John-J Anderson

Remember when you had no worries. Sure you might have thought about school. You might have had troubles at home. But between thirteen and fifteen, it was the perfect moment. We lived outside, We spent our days and nights exploring our small kingdoms that started and ended at town borders. We took the bus or the train, sometimes rode our bikes.  We could walk to the fields and make a fort. We could take a football and play anywhere, it was all ours to play on.  Remember when you had no expectations.  You didn't care or think about jobs.  You might have thought about girls and you might have even had a girlfriend.  But between thirteen and fifteen, it was the perfect time.  We smoked weed and cigarettes for the first time.  We drank our first beers and go giggly silly drunk.  We got the nerve to test out pubs, we danced at house parties until we puked. We had our first kiss, and some even more.  We fought and cried thinking thi...

It would have been deplorably insensitive to attend Oscars wake and considering how Mary Rubens reacted at the sight of Katie attempting some closure at the funeral, it would likely have been suicidal for the nurse to show her face anywhere near Oscars family ever again. Several officers saw the attack, intervening perhaps deliberately too late to be of any actual help despite her screams and the shouts of the onlookers. They half-heartedly offered the chance for her to press charges or come down to the station and “Make a statement” but it was heavily implied by an officer Murphy that she drop it and put it down to a grieving woman’s outburst. Katie instead retreated home with the words she spoke, definitely heard aloud “Not safe” ringing through her ear drums beating in matching rhythm with her heart pounding away in her body that for the third time had been assaulted by a member of the now infamous Rubens family.  It was time for her to take a breath and calm down the worry that...

They had been warned ahead of time by the police that this might happen, Mary watched from the backseat of the car at officers in rain coats and large hats moved away the protestors screaming at her and banging on the car. Their signs reading hateful things and untruthful words.  “Murderer!” and “Monster!” they screamed at the line of funeral cars that filtered into the gates of the cemetery.  Accompanying bangs on the roof from their bags and various baton wielding aggravators. The police did an excellent job of keeping them off the property as Marys family filtered in, some of her relatives hurling back insults behind as the cars made their way through the angry masses. Lies and regurgitated rumours had spread since Oscars death, he was being touted as some now famous Greenwood killer who slaughtered two people and attempted to kill a third, Katie being the third of course. Mary did not believe a word of it and having known that Katie was behind at least one of these rumours...

Cabs in the area had become expensive, was the only thought rolling through Marys mind as she waited patiently on the curb outside the restaurant, her friend from school had been nice enough to take her out for a meal after they worked late grading papers to take her mind somewhere pleasant for an evening, but with her car being an unreliable piece of junk she took the now regrettable option of a cab ride to get home afterwards.  Even in the current context of her washed away normal life, this had been a specifically horrible few days capped on nicely by Boothe asking her to pry open her husband’s coffin and unleash he memories she buried of him for some research into her sons condition, the notion that Thomas passed something onto Oscar was gut wrenching, but if it had been Mary that had caused all this she would have no idea how to carry on with her days if they ever returned to normality – they won’t – she thought with cynicism. When the cab finally arrived a thin rough looking ...