TERRIBLE THINGS

 

 

Every time you walk down the street you pass people who've done terrible things. You wouldn't know it to look at them, but intellectually you know it's true. People get away with horrible crimes all the time. You pass them in the aisles of the grocery store. You sit beside them in movie theaters. You stand in line with them at the bank.

Thing is, you don't know what these people do. Some kill, some rape, some sell drugs,and some are into kiddie porn. You don't know. How could you? They look so normal.

But I know.

I'm not kidding. All I have to do is touch them and I get flashes of all the terrible things they've done. I've had this ability all my life. I call it an ability now, but I used to think of it as a curse.

My father would hug me and I'd know he'd had an affair with some bimbo. My mother would hold my hand and I'd know she'd palmed a twenty out of her till at the grocery store where she worked. I could never respect them. That being the case, I never had anyone to look up to.

Most people's terrible things aren't so bad. I remember a guy who'd pulled a knife on a friend of his. Guilt gnawed at the poor guy's gut for years even though he didn't use the blade. He'd thought about doing it and that drove him nuts. His friend probably never even thought about it after it happened.

One girl I met felt so ashamed because she'd cheated on a math test. A math test! Can you believe it? Jesus!

People like that are okay. No threat, you might say.

But there are others. The murderers and rapists and such. Some of them don't even think what they've done is so terrible. Like it's no big deal that they sliced some guy's throat in an alley for five bucks and a credit card that was charged to the max.

I see it as my moral and ethical duty to find these people. I shake hands with them so I can get the flashes. If they've done something I think is terrible, I kill them. It's the only way to stop them. It's not like they leave a trail of evidence that the police can use to arrest them. And my word against theirs won't hold water in a court of law.

The lawyers would say these flashes are all in my mind. The average Joe would agree.

But I know they're real.

And I'm on a mission.

So what do you say, want to shake hands?

 

 

 

 

Quick Shot

 

P.D. Cacek read this story when she was thinking about editing an anthology called Scared Shitless. Trish said I should turn it into a novel. I will, but the book will be worlds different.