Chapter 4:

Lear

Marchen Madness


Cal POV

I was kicked out. Yes I was kicked out of the bar even though I was not causing any ruckus. Apparently it was closing time for them and I was obstructing with it.

I was not in the wrong with this, they were! This is a bar. People drink and stay here all night long so that they can drink even after closing hours. Why was I kicked out? Perhaps I should kill the owner like I killed Mari.

Wait, who is Mari? When did I kill her?

“Who are you Mari?” I scream at the top of my lungs.

“Kek , kek, kek,” The silhouette appears. I don’t know if it is because of the effects of all the alcohol I had drunk, but right now I can both see and hear the owner of the silhouette properly.

It was a young girl not more than twenty. Her bloodshot eyes missed the luster that would have been present if she was still alive. Her blond hair befitting of some one of her age was messed up with dirt and blood. There were marks on her throat indicating that her throat was gripped on until she choked.

“Well well you called me did not you?” She says as playfully as an imaginary ghost created by my mind could have.

I start drinking from the last bottle in my hand, out of panic until the very last sip.

“Stop haunting me already if you are a real ghost!” I scream while throwing the bottle at her. I then run to the best my ability without glancing to my back even once.

The wind blew when I arrived by the river. I would have ran even more if not for the fatigue.

“Kek, kek kek!” the voice follows me, getting louder each second that passed. I try to get up but I am unable to. It was as if my body refused to listen to me.

“You called for Mari didn’t you?” she asks rhetorically, “well I am Mari and I am here.

“You also asked me to haunt my killer and not you, right?”

She laughs a vicious and bloodthirsty laugh as her smirk cover up half of her bloodless pale face. Her teeth as white as the whitest pearl and sharp enough to put needles to shame are exposed.

“Well you are my killer and that is why I am haunting you.”

I look at her unable to comprehend what she just told me; and show no more signs of trying to stand up.

I killed her! It is incredibly hard to believe that. Why would I even kill someone I do not know? What is more, I do not even remember killing her. Besides what my job all these years was worth for was that it absolutely taught me to detest murderers and such heinous criminals.

“No you are wrong! You are just a virus planted on my mind. A pathogen that is dead set on destroying my mind. You do not exist.

“Oh really you poor thing,” she looks at me like a lost lamb, “you really think I do not exist. Such blasphemy!”

She grips my throat hard threatening to not let go.

“To actually say that Mari does not exist, you do have a lot of guts after even killing me.”

“I-,” I try to speak but am absolutely unable to as the grip on my throat was stopping me. Let alone trying to talk; If this goes on for too long I am afraid that I will be strangled to death.

“Well you killed me before! And not only me! You even killed my mother and father! It is only fair that I haunt you and mess your mind up.” She retorts at me taking pleasure from my pain while continuing to strangle me.

“Don’t you remember you killed us all,” two more silhouettes, bearing striking resemblances with the girl who calls herself Mari, appear. Both their bodies show signs of going through inhumane torture similar to that of Mari.

Did I really kill them? But why? Why exactly would I kill them for no reason what so ever?

Flashback:

“Cal stop, please I am begging you. Do not hurt her,” A mother was begging me to stop hurting her daughter back then. She herself was tortured, her husband killed in front of her and then she had to witness her young daughter’s agony.

“You want your daughter to suffer less don’t you? How about you take her place then?” I ask calmly suppressing the madness inside me while approaching her.

Her eyes show an instantaneous fear before it turns into acceptance and resolve. This resolve in her eyes angered me; so I decided to go hard on her. Soon woes of both mother and daughter echoed upon the dark cave were no light would shed on, as I tortured them simultaneously without mercy.

“Daddy please save Mari!” The daughter screamed unable to comprehend that her father is already dead. The dark chains she was tied with are stuck to her swollen bloody hands. She was bleeding from all her orifices. I danced in joy at her distress, as she soon followed her mother to death.

Flashback ends

I stare at them as I remember my crimes against the family. I no longer know myself anymore. I, who had learnt to despise murderers, was a murderer myself.

“No why, How come I am a murderer?” I scream as Mari’s grip on my throat loosens.

“You still think it’s a lie? It is all a fact that you killed us.” They lash out at me in unison.

“You killed us so don’t you think you should join us as well? Who knows this might even be an end to your nightmares” Mari says as she releases me. They stand in front of the river making a straight path for me.

The hold on me has been released. I could move perfectly right now; but I did not move. They were right- it is only fit that a murderer, what is more a murderer who revels in his killing, should join the victim. I get up and with a few long strides I jump into the abyss thinking of how the nightmares would no longer affect me.

Unknown POV

‘It has just ended tonight’ I think as I sit down on an armchair comfortably while whistling away like I had all the time in the world

“So you finished killing him?” Dr. Swind as Cal would call him; or simply swine doctor, as I call him asks.

I nod while picking up the tea cup he had served just now.

“You know he almost lost his trust on you and thought that the drugs you prescribed him. Thankfully I found him wasting away in a bar. So I offered him a glass of beer tampered with more Psilocybin. And this did the work quiet properly as he lunged at the river waters without any more help from me.”

Swine doctor sighs, “Poor man he was already suffering from psychotic disorder and a mild amnesia, he would have died anyways without any intervention.”

I smile since I had nothing more to say to his remark since he was right. Well no one would question anyone even if he died since they would think that he committed suicide after doing drugs and getting drugs.

“So we should look for our next target right? Who should it be this time?” I ask with a stack of photos in my hand.

“It is all your choice, I am just a ‘quack doctor’ who faked his own degrees and prescribes meaningless drugs unless you mess with them.” The doctor complains, “Is that not the case Lear?”