(Ahmad jalil - 1st year)

"To Sheriff Milton,

I am writing this letter to confess to a crime. Last night I murdered someone-my wife in fact. But before you think of me as a bad person, let me tell you the reason behind my action. I'm sure it will totally change your perception about me and my so called crime".


"I met my wife in 1972. You can call it 'love at first sight', if anything like that exists. After only 2 months of knowing each other we decided to tie the knot. Mr. Sheriff, I loved her very much. For two decades, I was the happiest man alive. She was everything to me.

But then something happened. One evening, I came home from work and found her on the floor, cutting her hair. Now that was okay but when I asked her the reason behind that, she said that she wanted to be like me. 'Your hair are so perfect Adam, and I love them so much and I want mine to look like them!' I was surprised at that explanation but also very happy. My wife liked my hair! I felt loved and thankful. Then one night she woke me up to tell me that I have perfect eyelashes. 'They are so long and perfect, Adam. I wish my eyelashes looked more like yours!' And then the next morning she bought artificial eyelashes for her eyes. I tried telling her that she didn't need them. That her eyes were very pretty the way they were. But she said that she didn't care and wanted her eyes to be similar to mine.

Now I was a bit concerned, but she was the love of my life, Mr. Sheriff. And it was the same love that managed to wash away all of my concerns. I wish it stopped there. But it didn't. Her obsession to be 'more like me' kept on increasing. There were times when I would notice her looking intently at me, praising my features, comparing them with hers. It was becoming scary to be honest. She started spending lots of money in the saloons. That itself wasn't wrong but her reason behind this surely was. I tried talking her out of it. I did Mr.Sheriff! But she didn't listen to me. 'All I want is to look like you, because I love you so much! Why can't you see that? Don't you love me anymore Adam ? Don't you?' And after that I couldn't say anything because it hurt to see her cry. Was she going crazy? I often used to ask myself that question. But I just couldn't bring myself to answer that in affirmative. 'I just love you so much, can't you see that? That was her reply every time. So somehow everyday I managed to convince myself that I was looking a bit too much into it. It was a mistake, I now realize it. But my love for her blinded me.

I prayed to Almighty that her infatuation with 'being like me' would go away but it just rose. One day I told her that she had to see a doctor. That I had had enough. When she didn't agree I slapped her across the face, something that I really didn't want to do, but it was really either that or losing her. It was the first time I had used force on her like that. She was stunned and in the end agreed to come with me. That was 4 days ago Mr.Sheriff. And it was very late at night. So I decided to call the doctor tomorrow. I went to sleep. I knew she was weeping in the other room and as much as I wanted to comfort her, I knew whatever I did would only aggravate the situation.

Mr.Sheriff when I woke up in the morning, I got the worst kind of scare of my life. My wife woke me up in the morning. I mean I knew that it was her but that was all. Everything about her was changed. And Mr. Milton, I know it's gonna sound extremely strange but she looked EXACTLY LIKE ME! She was wearing my clothes. Her nails, hair everything was just like mine. I have a scar on left cheek. She even had that! And that's not it. She was acting like me too. She believed herself to be the man of the house, TO BE ME Mr. Milton! She was treating me like a woman. She had gone completely mad! She believed that I was her and she was me! But the most strange thing was that it felt oddly comforting. Like, I don't know, it was how it's supposed to be. We both had gone mad and I knew it. I told her that there was something wrong with us , that we needed help. But she hugged me saying that it was okay. She was acting like a man, comforting me! And for a couple of seconds, it felt good too! But it was wrong! I didn't know what to do. I couldn't take it anymore. So I pushed her away and I killed her. I wanted to kill myself too but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I'm going mad. I know it. She has affected me too. Sometimes, I feel like she is still with me. Other times I feel like I am her and she is me, just like she wanted to. I don't know what to do... Go to 677 Advance Road. You'll find her body there. Give her a decent burial please.."

ADAM FISCHER

After reading the letter, Sheriff Milton didn't know what to do. And as much bizarre and strange this letter was, he couldn't ignore it. He send a couple of his lieutenants to the address. Could this all be true? he thought to himself. After about 15 minutes, his phone rang and his lieutenant gave him a very unexpected and a deeply disturbing news. They did found a body there but it wasn't a woman's. It was a man, identified as Mr. Adam Gully. Mr. Gully, 45 years old, lived with his wife, Ms. Sarah Fischer (who was missing)..