Reflection in the Mirror

[...Posted by Ted H]

Eat your fucking heart out, Cornwell.

Man, job huntings a bitch...anyway...

This is likely the most fact checking I've ever done before...and most of it was done long before I even wrote this.
Gonna crack open the way-back archives next week. Time we got another play up in this bitch...
MLB playoffs starting soon, so I might not be able to get anything new out...

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[Reflection in the Mirror]

It was late when he had arrived. She wasn’t at her usual spot on the street corner waiting for him. She must have grown tired and went home, figured William wouldn’t show. The voice in his head screaming to kill every step of the way there. He couldn’t go to his wife about this. She had been suspicious of him for over a month. There was only one other person in the world he could trust right now. A woman he loved. They both held a bond between them that neither would bring to light with William’s marriage and her profession.

When he finally reached her house he noticed the lights were all out but he felt that she was awake. The was a restlessness within her which resonated. While her body was too tired to wait any longer, her soul could not help but worry what had happened to him. He gently tapped on the window and within moments there she was. The look of relief on her face was enough to drive away Jack from speaking within his own mind.

Jack. The voice had grown so powerful in him over time that it even took the liberty of naming itself. This is how insane the situation had become. There was only one way to get rid of Jack. Hell, Jack himself told him how to become free of him, but William couldn’t bring himself to it. He couldn’t force himself to take that action.

Mary Jeanette motioned William to the front door where she would let him in. When she did, the two embraced each other like it had been years since they last had met rather than hours. “I had wondered where you were.” she said as she silently let him into her room so they wouldn’t disturb the other residents.

Once in the better lighting of her room, Mary Jeanette immediately noticed William’s stressed state. “You look horrible. Is anything the matter? Did something happen to you on the way over?”

“I-I’m fine.” William managed to say “I’m just very tired.”

Tired of Jack to be exact, but he managed to keep silent of that as to not worry Mary. “Well, go wash up. You’re spending the night here. I fear you may collapse and I won’t allow you to leave in such a state.” she said as she turned and walked towards her bed. “I’ll be waiting right here.” she said with a smirk as she sat down on her bed.

William stumbled into the bathroom and stared himself down in the mirror. “Should I sing you a song? To help you calm?” Mary called. William barely heard her as he continued to stare until his reflection took its own life, blinked and started laughing. “She was right.” his reflection said “You look downright like shit.” No longer waiting for an answer, Mary began singing anyway. William ignored her as he concentrated on the mirror.

“Go away, Jack.” he said plainly.

“You know how to make me.”

“You can not make me choose.”

“I was born of your own dilemma. You created me to help you over come all this.”

“Not like this.”

“If there was another way, don’t you think we would’ve tried it?”

“You never tried anything. Right to killing you went.”

“And look how immediately you started getting better.”

“You still came back!”

“Because killing those women were only short term solutions, a mere bandage over a cancer.”

“You’re the cancer.”

“And your delusional.”

“Stop it! You enjoyed killing those girls too much.”

“I can’t help who I am no more than you can help who you are.”

“That is different.”

“No. It isn’t. You’re inability to choose between your own wife and your need for these women are what brought me about.”

“But the liver? How does consuming someone‘s liver help me?”

“Hahaha. I do have a bit of a sweet tooth, don’t I?”

“Stop! This ends tonight!”

“Quiet, or the whore will hear you.”

“Do not speak of her with such a term!”

“Oh? Than what is she? A ‘seamstress‘? Don’t make me laugh.”

“Regardless, this will end tonight.”

“You’re right.”

“…What?”

“I don’t plan on wasting my time anymore. I know how to cure you and end this.”

“You said that at the beginning, and every time before you killed.”

“This time is different.”

“How?”

“You’ve been visiting this particular whore far too much.”

“What?”

“Don’t take me for a fool, William. I know you’ve been hiding her from me. Of all the whores, this one means something special to you. Dare I use the L word to describe your feelings?”

“You’ve lost your mind.”

“Said the man arguing with a mirror.”

“You lay one finger on either-”

“That finger would only be your own, William. How delusional have you become?”

“I’m the sane one here.”

“Fool. We’re the same fucking person. But the sane part of you allowed me to manifest. The part of you that decided this charade needs to end and so here I am to save you. To decide how to save you and take the appropriate actions. Be it murder, then fine. Whatever it takes to save our own mind.”

“Save our mind?”

“You need to decide. I wanted to off the wife, day one. You said no, and up until now she was the only one you actually fought me over killing, while you willingly allowed me to paint London red with everyone else I so chose. Now here we are in another whores house and you honest to God have a problem with murdering again.”

“We…we might get caught.”

“We’re in her fucking home, out of view from the streets. Fuck, William, this is the least conspicuous we’ve been to date. It’s about the whore. All the other whores you’ve dusted yourself off afterwards and filled the void. But this one! This one can not be replaced. I can feel it in your heart you sap. She dies, or the wife dies, and all this ends.

“Why?”

“You keep telling me there’s only room for one of us in your brain, well now I say there’s only room for one woman in your heart. Have you made your choice?”

“I…I can’t. I love them both.”

“I’ve been on your side since the beginning, William. Despite the things you’ve said, my only concern is to help you. I’ve confirmed that you’re moral qualm is not faithfulness to your wife over these other women, but just the one in particular.”

“Mary? Is this why you’re making me choose? I finally settle on one, I’ll be cured?”

“Not exactly. I play for keeps, remember?”

“No…”

William inadvertently reached into his pocket and pulled out his knife. He looked back into the mirror and Jack was smiling from ear to ear.

“No. You c-can’t. Kill a woman I love? I’ll never let you.”

“We both knew it’s the only way. Now I’ll ask once again. Have you made your choice?”

“Not you…”

“William, please.” Jack said in an exacerbated tone. “Not. You.” William repeated. “Let me do it.” Jack had a look of surprise on his face. “I thought you could never imagine yourself a murderer?” he asked. Tears rolled down William’s face. “You aren’t worthy to kill her.”

“So who will you kill?” Jack asked “The wife, or the whore?”

“Leave me be for this.”

“So you’ll actually do it, or will you pussy out like with Ada?”

“Just…leave me be…”

William sat and wept for a few moments longer. Mary Jeanette had since ceased singing and laid in bed almost asleep when William finally returned. “What took you so-” she began when she noticed the stern look on William’s face, illuminated by the small bit of moonlight reflecting off his knife. “William?” she asked. “I’m sorry.” William said as he reached to hold her down.

Frantically, Mary thrashed about and screamed “Murder!” but William quickly forced her back down and slit her throat. As he held the dying body down and cradled the head, her life slowly slipping away, William looked towards the ceiling and asked “Are you happy?”

No response.

“Was that not good enough? You think I‘m pussying out again? Fuck you!” William screamed as he stood up over Mary Jane’s body, ripped the nightgown open and started dissecting and ripping her body apart. He took out organs and slashed at her face until he was digging into bone. He slashed off slabs of flesh and tossed them about. He destroyed the body in such a way that the previous murders, in which Jack would take over William’s body to commit, would pale in comparison.

When he was finally finished, William left Mary’s body in such a grotesque state, that it didn’t even resemble her. The image burned into Williams mind in such a way that he no longer remembered what she looked like in life. The memories were fading as were the feelings, scarred and replaced by the sight in the bed.

...

Back at his home, William sat in front of his fireplace as the morning sunlight crept in through the nearby window. He didn’t sleep. He could never imagine sleeping again. “Well?” Jack’s voice echoed either through the room or in William’s head, didn’t matter to him.

“Well what?”

“It’s almost over, no?”

“What do you mean ‘almost’? I made my choice and…and I killed her.”

“But you haven’t let go.”

William looked down to his hands, which were cradling Mary’s heart. After everything he had done to her that night, he decided to take the heart with him when he left. “She had given it to me while alive…I felt it fitting I should hold onto it in death…” William said while fighting back tears. Jack remained silent. “It hurts, Jack…I don’t even remember her face…barely recall how it felt to hold her, but it still hurts.”

William felt a slight warm sensation on his shoulder as if someone was holding it as he heard Jack’s voice again. "I promise it won't hurt anymore once you let her go, her heart most of all..."

Reluctantly, William rose, and let Mary Jane Kelly’s heart fall into the fire. He no longer heard Jack’s voice or felt his presence. William then walked away to wash his hands of the blood, and as he washed, the pain slowly subsided, until there was nothing left to clean.

When he finished, William turned to see his wife enter the room. “William? Are you alright? Is something the matter?” she asked after fighting off a yawn. “No.” William said as he walked over and held his wife. “Everything’s fine.”