The Tell-Tale Heart

This story is a rough one. It tells that tale of a man proving he is not crazy by explaining how he murdered a man because of his eye. I do believe that this man was crazy for doing this, but it is hard throughout the story to believe everything he is saying. He is insane and it is not always the best idea to believe someone who does not always tell the story as it is happening. While he does say that the man is not a bad person, it is hard to believe that even someone as weird as him would kill him for no reason.

That is why I have to conclude that while what he did was wrong that there was a reason for it. He does not tell us it, but there is a lot he does not tell us. We cannot believe everything he says and the fact that the eye is so bad makes me think that maybe he had a bad experience with the man before. However, this story could just be a story of a man who cannot handle certain aspects of life. Including this old man's life.

A Night to Remember

Carl awoke once again to the cold feeling of wet sheets. He had consistently had night sweats and had no real way of getting rid of them. He lived on the lake, but even the warm breezes that he would feel were not enough. The air conditioning was not reliable because of the constant power outages on his block. Worst of all, the rest of his family liked the heat because it reminded them of their old home in the south. Carl's only solution was going to the beach.

There he could feel the coolness of the water refreshing him with every step closer. It was the only place in the city he felt he could relate himself to nature. As he walked down the beach, he could feel a combination of sand and rocks mixing with his feet. Even by this cooling spot of his, he was still very hot. He decided that the only way to solve this was by swimming. He took off his shirt and walked into the water.

Behind him he heard the steps of another person. His twin sister Violet. She was the favorite in the family and tended to get all of the attention. She always knew though when Carl was not feeling the best. Although it was dark he could tell that it was her by her bright blonde hair that was visible at the darkest of times. She walked up behind him and took a deep breath.

"Why did you come here?"

"What?"

"You know it isn't safe."

"It won't happen to us. We are safe here at night. I've only ever heard of anything bad happening in the mornings."

Violet looked at him for a moment pondering what would be the right answer.

"Let's go swimming."

The two stepped into the water and looked at each other one last time before diving in. The waves were bigger than usual, but it did not stop either of them from getting to the deep water relatively soon. They were both always more comfortable there. Then they both felt what they had feared before going into the water. The riptide.

It was common to feel riptides, but recently there had been a mad who would wait for a riptide and would grab people under the water during them. Well, this was the belief. When both Carl and Violet felt themselves being taken away, they felt that it was the end. They started to panic and swam for the shore as fast as they could. They were not really sure how far away they were from the shore only that the lights of the city were in that direction.

Carl was swimming and took a break to make sure his sister was keeping up. She was nowhere to be found. He started to scream her name, but knew that she would not be anywhere around. He saw someone waiting at the pier and swam toward it. He thought it was his only chance of maybe saving his sister from this awful death. However, she had not been on top of the water for a while and he was worried that it was already too late. That maybe there was not anything he could do and he was already too late. He still swam to the pier and when he got there the man was nowhere to be found and his sister was not either.

He climbed up the pier and saw a series of wet spots from some big object. He had to assume that it was his sister in order to still have hope. He started running in the direction and followed it till it stopped write at the boardwalk where people often exercised. What would he do? How would he explain this too his parents?

On his way home he walked slowly pondering his best move. He had no idea that this alleged "diver killer" was real. How could something like this be possible in a city with so much protection?

When he got home he knew that the best thing to do would be to tell his parents. Once he told them they slapped him and immediately called the police. When they answered, they were sorry to confess that they had already found her body. She was hanging from a tree by her neck. A suicide.

Carl knew this was not true. He insisted that the police do an autopsy to confirm that this allegation was true before they did anything else. The next few days were hard. The family sat at home and waited for the news. Not sure if they should have a funeral or not. Carl and his parents were convinced it was a murder, but how could they be so sure. Carl distinctly remembered Violet warning him about going in the water not the other way around. However, the killer had never made any of his victims look like it was a suicide. Maybe Carl was closer to finding the killer that night than anyone else had been. For some reason, Carl was sure that the man standing on the pier was the murderer. However, if he was the murder the alleged murderer was a diver and this man was standing on the pier.

When the autopsy results came back, everyone was surprised. The police found that Violet had actually been tried to be saved. They found evidence of calcium chloride in her system that was used to stop the clotting in her heart. Someone was trying to help her. However, this was not good enough for Carl. That night he decided he had to go back to the beach.

He stood on the side of the pier and waited for someone to come. Some sort of evidence that his sister was not accidentally killed. Why would someone try to save her and then hang her from a tree? The next morning when Carl was eating his breakfast a man walked up to the door and arrested his father. The cop said that his father assisted in the murders that had happened in the past. He was an assistant to this diver who had killed these people in the riptides. The diver would kill them and his father would bury them. It was a two-man murder. Carl sat there with tears streaming down his face and knew that he was the man standing on the pier. When his father confessed, it was said that he tried to save his daughter once he found out who it was, but it had already been too late. It was how his father had been doing so well lately financially. His father had tried to save Violet, but she was doomed. The family would never be the same.