A Story of a Killer - Chapter 15: Chapter 15

Jacob
Scared wasn’t even the right word for this situation. What I was feeling, the proper word would be horrified. I don’t think I can ever get what has happened tonight. Since we pulled out of my driveway I haven’t said a word to Titus. He would try to make conversation but I would silently stare out the window still tightly gripping his hand. I could tell that he was getting annoyed with me because I wouldn’t let him in, but what the hell do you expect? I just killed my dad for christ sake how would any normal person feel?
I guess I wasn’t normal though since Titus said that we are the same. So I guess that means he’s killed people before too? Still, no matter how hard he squeezed my hand and told me everything was going to be okay I couldn’t calm down. My father’s body, the man who raised me for the past fifteen years in dead and bloody. I could hear as his body was being thrown around and would thump whenever a turn was too strong or Titus would break too hard and hearing that would make me cringe. I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that only half an hour ago I was capable of doing something so sinister to another person. I mean yeah he would hit me and I desperately wanted him to stop but that didn’t mean that I wanted him dead.
Dad was constantly hurting on the inside since mom passed and decided to take him pain out on me and get drunk. Sometimes after he was done he would drink almost half the beer bottles in the fridge and would cry out mom’s name. I felt for him, I really did but at the same time, I didn’t. I didn’t know mom as well as he did since he never talked about her but what I did know that in times of heartache it's okay to grieve and move on not grieve and abuse your son. So maybe I was a bit happy that he’s finally gone. Maybe somewhere deep down I did want him to die so that just for a moment I could be free so that every time I go home I wouldn’t have to constantly look over my shoulder so that every time I go to bed I wouldn’t have to lock my door and sleep with one eye open to make sure he wouldn’t come in and strangle me.
Him being gone can be good for me. I don’t have to worry about covering up any new bruises or cut marks because he isn’t here to do them anymore. Maybe befriending Titus wasn’t such a bad idea? He acted out one of my deepest darkest wishes, something that I would never have the courage to do, so for that, I was thankful. Turning my head towards Titus I examined his face. He held a hard expression, his lips were pursed and his eyebrows were scrunched together. The hand that was on the steering wheel was white, whiter than his normal skin tone and that let me know he was squeezing the wheel pretty tight. Adjusting my grip on his hand I squeezed hard to get his attention causing him to glance at me.
“Yeah?” He asked glancing at me then back at the road.
“Where are we going, Titus?” We were currently in the middle of nowhere, obviously, we were outside of town but I wasn’t familiar with this area at all.
“I haven’t decided on where yet.” He was looking closer to the front window, probably looking for a place to turn into. I responded with a curt nod and it got silent once again. After a few more minutes of driving down the long and abandoned road, I decided to speak up again.
“Titus are we criminals now?” He responded without missing a beat.
“ You’re a smart boy Jacob so what do you think?” He asked not looking at me but instead taking his hand out of mine, that one movement caused me to internally panic but I didn’t show it. For some reason, I needed the physical contact just so I could be stable in this situation.
“I mean-” He cut me off before I was able to finish.
“No. We aren't Jacob,” He took a short pause to tap on his chin. “Think of us as doctors, whose job is to cure a patient with a deadly parasite. You see, the world is our patient and humans are those parasites hurting said patient. Our job as doctors is to push out or get rid of those parasites and help the patient.” He said matter of factly.
“So we are helping? But aren’t we also in the box of those people parasites?” I asked a bit confused and scrunching up my face.
“No, we aren't.” He said, I was waiting for him to give me a reason as to why we aren't but he never did.
“Oh okay.” The car went quiet again. I think we were driving for about two and a half hours now until Titus finally spoke up.
“We’re here.” He said to me while getting out of the car. Following him out of the car I observed the scenery and I was really starstruck. We were literally in the middle of nowhere. There were no buildings, no cars, no people, no nothing. The sky was shining bright with stars, I could make out certain constellations like Orion's Belt and Cygnus. It was really beautiful.
“Where exactly is here?” I wondered following him to the pack of the car where my father’s body lay. He pops open the trunk and puts his hands under the body’s feet and nodded his head towards the body telling me to put my hands there to pick it up.
“We are on US-40 a couple of miles out from Cumberland.” He grunted. We picked up the body on the count of three. “We are going to place him deep in the field over there.” He told me as we walked around the car. I nod my head. When he hit three and we picked the body up it felt like I was carrying a ton of bricks, I was struggling to keep my grip and we would constantly have to stop so I could readjust and we weren’t even a hundred yards from the car yet. I could tell Titus was getting annoyed with me but I couldn’t help it, I didn’t have as much upper body strength as him. Heck, the most I’ve ever lifted was my bookbag and that only weighed about eight pounds.
“Dammit, Jacob! Come the hell on we do not have the time!” He yelled at me causing me to flinch and drop the body. When it hit the ground I squeaked and covered my face. The bag opened a bit causing my father’s face to peek through and I was so close to barfing. Covering my mouth I dry heave and looked away from him. Titus let out a long sigh and I could tell he was sliding his hands over his face. I knew he wanted to yell at me again so I flinched to prepare myself but to my surprise, he didn’t, instead, he walked up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist. The affection scared me a bit since I thought he was going to hit me or something so I naturally flinched.
“Sorry for yelling at you. I'm just a bit stressed and right now you’re not helping the situation. Can you just suck it up for me, please? Babe.” He says while kissing the back of my neck, the action instantly caused me to melt like seriously I thought my knees turned to jello since he’s never kissed me anywhere but my lips. Sighing I nod my head.
“Yeah, I’m sorry too. I’ll do better.” I tell him with the dark blush taking over my skin. Before moving away again he kissed my neck again and walked back to the body. Moving back to where he was we once again picked up the body. When we got like a mile into the field we dropped him off. When the body hit the hard cold ground we just stared at it for a few moments.
“Babe.” I say to him.
“What?” He asks looking at me, his eyes squint in the darkness.
“You call me that a lot and I’m trying to wrap my head around it.” I say while tapping my chin as we walk back towards the car.
“Yeah? What about it?” He nudges my shoulder causing me to stumble a little.
“Well, I mean.. You only call your significant other that right?” He stopped and looked down at me and also tapped his chin.
“I suppose so.” He nodded his head agreeing with himself.
“So does that mean we are like dating? I mean w-we kiss and all that and you call me yours too. So i just assumed.” I look down at my feet suddenly finding my barely tied laces interesting. I played with the hem of my shirt when he didn’t respond automatically, a habit I have when I’m nervous.
“Huh, I suppose so.” He walks ahead of me with that being his last statement. I felt giddy inside. My first boyfriend! That’s crazy. I jumped up and down alternating feet and threw my fist up in the air to express my excitement. He just chuckled in my direction and told me to get in the car. Our long journey home was filled with me talking and him listening. I was mostly talking about how he was the first guy I ever dated and kissed and all he did was nod and every once in a while he would smile in my direction.
The ride home didn’t seem as long then the ride there since I had so much to talk about. All that changed when we finally made it back to my house. All of what happened tonight came crashing back down. My mood went from happy and carefree to dark and gloomy. We walked back into the house and the first thing you could see was a giant pool of blood left on the hard floor. You can smell and taste the metallic blood without actually tasting it. I started to dry heave again.
Titus clapped his hands together, scaring me again might I add, and let out a happy sigh. “ Welp time to clean up this mess right.” He looked at me with a silly grin, “You have any bleach ?” He asked me and I just nodded and went to go get it. The bleach was in the kitchen under the sink closest to the back door. When I returned back into the living room the door, that was initially kicked down, was put back up and put back into the frame so it wouldn’t fall again. It was leaning just a bit because it wasn’t screwed back into its hinges.
“Here's the bleach.” When I tried to hand it to him he shook his head and pushed it back towards me.
“Didn’t your mother teach you to clean up your own messes?” He asked matter of factly. I shook my head and felt the tears build up in my eyes.
“No. My mom is dead. She died when I was young, hell I can barely remember her.” I forced out a laugh with tears running down my cheek.
“So why the hell are you crying?” He asked me. I just shrugged my shoulders in response. “You can’t cry over someone you never knew, it makes no sense at all. So stop bitching about it and clean up your mess Jacob.” Titus sat down on the couch and scrolled through his phone while I just stood and watched him with a look of bewilderment. All he did was a motion with his hand in the direction of the stained floor to shew me. I pursed my lips but got to it anyways.
Cleaning up dried up blood was more difficult than I thought. It took two different types of scrubbers, a dirty rag, and almost boiling hot water. Titus didn’t make things any easier as he kept adding in his input like it was really needed.
“You missed a spot.” He said in my direction without even looking at me and for some reason that threw me over the tipping point.
“Can you please, shut up Titus?! I'm doing the best that I can without any help whatsoever and you two cents at this moment is not needed!” He seemed pretty shocked that I yelled at him but seriously I was tired of him talking. He made a ‘hm’ noise and looked down at me.
“Okay, I’ll leave you alone. Though before I do you should know something.” He clicked his phone off to give me his undivided attention.
“Yes? What is it?”
“ You’re going to have to do something about that nosey neighbor of yours. I’m pretty sure she’ll find out what happened here or she might already know.”
“You mean Ms. Marg?” He nodded his head at me. “I mean she couldn’t know right everyone was pretty much asleep when this happened right?” I asked as I began to panic. He just shrugged his shoulders like this wasn’t a bad situation.
“I saw her curtains open. So I advise you to handle her sooner or later. I’d prefer sooner than later if you don’t wanna go to jail or anything.” I was really nervous now, by handling her did he mean to kill her? I don’t think I’m ready to kill anyone else again. At the same time, I don’t think I can handle going to prison either so I really have to make a decision and fast.
“Since you’re done, don’t you think it's time to go?” He asks me grabbing a hold of my hand. “We can come back for the truck another day or I’ll just have a friend of mine come and tow it.”
“Where are we going it’s nearly six-thirty in the morning?”
“My house now let’s go. We aren’t going to school today either so pack some clothes. Also after we wake up we can just burn these in my backyard. It’ll be like having a bonfire.” He laughed at his joke and since I didn’t want to feel left out I started to laugh also, but it sounded more forced so he stopped laughing at the sound of it.
When I packed my bags and headed out the house before Titus, since he had to fix the door back into place, I could’ve sworn that I saw a set of curtains move close from across the street.