All for Her

Sunlight reflected off of the sidewalk, slick with the rain from last night’s storm. The whole town was silent, save for the sound of the wind blowing through the trees. A small group of teenagers sat at a table outside of a café, all with tears crawling from their eyes.

A newspaper flew through the air toward me and I caught it, stopping for a moment to read the headline. Missing Girl Found in Forest Last Night. The article following it told the story of Addie Archer, who’d been missing for only a day and how she was found deep in the forest at some time around seven, dead, with her eyes missing. It also said that the police were looking into it, and Addie’s death was connected to the other six murders that had taken place a few weeks prior.

That would explain all of the tears. Addie had been quite popular at our high school. I walked the last few blocks to the apartment building and sprinted up the stairs instead of using the elevator, not even hearing my various neighbors greeting me in my haste to return home.

The apartment my family and I shared was small, but not uncomfortable, with its beige painted walls and its sparse decoration. Mom was sitting on the couch with a novel in one hand and a coke in the other when I came in. She tried to greet me as well but I was already in my room before she could finish her sentence.

On my side of the room I shared with my sister, Charlotte, were all of the newspaper clippings I could find on the recent murders strung up on the walls, words and phrases underlined in red ink. Charlotte was lying on her bed with her eyes closed, her headphones pounding rap music into her skull. I rummaged in my nightstand until I found a roll of duct tape and then stuck the newest article right beside the rest of them. After I’d finished doing that I grabbed a book and locked myself in the bathroom so I could sit in the tub, alone. I really hated spending time around people.

About two hours and one book finished later, I heard my mom yelling at me to come eat dinner. Dad must be home, because usually mom let me sit in here as long as I wanted until she had to take a shower. Careful to not trip and fall over on my way out, I made my way down the hallway to the dining room table.

Dinner usually was a silent affair, aside from the scratching of silverware against our white plastic plates. Tonight though Charlotte had decided to skip the meal, opting to sit in the living room and sing at the top of her lungs. Neither mom nor dad said a word to her, but I’m not so patient.
“Shut up!” I hissed at her. My parents both looked up from their plates. Charlotte paused for a moment but then continued. Still nobody else told her to stop. Fed up, I stood up from the table and left the apartment, making sure to grab my jacket before I headed out.

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Twigs snapped beneath my feet as I trudged deeper into the woods toward the small abandoned cabin I’d claimed as my own. It was about six in the evening, so the sun was going down, but that was no problem to me. I reached the cabin just as the sun disappeared.

The cabin smelled like decay and formaldehyde. When I turned on the light I found Charlotte sitting in the stool beside the fire place. In her hands was a mason jar filled to the brim with a strange fluid. She was shaking it and watching the contents bouncing around.

“So, Rachel,” She said quietly, turning to me and holding up it jar to the light, “are these my new eyes?” I nodded, taking the jar back and sitting it on the shelf. In front of us lying under a sheet on a table was what was to be Charlotte’s new body. So far I was about ninety-five percent finished, the only thing missing being the eyes I’d taken from Addie and the arms. Pulling back the cloth I revealed to her the head of Melissa Robinson. Everyone had always said that Melissa could have been our sister, except for her eyes, which were brown while ours were green. Addie Archer of course had green eyes.

Pulling Melissa’s eyelids back and taping them so they wouldn’t fall closed, Charlotte went and retrieved her new eyes from the shelf and sat them on the table beside me along with my tools. She stood on the opposite side of the table, holding her breath with excitement. One by one, I dropped the eyes in her unfeeling skull and positioned them until it looked like she was staring up at us. I was gently pulling the tape off a voice made me stop.

“Rachel? Rachel Castleton, are you in there?” Charlotte looked at me, confused.
“Did you invite someone over?” She whispered. I shook my head and quickly replaced the sheet. Whoever was here definitely wasn’t going to understand.

“Rachel, you need to come out now.” That was mom. Why was she here? Quietly I peeked out of the curtains. Standing at the front door was mom, dad, and few policemen, and suddenly my stomach felt cold and empty. We’d been caught. I turned to ask Charlotte what to do next, but she was no longer there. I’d have to face them on my own.

I opened the door and stepped out onto the front porch, careful not to look anyone in the eye. The policemen came forward and pulled my hands into handcuffs.

“Rachel Castleton, you are under arrest for the murders of Addie Archer, Melissa Robinson, Skylar Carrie, and Kimberly Sewell.” Mom and dad walked a few paces behind us as we marched away from the cabin and back to town. Out of nowhere the shaking voice of my father pierced the night air.

“Why’d you do it, Rachel? Why did you kill those girls?”

“Charlotte made me do it, I promise. She came to me and told me I had to. It was all for her; I wouldn’t have killed them if she hadn’t.” A small sob from my left made me turn around to face my mom.

“But that’s not possible.” Mom replied softly. “Don’t you know that? Charlotte’s been dead for months.”