This is a very short story, totalling only about 4 pages on a WordPerfect document. It was written quickly, and, though added to, still remains very short in comparisons to other works similar. This is also in due to its format as the statement of a convicted murderer.

The Statement of Dupont Connant

The following is the written statement of accused murderer Dupont Connant, of the incident taking place within the Percantra manor. He has requested that it be read before his execution, and that request has been honoured. Know that Connant has been found guilty of murder — we implore you not to believe all that is said, for Connant has changed his defence many times in the duration of his prison sentence.

I was but a servant for her, the divine beauty that was the sweet Lady Percantra. Her thick brown locks tracing down her back, her supple frame supporting such fine breasts, her complexion pale as moon and her voice as soft as silk. Oh, so sweet was she. And I was her servant, so low compared to her godliness. And yet I found myself wanting her, wanting to hold that pale beauty in my arms and kiss her soft lips beneath the starlit sky.

The thought came not sudden — indeed, it took many days for it to formulate! However, within my quarters, I plotted to win that beautiful woman that I served, that I would serve unto death. Oh, my longing was beyond the conjecture of the human mind! And she, in her modesty, scoffed, pretending not to feel my affection. Yet I could tell her secret longing for me, and it was so great that it served as no less than a gravitational pull, ultimately joining us together. Thus I hatched the Plan.

Reimont was in the way. That blonde haired serf of society, that brutish devil wrapped in a charming frame. Others may be fooled, but I knew better! I saw through her facade of interest at his stories! I saw her anguish, so high that she would moan, whenever they kissed! I saw the emptiness as she said ‘I love you’ to him as he walked from her dining quarters! There could be no fooling the trained eye of a servant! Ha! Ha!

The Plan thus came into fruition one stormy night when he and she were chattering within her living room. Her laugh was painful, so forced, and I could see that she was uninterested by the drowsy battering of her eyelashes. One of the other maids came up to me.

‘It is a painful sight for you, I reckon,’ she said. I regarded the portly grey-haired woman with a leer.

‘Oh how it burns my soul,’ I despaired after many moments. ‘To see a fiery, fair, and fortunate woman such as she, to fall prey to a devil such as him! Everyday does it fill my heart with such powerful disgust — I feel that I may burst, if I do not feel her breath upon my skin!’

‘Aye, you are a madman.’

‘Be silent, or you will see my darker side, Isabella,’ I warned her. She shook her head and left the room.

By then I felt that I had to act. I could stand by idle no longer. I brought the lady and her wretch a glass of wine. She drank gladly, and returned to that sad display of feigned affection.

‘Tell me more, Reimont,’ she purred, so painful to her that I could see it. O how it pained me to see my love in such anguish! O how it pained me to see my love with such hopelessness! She could be rid not of this fool by her own designs — thus I would aid her.

As fortune would have had it, one of the maids called her, and she politely — ever so politely! — excused herself. Smiling, I made my way into the room, standing before Reimont the Fool and wringing my hands.

‘Would Sir like anything while he waits?’ I asked painfully.

‘Hello, my good Dupont!’ he exclaimed. ‘If you would be so kind, I would fancy a glass of water.’

‘Yes, m’lord.’ Fetching his water I came back to see him standing, pacing around the carpet.

‘She is beautiful, is she not?’ he asked me. I laid his drink upon the table and stepped before the chair he’d been sitting on, which sat beside the fireplace.

‘A handsome woman, I do suppose,’ I said, my hands quivering with rage.

‘How often I have dreamt of marrying her,’ he continued, now walking before the archway that lead to the kitchen. ‘I believe that she is a goddess incarnate. Her beauty is unmatched by all those in town, and possibly in all the country!’

‘If not all the world,’ I laughed nervously. Slowly I stepped closer to the fireplace.

‘True!’ he laughed. By now he was lapping the room, coming near me yet still with his head bowed in thought. ‘I await the day that she finally accepts my hand!’

‘But Sir. Surely, in all the world, there are others who eye her also?’

‘Indeed! There are many who wish her hand! A great many.’

My hand finally reached the fire poker, and slowly I slid it from its shelf. Reimont stepped past me. Lifting it high over my head, I snarled:

‘But only one does she desire!’

With that I brought the poker hard upon his head, bringing him to his knees and fracturing his skull. Drawing a handkerchief from my pocket, I bent quickly down and covered the wound, stopping the blood from reaching the carpet and heaving him slowly into my arms. I had to reach my quarters, where I might stash the body until there was time to truly dispose of it.

‘Dupont!’ came a shrill cry from the kitchen as I passed through, almost at the stairs. It was one of the maids. The first thought in my mind was that I had blown it, and now I would be punished by the ignoramuses of the law, rather than be rewarded by my goddess for saving her.

’Twas then that I remembered — I had the poker still in my hand. A deed done once is much easier the second time, yea? Laying Reimont down quickly, I flew forward in rage and, in one swing, laid the maid upon the floor. Then, grabbing them both, I struggled to traverse the stairs. And when at last I managed, I threw down their bodies upon the floor and struggled to find an old revolver that I had stashed under my bed. Cocking its hammer, I took a breath and let the adrenaline rush wear off.

The deed was done! Reimont, and one of the insignificant maids, were disposed of! I sniggered, and could feel my goal closer to me. I would hold my darling within my arms soon enough! Ha!

There came a knock on the door, and I heard its knob turning. Before I knew what I was doing I had aimed my black revolver and pulled the trigger, unleashing the large-diametre round from the chamber of the metallic deathbringer. Before I knew what I was doing I saw the door open and the bullet strike clean through the chest of a maiden fair. Before I knew what I was doing I had shot a hole through my love’s chest.

She wavered a moment, awestruck and in pain, ere she fell forward to her knees and grasped the wound. My hand shook! My lip quivered! My mind raced! I took a step forward and closer examined the wound. I fear that I’d hit her heart. My beauty was to die!

‘No!’ I screamed, in a rage so primal it could not be described. Lightning flashed; thunder roared. And I felt a sharp pain the the back of my head as the room exploded white. I fell forward onto the carpet, which was soaked with the blood that had leaked from my love’s chest. My face was within its depths.

I heard Reimont issue a groan of resignation as he fell back onto the bed. My attack was not fatal, it seemed. And worse yet, I lay there, in the pool of my lover’s blood. My mouth was upon the carpet, and my nose pressed in. Ever did it become deeper, and I longed to move — but my body registered not the movement. For some reason I could not move, whether an act of Hell or some trauma to my head. I sucked in a lung-full of water, and coughed in agony. My lover’s lifeblood flooded through me; I coughed; I spat; I growled in a horrible rage at Reimont.

A hand seized me by the collar, and pulled me up. Coughing up the blood I had inhaled, I looked into the face of Reimont — whose face was twisted in anger. I felt force in my gut, and then again, and then a punch in the face. A tooth broke loose, which I swallowed. Reimont kept the barrage of punches coming, wild noises escaping his contorted face.

And when next I woke following the next punch, I found myself in a cell. I found later that I was to be executed, and today that day has come. I am Dupont, and I am an innocent man, and I deem you shall find it so if you look upon these papers.

The written statement of a Dupont Connant, his defence in the murder of Lillian Percantra. Arthur Reimont arranged her funeral service, and oversaw that Dupont was executed the same day. May Ms. Percantra rest in peace.