'Murderer' He Whispered

17

Megan roared with laughter to the point that her stomach had begun to hurt. "And see what toys we both get!"

"Oh, yes! That's the best part! I've always wanted one of those dog plushies with the big sparkly eyes"

"I've always wanted one too!" Megan almost couldn't get the words out through her laughter.

"Then it's settled! We'll go every week, collect all the different toy collections they bring out and display them like trophies!" Charlie exclaimed, pointing at a bare section of the wall where he imagined drilling a shelf into for the toys to be displayed on.

Megan couldn't remember laughing as much in her life as that night, it was what Charlie was best at, making people laugh even on their darkest days. However, the last thing Megan wanted to do right now was laugh as she stared down at the back of that old photo frame, feeling unease and fear seep into her pores and clog her arteries.

She lifted her gaze from the photo, examining the distance between it and the mantelpiece as her brain tried to think of a plausible explanation of how the photo could have landed all the way over to the door if it had simply fallen. It couldn't skid on the floor because of the carpet either, so, how?

Feeling her insides turn to mush, Megan shakily reached down and picked the photo back up, keeping the back of the frame towards her as she dared not look at the photo. She couldn't do that to herself, not now. It was too painful, seeing her in that beautiful, laced wedding dress she'd picked out herself at the bridal store, no bridesmaids, no mother, just herself. And she certainly couldn't bare it to see her old self smiling widely at Charlie who looked so smart and handsome in his tailored suit.

Megan felt tears burn the corners of her eyes as she carefully placed the photo back onto the mantelpiece. How she wished she could talk to Charlie now and ask why he'd do such a horrible thing to that family.

The middle-aged woman remembered the night police informed her of what Charlie had done, the words making her legs buckle from under her before falling hard on the floor. When she came to again, a senior officer reassured Megan that the girls were being looked after by one of their female officers. But as it was all explained to her again, she asked the question that held her last glimmer of hope.

"Are you sure it was him? Are you sure he wasn't framed somehow?" she'd managed to ask the question through the tears clogging her throat as the officer held a grim expression.

"It's looking likely that it was him, ma'am. His fingerprints are all over the weapon used and the victims' blood are all over his clothing. There's no signs of anyone else being there"

It was those words that truly made Megan's world fall apart. Not the poor, murdered family, not the fact that she was a widow now or that her daughters were now left without a father, but the one simple fact that she had been lied to from the very beginning. That she hadn't married a loving, kind-hearted man.

That she had married a monster.

Although the photo was now back on the mantelpiece, Megan clutched onto the sides of the frame, feeling the edges dig into her palms as tears flowed from her eyes.

Christie had always told her from the beginning to stop listening to the angry civilians and the press, to stop blaming herself for what happened. But, what if she was to blame? What if there was something Megan had missed all those years ago up until last month when Charlie committed the murders? What if there was something staring right at her that she could have stopped but didn't?

What if it is all her fault?

Using the back of her hand to wipe her tears away, Megan finally stepped back from the photo. Although she hadn't wanted to look at the man and woman smiling happily at each other within the frame, she momentarily forgot as she lifted her eyes up from the carpet below and fixed them onto the photo.

That's when Megan realised something horrible.

Stifling a scream as the air became trapped in her throat, Megan stumbled over to the photo again, peering at her younger, care-free face in the frame and saw that her eyes and mouth had been violently scorched out within the photo paper.

Gasping with fear, Megan picked the photo back up, staring at the scorches that completely covered her eyes and mouth to the point that they were no longer recognisable, leaving red residue amongst the scratches which told the woman that whoever did this likely used a red pen.

What?! Who would do this and why?!

Horrified, Megan pressed her fingers against the paper, wanting to inspect it further, only to realise that the glass was still protecting the photo within.

Someone had unclipped the frame, taken the photo out and dragged the tip of a red pen through her eyes and mouth in the paper before placing the photo back into its frame again as though nothing had ever happened.

Megan had no idea what to think. She felt sick that someone would do this. But who? For hours she had been the only person in the house. Unless, had someone broken in and done this while Megan had blacked out?

The stressed woman scratched her head painfully with her uneven fingernails as she tried to process it all, before a horrifying thought crossed her mind.

Could Christie have done this?

Megan shook her head. No, there was no way Christie would ever do anything like this, even as a prank. She wasn't sick enough to do something like that to her, especially now when it'd been a very trying and emotional time for her.

Suddenly another horrifying thought plagued her mind as she wondered if one of the girls did this ages ago without Megan realising. Could one of her daughters truly have done this? She couldn't imagine Bethany doing anything so cruel, but Olivia?

Megan yelled at herself. She couldn't blame Olivia for this. Just because she and her eldest daughter had been on rocky ground recently didn't mean that she'd have done this. Surely not.

Trying her best to calm her drumming heart and ease the nausea stirring inside her stomach, Megan unlatched the clips at the back of the photo frame and slipped the photo out, wanting to take a closer look at the scratches. However, when she slipped the paper out from the back, something else had stopped her in her tracks. Something far much worse than her scorched out facial features.

Lifting the photo closer to her eyes and allowing the frame to drop to the floor, Megan's eyes quivered with terror when a series of words appeared on the back of the photo that had been scrawled on with red ink.

Whoever wrote the words must have written them down quick with desperation for it took a moment before Megan could finally understand what the words said. It was a threat.

"You will be next"