Slash (Novella I) (20 page)

He arrived home to his apartment, no stuffed bear to share the tale of battle with present. The idea of making sure his door was locked didn’t cross his mind, he knew he was safe. It was a great feeling and one he would share with the other slashers before he departed from town. He had little time to rest his aching lower back.

Ford arrived at the slasher meeting building, parked before it and headed inside. The moment Ford stepped into the room the chatter halted. He had no time for the dramatics, immediately making his way to the front of the room as the other slashers stared him down.

“
I’m Ford and I’m a slasher and tonight I slashed. I managed to eliminate the monster who gave us nightmares, the serial-slasher. His name was Jace; most of you will probably remember him as the tall blonde who was engaged to a friend of mine and a once very active member of this group, Lu. I don’t expect you all too immediately believe me, a person you consider a main suspect.”

“
Your words have no value,” A voice shouted from the crowd.

Ford waited until the whispers following the outburst stopped, before continuing. “Hopefully, once you notice the lack of slasher deaths in town has come to an end you’ll change whatever negative thoughts you have about me. This entire situation has been horrible to live through and I think to avoid it happening again we should change how these meetings are handled. Instead of showing up and lying about how innocent we all are, I think we should be honest with each other. I think we should become more than just a room of slashers, but a support system and a community. If we build a bond, it’ll make it much easier to notice those who attempt to disrupt it. We all suffered together, we all should recover together.”

A blonde woman cleared her throat, “I’m Carissa and last week I slashed.”

“
I’m Peter,” A man wearing thick-rimmed glasses said. “And last month I slashed.”

A young man with dark hair in the corner of the room raised his hand. “I’m Luke and I haven’t slashed yet, but I like his idea. I’ve been coming to these meetings since I got my first urge to slash. It all feels so phony and I still don’t really know any of you. I came here seeking help, but I only find myself bringing pizza bites and sitting in a corner until it’s over.” He motioned at Ford. “I‘m with him. We need to be more than a group of slashers who gather to share lies and feed denial, but an actual community. And those who don’t want to be a part of it should stop showing up.”

Ford nodded at Luke. “Thanks for understanding, the same to you Casey and Peter.”

Slasher after slasher spoke up and admitted to their most recent slashings. For weeks or even months many of them claimed to be innocent, including Ford. The more each person admitted their true number of slashes, the more included and understood they all felt. Many in the room still distanced themselves from Ford, but others were kind enough to introduce themselves and hear the tale of how he brought down the serial-slasher.

Sore and tired after his battle with Jace, Ford left early and headed home.

Tonight’s meeting had been one of the most enjoyable slasher meetings a young Luke had ever attended. He wore a smirk on his face as he climbed through his bedroom window, the memories of tonight’s meeting still lingering in his mind. He was way out past his set curfew, but tonight it was worth the possible trouble he could’ve gotten himself into with his parents. The young slasher kicked off his sneakers into the darkness of his room, slipped from his jeans, crawled into bed and let out a sigh of relief.

Luke carelessly embarked on a dangerous journey, but tonight he could rest peacefully. The moment he drove a blade through the heart of his first victim, his nights were spent tossing and turning, planning his next move of his grand plan of uniting the local slasher community. His grades started to falter, social relationships at school waned, the strain of balancing his slasher and personal life also underestimated.

The task of slashing the group’s leader was simple, the kind woman simply inviting him into her trailer eager to help him sort out some of his ‘troubling’ slashing thoughts. He personally liked the woman and she was well respected by all the local slashers. It was his core reasoning for deciding she had to fall first.

Luke was positive her death would unite them as a community and create that honest atmosphere he and the woman sought after within support group. Instead her death only drove them further apart and led to finger pointing.

Luke turned onto his side in his twin-sized bed softly laughing to himself as he thought about some of the more experienced slasher’s he had managed to eliminate. His victories did not make him arrogant, the young slasher knowing he simply had luck and the element of surprise on his side during many of the encounters. Uniting them through fear made sense in his head, but it had grown into a frenzy he struggled to control. As he lay here tonight, his journey completed, he could once again give credit to luck.

Luke wasn’t sure how Ford arrived to the conclusion that another member of their group was indeed the serial-slasher, but it didn’t matter to the young slasher. He was freed from his true title tonight and his overall journey to unite them all was brought to a close by another. Luke’s mind wandered on all the moments he lost sight of his vision, them now miniscule in his journey to the now complete portrait of slasher unity. He rested his eyes tonight, knowing slashing his own kind was worth the final reward.

A mad moral learned, in a mad world.

Slash (Novella II) – Coming 2014

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