When something is posted under the door of the Observer around this time of year it’s normally one of three things: a late christmas card, a party invite (watching certain colleagues dance is a thing to behold), or a early reminder from the IRS kindly reminding us that April isn’t that far off and we need to start thinking about our tax returns. This time, however, what arrived was something insidious and frightening that was passed under the door this past weekend (Saturday 28th December), a claim of having committed murder with the threat that this was only the first, and there would be more.
And while this is uncommon for the Observer to receive nor is it ever something we’d take lightly, sadly it is not usually just an empty threat. In the past few weeks my colleagues have fielded numerous stories about killings, deaths, and crimes that hark back to a recent past in Hathian that I for one as a long time contributor to this newspaper hoped we would never experience again, where to walk the streets is to take your life in your hands.
What we received was a hand written letter. Most disturbingly was the stamp at the bottom of the letter, where has in the distant past this would have been made of a wax this letter had instead been stamped in, what worryingly appears to be some type of blood though this will be passed on to Hathian Police Department to investigate and to check. The stamp was a triangle with a vertical line through it. And the contents of the letter? Well, after consultation with our editor and legal team, we have decided to publish the full contents of this letter. For full disclosure, while we may be printing this letter, we do so only to report the facts of this story, and we in no way can or would ever condone the criminal acts this person is claiming to have committed or the threats they make to commit further crimes of a similar nature.
To whom it may concern,
An understanding must be made when one is to bring themselves to the conclusion that they are doing the right thing. That understanding is that there are many people affected by all actions. Those people are both direct and indirect, and at the same time, passive, and active. None of whom know who they are until they see the results of the action firsthand.
Pardon my rambling, but as cryptic as it sounds, it is basically justification for what I did. I ended a girl’s life… wrapped her up in neat little boxes, and set them under a tree in the park. She wasn’t anyone of importance, but at the same time, none of us are. A young girl chosen at random left this mortal coil in a timely fashion. It was just her time to go.
But who knows? She could have become the next Hitler. Then again she could have been the next Mr. Rogers.
Hated or beloved, no one will know now. But she is only the first of many.
