A psychologist
It’s dark. I’m lost. Where am I? My shoes are wet; I would like to take them off.
Light, too much light. Why don’t they switch off this disturbing light? I enter. The deafening noise of several machines doesn’t let me think clearly. I blink.
A figure just in front of me. I’m scared, I have to kill him! He will certainly put me in the machine. When his head hits the wall, it doesn’t make a sound.
I take it again and smash it as hard as I can. A beautiful red heart appears on the wall. Red is an amazing color. The knife is shining in my left hand, and I start cutting his hair. I hate hair, I’m bald. I put it in a machine and start it. The sound becomes louder.
His head is easy to cut, like a Christmas turkey. I take the two hands and decide to wash the corpse, it is so dirty now! Poor boy, he certainly doesn’t have a shower at home.
The body without a head is turning into the machine as I am thinking.
Oh god, it’s late! “I have to leave you my dear. “ I take the bloody head under my arm and start walking away from the intense light.
A common place factory in China, at 6 o’clock a.m. The employees were starting to work, silently and diligently. In the entrance, the secretary was reading letters when a strange pack caught her eyes. The address wasn’t written in Chinese characters but in English. She started to unpack it when a horrible smell passed through the air. Not really sure of what she was doing, she finished opening it then she saw the most terrifying thing she had ever seen. In the entire factory, everyone heard her scream.
In this strange pack she found the head of a man, eaten by insects. He had been beheaded and his hair had been cut in a really strange way.
The phone rang in all the rooms of the house. Miss Perkins had suddenly a bad feeling but she had already lifted the receiver…
-Yes…
-Hi, are you Miss Perkins?
-Yes, I am.
-I’m really sorry I have some bad news… Your brother is dead.
The body of Mr. Perkins had been found at midnight in a little launderette in Camelia Street. She took her bag and her coat and began to run. The street wasn’t very far from her house, but she called a taxi to get there faster.
The police were taking the body off from a washing machine. He didn’t have his head on his shoulders and some hair was being washed in another machine. She was on the verge of tears and took her head between her hands. She was petrified thinking of the horrible way her brother had been murdered.
She came back home, miserable, and swore she would find the psychopath.
It was just 9 a.m. when Mr. Shadow woke up, with a terrible headache. It had been a very long and painful night.
He got up slowly, and decided to have something to eat when the sound of many voices caught his attention. He glanced at the street, usually pretty quiet, and saw a crowd in front of the launderette which was just next to his flat.
He put a jacket on, quickly left his building and tried to get closer, but there were too many people. Suddenly, he heard some disgusted shouts. The crowd moved back, and he could finally see the inside of the launderette.
Four policemen were trying to take a corpse off from one of the machines. But the corpse had no head.
Mr. Shadow closed his eyes during a few seconds. Who was able to cut somebody like that? That was completely horrible. He should be very careful, because now he knew that a dangerous psychopath was walking in his district.
Miss Perkins came into the police station to answer some questions about her brother. After doing so, she discreetly climbed down to the basement in order to take the “John Perkins” file and read it. The murderer didn’t have a record so he wasn’t known as a dangerous person. It was written he had cut her brother’s head with a kitchen knife and he hadn't left finger prints nor blood. In fact nothing was known about his identity. She began to cry, silently, but something caught her eyes: a very interesting article in a newspaper. “a Chinese factory received a head in an English pack…” She read the article in full and deduced that it was John’s head. She came out of the police station and walked alone in the dark…
Now I am feeling so bad, no one can help me, I don't remember what I'm doing here. I just want to be free, without this feeling of fear. Light, always this light, why did noone break this light … There is something written on the wall, but now I just see the machines of hell! Not now! They won't catch me! That's impossible.
The man is looking at me! He's going to hurt me! I saw it in his eyes.
I take my keys in my pocket: I will defend myself! His eyes seem bigger when I put them in his neck. Now I know what I have to do, but he was a big man: he can't enter the machine. No matter, I'll try to cut it in small pieces! That's right … Now he won't hurt anybody anymore. I'm a good man, I've saved the world.
Noise, too much noise here. I put the head in a bag and walk away from here.
In the street I see a woman. She will be safe now. I smile to her, I'm a good man.
Now I'm tired! I want my bed! But I'm so dirty! Mum won't be happy to see me with all this blood on my hand! I hate showers but I have no choice. I'm on the sofa and I close my eyes.
“The lamentations of the living are a song for death.”
Those were the thoughts of Miss Perkins. Her brother had been killed two days before, but she couldn’t manage to forget, or to forgive. The pain was too hard, and the anger too strong. Furthermore, this murder was a foolish act, without any aim, and the responsible madman had to be punished.
On this evening she was at home. The pity of her friends didn’t interest her. She preferred to be alone with her pain.
She was taking a pan full of hot water, when suddenly she felt scared. A shiver crossed her body, and a strange premonition entered her mind: it will be this evening.
Trembling, she put down the pan, and closed her eyes. The feeling had disappeared, but she felt sick at heart.
She hesitated. The premonition had been so real … Maybe she should do something, but the fear was already here, like a killer hidden in every corner of her house.
After a few minutes, she decided to have a look at the launderette where her brother had died. She took her keys, put on her jacket, and went out in the cold wind.
The small launderette wasn’t far. After about ten minutes, she saw the light of the small shop, shining in the dark night. She was staring at it, when a man patted her on her shoulder. He was wearing black clothes, carrying a big bag and seemed worried, nuts. But when he touched her, a spasm of terror crossed her. She speeded up and started running. This street was too quiet, too frightening to be normal.
When she entered the launderette, nobody was there. Nobody except a corpse.
She opened her eyes wide, but managed not to shout.
A body was lying on the floor, surrounded by a large pool of blood. And the head wasn’t here.
Suddenly, she thought about the strange man who had touched her. Another time, she felt scared …
« It’s him » she thought. She turned round, and hastily left the launderette.
She returned where the man had patted on her, and on the ground she found a card:
Dr SHADOW
Psychologist
2 Camelia Street
Mr. Shadow woke up on his sofa, a horrible sensation persisted in his head like a big headache or as if he had drunk too much the day before. Somebody rang and he went to open the door. The postman gave him a big pack. He shook it and he heard an empty sound. Surprised, he took scissors and unpacked it slowly, when he noticed a disgusting smell. A boy's head was losing blood in the box. For a moment, he couldn't say anything. The eyes of the victim were staring at him and his mouth was open and red. His neck had been cut in a very strange way, very bloody.
He remembered it all, everything, he had gone to the launderette, he had cut the head of the man, he had put the corpse in the washing machine after doing a haircut, the blood on his hands, the body lying on the floor... The horror of his act...
Mr. Shadow was looking for nothing, the mouth open, maybe really shocked. Then, after minutes he started crying it was strange to see a man crying like that but he couldn’t help it. After, as if he had heard a signal he started laughing: now he knew the last thing he had to do.
He stood up, left the living room. He forgot to switch off the light, but he didn't care. Like a robot he opened the door and went out of his house. He didn't take any coat or shoes. He walked in the rain for minutes, hours, days? He didn't care. He didn't know anymore, as if he was already dead.
He took the direction of the North, he knew there was a cliff at the end of the road but he didn't stop, a supernatural force obliged him to continue. He knew there wasn't any other solution, he was a monster and he preferred dying to living with that on his conscience.
He didn't feel anything when he fell down, just the feeling he had done something great.
Miss Perkins walked to 2 Camelia streets and entered the building. She angrily climbed up the stairs to the third floor with anger and began to look for information. There was an office on her right, so she entered. On the desk, there was just one paper, an old newspaper:
A little boy put in a washing machine by his parents was found in the morning. [...] He was not hurt just shocked. The parents were arrested and the little boy will be sent to a boarding school, normally he won't see his parents again...
by Colombine Feuvray, Eleonore Hereau and Margaux Kretz
