The Killer Instinct

Sarah's father died of old age. Sarah was all alone since her mother had passed away long back. Sarah stood in front of her father's coffin, she was inconsolable. Her relatives tried to take her away from the coffin, but she wouldn't budge. Only she and her father knew how close they were. It was a big blow to Sarah. Seeing her crying her heart out, one of her neighbors, John tried to pull her back, out of anger, Sarah gave him a tight slap, but immediately apologized and tried to control herself from falling down, but fell into John's arms, unconscious. John slowly lifted her and made her sit on one of the chairs. His cheek was all red, denoting how angry Sarah was. Sarah's friend, Jane, offered to sit next to Sarah. They were the best of friends. Slowly, Sarah regained her consciousness and after finishing the rituals, headed back home.

Jane offered to stay with her that night. Though Jane tried to alleviate Sarah's grief, it was fruitless. Jane was tired too and slept off after a while. Sarah could not take it that her father had passed away. She walked into his bedroom and found his personal diary in the drawer. The day before his death, he had written as if he knew his death coming,

Dear Sarah,

My little girl. A day will come when I may not be there for you. But, a belief not anyone, believe in God. Take care dear. I am tired now.

Love always...

The paper in the diary was soaked with tears. She just kept on flipping pages and found out that not even one single day had he missed to write about Sarah, showering his love like no one else could in Sarah's life.

Time flew, and slowly Sarah accepted the fact that her father was no more, and she started believing in God, as told by her father. She started going to college and as usual, her beauty became the center of attraction for many boys, out of which Rogers made sure that his attempts at talking to her every day didn't go in vain. The tomboy that he was, surely made Sarah get attracted to him, though her best friend, Jane warned her against it. John was a silent observer of all this but was scared to talk to Sarah as he was the victim of her slap. Jane became close to John and waited for an opportunity to express her love.

Everyday Sarah and Jane would meet in the evening after college and gossip about not so important things. Jane expressed to Sarah about how she's started liking John and that she would express her love very shortly. Sarah had known about John since childhood and had always considered him a good boy. So, she was happy about Jane's choice and told her to go ahead about it. In turn, when Jane asked about her affair with Rogers, Sarah denied it and told her that they were just good friends, which Jane wouldn't believe because Rogers was madly in love with her.

The next day, Sarah was not her usual self because Rogers had proposed to her and when she had blatantly denied loving him, he had called her by names and had assaulted her in front of everyone in the college. She couldn't bear the agony and wanted to share this with Jane. She searched everywhere, but couldn't meet Jane at the college. She happened to meet John, who sheepishly smiled at her. He mustered up the courage and offered to drop her home, Sarah agreed to it as she wanted to go home after being Ill treated by Rogers. After reaching home, Sarah shook hands with John and asked him for coffee casually to which he agreed readily and went inside along with her.

As Sarah went into prepare coffee, John started observing every nook and corner of her house, which Sarah could notice and hurriedly mixed a cup of hot coffee and offered him. John told Sarah that he needed some more sugar, and as she went in to get sugar, he took her father's diary and started to flip the pages. On hearing her footsteps, he kept it away, though Sarah could sense it. He sipped the coffee unusually slow and Sarah cursed herself for having offered coffee to him.

Immediately after John leaving her home, Sarah locked the front door and sat down on the sofa, thinking about the assault by Rogers. He was put behind bars several times before in such cases, but still, Sarah had believed him as a friend, but not as a lover, which Rogers couldn't take it. She barely ate her dinner.

She couldn't sleep thinking about Rogers and his notorious moves. On top of it, John's behavior was also suspicious. She couldn't meet Jane today too, at least she could understand her better. Suddenly, she could hear some sound at the backdoor. She was sure of having locked the front door after John had left. She was recollecting if she had locked the back door. She walked towards the back door, and felt something soft underneath her feet and screamed, Meoooow! It was a cat. Gosh, sighed Sarah and was about to turn back when immediately someone closed her mouth and stabbed her from the back. She knew it was Rogers. She did bite the hand and ran towards the front door. She was scared to death and her scream pierced through Roger's ears, she thought, and cried out, "Rogers, don't kill me, please." The person wouldn't respond, Sarah observed that the killer was short while Rogers was tall. He was wearing a black tracksuit with a mask. Except for the eyes, she couldn't see anything of him. This time, she was sure of John because of his short stature. John, she said, "don't kill me, Jane loves you so much. What do you want from me? I'm sorry for having slapped you on my father's funeral. Please leave me alone. I don't want to die. God, please save me." She saw the killer was marching towards Sarah and Sarah was about to lose her consciousness, when suddenly the front door was broke open and someone held Sarah in his arms. Sarah looked back to find out that it was John. The killer ran towards them with a knife and was smashed by John with all his might. John lifted the killer and held his hands and told Sarah to call the police. Sarah wanted to know as to who had tried to kill her and tore open the face mask. Down fell the tresses of hair. Sarah lifted the killer's face up and was stunned to see her face. Jane exclaimed Sarah. John tightened his grasp over Jane's hands.

Sarah questioned her as to why of all people Jane, her best friend, would want to kill her. Jane out of frustration, replied," it's all because of you Sarah, I fell in love with Rogers, but you snatched him away from me, and not only that, yesterday when I proposed John, he said he was in love with you and that proved today evening when I saw him dropping you at your place and he took time to come out of the house. I will kill both of you." She hit John hard in his stomach with her elbow and tried to stab Sarah's chest. Within a flash of a second, John pounced on her and told Sarah to call the police.

It took a while for Sarah to come out of the shock. She called the police who took Jane away handcuffed. John took Sarah to the hospital and took care of her. As the stab wound was deep, Sarah recovered slowly. After getting discharged from the hospital, John told her to give him a call if need be. She sluggishly replied to him. He left smiling sheepishly at her, which she didn't like. She went into her father's room and took out his diary, She was astonished to see a letter there. While she opened it, a photo fell from the letter. She remembered that day when John had come over for coffee and how she had grown suspicious of him. She took the photo, it was John and her childhood photo, holding hand in hand, behind them stood her father. Sarah read the letter with tears in her eyes and found out how madly John was in love with her since childhood.

Her fingers automatically dialed John's number who rushed immediately to her house. She embraced him and whispered in his ears that except for his sheepish smile, she loved him too. John murmured softly that she had liked him for this sheepish smile in childhood and now that the smile had become a foe, he smiled rather proudly and said those magical words in her arms.