Despite our best efforts to save her, Tiffany completely ignored me and Frankie at school. I wasn't sure what we expected to happen (especially given our history with her) but we still held onto hope that we could get through to her, no matter how minuscule it was. After all, this was the late '80s. Those drug PSAs we would watch after our Saturday morning cartoons were quick to espouse that there was hope for those on drugs. Surely, those PSAs couldn't be wrong, right?

Even with all our failed attempts at reaching out to Tiffany and trying to help her realize that she needed help, nothing could've prepared us for what happened next. It was the day before Halloween, and we were all asleep in our rooms. I was kinda looking forward to celebrating Halloween the next night. Even though I was "too old to go trick-or-treating," the hype of going around door-to-door and receiving candy still thrilled me. I lay there sleeping, dreaming about how much fun it would be to go trick-or-treating with Frankie and some other kids who were younger than us. As I slept, a loud bang suddenly woke me up. I quickly hobbled out of bed and ran to see what was going on.

It was pretty dark, so I couldn't be sure what I was seeing. From what I could tell, four guys and three gals had broken down the door. They all wore animal masks, with the ringleader wearing a bunny mask. I wasn't sure how to approach them. I didn't even know what they were doing here. Were they here to rob us? Assault us? Vandalize the house? I quickly ran into Newt and Jewell's bedroom and woke them up.

"Eh, what?" Newt sounded while coming to. "What's going on, Jessica?"

"I saw seven people standing there in the living room," I replied. "It looks like they broke down the door. I have no idea what they're doing here."

Jewell was alarmed. "What?! Oh God, I think we're being robbed! Newt, we have to call the police!"

"Right behind you, honey." Newt immediately started calling 911. "Hello, operator? Uh, my daughter just informed me that seven people broke into our house. Please help! I think we might be getting robbed!" A couple more minutes passed by. "Alright, thank you." With that, he hung up.

"Are the police on their way?"

"Should be. It'll only take about ten minutes for them to get here."

At that moment, the ringleader broke into the door. Shit, she must've heard them. I hid in the closet and tried not to make a sound.

"You called the police, you son of a bitch!" I could hear the ringleader scream at Newt. "You bastard, how could you do that?"

"Listen to me, young lady. Obviously, you're dealing with some problems, but you don't need to take them out on me or Jewell."

"You wanna send me and my lover-boy to jail? Huh?" Silence followed for a few seconds. "I'm already having to deal with being diagnosed with HIV. I don't need this jail shit, too!"

"Watch your mouth, ma'am."

"Fuck you."

I squeezed my eyes shut and tried not to move. All I could do was listen to the ringleader stab Newt about forty times in a row with what I presumed to be a knife and Newt cry out in pain as he felt the knife pierce his body. I listened to Jewell cry out and beg the ringleader to spare her life. I had to listen to the closest thing I'd ever had for a mother wail out as the ringleader and the other assailants do God-knows-what to her and torture her to death. When the cries stopped, I came out of the closet and screamed at the top of my lungs while looking directly at Newt and Jewell's mutilated bodies.

"You heartless bitch!" I screamed at the ringleader, tears aggressively flowing out of my eyes. "You killed two of the closest things I had to parents!"

"They were gonna send me to prison!" the ringleader screamed back at me. "I guess that's what you and that slut were hoping would happen to me, am I right, you cross-dressing asshole?"

My eyes widened. Oh my God, that... was Tiffany's voice! Tiffany had killed Newt and Jewell. I tried to wrap my head around this, but my anger started rising up again. As if it wasn't bad enough that this bitch had to misgender me and make me feel like shit because of some perceived insecurity, she had to go and kill the two decent adults who took me in after Namęšéme had died.

"Fuck you!" I screamed up at the sky.

Without any hesitation whatsoever, I clenched my hand into a fist and I bashed her head against the wall, with each instance gradually becoming more violent. As I bashed my middle school bully's head against the wall, I thought back to all the times she'd humiliated me and Frankie. I thought back to the time when she and her then-best friend Elena had been bullying Frankie over something. I thought back to all those times Tiffany called me a freak and a cross-dresser. I wanted her to pay for what she did. I wanted her dead. I had a score to settle with this evil little turd. Despite hearing Tiffany cry out to me through a broken jaw and plead with me to stop, I continued on. The other intruders were scared of me and ran off to another part of the house. By the time I was done, Tiffany's face was unrecognizable. Her lower jaw was broken, some of her teeth had been knocked out, her nose was skewered, and her eyes were red and tearing up.

I looked over her, a pathetic crying little bitch laying on her floor with blood flowing out of her face. "Now you know how I felt."

I kicked her hard enough in the throat that it shattered her trachea. I left Tiffany to suffocate to death in the master bedroom, and I went looking for the other intruders to stop them before they could hurt anybody else.

While it had initially felt good to beat Tiffany to death, especially after everything she'd done to me, it soon left me feeling empty inside. My life was pretty much over now. It was bad enough having to deal with bullies in school. I couldn't imagine what it must have been like to deal with bullies in juvie. What I did was going to haunt me for all eternity, and not even Frankie could help me feel better about my decision.

After the police had come and marked the McBride house as a crime scene, I kept being overwhelmed with this compulsion to turn myself in. Once again, I could feel Namęšéme's presence. I think at this point, I must have decided to subconsciously internalize my image of him into my own Jiminy Cricket. Namęšéme was telling me to turn myself in and atone for my ultimate sin. I had to listen to him. He always knew what it was I needed to do. I had to listen to him and make things right, even if my conscience was still reeling from the horror of it all.

"Excuse me, Officer?" I timidly asked.

"Yes, ma'am?" he asked back while handcuffing one of the intruders. "Can I help you?"

"I think you better arrest me, too."

"What for?"

"I... I just killed someone. Her name was Tiffany Richardson."

I could hear Frankie gasping in the background.

"Tiffany Richardson?" Suddenly, the cop perked up. "Oh yeah, you meant the fourteen-year-old girl who'd been wearing the bunny mask, right?"

I slowly nodded. "Yep, that was her. Please take me away. I'm afraid I might hurt others."

The cop wasn't sure how to react at first, but he eventually nodded and started handcuffing me. "Alright. Jessica Traversie, you are under arrest for the murder of Tiffany Richardson. You know the drill. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. We have no way of giving you a lawyer, but one will be appointed for you, if you wish, if and when you go to court. Do you understand the rights I have just read to you? With these rights in mind, do you wish to speak to me?"

I took one last look at the McBride kids, including my beloved Frankie, as the cops led me into the backseat of the police car. I felt guilty not giving Frankie a proper chance to say goodbye. Still, I was hoping that maybe she would live a better life without me. I hoped my daughter would live a better life with the Richardsons as well, though I couldn't quite count on it.