…


W… op- y…


… ke up. Sigh…


Th… er… When w… up? Hope it doe- tak… ong. Hate waiting. Hm? Oh, you finally woke up… How long did it take you? Ten minutes, I think… Yes, ten minutes. Welcome to the real world, sleeping beauty. How are you? No, don’t try to shout, it’ll be useless… We’re alone. You’re the only one alive in this house; your neighbors can’t help you either. Anyway, if they could they wouldn’t hear your screams, as I’ve gagged you… Ha, ha, ha! Don’t try to move, dear; you’re tied up as well…


What’s with that face? Don’t you recognize me? Damn, that was unexpected… though predictable at the same time. People like you forget about their faults too easily… Guess what? I’m not in a hurry; I’m gonna enjoy this… But first I want to remind you who I am; setting you free with no reason isn’t fair.


I was known as Claire Mitchell… I lived in a town, here, in the United States. I was preparing for my exams to go to university. I loved science, and I still do. I wasn’t the best of my class, but I had nice marks. I had friends who cared about me, and I liked them. Fortunately, I wasn’t bullied; I had a normal life with normal classmates and all. Not gonna bore you too much… Hey, open your eyes and look at me. That’s it… If I notice you’re not paying attention while I’m not looking it’ll be worse. Got it? Really? Cool. As I said, I was a normal teen with a normal family… until two policemen came to our house. We asked what had happened: my uncle had been selling drugs in some towns nearby, and someone called the police. We had to go to the police station to answer a lot of questions and stuff.


They saw we didn’t know anything about that business and they left us in peace after some days. My uncle was going to go to prison once the police officer who was investigating had discovered all his helpers; however, something happened… The police man… Uh?! Hey, wake up! Look at me! LOOK AT ME I SAY! … Next time it’ll be three slaps! It seems you’re still sleepy… Maybe I should end this at once… No? THEN DON’T FUCKING SLEEP WHEN I’M TALKING TO YOU! Right… Where was I? Oh, yeah! The police man died in a fire. It looked someone had killed him and then burnt the house to not leave any evidence, and the criminal actually did it really well, as no clues where found… except for a hair on the grass.


They took it to a laboratory and analyzed it. After all the tests they discovered the hair belonged to a woman, so they proceeded to look for the DNA that matched the combination the results indicated. Aaaand… they were successful. They took her to the police, put her in jail and then made her wait for the day she would be judged. What? Nothing yet? Gosh, you’re really slow…


What they didn’t know is that the girl wasn’t guilty. Why? Because they cheated the police: days before the crime, the girl was coming back home from high school when someone collided with her. She… no… I didn’t notice, but at that moment the guy took a hair of hers and put it on the grass later… My God, not yet? You’re slow! No, don’t be mad at me! You should have already remembered all this a while ago. Well, I suppose I’ll keep telling you to refresh your memory…


I went to the police station. No matter the times I explained why I wasn’t guilty, telling my alibi over and over again, it didn’t work, even if it made sense. One of the reasons why they didn’t let me go was that they thought I wanted to save my uncle from going to prison, as the police officer who died was the one who was investigating my uncle’s businesses… I didn’t care much; he had looked for it. I couldn’t prove I wasn’t the one who did it, so I was taken to court. The result? Ah, ha, ha, ha! What do you think? Guilty, obviously! Brutal murder and a fire which burnt three houses, counting the victim’s, along with other four people including a child, in short. My mother was crying, my father looked at me disappointed, not believing I had been able to kill a man. I wanted to tell them I hadn’t done it, but it wasn’t enough. In the end, they decided my fate.


Death penalty.


Rage and sadness grew in my heart. I was going to pay for a crime I hadn’t done! I noticed people started to clap, cheerful that they had chosen such a good sentence. When I saw everything was lost, I couldn’t help but shout they were wrong, and they’d suffer the consequences, when newspapers and other media discovered the real author of the crime. I knew I wouldn’t live to see it, but that tiny, stupid hope at least prevented me of having a breakdown.


I was taken to prison. That was the worst week of my life, being surrounded by kidnappers, thieves, killers… I had a bad time with one of those, but I managed to get rid of her. One by one, days passed as my anxiety took over my body. Then, on a rainy night of November, they took a priest to my cell. He sat down next to me and asked me what my sins were. I answered I had nothing to say and he could go fuck himself. Glaring at me, he stood up, asked the police man to open the door and said I was going to go to hell. I thought hell wouldn’t be so bad after all that bunch of bad experiences; I even laughed at him, which pissed him a bit.


I thought about the sentence: it had been very weird, all seemed to be… planned. They didn’t think over about it, like if they already knew what they had to say, and the ridiculous time they gave me… Like if there weren’t worse people who had to be executed before me! I figured the real guilty had a lot of money, as the process had been obviously altered to kill me and make people forget about that case as soon as possible. I remember that night I didn’t sleep; I couldn’t waste my time like that. Many memories came to my mind… My mother’s smile, my father’s advices, my friends and the many days we spent at the mall, talking about our issues or having a good time… my mother’s sorrow, my father’s gaze, the satisfied people, a man who was staring at me with a big smile on his ugly face…

YOU.

You were there the day they gave me the choice to decide the way I wanted to die. I chose lethal injection, but for some reason they took me to the room where the electric chair was. “Change of plans” they said. “Beige buddies”, I guessed. Before I sat down they asked me what my last wish was. I looked around to look at my parents for the last time. I gasped: they weren’t there. They weren’t anywhere. Instead I found you sitting on the seat which was in front of the chair, with that suit you wore for the first time as a good miser politician you are. In your eyes I could see you were dying to see me die, to erase your crime using an innocent person. Judging by your face, I can see you start to remember… Ah, ha, ha, ha, ha… You look so funny… Don’t worry, I’ll be done soon.


At that moment, the police officer that was holding my right arm asked me again what my last wish was. I shook my head, took a deep breath and said I wanted to die with my favorite clothes. I knew that taking my parents to watch me die was impossible, and also very cruel, though maybe they’d have liked to be with me to support me… I don’t know, and I’m afraid I never will. I didn’t want to die with that appearance, looking like a criminal; I wanted to show my true self, I wanted to yell silently they were mistaken and I was innocent. So I took that yellowish thing off me and wore a short-sleeved T-shirt, fingerless gloves, pants and high boots, all black. I also wanted to wear a cap, the one I'm wearing right now, which I had bought recently, although they wouldn’t have allowed me. I finally sat down, closed my eyes for a moment as I felt the leather belts pressing my arms, took another deep breath and glared at you, who were still grinning with pleasure. I heard the police woman walking toward the switch… and then, pain. An enormous pain that you can’t figure… My whole body shook violently, my skin hurt like if I had been thrown into a fire, I felt the electricity damaging my organs… but I didn’t die. It was all dark when I could barely open my eyes.


The lights went off. There was a problem with the energy and the chair made the system cut the current. I still felt the pain and some blood running down my cheeks, pouring from my ears, eyes and mouth, I had convulsions and I couldn’t move. I giggled when I saw your shocked face; nonetheless, my little moment of joy vanished at the moment I noticed a man with a syringe coming at me. Then, you smiled again, not so widely, I have to say; not what you expected, but it was still nice, wasn’t it?


That horrified expression… Now you know it! Yeah, you remember! I can sum up a bit, in that case…


I woke up much later; I don’t know what time it was. I was lying on the floor an- Are you crying? You aren’t allowed! Stop! I said stop! STOP IT! I’ll chop your limbs instead of killing you fast if you don’t listen to me, you stupid fuck! It seems you like me to punch your face; you don’t stop complaining! Now look at me, LOOK WHAT YOU DID TO ME! See this snowy skin? See these silver eyes, with NO DAMN PUPILS?! See this white hair?! I’m a monster because of YOU! I had a future and you ruined my whole life! I haven’t got a family, I haven’t got anyone to trust, I haven’t got anything! DON’T LOOK AWAY! DON’T CLOSE YOUR EYES! I’M TALKING TO YOU, GODDAMN SON OF A BITCH! Oh, damn, your nose’s bleeding… Punched you too hard.


As you can imagine, I got out of that prison and looked for you and your friends. It didn’t take too long; you’re a very famous person in this state. I knew about your plans to kill that police officer who was investigating your secret businesses, the amount of undeclared income you own and all the illegal stuff people of your sort manage. You celebrated a party to confirm your victory… I was there, watching you. I’ve been watching you and your partners this last month. One by one, they had an accident which killed them instantly. However, I didn’t want that to happen to you. I left you as the last artist who’d come out to the ring. I didn’t let you sleep for those three days to tire you and make you have that teeeerrible car crash that disabled your legs and made you be on this wheelchair.


And here you are, in your house… with your wife and children waiting for you to unite them. They’re behind me, see? Over there. You can cry now if you want. Hey… Stay still, don’t move!



Hmm… I like tears, ya know? It’s like tasting others’ suffering. Yours are a bit bitter, but not bad after all. Don’t cry~. You’ll see them soon. I have to say I thank you for all this. Ah, c’mon, why that glare? I’m being serious now: I owe you a lot. You’ve showed me the truth behind the lies… I’ve seen the light out of the cave.


Society corrupts people. It makes them build a wall of falsehoods to hide their true self, to pretend they are what it wants them to be. The lies slowly sink into people’s skin until it becomes a reality they can’t escape from. Then, lies are the only way to survive… When they realize, it’s too late: they’re corrupted, they’re nothing more than a bunch of multiple personalities that blend and push the real person until it disappears. People are corrupted from the first second of their lives… However, I will set them free from that cell, from that prison society has built. I’ll help all of you to escape from that world…


Ride the lightning… and be free.