Please don't leave

Johnny, what have you done?

Tears rolled down his face as he clutched the bloody corpse against his body.

I'm not a monster, I'm not a monster, I'm not a monster, repeated over and over again - it was Johnny's mantra, intoned like Dorothy clipping her blood red shoes waiting to wake up from a dream. The witch was dead.

Mary, as she liked to be called, walked over to Johnny, pulled the corpse out of his arms and shook him with all her might.

Johnny, what have you done!

The corpse lay on the ground beside him, eye sockets and mouth vacantly opened up to the sky. Johnny looked up into his sisters eyes. She couldn't save him. Not this time. But he desperately wanted her too.

It was an accident. I didn't mean to do it. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm not a monster, Mary, please believe me, I'm not a monster.

You cut out her fucking eyes, Johnny, and her tongue! Why the fuck would you do that?

She was staring at me. She kept calling me a monster, kept saying I was a bad boy, that I was going to go to hell. I had to make it stop, I had to! I'm not a monster! Please help me, Mary, please! What am I going to do? They're going to kill me.

No, Johnny, I'm not saving you this time. This time you're own your own. I found a job in America, I'm going to cross the border tomorrow. I was going to take you with me, Johnny, but look at what you've done! They'll never let you cross now! They'd throw me in jail too!

Please, sis, I'm begging you, please!

Johnny cried in his sister's arms, tears mingling with the blood stains.

Please, sis, please don't go away. Please don't leave.

Maria pushed him away from her, leaving him in a heap sobbing on the floor. She went to her room, changed her clothes, packed her bags and left without saying another word to Johnny. He never heard from her again.