The Neighborhood Kids Kept Disappearing, and My Monthly Electric Bill Hit 100,000—Then the Police Came Knocking

Over the past month, children in town had been disappearing one after another, leaving everyone terrified. When the police showed up at my door, I was at home eating a popsicle. “Oh, you mean Logan and those kids? They’re neighbors, but I don’t really know them,” I said lazily, licking my popsicle. The lead officer, Detective Blake, walked around the room a few times and breathed out a cloud of warm air. “Looks like you’re the only one home, right? I heard your electric bill last month was almost a hundred thousand dollars, several times more than what a normal household uses in a whole year.” I smiled. “So what, Detective Blake? Is using too much electricity illegal?” He walked over to me and picked up the air conditioner remote. “Eating popsicles in the middle of winter, with the AC set to sixty degrees. Ethan Carter, you really are something.” I sucked hard on the popsicle a few times, rolled up my sleeve, and scratched my arm until blood streamed down. “Can’t help it. It’s too itchy.” When he saw the hideous scars on my arm, Detective Blake frowned hard, his pupils widening as he rushed forward to stop me. “Don’t move! What happened?” “Hmph, it’s all because of that bitch. Good thing she’s dead. Otherwise, even if she were alive, I’d kill her myself.” When I said that, my emotions surged before I could stop them, and my eyes turned vicious. Detective Blake coughed dryly, his voice stern. “Ethan Carter, watch what you say.” I curled my lips in disdain, threw away the popsicle, collapsed onto the couch, and crossed one leg over the other. “You seem to hate your sister,” he said. “She was just a useless burden. I wouldn’t call it hate. I just couldn’t stand her.” “Couldn’t stand what?” he pressed. There were many things about her I couldn’t stand. She was twelve years younger than me, not smart, not pretty, timid in everything she did, and had a stupidly soft heart. In this whole town, anyone could mess with her and bully her. She was as useless as my mom. Even when she was buried alive, she didn’t resist at all. When I came back to my senses, I only answered with three words. “Hard to explain.” “Detective Blake, I assume you didn’t come here today just to chat with me about a dead person,” I continued. His expression shifted slightly. “We just want to know where all that electricity in your house went. A hundred thousand in one month can hardly be called normal use.” I waved my hand. “As you can see, I have a lot of appliances, and they all use a ton of power. So the bill is high. Abnormal, but normal in its own way.” Obviously, he didn’t believe me. Blake took two officers and searched around, their leather shoes stepping across the floor, and with every step, my heart pounded nonstop. When they came back around, I was reading the newspaper with great interest. “Ethan Carter, why is one bedroom locked?” Blake narrowed his eyes and studied me closely. I put down the newspaper and picked up my glass of water, the ice cubes knocking against my teeth and making me shiver. “That was my sister’s room. It’s bad luck, so I locked it.” “Open it.” “Bad luck,” I stalled. “Open it,” he said, not giving an inch. With no choice, I opened the door and took a few steps back. “See? I told you there’s nothing in there. It’s just a regular storage room.” Blake walked around inside a few times and muttered to himself. “This is really damn strange. Where did a hundred thousand dollars of electricity go?” As he said that, his gaze stayed locked on me. “Boss! Found something!” one officer shouted as he crawled out from the pile of junk, holding up a pair of high heels. Blake took the heels and held them in front of my eyes. “Size ten. Ethan Carter, you’re more than a little unique.” “Explain.” I let out a low laugh. “Detective Blake, there’s no law saying men can’t wear high heels, is there?” Blake’s face darkened. “Then how do you explain the blood on the heel?”“Whose blood is it?” Blake demanded. I smiled calmly. “An animal’s.” Blake’s face turned terrifyingly grim, his eyes unreadable. “Take him back to the station,” Blake said, waving to the other two officers as they escorted me out of the house. It was clearly winter, but the moment I stepped outside, I actually felt my body warm up a little. “It’s you! It has to be you! Give me back my son!” Karen screamed as she lunged at me like a madwoman. Ever since Logan disappeared, Karen had been camping outside my house every day without sleeping or resting. Blake stopped Karen. “Ma’am, please calm down. If there’s something you need to say, say it properly.” Karen was hysterical and spat at me. “Ethan Carter! You bitch! You did this on purpose! You’re getting revenge on me! You want to ruin my son! Give me back my son!” “Revenge for what?” Blake asked sharply. Karen stopped cursing, the fury in her eyes dimming instantly, and she swallowed the words she had almost blurted out. With a thud, she dropped to her knees in front of Blake. “Please, Officer, I’m begging you. You can’t let him go. He’s a demon! The missing kids in town must have been taken by him!” “We’re still investigating the disappearances,” Blake said, holding Karen by the arm and helping her up. I narrowed my eyes and provoked her. “Karen, the police haven’t found any evidence yet. Keep talking, and I’ll sue you for slander.” “Evidence? Those huge freezers in your house are evidence!” “What normal person keeps that many huge freezers at home? Ethan Carter! You’re a psycho killer! You cut bodies up and hide them in freezers! That’s how it always goes in novels!” Karen’s voice was sharp, each sentence louder than the last. After saying that, she gasped for breath. Blake looked back at me. “Ethan Carter, you have freezers at home?” I said lazily, “Yeah. You didn’t find them?” Blake’s expression turned serious, and after a pause, he said, “Take me there.” When we reached the kitchen, Blake’s face darkened as he pointed at the freezer. “This is the huge freezer you bought?” Looking at the freezer that took up about twenty square feet, I nodded. Karen jumped out. “No! This isn’t the kind he bought last month!” Blake had the two officers watch me, then began a thorough search again. About half an hour later, Blake walked out with anger written across his face. “Ethan Carter, come see for yourself.” When I saw the opened floor in the storage room, my heart tightened, then loosened. I didn’t expect it to be discovered so soon. What a shame. As soon as I went in, a stench of blood mixed with some unknown odor rushed at my face, making me feel a little nauseous. Karen stood frozen at the doorway, her hands shaking nonstop. I let out a soft laugh, and Blake grabbed me by the collar. “How are you going to explain this?” “Detective Blake, is buying freezers to store meat illegal now too?” Blake shouted angrily, “Ethan Carter, lives are at stake here. Don’t joke around with me.” As he spoke, Blake quickly opened the doors of all three large freezers. Inside were bags of bloody meat, packed one by one. Karen screamed and slid down the doorframe onto the floor. “Notify the medical examiner,” Blake said in a low voice. The forensic examination showed that all three freezers were filled with pork, and the bloody smell had been left behind after the pigs were butchered. Right. I forgot. What I put in the freezers was clearly pork. Look at my memory. Blake examined everything carefully, pacing back and forth between the three large freezers, afraid he had missed another detail. Following his flashlight, Blake leaned over one of the freezers as if he had found something. I narrowed my eyes, calm and composed. Blake pried open the freezer’s inner layer with force, and a corpse wrapped tightly in plastic wrap appeared stiffly before our eyes.