My hands grew colder as I turned the glass that held my milkshake. Not from the milkshake, mind you, but from the words I’d just heard disbelievingly come from the lips of the one I thought I trusted.

It had been a great start to a relaxing summer. I finally had my last lone on the house I’d bought paid off, was just starting to feel like a normal person again.

And then he returned.

He entered my newly-built life AGAIN and threatened to ruin it. He’d dug up the past and shoved it in my face to remind me who I was.

A killer.

I couldn’t see straight — couldn’t even think straight — for days. I thought I’d fixed my life and that my days of running were over.

Slowly, I began to lose my mind until I knew I had to do something.

So I called Rich.

We planned to meet at Bob’s Burgers to talk things over. I had to be very careful who was around when we talked so we thought Bob’s was the place to go. I couldn’t think of anyone else I trusted to talk to about this than Rich.

Rich was in his early thirties but like an older brother to me and had coached me in my battle for human normalities.

So here we were after I’d just told him the plans of the man that visited me and what he threatened me with when Rich butts in with, “I think you should do it, Con.”

My eyes froze on his face as my brain short-circuited. “Huh?” I replied stupidly, trying to realize what I’d just heard.

Rich squinted his eyes and leaned forward turning his body on his swivel chair at the bar so that it he was facing me. He rested his left arm seriously on the counter and slightly raised his eyebrow, repeating what he’d just said except slower, “Con, you need to kill him.”

Everything that I’d been trying to forget about, everything that I’d been trying to avoid, came back slamming me in the ribs and knocked the breath out of me.

“Rich,” I wheezed, “what are you saying? You can’t be serious! I can’t do it. I won’t do it! All I want is for me to have a normal life, living like a normal person!”

Rich did the most absurd thing just then. He laughed at me, and all my hard efforts to normalize my life seemed to disappear down a large black inside of me, and a new burst of anger came flooding back out of that hole.

But before I could say another word, Rich sobered up, looked me dead in the eye, and said without blinking, “Nobody’s normal here, Cal.”