Introduction

                     

"I couldn't run away... Wherever I am he was always watching over me... An admirer who never leaves a trace and killed every man who fell in love with me... HE was a true nightmare that I wished to kill... Yet he remained unknown..." - Ash

Introduction

ASH' PERSPECTIVE

"You killed him! You killed him!" shrieked an old woman in a long brown dress and a white top blouse as she pointed at me, she was in pain together with madness, her eyes were ruddy and she trembled as she scampered closer to me, the moment she saw me. She gripped her fist, then grabbed the neck part of my shirt like a man.

Her hand aerodynamically shifted in the air quickly and the sound of her slap was ringing in my ears that I could barely overhear her words but her high-pitched voice reached inside my ears- It has full of agony.

"You killed her," she shouted non-stop and spat on my face... "Murderer," she sobbed and kept hitting me in all force.

"How dare you show up in here..." a pause, "You..." she glared at me as if she was cursing me to go to hell immediately, "You.. mur-murderer!" Her choppy voice was stinging the edge of my eyes, I couldn't bear to watch her struggling with her breathing, I wanted to tell her to stop, not the beating but the strength she was letting out because she might collapse, but as if I had the right.

I accepted every slap that landed on my face that night, I was firmly culpable, I conceded that reality.

I cried and I had zero words to say nor affirmed myself from innocence. She was right, I killed Dravo Mendez, his son, and... tears were streaming down from my sights... I killed Dravo, my beloved boyfriend.

I cried and everybody at Dravo's funeral looked at me like I was a gross woman, their eyes were killing me, they were sharp and ready to stab me in any second, mentally.

Based on their eyes, I could create a dialogue that running in their mind.

"How can she still had the guts to come here?"

"Is she's not ashamed of herself?"

 "Poor mother, how I wish she was the one that died!"

If only they knew...

"Mom, what are you doing?" she shouted and stood in front of me, she was covering me.

"Amanda, get out of the way," Dravo's mother exclaimed. "This is all ridiculous, mom! It's not her fault," said Amanda to her, trying to defend me.

"How dare you talk back to me, Amanda. Your brother is dead, and..." she moaned out loud, " And she is the reason!" she stared at me in the eyes.

Amanda got mad, "But she is innocent, mom. Please, don't make a fuss," she shouted back.

"Stop it, Amanda, she was the reason why your brother..." She paused when Amanda didn't stop to talk back.

"Mom, I said she is innocent, you can't accuse her just like that! We knew what really happened," she shouted on her face and her mother slapped her without second thoughts. And I felt sorry, I should have not come.

"She's a murderer, Amanda," she was shivering, I could feel that it was not her intention to slap her daughter, she frowned when she glanced at Amanda who was rubbing her face and then walked out. It was an unforgettable memory of mine. My beloved Dravo died, and I was the reason.

Amanda grabbed me out of that place.

"You okay?" I asked Amanda, and she nodded. "I am. I'm sorry for what my mother did," she apologized and I hugged her. "I'm sorry for what happened," I whispered.

"You better go home," she said but I insisted, "No, how can I leave without seeing my boyfriend's face?" I asked and she sympathized me. "Okay, fine. But stay closer to me," she said and held my hands back inside their house.

"Stay here with me, I will protect you," she said. I was lucky to have Amanda with me, she was my best friend and the reason why I met his brother, Dravo.

                                                            ***********

Everyone was looking at me as I went near Dravo.

"I'm so...sorry. I di-didn't want a-anything of this to...to happen," I sobbed as I looked over his dead body. His face was covered by a white-thing type of silk-towels. His face was badly damaged that was why they didn't want to show it. His eyes, nose, and lips were all gone, it was only a flat figure of his head... no skull and no brains, just skin that was flattened by a big solid thing, which police officers couldn't explain to us. The killer went unknown, he always committed a perfect crime. No trace of him could be found, nothing at all.

He was unknown, yet, I knew who killed my boyfriend, that anonymous guy, and he just sent me a letter after Dravo's funeral.

On the letter was a note saying:

"Dear Ash,

  I told you no one could ever love you more than I did. No man could touch you except me. No one could marry you except me... I was the only one who can smell you, who can make you happy and I am the only one who can love you more than anything in this world, only I, Ash. ONLY ME!

 Whoever falls in love with you, nor touches you... Remember they will all die, trust me when I say they would. 

I love you."

💋

Just reading his letter made me shudder. The letter has a kiss marked at the end of his letter as his signature. We tried to trace that mark but he was smart, it was unidentified, I wonder how did he do that?

That was not the first threatening love letter I had ever read. I didn't know him, we thought it was only a man who wanted to play around with me, a crazy game that I never imagined was true.

Dravo and his family were the only ones who knew it since I didn't have any family, I only escaped from the orphanage when I was ten and lived my life alone. And Amanda was the one who helped me, she secretly let me stay in their storage house that was not far away from their house. She kept and gave me food for two years. I couldn't even imagine how she managed to steal food for me, let me stay secretly, and hid everything about me from her family for such a long time.

After two years, I found myself a job, it was illegal because I was only 12, but I only stayed in the kitchen and washing the dishes, and that was how I survived.

Amanda introduced me to her family when I was 16 years old, and there I met Dravo, it only took 3 days after the meeting and we became partners at a very young age. And when I turned 17, I started to receive these letters saying I should break up with my boyfriend or he would kill my Dravo. He also always sending me gifts.

Of course, Dravo's mother was afraid, but we continued our relationship and this happened... After a year, he killed him. That was the reason why his mother blamed me, because the nameless man who kept sending me love letters, chocolates, and flowers was the person who killed my boyfriend.

I didn't know his face nor his name. He never wrote them on his letters, he only put his kiss marks. Even the persons who delivered it didn't know where it came from, according to them, they just saw it in their office when they opened it in the morning, they had no idea how did the man came inside and left it. They also couldn't see him on the CCTV, liked it was hacked every time he came around to left his gift for me. The police investigated for months but found no evidence,  and fool they were, the case was closed after 3 months, they said that my boyfriend's death and the threatening letter might be a coincidence. A gang might be gotten interested in him and killed him. And in the end, my boyfriend's death didn't get any justice despite everything that happened, and the fight we battled for the case.

"This is how cruel our world is... having a death with no justice and a murderer who can freely roam around."

"I miss you," I whispered as I put the flower and our picture together, to his grave. He was the first and last person I loved, and I never thought of being in a relationship again because, in the end, that man will only kill him, once he knew. He was watching me, I don't know how, but I knew that he was close to me, he could trace every step I make and every inch of my breathe.