The man in black quietly slid the unlocked window up and listened. He didn't hear anything. He slid the window open just a bit more, so he could look in. Everything was still. All he could hear was soft breathing with just a hint of a snore from the girl sleeping. A girl who had taken a sleeping pill, which meant she would not wake up easily and that made her an even more seductive target. He pulled his pen light and slid the window open even more and he carefully shined the light around the room. Still no sound, but there was a cat laying on the floor that had decided he wasn't worthy of any attention and the cat just kept laying there, watching him. He hated cats, maybe he would murder it next. Seeing that it was all clear and there were no obstructions in his path, he slid the window all the way open, crawled in and closed the window slowly and quietly behind him and locked it, so no one would hear. She didn't know it, but he had been in her house many times before, while she had been away at work. He knew the layout well. He had explored every cabinet and dresser drawer, stopping to pay special attention to her silk panties, even taking a pair and sliding them into his pocket. He had been in her bathroom and used her toothbrush, more then once. He went into the drawers of her night stand where she kept her lingerie. He investigated it, he smelled it and he tried it on. This is how he knew she lived alone and how he discovered she took sleeping pills. He slowly walked towards the room that was lit up by the glow of the TV that was on with the sound muted. Carefully he looked in, but he could tell that the girl was asleep, he had been watching her for weeks. That's what he did, found single women-watched them, waited for them. Inevitably they always made it easy for him to get in. They'd leave a window cracked or forget to lock a door. They made it so easy, he convinced himself they wanted him there, sneaking into their bedroom. He stood there and watched for a minute, she was exquisitely beautiful - but that didn't mean anything, it was women like her that made him feel bad about himself. He had asked her out for a cup of coffee after seeing her in a bookstore and she had said "No Way." Then she laughed as she walked away. Laughed. She was rude and mean to him. That is when he started to watch her, to study her patterns and knew that she'd be alone tonight. As usual, she left the window unlocked and cracked open and that was all he needed. He never even noticed that next door five-year-old Annie watched everything from her window. She saw everything and was frozen with fear as he took out the handkerchief and doused it in Ether and held it over her nose. Her eyes flew open as he held her down by laying all of his body weight on her and she tried to scream, she tried to kick - but it was too late, she closed her eyes and he committed lewd acts and than killed her by stabbing her more times then the police cared to disclose. He had done this before, many times, and he'd do it again. Only on Valentine's Day though. Always, always on Valentine's Day. To the press for many years now, he was known only as the Valentine's Day Killer and they haven't been able to catch him. To Annie, he was the Man in Black, that's all she remembered, plus he had a name tag with a name she couldn't remember, except it had a big C. She was to young, to scared and confused to remember.
Annie woke up screaming. Social worker, Tammy came running over and woke her up. Annie's eyes opened, Tammy asked her if she was okay.
"Yes, I'm fine." Annie rubbed her eyes.
"Do you want to tell me about it? Was it the Man in Black Dream or the one about your parents?"
"Man in Black." she said. She thought back.
It had been five years, she was ten now and he, the Man in Black to this day, had not been caught. As if that hadn't been a traumatic enough event for her, two years later both of her parents had died in a car crash, coming home from a Christmas party. The police concluded that her father had been driving drunk and caused the accident.
So she had really no reason to like holidays, Christmas was a time to mourn the loss of her parents, and were spent alone in this orphanage and the Man in Black was still out there killing but only on Valentine's Day.
Clifford and Sandy Simon had just gotten married a year ago, and had found out in that time Sandy could not have children. After the disappointment and crying was over, they decided to adopt and came to the orphanage. They were walking around and talking to Tammy, Annie sat in the swing reading a book. She didn't pay much attention or look up when the couple came by because people always wanted the younger babies when it came to adopting. But Sandy saw Annie sitting there and walked over.
"Hi, i'm Sandy. What are you reading?"
"A book about animals. I want to be an animal doctor some day."
They talked for a few minutes and Sandy was smitten with Annie, and Annie thought Sandy was the nicest, prettiest woman she had ever met. Clifford saw them chatting and had a feeling Sandy had just found the child they would adopt. Clifford walked over and Annie froze. Clifford was wearing a black and had a badge attached to it with his name. Annie closed her eyes for a minute and thought back to the Man in Black, he had a badge too, with a C on it. She opened her eyes and looked at him.
"Are you okay" Clifford asked.
"I'm fine, I thought I saw you somewhere before. Your badge reminds me of someone, but never mind."
Clifford noticed the strange look on Annie's face and was about to ask her a question about where she might have seen him when the social worker stepped in and said
"Clifford, Sandy - Maybe we should go talk a bit. Annie, we'll be back in a bit."
Annie nodded and they all walked away. Annie couldn't shake the feeling that she had seen him before but convinced herself that it was her imagination and decided to forget it. She probably didn't need to think about it anyways, because she was convinced she'd never see them again.
Tammy, Clifford and Sandy sat down in Tammy's office. Tammy said "Well, it seems you've gravitated towards Annie. She's an amazing girl, but in the interest of disclosure I must tell you how she got here."
" I don't think it will make much difference, we've pretty much made up our mind."Clifford said. Sandy agreed by nodding her head, but bracing herself for what they were about to hear.
"According to our records, when she was five, she witnessed somebody, her neighbor I think, being assaulted and killed in a home invasion situation - I don't have a lot of detail on that due to the fact that it is still an open case, the Valentine's Day Killer or as Annie puts it, 'The Man in Black'. Two years later, her father was driving while intoxicated after he and his wife came home from a Christmas party and both parents were killed in an accident. Then they brought her here."
Clifford and Sandy looked at each other and Clifford said "We'll definitely be back, we have a lot to talk about" and they left. Tammy wasn't sure if they would be back or not.
A couple days later, Tammy called Annie into her office. Annie was nervous and asked if she had done anything wrong.
"No Annie", you didn't do anything wrong. I want to talk to you about Clifford and Sandy, the couple that was here the other day. What did you think about them?"
"I liked them, they were nice to me. Why?"
"Because they want to adopt you. Would that be okay?"
"Yes" was all she could say, she was so happy she ran up and gave Tammy a hug and said "Thank You."
Less than two weeks later, Annie was sleeping and playing in her very own room that was all decorated in her favorite color, purple. Her new mom, Sandy had spared no expense. It had been a very long time since Annie had her own room and she never had her own room with a TV. Christmas came a month later, and she was showered with more gifts from Clifford and Sandy and having a new family made it a lot easier to deal with losing her parents on that holiday. She still thought of her other parents, but it hurt a little less and wasn't as frequent. For Christmas one of the things Annie got was a new name, her new legal name was Annie Simon.
She woke up on Valentine's Day and hoped she'd hear nothing about the Man in Black hurting someone again. She hoped he'd just either stop, or maybe he'd gotten caught or died since the last Valentine's Day. She was thinking of the name tag she had seen when she was five. It had been so long ago when she had seen the name tag. For years she had been sure it started with a C, but had long sense talked herself out of it. She was probably mixing good and bad memories. C sounded familiar, but unlikely. Clifford came in the kitchen and gave Sandy an Annie kisses on the cheek.
"I'm sorry girls, but I've got to work late tonight, we'll do our Valentine dinner this weekend." The color poured right out of Annie's face.
Annie felt something wasn't right. But she couldn't say what. "Are you okay Annie?" asked Sandy. "You look like you've seen a ghost."
"No, i'm fine she lied. I just don't like Valentine's . Can I be excused? I want to go to my room and get my school supplies together." Sandy nodded yes and off she went.
Clifford stopped at a gas station and changed into his 'Valentine's Day gear'. He had been watching four girls all year long. Four would be a new record. The thought of taking those four girls and putting them to sleep, forcing himself on them and then killing them gave him a high that he could never explain. But he felt such power that it was hard to only get his 'fix' one day a year. Every year, he'd say "this is the last one" because he didn't want to jeopardize his family, he loved his family - they thought he was the best husband and dad in the world. He never wanted to lose them and the way their eyes lit up when he came home.
He had just finished killing his third victim. The Modus Operandi always the same, a young girl, alone, usually asleep, something left unlocked and he was in, with the Ether over the face, signs of lewd acts and the unusual high number of stab wounds. Then he was gone as quick as he came. He ran out of time though, and girl number four would have to wait. Maybe next year. Or he thought, maybe he could come up with an excuse to go out tonight. He had to get home before his wife, Sandy got home with Annie so he could hide his blood soaked clothes.
While in her room, Annie turned the news on. It was filled with horrible stories of three girls dead caused all by one "Valentine's Day Killer". Descriptions of him were a man in black clothing and a name tag of some kind although no one had seen the name. She closed her eyes and saw a name tag on the man in black as she relived the whole scene she had witnessed at five, still seeing the name starting with a C on it. Then she remembered Clifford had a badge and she had just seen it in the garage. She was curious, so she went to look at it.
She went to the garage and looked around when she noticed the badge hanging on an old locker that she had always known was there, but never opened. She opened it now, she didn't know why - but she needed to see what was inside. She saw the black clothes, covered in blood from his busy day. Then she saw the name tag up close for the very first time and she knew. She went and got her mom, grabbing her hand and not saying a word she showed her the locker, the black and bloody clothes and the name tag and that is when Annie spoke
"This is the name tag I saw on the Man in Black" and she handed it to her mom. Sandy stared at it, looked in the locker without touching and a tear ran down her face and part of her died as she called 911 and reported that she knew who the Valentine's Day Killer aka The Man in Black was and that they needed to come now.
Annie said, "Mom, I am so sorry."
"Annie, none of this is your fault. Clifford is sick and going away. I am very sure he won't ever be coming back."
"Will you and I still be a family?"
"Annie, I am now and forever will be your mother. You need not ever worry about that again."
They sat in Annie's room playing a board game while they waited for the police to arrive, acting as if nothing was wrong. The doorbell rang and Sandy said, "Clifford, it's for you." He opened the door and an army of policeman came in and put Clifford in handcuffs without saying a word. Then they started reading his Rights while Annie showed them the locker and they took him away and he spent the rest of his life in jail, which wasn't long because when the other inmates found out he was the Valentine's Day Killer, a few of them got together, put an Ether soaked cloth over his face, committed lewd acts and stabbed him more times then the police cared to disclose.
The End.
Kat Garcia