’I can’t fret over the how, not yet; I still am too young to do anything significant; for now, I need to work to get my own life stabilized first.’
’To make matters worse, I can’t even get answers from Arkadia if making major changes to my own life will push the Descent, and my footprint on history wasn’t small.’
While thinking and absentmindedly tapping on my chin with my index finger, an idea began forming in my head, one that checked several of the boxes I was looking for if it panned out properly.
As it turns out, one of my Adhd driven hyperfocuses in my previous life presented a large opportunity to not only earn me some cash but also push the Descent by a decent amount.
’It could work, but there are a lot of factors to consider; for starters, I could potentially put a lot of heat and attention on myself. Still, the fact that it involves changing the lives of multiple people with each option means I can’t ignore the possibility that I won’t be the only one who comes up with this idea.
The more I mulled over this idea, the more two singular words proved to be the best shot I had at meeting my Timeline change quota.
Those two words, when apart, didn’t mean much; however, the moment they were paired together, it struck fear in the hearts of a good majority of people.
I say the phrase a good majority because, realistically, there are several drastically different types of reactions to how people view these two words when paired.
Ones who feared the type of person the words described, the ones who idolized and wished to earn that title themselves, those who had earned themselves the title, those who wanted to stop the people who earned the title, and lastly, there are those, like me, who are curious to a point we must learn everything about them.
Serial Killers.
The phrase dates back to the early 19th century, but it has always been a negative connotation filled with fear and dread.
I’d say a better part of 20 years of my life revolved around watching multiple documentaries and interviews, reading books, and even listening to podcasts about the world’s most heinous killers.
Now, I would put that niche knowledge to use; the only question was how.
There were only two options I could choose from if I wanted to utilize histories Serial Killers to my advantage. If I were a righteous person, I wouldn’t even humor the second choice, and luckily, I don’t have such biases.
Option One was the one the "Good Guys" would use to expedite the capture of known serial killers or bring their crimes to light. In doing so, they could earn a few extra bucks from the bounties and change the lives of many by leading to the capture of the Serial Killer earlier than in the future.
Then…heh, then there was option two, that only the sickest of individuals would even humor, and that was AIDING them in their sick fantasies.
The second option was FAR more risky than the first. Still, for some reason, apart from me being a so-called Villain, this option seemed to call to me because it presented the opportunity to meet and study the habits I had only read, watched, and heard about.
Hell, to some extent, I could even be considered a Serial Killer myself, if not one of the worst ever to live, that is, if you count up the hundreds of millions of lives I’ve personally reaped.
However, there was a relatively big difference between my actions and those of a Serial Killer, and that was the fact that I didn’t get a thrill from killing. To me, it was no different than cutting grass, that is, apart from the bastards on whom I got revenge.
Defining a Serial Killer is a difficult task, but nearly all of them have similar traits, which can be categorized and formed into a psychological profile.
There is, though, a standard recipe for creating one: childhood trauma, mental disorders, and a trigger. Most Serial Killers suffered abuse at the hands of one or both parents, which was further exacerbated by them having one of multiple mental health disabilities such as Autism, or in more radical cases, antisocial personality disorder or Schizophrenia.
At some point along the way, they will exhibit violent tendencies outside the purview of their family, such as killing small animals or torturing objects representing the source of their hate.
Then comes the final part, the trigger; in some cases, it’s the death of their abuser, and in others, it’s just a very bad day. There is no way to tell what exactly will set them off, but once the trigger is applied, BOOM, the budding ball of trauma unravels and begins murdering people.
The odd thing is, although some known Serial Killers aren’t intelligent, the vast majority of them are extremely smart, personable, and adept at masking their actions behind a well-thought-out and crafted Façade.
Tom Bindy is a prime example of this; for years, he systematically murdered dozens of young women in the 1970s, but when you look at him, all you would see is a charming and handsome man; that was what he used to lure these young women to him.
Thinking about Tom Bindy in particular, I couldn’t help but sigh ruefully.
’If only I had been born back then, I could have had a good conversation with the man. Although he was a pathological liar and narcissist, it would have been interesting to pick his brain with my Talent to figure out how he thinks.’
’Sigh, alright, I need to make a list of Serial Killers who were active in the early 90s but weren’t caught till several years later.’ Without looking, I reached over and pulled a small balled-up blankie to my side and laid down on it.
Staring up at the ceiling with my arms crossed over my chest, I began running through all the killers I had studied before, quickly filtering out any that were caught before 1995.
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