Hola! So I got this idea and it's kind of the most fakest story ever but whatever I'm over it. So the last few days in forensics class I have been watching a movie called Paradise Lost, best movie ever! It is so interesting, and soon I kind of became obsessed with it. I have been researching and stuff about it. (My inner nerd) and there are 3 more movies. Basically it is about a murder in 1990's in West Memphis, Arkansas. They arrested 3 boys for the murder of the 3, 8 year olds who were skinned alive and brutally murdered. One of them I actually thought was really cute, I know I am weird. So I have to watch the other 2 movies, it is honestly a wicked good story because it turns out they're out of jail now. I got an idea and wanted to make it into a one shot type thing.
There is no Niley or jelena or jemi, just characters I made up. The character Darren is based off of one of the murderers in the Paradise Lost and the murder case is based off of it, but my story is a fiction romance side of it. Enjoy.
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Some people would say that we were completely different from one another. He was into scream music, while I listened to pop music. I was into sports, and he didn't know a single thing about any sport. He lived on the poor side of town and I lived in the upper side of town. He was into the color black, while I was into cheerful colors. He was always wearing a black sweatshirt, while I wore uggs and P-coats to school.
He was my best friend. It was the little things that made me become thankful for having him in my life. It was the little things that made me fall in love with him.
My dad was in the military, so I was always moving around from state to state. When I first moved to West Memphis, Arkansas it was nothing that I was used to. People all around me were smoking a cigarette or only had one tooth, much different from a small town in New England where I was before. I felt so out of place walking into that high school my first day, everyone was staring at me. I should have been used to it by now, but it still affected me in some way. I've had friends before but something about this school made me feel that it was going to be a challenge.
I noticed him in my first class, he sat in the back next to a boy who I ended up finding out later was his best friend. They were both dressed in black. He sat on the left; he had blue eyes and had tight curly brown hair. His front tooth was crooked making it adorable in some way. He looked up at me, with his right hand holding his head up. We looked at each other for a moment before I sat down next to a girl.
A few minutes later I looked back at the boy, and he smiled at me. He pointed his finger at me and started writing something on a piece of paper. I didn't understand why, but something about him made me want to know more. He got up to sharpen his pencil, dropping the note on my desk. I quickly hid it, revealing the note under my desk. In his handwriting he wrote,
"Let me guess, New England?"
I looked up and smiled at him from across the room shaking my head smiling to myself.
At the end of that class, I threw my backpack over my right shoulder when I felt a tap on my free shoulder, I turned around to see him standing there holding onto his books. "So was I right?" He asked with a hint of his southern accent coming out.
I laughed at him. "How could you tell?"
And from that moment on, Darren and I had been best friends. We spent every day together, from hanging out at the library helping him with his homework, or our walks from school through the woods. Our walks from school were my favorite. We always stopped at the convenient store after school. He would get sprite and I would get coke and we would mix it together, while we had a couple of pieces of candy as our snack. It was a short walk but we always made it longer by sitting at our spot in the woods and laying down looking up at the trees. I was always over his house; his family was so down to earth and treated me like their child. My parents didn't really understand our friendship, they thought we were too different…but that's what drew Darren and me closer together. It was good to have nothing in common, because we always had something to talk about, he even made me listen to scream music once in a while.
I'll never forget that day when I had to tell him I was moving away again. Winter had just ended, and spring was right around the corner. It was cold and rainy out, but it was a good sign that April was coming in 3 days. I was quiet all day; I didn't know what to say to him or how to bring it up. I dugged my hands in my north face looking down, trying hard not to let the tears fall down my cheek.
"Lily, what's going on? You seem quiet today." He said feeling worried for me, putting his hand on my shoulder. I didn't say anything, but then he stopped us in our tracks and stepped in front of me. He lifted my chin up with his pointer finger and saw the tears in my eyes. "Are you parents fighting again?" He asked in a whisper.
I closed my eyes and tears fell from my eyes. I felt his thumb wipe them away, and heard him say. "You can tell me anything."
I opened my eyes, looking into his blue eyes. "Darren…."
He sighed and looked down, rubbing the back of his neck. "You're moving again aren't you?"
I took in a shaky deep breath. "He's taking me to Texas this time," my voice started trembling.
He sighed and looked at me, giving me a warm smile. "Lily don't cry."
"How can I not? I don't want to leave. I want to stay here with you, I can't bear to lose another best friend." I sat down on the log and put my legs out straight, staring at the ground.
He took a seat next to me. "You're not going to lose me Lily."
I looked at him and sniffed. "How can you be so sure about that?"
"Because me and you have gone through everything together, we're always there for each other through thick and thin. You're not going to lose me ever, not in a million years." He pulled me in for a hug, I wrapped my arms around his back never wanting to let go, and in that moment I realized that I was in love with him…and there was nothing I could do about it.
As months passed Darren and I kept in touch but sometimes we would go a long period of time without talking before we ended up chatting on FB. He didn't have a phone making it harder for us to talk every day; he was always loosing internet connection. He started spending more time with his best friend Greg. Greg and I never really got along. Greg was a bad influence on Darren, making him smoke pot and cigarettes and drinking once in a while. I hated it more than anything; I guess you could say I pulled him away from him; but out of the goodness in my heart wanting Darren to be safe. But now that I wasn't there anymore, Greg won him over once again. I made new friends in Texas. I guess you could say people I had more things in common with, but Darren was always going to be the most important person in my life.
I had gotten home that night from my school's football game. I threw my jacket onto the couch and turned the TB on in the living room. The TV was on my local news station when I saw his face plastered all over my TV. The caption read:
"Convicted of murdering 3 boys in West Memphis, Arkansas"
His mug shot was surfaced all over the media. He was arrested for skinning alive and raping 3, 8 year olds in the woods, where we would take our walk home from school. He was in handcuffs with Greg and another boy I didn't recognize. I always knew that he would get in trouble with Greg and I wasn't there to help him. I remember the news reporter saying that the 3 boys listened to scream music and dressed in black, and that the killing of the 3 boys was a ritual celebrating the devil.
I laid awake that night not knowing what to think. Did he do it? Or was he innocent? But I kept thinking back to how the police had to have a motive for arresting him. I kept thinking how he was locked up in a jail cell laying down on a cold hard bed exposed to the other jail members.
I didn't want to talk to him or even hear his name. Everyone in school kept talking about the murders, and how they should all be burned in hell. I went home early that day, it was too much to take in. My parents didn't even try to help me, because they never really liked Darren. I remember that night we watched the news and all my dad had to say was … "Doesn't surprise me…good thing we got you out of there or you could have been dragged into all of this."
I wasn't myself during that long year of his trials, we didn't speak once; I had no way of contacting him. On March 18 it was the verdict everyone had been waiting for. I sat up against the wall in my hallway listening to the TV through the walls and heard 10 words. "Darren Smith is guilty on capital murder of 3 boys." I banged my head against the wall, balling my eyes out. He was sentenced to life without parole. I didn't know how to react, whether I should have been angry at him? Myself? Arkansas? Or if I should of felt happy that a murderer was off of the streets. He wasn't the boy that I thought I was in love with; he was nothing but a cold murderer.
I found myself in West Memphis a year later. I needed some closure from him, to know why? I didn't remember West Memphis being so cold and quiet, almost like a piece of their town had been ripped out of them. I stepped out of my car staring at the woods in front of me. I made my way into the familiar wooded area stopping at where the 3 bodies were dumped, leaving the police to find them a day later. I bent down landing on my knees taking in the atmosphere around me. It didn't look the same; it looked like scene in a scary movie. I looked around me hearing the faint barks of dogs and the high pitched birds over my head. I felt tears roll down my cheeks as I finally broke down after a year of feeling nothing but pain. I sat there for a little bit, letting my tears out before I met face to face with their killer…the boy I was in love with.
The jail was cold and heartless. The hallways were loud with screaming in mates crying to get out of their cell. The police searched me before sending me to the glass. I waited a few minutes before I saw him making his way over to the other side of me. He smiled looking at me, he looked different. His hair longer and his tooth was fixed. He looked lost and drained. The police took a moment to un handcuff him. He sat down on the chair taking a hold of the phone on the other side.
"Is that really you?" He said shocked that I was sitting there.
"It's me…" I said giving him a warm smile.
"How have you been? I haven't seen you in so long Lily, I have so much to tell you."
"You definitely do Darren…" I said with a bit of anger in my voice.
He sighed and looked at me. "I can explain."
"Did you murder them?"
"Lily, look at me. I have never lied to you have I?"
"No."
"Then please believe me when I tell you that I am an innocent man in a capitol jail." He looked dead right into my eyes. "I am punished for a crime I never did. Lily you know me more than any person I know, I trust you with my life…you know me, you know that I would never do that to a young child. The media they got this idea in their head just because I was a little different that I am automatically assumed to be a suspect in a murder just because I practiced a different religion."
I closed my eyes. "Are you apart of witch craft?"
He sighed. "Greg got me into it, but Lily it's not bad or anything; we don't have rituals about helping the devil."
"I finally thought I got you away from Greg, you knew what bad news he was."
"I was hurt and lost. The girl I was in love with had left me I had no one else."
I closed my eyes as the tears fell down my cheek, splattering my mascara everywhere. "I thought I could do this but I can't, I'm not strong enough for this."
"Lily look at me…"
I looked up at Darren, he never lied to me and I don't think he would start now.
"Do you love me?"
I sighed and took in a deep breath. "I do, but nothing can happen Darren. You're in jail for the rest of your life and I am going to study abroad I need to get away from here. I can't even bear to hear you name on the News because I break down crying every time. This is too much for me."
He had tears fill his eyes. "Just tell me that you believe me that's all I need to hear."
I looked at him and gave him a small smile. "I do believe you; I don't think you're lying to me."
"Please help me Lily; I need your help to prove my innocence."
I looked at him not saying anything.
"What happened to through thick and thin?"
I started to say something then stopped…then opened my mouth again. "This is just too thick for me, I love you Darren but you're not the same boy I fell in love with. You changed so much…I never knew someone's could influence you so much."
His heart broke I could see it written all over his face.
"I have to go." I said getting up, hanging up the phone. I looked at him one last time kissing my hand and placing it on the glass, before turning around as quickly as I could before running outside vomiting in the nearest trash barrel.
6 years later…
I walked down the stairs of the Salem state house. It was October, the month of Halloween. In Salem, MA they always had the biggest party of the year for witchcraftery or for the ghost in Salem. I had study abroad for 3 years. I was not 22 years old and had a job working for a lawyer. I haven't talked to Darren ever since that day in jail. When I went to Europe I didn't hear a single thing about the murder case, making it 500x easier for me. I got a break for a while but I had to go back to the U.S. at one point, and landed myself a job in Massachusetts.
Tonight was the annual party at Salem. I was making sure to get the hell away from here, I did not take part in witch craft. I thought it was a horrible thing, because that was what landed Darren in jail because of Greg's influence on him. I had heard in the news a little while ago that they were all let out of jail because new evidence came in. They all plead guilty and the judge let them out and they were set free. I was happy that Darren was out of jail because I knew he didn't do it. I believed every word he said to me, but I couldn't handle it. I was a young 16 year old and there was so much I could handle.
As I walked down the steps my heels echoed throughout the pavement. I bundled up in my black P-coat gripping onto my black portfolio. I started to see a crowd of being dressed in black, and women wearing witch hats. I looked down not being able to look at them, knowing that this is what landed Darren in jail like I said before. But as I was walking along the path of bricks, something or someone told me to look up just for one second. I met eyes with the familiar face in the crowd. Almost in that instant of time it was fate. He looked mature, his hair was still cut short and he looked broader and taller; his eyes were back to his shiny blue; they regained the strength back in them. Darren was out of jail, I never thought I would see him out of his jail jumpsuit ever again. He was wearing jeans and a button up collared shirt. He just simply stared at me. I quickly looked down and heard my name being called.
"Lilian!"
I looked up to see my fiancée standing on the steps of the gazebo waiting for me. I smiled at him forgetting about Darren for a second. He pulled me in for a quick kiss.
"How was work baby girl?"
"Oh you know, the usual Gary." I said with a small laugh.
He grabbed my hand as we walked towards our car, but I had to look back at Darren before I left his life completely. He watched me from the crowd, his face was white. I had to move on at one point; Darren and I were not meant for each other. I stared at him for a long time, before turning back towards my fiancée as we stepped into the car.
Darren was always going to be an important person in my life, even if he wasn't there anymore. Darren was always going to be my best friend through thick and thin but something's are just too thick. People make mistakes in life and chose the wrong people to associate with, sometimes it doesn't have a bad outcome, but others aren't so lucky. One thing for sure though; New Memphis, Arkansas was my favorite place I ever lived.