The roof was a damp, messy thing. No better than the rest of the apartment building itself.
“Down. D. O. W. N! How hard of an instruction is that to follow?!” I growled, shaking my flashlight for emphasis. “We were supposed to get down the fire escape and leave!”
“Pam calm down. You’re going to give poor Nelly a heart attack.” Erin said as she gestured toward Nelly who stood to the corner shaking like a leaf.
“Pam d…dearie I am so s…s…sorry. The fire escape grate f…for g…go…going below was br…broken. So, we w…we…went above.” She stuttered nervously wringing her hands.
Wallace grunted in agreement.
I scowled at them both, “A fire escape through which we cannot escape! Just great!”
“So, we are completely stuck here!” Erin said looking anything but fearful.
“…yes?” Wallace replied looking suspiciously at Erin who looked a tad bit too excited for someone who was being hunted by a serial killer.
“Erin, stop vibrating like a clown.” I sniped at her as I looked around at the roof. It was a mess of old pipes, half used cans of God knows what, and a bunch of air conditioners for some reason.
“At least we can see something.” I muttered, squinting at the dimly lit streetlights.
“Looks like we only lost power ere’” Wallace muttered as he scratched his belly.
“Well of course! How else will the killer kill us?” Erin chimed in.
I peered down the fire escape as the rest looked around, it was empty. We couldn’t get down but soon the killer would know and then we’d end up having company. We’d either have to escape or hide. And from the look of the roof, neither was looking like a great possibility. No way could the four of us hide so well that we’d outsmart the killer. This wasn’t looking great.
“Guys, listen” I called out, “We can’t stay here, soon that weirdo is going to get here, he was already banging away at Nelly’s door while we were getting out! We have to come up with a plan!”
“She’s right. I am not going like this. What do we do? Hide?” Erin questioned.
“No way can we hide ere! Have yeh looked around?!” Wallace growled as he gestured towards the broken mess of metals that was the roof.
“He’s right.” I replied, “There’s no way we can hide here, we’d be discovered in minutes, if not seconds.”
“S…so what c…can we do?” Nelly asked, looking pale.
“It has to be jus’ one person! There’s more of us! Can’t we just push im off?” Wallace hissed.
“But what if there’s more people? How do we know?” Erin whispered.
“Don’t you remember the note? I’m watching you. It was an “I” not “we”.”
“O…ok so we pu…push?” Nelly asked.
“Not like we have any other options.” Erin muttered.
“Wha’ if e has a gun?” Wallace asked in a low voice.
We all looked at each other nervously, the cold night air wrapping around us in silence.
“There must be something around here we can use as a weapon.” I spoke hesitantly, looking around. “Let’s grab whatever looks useful.”
Everyone crouched around and sifted through the mess of dust and metal, I grabbed a rusty metal pipe and looked around for anything else useful.
“D’ ya think this is useful?” Wallace asked as he shook a paint can at us.
“Oh yes!” Erin cried out excitedly and grabbed it from him.
“H…hush dearie. You’re b…being too l…lo…loud again.” Nelly chided.
“Here Nelly, Wallace, take these.” I call out, handing over the remaining pipes I had found. Erin had enough weapons as it is.
CLANG!
We all jumped at the sound. It seemed as though someone was climbing up the fire escape.
“It’s him!” Erin hissed quietly.
“Come on!” I cried out at everyone.
We all made a mad dash towards the entry of the fire escape and crouched close by, waiting for the killer to appear. Soon a mop of messy hair appeared at the top of the steps.
“NOW!” I yelled.
WHOOSH!
“What the -?!”
…
Meanwhile…
I loved playing outside. Outside was so much fun. There was the sun, well not at night, but still, the sun, the playground, the dirty swings that still worked.
It was fun.
Fine, I didn’t have no friends to play with but still I had Muttons! Ok so Muttons couldn’t run no more but Ma at least fixed her so that she could come along with me.
Also, Ma always did say I didn’t need no friends.
“Dirty no-good ruffians.” She calls them.
So, it was better to be on my own, I guess?
I looked at Muttons, she didn’t reply. Her eyes were starting to look wonky, maybe Ma could fix it?
Ahhhhweeeee!
Startled, I look towards the sound…what was that? It looked like flashing light’s? A ball of light? Was that from our building?
“Ma? Ma! Ma, what’s that?” I asked as I pulled at her sleeves.
“What now, Toby?” She sighed and looked towards where I was pointing.
“What is that? And what’s anyone doing up there? There’s no lights. Ooooh, I bet its robbers! Well they will not be taking any of our things! I am calling the cops!” Ma huffed and went of towards the phone booth.
I held Muttons and stood up looking at the pretty lights.
…
Back at the roof…
“Ahhhhh! You’re not going to get us!!” Erin screamed as she sprayed around her… flamethrower…?
“Dear God! What in the hell is going on?!” Wallace’s voice boomed as we all hit the ground trying to get away from Erin.
“Ahhheeeee! Ahhh!” the man howled and rolled on the ground as he got burned.
“Erin! Erin, stop! You got him!” I yelled.
Finally… silence, except for the killer who continued to sob and scream.
We stood watching, lost as to what to do next. Finally, the man stopped rolling and lay shaking.
“Dear God.” Wallace whispered.
“Hey! Who the hell are you?! And why are you chasing us?!” I asked angrily, holding up the pipe in case he tried to attack us.
“Yea! Why are you chasing us?!” Erin chimed in.
The man finally rolled over and got up to his feet.
“You!” I cried out, aghast.
“Y…you?!” Nelly stuttered.
“What the hell? Pam? Nelly? You both know him?!” Erin demanded.
“Its… its him! The weird guy from the store! He came to buy a bunch of random shit from the store!” I explained, “Wait, Nelly?! How the hell do you know him?!”
“…uh…um…” she stuttered.
“Hello, dear.” The killer said hoarsely.
“Nelly!” Erin cried.
“He’s m…my husband!” She shrieked.
“Dear God…” Wallace croaked.
“What?” I replied blankly.
“Nelly, but… you had killed him.” Erin whispered.
“No. But the witch did try her best! And I am going to return the favor” the killer growled and leapt towards her.
Nelly and Erin shrieked in horror as the tried to get out of the way.
THWACK!
He went down like a bag of stones as me and Wallace managed to get him at the same time.
“What the hell?” I whispered.
“Nelly, what is happening?” Erin asked, looking lost.
“I… I th…thought I h…ha…had killed him!” She cried out.
“Well they didn’ find the body now did they?” Wallace said.
“So, you tried to kill him cus he attacked you right?” I asked.
“H…he was al…al…always strange. Then I no…noticed him s…sta…staying out l…late. C…comi…coming back covered in b…blood. I did…didn’t want t…to believe it. Bu…but soon I co…couldn’t.” Nelly shuddered as she spoke.
“So, you found out he was out killing people and attacked him?” I asked.
“N…no I attac…attacked h…hi…him after h…he k…kill…killed my m…m…mother.”
“Well, that will do it.” Erin muttered and I nodded along.
“So why is e doin’ it? He insane or somethin’ ?” Wallace asked.
“H…he t…to…told me it was f…fun” Nelly replied quietly.
“Insane it is.” I muttered.
“Well, how do we get down?” Erin asked.
Suddenly red and blue lit up the street as the wailing of sirens broke the silence.
“That’s our cue.” I called out.
…
The cops helped us down and carried down the semi-conscious killer who made one last attempt at Nelly but was thwarted by Erin who again decided to flambe him and managed to somehow half cook Muttons who was in the way.
The cops then attempted to chase the screaming, on fire killer and Toby screamed at his mother to put out the burning head of Muttons.
Neither scenario looked good.
“Well Nelly, how does it feel to not be a murderer?” I asked.
“N…not t…to bad.”
“And how does it feel to be wrong, Pam?” Erin asked, smirking.
“What do you mean?”
“I told you Nelly is not bad.”
“Technically, we almost died cus of her.” I replied.
“Well, if you lot are done arguin’ I am headin back ta’ sleep. This is too much excitement for a man.” Wallace muttered and headed back towards the building.
“Do you think, the cleaned-out Julius?” Erin whispered.
“Well, if they haven’t…he’ll make one hell of a door decoration.” I laughed.
We all headed back inside; it had been a hell of a month. At least this didn’t end up with us getting thrown out.
“Hey, Pam?”
“What?”
“Does this mean you actually sold the killer the stuff to kill us with?”
I stopped and looked at the burnt head of Muttons being held by Toby in horror.
“Shut up Erin.”
…
A madman’s journal…
