Torturous

Devastation

•Y/N: Your Name
•E/C: Eye Color
•H/C: Hair Color

Your POV:

A soft sigh of content escapes my lips as I plop down on the dark brown couch in the living room. My bare feet rest on the beige carpet as I lean back into the cushions, while I turn on the flat screen mounted on the imperial red wall across from me using the remote that was on the glass end table beside the couch. A similar table is also on the other end of the cushy piece of furniture, while an oval-shaped, glass table stands between me and long, dark wood T.V. stand. There are three windows in the room: one on both sides of the couch and one adjacent to me on the wall on my right, which shows the street outside. After flipping through a few channels, I give up on finding something and land on the news. It was something, though, and I don't really have anything else to do today. What I didn't expect, however, is what the report is on.

"Yesterday evening, the bodies of high school senior, Bolton Varziano, and 24 year old, Jamison Derringer, were found dead in an alley on Church Street. Jamison, who had been arrested on multiple accounts of drug possession and dealing as well as acts of vandalism, was reported to have a slit throat, while Bolton had been stabbed numerous times in the torso."

"Did they just say..." My E/C eyes grow wide as I stare at the screen in shock, my mouth slightly agape. "Bolton's dead?" I lean forward some as the news lady's voice is drowned out by my thoughts.

'But, I just spoke to him yesterday! He seemed like such a nice guy. What happened?' A film of tears cloud my vision, but none fall from my eyes. My stomach churns as a feeling of sickness overwhelms me. Shakily, I turn up the volume on the T.V. to hear the rest of the story. The image of the newsroom disappears and is replaced by footage of the crime scene. A cop stands in front of the alley blocked off with yellow police tape with a camera at an angle, so the viewers are unable to see the inside of the passageway. The officer is a stout man dressed in full uniform with black hair and chubby features and appears to be in his thirties.

"We received a call from a woman, who happened to be passing by while walking her dog. She contacted the department immediately after sighting the bodies, but didn't catch sight of any suspects, however, we think there has definitely been a third party. From what we've gathered, we have reason to believe that this was an act of jealousy. We're not sure if the target was the boy or the man, but we're still gathering evidence."

The microphone held out to the officer is pulled back to the male reporter interviewing him.

"What makes you think this was done out of jealousy?"

"It became pretty obvious after we saw the message the killer left on the wall." A drawing of a heart with an arrow shot through it diagonally takes over the screen. Above the artwork are the words, "beware those who dare to take her from me". At the bottom of the screen appears a message from the newsroom, stating that this drawing was done by a local sketch artist. "The image drawn in the blood of the victims depicting a heart shot through with an arrow and an unsettling message involving an unknown female makes this quite clear. I would show you the actual image he left, but I'd hate to scare the squeamish."

Their voices fall silent after I press the power button on the remote. After the screen turns black, I drop the device and hold up my head in my hands. I think the silence only made things worse, but I didn't want to hear anymore about this gruesome murder. I had just met Bolton, and we got along really well. It might've only been a day, but I really felt a connection with him, and now he's dead.