The Bridgerton Murders

To my family: If you lived, died or killed someone in this fictional story, just know you are loved in our reality, 'Kay?

The wind blew softly, whistling through the leaves of trees that lined the darkened street as I hurried home from the library. “Cut it out, guys!” I look to my right at the neighbor's house to see two of the younger children crouched on the roof near an open window where a young boy was yelling at them, a ladder placed against the house. With a sigh, I round the corner and start walking up the steps but I pause on the porch. Someone had left their backpack here, its contents spilling everywhere but a book caught my attention. 'The Bridgerton Murders' was the title. The cover depicted a woman's body sprawled out in a hall, it looked oddly familiar but I couldn't put my finger on it. Feeling unnerved, I shrugged and walked inside before I stopped dead in my tracks. I let my bag drop where I stood, I could hear laughter and the sounds of cooking coming from the Kitchen.

Following the sounds, I open the door and see my family gathered in the kitchen in various acts of cooking and conversion. Ben is leaning into a counter, laughing at something and Mathew is grinning while mixing up a salad. Robert is shaking his head, a bemused expression on his face frying up chicken for dinner. Heather was laughing loudly as she watched Monica decorate the cake designed like a flamingo. Andrea was in the corner, by the expression on face on her face berating her husband Tyler again. “Hi Honey!” my wife Jenn came over and kissed my cheek. “What's up?”

I look around the room again at everyone before I proclaimed, “Mom is dead. Out in the hall. Did you guys know?” Everyone froze at my statement, the only sound was the popping of the grease as the chicken continued to cook for a long minute.

They all started talking at once, asking what and where. I felt numb, I didn't want to accept this as fact but I lead them into the hall where Mom lay, clearly dead and sprawled out on the floor. As they came through the door, my siblings and wife fell silent one by one as the shock of the scene before them as they came into their view. We stood there, silent, for who knows how long before Andrea began to wail and collapsed on the floor, clawing at Mom's clothes. Ben and Mathew grabbed her and pulled her back.

“Get off! Get off of me!”She wailed, trying to pull herself towards Mom with the air.

“Andrea! We have to call the police! The body will need to be examined and you pawing the body will disturb the evidence! YOU will seem guilty!” Mathew growled at her as he fought to keep her back.

“Wh-what? They will think...I...could...” her voice trailed off in terror.

“Of course, dingbat! We will all be suspects,” Monica groaned, rolling her eyes.

“But-but-but- I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!!” Andrea shrieked, panic flooded her eyes like a deer caught in headlights. She began to push herself as far from the body as she could, Ben and Mathew let her go, shaking their heads in disgust as they watched her for a bit longer before turning back to the body.

“What's going on? A voice from above inquired sleepily. Looking up, I see Andi had come out from her bedroom in a fluffy pink bathrobe and matching bunny slippers.

“Mom's dead, we don't know how yet,” Heather replied, her voice cracking as the tears rolled down her cheeks.

Andi stared down at us, maybe expecting someone to yell “PSYCH!” but no one did. Jenn took out her phone and called the police, the rest of us milled about trying to deal with the loss of Mom in our way. Andi sank to her knees, leaning hard against the banister. “Why? Why did she have to..” Her words were cut short as the banister broke and she fell forward, landing flat on her back without a word. We all rushed over, I checked for a pulse but didn't find one. I shook my head as I stood up. Trying to wrap my head around Mom's death was hard enough to accept, now her wife's?

“At least they can rest in peace together,” Ben tried to sound reassuring, but somehow it made me feel worse.

The police arrived twenty minutes later with the medical examiner, Andi had died of a heart attack from the shock of the fall. Mom was stabbed twenty times with a sharp tool after receiving a blow to the head with a blunt object. The officers separated us, questioning us separately.

“Name?” The officer asked, clearly bored.

“Aaron, as it says on my id you have there,” I responded.

“Victim's name?” the cop droned.

“Her name is Wanda,” I snapped.

“Where were you tonight?” the officer flipped open a notepad, scribbling as I repeated that I had been at the library. Several librarians could verify that. “Why were you at the library? Are you a student?”

“No. I was at the library researching geothermal generators and dinosaurs, I am a writer and trying to think of my next great novel,” I answered. “No, you haven't heard of me, I haven't been published yet as I told your partner.”

The officer looked up, a steel look in his eye. “This is very serious business here, you know that, don't you?”

I leaned forward in my chair and folded my hands together. “Why no, officer, I didn't realize that the murder of my Mom was serious, thank you for clearing that up for me. You are asking the same questions your partner asked, I have a very solid alibi right down to the neighbor kids next door may have seen me, but even if they hadn't, if they verify they were on the roof disturbing their brother it would prove that I had walked past when I did, wouldn't it?”

The officer clenched his jaw and stood up. “I have nothing further to ask you at the moment, but you better not skip town either.” he stormed out of the room.

Taking a moment to let myself calm down, I went back into the entry hall to see the door closing behind the officers. I look around, seeing everyone else was still in the house too. “What's going on? Are they going to do anything beyond ask stupid questions?” I asked.

A collective look of 'what now' was shared before Tyler replied “we're basically on house arrest. We can't leave, officers are posted outside and if anyone tries to leave the property for any reason they will be arrested and charged with obstruction of justice. That's what the cop said before he walked out.”

I sigh, shaking my head as I walked towards the stairs. “Where are you going?” Robert asked, a look of suspicion on his face.

“To bed, if you don't mind. It's been a long day and I ain't all that hungry given the recent developments,” I sneered as I climbed the stairs. I could hear them talking as I went down the long hall to the last room and collapsed on the bed.

The next morning, I woke up to the sounds of birds chirping and Jenn's slow and even breathing as she slept. Looking at the clock, I saw that it was eight in the morning. I went down to the kitchen, poured myself a cup of coffee, and went out on the porch to enjoy the morning air. Settling into my chair, I raised my mug with a smirk in the direction of the officer in the patrol car across the road. Taking a sip of the brew, I again noticed the strange book I had seen the night before. I picked it up and examined the cover, it was strange but it didn't have an author's name or a description on the back. Opening the front cover, I read the first couple of paragraphs before my jaw dropped open. I was reading the events of last night, from the killer's point of view. Except that was impossible, the book detailed Andi's accidental passing too.

“What do you have there?” I looked up to see Tyler leaning against a support post looking at me with suspicion and his arms crossed.

I shook my head as I replied, “It's a book. I saw it last night when I came home.” Now it was my turn to be suspicious. “It looked like it came from your bag.”

Tyler's eyes flared with anger as he pushed himself from the post. “What exactly are you saying?”

“Hey now, what's happening here?” Ben stepped out of the house with a look of concern on his face as he looked at us. “Is everything alright?”

I glared at Tyler and said it was fine. I went back inside and got myself something for breakfast before I went to take a nap. I awoke to a blood-curling shriek which caused me to fall out of bed. Lifting my head, I could still hear the shrieking as I darted out of our room to find out what was happening. Reaching the bathroom down the hall, I see almost everyone else already gathered there and staring in horror inside. “Wh-what's happening?” I gasp as I approach.

Monica turned and looked at me, her eyes dead and her face gaunt. She walked right past me as if she didn't see or hear anything, trapped within her mind as she went to her room and closed the door behind her. Jenn stumbled over to me, tears streaming down her face. “I-it's Heather, she...she's in there.”

My eyes dart back to the bathroom door, what would I see in there? I look back at my siblings, Andrea is weeping into Tyler's chest, Robert and Mathew are having some deep discussion and their eyes are dark with suspicion. Ben is leaning against the wall, staring into the bathroom and looking mortified. I have to look, part of me is screaming at me not to do it. The wise half, as it turned out. Her head had been severed and mounted onto the showerhead, the water was turned on and she was now a fountain. The water poured from her open mouth and splashed her body that lay in the tub, position like she was at a day spa. I shut my eyes, but the image was burned into my brain like an old-fashioned tintype photo.

A meeting was called, a detective Thorne was the only law enforcement that we saw this time and he laid down the ground rules in no uncertain terms. “I am not here to question you. I am not here to solve these murders. I am here to contain the situation,” he was saying behind his thick brown beard in his brown duster jacket. “I am not here to help any of you stay alive. One or more of you are cold-blooded murderers and until one of you can figure out who, consider this your prison. Step one foot on the ground outside and you will be shot.

Groceries will be delivered at the end of the week, every week until this thing is done. You will each be given a burner phone, the only number it can connect to is mine so don't bother trying to call anyone else.”

I couldn't believe this. Instead of trying to help, the law enforcement was making us all prisoners with a psychopath. “Excuse me!” Jenn piped up. “This is highly illegal, once people hear about this, and they WILL hear about it, there will be public outcry and civil unrest. Is that something you want to deal with?”

The detective stared at Jenn for a long moment before grinning. “This isn't my first rodeo. This isn't the first time extreme measures have been taken. The people? They would prefer you lot are locked up together and sorted out before you are free to walk the streets again. They will scream about it, sure. After some time, almost everyone will pipe down though, because they don't care. Now, once you figure out who the murder is, give me a ring and be prepared to present your case.” Tossing each of us a cheap flip phone with a charger, he left.

Robert exhaled sharply, leaning forward and running his hands through his hair. “Well, that's just great. Someone is killing people in this house and we are all prisoners.” He shoved his chair back from the table and let it crash into the wall behind him. “I ain't gonna die. I am gonna grab some food now and I am going to lock myself in the attic. Anyone who tries to stop me or disturb me will get kicked down the stairs.” The fierce look in his eye told me he was serious, I couldn't blame him but I had to ask how he would prove his innocence at the end of it. He held up his phone “I won't need this for anything else, I will just record myself. Memory is probably garbage but I have a laptop.” He vanished into the pantry, emerging a few minutes later with a bag of dry foodstuffs and we heard him thumping up the stairs in the entry hall.

Ben stood up and raised his hands, calling for attention. “Hey, we will get through this. Everything will be okay.”

“How do you know?” Tyler snarled from his seat. His face was red with anger.

“I know because I am a self-proclaimed super genius. Duh,” Ben replied as if this were the most obvious thing in the world.

“From where I am sitting, you're more of an idiot,” Andrea snarked, standing up and leading Tyler from the dining room. “Leave us alone, all of you!”

I shook my head, none of this was getting us anywhere. Mom, Andi, and Heather were dead, who knows who was next. Arguments and snide remarks were flying like daggers when I decided to head back to our room, I felt sick. I flopped onto the bed, there had to be some kind of clue about what was going on here. I sat straight up, my heart racing. It couldn't be, could it? I went over to the desk and open the drawer, staring at the book inside. I picked up The Bridgerton Murders, my hands shaking. That first page described Mom's death, what else could it tell me?

I opened the book, apprehensive of what I might find. I re-read the parts about Mom and Andi, I read the part about Heather. Every detail of their grisly deaths was here, just as I got to the part about calling the police again, the door swung open. I drop the book to my side, trying not to draw attention to it. I felt like I should tell Jenn about the book, but I can't. I don't believe she committed these crimes, but I have seen enough horror films and real crime shows to know better than to assume without evidence. Rarely is something as it seems, emotions blind us.

“What are we going to do? That detective was a real jerk but we shouldn't be left to because of it!” Jenn groaned as she crossed the room. She turned her back on the bed and allowed herself to fall backward. “Monica flipped out on Tyler after you came up here. He came back into the dining room and started screaming about how 'whoever is guilty should just turn themselves in' and Monica told him that he was welcome to put in the call and turn himself in, but she wasn't about to admit to murder she didn't commit. She got in his face, they had to be separated and she went back into her room. She isn't taking Heather's passing well.”

I nodded, “yeah, that doesn't surprise me. Those two have always been super close, always getting into trouble together.” I sigh, sinking onto the bed next to my wife. “I don't know what we are going to do or even what we should do. It's not like we have much to go on. With this stupid game the cops are putting on, the only one who will be left at the end is the killer unless we can figure out who it is. The problem is, no one seems out of character.”

Looking back at Jenn, I see her staring at the ceiling, troubled. “It's not you, is it? The killer, I mean.”

“No, I am not the murderer. I might be twisted enough to think stuff up like this for my stories, but to commit such acts? My victims would have to have done something really bad to make me hate them enough to deserve this,” I grimaced, well aware of how this made me sound. “That is another thing though, every crime has a motive. We fight as all siblings do but I don't think it is enough of a motive to do this.”

Jenn shook her head, as lost as I was. “We know it's not money, you're parents weren't exactly flush with cash. This house is a rental too, so it's not about property.”

The next couple of days passed without much incident, other than the steady rise in tensions and fights. Mathew broke Tyler's nose, Monica tried to strangle Andrea and Tyler at different times. Jenn and I tried our best just to keep to ourselves, but it was difficult since we were locked in a house. Robert never left the attic and Ben tried to be a peacemaker. I didn't find another opportunity to look at the book until I smuggled it into the bathroom under the pretense of using the toilet. I opened it up to the page where we met with the police, but the book said the police cleaned up the body and continued monitoring solutions, not exactly what happened. Reading further, I felt my blood go cold as I absorbed the meaning of the words.

Flinging the door open, I scream “ROBERT!” as I dash towards the attic stairs. I was barely aware of the others asking questions and following me in confusion. Kicking the door open, I see my older brother writhing in pain on the floor and I flip open my cell to call the detective for medical aid. As Robert is loaded onto a stretcher to be rushed to the hospital, the detective and my family look at me like I grew a new head.

“How did you know what was happening to your brother,” detective Thorne growled.

I held up the book and slammed it on the table. “It seems I am not the only one who wants to be a writer here. Or maybe someone wanted to brag about what they were doing. I saw this book on the porch the night Mom died, it looked like it came from Tyler's bag. I forgot about it until the next morning, the bag was gone but the book was still there. I read the first page, it described Mom and Andi. It also told me about Heather, I was beginning to think someone could see the future until I got to the part where we met with you, detective. That part differs in the book from how it happened. Reading on, the book said that Robert spent this week in agonizing pain, trying to get our attention but we either didn't hear or we ignored it. He was supposed to be discovered later, another victim of this sadistic game.” I glared at each person in the room as I relayed what I knew, hoping the writer would slip up.

“That isn't mine!” Tyler started, standing up. “You're the wanna-be writer, maybe you wrote it and now you're trying to blame me!”

Ben stood up and roared “Or maybe it's MINE! You weren't supposed to skip ahead to the ending!” The detective reached for his gun but Ben hit him hard in the face with the back of his hand before the detective could draw the gun and gave him a roundhouse in the back of the head.

Mathew flew out of his chair, Monica looked terrified, Jenn let out a small scream and Tyler looked dumbfounded. I felt sick, I had looked up to my oldest brother as a kid and he turned out to be a thing from my nightmares. “Big brother!” Andrea cried, throwing her hands up in a gesture of wanting a hug as she moved towards Ben. The big man grinned broadly spreading his arms to accept her embrace and snapped her neck like a twig at the last second. Her limp corpse fell to the ground like a rag doll as he let her fall. “How could you? She was your sister!” Tyler yelled.

“Easy. She wouldn't be very believable for a killer. Neither will you, by the way. Jenn is too much of a goody-two-shoes, although that would be a good cover. I think it would be better to make one of my siblings the scapegoat though. Crazy runs in the family, after all,” Ben laughed cruelly.

Mathew stepped forward, a harsh look on his face. “You won't get away with this, I will stop you.” Striking the pose of his preferred martial art, I couldn't help but think of a tiger preparing to fight.

“Tch. If that's how you want it!” Ben grinned. He started swaying like he was suddenly drunk as the two of them began to circle.

Sensing what was coming, I tried to pull Jenn, Monica, and Tyler into the doorway so we could see what was happening but not get in the way. Tyler shrugged me off and charged at Ben who threw him over his shoulder into the window. Shots rang out as well as some yelling, but our attention was on this fight. Mathew HAD to win or we would all die. The two fighters got closer and lighting fast punches, kicks and blocks ensued. I don't know how long we stood there, watching them and hoping but my heart sank when Ben caught a kick and shattered Mathew's ankle with a sickening crunch. Ben's victory cries mingled with Mathew's screams of pain.

Ben moved to finish it, once and for all when I cried out “Hey!” I don't know what I was thinking, stalling him for a time didn't achieve much but it is all I could do. “Tell me why. Why are you doing this? What is your motive?”

Ben stopped, his foot raised above Mathew's head to crush it like a bug. He stared at me for a long moment before slowly lowering his foot back to the ground. “You want to know why?” he said with a laugh. “Because I can, because I am a self-proclaimed super genius! That book you found? That was a blueprint for how to get away with all of this! Don't you see? No one has ever gotten away with murder before, they always get caught. If I could get away with multiple homicides, I would go down in history as the smartest man ever when it came out in my handwritten will. It had to be family, I had to know the people so I could predict how they would act and react. So I could predict who would best take the fall for this atrocity.”

Laughing, he turned back to Mathew and once more raised his foot. BANG! BANG! BANG! Three gunshots rang out as dark stains appeared in Ben's white shirt. He turned to me, shock written on his face as the blood started to flow from his mouth. He collapsed and I see the detective on the floor with his gun drawn. “That was a confession and a life was spared, my work here is done,” he heaved.

Mathew was loaded up on an emergency transport and taken to the hospital for treatment, grateful to be alive. Watching him being loaded up, detective Thorne shook his head. “A power trip? That's what this was all about? Your brother needed his ego stroked?”

I shook my head as I pulled my wife closer to me. “All I know is what you heard him say. I have known him my entire life, I didn't think for a minute he would someday try to kill us all.”

How does one go on after surviving such atrocities? How does one even begin to recover? I still don't have the answer to that question, but life did go on. Monica opened a bakery, I hear she is opening a new store soon. Mathew opened a dojo and health resort, his ankle never fully healed but he didn't let that slow him down. Robert made a full recovery from being poisoned and decided to go into real estate, flipping houses and expanding into the world of being a landlord.

As far as Jenn and I go, we just wanted a simple and quiet life. I still have anxiety from that experience, but my therapist decided I short write a short story about the experience for healing purposes. I can't say that reliving the nightmare has been healing, I can't say it has helped at all. I have accepted what has happened, the pain of losing loved ones. It's not like I can rewrite history, right?