by Lia Kane
“Just like you.”
“I know, I know. You must think I’m a hypocrite.”
“I don’t think. I know you are.”
“You’re wrong. What I’m doing here is an act of kindness. An act of mercy.”
“You’re here to kill women and children. You call that kind and merciful?”
“Yes I do.”
Adrenaline was coursing through my veins. My body tried, involuntarily, to leap out of my seat but didn’t make it very far. The restraints on my hands and feet held me back down.
“Don’t fight, Jerrika. There’s no point. Welcome your death. It’s a blessing. For all of you.”
“Monster,” I called him as I started to sob. “These children are innocent. If you need to kill someone, just take me. Don’t punish the children.”
“What do these children have to live for? Nothing. They’ll never be adopted. They’ll never have a family. They won’t know how to love, because they were abandoned by the people who were supposed to love them, and no one came along to take their places. When they grow up, they’ll have to find someone to drink, not someone to love. Life will be all about survival – just making it until the next time that they can open their mouths to feed. Society will fear them and hate them. They’ll be easy targets for violence. The world will reject them.”
“You’re only half right, Victor. I love them. So do Sarah and Claudia and Lucy. We are their family. And so is Paul.” I choked back a sob, wondering if he was dead yet. I wished that I could take back all of the doubts that I’d had about him, and all of the harsh words I had said the night before.
“Those children are not your family,” Victor continued. “They’re you’re job. They’re your paycheck. Love can’t be bought. Speaking of love, let’s talk about you, Jerrika. About how lacking you are in that department. You told your parents you had VAM and what happened? Your father died and your mother disowned you. Even your best friend is done with you. And you wouldn’t even let me into your life when I offered my affection, even when I told you that I was willing to accept you as is, VAM disease and all. So what is there to live for, really? You’re far too emotionally damaged to love, even if it was within your reach. Life isn’t just lonely without love. It’s pointless. That’s why it’s going to be so easy to convince everyone that you did this. You were behind it all along, Jerrika. You got overwhelmed and couldn’t deal with how hopeless life is, so you burned down the house with yourself and all of the children in it.”
I gasped. “You’re framing me?”
“It’s the easiest way to do this. I’ve already written your suicide note, detailing all of the horrible things that have happened to you in your young life, and how everyone you ever loved has abandoned you. No one will doubt the authenticity of it. And I’ll confirm all of it. The fact that we’ve been seen around town together and rumors are flying about us as a couple will make me a credible person to speak about your state of mind. Especially after your public meltdown at the Arts Center when you saw my Humvee vandalized –”
“You were behind that, weren’t you?”
“Of course I was. I hated hiring thugs to wreck the paint job on my Hummer, but it was a means to an end, my dear. Plenty of people saw how mentally unstable you were that night. I also took the liberty of having Trish peek into your electronic medical record on file at Dr. Miles’ office. It mentions that you were highly emotional during your visit, and he was very concerned for your wellbeing. It will confirm that the conditions were just right for you to snap and burn down a house full of children, should the police need to investigate and look for more evidence that you are responsible.”
“So that’s why,” I sobbed. “That’s why you were so interested in me. You had to get close to me in order to set me up.”
“My darling Jerrika” he said, moving closer to me, “I handpicked you. When I found your resume, I did some checking up on you and your past. When I realized that you had no family, and no one who loved you, that made you the easiest choice. I didn’t want to take away someone’s daughter, someone’s mother, or wife, or lover… so I recommended you for the job. I knew from the very beginning the purpose you would serve, and I chose you because no one would miss you.”
His words cut like a knife, mostly because they were true.
“You’re one to talk, after all you said about moving on with your life, and how you wanted to explore the connection with me… wow, Victor,” I said. “How dare you lecture me about love when you don’t know the first thing about it? All you do is use people.”
“You know NOTHING! I love this TOWN!” he shouted at me. “Do you know how hard it’s been to sit behind the mayor’s desk, year after year, and watch this town flounder and fail?”
“No I don’t. Tell me, what was so hard about it?”
“You have no idea,” he growled. “After Wainright Mills left, Blue Sky began to crumble. Businesses started closing down, people were losing jobs, the crime rate was at an all-time high, the beautiful streets of downtown were dirty, full of litter and the homeless, and good people were leaving in search of something better. We suddenly had no teachers to educate the children in our schools. Doctors packed up and left town too, which is why the government had to pay off student loans for people like Paul Miles to come practice here. If it keeps up, Blue Sky will be a ghost town. There will be nothing left. I couldn’t let that happen, Jerrika. Not on my watch.” He was pacing with upset.
Keep him talking, keep him talking, I told myself as I struggled to put behind me the shock and repulsion of all that had just been revealed to me.
“So tell me, Victor… how will a mass murder by fire help contribute to the rebuilding of Blue Sky?”
He stopped pacing. “It’s a cleansing,” he said. “It will rid Blue Sky of what caused all of this in the first place.”
“You can’t be serious. You blame the orphanage for the entire town’s decline?”
“A little history lesson for you, Jerrika. When the first confirmed cases of VAM started showing up here in Blue Sky about eight years ago, the few VAMPs who lived here knew that it was best to stay under the radar and keep their status quiet. But within a short while, all of that changed. There was a big media blitz about it, with public service announcements on television about how VAMPs have the same civil rights as every other American, and are covered by anti-discrimination laws. News shows started broadcasting specials on VAM to clear up myths about it and make it seem less scary. Celebrities started coming forward to publicly declare their VAMP status, and signage started popping all over the place. ‘We are VAM friendly’ banners could be seen all over this town. Next, the blood bank opened in a storefront downtown, right where everyone could see it. Then, we got Dr. Miles here, our very first VAM specialist. The next thing I knew, the VAMily Reunion group was meeting every other week at the public library. But you know what proverbial nail in the coffin was, Jerrika?”
“Tell me.”
“The Blue Sky Hope House orphanage for VAM-Positive children.”
I stared at what little I could see of his face in the darkness. “How could that be the nail in the coffin?”
“Civil tolerance and compliance with the law is one thing. Compassion is another. If women were giving birth to VAM-Positive babies, that was their problem, not the town of Blue Sky’s. But a group of women got together – Agnes and Geneva and Janice, and some other old biddies with nothing better to do, and made it Blue Sky’s problem. They pooled the money they had inherited from their dead husbands, hired the staff, rented the basement of the homeless mission downtown, and opened the doors as Hope House. It was the first and only VAM orphanage in the Carolinas, they were so proud to say. But the fear that spread throughout this town was that Blue Sky would quickly become a magnet for pregnant VAMP women to abandon their VAMP babies, who would grow up to be VAMP adults, who would eventually take over this community and infect everyone.”
I laughed out loud. “That’s ridiculous. That c
an’t be why Wainright left town.”
“That’s exactly why Wainright left town. They didn’t pack up and go offshore for cheaper labor and tax breaks. Wainright touts itself as a ‘Made in America’ brand, so they moved the plant up to Apple Valley, Minnesota. ‘Our American ideals no longer align with the values of the Blue Sky community,’ is what they said in the memo they sent to my office to announce their shutdown and relocation. Do you have any idea what it felt like to see that in writing, Jerrika?” He balled his fists and shook them over his head, groaning with rage.
I pulled at my restraints again, hoping in vain that one of them would give. No luck.
Victor continued his rant. “I had to do something about it. I had to start small at first, with little projects designed to get VAM out of the public eye. I got a signage ordinance passed under our Blue Sky beautification project that put stringent requirements on signs – namely that they be high-quality professionally printed placards. Since most of the businesses were struggling anyway, they didn’t have the funds to invest to upgrade their signs, so that got the VAM-friendly banners removed. Then I spent down the funds from the beautification project budget to put up the Leviticus billboards that line the highways into Blue Sky. It certainly beautified the town for businesses and corporations that we were courting.”
“I noticed,” I mumbled. “They were hard to miss.”
“It wasn’t enough, though. I had to step up the game. I saw Reverend Bill Jeffries taking some heat on a national talk show one day, so I looked him up online and made a generous donation to his Anti-VAM ministry. When he called to thank me, I offered an additional large contribution in exchange for him moving here to ramp up the anti-VAM sentiment in Blue Sky. Once he arrived, he kindly kept our arrangement discreet, and went to work building a strong following.”
“Good job,” I told him, my voice dripping with sarcasm.
“Next, after hiring my thug friends to vandalize the downtown blood bank a few times, the owners and staff were ready to move to a more a secluded location. They relocated to a building off the main roads, well out of public view. Then I made it dangerous for VAMPs to publicly assemble. I called upon those same thugs – or contractual consultants, for payment purposes – to harass VAMPs as they entered and exited the library for their meetings and vandalize their cars. It worked liked a charm and forced the VAMily Reunion group into going underground.”
“Nice job, Victor.”
“I agree, Jerrika. But now we’re at the end of this story. The part that involves Hope House. A few years ago, I learned that downtown facility had been over capacity for quite some time, so I passed that information on to the town council. They ordered that the orphans be moved to a larger facility. That’s when I bought the house on the outskirts of town and offered to lease it to Hope House board of directors free of charge, in a supposed gesture of anonymous philanthropy.”
“With the plan to eventually burn it down, frame someone for the crime, collect a large settlement, and hooray, you win.”
“Blue Sky wins,” he said. “Do you have any idea what it’s like to watch the town that you love crumble and die in front of your eyes? This town, where I was born and raised… where I graduated from high school, met and married the love of my life, and was elected – and twice re-elected – the mayor… DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT’S LIKE TO WATCH A TOWN LIKE THIS DIE IN FRONT OF YOUR EYES?”
I refused to answer him.
“DO YOU?” He shouted at me. “Blue Sky is my home, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let it die from a disease. Do you know what the cure for VAM is, Jerrika? It’s what I’m doing right now. It’s getting rid of VAMPs. That’s what people had to do back in the Middle Ages, and what the world will eventually go back to in order to protect and preserve humanity. I’m ahead of the curve. Others will follow.”
For a few short seconds, it was quiet enough in the kitchen to hear a pin drop. The silence was broken when Paul gasped for breath once more.
He was still alive.
There was still hope.
“I’m so sorry, Victor,” I said after a long pause. “I didn’t realize how much the entire town has suffered.”
He lowered his arms to his sides. I heard him exhale with a loud sigh.
“And I know you’ve suffered too,” I said, choking on my words. “To not only see Blue Sky crumble before your eyes, but to lose your wife, without knowing what happened… oh Victor, how horrible it must have been. I’m so sorry.”
“I lied about that too. I know what happened to Alyssa,” he confessed. “She left me. But I found her. And killed her.”
“What?” I jolted upright again. Just when I thought there was nothing else he could say that could shock me, another confession was unfolding.
“I didn’t mean to,” he began to weep. “That wasn’t supposed to happen. I just wanted to bring her home, but she fought me. She fought me.” He covered his face with his hands and cried into them.
Keep him talking. I told myself.
Before, it had been necessary to buy time, to keep us alive just a little bit longer. Now, it was because he was giving up the answers to all of the questions I’d had. All of the pieces of the puzzle were falling into place. I needed to be able to walk out of here with the whole story so that all of the wrongs could be made right.
“What did you do with her body?” I asked.
“I buried her in our back yard, so I could keep her close to me. I visit her grave every night, and while she sleeps in the ground, I talk to her. I tell her what I’m doing, and how I’m making things better in Blue Sky. I know that she’s proud of me. She has to be.”
I shuddered, mourning silently for Alyssa and her horrible fate. She had fled in search of freedom from her crazed husband, and he had hunted her down, killed her and buried her in their yard. Even in death, she was his still his prisoner.
“Victor,” I said softly, “you’re right. I didn’t want to admit it at first, but now I see, you’re right about everything. I had no idea things were this bad. It isn’t fair, and I don’t want anyone to suffer anymore. And you’re right about me too, I have nothing to live for. I’m tired. Tired of being abandoned and hurt and punished just for being who I am. There has to be something better on the other side. I’m ready to die. And it will be best for these children too. So just do it. Start the fire.”
He stopped crying. “You really want this?” he asked incredulously.
I forced myself not to smile. I knew he couldn’t see my face in the dark, but surely he could hear it in my voice if I did. I was in control now, and I was going to get us the hell out of here.
Alive.
“I do. Blue Sky is my hometown and I love it too. I want it to be great again. If this is the part that I play in the rebirth of our town, then I accept it. Start the fire.”
“Thank you, Jerrika,” he wept. “Thank you for making this easier for me.” Victor hovered near the kitchen door, ready to bolt once the fire was raging. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a book of matches. He struck one, the glow of fire in his hands illuminating his face. “I’m going to miss you,” he said. “I did enjoy our time together.”
Then he bent to touch the match to the floor.
“Victor, wait!”
He stood abruptly before the gasoline on the floor ignited. “What is it?”
“You said you wrote a suicide note, right?”
“Yes. I plan to leave a copy of it in the mailbox. The police will find it there.”
“Good. And you wrote that I’m confessing to setting both this fire, and the one at Hope House, right?”
“Yes.”
“Good. I just don’t want any suspicion to fall on you. Do you have an alibi for tonight?”
“Of course – for all intents and purposes, I’m at home right now. My Humvee is parked in the driveway. Everyone in the neighborhood knows when I’m coming and going since it’s hard to miss what I drive.”
“You’re using Kelly’s car, r
ight?”
“Yes. And I’ve got access to a storage shed where I keep it. No cameras and no security.”
“And you’ll wipe it down for fingerprints?”
“I won’t need to. I’m wearing gloves. Trust me, all the bases are covered. I’ve already thought everything through. It will be fine, Jerrika. It’s time now.” He struck another match.
“Goodbye, Victor.”
“Goodbye.” He knelt again.
“Victor, wait!”
He raised the match to keep it from igniting.
“Yes?”
“The cuffs. What about the cuffs? If they find cuffs on me, they’ll know I couldn’t have done this. Shouldn’t you untie me?”
“They’re nylon zip tie cuffs. Nylon will quickly melt. So will the rope around your ankles. I’ve put enough gasoline all over the house that everything will ignite quickly and burn fast. It shouldn’t take long.”
“Oh. Okay then.”
He moved his arm toward the floor again, but the match burned out before he could ignite the gasoline. He reached for the matchbook again.
“Victor?”
“Yes?”
“I promise this is the last time I’ll interrupt you. I have one last wish.”
He stood up again. “What is it?”
I hesitated for a second. “Kiss me goodbye?” I asked.
“Is that all?”
“That’s it,” I said. “I haven’t been kissed since I was 19 years old. I just want to know what it feels like, just one more time. I did have feelings for you, Victor. I still do. You were the closest I’ve ever come to being in love.”
He stood silently for a moment. “I had feelings for you too, Jerrika. I wish things could have been different.”
“But they can’t,” I said. “It’s too late to turn back now. You have to go through with this. Just kiss me goodbye, Victor, and start the fire. Everything will be alright.”