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I couldn’t believe the sight in front of me. In front of me, behind a glass panel sat one of my best friends from school. He was in a straight jacket, his hair a mess. His eyes held a mix of craziness but the same friendliness I used to see daily as well. I really couldn’t believe it. He was one of the most friendly people I knew, always helping others. He also was smart like none other. So how the hell had he fallen to the mad man in front of me? Arrested for the murders of at least 12 people, it was unknown if there were others or not.
In school we both had big plans. We were gonna graduate then go to college, maybe not together but the plan was to always stay connected. Us and our other friends all made that promise. In school I used to call him Dahmer, it was a stupid nickname I gave him in a science lab that just seemed to stick. I always knew he wouldn’t really hurt anyone, or at least that’s what I thought. Yet here we were.
After we graduated we all moved on, we tried to stay in contact but I guess with time and busy lives that became less often and conversations would happen every couple weeks. I had moved states as fast as I could and only came back a couple times a year, avoiding our small town if possible. Many of the kids who went to school with us failed to leave town and are still there. While I was barely there, he was the opposite. He would go back to the place he called home anytime he got the chance to visit his family. While visiting home he would see some of the kids we used to see so often, the same kids who we found so annoying and couldn’t stand.
When I learned about his arrest I did as much research as I could. I learned that he had apparently snapped and lost it. When he went to visit his family he would wait until night, then he would strike. He would kill every time he came home and hid the bodies. I learned he only got caught because the wife of his latest victim had accidentally walked into the scene. They called him the Cattleburn Cutter. When I read that in the news I had rolled my eyes, how creative I thought.
Now with him sitting in front of me, silence had be in place the whole time. We just stared at each other, blank expressions. That was until he smiled a bit and let out a little laugh. This was a laugh I had heard so many times before, putting me off just a bit. Madness took over his eyes as he shook with laughter, still staring at me. With a saddened face I got up and shook my head a bit. After I turned and walked out. No real conversation was made that day and I didn’t know if there ever would be a conversation between us again. He would spend the rest of his days behind bars for his crimes. As for me, I’ll spend the rest of my days wondering what went wrong or if there were signs from before. I wondered, were my stupid jokes actually supposed to be a warning?
