As I walked through the dimly-lit narrow corridor of my house, I began to approach my desk; however, I thought I saw a shadow and decided to approach the window. The ear-shattering thud slammed my eardrums before I even realized the glass shards ridiculed across my body. The pain that pursued was almost instantaneous, and my vision became blurry. As I reached for my chest all I could feel was a warm oozing puddle filling up next to me. Shock began to kick in and I tried to croak for help but all I could manage to say was, “God please save me.”
I felt my vocal cords spasm and grasp for my final breaths as I pleaded for help. Finally, the agonizing pain fleed my body and I slumped over on the hard glass ridden floor.
*
SEPTEMBER 15, 1935Before I enter the pearly gates of heaven, I have to recall on the days after my brutal murder. The days ahead were some of the worst that Mount Hermon had ever witnessed. The first day of school the students were turned into grunts, and for eight long hours, they began the taxing task of searching every crease and crevice on campus for the murder weapon. I knew exactly where it was, but clearly, I could not tell anyone. Anyway, from what I remember that day it was absolutely beautiful, the sun gleamed down upon the ounce peaceful Mount Hermon campus and the ever so slight breeze brought the crisp scent of pine trees and dandelions soaring through the air. The grass shimmered green from a nice soaking of the water that it had just been fed, and yet in all this beauty, the murderer and the weapon were both still on my beloved campus.
*
SEPTEMBER 6, 1935
I am on borrowed time now as judgement day approaches, but to understand the full story of my demise, I have to take you back to where it all began; with Thomas Elder and his son Thomas Elder Jr.
These past few days have been extremely stressful for Elder Jr. and me. He has begun to act out and I have had to begin to discipline him quite severely. Last night I caught him sneaking back into the house at one in the morning. When he snuck through the back door, I sensed something off about him. Upon further inspection, I could smell the pungent odor that he gave off.
I screamed: “How dare you walk into this Christian household drunk! What do you have to say for yourself?”
Thomas stumbled across the room tripping over his own feet. He managed to mumble, “What difference does it make anyway, it’s not like I even care about religion, I just do it to shut you up?”
I stared him down him with pure fire raging in my eyeballs, I slowly took out my belt and said to him, “How dare you say such a thing you little bastard.”
I proceed to whip my belt across his face with all the might in my body. A thunderous crack echoed across every wall in the house and immediately a flood of tears came rushing down Thomas’s face. He screamed out in agonizing pain and said, “God, why are you such a dick.”
This did not phase me in the slightest as the only thought that clouded my mind was what had strayed my boy away from the good Lord. Before he stormed out of the room like a raging bull I asked him, “Elder in god's name tell me what has caused you to lose faith.” He replied in a sharp painful sob, “Mr. Speer never attends prayer meetings so I realised that it cannot be that important.”
As Elder Jr. stormed off to his room I noticed how much damage I truly inflicted upon him. The right side of his face had become extremely swollen and a black bulge the size of my fist was sagging right above his eye. I do feel sorry that I caused him so much pain, but I could not let him disrespect his religion and this family in such a way.
*
SEPTEMBER 7, 1935
Thomas has been quite distant from me this past morning, usually he says good morning and joins the family for a delicious breakfast; however, today he said nothing and walked straight out the door. I suspect he did not want to show his mother his horrid face. It is even worse than it did last night. The entire right side of his face was covered in a enormous cloud of black, and a vivid oozing line was present from the strike spot. Despite this, on his way out the doo,r I noticed that he dropped a small rectangular envelope with a mailing address to Colorado. This is very peculiar and I have a gut wrenching feeling that something bad is going to happen, but I may be overreacting. I need to apologize to Thomas Jr. and give him some space to cool down from last night.
*
SEPTEMBER 12, 1935
Thankfully things have finally calmed back down. Thomas has begun acting normal around the family again and we have both apologized for what happened a few nights ago. I am so proud of Thomas, what a fine young man he turned out to be. We have been preparing for the start of school only a few days away now. Thomas seems to be excited about it, but something about his tone seems slightly off. The way he answers my questions seems slightly bland and monotone as if he wants me to leave him alone. I don't sense this when he talks to his mother; he speaks happily and jubilantly whenever she asks him something. I’m just overthinking, I need to calm down and relax. I only have two more days to enjoy myself before I have to start the daunting task of attending to business for Mount Hermon.
*
SEPTEMBER 14, 1935
The last day before school is always my favorite, the Mount Hermon Campus is lively and peaceful at the same time. The beautiful red, blue, and yellow flowers are blossoming around campus and the fresh air from Connecticut River ravages the entire campus. It was as if you were in a little bubble where you were untouchable from society. However, I was distracted from the sheer beauty of my campus when Thomas asked me to go back to the house to retrieve his bag that he had forgotten earlier that day. Taking into consideration how harsh I was on him I obliged and walked back on the freshly trimmed grass straight back to the house. I walked straight through the brown mahogany door and down the hall to his room on the right. Upon walking in Isaw his old brown beaten up bag right where he said it would be, but in the corner of the roo,m I saw a long rectangular box with a Colorado shipping address on it. I decided not to open it as I was in a rush, and jogged back to Culter Science Center where Thomas was waiting. We had a quick conversation where I brought up the box I had seen in his room. He instantly got very hostile and said that I should mind my own business.
Right after dinner that night I decided that I should go and talk to Thomas Jr. to see how he was feeling for the big day tomorrow. I also wanted to give him another sincere apology as his bruised face would be grounds for a lot of drama tomorrow. Upon entering his room I noticed that Thomas was sitting on his bed, but the box that had been in the corner of the room earlier had been moved. Thomas Jr. said, “Dad I want you to know that I love you very much and I am sorry for what happened.”
I replied, “No son you have nothing to be sorry about, I understand that you are young and a teenager and sometimes you slip up; but we all do and I owe you an apology.”
With thin tears streaming down his face Thomas Jr. said, “Dad I hope you know that what I said that night is not how I truly feel. I do believe in God, but I just felt that since Mr. Speer is the headmaster and he does not attend, that we should not have to go all the time either.”
I responded, “I understand where you are coming from, but Elliot is not the best headmaster and does not run the school in the way that it should be. If I was to be headmaster we would have dramatic changes, and would bring the school back to its original days.
With a brief pause and face of deep thought, Thomas Jr. responded, “You are right, dad. Mr. Speer is a bad influence on the school and you would be a much better headmaster.”
With a smirk on my face, I chuckled, “Haha maybe you're right but that will never happen in my dreams. Anyways, I love you son and try to get a good night sleep for tomorrow.”
As I walked out of the room Thomas Jr. said, “Don’t be so sceptical of yourself dad, i’m sure it will happen before you realise.”
Later that night before I was about to go bed but I decided to sit down in my favorite worn down leather recliner. While sitting there I thought back to everything that had transpired in the last few days. A horrifying realization dawned upon me and I instantly shot out of my recliner and sprinted to Thomas Jr. room. I nearly flung the door of its hinges when I entered his room. I had hoped that I would be wrong, but Thomas was gone. In that instant everything hit my like a brick. After beating Thomas Jr. that night, he devised up a plan to purchase a gun and kill me with it. He found a dealer out in Colorado and that's what the envelope was for. He sent the money to them, and then kept the gun in the large box while deciding to keep the shipping label from Colorado on it. Then after what we talked about in his room, he came to a realisation that he could never kill his own father. Instead, he would sneak out just before everyone on campus were about to go to bed and kill Elliot spear and allow me to take the next spot as Headmaster.
I hopped on the Lord's name that I was wrong so I sat in his room room with the eerie starlight sky shining threw his window. Within ten minutes I heard the first thump as he scaled back into his room. Right as he climbed threw the window the double barrel shotgun slid around his shoulder. We both locked eyes and stared at one another knowing that what had just happened would have to be taken to the grave by the both of us.
*
SEPTEMBER 16, 1935
Judgement day is finally here so this will be my last thoughts to you before I move on to a better place. I wish my family the best as I miss them so dearly. I have come to terms with what happened that night, and hold no grudge toward Mr. Thomas Elder. As for Elder Jr., one day the truth will come out and i’ll be waiting.
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