4 years ago...

The Roper family are on their way to enjoy a fun filled vacation at the beach. Michael planned ahead and rented a beach house. Due to his smooth persuasive negotiations, they were able to rent it for a small price. 16-year-old Melanie Roper is sitting in the backseat of the family van with her 8-year-old sister, Beatrice Roper. This will be a great day for all of them. A great day, indeed.

Arriving at their destination, the family stepped out of the van. "Not bad, huh?" Michael told the family. Their eyes gazed upon the beauty of the beach house. With its beautifully decorated exterior designs, it gives the viewer the expression that this is a perfect place for them to purify their soul. A sort of sacred temple but without the religious items and decorations. Just the presence of purification. They entered and they saw that the interior designs are as beautiful as the exterior. A wide living room, a kitchen, a dining room table and chairs, and the bedrooms are well decorated. This will be the most memorable summer vacation ever, Melanie thought.

3 days after settling in on the beach house, Philina wanted to go shopping and decided to take Melanie and Beatrice with her. Michael was left alone in the house. Not wanting to linger in the same room for hours, he went out to the beach. He stared at the sea for a long time. The sun slowly sets. "She loved the sunset..." he muttered. He's actually referring to June who died 4 years ago. She died a horrible death: A knife stabbed right in her face. Another body was also found in the room. The other body, Cindy, had her throat slit. She died slowly and painfully. The murderer was never found. Michael didn't really had much interest to Cindy but to June it is very different. He never thought that he'd fall in love all over again.

June liked beaches especially when the sun sets where she could gaze at it until night covers the sky. Michael still remember their memorable meeting. It was on a beach almost the same as this one. Michael had a business trip and so he is staying in a resort with a few of his office-mates just near there. He wanted to look at the sea to relieve his stress. As he relaxed, just a simple glance at his side and his eyes already caught the attention of a stunning young beauty. With her long black hair swaying at the sea breeze, to her wet, shining eyes gazing at the sun. Her beauty stunned Michael for a few seconds before he realized he was walking towards her involuntarily.

She noticed him and felt a little afraid. "Uh... what?" she asked him. He didn't know what to do, he has never been this nervous before. The only thing he could say was "Um... uh... h--hi!" Obviously he was helpless back then. He was more surprised when he met her again in a coffee shop. She lived in the same city as him and she often comes by at this coffee shop after work. In just a few months, they started seeing each other more often. A few days before her death, he's having coffee with June in a cafe. For a week he was been looking really pale. Maybe it's because of Melanie's words before he left the house one day, "How long do you think you can keep June a secret?" He thought he was busted. He thought his wife has already found out. He thought that maybe his wife will kill him for doing something like this. He knows she's capable of doing something like that. Because of it, he got really paranoid. He didn't need to question how she knew June's name because she called a few times at his home where Philina would answer it. Michael made excuses to Philina and June and made sure everything is okay. "You act like you've just killed somebody." June told him. Just then, he thought he saw Philina from the other side of the street. He needed to talk to her.

He suddenly called the date off with June. After walking her home, he immediately ran towards Philina's work place. He was able to catch up to Philina before she left the building. "Philina! Hey, Philina!" he called her out from the crowd. After a while, he caught up with her. "Look, Philina..." after that he didn't know where to start his explanation. He takes a deep breath, "Philina... about June... I..." But before he could explain any further, Philina interrupted him. "No, no, no, no, no. I am not about to stand here and hear you say that you're planning on cancelling our June outing, are you?" she said with her arms crossing each other. Michael looked at his wife with confused eyes. "Our family outing on June, Michael. Don't tell me you've forgotten about it?" Finally he understood what she meant. The surprise outing he and Philina planned on June for Beatrice's fifth birthday. That's what Melanie meant. She must've figured it out.

"This isn't about the outing, is it?" Philina added. Concerned about the silence between them.
"Yes, it is! Yes, it is! I--I--I was just about to tell you that I'm planning on moving the outing on Sunday instead of Friday."
"But it should be on Friday! That's the only day off I can have."
"Can't you talk to your boss?"
"We've already talked about this, Michael. I already told you that..."

Their 'fight' lasted for a long time. On that same time, Michael decided to play it safe and try to avoid June for a few days. He needed to be sure that Philina doesn't know about her. And because of his negligence, June is dead. He wasn't really at fault but after receiving her last message to him, he cried a river. She was still thinking of him even in her dying moment.

After clearing his head, he went back to the beach house. 2 hours pass and the girls came back with bags of groceries.

3 days go by and the family is enjoying their stay at the beach. Around that time, Philina has looked really bothered about something. One night, while Michael and the girls are fast alseep, Philina went outside to get some fresh air. The beach was the only place she could go. "sigh... I should be having fun..." she told herself but there is something that she can't get out of her mind. Footsteps are heard and are getting louder and louder. Something that she did 4 years ago has come back to torment her...

4 years ago, Philina had been working with a small company as a secretary of an executive. The executive is a handsome, young man and is very much interested in girls. He tries his best to look like the best. Any woman can fall for him instantly with his so called, "Irresistible Charm" except for one, Philina. Philina has spent a lot of time with this man and may have already become immune to his charm. At least, that was his explanation about it. Intrigued that a female is actually ignoring him, he started to get closer to her as much as he can.

As the days go by, the man's advances become more and more harassing. Philina didn't know what to do. If she did anything she could get fired. She's too worried that she can't think of anything except let him do what he wants. He's just touching me that's all, she tried to convince herself. Though this may already be considered sexual harassment, Philina didn't even bother reporting this to the authorities. Her reason, even she doesn't know why. "Is it because... I like this?!!" she told herself. No matter what other explanations she could give, only one fits the bill: She likes his advances. As days turn into weeks, the executive has finally caught his prey. With only the two of them left in the office, the snake made its move. Grabbing Philina from behind, the man started to violate her. "Sir! What are you doing?!" Philina protested but seeing his actions, the answer was already clear to her and just like she did with every other things he did to her, she didn't fight.

When she got back home, her husband waits for her in the living room. "Where were you?" he asked her. The only thing she could say is that she had to do some extra work to explain why she was so late. Usually she'd be home by 9 but she got home half-past 11. "Where did you get that bump?" he asked her. She touched it and remembered the encounter. The executive was really rough on her. Even when she resisted just a little, he retaliated by pinning her down. She got that bump when he pushed her to the ground. His push was strong that it sent her falling towards the wall and then to the ground. She fell unconscious from fear, shock and pain. When she came to, almost all her clothes were removed and she was all alone. "... I slipped and bumped my head on the wall." she answered. When he asked if he should take a look at it, she didn't want to. She didn't want to... She didn't want to let him see her. Not right now. Not in her current state. After their conversation she rushed to the bathrom.

She kept thinking 'I've done something Michael will never forgive me for!' Tears poured like a waterfall from her reddened eyes. She was crying all the way back home. Guilt, fear and lust are the emotions that are most strong in her right now. Lust from what the executive did. Guilt from what she did. And fear from thinking of the consequences of her actions. Losing Michael will be like losing her life and if he ever found out about this... she didn't even want to know how he'll react. Just then, there was a knock on the bathroom door. "Philina," it's Michael. Michael wanted to talk to his wife. They needed to straighten everything out. They had to...

"Philina Roper," a familiar voice said to Philina. She turned around.
"You!" she said in a mixture of shock and fear.
"They let me off early. Now it's payback time, my dear."

It's him again. The executive. And now he's back for revenge. He went to jail for sexual harassment with the help of Michael. Philina finally had the courage to tell her husband the truth of what happened to her. Her reaction was the opposite of what she expected. He was mad but not at her, but at the executive. She always thought of him as a lady's man who only looks for fresh and ripe girls. She's half-right and half-wrong. Sure, Michael is a lady's man who only looks for fresh and ripe girls but he is not cruel enough to watch his life-time partner get hurt and do nothing about it. He feels punished because of his double cheating on her. This is what he got for starting a relationship with another woman. Neglect. He has neglected Philina for weeks now. So he understood why she gave in to his advances.

"Come back here! You can't run from me, Philina. I will get you!" he said out loud.

Philina just kept running. She kept running and running without stopping. But the former executive was too fast for her and she was caught. "Aha! You're mine now!!! Hahaha... OOWW!!! YOU BITCH!!!" With the strength to fight him now, Philina scratched his handsome face with her fingernails. Blood dripped from the man's face showing that her nails went really deep. Clunching a fist on his right hand, he punched Philina in the face. A small cracking sound was heard which means he broke her jaw. Lying on the floor and couldn't move because of the pain, Philina started to cry. The man went closer to her face. Philina was already weeping, begging for her life. He caressed her hair, then her cheeks, then her lips. Even though her jaws broken, he couldn't help but feel her tender lips again. He only tasted it once. On that night when he raped her. It tasted like raspberry. Filled with lust, he wanted to taste those delicious lips again. A long and deep kiss. Just like before, Philina didn't fought. How can she? When pain is already draining her strength and if she moves her mouth even just a little, the pain would just get worse. After a long and 'passionate' kiss, he holds her head with both hands. "Good night, my dear." his last words to her. He tightened his grip and snapped her neck with a single quick move. "One down... one more to go..."

Realizing Philina is still not in bed, Michael went out to look for her. It's unusual for her to be out this long. All the lights are out and the only light he uses to see is the moonlight. As he arrived at the kitchen he felt the presence of someone else. His first thought was that it's Philina but after a while he finally realized it wasn't her. "Good evening, pretty boy." a mocking voice coming from the kitchen. "Who are you?" Michael shouted back. Not expecting a reply, Michael grabbed a chair nearby and tried to hit the trespasser. But what Michael didn't expect was that the tresspasser was holding a gun. With just one shot, Michael collapsed to the floor obviously from the bullet wound he has on his stomach. A woman's scream can be heard from the distance. It was Melanie. Seeing her made the tresspasser to run after her. "Run!" was all Michael could tell her.

Melanie did run. She ran for her life. She made sure that Beatrice wouldn't come down by locking her room. Melanie no longer has to worry about Beatrice but she now has to worry about herself since the tresspasser is close behind her. Escaping through the living room, she made her way to the garage. The tresspasser soon followed. He gazed upon the garage hoping to find his prey. He closed the door slowly and locked it. "There's no escape now." he said to the room. The garage doors are firmly closed and he already made sure of cutting the power before he broke inside the house. An advantage and disadvantage for a guy like him. CLONK! CLONK! CLONK! a sound came from his right. He pointed the gun at the direction and fired a round. BANG! He was surprised to see that it was only a piece of metal. CLONK! CLONK! more sounds coming from behind him. He turned and fired another round. Still, no one's there. "I'm done playing your games!" he shouted and all the answer he got was silence. It became really quiet. No trace of a sound to be heard. The man slowly made his way to the car. He checked the bottom and inside it. No one there. As he approached the back, he was ambushed.

Holding a pipe wrench in hand, Melanie smashed it with the man's head with all her might. She didn't care whether he would survive or not. Unfortunately, the man was still conscious. "cough... cough... hehe. You have a nice arm there, girl." he commented. Melanie only looked at him in disgust. But for a few more moments she finally remembered something. His father. "Don't even try," he said to her "your dad won't last long with that wound. The cops or even an ambulance would take 20 or 30 minutes to get here. He'll never make it." Still holding the gun, he pointed it at Melanie. "You have your mom's eyes, kid." a stupid remark. Not taking anymore of his words, Melanie jumped on him. BANG!!!

In the kitchen, Michael is still lying on the floor. A pool of blood surrounded him. He has just heard 3 gun shots coming from the garage. He feared for the worst. Just then, footsteps slowly made their way to Michael's position. "... Melanie..." he said. His vision started to get blurry from all the blood loss. No one would be sure if that is Melanie or the tresspasser. But her voice reassured Michael. "It's me, dad. It's me." Michael thanked the Lord for keeping his daughter safe.

Half an hour later, the police arrived. When they entered the house, they only found 2 people alive. Melanie and her sister, Beatrice. Michael didn't survive. When one of the policemen asked Melanie what happened, she told him the story. "... and he shot dad when he was about to hit him with the chair. Then, when dad was already on the ground... he... shot him in the... oh god..." she then told of what happened at the garage. "... I hit him in the head with a wrench but that wasn't enough to knock him out. I was lucky that he dropped his gun and took it. When I told him to get down... he ran up to me and grabbed me. And then I... I shot him. I--I didn't mean to it just happened that way..." she continued on with her story. She made a lie. It was all... a lie.

"Melanie, call an ambulance." Michael told Melanie.
"No." was her cold reply.
"What do you mean?"
"You'll die before they even get here. I'll just be wasting my time."
"W--What?!" Michael couldn't believe his ears.
"Mom's already dead, dad. That man already killed her on the beach."
"..." he couldn't say anything back. It's either because of the wound or his daughter's words.
"I no longer want you to suffer, dad. That's why I'm doing this." she pointed the gun at Michael.
"Melanie..."
"I know all about them, dad. I know about Cindy! I know about June! And I know about Kyla!" tears slowly drop down from her eyes.
"You..."
"You lied to me, dad. You lied to mom too. I thought that you really loved mom but she wasn't good enough for you, is she?!" her hands began to shake.

"Mom did the same thing to you, dad. She also cheated on you but I stopped it. I killed Greg before she even got close to her just so she can come back to you!"
"No..."
"But you just didn't want her... you want all the women! You've set your eyes on someone else when I tried my best to keep you two together!!" she began to cry.
"..." Michael didn't know what to say.
"So I made up my mind and kill all the women you start to go out with!"

"Yes, that's right. I killed Cindy and June. That was four years ago, dad! It wasn't easy but I did it."

"And then you started to date Kyla just a few days back so I killed her too. They still haven't found her body yet, though. I strangled her with a rope..."

"... and left her hanging on a tree in the woods."
"My god... what's happened to you?"
"..." she said everything she wanted to say. There was nothing left for her to say.
"You... you're no longer my daughter."
"No... I was your daughter... and now... I'm your killer." BANG!

Present day...

"Remember anything now, Ms. Roper." Jeffrey asked her impatiently. Melanie had been sitting in her chair without uttering a single word for almost an hour. She just stares forward, maybe she didn't even listen to Jeffrey's long recollection of the murders back then. Melanie... didn't care anymore. She has now remembered her dark past. She has now remembered what she did. Her parents didn't die in an accident. One of them died because of her. She has now remembered what happened to Beatrice.

On that night, Beatrice came to inform her older sister that she's pregnant and wished to get an abortion. Now she needs advice. She's just too young to be a mother.

"What am I gonna do?" Beatrice asked herself.
"..." Melanie just look at her in silence.
"My boyfriend won't even talk to me. He didn't want this to happen, either. Melanie... is it wrong for me to get an abortion?" she waited. Waited for her sister's answer.
"I... I don't want a niece or a nephew."
"... huh?"

She grabbed a long rope from the drawer. "W--what are you gonna do with that, Melanie?" Beatrice fearfully asks. Melanie just looked at her sister with those dark emotionless eyes of hers and says "To end your suffering..." She pushed Beatrice on her own bed and started to strangle her with the rope. She cried for help but Melanie's grip was too strong for any air to come in or out of her throat. She struggled with all her strength but it wasn't enough to stop her sister from strangling her to death. Choking and gasping for air, Beatrice soon stopped moving. After the deed was done, Melanie went to Beatrice's boyfriend's house. She then told him that he has nothing to worry about because he won't be a father. When she saw him make a sigh of relief after telling the news, Melanie no longer felt sorry for him. She then snuck something into one of the drawers in his bedroom when he wasn't looking. It was...

"Hey! Hey! Are you listening to me, Ms. Roper!?" Jeffrey tried to get Melanie back to reality.
"..." still not a word.
"... Fine. You can go now. I don't have any more questions to ask."
"Did you even ask any other questions?" she remarked to him but he didn't say another word after that.

Arriving home, the phone rang. When Melanie picked it up, Jeffrey answered her on the other line.

"Uh... Ms. Roper?"
"Yes?"
"We're just calling to let you know that we found your sister's killer."
"Really?"
"Yes. It was actually her boyfriend that did this. We even found a rope which may have been used as the murder weapon."
"So it was her boyfriend. Maybe it was because she's pregnant. She told me before she died that the news was a real shock to him."
"That could be his motive... but let's not jump to conclusions until we investigate this further."
"Well, let me know if you find anything."
"Yes, ma'am. Have a good day." CLICK!

Melanie slowly puts the phone back and made her way to her room. As the doors open, she is greeted by someone... her baby. Melanie had baby Justin in her life just a few months ago. It was the happiest moment of her life but on that same day where she gave birth, the father died in a car accident while on his way to the hospital. They were never officially married but they planned to in the near future. It was because of baby Justin that these two lovers were so close. And now, Melanie is having second thoughts if whether she should keep the baby or not. "I don't want you to suffer the way I did." she muttered to the baby in her arms. She took her free hand and slowly moved it nearer to the baby...

A few days later, Melanie sat on her bed thinking about what she just did. What she just did to baby Justin. "It's for the best." she muttered. But she couldn't stop crying these past few days. Was she right? Was the decision she made the right one? Was it okay to let everything go? Melanie no longer has anything. She now has nothing in her life. Reaching for the drawer, she took out a gun. The same gun that she used to kill the executive and her father. A .38 revolver, a standard gun. Melanie hasn't touched it in years. She didn't even bother changing the bullets. The used rounds are still in there. "With just one bullet left," she mutters "the pain and suffering will now end..." A tear runs down her cheek as she puts the gun to her mouth and... BANG!!!

"Suicide?" an investigator asked his partner.
"Yeah. I just can't understand why people would do that. I mean wasting away your chance at life. I--It doesn't make any sense."
"That's because you've never been in their shoes."

"People feel pain and suffering. Normally, anyone would likely try to end that pain whether by drugs, alcohol, or even seek psychiatric help."
"I see..."
"Now suicide is another method though in these cases, it's some kind of pain where it will never go away. Time won't heal the damages that has been caused."
"And in order to end the pain and suffering once and for all... they call upon the Grim Reaper."
"Exactly."
"Sad, though. She was a good person."
"Yeah. My daughter would always talk about her whenever she's in the hospital."
"So guys..." Jeffrey interrupted the conversation.
"Yes, sir?"
"Found anything?"
"Just this note, sir. It was right next to the victim."
"A suicide note, perhaps."
"We don't know. We didn't look at it. We thought it be better if you read it first, sir."
"..." Jeffrey slowly reads the note left by Melanie.
"So, what does it say?" the two investigators are filled with curiousity.
"... My god... my god..." Jeffrey held his forehead to suppress how he feels.

END