Kaitlin and Samantha followed sheriff’s police car to Milwood
“Park by the road,” he shouted to them “we can’t have two sets of tire tracks”
They did as he asked.
When they got to the back of the asylum sheriff was cutting through the chain link fence with bolt cutters. He was almost done when they got there. “Too old to be climbing fences.”
The girls just smiled back at him.
They made their way wordlessly down to the basement. He handed them gloves. “Can’t let anyone find out you were here.”
They walked down the stairs lower into the earth.
“So this room was what all the fuss was about?” he asked
“Yeah.” Said Kaitlin
“Do you see the writing on the walls?” asked Samantha “It didn’t show up on video”
“Peculiar.” He said “Well, I’ve seen it”
They walked back up the stairs and replaced the bookshelf as best they could.
“Later, I want you girls to make sure no one ever wanders down there again.” He said.
They walked into one of the hospital rooms and he sat down.
After a momentary pause he said “Well, I guess this is it. I’ve thought about it now, I’ve had a good life. No regrets anymore, always had everything I needed. Protected this town fifty-five years. I’m ready.” He pulled out his revolver and pointed it at his head. “I’ll hold the gun here, but one of you have to pull the trigger.”
Kaitlin stepped forward. She put her finger on the trigger. Everyone was frozen for a couple seconds.
He chuckled “Come on miss, the anticipation’ll kill me before you do.”
“I can’t” Kaitlin started to cry
Samantha walked next to Kaitlin, she put her finger over Kaitlin’s and pushed down.
The gun went off and sheriff fell dead onto the floor.
“We both did it” said Samantha
They left the scene trying not to look at sheriff’s body.
They were both crying as they drove back to town. There was a solemn silence. The pity of it all, sheriff was a great man, the rest of the town knew it, but they would think that in the end, he was a seventy-seven year old who committed suicide for no reason. No one would know the heroism of his death.
It hadn’t struck them yet that they had killed a man. They were both feeling so down about this whole situation. That was momentarily interrupted when Samantha felt an old familiar sensation. She screamed it out with joy “I have to Pee!”
They both had huge smiles with tears still on their faces.
Samantha walked into her perfectly tidy sheriff’s office and sat down.
She and Kaitlin were the only people who could truly honor his memory. The only people who knew his sacrifice for them, and also the whole town.
They honored his memory by being the best sheriffs they could, their whole lives focused around their jobs.
Also, they couldn’t explain why, it just felt right. It reminded them of when he helped them, but every once in a while they would wear diapers.