Featured by @fright for AAPIHM.
___
A librarian gets sucked into a web of horror as she investigates a century-old disappearance in the new town she has moved into.
___
Yvaine Agan had always led a quiet life and had expected to do the same when sh...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Yvaine could not believe what she was reading, for it was a confession of murder unlike any other.
"The day haunts me to no end. If I do not confess today, to you, I believe that I shall go insane. Insane with fear and restlessness. Murder is no simple task.
I think it is wise to start from the beginning. And in the beginning, I had no intention of murdering my sister, it was what one can say is a freakish decision taken at the spur of the moment. Oh, how I wish Felicity had not heard my words that day!
It was the debts, debts that I owed to many. To pay them I had to sell a part of our ancestral estate, without the knowledge of my siblings. What option did I have? None. Neither Johansson nor Mina would have agreed to the sale. Even if Johansson acquiesced to it begrudgingly, Mina would have listened to none of it. She was always very particular about matters involving money and property.
And then one day Felicity heard me speaking about the sale. I feared that she would tell Mina since they were such close friends. At the end that is what she did. She told her about it I suspect and asked her to meet late one night. Then I realised I had to do something. Both these girls must die, for if they lived my honour, the little dignity that I had left would be destroyed completely.
Felicity was murdered by Bryce and Zion, two conmen whom I had hired. But for Mina, I did it myself. I waited in the garden where she had come down to meet her friend. I confronted her about the estate, the knowledge of which she denied. Nonetheless, I stabbed her in the abdomen, stabbed her hard so that she died at once.
She did. She fell on the snow-laden ground but thankfully had not bled much. Perhaps it was due to the cold. Disposing of the knife in the unused storeroom upstairs, I had dragged her corpse to the backyard and stowed her away in the basement. No one will ever know where she was, no one but me.
But tonight I felt something incredible. She was here, yes Mina was here in my bedroom. I saw her clearly as I see this paper. But she is dead, isn't she? How could she be here? Oh god if I am going mad, do save me!
And pray, I think what might one feel if they ever read this confession. To them, I must say that I, Jonathan Gabriel Andras, was helpless. To kill was my sole way out."
"What is it, Miss Agan?"
Yvaine, having just finished reading the confession, jumped in her spot, as Amberly touched her shoulder. So engrossed was she in reading that she had not noticed that Amberly was standing behind for quite a long while She slipped and was about to fall face down upon the open coffin when Amberly pulled her from behind.
"Is it that bad?" Amberly asked with a frown.
"I would not deny, this indeed shocked me," Yvaine answered, subsequently clutching her chest and panting from the near fall.
