The hardest part for John was always finding his next victim. It couldn’t be someone he knew as it would be too easy for the police to lead it back to him as no alibi would make sense as he couldn’t be in two places at once. He couldn’t choose his coworkers either as it would be just as troublesome to handle, so every day after work he would always go to a local bar to see who to pick next, and one lucky night he found one. A guy he spotted harassing women, a terrible person that no one would care about if he suddenly went “missing”, a relatively easy target but it would be just as fun as the others. Now he had his victim, he just needed to lure him in.

Now John was always a very secluded and reserved person but somehow as if instantly, he could always switch his personality to fit the liking of the people he wanted to use or manipulate and more importantly to get what he wanted, all it took was some observation. Once he picked up on the person’s habits he was able to ferment himself as a “friend” although the only person he was truly drawn to was his best friend Marcus. Marcus was the only one who was truly different as John had no urge to hurt him, manipulate him, or even get anything from him, the only person John genuinely appreciated.

This was one of his easiest targets as usually, it took him close to a month to lure people but not this one, it hadn’t even taken a week and he’d already been seduced. It almost made him disappointed as John tended to like the challenge but he couldn’t just throw it away so he stuck with the plan. 

The night that John chose couldn’t have been better, everyone he knew was busy, he was all caught up with his work, and Marcus was out on a date, so now John simply needed to get the fool who unsurprisingly was extremely eager to go hang out at a bar. Three hours had passed since they arrived and John was feeling edgy as the time he planned was nearing but the fool wasn’t done drinking or done with his usual scummy acts with women, so John insisted they leave, thankfully The fool was quite tipsy and was rather agreeable with everything John suggested even something questionable like following him to a dark secluded alley where no one was around. Once in the clear, it didn’t take John long to act, quickly John grabbed his pocket knife, and almost as quickly as a cobra striking he bent down to slice the fool’s Achilles tendons to keep him from running. While the fool was groaning and crying in pain John made his way over to a seemingly empty cardboard box that he’d left near a dumpster in preparation for the “main event”. In the box, he had his usual items, precision tools, saws, and his personal favorite the sledgehammer. 

John was taking his time preparing as he liked to hear his victims crying and begging for mercy as if the pain and agony fueled him, but it was only when his victims tried to crawl away that he began getting to work, first, he started with the arms, followed by breaking the fingers and toes, and lastly damaging the L1 vertebrae after all that all he needed to take care of was the rather annoying cries for help, which thankfully wasn’t hard. Finally, after nearly ten minutes of beating, breaking, and cutting, John raised his sledgehammer but stopped for a second and thought about something that never really seemed to cross his mind…I never learned this fool’s name he thought. “Oh well like it matters now.” he said as he slammed his hammer down on the fool’s head, completely smashing it and covering the scene in blood. “John?” a familiar voice said from behind in a terrified voice. Stunned, John looked back at him confused. “Why are you here? If memory serves, you were on a date.” John said but was met with only stunned silence. “Please don’t run, I can explain,” John said but with his first step was met with Marcus running away at full speed which led to a long and exhausting chase, ultimately leading them to a church however Marcus was just too slow to reach the door and John quickly got rid of him however, there were now 2 bodies one of them his best friend and the other, some drunken fool, regardless he couldn’t take clean up both quickly enough and even worse, John was on camera while dealing with Marcus.

It didn’t take long for the police to find him, as out of the two bodies, one of them was handled in the same manner as all the others and the second one was dealt with rather barbarically and to top it all off there was actual evidence of him committing the act. Honestly nothing John could do except suffer the consequences which to his lack of shock was the death penalty. Even though Marcus got him caught in the end, John couldn’t stop thinking about him, or rather what his final thoughts may have been like “How did I never notice that my best friend was a serial killer?” It made John smile as he thought Be careful who your friends are.