He Must Kill the Children Before he Dies

Edley Barrows was born into this world on February 8, 1968 to middle income parents and lived a normal life for the most part, or at least as far as everyone could see. He was a loner, who often would sit in darkness and only went out into the real world when he absolutely had to. But it was his first encounter with the blood of innocence that christened his departure from society and transformed him into the monstrous servant of evil that he would become.

As he was driving home from work one day he passed by an injured dog, wounded and bleeding by the side of the road. He quickly got out of his car and hovered over the dog witnessing for himself the pain that was in his eyes. He pulled out his pocketknife as he placed his hand over the dog's mouth. Then without an ounce of humanity, he slit the dog's stomach open, while he watched the terror in the dog's eyes. The dog's eyes grew wide with immense pain, while Edley absorbed the torment of this innocent soul now slipping into darkness.

He stood up, wiping the blood from the blade onto the dog's fur and went home leaving the dog in agony.

There was no remorse. No horror over what he had done, only an interest now in the killing of innocence.

Within a few months, he began to watch elementary schools, waiting for a chance to kidnap an innocent child, so he could watch their agony as his knife anguished them.

One day, he saw an eight-year-old boy walking home by the side of the road. Edley drove slowly behind him until there was no sign of traffic. He then drove up to the boy and without a word spoken, opened his car door and pulled the boy inside, holding his face down hard against the seat as he drove off.

What happened after that was unbelievably horrid. The monster sliced off layers of the boy's skin, so he could watch the excruciating pain in his young face, while all the time feeding his need to see innocence afflicted.

He buried the boy's remains in the woods behind his apartment and immediately began looking for another victim at an elementary school on the far side of town.

It wasn't long before he eyed a young girl of six, who was walking out of the school building, her blonde hair blowing in her face by the heavy winds that had recently started to kick up. When Edley saw her, he knew she was the one, no matter what the risk. He drove up beside her, got out of his car and scooped her up into his arms. About that time, her teacher walked out of the school and seeing the little girl with him, waved and said, "Good afternoon Mr. Blasley". She had mistaken the man holding the girl for her father. He waved back, got into his car with the little girl and drove off.

He went straight home and took the little girl to his backyard. There he tied her little hands behind her back, while she was crying and then picked her up and placed her into a coffin that he had built for this occasion. The girl's screams were muffled as the coffin was lowered into the ground. He quickly covered the grave with dirt until the ground was level and then ran into his basement, turning on his surveillance monitors.

He had planted two small cameras and a light inside the coffin, so he could watch her suffocate. He zoomed in on the little girl's eyes, but the video was slightly blurred. The death of the girl took less than three minutes. He felt nothing afterwards, except for the feeling that he didn't get his moneys worth. He went back to the grave and dug up the coffin, so he could retrieve his cameras and the light in case he might want to use them again.

Searches for the two missing children were on the news and a police sketch with a fairly good likeness of Edley was being shown on every newscast.

He packed his belongings and moved into a motel room about fifty miles out of town. The next day he was on the hunt once again for his next victim. He was obsessed now and careless.

Within a few days he drove past a vacant lot that was being used for a game of touch football by a group of boys who were already out of school for the day. He watched them play for about an hour, but couldn't figure out how to kidnap one of the boys without being noticed. With his obsession getting the best of him, he started his car and drove onto the lot heading directly for the group of boys. He stopped, ran over to the first boy he came to and pushed him into his car. The boy offered no resistance.

He drove for several miles until he found a junkyard filled with abandoned cars. He parked his car behind some rusted out vehicles, then fumbled while trying to pull out his pocketknife, which he dropped onto the seat.

As he removed the boy's football helmet, he felt a searing pain in his stomach. He looked down to find the knife sticking out of him. The boy had rammed Edley's own knife into his stomach.

He looked at the boy's face only to find that the boy was leaning forward looking into his face as he suffered in agonizing pain. Unlike him, the boy did feel something as he watched the life drain from Edley Barrows. The boy was excited, because he believed he had found his purpose in life. He felt alive.

Find more by Mark Edgemon in the Author Index.

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