April 3, 2023
Justice was served, and the plague of the serial killer was eradicated. The message we gave to the paranormal seekers was heard loud and clear, and they used it to inform the police; in other words, that villain was being taken away that very moment. I would say life was funny that way, but I'm no longer a part of the living world. One might think causing the serial killer to be captured was it for us, the event that would allow us to move on. But it wasn't. After all, we were all still there, unable to move on and find peace. Maybe, in fact, it was The Wolf keeping us and all the others on this plain of existence. Only time would tell. But in that moment, we had a victory.
Red and blue lights flashed in the once deserted parking lot leading into the asylum, strobing around the night sky and creating dancing shadows on the outer walls of the building. The paranormal investigators were quick to deliver the message, and the police arrived soon after. Kaylee, Blake, and I watched from a window in D-Ward as justice unfolded. In chains and handcuffs, the serial killer who had plagued many of the nearby towns was captured, and it was all thanks to us. We did that. And the taste of that was as sweet as honey.
As I stared at the scene playing before me, from the news cars and reporters crowding the spaces where the police allowed them to the many cops keeping the peace to the ones escorting the serial killer to his designated car to the man himself, I wondered what caused him to be the way he was. What was going through that sick man's mind as he took all three of our lives? Did he care? Moreover, did he enjoy it? Those questions are probably common whenever one of these dark specs in society are forced into the spotlight.
Looking at his blank, even prideful grin, I couldn't help thinking of him as some monster. Like his heart had died in his chest cavity long ago. Maybe he'd carved some kind of emptiness as thick as underworld tar into his soul. Maybe that's how people like him become killers, and perhaps why we should fear them. Emptiness is madness, and lack of empathy is unhuman. Perhaps that's why they take lives over and over again, as if it temporarily fills that emptiness inside of them, yet never completely. And thus, the killing goes on. As a Christian, the thoughts floating in my head may, by some, go against my very beliefs, but I couldn't help thinking them. Those thoughts all centered around one conclusion on the topic of serial killers: There's only one true way to stop their senseless killing. Just one. The ultimate end, the only end, the one everyone meets at some point, the end we met ourselves by his hand. I couldn't help thinking he'll meet that end sooner rather than later, and that puts me at peace. I know I shouldn't feel this way, but I couldn't help it. After all, I think he deserved it for what he did to me and many others.
"I've seen enough of that soulless monster for a lifetime," Blake said. Standing in-between me and Kaylee, he tugged at our shoulders.
"Think about what you said," Kaylee added.
"Think about what?"
"Lifetime," she clarified.
"Yeah, doesn't really make sense in our situation anymore." He chuckled and pulled on our arms again.
I stood firmly in place. "Just one second, Blake. I want to see him get shoved into that car first."
So we waited there, waiting until the moment of final closure played before my eyes. With his black baggy shorts, no shirt, black baseball cap, and dangling flashlight, he looked like he was halfway done getting dressed in a uniform of some kind. It made it all the more great seeing his head forced into the car.
I smiled, big and wide, before we headed off.