(7)

The next day they all sat at the table. Al was invited to be at the conversation too. He took place besides Jenice and squeezed her hand because of the tension. John was the first to speak: “Thank you all for coming. There isn’t enough communication in this house. We don’t know anything about each other and everyone is guilty. Even I am. But it’s important to get everything straight now.” He sounded like a born leader, he did have a lot of practice because of Mortem. He took out a huge role of paper and presented it to them all.
“This will be a confession list. Everything that everyone of us doesn’t know must be put on it. Even if one member knows, we all need to know now. If we can’t trust each other we’ll be victim to the serial killer or any other form of evil.”
John took up a pen.
“Me and Alice we’ll start. We still wanted to keep it secret and asked her mum to keep quiet. But it isn’t a good idea. So here we go.”
He began to write as he spoke.
“I and Alice are engaged for a couple of days now.”
The two of them felt a huge relief, but they suck in their breath for Jenice’s reaction. But she just stared in disbelief, squeezing Al’s hand. Al took up the pen and wrote that he and Jenice had sex, but he didn’t dare to say it out loud. No one was really surprised. They expected it. John began to write about his drug history and about some gang stuff of which he regretted to have participated or even heard of it that his gang did this. Al did the same. The three women were shocked by these statements. Jenice began to write about illegal spraying and being arrested once, Al had saved her out of it. Alice began to write about her getting money from John of she was saving a part for Jenice, so she could study photography. She also wrote about the photographs she kept and about all the portfolio’s she made for Jenice. Jenice was touched and tears began to brim over out of joy. Their mother was pissed off though that Alice was hiding money. They could have lived a better life. Jenice wrote about her stealing graffiti cans from gangs, which is a very dangerous thing to do, certainly if they'd ever catch her.

The mother didn’t wrote anything and everyone looked at her.
“I am sorry. But I am an adult. I have done so much in my youth that I am not proud of. One was marrying my husband. I have lived my life, so I don’t have to write anything. I am a mother I ought to keep some things secret for my children in order to protect them.”
They all nodded. Suddenly someone knocked on the door. The mom went to open it.
“Oh my! Arnold is that you?!”, she exclaimed after opening the door.
The man looked startled at first but then had a glimpse of recognition.
“Gwen, is that really you? You still look so young!”
“Oh that’s cheeky, you flatterer.”
She let him in.
“Kids, maybe this is something I need to confess. Arnold was my childhood crush.”, she said proudly.
They all looked up and it was that strange man that was lost in the neighbourhood who Alice met and that strange man that Jenice and Al spotted several times earlier.
“Young lady! It’s fine to see you again! Another thank you for showing the way I had to go. I really was lost.”, he said to Alice directly when he spotted her. She stared at him with big eyes and blushed a bit.
“Ah, that is my daughter Alice.”
“It’s such a shame that you are married, Gwen. I sure would ask you to marry me right away.”
“Don’t say such things, Arnold. You don’t mean a thing of it.”
“I am still single.”, he winked.
The others looked up to the guy and started to get doubtful feelings about this person. Could they trust him? They weren’t sure.
“Mom, we’ll be upstairs so you two can catch up, ok?”, announced Jenice.
“That’s very nice of you.”, their mom said. They went upstairs as suggested and the man stared at them with an angry look in his eyes. Was it as their mother had said? That he didn’t meant a word he was uttering?

“I don’t trust him.”, said Jenice at once, after the door of her sister’s bedroom had closed.
“He does seem fishy.”, said Al.
“Maybe he’s eccentric?”, said Alice.
“You’re too good for this world.”, said Jenice to her sister while shaking her head.
“I wish he was just eccentric.”, said John, “But that aura around him sure is weird.”
“What should we do?”, asked Al.
“Was it wise to leave mother alone with him?”, Alice questioned.
“Maybe he’s the serial killer.”, exclaimed Al. Alice began to panic because of this thought.
“Don’t panic, sweetheart. The serial killer normally doesn’t kill people that have a connection to him. He’ll be traceable when he hasn’t been up until now. He won’t make such a mistake. So IF he is the serial killer, your mom will be safe.”
“That’s true.”, replied Jenice, “I still don’t like him. I do think he is the serial killer. There’s just something about him. Plus I’ve never seen him before.”
“That’s true. I hadn’t seen him before either until the day he asked the way to the park.”, said Alice.
“Still he has been snooping around for days.”, said Al.
“He was lost here, but he didn’t search for this house though. Not when I met him.”, said Alice silently.
“I don’t know what we should do. Maybe we should keep our eyes and ears open. We should contact some relations to keep that guy in sight and in check. Also we should get as much possible information about him as possible. When he leaves we must ask everything that your mom knows. Agreed?”
“Agreed.”, uttered Jenice.
“She won’t think it’s funny as we saw the guy now.”, said Al.
“Probably. But we have to be careful. We don’t know him so we don’t know what he is capable of. Get it?”, said John.
“You don’t have to repeat everything. Besides we all know that.”, answered Al agitated.
“You know that we’ll need your relations and gang too to help.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll get them to work. Don’t worry. They know me for ages now. So they’ll believe me and listen to me.”
“None of you girls will be going outside alone. I’ll go to my gang and say I’ll stay here, because there’s potential danger.”
“What will I do?”, asked Al.
“You’ll have to go and spray graffiti with Jenice often, mostly in the neighbourhoods where you have spot him the most.”
“That we’ll do.”, he replied while looking at Jenice, who agreed immediately.