Persona - Chapter 1
Chapter
1 – The Death of Chase Boseman
I couldn’t
believe it. Just like that, Chase was
dead. If I had known that leaving home
that night would have been the last night that I’d talk to him over the phone,
I’d probably have not made that joke about his ex. Regardless of how troubled they were
together, Chase was still my brother, my only brother. My mother was distraught to say the least
when we got the news. She made it to his
apartment well before I did. I had to
travel from college station to the outskirts of Houston in order to get to his
place. Being closer to the city made it
a lot easier for her to get there than it was for me. My mind was spent after finals. I thought that there would be relief when I
got home. It turns out that relief of any
kind would escape me again. I had been
frustrated with my brother these last few weeks. He started dating this woman about six months
ago and would complain about her at almost every chance he could get. It seemed like everything that she could do
wrong in his eyes was a hundred times worse than it was. As frustrated as I was with him, though, I
wish that I hadn’t been so harsh with him during our last call, seeing now as
I’ll never get to speak to him again.
As the hours went
by on the highway, I tried to keep my mind off things by listening to music or
podcasts, but nothing seemed to distract my mind long enough. I kept pulling over to change playlists and
to adjust my seat. Nothing seemed to be
going my way that night. I knew that
things were probably going to go south as soon as I got there, so I wasn’t
exactly in a rush to be able to get to my brother’s place. But, as much as I often took issue with my
brother, he was still my brother, and I needed to be there to help my mom. I arrived a few hours later to his apartment
to the sight of my grieving mom and police cars that were still getting details
of the scene. I tried to look for a way
inside, but everything was taped up. I
could tell that there were going to be problems if I tried to get past that
tape to get inside, so I decided to just park outside the apartment complex and
try to learn what I could from my mom.
“Hey, Mom. Sorry it took so long, but I’m here.”
My mom was
tear-stricken, having spent what I could only assume to be hours crying for my
brother. “Derrick, your brother…” She got caught up on her words and started to
cry again. I walked over to her and
hugged her as she cried into my shoulder.
It was clear to me how fresh all of this was. I must have gotten the call from my brother’s
best friend Jessie hours before. He
always hung out with my brother and would play games with him online. He was the one who first told me that
something happened. Nobody else came to
check up on my brother but him. After
what could only have been assumed to be hours with no response, Jessie went to
check up on my brother after he didn’t respond to several texts and calls. They were supposed to hang out that day since
they both had the day off from working at a local restaurant, but my brother
never picked up the phone. He found my
brother dead with his head decapitated and placed in front of his computer
monitor. An image of the graphic that
was used by the killer was left on the computer monitor and was spray-painted
onto the wall. It read “IP”, short for
“Invictus Persona”. It was the mark of a
serial killer that had been operating across the entire country. I just didn’t know why, of all people, this
guy would choose my brother. Chase may
not have always been the best person, but he wasn’t worthy of this.
“Derrick, Chase’s
body is going with the police for a little while, along with all his
stuff. They need to investigate why he
was targeted.” She had a hard time
getting the words out, but I knew that my mother would. She’s a strong woman, always has been. She was always straight and to the point, but
when it came to this situation, I could tell that she felt helpless. Being around her forced me to move from being
overwhelmed by the shock to even cry to being moved into tears of my own. As the paramedics drove off with my brother’s
body in tow, it all finally sank in for me.
My brother was gone, and all that mattered to me now was making sure
whoever did this to him paid dearly. I
stayed with my mom for a while before she told me to drive out to her place to
stay at for the night. While in the car,
I called up Jessie to see if there was anything that he could provide me
outside of what he had already sent in texts.
“Hey,
Jessie! It’s been a bit. Thanks for contacting me earlier.”
“Hey,
Derrick! Sorry for not having messaged
sooner. I was in so much shock that all
I could think of doing was calling the cops as soon as I saw Chase. Nothing in my life has traumatized me more
than seeing him like that.”
I was thankful
that I didn’t have to see him like that at least. “Was there anything else other than the
symbol on my brother’s computer and the wall?”
Chase started
getting choked up. I was fighting the
feeling myself. I wanted answers and I
wanted to know what Chase knew so that I could be a little bit closer to what
happened. It was going to be a while
before the police brought my brother’s stuff to my mom or to me, so I needed to
get what I could while it was fresh. “I-“
Chase fell silent as he was trying to formulate the words in his
head. It’s clear that something was on
his mind, but he was having a hard time expressing it. It was clear to me that seeing my brother
like that would probably have me feeling a similar way, if not even worse. I felt bad for pressing Chase like that, but
I needed answers.
“Jessie, I know
that you’re dealing with a lot right now, man.
But I need your help. The only
person who was in that room aside from the police was you. The police aren’t giving me much right
now. They just told me that you called
them and that they recognized telltale signs of a serial killer. That’s all they gave me. I need more, man.”
I could hear him
audibly swallow on his end, preparing himself to answer me. “I saw him there, Derrick. I saw Chase.
His room was covered in blood and newspaper clippings. It was a horror show. There were weird messages pinned on the walls
and strings connecting things together.
It looked like a lot had been torn off the walls, but not all of it was
taken down. It looked like whoever had
been there knew that there was something that Chase knew that he shouldn’t have
known.”
This was chilling,
to say the least. To know that my
brother was likely tracking down the same guy who killed him was enough to make
me want to hide away, but I knew that I couldn’t give up on him. I needed to know more. “That’s a lot, Jessie. Thank you.
Did you happen to see anything that made sense to you? Maybe a clue as to what he was looking for?”
Jessie started to
catch up to my motives and started to question through his tears whether he
could answer me any further. “I don’t
know, man. Your brother was always looking
after the next thing. He was almost
obsessive when it came to understanding stuff, you know? He wanted to know everything. He was like that with his ex, with me, with
everybody. He had a great memory, knew
what everybody preferred, where everybody would be, and what to bring if
somebody needed help. He was a reliable
guy until he got got…you know? You know
how he was more than I ever would. What
kept you from knowing more about what your bro was up to, Derrick? It seemed like you two were really close when
we were growing up. What changed?”
I sighed as I
remembered how my brother and I had our little split and went our different
directions. He wanted to start up a
restaurant and wanted to have a family place, where both of us would work. But for me?
I wanted to be a private investigator.
I wanted to work the beat. I
wanted to know what it was like to bring someone to justice. It seemed like my brother wanted the same
thing, he just wanted to know what it felt like to be close to the action from
home. He wanted something that felt
safe. To him, having family and reliable
people would be all that he needed to make things work. He wanted a family business, something that
would last beyond both of us, but his plans to get there were taking him a
while. He wanted to try and work his way
up instead of going at it from an angle that would allow for him to own and run
the restaurant. He wanted to be in the
middle of the action when it came to cooking.
He just wanted to be able to be secure in his world at the same
time. Now that the world had come back
and taken him from me, from Jessie, from everybody, I felt like it was my
mission to finish what he was looking into in his past time away from that restaurant. I needed whatever he had on his computer and
those walls, and I needed it soon.
“Chase and I went
our separate ways, man. We had different
plans. He wanted to run a
restaurant. I wanted to
investigate. Now, it looks like my
brother gave me something to start with.
I’m looking to help the investigators track down who killed him and
bring that guy to justice. I’m not going
to let my brother just go like that, man.
I can’t.”
Jessie started to
adjust himself in his seat. I could hear
him getting nervous. “I don’t know,
Derrick. That’s a tall order. From what I saw, it looked like there were
multiple people. It wasn’t just one
person. They were different people, looking
at their size in the pictures, but they all were connected. There was a paper next to his head that had
something on it though. I saved it just
in case I needed it. It looked like it
was addressed to you. I think it was a
letter. I saved it in my pocket. I can give that to you the next chance that I
get.”
I started getting
excited. This felt like the start of
something big. I felt nervous too, but
my excitement for that letter started to get my blood pumping. “That’d be great! Meet me at my mom’s place tomorrow, if you
can. I really need that letter,
man. I appreciate you doing this for me
man! Thank you so much!”
“No problem,
man. Hey, if you or your mom need
anything, you call me, ok?”
“Will do, thanks,
Jessie!”
I hung up the
phone with an uneasy feeling. On one
hand, I was still grieving my brother, but on the other, my mind felt set on
trying to track down his killer. I was
just one step closer to bringing this person to justice, and now, it was my
mission to make it so.
I made my way to my mom’s place and got settled in for the night. While I knew that I wouldn’t sleep that night, I wanted to feel as rested as I could, given the circumstances. Everything was rushing through my head, all the possibilities of what the reasoning was for Chase to get got like that. I knew that there had to be a reason that he was killed by an infamous serial killer. He had to be too close to something and it must have sent someone after him. This letter was going to be what made the difference for me. I knew that there had to be something special about that letter to be placed right next to my brother’s head. If that killer left it there, they must have known that it was going to be read by someone as a means by which to taunt the reader. As soon as Jessie gives it over to me, I know that I’ll have the start of my own personal investigation, the investigation of the murder of my brother, Chase Boseman.
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