  But sometimes blood is thicker than water....

  Lets just say matters have been taken and my hands are clean, but you will find her in the apartment and she will be with her mother....

  As of me, well we have travelled a road together covered with memories and blood, and we have come to a crossroads where we must part and go our separate ways...you will not find me as by the time you read this I will be far from your grasp, but in the future you never know our path’s may cross once more...

  Farewell my friend..

  Hal

  The Dark Poet.’

  I folded the letter and placed the Birth Certificate into the envelope, the same Certificate I had taken from Michelle’s safe....the one that showed I was Karl Summers biological father, I sealed the envelope and posted into the letterbox and walked slowly away...

  I had one more stop to make....

  I hailed a taxi and got into it...

  “Where to boss?” asked the driver.

  “I got two stops to do, the first is out of your way but I am willing to pay you extra.” I replied.

  “It’s a quiet day and if you got the money...I ain’t got worries boss!” replied the taxi driver.

  I gave him the directions and the taxi moved off into the outskirts of Norwich, passing through the old haunts I use to call home, until the town was behind us and ahead of us was nothing but glorious countryside.
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  We soon arrived to a familiar sight and place from my past....

  “Wait here!....I will be a few moments.” I asked the driver.

  “It’s ok with me...as long as you got the cash, I will wait as long as you like!” replied the driver..

  I exited the taxi and entered the field....my hand glancing through the fresh fragrant lavender until I reached the familiar oak tree in the middle of the field. I placed a hand upon the old trunk of the tree and whispered just one word....