The Price of Evil

SEVEN YEARS LATER…

He tucked the last of his letters in the waistband of his white pants and looked around the room that had been his hone for the past seven years. Today was the day that he would finally leave this God forsaken hellhole. He has had nothing but time to think, and that is never a good thing for a person with evil voices in their head. Over the years those voices seem to have gotten the best of him and convinced him that his brother was at fault, his brother was the cause of everything that had happened to him.

He walked over to the window looking down at the ground that was two floors down. He took one last look around the room before taking a deep breath preparing himself for his escape. He grabbed the sheet off of the bed and wrapped it around his hand. Taking a deep breath he pulled all of his strength into his right arm and struck the glass window shattering it completely.

The alarms went off instantly and he knew he didn’t have much longer before the security guard came running into his room. He kicked the rest of the glass out before pushing himself out of the window. He landed on his feet with an ominous sounding crack. Pushing himself up with a grunt he didn’t look back as he ran tom the building limping harshly on his left leg.

***

Jacob adjusted his tie in the mirror and smoothed out the wrinkles on his shirt as a pair of small hands wrapped themselves around his waist. She placed her head between his shoulder blades as she took in his sweet scent. He spun around placing one hand on her waist and the other one under her chin. He looked into her eyes that held so much pain, so much heartbreak but at the same time so much power and determination. He felt pride in knowing that she chose him, she chose to be his. The moment she said ‘yes’ he knew that they would be together for the rest of their lives.

“I love you Leah.” He whispered. She smiled a knowing smile.

“I love you too Jacob.” He pressed his lips to hers feeling that warm sensation that he always felt when he kissed her course through his body.

She wrapped her hands around his neck pushing her body closer to his and in turn deepening the kiss. He ran his hands over her hips and down the back of her thighs and hoisting her up as she wrapped her legs around his waist. He started moving towards their bed knowing they had plenty of time before his parents showed up.

DONG-DONG!!!!!

They both groaned at the sound of the doorbell cursing whoever was at the door. Leah unwrapped her legs from Jacob’s waist and he set her down on the floor groaning again when he saw the rather large bulge protruding from his slacks. She looked down and felt a wetness begin to pool in her center thinking about all of the things she could do and has done with the shaft of flesh hidden underneath those pants. Jacob placed his hand under her chin lifting her face up to meet his.

“The things you do to me woman.” He said before pressing his lips against hers. She smiled into the kiss breaking away a moment later when the doorbell rang again.

“I’ll get the door. You take care of…that.” Leach said with a chuckle gesturing to his crotch. He smiled as she watched her walk out of the room. He turned back towards the mirror readjusting his clothes all the while filling his head with unappealing images to calm down his best friend. Once that was taken care of he grabbed his wallet and keys heading towards the door. A high-pitched scream caused him to drop everything and run downstairs faster than it seemed possible for a human.

He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw his brother Daniel with one arm around Leah’s neck and a revolver in his other hand pressing it against her temple. Tears were streaming down Leah’s face as Daniel pressed the gun deeper into her head the moment Jacob came into view.

“Daniel. W-what are you doing here? When did they release you?” Jacob asked eyes glued to the gun pointed at his fiancé’s head.

“It’s your fault. Everything is your fault.” Daniel said. Jacob thought he heard a double pitch in his voice but shook it off as nothing.

“Let her go Daniel please. I don’t’ know what you’re talking about but just let her go.” Jacob pleaded taking a step forward. Daniel took a step back tightening his grip in Leah’s neck. Jacob felt the fear take over his entire being. He needed to get Leah away from his brother, needed to make sure she was safe.

“Stay back!” Daniel snarled. “I’ll shoot her I swear I will.”

“Please Daniel, please don’t. Whatever this is, whatever is going on we can talk about it, just let her go.”

“Daniel?” a voice said from the door. Daniel whipped his head in that direction seeing his mother and father standing at the doorway. Ellie tried to run up to him to embrace him in a hug but was unable to because her husband who had his eyes glued to the gun in his son’s hand was restraining her. “What’s going on?” she asked. Jacob took advantage of his brother’s sudden distraction to try and pull Leah from him. Daniel saw Jacob’s movement out of the corner of his eye and turned the gun on Jacob stopping him in his tracks.

“Don’t move!” Daniel yelled pulling back the hammer on the revolver until it clicked.

“NO! Don’t please-” Leah shouted before Daniel yanked her backwards cutting off her pleas.

“Shut up!” he hissed in her ear before glaring back at his brother.

“Please Daniel, just let her go an talk to me we can’t resolve this if you don’t tell me what’s going on?” Jacob pleaded with his brother as Daniel just shook his head.

“No, no I’m done with talking. Talking is what got me here. All those stupid so called doctors kept talking to me when I just wanted to be alone. All the lawyers kept trying to get me to tell them how I did it no matter how many times I told them I didn’t remember. All the while those voices they…they wouldn’t leave me alone. They wouldn’t stop talking to me, wouldn’t let me just have one moment of peace. I don’t want to be some psycho, I don’t want to be categorized for the rest of my life as that famous guys screwed up kid.” During his little speech Daniel absentmindedly released his hold on Leah and Jacob quickly grabbed onto her hugging her tightly and pulling her behind him when Daniel turned back towards Jacob pointing the gun right in his face. “But those voices did help me with one thing. They helped me realize that if it wasn’t for you, Jacob I wouldn’t have been forced to live in that crazy house for seven fucking years!”

“How- what did I do?” Jacob asked confused.

“That’s just it. You didn’t do anything. You just sat there and let them take me away. You didn’t even try to help me. You were just going to let your own brother, your twin brother rot in some God forsaken mental hospital!”

“I did help! I’m the one that figured out that you were schizophrenic. I’m the one that gave the lawyers a viable reason to keep you out of prison. I didn’t want to see my brother get hauled off to God knows where, where there would be a chance that I’d never see him again. I didn’t want you to go somewhere where there would be a high chance that you could get killed because you could lash out for no reason, because you were different.” Jacob’s voice shook slightly at the end.

“But they did. They took me away from my home, my family all because of you!” Daniel shouted.

“Daniel,” his mother started stepping around her husband. “Baby, we knew that by send you to the you would be better off because we knew that you would get some kind of help. Jacob did what he could, hell he did more than the rest of us combined.

That’s a lie. Daniel gripped at his head when he heard that voice again.

“GET OUT OF MY HEAD!” he screamed out. Jacob whispered to Leah telling her to go into the bedroom and lock the door. She protested at first but went upstairs nonetheless.

Never. We’re not the ones you’re after, he is. The voice sneered. Daniel let out a menacing growl pointing the gun back at Jacob. He didn’t notice that his father had snuck around behind him in an attempt to pull the gun away from him. Taylor reached out to grab the arm that was holding the gun when Daniel turned on him.

“Daniel!” Ellie shouted.

“Give me the gun Daniel.” Taylor said.

“I can’t do that Dad.” Daniel answered.

“Why not?” Taylor asked.

“I just can’t. This has to be done. Those responsible must pay for their actions.” Jacob threw his arms around Daniel’s neck putting him in a chokehold.

Daniel threw his hands up grabbing onto Jacob’s arms trying to pry them away from his neck. Jacob began pulling Daniel backwards toward the wall so that he could get the gun out of his hand. Daniel swung the gun backwards until it connected with Jacob’s skull causing him to yell out and loosen his grip slightly. Daniel took advantage of this twisting himself out of Jacob’s grip but Jacob grabbed on to his wrist before get away completely. He bent his wrist backwards pointing the barrel away from his face.

Jacob beat Daniel’s hand against the back of the couch until he released the gun letting it drop to the floor. The moment it dropped Jacob kicked the gun some where behind him just as Daniel threw his fist forward connecting it with Jacob’s nose hearing the satisfying crack of the bone breaking. Jacob covered his hands over his nose groaning in pain just as Daniel lunged at Jacob knocking him to the floor. They both began punching and shoving each other trying to get the upper hand. At one time Daniel tried to lunge for the gun on the floor only to be pulled back by Jacob.

Daniel began to get the better of Jacob and pushed him as hard as he could making him hit his head against the wall knocking him temporarily unconscious. When Jacob came to he opened his eyes to Daniel standing above him panting heavily with the barrel of the barrel of the gun staring him in the eye.

“Don’t fight the inevitable Jake. You must accept the consequences of your actions.” Daniel seethed.

“Daniel, please. You don’t have to do this.” Jacob pleaded.

“Yes I do. You took my life away. I could have had what you have. I could have had a wife and kids, but now, now that I’ve been classified as some psycho who the fuck is going to want me? And it’s all because of you. Now I’m going to take your life just as you took mine.” Daniel said with tears beginning to roll down his cheeks as he pulled back the hammer on the revolver.

“Daniel, please.” The tears began to spring out of Jacob’s eyes as well. Daniel wrapped his index finger around the trigger squeezing it slightly.

“Goodbye brother.”

BANG!

Jacob looked on in horror as his brother slowly fell to his knees before falling face first into the carpet. He looked up to see his mother holding a gun in her shaking hands. She dropped the gun like a searing hot piece of metal. She took a few steps back before falling on the ground sobbing and mumbling, “What have I done? Dear God what have I done?”

Jacob looked back down at his brother feeling utter despair and sadness wash over his entire being seeping through his skin and muscles deep into his bones. He began sobbing uncontrollably as he turned Daniel onto his back. With a shaky hand he lightly ran it over Daniel’s face closing his eyes before dropping his head on his brother’s unmoving chest.