SORRY FOR THE LATE UPDATE!
Seriously guys, I'm so freakin' sorry! I had a week off of school for Half Term and my friend came down from Cambridge and detracted me for a week AND when I finally sat down and wrote the chapter, I had to re-write the whole thing because I changed the whole ending of the story and I didn't like the way I wrote it anyway...I'm sorry. Also, two more chapters to go and that's it...just two more. I'll upload those two chapters together, so next time will be my last upload for this story...damn, that's sad...
HOWEVER, when I'm done with this story, I shall be FINALLY carrying on with 'CreepyPasta's Nightmare' (my other fanfiction) Well, I say 'carrying on' but I actually mean re-writing it. I want to make it better and make some changes and whatnot. I will make it awesome, I promise :)
I might actually write some one-shots too on the side. I'm thinking some yaoi :) tehehe...
Also, for THIS story...I may have an idea for a sequel...maybe...we'll see...MAYBE! NO PROMISES! DON'T GET YOUR HOPES UP!
Anyway, I'm gonna go and write for the next two chapters :) I'll see you guys around and enjoy this one (It's gonna get emotional up in this bitch!)
~Ciao
Chapter Fifty-Three
The Last Time
The police officers had kept Anthony at the station for a few hours now. He sat in the interviewing room, regularly used by Charlotte Maypoles with an untouched cup of coffee in front of him, on the light, wooden table – he would've at least attempted to sip some of the drink since Charlotte bought it to him in order to show her kindness, however he just wasn't feeling like eating or drinking anything, even if it wasn't the polite thing to do. She had even supplied him with a pair of shoes that were slightly too big for him, since he had forgotten to put on a pair when he headed to the school – remembering to wear shoes were the least of his policewoman had left a few minutes prior to gather more information on what was actually happening with this case and to see if Sally's family had made it to meet the leading detective in the case at the station yet or not.
She hadn't gotten much out of Anthony anyway. All he had really told her was that he hadn't seen Sally for a few days and that he suddenly saw on the news that she had been found dead and immediately ran to the school to see whether it was true or not – of course he had been crying while saying all of this. Charlotte asked briefly about Jessie – or to her, the friend that had taken the day off of school because she was sick the last time she and Anthony had met – but Anthony simply said that he hadn't seen her around. No matter how much pain Jessie and Jeff had caused him, he was still refusing to say anything to the police about Jeff being in Oxford and all of the people that Jessie had killed. They probably wouldn't believe him anyway; the probability of Jessie and Jeff meeting up and becoming the next Bonnie and Clyde was so unrealistic that he had barely believed it himself when he found out, although that might've been because he didn't want to believe it.
His sapphire eyes had become dulled and blurry thanks to his crying, which had finally stopped; he didn't think he had anymore tears left in him to cry out anymore. The teen simply slummed in the chair he sat in and stared at his full, polystyrene coffee cup, glaring at the steam slipping out through the top of the hot beverage, and thinking about nothing in particular.
He didn't know what to think anymore.
Sally was dead. It was pretty simple when he thought about it, but at the same time, he couldn't comprehend the fact either; Sally hadn't been there in his life for as long as Jessie had, but she had still always been there for him, whether it be as the person he went to for help about his crush on Jessie, to her being around if he wanted to have a late gaming-session with someone, to her simply being there smiling and making him laugh when he felt down.
She had been introduced to him through Jessie. He couldn't remember the day too well, although he could recall where they met. Jessie was sat in the school library, reading a Manga book by herself as she tended to do back then when Anthony had arrived there to find a book for a History project or an English essay – he couldn't remember which – that Jessie was clearly procrastinating at the time. When he was about to go over to her and scold her for not doing her work when she was supposed to, Sally popped up behind her and started talking to her with a large grin on her face; Jessie seemed calm and collective speaking with this mystery girl – which hadn't happened before since Jessie was shy when she first entered Secondary School – even though he had never heard her talk about this girl and he didn't even know who she was.
At first he was jealous. He was sure that he was Jessie's only and best friend, and yet she was speaking to this girl as if they were best friends forever; he felt silly about it now, but back then it was a huge deal to him. He walked over to the two girls, ready to insult Sally so badly that she would run off crying and never go near Jessie again, however when he reached them, he couldn't do it. Sally was too bubbly and fun to speak to for him to try and keep her away from Jessie; they had a huge amount in common and it would've been good for Jessie to have a girl-friend. He'd never be able to speak to her about girly-stuff – which she must've hated – and as far as he recalled, Jessie hadn't been one for speaking to other girls – which needed to change since there was no way that he would allow her to have other male friends. So, Anthony realised that he was acting immature and became friends with her and eventually, he grew to even care for her.
When he was upset or angry, she would be the one to calm him down and tell him to keep himself together. When he had been really happy and joyful, she had been the one to soak in his happiness and celebrate with him. When he was jealous of other guys around Jessie, she would be the one to give him strategic plans in order to keep them away from him or give him advice to protect her – and occasionally tell him that he was being paranoid when he was taking the matter too far. She had been there through the ups and the downs and he simply didn't know what he would do without her. Losing Jessie was bad enough, but now that he had permanently lost Sally as well. He didn't know how he would be able to live.
If he could pick a single word to describe the way he felt at this moment, it would be 'numb'.
"What am I gonna do…?" he whispered to himself.
Suddenly, he could feel Sally's hands on his shoulders, softly pressing into him and leaning into his ear; her soft, bouncy, chocolaty hair gently flickered across his cheek and her quiet breath could only just be heard in his pale ear. Her presence was distinct but unreal – and he knew that. Her ghost followed him. She whispered in his ear softly with a slight echo.
"Tell them about Jessie…"
Anthony blinked and stayed completely still in his seat.
"I can't do that…" He whispered. "I can't, Sally…"
The ghost moved closer into him.
"You need to…You need to move on…"
"I can't!" He slumped forward, dismissing the ghostly figure that he imagined was stood behind him, giving him this advice; he held his forehead, tears in his eyes. "I can't move on when you and Jessie are…are…"
At that moment, Charlotte came back into the room, a cup of fresh coffee for herself in her hand that had already been drunken from and a weak smile on her face; Anthony turned his head slightly, but his expression didn't change.
"Anthony, you're free to go." She softly stated. "Do you want me to drop you at your house? Or would you rather that your parents pick you up?"
After a moment of contemplation, Anthony sat up slowly and mumbled "If you wouldn't mind dropping me off, that would be great…"
Charlotte pushed her shining, blond hair behind her ear and smiled more strongly now. "Sure thing."
The glasses-wearing teenager stood up, his pale palms on the wooden table and his eyes facing down towards the untouched cup of coffee beneath him. Just as he was about to get to his feet completely and walk towards the concerned policewoman and the exit to the interviewing room, a chill passed through his body and he once again heard Sally's echoed voice in his ear.
"Move on…"
Anthony jolted and froze where he stood. Charlotte noticed immediately and blinked a couple of times before gripping her cup slightly more roughly and asking "Anthony? Are you alright?"
"Y-Yeah…" He breathed, his face still facing the table. "I'm fine…"
He lifted his drained, young face up and glanced at the strawberry blonde before him and tried his hardest not to topple over and collapse on the floor from a mixture of dizziness and exhaustion. He couldn't shake off the feeling that his gaming friend was behind him, floating and waiting for her next opportunity to speak to him once again, without Charlotte around them. He was tempted to turn around but didn't, hoping that if he didn't, he could say that he wasn't insane and that she wasn't floating behind him like a ghoul.
Sally was dead and he needed to get a hold of that. He thought that he knew it as clear as day, but the fact that he seemed to be imagining her following him like a ghost meant that he must not have accepted it yet, unsurprisingly. That was the only reasonable explanation that he could come up with. He was just upset that she was gone and was creating an imaginary version of her to follow him around because he was scared of being alone.
He wasn't losing his mind. He wasn't going crazy.
Charlotte tilted her head. "Anthony? Are you sure you're okay?"
"Yeah! I'm fine..." Anthony snapped back to reality and began to wonder towards Charlotte. Once he reached her, she paused his movement by placing her slim, petite hand on his shoulder as she gripped her cup of steaming coffee in her other hand. She gave Anthony a grim look and her face cringed. This was the first time that Anthony had seen her look so down and serious; he may have only really met her once before that day, but he couldn't of imagined that she could be a serious policewomen. She seemed too happy-go-lucky and cheerful to have this side to her. He had wondered on the day they had met whether she was lying about being a policewoman and was really a Primary School teacher or an assistant Nurse instead because of how cheerful she acted.
"I'm really sorry Anthony." She began in a soft voice. "I could tell that you and Sally were really close and I can't imagine how terrible this must be for you. If you need to talk, I'm here…okay?"
Anthony gave a small smile at the thought and whispered "Yeah…thank you…"
Charlotte whispered back. "It's okay…it's my job."
~:~
Jeff and Jessie stood in Anthony's kitchen uncomfortably. Jessie stood near the sink, facing down towards the dirty cutlery and plates that laid in the murky, slightly bubbly water, a dull expression and a slight irritation in her eyes. Jeff leaned against the closet that was near the door to the kitchen, his arms crossed and his face stern despite the giant smile carved onto his face. The two hadn't spoken a word since they snuck into Anthony's house through the back door after his parents both went out to work; it seemed obvious that the both of them had no idea that Sally was dead and that Anthony had been taken to a police station yet. They were likely to find out soon, but them being oblivious was an advantage to the two killers, since they could easily manoeuvre themselves into the place without being noticed. People tend to be on high alert when tragedy strikes in their lives.
Jessie gripped the edge of the sink and glared down at the dark water with more frustration in her eyes than she's had before. The silence was calming for her, but it didn't help that she could feel Jeff's anger from where she was standing. He had made it clear before they left Jessie's house that he was mad at her for an unknown reason and he refused to tell her the female killer, there was no reason for him to be angry at her at all. He was the one who had unexpectedly killed Sally and he was the one who was pushing their whole moving process more than he had to, especially after all she had already done. She had already killed her parents and friends for him, and yet he still couldn't relax and keep it in his head that she was one-hundred percent on board with their plan. It was just so frustrating.
Jessie gritted her teeth and let the anger boil inside of her. She wasn't going to say anything to him unless he spoke to her first. She wasn't going to keep being the one in their relationship to attempt to keep the peace between them; she didn't see it as her duty to keep doing so.
"Jess…" he finally spoke. Jessie didn't move, but she clearly flinched, shocked that he actually said something. "Are you gonna talk?"
A flush of outrage flew through her body, but Jessie stayed calm and composed, not taking her eyes away from the sink or the dirty dishes and water.
"You're the one who's not talking…" She mumbled begrudgingly.
"I was waiting for you to say something…" Jessie's hands felt as though they were going to destroy the edge of the sink as she dug her fingers into it. "We need to talk about yesterday…"
"No. We don't." The otaku stated bluntly. Jeff glanced up at her back and kept his expression the same.
"Yes. We do." He replied with. "We need to talk about what I did."
"Just leave it." Jessie leaned even more forward over the sink as her forehead began to wrinkle. "We don't need to talk about it. "Sally's dead. And now we're going to kill Anthony. That's all there is to this."
"No. It's not." Jeff pushed himself off of the cupboard door and stood firmly where he was, hands to the side in tight fist shapes. "She made you hesitate, Jessie."
Jessie shrugged. "So what?"
"That doesn't happen, Jessie. Especially not when you're as experienced as you are now. It just doesn't happen."
"What do you want me to do about it?" She asked sarcastically. "It's over now…you made sure of that."
Jeff slammed his fist into the wall, causing Jessie to jump and finally turn around and face him; his eyes were filled with fury and anger – which wasn't a sight that Jessie hadn't seen before, but it still startled her. Her expression was one of shock and surprise despite her being used to this image by now; she may have been used to Jeff's anger, but it still startled her when he displayed it.
"The plan was to kill her, Jessie!" The murderer snapped. "And you hesitated! Do you know what that means?!" The slightly frightened girl didn't have a chance to respond before Jeff answered his own question. "You should be past the point now where you hesitate and yet, all it took was Sally crying and you snapped out of it! That's not good, Jess!"
"N…No…" Jessie quivered.
"It means that there's something wrong with the way you're developing as a murderer! You actually stopped and thought about what you were doing! None of us do that unless we're trying to kill one of us! And the way you looked at me when I killed Sa-!"
Just as Jeff was about to finish his speech, the two of them heard the front door open and voices coming from the front of the house; the murderers glanced at each other with slight panic, but then immediately jumped into the closet that Jeff was leaning on when they arrived to the house and entered the kitchen. Jeff managed to kneel with one of his legs bent and his foot flat on the ground, ready to jump out at any moment – years of killing in the cities and having to hide before and afterwards equipped him to be able to be an expert at staying incognito, but with enough room to be able to make a quick mistake in case anything went wrong. Jessie knelt next to him, hands flat on the floor and hunched forward – Jeff still had a lot to teach her about hiding and attacking and he knew it from staring at her position.
The closet they were in had shutters so that the two of them could peek through and see the kitchen perfectly; the second that Anthony wondered into the kitchen, they would see it and be able to jump out and confront him. This had been their plan from the beginning since Jessie knew how big his kitchens' closet was due to hers and Anthony's old hide-and-seek games in the house when they were younger, and because they knew that Anthony would be home straight after his police interview – Jessie knew him well enough to know that when he was stressed, home was where he wanted to be.
The two could hear Anthony speaking at the front door, but also a female voice that Jessie didn't recognise; she assumed that it must've been a policewoman taking him home after their interview. There was no other explanation that she could come up with.
Suddenly, Jeff and Jessie heard the front door shut and Anthony sigh. Footsteps came closer and closer to the kitchen and finally, the two killers saw a run down and clearly tired Anthony walk through the kitchen door and close it behind himself. He leaned against the door and placed his hand on his forehead and sighed once more before wondering over to the sink that Jessie was leaning over earlier and pulled the same pose that she had, his hands on the edge of it and his head facing down, towards the dirty dishes.
Jessie's face crumbled as she witnessed her friends' despair. She had never seen him this down before and she had never thought that she would in her life; when she called him and let him know what happened to Sally, she expected him to be upset and angry, but she never imagined that he would simply be depressed and seemingly numb like this.
As Anthony leaned forward, over his unorganised sink, he stared at his filthy kitchen utensils, wondering why his parents hadn't done the dishes before they left for work. He knew that they usually washed everything in the kitchen before they left or they would've asked him to do it. A calm numbness flowed through his body as he realised how ordinary his thoughts were. He wasn't wondering where Jeff and Jessie were or what they were doing. He wasn't wondering how long it would be before he could go back to school and face his peers knowing that Jessie and Sally wouldn't be with him. He wasn't thinking about the pain of living without his two best friends. He was simply wondering about the dirty dishes in his sink. The normality of this thought process almost made him want to cry.
Although, this thought wouldn't last for long. Once again, Anthony felt the chill run down his spin and jolted. Cold hands made their way to his shoulders and a chilly mouth pressed against his ear.
"Let go...Anthony…Move on…"
"I…I can't…" He whispered.
Back in the closet, Jessie and Jeff scrunched their faces and glanced at each other with confusion. They were both wondering who Anthony was whispering to.
"You have to move on…"
The glasses-wearing teens' voice became slightly more aggressive and audible to the murderers in the closet. "No! I can't move on! I can't! Not without you!"
Jeff smirked smugly. "He's gone coo-coo." He whispered. Jessie turned to face him with ager in her voice at the fact that he was taking the situation as a joke like this.
"I'm not coming back…you need to move on…"
"Stop saying that!" Anthony snapped as he slammed his fist into the side of the sink, startling the two in the closet. "I can't…"
Tears began to form in his eyes once again and he started weeping, hunched over and hands running wildly through his light-brown locks. All Jessie wanted to do was run out of the closet and give him a large hug, cry to him and just keep apologising for everything she had done; she then flinched at the idea and realised that Jeff was right. There was something wrong with her. She had gone there to kill her friend and yet, all she could think of doing wasn't cutting him open and watching him slowly die like she had expected, but it was to comfort him. Something wasn't right here.
The ghostly figure moved her invisible, frozen hands to Anthony's cheeks, one on each side; she rotated his face and caused him to glance towards his shining, metallic knife holder. His parents had gotten it when he was just stopping into his adolescence; they had always wanted one because they seemed stylish and futuristic, but with a child in the house – especially one as curious as Anthony – it wasn't the safest of ideas. When they had gotten it, Antony had attempted to study it like they thought he would as a child, however by then, he had already met Jessie and Sally and was too distracted by them to really care about a new knife holder.
The invisible women leaned back into his ear almost sensually and whispered once again.
"I'm not coming back…move on…join me…"
His eyes widened and tears ran down his face even more rapidly now. He didn't know if this was his own conscience telling him to do this and he was just going crazy, or the real ghost of Sally was asking him to do this and he was perfectly sane. Either way, someone was begging for him to end his own life.
For a split second, all Anthony could do was stand there, facing his various knives, being held by the ghostly vision of his dead friend; the thought of actually killing himself and the thought actually occurring in his head frightened him beyond belief. Death had always been something that scared the teenager; he had always seen death as something that meant a void of nothingness for all of eternity. It was something that meant that you would be unconscious of the rest of time without dreaming. That scared him. He saw killing yourself as a cowardly way out for suicidal people, but Jessie – who knew a huge amount about suicide because of her murderer research since a lot of the killers decided to kill themselves at the end of their reigns – had always told him that it was a form of escape and not something to be seen as selfish or cowardly. He had never really believed her and just thought that she was being too kind-hearted about it.
After a second of contemplation, he began to smile at the knives before him and be almost bewitched by the sight of them; Jessie and Jeff noticed this scene and both of them became tense, hoping that he wasn't thinking what they thought he was thinking.
He saw clearly now why it was a good idea to do this. If this ghost of Sally wasn't real, that meant that his own mind was letting him know that he was finished with this world and that he needed to 'move on' and escape the world that he was in. Unconsciously, he knew that he wouldn't be able to carry on living a normal life without his two best friends at his side; Sally being dead and Jessie leaving with Jeff meant that they were both disappearing from his life and there was nothing he could do about it.
The two of them were the only things that he really lived for. Of course, he worked hard in life and at school, but that was all for his parents sake; he didn't care either way if he because the C.E.O of a major company or ended up as a construction worker, just as long as he was able to be around Jessie and Sally and look out for them like he always had. The way he saw it, if his parents didn't like that, they could just deal with it; he had worked hard his whole educational life for them and that was way less than they had actually asked of him his whole life. He thought that if he at least worked hard during his education, he didn't owe them anything after that. He only wanted to be with Jessie and Sally.
The idea of escaping and being with at least one of them was more appealing than being with neither of them – there was no way that he could ever leave and go to America with Jessie and Jeff. Besides, if Jessie's capable of killing Sally – someone who she thought was like a sister to her – then she was likely to come over and kill him anyway.
He didn't know what he was waiting for anymore.
He moved as if he were enticed by the blades and wondered towards them slowly; ghost Sally disappeared and allowed him to wonder towards his decision.
Jessie jolted at Anthony's movements and moved, ready to jump out of the closet to stop him; she may have been there to murder him, but there was no way she would be able to handle watching him kill himself so viciously. Although, the instant that she went to move, Jeff grabbed her and covered her mouth with his large, pale hand, shushing her.
He leaned into her chocolate-coloured ear and whispered "Don't…this way we won't have to do anything…"
Jessie's eyes widened and her eyes began to water. She didn't know how Jeff could be so inconsiderate towards her and stop her from helping her friend after what he had done to Sally. Besides, she wanted to go out and kill him like he had wanted and yet, he was stopping her now? How could he be so angry with her after not killing Sally and then prevent her from killing Anthony? She didn't understand.
Swiftly, Anthony reached the knife holder and carefully selected the largest of the many selection of blades; he held the kitchen knife – which he had only ever used to cut up vegetables or even meat – and fingered the wooden handle for a moment, while he stared down at the shimmering, pointed blade. Jessie's eyes grew even wider and she tried to say something, but her voice was muffled by Jeff's huge hand; she made an attempt to struggle and release herself from the killers' grip, however Jeff was too strong and she ended up not moving at all.
The chill was back and Sally was on his shoulder once more, gripping him slightly harder now.
"Anthony…do it…be with me…"
Reluctantly, Anthony lifted his wrist and placed the blade softly on his porcelain skin, completely still. His eyes lost their shine and he allowed a tear to drop to the floor. Meanwhile, Jessie continued her struggle and finally decided that she didn't have to sit there and allow Jeff to control how she handled the situation. She lifted her head up slightly and took a large bite into the hand that was covering her mouth, causing Jeff to curse and let go of her as he tended to his damaged palm.
Jessie fell out of the closet with a large thud as she landed on her front; she immediately sat up and was about to call for Anthony to stop what he was doing, however she waited too long to release herself from Jeff's grasp.
SLASH
Anthony sliced his wrist cleanly and calmly. Blood spurted out of his arm and landed all over the now dirtied kitchen floor and his front; he didn't say a word as he fell to the ground and laid on his side, holding onto his wound and staring at the now revealed Jessie – who sobbed where she sat.
The killer shuffled over to the blood-soaked teen and held him up on her lap, screaming his name and trying to hold down on the wound as well to stop the bleeding; her hand was over his, allowing Anthony to know that this wasn't all a dream or a hallucination. Jessie was there with him, crying and cursing.
He hadn't remembered much after that.
Jeff tumbled out of the closet and he and Jessie had begun to argue. He didn't know why, but they both seemed to be extremely distressed over something – most likely him. After a minute or two, Anthony began to lose consciousness. He could hear his front door open and saw Jeff grabbing Jessie to drag her away. She tried her hardest to hold onto her dying friend, but Jeff was too strong for her to try and defy.
He remembered her screaming.
"No! Anthony! No! NO! PLEASE DON'T DIE!"
Although, there was nothing that he could do. Jessie was being dragged away. She was being taken away from him
His parents came rushing in and he remembered hearing screaming and crying from them, but his eyes were closed by this point; despite the fact that his mother was holding onto him, he couldn't feel her touch at all. His body seemed to have gone completely numb, however he could feel a certain persons touch.
Sally loomed over him once again, her face in front of his and her hands on each of his cheeks once more; he could clearly feel her hands and even her cold breath float in front of his face. She leaned into his ear, not for the last time and whispered to him again.
"Just close your eyes, Anthony…just sleep…just sleep…"
