Dennis Vincent Titov

"There is something I must say, but I don’t know how to explain it in the correct way, I should start at the beginning, it was the middle of the school year. There were so many students, hoping around like vermin and with a kind of wonton sarcasm road about their days swirling down a cycle of chaos and disorder. This is my school, a plain old school with old bricks poorly mortared together only held together by their own weight or some unseen steel cage.

There is a group of students practically hugging the door to the history classroom. I never paid much attention to them and I would rather I never did. I just walked by them and went into my own classroom. It was five minutes until the first bell would ring. “Mr. Gallow?” Mr. Gallow was a man in his late forties with graying hair and old pale blue eyes. He was in a slight daze when he looked up. “You’re here today, that’s a shocker” I gave him a smile and said “I’m always here”. Mr. Gallow bursted out in laughter unable to control himself. “That’s a good one, what is it fifty, sixty, I lost count ages ago” I gave him another smile holding back some minor annoyance. “It’s been thirty-one days.”

Mr. Gallow moved up from his chair with some un-natural youthfulness. “Did I miss a test?” “Probably” “A few quizzes?” “Most definitely”. I gave the clock a glance, there was only two minutes left. “can I take the test?” Gallow looks at me with a strange look and says “you only have a minute or so, guy” I looked at him with some playful defiance and said “So?” Mr. Gallow sighed and moved away from his desk and began shifting through papers. “Tell you what, here’s a quiz” He handed a paper to me with ten questions on the Korean War, the last chapter I had read was on the dust bowl, but I grabbed it and raced through the questions. Before thirty seconds were up all ten questions had a letter next to them.

“Finished already?” I handed the paper up to him after swishing it off the desk and handed it to him. “Yeah” Mr. Gallow gave a long and deep sigh. “Alright…” Mr. Gallow looked at the piece of paper and with his pen a myriad of strokes were unleashed upon the sheet of paper and handed it up to me before shifting through his grade book. The Paper had a ninety-five on it. With a minus 5 written next to question six. I was going to say something but I didn’t. The Bell rang and I went down to the gymnasium.

I said hello to several people before going in through the doors into the Gym. Inside there were several kids all around the place and a teacher named Mrs. Teller. She was an upfront person very open about her beliefs and I enjoyed talking with her. “Welcome back, how are you feeling today?” Her voice was rather high almost as if she was happy. “Fine, good, thanks, you?” It was rather fumbled leaving my mouth I wasn’t expecting such a greeting. Matt jumped on my back and I almost fell over. “What the- get off me!” and we both laughed for a few seconds before we were told to line of for attendance.

“Dennis” “here” “Michael” “Here” “Matt” “Yup” and after about a dozen kids were all accounted for we all moved on towards the locker room. There wasn’t much inside. Showers that were rarely used, benches that had a spongy moldy quality to them no matter how much they were cleaned, and plain steak rows of lockers. Mine was at the far end. When I got there I let my backpack drop. I wore a shirt under my shirt and shorts under my shorts so in a few seconds I was ready to go out. I walked by people still taking off their cloths and exited the locker room.

“Holy- that was fast” I looked and saw Luba, it wasn’t her real name but her real name was foreign and she asked to be called Luba so I couldn’t say much else. “Not really” she looked at me with annoyance and said “Yeah it was, I didn’t even change and I got out here only a second before you” I looked at her and shrugged. “Oh well, oh well, oh well” “What?” “Nothing” After about five minutes others started coming in through the doors and came by. I was sure to say hello to every person.

We ran laps around the gym and I was desperately out of breath by the end of the fourth cycle. I was not in shape and I could barely do anything in terms of distance at high speeds. My body was rather odd. If I was sprinting I could do it for a good half minute or a minute before needing to catch my wind. However when I walked I could walk for miles and so long as my shoes weren’t’ giving me any trouble I was okay. I was able to keep up and gain on some of the fastest in the class but after just coming in reach I fell behind. I have asthma. So I bowed out gracefully pulling the ever classic “My shoes got untied” act and was able to catch my breath and get out of another three laps before I made the last one but still struggling for breath.

After this we decided to play dodge ball. So we basically stayed there for a long time. I got a few people out and avoided nearly all of the balls thrown at me, even pulling a “Matrix” a few times. But this is probably getting boring to you, let’s move forward a bit. After the last period of the day and school went out I got a ride from John Rocco to his house for something or other. It was Friday and I had nothing better to do. So I entered the house and met a girl all dressed in black. I didn’t know her but she seemed unusually interested in me. I heard a silent voice pushing me forward to go closer to the girl.-"

A raspy low, yet deep voice spoke, “A voice…?” Yeah, I’m not quite sure what it was but it did kind of push me forward. “You aren’t trying to claim you are insane are you?” “Insane, the only people who are insane those who are ignorant of what they do, so that means almost everyone in the world. Or at least now in modern times. You know-” “Stop.” It became Evident that Dennis was constrained inside of a room by some sort of plastic covering and he was in an area that seemed surrounded by the same stuff almost like a meat packing room but behind Dennis could see the outline of the room. “Are you going to kill me?” “Yes, I am going to kill you”

In a few moments of collectivity Dennis seemed to sigh. “Well let’s get this over with”. He didn’t hear a response and he couldn’t see anything around him other than vague outlines and plastic covering. But then he heard the familiar squeaking of footsteps, but on an unfamiliar surface. “Are you going to leave me here?” The low voice responded “Didn’t I tell you not to talk” “No, but you did tell me to stop.” A few moments later with more footsteps. “I assume that means to stop talking huh?” The low voice did not respond and instead walked around him and moved farther away. “You know, I never thought this is how I would go out. I expected lawyers. Loss of friends that I rarely talk to. Loss of a life that I scarcely have. The demonizing of me. You know, my dad always said I didn’t quite know when to shut up” A very bright light went on and it burned his eyes. “You could have warned me!” “I would have if you stopped talking”

The low voice now had a face, he was white with reddish, brownish hair. But it could have been blond or black depending on the current position of the light. He really did appear like a butcher. He only appeared to be late 20s maybe early forties. He held a very long knife in his left hand while fiddling around with his right hand where Dennis could not see. “Dennis Vincent Titov… You have killed two people.” Two pictures showed up to him openly and visibly. A dark haired goth girl and a teenaged boy of the same description and age as the girl. “I know, I shot one of them and stabbed the other. The stabbing was an accident, I swear on the god that I don’t even know exists. That would be the girl that is. The guy right there… I don’t quite remember. But I know I had a good reason.”

“I want you to feel that girls-“ “I’m not entirely sure what you are getting at here. I know what I did was wrong. And I readily accept death. There isn’t much in my life now. Mr. Gallow. Mrs. Teller. My mom, my dad, my brother, my sister, my aunt, my cousins, and everyone else. In a way I was never the same as them. Like I was apart from them even though I was there myself. But I feel nothing on the deaths of those two. I’m not sure what I’m going to do right now. They said I was smart and I would go places. Truth is I never thought of myself as smart. It seemed like the world around me moved in ways that were familiar yet alien. In a way I think I can identify with you more than myself. I don’t even know your name-“ “Dexter, Dexter Morgan” Dennis wiggled around in the plastic until his was a bit free. “Don’t bother, there is no escape. You will never see an-“ “Escape! Pfft! I want to shake your hand.” The voice with a face now identified as Dexter took his knife and positioned it in front of Dennis’s Chest, right above his chest.