When a Man Falls in Love

by Amelia Lee

  He gave me a picture which captured by phone cell camera. It was a house picture. I really did not remember whose house was that. "Do you remember where is this?" I shook my head.

  He walked towards me and took my rusty watch from my pocket roughly. "Is not odd someone like you keeping something like this in your pocket?"

  "What does all this mean? What do you mean?"

  "This rusty watch is exactly the same watch that I found someone was wearing in that house. The house where I saw Stephanie goes into it and never come back after that," he said, laughing loudly. He really had lost my mind.

  “So that’s it? You suspect me just because of that watch? Do not you know that there are plenty of people out there that wearing exactly the same watch as mine? Why do not you suspect them one by one?!”

  “Then can you explain me what caused this watch being that rust? Or burnt? What were you do in your past? What the hell makes you so attracted to her death and where were you went before your damn car accident?” He continued his words, "After getting out of prison, I was determined to find out who the real killer is. It made me unable to sleep. Every night I feel restless, Stephanie always comes in my dreams just like a ghost, yell at me to help her…

  And now I've found it. I know you did it. That's what I told to William, who committed suicide after that in your house. Funny is not it?” He continued his words, “You did it, did not you? You fake your own death by that accident, disappear and begin a new damn life with your girl so that I never known your true identity.

  And one more time, your name is Frederick not Emmerich. What kind of name is that? Where did you get it? Whose identity you take?"

  What was this? Did he tried to blame me about something he did, that murder, so that he can free from all his guilt? But why me?

  He kept asking me the same thing. Where was I? What I’ve done before all of this?

  My head felt really, really hurts. It felt like something stabbed my head. My back feels so heavy as if I was carry someone twice my size. I fell to the floor, strange noises filled my head.

  "You seem so interested in that news .. you did not involve did you?"

  "Do you believe in karma?" she asked.

  "Yes, something you do to others either good or evil, surely will happen to you too someday? Well, something like that…,"

  "I can not have children…"

  "You got a car accident,"

  "What's your name?" the doctor asked me.

  "Emmerich. Emmerich Fischer."

  I remember James always told me to recall my mind while I can because neither I or him will never know what kind of person I was in the past and what I’ve done before.

  My eyes were previously closed are now open very wide. I paused and held my head. My heart was pounding. The silence and the humming sound that I hear. I remember the time that James told me to seek out his own identity. And now I remember.

  I remember everything.

  A few years earlier, December 27, 2006.

  My eyes wide opened when I heard the sound of breaking glass from the kitchen. It was at three-fifteen. Who was making noise early in the morning?

  I walked up to the source of the sound and found Florence was sitting on the floor while holding her fingers which bled quite a lot. She bowed her head while crying, and then switched to looked at me.

  "What happened?" I asked curiously.

  "I can not, I’m begging you, help me, I can not handle it anymore," she cried even harder.

  I tried to reassure her, "What do you mean?"

  "She, she, always come to visit me every night. I can not handle it anymore, please…"

  My patience was running out, "What do you mean? Who is that woman?"

  "Stephanie…"

  My breath caught when she said that name again. It has been almost two weeks since Florence act strange like this. "Enough! I do not want to hear that name again! You know how troublesome and annoying are you? Make noises and wake me up every day and talk about a dead person?”

  She got up and slapped me on the cheek. "You're the cause of all this, if not because you killed her, I would certainly not like this. Fuck you, Frederick."

  A few days later, December 31, 2006

  Time showed at five o'clock when I mixed chocolate milk into a bowl of cereal. I was not really going to eat because I feel hungry, I've lost my appetite. Eating was only a formality in order to stay alive for me.

  It's been four days I did not speak or greet Florence. So did she. She just asked things like if I wanted to eat, just to melt the ice that formed between us, and I just replied with simple yes or no.

  I felt sorry to her. I felt sorry, not only for Florence but also Stephanie. Even though I knew nothing could I do to turn back time. To bring her alive.

  "Where are you going?" Florence asked me when she saw me start the car.

  "Went with my friend,"

  "Oh. Do not forget to come back home." That’s it. I never really returned home.

  It was at half one in the morning when I drove through the rain and wind. I was not drunk, I just drank a glass of beer. I was not drunk not because I do not want to, I wanted to have a drink and forget about all these crazy things, but I did not have money to buy a bottle of whiskey.

  I drove at almost full speed. I knew it was too late to go home, and Florence may have fallen asleep. I drown in my own thoughts until I turned my car. Wheels screeched, I swerved to the right direction of the street when I saw a young man riding his motorcycle toward me.

  I can not think anything then.

  My car kept sliding into the abyss.

  I closed my eyes.

  This is the end of my life. I just wanted to go home.

  Sebastian walked up to me and hit me repeatedly with a baseball bat. I fell, my head was still sore after being forced to recalling my past and with him keep hitting me, it just adds to the pain I feel.

  He said quietly, very quiet right in front of me, "You who have caused all of this, I was thinking to kill myself to meet Stephanie and my father, but before I caught up with them, I want you first to catch up with her so that she can avenge you…"

  I woke, he tried to kill me. He put a gun that he took from the pocket of his pants towards my head. I swiftly reflexes and prevented him from doing so. I threw the gun away from his hands and got up. I pushed him down and ran out. I tried to open the doors, the wooden doors of this house, which he had the key. He got up and fired a bullet into my left leg. It hurts, so damn hurts. I groan in pain right away. The bullet hit me right on my bones.

  "Oh, you can still feel a pain? I thought you forget what pain feels like…" He said as he walked up to me with a slow pace. He mock me and laughing at how weak I am. I groan and shed tears.

  "You do not even feel any pain while doing it then, right?" he asked.

  Yes. I did not feel any pain or guilt when I killed Stephanie.

  "You disappeared and fake an accidents. You think all of this will go away like nothing happened, right?" he asked again.

  No. I really did not expect everything would be like this.

  "You do not even answer my question. Silent like I was talking to a rock. I guess it’s all fate that brought us together…" he said.

  I took the gun from his hands and stood away from him. "Do not move. Stay there, I’m begging you…"

  Sebastian laughed out loudly, "Look, the killer will kill again. You've been holding the gun, kill me now." I was silent and just looking into his eyes. I will not do everything he said.

  "Are you afraid? Come on just kill me. If I kill myself, I'll regret it for me to end my life. But if you did, I certainly would not be too regret it. Especially you, Frederick, the one who I've been waiting for,” he fell silence for a while before talked again. He was already insane.

  He grinned, “Wait… I got a good idea! What if you kill me, then you kill yourself? A good idea is not it? We will dance together, eat together, sing together in hell until…"

  BANG! I
shot his head.

  BANG! Twice.

  BANG! Third times, I shot his head.

  He fell to the floor, fresh blood and rancid smell filled the air.

  I left again. Everything. All of this killing. I did it again. For the second time.

  I walked to the car that I parked outside this narrow alley. A man, whose body was burly, and the one with shorter body, saw me with weird gaze. This men, who I saw when the first time I visited his house. He walked into Sebastian’s house.

  They will know it, notice it. And I let them know. Know that I just killed Sebastian. I let everything happen.

  It's my time to accept my own karma.

  I drove as fast as lightning toward my house. I saw Iris there, sitting in the front yard while chatting with a neighbor. "Oh, you're back. Where are you going? I thought you…" I cut her off by kissing her lips. I kissed her for a few seconds.

  "What’s wrong?" she asked me.

  "Forgive me."

  Police cars arrived a few moments later.

  EPILOGUE

  It was nearly ten o'clock at night when a young woman who was also an inspector walked toward me. "You're hungry?" she asked. I smiled, "Not yet".

  I sat in the corner of the room while looking at the pictures that have been worn out. A photo of myself, where I was just a child, pure and innocent. They got it from my old house, at Greenvile village. The village where there are only trees and cows were busy eating grass.

  I stared at the photograph. The photos, taken when I was seven years old. With him. He was the closest person in my life. With him I get love that I did not even get from my own family. I miss him so much.

  The lady inspector came back to me, "Frederick, it’s time to go. They want to see you." Sounds of a opened padlock echoed into the hallway where I was detained. They want me to be detained separately.

  I saw a big man talking to a woman not far from where I stand, "Frederick was detained and interrogated few hours later after he was caught killing Sebastian. According to the police and psychiatrists who examined him, he has a high tendency as a psychopath and had acute cryptomnesia. ‘Emmerich Fischer’ name was actually the name of his former maid when he was 3 years old. He does not only took Emmerich’s name and date of birth, but also behaves like Emmerich completely."

  The woman let out a deep breath, her face look shocked as if she could not believe what she was hearing. The police continued their conversation, "He came from a broken family and have a relationship with her aunt, Florence, who also helped him killed Stephanie. After Frederick choked her, they threw her body by dissolving it in sulfuric acid that he got illegally from Florence, from the hospital where she worked, and throw her corpse into the river which is not far from Saint Village hospital.

  Florence died from poisoning suicide by drinking cyanide on January 29, 2006 after hearing news that Frederick disappeared.

  After the accident, Frederick suffered from retrograde amnesia and live for several years using Emmerich's identity without knowing it.

  He was convicted from murder and guilty of the loss of Stephanie and her corpse."

  I saw her cry. She sobbed, not accept the truth that she had heard. I want to embrace and hug her tightly. Saying that everything will be fine. Probably not for me, but for her. That woman, Iris. And for Rose.

  "Eyes down," the police lady ordered. I walked through Iris, she looked at me as if I was a ghost. Rose was silent, she did not understand what was happening.

  Time showed at one a.m. when I saw the clock hanging on the wall. My eyes are very tired, so did my brain.

  I answered question after question they asked me. My hands were handcuffed, as well as my feet. I answered quietly, very quietly with a lazy tone. They already know everything, what else do they want?

  "How do you do that?" asked one of the men with eyeglass.

  I smiled, "I dissolve it, was not I already told you? Oh, and accidentally Florence worked in the hospital. She helped a bit,"

  "Do you feel guilty for a moment or at the time when you killed Stephanie?"

  "I think no. Not at all."

  -The End-

  CREDITS

  Book cover photo by ©Leanne Boulton via flickr.com | The Fluttering of Thoughts - A street candid taken in Glasgow, Scotland.

  You can see the actual picture here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/lkbphotographic/14102798498 or see another her amazing works by visiting her profile here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/96844815@N03/

  Cover edited using Adobe Photoshop.

  Book edited by the Author.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Amelia Lee has been writing for more than eight years. Her first romance drama short story titled 'Leaves from Sky' was written when she was eleven years old. She has experienced writing in blogs and newspaper articles with many genres, including romance, drama, fantasy, horror, thriller, science fiction and non-fiction. Writing is not just a hobby, but has become a talent for her. As a busy student, Amelia always took the time to write, read or design an artwork.

  Your questions, criticisms, suggestions or any errors mean a lot to Amelia and further progress of her work. You can reach her here at amelia.lee2210@gmail.com

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