Reader’s Choice (shiver): Wanted

Wanted

by Jess Chua

Ad posted: 14 June
Subject: Victim Wanted

Want to do something new this Sunday?
It’ll blow your mind!
No, really.
I have a murder fantasy that I’d like to make a reality.
What’s it like to kill?
I want to know / I need to know.
I’m dead serious.
I’m not wasting your time / don’t waste mine.

P.S. No cowards.

* * *

From: fanatiic@email.com
To: a71a55f3586891@reply.cl
Date: June 15, 10:34 AM
Subject: Your Post

Interested in your ad. What’s the method you’re thinking of?

I’m no stranger to suicidal ideation. Too much going on in the world and all that. I swing like a pendulum… hopeful one minute and hopeless the next.

Would you consider making a compassionate killing? I’d like to go painlessly. So a clean shot in the head would be mandatory, if I caught your drift with blowing someone’s mind.

* * *

From: ccr90210@email.com
To: fanatiic@email.com
Date: June 15, 5:34 PM
Subject: Re: Your Post

Hey man,

Clean shot is the intent. Don’t like any messes. Like Chigurh in No Country for Old Men.

Time and Place: Tomorrow / Sunday, 11PM. Abandoned backwoods church before Gaitskell Cove.

Good?

* * *

From: fanatiic@email.com
To: ccr90210@email.com
Date: June 15, 10:14 PM
Subject: Re: Your Post

Good. See you tomorrow.

* * *

From: fanatiic@email.com
To: ccr90210@email.com
Date: June 16, 11:34 PM
Subject: Re: Your Post

Where you at?

* * *

From: ccr90210@email.com
To: fanatiic@email.com
Date: June 16, 11:44 PM
Subject: Re: Your Post

Hey,

You all right? I was just playing when I made the ad.

Sorry!

* * *

From: fanatiic@email.com
To: ccr90210@email.com
Date: June 17, 12:00 AM
Subject: Re: Your Post

I have your IP address. I know your location based on Google Earth.

You asked for no cowards—I take commitments seriously.

I’ll show you how it’s done, with you in the hot seat 🙂

I think that’s only fair after your no-show.

—

Jess Chua‘s short fiction has appeared under a pen name in Cha Journal and Akashic Books. More at innerlifegoals.com

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Our Reader said:

This story is cleverly told through a series of emails from a would-be murderer and their volunteer victim. The cold, impersonal language of the murderer perfectly suits the storyline. The reader is left fearing for the murderer when the tables turn.