Dallas emerges from the darkness at the edge of the bluff, walking toward me as my flashlight illuminates him.
He doesn't look like Dallas.
Not my Dallas.
The brother I'd shared all of my secrets with. The boy on the other side of the bedroom whispering with me late into the night about our dreams.
Before me stands a stranger.
A killer.
My brother, is a killer.
"Dallas, what have you done?" My voice cracks as I watch him move eerily closer. Until he's standing right in front of me, the light glaring up at his face making him look like he's about to tell me a ghost story around a campfire.
"You shouldn't be here, Missy." He whispers, his voice barely audible over the wind that rattles our clothing.
"You...you killed them." I stutter to say, backing up a couple of feet. "How could you?"
He stares blankly at me, no emotion in his cold eyes. "Why did you have to come back?" He demands with a menacing slowness. "Why couldn't you just stay away like you'd promised?"
"Dallas," I shiver. "I needed the money, I had to come back."
He shakes his head, slowly, from one side to the other, his eyes never leaving mine. "I tried to get you to leave."
All of the notes, the writing on the wall, moving the stuff around? It had all been him? He'd been in the house. His whole act about being terrified to go beyond the kitchen door was just a ploy. Another part of his sick game he was playing with us.
"You...you tried to scare me." I say, all of it clicking into place. The puzzle pieces snapping together at last with finality.
"You weren't supposed to be here!" He snaps, making me jump. "You never should have come back. None of this would be happening if you had just stayed away."
"I didn't make you kill people, Dallas!" I reply. "Why the fuck would you do this? Why?" I shout but he rolls his eyes at me.
"It doesn't matter." He says with a flat bored tone. "If you weren't here. If you weren't always fucking things up. We wouldn't be in trouble now."
"Dallas." I level him with a look, the beam of light shaking in my hands, making his features look even more ghoulish.
"Stop it." He glares at me. "Stop looking at me like that. I didn't ask for this. I didn't want to be this way."
"I just want to understand-"
"There isn't anything to understand!" He cuts me off. "Stop trying to make things make sense that don't. Quit thinking you're better than me."
"I'm not!" I shout. "But I'm not the one who murdered people. I didn't do any of this."
"Perfect little Missy." He scoffs. "She never does anything wrong. She's always right, always better, always too good for everyone else."
"What are you talking about?" I ask. "I've never said that. I'm not remotely close to perfect. I didn't-."
"Just stop," he frowns. "You ruin everything."
He's not making any sense. One second I'm too good, the next I'm the problem. He's all over the place, shuffling his feet where he stands like the idea of being still right now is too much. His body is tense and pulled tightly, making him look even taller than he is.
His gloved hands are in fists at his sides and he just glares at me.
"You couldn't just let it go, could you?" He asks, taking a long step towards me. "Everything was fine. Everything was just fine until you just had to keep digging. You couldn't mind your own business for once. They were going to arrest him and this was going to be over. We could have left."
I stumble back a bit, trying to keep my space from him. "Dallas, you can't just frame people for what you did. I couldn't let him go to prison for you."
At this he smiles. "Why not?" He shrugs, the twisted grin on his face making me feel like the blood is being drained from my body and refilled to the brim with nothing but fear.
"Because it isn't right."
He laughs. "No." He says, shaking his head again. "No, it's not. Doesn't mean you can't do it anyway. This town...they deserved it. The people here...they had this coming."
"Dal," I try to say gently. "You're scaring me."
"You should be scared!" He booms. "Every fucking person living in this fucked up world should be scared, Missy."
I stare back at the stranger in front of me. The cold, heartless monster living in the body of my brother. My father's letters ring out in my mind.
"Stay away from your brother."
"Dad knew." I whisper and he smiles brighter. "He...Dallas, did you?"
He chuckles to himself. "Ah, that's the question, right? Did dear old Dad do it?" He keeps watching me as my tears well. "Missy, Dad couldn't even kill the rat that got into house. He was a weak man. He didn't have the power a man should have. He never protected us."
My knees go weak below me, and my body sways. Everything I've believed for years has been a lie. My father never killed those girls. There isn't some new killer out to recreate the murders of notorious John Jacobs.
The real killer, Dallas, was back to revisit his own past. Dallas was recreating his own slayings.
Dallas was the monster under my roof the whole time.
"How could you do that to him?" I cry. "He loved us, loved you! He was our dad and you let him take the fall for you? You let him die for you?"
Dallas shoves into my face, knocking the flashlight out of my hand.
"He owed it to me!" He shouts at me, his breath hot against my face. "He deserved what he got for being weak! He never protected us!"
"What are you talking about?" I gasp, trying to breath but I can't as he reaches out and shakes me hard, throwing my head back and forth angrily.
"Are you this stupid?" He shouts. "Do you really think you're the only one?" He shakes me again. "I told him! I told him first! And you know what?" He shoves me backwards. I land hard on the ground, the breath knocked out of me. "He didn't believe me! He kept sending us back there!"
I struggle to sit up. "T-Terrance?"
"Fuck him!" He shouts, kneeling over me and shoving my shoulders back down into the ground. "I told dear old Dad, and he didn't believe me. He told me I misunderstood. He treated me like I was stupid!"
"Stop!" I scream as he climbs on top of me.
"But guess who he did believe?" He wraps his hands around my neck and yanks me up before slamming my head back down. "All you had to do was say one thing to Mom and everyone believed you. Then they took it seriously. Then they supposedly protected us from him."
"Please," I grip at his hands, struggling to pull them away from my neck.
"No!" He slams me again. "One word from their perfect little daughter and suddenly they cared." He leans up to get into my face. "Aren't you mad?" He screams in my face, spittle landing across my cheeks. "Doesn't it piss you off?" He tightens his grip on my neck until I can't breathe. "They let him go about his life. They didn't send his ass to fucking prison. They didn't fucking kill him like they should have. They did nothing! Nothing, Missy!"
His grip loosens just enough for me to scrape in a greedy gasp of air. "Dallas-."
"Stop talking!" He shouts, squeezing again. He lifts me by my neck and slams me back down against the hard snow at the back of my head, straddling my legs to keep me from kicking. "They deserved it." He seethes. "This town knew, Missy. They brushed it under the rug like it never happened. We were children!" He shouts. "No one protected us when we needed it, and they had to pay for that. They had to feel the way I felt. They got to feel what it's like to have someone take everything from you. Their families had to feel that pain of loss. They needed to understand."
"Get away from her!" Dallas whips his head up to stare behind me.
"You fucking bitch." Dallas glares back down at me. "Of course you brought him here. You're little savior."
Dallas shoves off of me and I curl to my side, trying to suck in the air that burns my windpipe like fire.
I look back as Dallas goes after Aries.
"Stop!" I scream. "Please, Dallas!" My voice is hoarse and choked.
He glares over his shoulder at me. "You just had to protect him, didn't you? You don't care about what happened to us. You don't care that Dad knew and let it happen."
"Of course I care." I cry. My body convulses with my gasping tears. "I didn't know, Dallas!"
"Of course you didn't." He snaps. "It was one thing to have it happen to their little girl, they couldn't stand for anyone to find out it happened to their son too."
"They did their best, Dallas." I try to say. I'm angry too. I am. I've always hated that he was just around. Always lurking in the back of my mind. But our parents knew how much harder taking it to the police would have been. How much more traumatic it would have been for us to have to recount over and over. I have to believe they did what they thought was right at the time, whether it was or wasn't.
"The only thing Dad did right was finally stepping up and having my back for the first time in my life." Dallas snaps, staring at Aries with hatred in his eyes.
"You killed..." Aries's eyes flick between me and Dallas. "Your dad..."
"He did the right thing for the first time in his life." Dallas looks at me on the ground.
"Why would he do that?" I ask, not able to make sense of why my father would choose to protect Dallas after all of the things he did. All those girls he killed.
"He found out." Dallas shrugs. "He came into the shed one night and saw. He helped me get rid of the bodies and he promised to protect me from this. He knew he did this to me. He was a monster either way. He took the fall and made me promise to go away."
"That's why you left?" I sit up slowly.
"He found a place for me in Colorado to hide out and I promised to stay there. To stay away from people." He explains. "I guess it worked for a while. His whole Dexter fixing the child thing. But eventually I couldn't silence the voices. I had to come back." He glares at me now. "If you hadn't come back we wouldn't all be in this mess."
He turns to stare at Aries again.
"Dallas." I call to him, trying to keep his focus on me. But he doesn't turn back to me. He lunges at Aries, tackling him to the ground. "Stop!" I scramble to get to my feet, my heart leaping to around in my chest as I watch Aries fall.
Dallas stands, drawing back a foot and kicks him right in the face, blood spraying across the pristine white snow.
"This is your fucking fault." Dallas draws back and kicks him again, catching him below the chin, Aries's head snapping back. "You couldn't just leave her alone!"
I run over, trying to tug Dallas back, trying to get his attention but he's focused on Aries.
"Just stop it!" I cry. "He has nothing to do with this. It was you, Dallas. You did this."
Aries groans out in pain and I pull as hard as I can on Dallas but he doesn't budge. Instead he draws back his boot again and I dive in front of him.
I throw myself over Aries.
"No." He gasps, spitting blood, trying to get me away from him but I don't move. I lay there and look up at my brother.
"Move, Missy." He demands me. "I don't want to hurt you."
His words strike a chord with me. How could he not want to hurt me but go through with all that he's done? He's lied to me all of these years, let me hate our father for what he had done, how he destroyed everything, when my father never hurt anyone.
"You already have." I cry, looking up at him.
"Just move, Missy." Dallas snaps, looking over his shoulder towards the bluff. "We can still get out of this, Miss." he looks back at me pleadingly. "Just let him go."
"W-what?" I choke, gripping one of Aries hands as he groans.
"I have to do it, Missy." Dallas tells me, his eyes going cold again. "He's the way out."
"You're insane!" I shout. "You can't get out of this now! They know about the house, they're going to find everything, Dallas. It's over, just please, let us get you help." His lip curls in anger. "Please, you need help, Dallas. This isn't ok."
"I don't need help!" He screams at me. "I need you to get out of the fucking way so that I can finish this shit!"
"No." I say defiantly. "It's over, Dallas. It's done."
"You're going to pick him over me?" Dallas shouts and then laughs loudly into the open space, his laughter echoing around us. "Of course you are."
"It's not like that, Dallas, it's just time to stop." I beg. "It's time to let it all go, ok? We can go to the police together, ok? I'm still here for you, I won't turn my back on you, I swear. Just please, let's get you what you need, ok? You're not yourself."
"I am entirely myself, Missy." He smiles. "This is who I am."
"No," I shake my head quietly. "You're just sick, ok? You don't have to do this."
He steps forward so fast I barely have time to gasp before he grabs me by the throat and lifts me to my feet, pulling me higher until only my tiptoes dangling against the snow.
"You're wrong." He says into my face. "You and Aries did this. You two came up with this whole plan together to try to frame me, but it didn't work and you both killed yourselves to get out of the shame." He laughs, dragging me towards the bluff.
"Missy!" Aries cries out, trying to get to his feet.
"Stop," I scratch at his hands, trying to free myself. "Stop, please."
"You had your chance." Dallas seethes. "I never wanted to hurt you. I tried to get you to leave. I gave you a chance to pick me. We could have left here together, but you always have to protect him." He drops me to my feet and I crumble on the ground before he swings back and kicks me right in the ribs, my whole body knocked free of air. "You made me have to do this!" He screams out. He kicks me again and I curl into myself, blinding pain wracking my body every time I try to breathe.
I realize now, my brother is going to kill me. My Dallas. My blood.
He stalks away from me and goes after Aries. I lift my head to see him charge on his direction, but Aries had managed to get to his feet and dodges his attempted attack.
"Dallas, stop!" I scream, my chest pulling and tugging uncomfortably as I watch the two of them tussle.
Aries gets a punch in, but Dallas is full of rage and tackles him down. The two of them struggling on the snow until Dallas rolls on top of Aries, gripping both sides of his head and banging it against the ground with such force, blood is spilling out below him.
I scramble to get up, grabbing at a big rock at my side. I heave it up despite the way my whole body protests against it, my side screaming out in agony as I run to them.
Dallas is so blinded with his eyes glued to Aires as his eyes begin to close, so much blood staining the snow around them now.
He doesn't see me approaching. I hoist the rock up and swing, the weight of it cracking into the side of Dallas's head.
He falls to the side at the same time as I do, the both of us collapsing across the ground.
He screams out a flurry of curses before he rolls to his side, his eyes meeting mine. The betrayal in them scorches into me.
"Police!" A voice booms in the distance. I lift my eyes from Dallas's and I just just see the faint glow of flashlights in the distance.
"Help!" I force my broken voice to scream and Dallas looks at me again, his eyes wide with panic. "Over here!" I shout again, holding my arms around my midsection, the pain seeping through me now.
Dallas grips his head and pushes up to his feet, not taking his eyes off of me.
Tears pour down my face, and he just stares down at me for a long second, watching me with a strange intensity. He opens his mouth like he's going to say something, but then he snaps it shut, his jaw tightening.
He looks beyond me at the lights getting closer and we can both hear their voices growing in the distance.
He looks back at me for one second before he turns his back and walks away.
"Dallas!" I call, but he keeps walking. "Dallas!" I pull myself up and stumble behind him. "Stop!" I scream. He stops right at the edge of the bluff. I still a few feet behind him. "Please, Dallas, don't!" I scream at his back. "Please, just come back with me! Please!"
He turns his head to the side, just a little, but he doesn't look at me.
Instead, he takes another step.
My screams echo all around us as I watch his body disappear over the edge.