Through Strength and Healing

By: Chocolate Milkahh

Coming back to my apartment feels…unusual. I feel like I didn't belong there, like nothing in here belongs to me. I feel like I don't even belong in this body.

I was taken out of my small train of thought when my partner and best friend, Mal Fallon, tapped my shoulder lightly. I turned around to find him flashing me a worried look.

"Why don't you go get some rest while I bring everything in. You can use a good nap."

I just look at him as he takes a small box out of my hands and sets it on a small wooden coffee table and walk out again.

Then a flashback floods my mind:

Crouching behind a dumpster, I see my next victim. He ambled out of a strip joint with a bottle in his hand and a cigarette in the other. He disgusts me to no end. John Whittaker was a convicted arsonist who lit a building with over 100 people in it without so much as a blink. The FBI took him in for life but he was somehow bailed out and it pissed me off.

As he was about to get into his car, I stealthily walk up to him.

"Hey, is it cool if you can take me to my apartment? It's just a few blocks down the road."

"Uhh, sure no problem, toots." His slurring and suggestive nickname fueled my hate fire for him.

As I got in the car, I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket. Genevieve.

Genevieve sent me a text message saying: Don't forget to bring me a souvenir

I only grimaced and flipped my phone shut. I'll worry about the "gift" once I'm done with this loser.

"So…what brings a smokin' hot little thing like you over to me? I assume you have a man back at home waiting to get some 'a that." He asks, wiggling his eyebrows up and down.

God damnit just let me kill this piece of shit right now and get it over with…

Luckily, he needed to make a left turn right now. "Make a left here and just continue down the road."

He did so, but that didn't stop him from continuing his disgusting attempt to hit on me. "So do ya?"

Down the road, I spotted a burned down building that I know he burned down, but hasn't faced justice yet.

"You see that building over there?" I asked him, pointing straight down to its direction.

"Yeah, what about it, toots?"

I looked him dead in the eyes as I tell him, "Isn't it weird that whoever burned it down was never caught? Those poor families were never able to bring the bastard to justice."

Heh, as much as he makes himself seem like a macho man, he's fidgeting in his seat.

"Y-yeah… such a shame right?" My staring him down made him look away, stiffening his position in his seat. Nonetheless, I continued staring him down.

"I just wish the fucker would bring himself over to the police so they'd lock his punk ass up." I began to get more aggressive as he squeezed the steering wheel under his hands.

"Maybe they'll put him somewhere so that he can burn to his death alive just like those innocent souls. May-" I was cut off by the sudden screech of the tires as he braked and banged his fist on the steering wheel.

"BURNING THAT DAMN BUILDING WAS MY DESTINY! IT… I DREAMED THAT I BURNED THE BUILDING DOWN THE OTHER NIGHT AND IT'S BEEN ITCHING WITHIN ME TO BURN IT EVER SINCE!"

Got you, you son of a bitch.

All I had to do was put him in a sleeper hold and strap him in his seat before I popped open the trunk and took out a medium sized red can. Removing the lid, I immediately began to pour gasoline all over the car and on him. Once I was done, I searched in his pocket.

A lighter.

Flicking the lighter, I threw it inside the car and watched the vehicle erupt into a bright yellow-orange flame. Not a minute went by before I heard his blood curdling screams, as he burned alive.

A few hours later, I came back to retrieve my prize.

All I remember was Mal kneeling down next to me on the floor, holding me close to him as I screamed and cried uncontrollably.

He softly placed his hand on my cheek and turned my face towards his. "Natara? Natara! Hey, hey, snap out of it!"

His attempt was futile.

"Hey, Nat, look at me, look at me!" I carefully looked up at him to see tears forming in his eyes. I must've really scared him if I can get him to cry.

Natara Williams is certainly not the woman she used to be.