Twist the Knife

You know I hate bowling.  It wasn’t my fault that we were at the bowling alley.  It wasn’t even my idea, remember?  You suggested it in the first place.  It wasn’t me who started the conversation about how we never all hung out anymore.  Karen started it.  I didn’t have anything to do with it.  I remember that Friday.  Don’t you remember it?  We were hanging out together.  Yeah, we were, outside of math class.  Mrs. W. was yelling at us to get in there and Karen told us to meet up with her at the bowling alley.  You remember, don’t you?  I didn’t do anything.  We were talking in class about it when she yelled at us to shut up and told you do go do the problem on the board.  I don’t remember what we were studying.  It was probably logarithms, or whatever.  1

No, I swear I’m not stalling.  I’m telling you the truth I swear.  Please let me just talk, I’m scared, dammit.2

It was that Saturday…no, Sunday.  Whatever.  It was really hot and the bowling alley was really nice.  Yeah it was air conditioned, Karen was cold.  Her and that asshole Mike.  You’re friends with Mike?  Me too, he’s a good guy.  Just not then.  Or now.  Or whatever.  He’s cool I guess.  Get that away from me, you’re freaking me out.  Just let me talk, alright?3

Mike and Karen, you and Sara, and me.  I was the fifth wheel again.  I’m always the fifth wheel.  Was, at least.  Still am, I guess.  You don’t care about that.  It was just bowling.  I lost the first two games.  I suck at bowling.  Mike won both I think.  You won both?  Well, Mike was close.  At least the first game.  And then the third game was when everything happened.  You left to go to the bathroom, and didn’t come back.  We thought you were sick, you told us you hadn’t been feeling well.4

So I go up there to throw the ball, and Karen and Mike are there being like they always were.  Kissing and making out and shit.  Right out in fucking public.  Nothing like you and Sara, nothing at all.  They were something else I swear.  So they’re being really distracting and I just couldn’t stop thinking about how stupid it was that I was all alone as usual.  You know how unlucky I am with girls.  Well, except her.5

Oh my god…please let me go; please...I swear I didn’t mean it like that, I didn’t mean any of it.  You’ve got to calm down.  Stop twisting my arm.  It hurts, you jackass.  Son of a bitch, you almost broke my arm.  Just let me tell you how it was, alright?!6

So I missed and got a gutterball or whatever, well on my way to losing again.  I went and sat back down next to Sara.  Karen goes up there and Mike is just staring at her ass, like he always did with any girl that was nearby.  Her shorts were really short that day, just the way Mike liked.  He was a pervert and a half, that kid.  Still is.  Sort of.  So I went to get my Coke, but Sara reached for hers at the same time, and so I knocked mine all over Mike.  Man, was he ripshit.  He started screaming about how it was a new jacket.  Just like him to be worried about his jacket and nothing else.  It wasn’t even a nice one and it sure wasn’t my fault that I spilled.  My hand got bumped.  So we got some towels and cleaned him off and stuff.  It was some funny shit though.  He was absolutely fuming the whole next set.7

So, they’re staring at each other the way they always do.  There’s nothing worse than the look on Mike’s face when he stares at her.  Just like a fucking retard outta the hospital.  Some mental case, his head bobbing up and down like a dumbass.  He’s got some problems.  So they were being all like that, and so me and Sara started talking.  She told me about the party you and her went to.  We were just talking.  Just being friends, we’ve been friends longer than you’ve known her.  You know that.  It wasn’t anything weird.8

What was weird was, you never came back.  So she was acting all worried and shit, like you were gonna be bleeding all over the place back there.  It was her turn to go and she was freaking out.  So I hugged her, friendly-like, tried to make her feel better.9

Fucking hell!  No!  I didn’t feel her up, Jesus, I’m her best…I’m her friend, not some perverted rapist or nothing.  Stop doing that, Jesus H. Christ.  My arm can’t go that way.  I swear I didn’t do nothing.  Just let me tell you what happened next.10

So she doesn’t want to go up there, she just sits there with this nervous look on her face like she’s keeping a secret or something, or like she ate something bad.  I thought it was the second one, so I told her she looked kinda bad, and if she wanted to go get something to eat.  She said yeah, but I didn’t have any money on me.  She looked almost disappointed.  She musta wanted something to eat real bad.  She looked almost nauseous, but she kept looking over at me like something happened that she wanted to tell me.  11

Ahh, fuck you.  You don’t even know how she feels half the time.  You just ignore her and never listen to anything she says…Augh!  Okay!  I take it back, I take it back!  Holy shit, you can’t do that anymore.  That hurts like a mother.  You’ve got some nerve…you…Jesus Christ, okay, okay, the story.  I’m going, I’m going.12

So I…I was…put that thing away you asshole.  Okay!  Where’d you get that thing?  You never told me you had a knife, especially not a hunting kni…okay!  Sara told Mike to go check on you in the bathroom.  Karen went too.  I don’t know why!  Christ!  You’re fucking killing me.  My fucking arm…oh my god my arm hurts.  Let me go for a second…okay, okay.  I’ll stop fucking around.  Just let me tell you what happened.  Please.  Please, Ben, buddy.  Oh god…13

She took me outside.  To the parking lot!  The parking lot out back.  The one where we used to smoke.  Back in seventh grade, when Mr. Jennings gave us the cigarettes after class and we found the matches on the pavement?  We gave one to Sally Henderson and she almost died, she coughed so much.  That seems like so long ago.  We were friends then.  Nothing came between us, remember?  We were tight.14

The story!  I’m getting to it.  I’m sorry, I’m sorry, please don’t do that anymore.  Fuck, I’m bleeding.  You asshole, I’m bleeding…okay, just don’t cut me…oh my God, just don’t cut me anymore.  I swear I’m telling the truth, as best as I can remember it.15

So we were back there and she started telling me how you hit her.  No, I swear I didn’t believe her.  I didn’t until she showed me the bruises.  And the cuts.  You did a number on her.  She never did anything to you.  The poor thing.  I just wanted to help her.16

No, you asshole.  I never did anything.  She kissed me first.  I couldn’t help it; she grabbed me and told me I had to do something to get you away from her.  I didn’t want to.  I never betray my friends.  You’ve got to believe me when I’m telling you this.  There’s nothing I wouldn’t have done for you.  She just started kissing me and I’d never felt that way before, and so…17

Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.  Oh my fucking god, please…just don’t hurt me…don’t hurt me.  I didn’t do anything.  I swear it wasn’t my fault.  I just…18

Argh!...Ow!...What the…19

That’s right.  Stay down.  Poor you, didn’t see it coming, did you?  What a cocky son of a bitch.  Thought you could just hold me down, whimpering.  Well, Ben, you forgot that I’m a wrestler, and a damn good one at that.  Shut up!  I could kill you now.  Using a knife on me, you arrogant piece of...Yeah, that’s right.  Now you beg for your life.  C’mon, let me hear you squirm at little.  You thought you’d get all the revenge in the world, didn’t you.  Well I’m sick of it.  I’m sick of you and Mike being the best at everything.  You just have to date the girl that I’ve loved for years.  Years!  You have no idea how much pain I went through thinking that she loved you more than me.  And then finding out that you beat her, that you touched my darling Sara, that you forced her to…you don’t deserve mercy.  Stop begging.  You make me sick.  And then you couldn’t take not being the best.  Lowly Derek Samuels takes your girl, like adding insult to injury for you.  Did that hurt?  Did that injure your delicate little ego?  She was never your girl, Ben. Never.20

Oops, my hand slipped.  Ha, that’s right.  Bleed.  Plead with me for mercy.  You’re sick.  You’re absolutely sick.  21

She was never even yours to begin with!  She came to me in the parking lot and told me how scared she was of you, how much she wanted to just run away.  You sick freak, how could you even do that to someone?  You don’t deserve a second chance, you don’t deserve to live.  You’re a disgrace to everything.  Even I don’t know what the hell to do with you.  How could you be with someone that perfect and just ruin it like that?  You hurt her, I saved her.  I’ve kept her safe, with me, kept her from people like you that only destroy.  Get away from me you pathetic jerk!  What the hell did you think you were going to achieve, anyway?  Kill me?  So what?!  Just so you could beat her some more, force her to do things she didn’t want to do?  You’re sick.  You’re absolutely sick.  22

Did that cut hurt too?  That’s a shame.  Shut up.  You’re not even human to me.  Not after what you did to her, Ben.  You shouldn’t even have laid a finger on her.  23

Just lie there.  Maybe you’ll figure out how real men stand up for themselves, how real men take care of people they say they love, how real men don’t leave their friends behind when they go to the movies, how real men don’t take advantage of people who TRUSTED THEM!  How REAL men have RESPECT FOR PEOPLE?!  DO YOU UNDERSTAND NOW, YOU SICK BASTARD?  YOU SICK, SICK…you…oh my god.…24

Ben?  Are you alright?  Ben?  Talk to me, buddy.  Ben!  I didn’t mean it, I didn’t mean any of it.  I swear to god that it was just a misunderstanding.  You’re my friend; you’ve always been my friend, nothing else.  I don’t hate you, please...Ben?  Buddy?  Can you hear me?  Say something…anything.  I didn’t mean it.  We were friends, Ben.  We were best friends.  Why did you have to go and make me do this?  Why did you have to fuck it all up?  You always fuck everything up!  Why can’t you ever listen to me, why couldn’t you just treat her right?  You ruined my birthday when we were five, you ruined our project in seventh grade, you hurt Sara, you hurt me, you…my god, Ben!  Say something!  Ben!  Stop staring at me like that.  Jesus…oh god…what’d I do?  Ben!  You’ve gotta come with me.  Get up!  We have to get you help, we have to…to…oh god…25

Okay, nothing’s wrong.  Act natural.  Natural.  There’s nothing wrong at all.  Gotta go find a bathroom, wash off my hands.  That’s a bedroom…maybe down the hallway?  No, not there either.  Christ, where did he take me?  No, can’t think about him.  Think about something else.  Hands.  I have to get my hands clean.  Maybe in here?  Ahh, good.  Soap?  There’s no soap in this place?  Christ, I hope this comes off.  Scrub the inside of the bowl a little with my nails; get off these specks of blood.  Damn, there’s so much of this.  I’m like Lady Macbeth.  This is so surreal.  But my hands are clean.  No red?  None.  Thank god.  The knife…what the hell can I do with this?  Wash it off and keep it?  Yeah…yeah, they always find it when you leave it behind.  I’ve got to get out of here.  Got to find a phone, maybe?  The bedroom!  That’s a good place to look.26

Bed, carpet…nothing?  No phone at all?  Shit.  What kind of place is this?  No windows or anything.  Maybe a basement?  I have to find some way out of here.  How is this all happening…how did I get mixed up in this?  I can’t do this.  I just killed someone.  Christ, I’m going to die here.  God, please god, I don’t want to die.  I didn’t mean to kill him, but he had a knife, he was attacking me first, I didn’t do anything wrong he was just all over me all of a sudden and brought me here and then…27

Focus, Derek.  Focus.  Calm down.  Just keep moving, find a way to get out of here.  Down the hall at the end, those are stairs.  That’d be a good place to go.  They go up.  I must be in a basement.  This is so creepy.  Like getting locked in the basement when I was five.  My dad forgot about me.  I wonder if everyone knows I’m missing?  What?  The door up here is locked?  Locked…it was locked then and locked now.  I just waited…sat at the top of the steps.28

Derek, you’re not five.  Snap out of it.  Just kick the door down.  Lean back, lift up a foot, and…ahh!  Holy crap…these stairs are steep.  Okay…calm down.  You didn’t just almost die.  Calm down.  Stop thinking crazy thoughts.  You’re going to get out of here and everything is going to be okay and nothing is going to happen.  Grab the railing, and kick!29

Daylight!  I’m out.  I’m out!!  Saved, saved from that hellhole.  Jesus, where am I?  I’ll follow the road.  I’ll have to find someone sometime.  Where is this place?  Middle of nowhere on some road?  We didn’t go very far…unless I was unconscious for longer than I thought.  Christ, what the fuck did Ben…oh god.  I can’t think about him.  The knife!  I still have the knife.  I can’t have the knife; they’ll know it was me.  Bury it!  I’ll bury it somewhere.  Maybe back behind the bunker thing.  Is there a place back here?  Looks like there’s a hole already.  It must be my lucky after-killing-my-best-friend streak.  I can’t believe this is happening.  Is this some kind of crazy dream?  Well, only one way to find out.  Ow.  This dream apparently failed the pinch test.  So much for that theory.  This is too close to the bunker…maybe I should go back out into those woods.  Find a nice spot and bury this thing.  Jesus, it’s almost 3 inches long.  How the hell did he get his hands on this?  There isn’t even a place to buy these in New Blumburg.  I’ll have to find somewhere between some trees to bury this, and then I’ll get going.30

This should be far enough.  I’ll bury it here, and then head back to the bunker thing, and follow the road.  Good, under some leaves.  Even I couldn’t find it, coming back here.  Camouflaged and everything.  Damn, I’m good.31

Now I’ll just wait for a truck or something.  Hitchhike on back to New Blumburg.  Do I look okay?  My hair seems fine…I just have to look like I’m lost in the woods, hiking or something.  That should be a good excuse.  There’s one.  Go out to the road, stick out my thumb…32

Hi!  My name’s Derek Samuels.  I was out hiking in the woods and…oh?  You saw that I was missing on TV?  For a day?  Yeah…that’s when I started.  I was hiking with my friend Ben and we got separated.  No, I’ve got no clue where I am.  Could you give me a ride back to New Blumburg?  A reward for me?  Even better for you, my friend.  Here, you want to tell them that you found me instead of me coming out of the woods?  They’ll believe you, I’ll tell them you did.  Hey, no problem.  If there’s a reward, you deserve to get it.  You’re a good guy for picking me up, saving me out in these woods.  It was so scary.  I think he must have gotten attacked or something, I didn’t hear anything but when I woke up this morning he was just gone.  Maybe a mountain lion.  I’m just glad to be safe.  I just want to go home and see my girlfriend.33