Guilty

“Like I said, this all started six months ago. June 22nd. It was a Friday afternoon. School had just ended and I was spending the afternoon with my best friend. Dylan and I have known each other since we were eight—when she moved in next door. She was always so pretty and funny and too damn smart for her own good. Suffice to say I’d been in love with her for more than half my life.”

The girl laughed. “And I had no idea.”

“No kidding,” the boy deadpanned. “Anyhow, being hormonally charged and unattached and both at least moderately attractive, Dylan and I had a sort of running agreement that we would fool around when my uncle was away on his business trips. So, on this particular day, which happened to be two days before my birthday, we were kissing and kind of messing around and taking silly half-naked pictures when we heard my front door slam. Uncle Silas wasn’t supposed to be home until Tuesday, but there he was. We started to throw our clothes on and Dylan was gonna sneak home through my bedroom window—“

“I never liked the way he looked at me... Even when we were kids.”

There was a brief pause and some whispering, farther away from the microphone. “—know. It’s okay, Dylan. So Dylan was dressed and half-way out my window when Uncle Silas throws open my door—putting a huge hole in my wall—and starts shouting. I was so shocked I didn’t even register what he was saying until he started... Until he started ripping her clothes off. He was yelling over and over that I had raped her. Dylan was screaming back that we hadn’t done anything wrong—that I would never, ever hurt her—when I finally pulled him off of her. He’s so much bigger than me though, something like 6’5 and 260 pounds... I really didn’t have a chance. He hit me once and I was out.” There was a long silence and what sounded like a sniffle. “When I came to, Dylan was naked, tied up on the floor, with a gash on the side of her head. I’ll never forget the way her eyes looked. I could tell she was just... So fucking scared.” Another pause and some rustling. “I was tied to my desk chair and Uncle Silas was in the hallway on his cellphone. The door was open, but he wasn’t looking at us.

"There was a pair of scissors on my desk and if I leaned back, I could just barely reach them. It took a minute to get them open, but after that it was pretty easy to use the blade to slice the thin rope tying my hands and snip the knots binding my feet. I rushed over to Dylan and cut her free. Uncle Silas was talking to the police now, telling them that I’d raped the next door neighbor, that he suspected I had hurt other women. I handed Dylan her clothes and grabbed the memory card from my camera. I had fucking pictures to prove that Dylan was not forced into anything. I snatched my keys and started to help a half-dressed Dylan through the window when I heard her crying. I looked into her face and it was horrified but silent. She wasn’t crying, but I could hear her sobbing. She was saying that she had trusted me. She was saying that I was a monster—but I was watching her lips and they weren’t moving.

“I pretty much shoved Dylan out of the window. Sorry.” The girl chuckled half-heartedly. “I heard Uncle Silas tell the police that he had tied me up, and then he turned around. His normally blue eyes were this freakish yellow-white—swirling and turning like the eye of a storm. He saw that we were escaping and he screeched. It was this awful sound... Like a bird or something. It wasn’t... Wasn’t human.”

“It’s okay, Ash,” the girl said softly.

“I picked up the first thing I saw. It was my Calculus book,” he sounded amused. “He ran at me and I smacked him as hard as I could across the face with it and fell out the window into the azaleas. Dylan helped me out of the bushes and I looked up to my window. He was just standing there, smiling down at me. His eyes were still that white color and the phone was back up to his ear. This time he was yelling in his voice, and in mine. ‘Help!’ he said a few times. Suddenly blood was running down his face. Suddenly his eye was blacked and he was spitting blood. Dylan dragged me to the car and pulled me in after her. I heard her voice scream from behind us as we sped off.”