@riccardosanzio || ᴛʜɪs ɪs ʜᴏᴍᴇ
A shellshocked young man stood on the first floor of Addison Apartments. Blood splayed across his clothes and prosthetic face mask. The source of the destruction remained clutched in his right hand––a butcher knife from none other than Terrance Addison.
Taking out the source of the darkness and pain hadn’t been enough...
To prevent that thing from ever coming back meant taking out every single soul it corrupted.
That had been everyone in Addison Apartments.
Sal had tried to make their deaths as swift and painless as possible, but he still couldn’t excuse what he’d resorted to... Murder. He was a murderer. He hadn’t even been able to pull Mr. Packerton’s plug when they had found him locked away in that room a few years ago, and now he’d killed everyone who mattered most to him. Even worse than his own father and Lisa had been Soda... The little girl had so much life ahead of her. She loved her “Uncy Saw,” as she’d always called him. At least his dad and Larry’s mom had lived a life... Not that such excused their deaths.
“I think you’ve got a bright future ahead of you. I really do. I love you, buddy.”
Of all the things his father could say... Why had those been his last words?
And Larry... Larry left this sick, sad world before Terrance told Sal what needed to be done. His note made even more sense. The darkness drove Larry to suicide. The darkness took Larry away from him. If Larry hadn’t taken his own life, he would have had to...
Sal refused to think about it. Even after what he’d just done, he knew. He knew he could have never found the resolve to murder Larry like the rest of them.
“I had no choice... I had no choice... I had no choice...”
Repeating those four words failed to absolve Sal of any guilt. Did he even have a soul anymore after taking so many others out of the world?
He turned his gaze down to the butcher knife, still stained crimson and dripping. He contemplated carving out his own heart to be with everyone again.