John's Lawn

I wanna start this off with a quick thank you to all of you. I appreciate the comments from you guys reminding me of where I recognized him from. I’m not sure if it was the doctor that’s allegedly being held in a certain foundation, or if it was just a coincidence, but it still terrifies me to think about what he can do.

Anyway, you guys seem to enjoy my torment, lucky for you, I have more to tell. After a couple days of practically nothing interesting happening, I thought things would go back to relative normalcy. Unfortunately, as is so common when living with paranormal beings, shit hit the fan faster than you could say Mississippi. Then it splattered all over the room like some kind of new-age art. Needless to say I much prefer older art.

After a few days, Terry began to ask me some questions, “Hey, I hope you don’t mind my asking. But who’s Jane?”

A shiver went down my spine, just like any other time someone brought her up. Regardless, I kept my composure, “What do you mean?”

He continued, “Well, while you were out, you would shout ‘Jane’ from time to time. Was she your sister or something?”

I gave a nervous laugh, trying to hide my ever growing anxiety, “Eh she wasn’t all that special if that’s what you’re asking; just an old childhood friend. Must’ve slipped deeper into my subconscious than I thought heh.” I forced a short laugh.

He sounded almost disappointed, “If you don’t wanna tell me the truth just say it, no point in lying. I just figured you might want someone to talk to. Anyway, I was planning to head to Jeff’s later, might as well head over now.”

The way he was acting wasn’t normal for him, at least, to my knowledge, “Wait, Terry!” I stopped him before he shut the door, “Why do you want to know so bad?”

He gave a short answer, “Everyone has lost someone, bottling it up just isn’t healthy.” Then, he was gone.

What had I said while I was out cold? What did he mean by “everyone?” Why was he being so cryptic? If he knew I was lying, he must’ve been holding something back from me. Right? I basically sat on the couch thinking about all of this until I realized I was late for work. 

Look, I know you guys tend to prefer the generally comical tone of me spending time with Terry, but I promise this is all important.

After an uneventful day at work. Thank the Lord. I came home to see Terry was still gone. But there was a note presumably from the man himself, sitting on the kitchen table. Here goes, “I’m at Jeff’s place, if you feel like talking about what’s on your mind, you can drop by. I’m gonna be there for a while so you can mull it over. I’ll see you when I see you.” He put the address but I left it out for obvious reasons. But the implication behind what he wrote was unusual. I’ve known him to be less emotional than practically anyone. He cracks a joke or two from time to time, but aside from that, I’ve never seen him get worked up. I don’t know what possessed me to do this, but after thinking it over for all of about 20 seconds, I knew what I was going to do. I was going to tell him and Jeff what happened. I will also tell you so you understand what happened next. It took about 30 minutes to get to his house and I was mulling over how to explain everything that had happened the entire drive. 

When I finally arrived, I was practically shaking as I knocked on the door. Jeff opened it looking as though he expected me to be standing there.

“Come on in, he’s on the couch,” Jeff said, sounding exhausted. I thanked him and walked in, only noticing now just how big his house was. It was like a mansion, but for some reason the outside was unassuming. As I looked to my right, I saw Terry’s head on the couch.

“So, you decided to come after all.” He said, not even turning to me like some kind of Bond villain. I half expected him to somehow turn the entire couch. “I figured you’d pussy out when you saw the note. Are you here to tell us what’s going on with you?”

“Yeah, I’ve got no idea why… I guess being alone isn’t my thing. Whatever the reason, I don’t really have money for a therapist right now.” I responded.

“Well sit down the both of you. This one’s probably gonna be a real tear jerker.” Terry said, presumably trying to lighten the mood.

Shortly after I sat down, Jeff came over with a few glasses of what looked to be whiskey. He downed his practically right away and Terry just held his glass in his hand. “Guess this is as good a time to start as any. As I can imagine you two already know it’s Jane. I first saw her in college, she was one of the most beautiful women I had ever seen. Her flowing brunette hair, her hazel eyes that only complimented it. But as time progressed, I came to realize she wasn’t just a pretty face. As it turned out, she was actually into a lot of things I was, card games, video games, anime, and so on and so forth. Basically, she was a total dork, but it only made my feelings grow stronger. We started out as friends when in our chemistry class we ended up being lab partners. I waited a while before asking her out, but the first time, I got rejected. She said she just wasn’t ready for a relationship yet. But I was persistent, I felt she was the perfect girl for me. I didn’t creep on her or anything like that, but about once a month I would ask her again if she would go out with me. After about a year of getting rejected once a month, she finally caved and agreed to go on one date with me. We both had an amazing time and we ended up deciding on weekly dates. It wasn’t ever anything fancy since we were college students. Eventually the day came, and I asked her to marry me, and she said yes. 

About 10 years later, we were still happily married. We rarely fought, we had pretty much no money problems between my office job and her job at a local bookstore. But, the day I feared would happen eventually came, we had a fight about having kids. She wanted them but I wasn’t ready yet. It wasn’t a commitment thing, I just never really liked kids, I felt they would be too much of a hassle. Had I caved, maybe she would still be alive. Or at least, maybe we could’ve died together. After the fight, I decided to go to a nearby game store to repress some of my anger through card games. After a few hours, it was long past dark and the store was closing. I decided to go home and realized, I couldn’t figure out why I was even angry. Sure I didn’t want kids, but why did I get so worked up? I figured I should get her something to make it up to her. Walmart was practically the only nearby place open so I dropped by and picked up a game for old times sake, Halo 5. I had heard it was possibly the worst one, but it was the only halo they carried, it was the thought that counted anyway. 

When I finally came home, all the lights were off and I assumed she had gone to bed. But as I turned on the living room light, I saw her. Or rather… her body. Her head was gone, and there was a pool of blood surrounding where it would’ve been. After I took time to throw up, I called the police. After heavy questioning, and a search of the place, there was no sign anyone had been there but her. They ruled it as suicide and I was no longer considered a suspect. I got a new slightly cheaper place to live. I continued to work the same job and even started going to therapy. After a month or so though, I broke. I couldn’t keep going on. I quit my job, I stopped going to therapy. I sold any belongings I considered unnecessary at the time to stay afloat. But it wasn’t enough. Eventually, I had to get a new job, a new place to live too. Now, here we are.” I finished.

Neither of them said anything for a few minutes. Eventually though, Jeff spoke up, “Hey, do you happen to umm… have a picture of your wife by any chance?”

“Why?” I asked.

“Do you or do you not?” I pulled out my phone. Shuffling through my gallery, I opened a picture of her from when we visited the redwood forest. After showing it to him, his face seemed to somehow go even more pale. He stood up and backed away a few feet like he was nervous, “Okay, before you do anything, remember, I didn’t know you at the time. It was just a job I was hired for. I am much stronger than you and I don’t want to kill you too.”

When he said “too,” I put it together. I couldn’t control the unadulterated rage bubbling up. I couldn’t stop the tears from rolling down my face. “It was you…”

“Terry, grab him!” Jeff said as he noticed me standing up.

Terry grabbed me and began speaking to me in a relaxed voice, “Hey, listen to me. You will only hurt yourself if you are planning on going out on Jeff. If you aren’t willing to calm down, we won’t have much of a choice in the matter. Are you listening to me?” Obviously I was listening, but the rage was overwhelming any sense of logic and reason that could’ve allowed me to act on his words. After I didn’t calm down, everything went black.

I awoke several hours later on Jeff’s couch. I began to sit up but Terry shoved me down with the tip of one of his tentacles. “At the very least, hear Jeff out before you die.” I didn’t like how sinister his tone was, so to save my own ass, I relaxed a little.

Jeff walked around and sat on a chair set up across from me seemingly for this exact reason. He had a somewhat solemn look on his face. It was hard to tell on the account of his permanent smile and lack of eyelids, “I know, you hate me right now, I understand if you never wanna see me again after this. I’d bet my left nut you don’t wanna see me right now for that matter. But allow me to at least explain what happened. Years ago, I just murdered for sport, sort of like a morbid hobby. I wasn’t the best, but as time passed, I learned new tricks to improve my performance and reduce the chance of me getting caught. High-class clients started taking notice. They were persistent and whether I liked it or not, if I didn’t work for them I was sure to get found out. So, I start taking contracts. It wasn’t bad, I got to do what I loved and it turned into an actual job. After a while, I had pretty much perfected my style. That was right around the time I started taking on contracts for more money. I didn’t realize I worked for entities at first, only found that out about a year ago. But that’s all your wife was, a poor casualty from some crazy guy that wanted her head.” I noticed he held back a chuckle.

“Well? Do you have any idea why they wanted her?”

“In this line of work, people who ask questions die first. Sure I’m strong, but I’m not dumb enough to take on… nevermind,” he replied, shuttering.

“So how does Terry fit into all of this then?”

This time, Terry responded, “I noticed something was off. I just figured you’d want, well the two closest friends you had to talk to. I’m gonna be honest, I didn’t expect any of this.” I couldn’t take much more of this.

“Well then Jeff, why wait till now to tell me about all of this?”

“Ya see, I’ve killed a lot of people. I don’t remember most of them, but when you described her appearance, I was pretty sure I knew who you were talking about. I just needed a picture for confirmation, you never forget a face like hers. I’d apologize but I don’t think saying sorry for murdering your wife will really do much for you.”

“You’re damn right apologizing won’t help.” I was getting increasingly more aggressive. “Who put you up to it? Everyone loved her so I have no fucking clue why anyone would want her dead.”

“Calm down, I understand you’re angry at me, but you’re not thinking straight right now.” He looked towards Terry, “Just take him home. Bring him by in a week and we can talk.”

“Whatever you say.” Terry threw me over his shoulder and took me out to my car. “I know you’re pissed at Jeff, but he was just doing his job. You two didn’t know each other at the time, it’s not like he was trying to spite you or anything.” I shrugged and he continued, “Just think about it okay?” I nodded as he set me down in the passenger side. Then, we left for home.

I honestly don’t know how I should feel right now. On one hand, Terry is right, Jeff was just doing his job and had no ill will towards me since he had no idea who I was at the time. I knew he was a murderer, and sure I was uncomfortable around him. On the other, I didn’t really process what he did to people as a job. I knew he killed people, but it didn’t really click that he murdered actual people living real lives with those they cared about. Something about him killing the one I loved with all my heart though; it finally hit home to me what he actually does. What Terry does. The next couple of days, any time I was home, I would just lay in bed, contemplating everything. 

Then a few days later, I decided to talk to Terry. I walked into the living room, but he wasn’t there. I knocked on his bedroom door, and shortly after, he opened it. I suppose now is a good time to tell you my name, before I type out the conversation that went down. I’m Joseph. I didn’t feel it was important before because I didn’t think so much would happen. After this though, it’s unlikely to stop soon. So, it’s nice to meet you guys, let’s get into this.

“Hey Joseph, are you feeling any better?” Terry asked with slight enthusiasm.

“Well, I’m not exactly great, but I’m ready to talk to Jeff now. If you wanna sit down on the couch we can discuss it.”

“Screw it, if you feel ready to talk to Jeff, let’s just head over there. You can drive this time.” I said alright, got my keys and wallet, and we were off. 

When we arrived, Terry knocked on the door. Jeff opened it, looked at Terry, and smiled. Then he looked at me and tried to frown. “Jeff, he said he’s ready to talk.”

“And I said give it a week.” Jeff retorted.

Terry’s voice raised a level, “Well I don’t give a damn! He said that he’s ready to talk and I don’t want him overthinking everything and hating you even more than before. He said he’s ready now, so let him talk.”

I joined in, “Who’s your boss?” They both looked at me with concern.

Jeff spoke up, “W-what?”

“I’m not pissed at you anymore, I’m pissed at whoever you work for. Whoever made the decision that my Jane needed to die! So who’s your boss, I’m either going to find and kill him or die trying. I’ll either stop all this madness going on, or I get to be with Jane again. A win-win.” I had a hard time getting that last part out.

“Hold on, you remember how I said I work for entities. These guys, they’re much stronger than me, they could likely even give Terry a hard time.”

“Look, I don’t care if I die! I just want to give an attempt at bringing them down. I know you two wouldn’t understand, but people are losing family members because of that group. Ones they care about, like my wife…” I couldn’t continue.

Terry joined back in, “We’ve all lost people Joseph, what makes you think you’re so special huh!? Why should you suddenly put your life on the line just to die to an organization that will have no problem killing you and ruling it as a suicide?”

That comment hit me like a boulder, “Does that mean… they have people inside the police force too?”

“Of course they do.” Jeff responded, “That’s why employees like myself are never caught. Anyone who works for them can’t get arrested for murder, it’s always called suicide or they frame some murderer that doesn’t work for them. You can’t take them on alone.” By now we were sitting on his couch discussing everything.

“Then why don’t we just get a group of paranormal things together and bring them down? I’m sure you guys have plenty of paranormal friends you could call on.”

Terry replied this time, “What, you think that I could just call up some friends and see if they wanna raid a murder organization’s base? Like it’s area 51? This is serious, there are very few actual humans amongst their ranks.” Just then, I heard a familiar voice behind me.

“Well, I think it sounds like quite the good time.” An immediate chill went down my spine. Jacob.

“Oh great, what do you want this time?” I asked, Jeff looking perplexed. “Are you here to mess with me again?”

He responded, “I was bored when I saw your car pass by not too long ago. I thought I would just listen in, but you three have captured my interest.”

“Well I mean, if Jacob really does want to join us, that would already be 3 things to fight the man.”

Terry let out a short chuckle, “Get some rest, we can talk about it in the morning. You seem exhausted right now.” He was right, I was exhausted, but I was damn happy they would consider it. Even if it did involve Jacob.

Jeff showed me to a guest bedroom and I passed out shortly after laying down.