Pet Shop Of Horrors Fan Fiction ❯ The Journal of One, Leon Orcot ❯ April 21, 1999 ( Chapter 5 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

April 21, 1999

Wow. I just saw in the newspaper today: Big school shooting in America, at Columbine High School. Crazy. Two kids just went in an shot up the place. All planned. Then they killed themselves. I don't understand it. I've killed people. Boom. Right in the head. Like D's father. I'll never forget that. I remember it as though it was yesterday. I remember every person I've ever killed. I've never wanted to kill anyone, criminals or otherwise. But it comes with the territory. You can't save everyone, no matter how hard you try. I don't understand what could drive such young people to do something like that. That's what the people in the news keep saying, too. It sort of makes me think of Harry Seals. Oh god. Worse: it makes me think of Chris. People were saying that those kids were bullied and had problems...I'm glad more than ever that Chris started talking and never had to go to that special school. If he'd...maybe I should just stop thinking about this for now. Chris is safe. He's 8 years old now, and with my Aunt and Uncle in New York, and he's well-adjusted. I think. I hope.

Moving on: I'm probably going to start updating this thing weekly. More often if something interesting suddenly happens. But to be honest, most of my time is spent on the road, walking. I hitchhike every so often. I know it's not the safest thing...as a cop I used to enforce laws against it. But like I said: I'm not a cop anymore. Maybe I should buy a bike. I try not to spend too much money...but it's Europe. People do a lot of biking here. Tour de France, and all that. I bet there is a some sort of used bike I can get for cheap. Yeah, I'll look into that. It would save on gas and bus fare. God I'm glad I'm not in America right now. Gas prices are up to $1.30/gallon. I don't know what that is in pounds and liters. But I'm not sure I want to know. This economy is ridiculous. I'm heading toward the Netherlands now. After hitting the Chinatown up there I'm going to make my way Southeast, through France. Heh, maybe I'll check out Amsterdam's red light district. Wouldn't that be something? I AM a man after all. A little R+R on this trip would be a nice change of pace. Actually, I bet I WOULD find some link to Count D in the red light district...) After that I think I'll head back North, to England and Ireland. I'll probably linger at the docks by the channel on the way up. I'll do some work as a day laborer. It's really the only thing I can do to make an extra buck on the side. I may have lost a fair amount of weight these past two years, but I still look pretty fit, and the guys at the docks could always use a set of hands. Maybe I can find some exotic animal traders while I'm at it. Who the Hell knows? D could be trading with people in England. Yeah. Chinatown is good and all, but pet dealers...I should try as many of those as possible. And breeders. Oh, aquariums too. I mean, fish helped with the Mellow case, right? I'll just have to ask for something odd. If they can't help me, I'll demand to know who can. I'm sure SOMEONE will point me in D's direction. I'll do it as slyly and discretely as I can. Give a fake name and stuff. I wonder what would be a good one. Maybe I can pull a name from a news paper. Something that doesn't stand out too much. Maybe an old case file. Just nothing like John Smith. Even if Count D likes to mess with the average Joe, I'm at least gonna give a little style to my name. Names. I'll need several aliases. This whole expedition needs to be played carefully, like a sting operation. Whatever names I choose. I'll have to rehearse a bit. Jill always said I was a terrible liar. I think that's pretty true. But I guess that also made me very trustworthy. Unfortunately, when it came to D, it made me look foolish. The best I could ever come to lying was keeping my big mouth shut. But I'm gonna need to do the best I can, if I ever want to find D. It would be horrible if I slipped up whatever name I was using while asking for information. Well, I only have a thousand some odd miles to walk, with a lot of trees and road for company. Might as well start practicing. ~Leon