TW//ABUSE
Panicked, bruised and out of touch with my surroundings, I made my way to the train station. It had been a while since the news had presented a piece on the gruesome and soulless murder of one Lilly James – a 23-year-old woman from the state of Texas – whom I killed that wintery night in November, not too long ago.
Behind all of this mess, was a long history of abuse, trauma, and inhumane treatment which my family had faced for several decades. The “James Tyranny”: my mother used to call it. My mother had resorted to giving James’s manor such a vicious name as proof of how cruelly they had treated our family for generations on end. As if we were unwanted pests, who, on the flip side, they couldn’t survive without. My name is Ashley Connor and this is my story.
James Goodall had been one of the leading faces in the world of business, throughout the United States, his family maintained its prestigious name for decades on end, generation after generation. Whereas our family had always worked for them as their “servants”, or you could say we had a lineage of butlers in our family, to the point where my dad was sent to study the art of being a butler. But as they say, all that glitters is not gold. My entire family, starting right from my great had been abused and tortured to death by none other than the Goodall Family. One might ask what was the reason behind their deaths. Small, insignificant little incidents used to make the Goodall’s fly into a fit of homicidal rage. Things like; accidentally breaking their ornate, antique vase or leaving a dirty mark on their Rolls Royce. However, all of this was coming to an end, I would not be treated like an insignificant thing that could easily be gotten rid of.
Disrespect after disrespect, to the point where you have to keep your guard up at all times, was something I was not willing to endure. I had to fight for what was right, even if it meant killing someone.
Lily James, the eldest daughter of the Goodall household, was going to inherit all the luxuries money could offer on her 24th birthday as decreed by her grandfather’s will, little did she know, that was never going to be her fate. Lilly had never treated me right, I had known her since her birth, and as children, we would play together in the west wing’s backyard when her parents were out of town. God, forbid they saw us together! I guess as she grew older under her spoiled parents’ influence, fame and fortune also got to her head. There were times when she would fly off the handle on trivial matters such as her clothes not being laid out in a certain manner. There were even times when she slapped me when I forgot to get her water bottle on her business trip. I had to accompany her everywhere because she was completely dependent on me for every little thing.
I sometimes would imagine trying to kill her in every painful sadistic way my mind could conjure up. I wanted to snatch the one thing from James Goodall that he held near and dear, much like the way he snatched my parents from me. To torture them, to make them feel my pain.
Today on the 20th of November, out of the ordinary I received a call from an unknown caller, pressing ‘accept’ I hope to god it isn’t one of the Goodall’s. It’s my day off for Christ’s sake!
Before I could utter a word, the caller started speaking, “If you want freedom and revenge for your family, you must kill Lily James and you shall get 50,000 dollars in return,” the unknown caller spoke in his haunting voice, instilling an irrational fear in my heart.
“How would I kill her?” In that brief moment of silence millions of questions swarmed me, do I want to kill her? Does she deserve to die? Will her death make things better?
If there is one thing, I have learnt throughout everything; always fight for your blood and this time I knew exactly what to do – kill her.
I decided to wait till midnight. When she would be peacefully asleep, I would sneak into her room, use a pillow and leave her breathless and soulless in less than five minutes. I wanted that money and most importantly; I wanted revenge. The clock struck twelve, it had been more than an hour since Lilly had shut off her lights and gone to sleep. This was my golden ticket, I had to strike when the iron was hot and soon enough, I was standing near her, in her bedroom, with the pillow, ready to murder her.
“I am sorry.” I forcefully whispered. “But you have no idea how much my family and I have suffered because of your family’s behaviour. I was nothing but nice to you all these years and you treated me like I didn’t matter.” Tears slowly welled up in my eyes remembering everything we went through. “I was nothing.”
I quickly wiped the escaping tears and took one of the pillows from her bed. With one final look, I suffocated her. With all my strength, holding the pillow down on her face, until her bucking and writhing came to an abrupt stop. Not even a limb in her body moved.
I had just killed Lily James.
Shock and horror mixed with a strange feeling of elation were the most rampant emotions in my mind as I made my way out of her room and out of James’ Tyranny forever.
It’s been a while since I murdered Lily, by now my face is plastered all over the city, I am the talk of the town, the number one suspect in the murder of Lilly James. Have been hiding at the train station for many weeks, in complete disguise. My train was finally going to arrive, after being stuck in the snow in the countryside. Yes, I had decided to run off to the countryside, leaving my hometown, leaving my family and most importantly leaving as a suspect. I never got those 50,000 dollars, instead I pickpocketed and stole and ended up saving enough money to leave town. My life has gone downhill since the murder, and yet this was the first time I felt free and alive. I wasn’t the same person I used to be. Not anymore.
“Finally,” I sighed in relief when I heard the whistle of my train, indicating it was coming towards the station. I immediately grabbed my belongings and was ready to board the train, when I saw someone, I was not supposed to see. It was James Goodall! The father of Lilly, but this time I was not scared and I knew that I was not going to jail. I jumped on the train and left my old life behind. James Goodall could die a gruesome death for all I cared, I was not ready to face him again, not after all the decades of abuse and torture my family and I went through. I bid you farewell, James!