Song: Monster by Imagine Dragons

Mr. Harper:

These stupid investigators and therapist they think they know me well they don't. I will find a way out of these damn bars. They can't hold me back, nothing can. I'm so sick of telling them that I know nothing about all the instigations everyone is accusing me of. I did not hurt those women. Not one of them.

40 years ago...

When I was seven, I watched my dad beat the shit out of my mom. It was an everyday thing. It was so accustom to do that in our home that I thought that was the way all women were treated. Because some days he even let me hit on her. She never said a word and took it from us.

That night when I was seven, I will never forget all the blood on the floor, on the kitchen table. He lost it and literally beat her to death. She was the one arguing with him. She had enough and was wanting out and he made sure she would never leave him. Her lifeless body rested under the kitchen table.

I remember him smirking saying something about she had it coming. 'I showed her...didn't I boy...see what happens when you don't follow the rules around here.'

It scared the shit out of me. What if I stopped following the rules? What if I fought back and argued with him would he kill me too? I thought she was sleeping but no she was far gone. 'Come on boy...help me take her to the basement.' And I did.

I helped carry her to the basement. And in our basement of the old farm house was a well and we threw her body in. That was the last of my mom. But it was not the last of the women that came to that house. I would have rather have him bring other women home than abuse me. I was his only son, the only other person that lived in that house once my mom was gone. So that meant I had to take the beatings when he drank too much.

And on those nights he was 'horny' as he called it and did things to me that made me into what I am. I was so use to him coming to my room that I thought that was the way life was. This is what we do. I didn't know any better because I thought and truly believed that this was what love was.

When I was nineteen, I meet Margie, God she was beautiful. My father had died a year earlier due to an overdose. Within the first year she got pregnant with Anthony. The first year was great and then something clicked in me and I was slowly getting back to myself. The first time I hit her, I made it up to her by buying her roses and then it started to happen more frequently. I stopped buying her flowers. I stopped making it up to her. I wore her down so much that she obeyed me all the time. She quit fighting for her life. She gave up and that is when I started to bring other women into the home, just as my father had done so many years ago.

It was all a thrill for me, watching a woman cry for her life. I didn't hurt those women they all wanted it. They all want to be dominated, to obey me; why else would they have come willingly to my house.

They all knew what they were getting themselves into. Of course me putting a little something in their drinks at the bar also helped. It was the only way to get them to go with me. They all thought I was there to help them. They all thought I was driving them to the hospital to see why they felt the way they did. But I fooled all of them; I brought them to my home.

Margie never said a word about it and I think she was like me back in the day. Just happy that someone else was there to take the pain away. I never meant to hurt my kids and I don't think I did.

Even though everyone keeps saying here that I molested my children, that I hurt them. All the things that I ever did to them, my dad had done the same to me. How is that bad? How is that considered molesting them, I just don't get it. I loved them. They never complained, well the first few times I think I remember them crying but that is what I did too. That's love...right.

I look up at the therapist that is in the room with me. I am hoping that they find me insane and then my sentence would be reduced. Hell maybe they will just send me to the nut house and then I can at least get out of these bars. At least I can then find a way out and then find my way to that bitch who caused all this shit to begin with.

Anthony failed me; he let her live. But I don't dare tell anyone my plans. So when I have to go to court, I plan on pleading insanity. Is that possible? I think it is.

The trials are intensive. They display photos of the girls that were found in the well, those girls when they were so beautiful and whole. And then they show their skeletons to the courtroom. Their flesh all gone, they talk about the way they died. They say I did it. I just look at them like they are crazy. I don't admit to any of it. They show a picture of the last girl. She was the cutest little thing ever. I remember her sweet body walking into my house that night. God she was like an angel sent to me. When they say her name out loud 'Katana Harlow', I think back to that night.

'But dad...she is Harlow's daughter...do you really want to do this?'  That got my attention. Sheriff Harlow is a dick. He has always started shit by getting into my business. I remember looking at her and I could see her mother in her. The same eyes, the same fight in her. 'You Harlow's girl...this must be my lucky day. He owes me so much for all the bullshit he has put me through, this is going to be fun.'

Ok, maybe she didn't want what was going to happen to her. But she was there and I needed my quick fix. Some people crave drugs and alcohol and I do as well but I crave one thing more than anything and that is a young sweet ass like hers.

I look up at the screen and those eyes look like they are looking right back at me. And then they show her the day she was found. They show the damage that I had done to her.

"Mr. Harper...do you recall this young girl, Katana Harlow?"

I shake my head no.

"Mr. Harper we have evidence that you were with her that night. The hospital took test and found your skin under her nails, your semen was on her. Do you understand what we are telling you?"

"Yes...fine I was with her that night. But she came to me. I didn't seek her out."

"Please explain how she came to your house?"

"Look, it was months ago all right. I didn't kill her. I didn't hurt that girl."

"Mr. Harper, please jus tell us how she came to your house."

"She was with those cheerleaders. They come to the house every year playing music for the holidays. Little Joey wandered out of the house and she picked him up. He fell asleep on her and she brought him to the door. She brought him inside to take him to his bed. He was sleeping for crying out loud."

"Did you tell her to do it or did she do it on her own?"

"She did it on her own. I pointed to the back bedroom and she took him."

"What happened after that?"

"I had followed her. When she laid him down she came on to me. This was her doing not mine." I lie, hell they don't have to know the real truth.

"You are saying that she came on to you?"

"Hell yeah! She was a nice little piece of ass," I sigh and lick my lips remember her that night.

"Mr. Harper she was just a kid."

"No...no...she wasn't. She was eighteen and she came to me. I'm telling you I didn't do anything to her that she did not want to have done to her."

I see someone get up from the pew, Sheriff Harlow himself. I smile wide because I know I just pissed him off. Oh! He doesn't have a clue about his baby girl. But I do...

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Author's note: Ok everyone was wondering about Mr. Harper. He had a horrible abusive childhood. He was never taught the right way to love someone. His mind thinks differently than others. A part of him thought it was just normal to be the way he was.

Please comment...be nice remember it is just a character in a story. If you are enjoying it please feel free to vote and make comments. Thanks for taking time out of your day to read.