Stitches and Thread

     Murder, it's the last thing that should be on the mind of someone my age.  Barely sixteen as of last month and I have yet to procure myself a proper job, nor have I found myself any means of earning a proper earning or keep for myself.  I tried my best to find a job here in the city, but I have yet to find one.  In a city bustling like a great machine, London shouldn't be so hard to find a job in.  Yet, I feel that soon will not matter.  I have made a grave error and likely will barely have enough time to write everything down.  My own fits of madness have driven me to the edge of insanity, and in my immoral fits, I took the life of someone I cared so deeply about.  It was a young lady by the name of Elizabeth.  She couldn't have been much older than I, yet it was I who cut her down in her prime.

      About three weeks prior, I was heading down the street during the evening, doing some late evening scouring for jobs and delivering a package that an old family friend needed to receive as soon as possible from my mother.  As I was delivering this package home, I saw a girl, this being Elizabeth, walking across a street on her way home.  She wore the most beautiful blue dress and looked ever so elegant.  The way the color of the dress accented her beautiful blue eyes and contrasted beautifully with her black hair.  She was certainly striking.  I recognized her from back in my old hometown in the countryside, having grown up fairly close to her.  I always admired her from a distance and one day wished that perhaps I would have a lady like her to call my own. It's such a shame that day will likely never arrive.

     She was traveling home alongside someone I could only assume to be her suitor or arranged husband to be.  I can't imagine what came over me that day.  I just...could not bear to watch how that man treated her.  He was dressed in a gentleman's outfit, but the only thing "gentle" about his entire appearance were his clothes.  He was a tyrant to her.  He made her walk several paces behind him with her head hung low.  She wanted his affections so badly and did these things for him on the way home.  Worse yet, when they came close to me on the bridge I happened to be crossing, she bumped into him by accident when he stopped to check the time on his very expensive pocket watch.  He immediately spun around and slapped her and began to shout at her.

     "How many times have I told you to keep your distance, you frivolous whore?!  I have told you time and time again to keep your distance and here you are, running straight into my person as I pause to check the time.  I should slap you harder for your insolence."

     I had enough of his behavior towards her.  I paid no mind of speaking to them.  I immediately ran up to the man and began to grapple his person, trying to throw him over the bridge down to the rained in sewers that laid far below it.  It took him by surprise and surprised Elizabeth as well.  I tried my best to shove him off of the edge of the bridge, but Elizabeth grabbed on to my shoulder, begging that I spare him.  I had done this before when town bullies had bothered Elizabeth in the past, and she was used to me trying to step in, despite my small frame to help in matters.  But now, she was begging I spare this soulless chap.

     "Please William!  Stop this!  He didn't mean it.  Let him go!"

     I heard her plea, but my body could not stop pushing him towards the edge.  In a last-ditch attempt, Elizabeth tried to push me away from him, but as she stepped towards me, her shoe broke and she fell atop her suitor, and both of them fell over the edge.  Mortified, I assessed my bad luck and made haste down to the bottom and tried to check and see if either of them were alive.  Alas, neither of them showed any signs of life, and their deaths were all my fault.  I had arrived to find both of them having fallen on their heads and their necks were broken and flesh exposed.  I wanted to hide my crimes, but hiding two bodies in London was not an easy task.  The man's body was the first one I dealt with, dragging him down to the river and leaving him there to float off downstream.  I returned back to find Elizabeth's body untouched and unbothered.  I could have let her body go the same way that I let go of the man's body, but Elizabeth, she was different.

     Something inside of my head told me to take her back to the old warehouse I had been working in partially and sleeping at.

     "Take her with you and fix her up.  You know a lovely lady like her deserves a full life, doesn't she?"

     And with that thought in my mind, I carried her body back to my current place of stay and placed her heavy body into a chair.  I sat down and stared at her body, trying to make sense of where I could fix her up.  I had long been a young man with many skills, but my most prominent one had to be my ability to stitch together things with the shortest of threads.  It was a skill my now deceased mother taught me to do before she fell ill.  My plan was to stitch together her exposed flesh and her broken neck, and I took my time doing just that.

     "Stitches and thread, stitches and thread.  I'll make you happy so you won't look so dead.  Stitches and thread, stitches and thread.  I'll make you happy so you won't look so dead."

     I found myself singing that short tune as I continued my work, as I always had done.  I always sang songs to myself as I sowed things back together, and this instance was no different, albeit slightly more grisly and bloody.  But as I sang this tune, staring at her body as I sowed away in front of a mirror, I felt myself starting to sing a different tune.

     "With silver thread and twine, once I am done, you will look so divine!  Stitches and thread, stitches and thread, I will most certainly make you mine!"

     I had completed my work and her body had been sewn back together.  Unfortunately, the stitches and thread I had used were very visible and looked grisly against her skin.  That would not matter though, I could see the constables circling my area outside of my window.  I knew that they were out, looking for me.  They may always patrol the streets, but something was different about them tonight.  They were out in full force, marching up and down the streets, scouring them for crime, scouring them for MY crimes.  I had to think fast, but there was not much I could do.  I placed her in my closet and closed the door.

     A few days had passed, and I expected Elizabeth's body to stink, but the stench of decay never seemed to come.  I waited days for when I would have to enter my closet and look at my crime one last time.  But when I opened the door, I found Elizabeth's body, staring straight at me, life gleaming from her eyes.  Yet, it wasn't her.  She stood up to face me and startled me as she walked out of my closet and stood in front of me.  All she told me was, "I await your command, master."  This statement took me further back, but something seemed to go off in my head, like a voice was actually there, telling me to act upon this.

     "Your words and thread wove a spell.  She is yours now.  Command her as you will and create an army.  You deserve greatness."

      At this point, I knew I just had to be mad.  I had to be truly insane to think of such a thing, but..I couldn't seem to resist.  It was true.  I actually commanded Elizabeth to do things for me, some unspeakable and she did them without question.  I can't tell if she is alive behind those large blue eyes, but one thing is for certain, I will have greatness for myself, and with my newfound talent, I should have no trouble becoming a master of living puppets.  Nothing will stop me now.  Let the police come.  They know not of what they have to face.  All they will think is that they are trying to help until I take control of their minds with my thread.  And it won't be long before I achieve something truly great, Isn't that right Elizabeth?

     "Yes, master."