Short thriller stories

Chapter 3: The dark side of Joe Duncan

Her name was Joe Duncan. When she was thirteen, she had become partially deaf because of a car accident in which her mother died. Since then, she had a hearing aid so she could hear and talk.

A year ago, she turned 23. She had been a student in psychiatry since she graduated. It had always been her passion. She had always loved reading stories about serial killers to understand their behavior. To pay for her rent, she had to do a part-time job in a bar.

One day she saw a guy in her class. She had never seen him before. He had brown hair, he was tall and thin. He was wearing glasses that covered up his black eyes. He had a badly cut beard and was wearing a black sweatshirt. He was sitting in the back, not talking and anybody seems to notice him. She didn't pay more attention. Another day, she saw that same guy sitting in the bar where she was working. He was reading a book but he often looked at her surreptitiously. 

She was intrigued.

Now, she would see him every day: on the bus, in her neighborhood, on the other side of the sidewalk, at the supermarket and even at the cemetery when she went to see her mother.

On October the 28th, she had a day off so she went to the supermarket to buy some groceries. On her way home, she realized that she had not seen the guy all day. It was cold outside because of the wind, the sky was cloudy and the leaves were falling off the trees. After a walk, she went home. She was tired so she decided to take a nap. She took off her hearing aid and then closed her eyes...

She woke up with a jolt. She put on her hearing aid but it didn't work.

Something felt wrong. She went downstairs and noticed the front door was not locked. She started panicking and when she turned back, she saw the guy running towards her. He slapped her in the face so she pushed him behind the door. She was paralyzed. Her heart started beating very fast. In the mirror, she saw the man coming slowly into the kitchen. When he walked in, she stabbed him in the collarbone and tried to run away. Before she could escape, he ripped a piece of her shirt.

She ran for 20 minutes before she arrived at the police station. There she told everything to the police: a man was following her and was trying to kill her.

A few hours later, investigators came back with the security footage of the school, the bar, the supermarket and even of the cameras she had in her house. Inside the house, there was no trace of someone breaking in but something did happen: there was a knife stuck into the wall, a piece of shirt on the floor and more importantly, there was blood in the hall and the corridor.

Joe and the police started watching all the footage but then, what they saw was unbelievable: on all the videos Joe was alone. In the psychology class, no strange man, in the bar she was just staring at an empty chair, in the supermarket no man either but what happened in her house was even more horrifying. At the beginning of the tape, she was sleeping but when she woke up, she broke her hearing aid and went downstairs and opened the front door. Suddenly, she turned back and slapped herself hard in the face. After that, she pushed into the void. Then, she ran to the kitchen, took a knife and hid behind the door. After a few seconds, she stuck the knife into the wall and ripped her shirt before running away.

The police could not believe what they have just seen. Neither could Joe, she was white-faced and she was breathing very loud. She started being aggressive, screaming that it was not the truth and hit a policeman was trying to stop her.

After that, another officer arrested her and put her handcuffs.

A month later, she was in a psychiatric hospital, the doctors have diagnosed a mental disease. 

She was still saying that the man was there and was still trying to kill her.

A few days later a nurse found her dead in her room. On the tape, they could see her talking to no one, then beating herself to death.

For a few seconds on the video of her death, they could notice a shadow in front of her.

~~~

Written by: Solène and Lilou