Labels: Chris
penned with passion.
Till Death Do Us Part
The school bell resonated throughout the whole campus, marking the end of the school day. In mere seconds, students streamed out of their classrooms in endless flows, filling the air with incessant chatter and light banter. Teachers attempting to remind their charges about homework and whatnot only succeeded in earning a flutter of half-hearted acknowledgements. It was after all the end of the school semester.
Amidst all the hustle and bustle, though, one soul seemed not to be joining in the end-of-semester euphoria.
Sitting in a deserted classroom, the boy had yet to express any discernable joy at the ending of the school term. His overall appearance would have given any onlooker the impression that he had gone through life’s many trials and tribulations. The way he slouched his shoulders, as if embarrassed about himself. The way his jet-black hair was disheveled and filthy. The way his eyes seemed so forlorn, as if he had witnessed one too many traumatic event. The general ill aura about him was exacerbated by his pallid complexion and permanently unsmiling visage.
“I was not always like this.” Chris thought to himself.
In truth, Chris Munroe had been a different person once. At least before the accident…
It had happened two months ago. The memory was still fresh in his mind. One does not forget something like that. Especially if one’s whole class had perished in a single fateful day.
An excursion to the zoo. “Nothing to be worried about, except maybe an escaped jaguar mauling all of us.” Kenneth, the class joker had said to one of the girls in jest. How ruefully wrong he was. The brakes of the bus had malfunctioned along the highway. The bus had spun out of control and had collided into an oil tanker. The explosion that resulted could be heard from miles away. Or so he was told. The fact was that he had taken ill at the last minute and had not been able to join his class for the excursion. Chris had desperately wanted to go, but his mom had forced him to stay at home.
“A bittersweet decision.” Chris reflected with a sad smile.
By the time the fire brigade had arrived, his classmates, or what was left of them, could only be identified by dna samples. Chris would never forget the image. He had gone to the morgue, insisting to see his friends’ bodies. What he saw would always be replayed in every gruesome detail in his mind. His friends were charred beyond recognition, hair was virtually non-existent and there was not even enough skin to pinch. All that was left was a whole pile of blackened flesh and bones. Chris could not have imagined how much his friends had suffered, clawing at their faces and screaming as they burned.
They were his classmates. They were his friends. He could remember all the little things which they had done to him. Alice, of whom he had a crush on, had once asked him out for a movie date. It was an unforgettable one. Jensen and Samuel, both athletes had invited him for a game of football during the mid-semester holidays. Claire, the smartest girl in class, had offered to give him tuition when Mr Xavier had requested for volunteers. Everyone of his classmates had tried to make a difference in his life before. Kenneth in one of his usual displays of humour, had proclaimed that the class would never ever leave Chris or abandon him. “Till death do us part” he had added, with his trademark lopsided grin.
Perhaps that was why he had murdered them.
It would after all be most fitting that they should part in the face of death itself.
As Chris sat in the classroom, his gaze boring holes in the memorial which had been set up in remembrance of class 3B, he remembered all of those times when his classmates had mistreated him.
Alice with that plastic smile of hers, tricking him into going on a date with her. When he had confronted her about her failure to show up, she had subjected him to public humiliation by denying vehemently, in front of a whole corridor of students, that she was ever interested in him.
Jensen and Samuel with those well-toned muscles of theirs, which had the sole purpose of inflicting pain on him. The football game had turned out to be a kickabout for Jensen, Samuel and their group of friends. The ball: Chris.
And Claire, probably the worst of the lot. Her form of torture was not of the physical type. No, this girl was the devil in human form; subjecting him to mental and psychological torture. “Tuition” often turned into self-aggrandizing sessions. She was always going on and on about her own academic achievements. She always spoke to him in a condescending tone and often made barbed comments about his lack of grey matter.
The rest of the class had it in for him too. Perhaps he was deemed to be the outcast, the social misfit; or perhaps they just saw weakness within him. Nonetheless, he had been subjected to insufferable bullying and ill treatment for the past 3 years.
And so, he had had enough. A simple cut in the brake fluid tubing did the trick. He had simply hoped for a mere car crash., nothing grand or anything. The actual accident though had left him speechless. Not with shock, but with happiness and ecstasy. He could not have hoped for a better finale to his simple, yet well-orchestrated plan. Many a night, he would lie on his bed and imagine his classmates writhing in pain as their lives were literally being burned away from them. Ahhh, such a wonderful image….
The crescendo of the school bell interrupted his thoughts once again. Mr Xavier opened the door gently and smiled sympathetically at Chris. “Im sorry to disturb you, Chris, but you really should be heading home now.”
“Yes, Mr Xavier, I’ll do just that.” Chris put on his best pitiful face. “I was just thinking about all the good times which I shared with them. I still can’t believe that they’re gone.” And with a barely audible whisper and the ghost of a smile, he added, “Though I do know why they’re gone…”
11:43 PM}