darcie
Stacey and the kids snored loudly beside me on the couch. I pushed Stacey’s head off my lap and exited the sofa. The time on my smartwatch, which was almost flat, said it was nearly ten past ten. I took hold of my knife and walked to the front window with a candle in my other hand. I peered out of the window at the still-too-dark night. Even the streetlights had been plunged into darkness.
A police officer had come by the house earlier to pick up the human remains that had been left on the porch so kindly by my half-brother.
I would have done something myself, like investigate the murder, but what was the point when I knew who the perpetrator was?
There was no mystery as to who had slowly been killing people around town.
The only question that remained was, why?
I knew my brother had a beef with me. But why kill so many innocent people? I walked to the kitchen counter where I had left my laptop and Declan’s diary. I picked up the worn leather-bound notebook with the cracked spine and took it to one of the armchairs in the lounge room with the candle.
I realised I had to get to know my half-brother more to figure out his motive. I opened to the next page of his diary, where I had left off, and began to read.
December 25, 2012
He came to see us this Christmas! After promising for so long. I really thought he was a liar. He said he’d come for months and didn’t end up showing. I would stand by the window all day when he said he was coming, only for him not to come. I was beginning to hate him.
I had long wanted to know my father and was preparing myself for disappointment, but he’s here! My aunt told me about my mother growing up, so I felt like I knew her. She even gave me a photograph of her soon after I was born. She was holding me and looked happy, but only on the surface. I could sense her sadness. I could see it in her eyes.
February 14, 2013
I got my first Valentine’s card at school today! There’s this pretty girl in class that I like. She has blonde hair. But she’s one of the popular girls, and I know she would never like a weird, nerdy boy like me.
But she gave me a card! I found it on my desk when I walked in this morning. She said she had always liked me, discovered my love of science and books, and secretly was smart, too. She said she’d like to kiss me.
She asked me to meet her behind the cafeteria building at lunch today. I can’t wait.
February 15, 2013
Girls are evil and cruel, and I hate them! The whole thing was a lie. It was a cruel prank. I knew a girl like Taylor would never like a boy like me. I was the outcast, and she was the popular girl. When I turned up behind the cafeteria yesterday, Taylor was there. She told me she wanted to kiss me, but only if I showed her my bravery. So, to prove I was brave, I stepped into the bathrooms beside the cafeteria and stripped naked. When I walked out expecting to find Taylor, she was there but wasn’t alone. All her friends were there, too, and they had their phones out…
My naked photo went up all over the internet that night.
I have never been so embarrassed!
Oh man, I was feeling second-hand embarrassment for Declan. I can sort of see how he came to feel the way he felt now about girls, how he used them as his pawns like he had been used as a kid. Here, he had only been nine years old! I kept reading, getting engrossed in my half-brother’s story.
June 2016
I had a dream. In it, I heard my mom’s voice. She hasn’t come to me in years. But I heard her say she found several wedding rings in my father’s possessions, that he’d been seeing her and several other women too! I wonder where he is now. I wonder if there are other kids out there that he visits…
April 2018
My aunt and I haven’t seen my father for almost two years now. He’s probably with one of his other families…
September 2018
I discovered something shocking about my father today. Shocking but also intriguing. I was in the library doing research for school when I came upon an article about a series of murders in small towns, and the victims were all blonde. They looked awfully like my mom.
Could my father really be a serial killer? Could he have killed my mother too? Well, he had a type…
There are huge gaps in Declan’s journal; where there were entries, they were only excerpts. I felt like I was missing pieces of the story. I read on, though. I wanted to know how Declan went from a humiliated, lonely teenage boy to a serial killer. It wasn’t hard to fit the puzzle pieces together, but I felt like they were all misshaped, bent, or all edge pieces in a box full of middle pieces. They went together only slightly but still didn’t make the image on the front of the box. The picture was blurry and out of focus as well.
The following entry after September 2018 wasn’t until 2022 when I met him, and he discovered the truth about his mother.
I knew Declan’s aunt tried her best to raise him so he would be loved and wouldn’t turn into his father… our father. But I guess darkness was inevitable…
August 2022
I was right. He did it. He killed my mother!
But that’s not the only bomb I had thrown on me this summer. I also have a sister.
A half-sister, but still. She’s his daughter.
I wonder if she also fantasises about being like our father, about slicing flesh, about the thrill of the hunt and the kill. About being a predator…
Jesus! I gasped and closed the diary with a loud slap, momentarily forgetting I wasn’t alone in the house. AJ stirred, and Stacey woke up on the couch beside me.
“What are you doing?” she asked sleepily.
“Sorry. Did I wake you?”
“Yes. But I kinda had a nightmare. What are you reading?” she sat up, gently stroking her son’s head until he fell back asleep next to his little sister.
“Declan’s diary. I wanted to get to know him more. Find out his motive.”
She rolled her eyes.
“Yeah, because he’s a sick son of a bitch. Sorry, Darce. No offence.”
“No offence taken. I know, but I want to know why he’s suddenly turned his attention on us. I mean, I’m his sister. I reached out and only offered him love and support. Then he turned around and kidnapped and injured my friends. And now he’s turned up here in Summervale, killing our friends, family, and acquaintances. I just want to know what I did to him. What did I do to deserve this?”
“Nothing. You know more than most people that killers think differently than the average person. Something that would make some more resilient that would be a mere blip on our radar would seem like a major hurdle and inconvenience to a serial killer. They’re just wired differently.”
I turned my body toward her and glared.
“Who are you, and what have you done with my best friend?” I laughed. I wanted to throw a cushion at her but was afraid of hitting one of the sleeping children.
“Hey, you told me to read more. I’ve been reading some of those true crime non-fiction serial killer books you have on your bookshelf back in the Hamptons. They’ve really helped with my work as a councillor, the psychology of serial killers.”
“Hey, I was wondering where those went!” I sighed. “You’re welcome to them any time. Any of my books, really. I’m happy you’re actually reading. I never thought I’d ever see the day,” I mocked, feigning crying.
She threw a cushion at me, laughing. “Shut up.”