|| keep my memory alive||

Have you ever imagined how’s life after death?
Neither have I…
... oh well, at least never before the
second I felt my heart beat slower and slower under the loveless caresses of his knife on my skin.

I was only 17 and I had my whole life ahead of me waiting to be lived, but this wouldn't have been possible.
I think I didn’t deserve it, did I?

Oh, I’m so sorry, my dearest reader…
I think you got already bored of
reading my sorrowful confession. “How did all of this happen?”,
you may wonder.
Isn’t it what we all ask ourselves when something terrible happens? Nobody would imagine that their neighbour is a murderer, a sexual offender or a drug dealer.
We aren’t in a thriller or a horror movie, right?
Oh,
thrillers and horror movies!
When I was 17 I was crazy for them, especially because of that
thrilling sensation
they give you, making your adrenaline levels go through the roof. Yeah, I loved that so
much.
I remember that I used to watch them with my little brother Danny.
What?
Oh, don’t worry, I’ll
surely talk about him later.
Well…
Now I hate thrillers and horror movies.
Why?
Simply because I
understood why I loved them so much.
As my favourite writer once said,

“We make up horrors to
help us cope with the real ones”

and trust me, something dreadful lived with me in what should
have been my safest place: my house.

We were a family just like the others in Ashbrook, a small neighbourhood in Dallas.
I used to take my brother to the elementary school near our house everyday.
My mother couldn't since she died giving birth to him.
Don’t you dare think about it!
I don’t blame him for her death,
even though everything would have never happened if she was there to protect us.
Oh, if only she was there!
But she
wasn’t.
She wasn’t there…
I’m sorry,
I shouldn’t get so emotional,
but nothing…

… nothing can be changed now.

I think it’s time for you to you to take a deep breath, because I don’t want to hesitate to tell you my story any longer.
You must be creeping out, or simply getting so bored that you have already
stopped reading.
It isn’t so common to read the confessions of a ghost, is it?
Well, everybody in
horror movies is afraid of ghosts because in most of them they are represented as evil creature
resentful towards the living.
I used to believe that too.
Now that I stand on the other side, I’d like you to know that we aren’t wicked, but only hurt and furious with the ones that ended our lives
before they should.

Now, close your eyes, I’ll let you enter inside my cold memories.
You may feel a little dazed and confused at the beginning, but you should see a corridor next to
you.
Walk straight until you reach a door and open it.
Are you there?
Well, now watch and listen
carefully.

- Is the Bogeyman coming tonight too? - said Danny.

- Oh, well…who knows. You know what to do, right? –

- Yes! I mustn’t get up to bed and I must stay silent, pretending to sleep, right? -

- Exactly, you’re really a good boy, Danny. Do it and nothing bad will happen to both of us, I
swear. -

I smiled after saying that, but that smile wasn’t destined to last longer than few seconds, because of
what he said right after.

- But…Evelyn, why does he make you cry? Are you safe for real?-

Maybe if I didn’t hesitate answering, things would have been different now.

- Oh… uhm… well, Danny… the Bogeyman is spiteful and he…loves to tickle me until I cry
because of laughing! -

- Uhm…if you say so –

A feeling of terror invaded me from the deep of my mind,
I was afraid of his curiosity.
He was rapidly becoming a young man, and these kinds of stories didn’t fool him so easily as before.
I hoped he never listened to the dirty words with which
our dearest Bogeyman
stained my purity.

Now you should see through my eyes the roof of my room while I’m on my bed at night, waiting for
Him to come.
He never misses one night to satisfy his guilty pleasure.
Here we go.
Have you heard the door
squeak?
He’s here, coming slowly to your bed. You can feel his weight bend the mattress, while
he gently puts his cold hand on your naked leg, climbing until the object of his filthy desire.
Can you feel that thrilling sensation you loved so much in horror or thriller movies?
Does it feel good?
- Does it feel good, sweetie? - he said.
- Y-Yes, dad…it feels so g-good. -
You close your eyes,
like I did,
and wait until it ends.
In silence,
trying not to cry too much in order to
to not make your brother alarmed… at least until when…

- GO AWAY, BOGEYMAN! –

Oh, no.
Danny.
Close your eyes.
Please, don’t watch.
Danny…
Danny…
I can’t…I-I C-CAN’T
KEEP TELLING YOU THAT STORY!!!
I CAN’T.
.
.
.
.
I’m sorry.
Be patient with me, my dearest reader.

Danny was only an innocent young man and that night he put all his courage and strength to save
his sister from the Bogeyman.
How would he ever know that that evil creature was

our dearest father.

– Dad… please, he won’t tell anyone…will you Danny? Will you?-

My brother was in panic, with his eyes wide open.

- D-Dad…what are you...? –

And then, the horror.

- You shouldn’t be alive, Danny. You killed your mother. My wife. It’s your fault if your
sister must live this. -

- Danny…don’t listen…please, they’re lies…-

I rushed to hug him, still naked.
He was rigid and cold as stone.
Everything that happened right after was pure madness.
My father yanked me from my brother,
making me fall on the floor.
Suddenly he began to hit him so roughly for then chocking him with
his bare hands.
I think my brother was already dead for the trauma,
because that little innocent body
didn’t put up any resistance,
but I did.
For him.
When the light left my brother’s eyes, I went wild and I began to hit my father’s head with my fists.
They weren’t necessary to kill him, sorrowfully. He took the knife with which he menaced to kill me if only one single word would have left my mouth on our dirty secret and he used it to stain my body again with the blood of lost purity.

That’s how I died for the second time, but now in a biggest
puddle of blood.

This is my story, my dearest reader. That’s the story of the Massacre of Ashbrook.
Now that my memories are known,
I can rest in peace with my little brother.
Take care of them.
Goodbye.