Note: Kevin
“It was supposed to be a joke,” I tell my friends as they stare blankly. I was trying to show them what I considered art. The two of them continue staring without saying a word. I tell them, “You don’t get it? He’s my friend.” My friend Al starts to say something before Jack jumps in.
“Dude, how, where… wait… you did all of this?” he finally spits out.
“Yes, it actually wasn’t my first time. You guys probably can tell that though, yeah?” I say.
“You’re a monster, bro!” yells Al after being speechless for ten minutes. I try to calm him the best I can, because I know how this looks.
If it was supposed to be easy to explain, I wouldn’t waste the ink. I’m only keeping this journal for myself. You were not supposed to read this. So if you are, just know we loved Kevin, he was something special to us. He kept me alive, just as we did him. This is no confession, but a memoir of sorts.
Long before Kevin became, with a lack of a better word, “zombified” he was still very strange.
We were still in highschool then. Easier, and some claim “better” times. I can agree to an extent, but let’s not get too crazy. Myself, Al, and Jack used to walk to school every morning. We lived close enough, and like having our own schedule. We usually arrived an hour before most other students. That was when school was at its best, I say. On our walk to the school we would pass Kevin’s house almost everyday. The days we didn’t pass his house was merely because it was way beyond weird the morning before.
Kevin was an odd fellow, and he knew it. In fact, he flaunted it. He was proud of it. He used to hide in different windows until we walked by, and then scream like a raptor out of it. We would run like death was coming, even when we expected it. I can say we never really liked Kevin. As odd as it is now. Maybe I was manic, maybe we shouldn’t have, but those questions can’t be pondered here, because we did, I did.
My friends, and I were not fans of school or anything. I will admit to my fascination with the sciences, and specifically anatomy. So unlike my jock friends, I took advantage of knowledge given. Only to gloat to myself, I was top of my class. Though I passed on college, somewhat by choice, my knowledge was never depleting.
Kevin was a unique character throughout our time “knowing” him. He was privileged in a sense, but he was surely different. Kevin had a car before us, like we knew he would. He would fly past us as we walked in our later highschool years. One fateful night I was walking to my house from Jacks kinda late into the night. I was already spooked, so walking by Kevin’s house wasn’t helping. I didn’t have a choice though considering where Kevin’s house was located. It seems obvious to run by his house, but your legs won’t let you at night. I found out the hard way. There was something completely unnatural about what I felt, and saw. As I approached Kevin’s family mailbox at the end of their driveway, I hear a scream. It was like nothing I could explain, just a scream. I never looked back at the house after this night. I became viscerally terrified of Kevin. I was positive he killed someone.
I could’ve been a normal person, and not worried about it. Unfortunately I’m far from normal. I knew something was up, and needed the right people to help me. I tried the police first, but they didn’t believe a highschool senior with prior history of false calls. I finally breakdown, and involve my two dimwitted jock friends, Al, and Jack. They were reliable, but far from useful. I tell them to meet me at my house one day after school.
They finally show up after sport practice. I bring them to my basement, and start explaining, “Look guys, I think Kevin has done something bad,” I start saying.
“Other than torment us with his Firebird for the last six months?” Jack asks with obvious sarcasm.
I tell him, “I heard someone scream the other night. I was walking back from your house Jack!”
“A scream? What kind, like h*****g?” Al dumbly says.
“No man, like ‘I’m dying’ scream!” I exclaim.
“Oh wow man” says Jack.
“I can’t be sure if it something serious, but we should check it out,” I tell them, “without some sort of proof the cops won’t investigate guys, and I need your help,” I continued.
“Okay man, we pretty much hate Kevin anyways, so let’s do it!” Jack agrees.
“I’m in too!” Al chimes.
“Okay fellas, plan for Saturday night. He will be racing Tom Gibbs that night. It’s our best chance to snoop around,” I explain as best I can. The boys agree, and we all sleep like babies the nights before. Well I did, because I knew we had something.
Saturday night finally came. My friends arrive in all black prepared. We calmly sneak around till we get to Kevin’s backdoor. Al was the biggest guy so we made him barge it open. When we get inside, it hits us all. Deep in our lungs, burning our eyes. The smell was unrecognizable, but we push forward further into this Adams Family style home. Jack continues to dry heave as we move. We finally locate the reason for the smell, a corpse. Just sitting in the living room, facing the television. It looked alive, aside from the smell, and it being dead. It was a woman. You could tell she was older.
“Probably his mom,” Jack says.
“Probably,” I reply as Al leads us forward. We never touched anything, we were merely looking. So far we found more than we wanted, so why stop now? We search everywhere else in the house. Only finding one other body, and it was fresher then the other. It looked male, from what we could tell without moving anything.
“Maybe a father?” asks Al.
“Maybe Al, but I think we’ve seen enough,” I respond quietly.
“Yeah, let’s go,” says Jack.
We start heading for our exit, till we hear a loud bang from behind us. We move quickly, but still with silence, till we reach our exit. Then we run, no hiding, no being quiet. We just run, and when we finally catch our breaths outside of my house we see headlights.
“That’s his car!” exclaims Jack.
“Inside!” I yell.
As we manically run towards my open garage door we hear a loud screech, then a bang. We turn to look, and the car had crashed into a telephone pole. It was on fire at this point. Fear filled my body as Al runs towards the car. Jack calls the police, and I just watch. I didn’t know what to think, and believe me I tried to. Al searches the car, front to back, and he finds nothing.
The police, and fire rescue show up. They extinguish the blaze before it explodes. They find a cinder block on the gas pedal, but no body. So of course they question us like we had something to do with a car driving itself. They find out it’s Kevin’s car. So they finally go to question him. We watch it go down from Jacks house. The police knock, and knock with no answer. So they eventually break the door down. Within a few minutes more police, ambulance, coroners, and fire show up. The house is under siege, and we feel like heroes, kind of.
Hours go by before they completely gut the house, relieving it of three bodies. We later find out through the newspaper that Kevin, and his family were gone. The paper made Kevin the perpetrator of the crime. The town knew of his family’s strange ways so it was no surprise.
The years passed for myself. Waiting for friends to return from college. Being athletes Jack, and Al went to school again. It was summertime when we finally came back together. When I eventually see them face to face, I have a more news then they could bare.
I take them to where Kevin’s house stands. It’s been abandoned since the crimes took place. Horribly destroyed, and ransacked by hooligans throughout our city. It still stands though. So we go inside, because I had something important to show them. They unconvincingly follow me upstairs to where Kevin used to sit in the window, and scream at us.
There he was, again. The looks on their faces was priceless. I try to explain before they lose sanity.
“Guys, I’ve done it. I brought him back for us. A real reunion. Are you surprised?” I gladly ask.
“Uh, yeah man we are surprised,” Jack says confused.
“He’s better this way. He wasn’t to great alive, you remember,” I tell them.
“Yeah, I mean he did that to his family, but Kevin why did you dig him up?” Jack asks after looking at Al.
“Well Jack my friend,” I say as I walk around the two guys, “this was a reunion after all, we can’t have important members missing,” I tell him.
“What are you saying?” asks Al.
“Simply put, I knew you guys were never my real friends. That’s why they died that night, and you fools helped me pin it on him!” I say laughing as I point to the Frankenstein corpse staring out the window, “and now in my final act,” I say as I swing the blade towards Jack. He falls to the ground as Al trying to counter, runs at me. I move to my left, and press it to his chest. As I shrug his weakening body to the floor, I put my weapon away.
“Now you see gentleman, while you were away sporting about, living a full life, probably forgetting all you’ve done,” I say to the guys on the floor. “I know you said you tried , and you felt bad for me, blah blah. Unfortunately some don’t forgive so easy,” I continue.
“Why… Michael though, he… was the nicest to… you!” Jack stammers between deep breaths.
“Because he would’ve figured me out long before you two,” I proclaim. As I take my last few seconds admiring my art, I notice something, this piece could use a woman’s touch.
