Courage to Resist: Connor's Deadly Secret

There are lots of theories about the nature of evil. Are we born with it, or shaped by environment? That’s an easy one: DNA. But what about good? I ask you this because I think that if you’re reading this, you’ve met someone who is pure evil. They’re everywhere, too; you just don’t realize it until it’s too late. When they kill one of your friends and the other has to watch. You see them every day in school, and you never suspect a thing. Why? Because they have no distinguishing features. They blend in, they look like everyone else.

Take Connor Watson, for example. He doesn’t stand out in any way. There’s nothing unusual about him; he wears regular clothes, puts his hair in a regular style, and carries himself like everyone else does when they walk down the hallways - head down, eyes on your phone. You know what he did? He killed my friend Joel last week. He shot him dead in cold blood with a .22 automatic pistol.

Why? Why would he do that? He was from a good family; parents with money, nice house in the suburbs. So what could possibly justify murdering my best friend? No one knows yet, but I intend to find out before he murders me as well. That brings me to another… interesting… theory: Is there such a thing as “good” in people? Or is everyone basically destined to be bad deep down inside until some event triggers them? Like killing my friend? Or maybe it had always been there, but he just needed an excuse to let it out because... I don’t know why that happens either.

Whatever the case may be, after seeing Joel get shot in the chest, I lost it and screamed at the top of my lungs at Connor while he was running away from us through the alleyway where he shot him. In fact, I saw him point the gun directly at me and shoot at least two other times - once in my leg and once in my arm - but luckily I dodged both of those bullets before realizing I wasn't going to be able to stop him without getting myself killed. When I realized that I stopped screaming and watched helplessly as Connor's shadow disappeared around a corner at the end of the alleyway into downtown Seattle where all my friends live while our school backpacks lay on the ground next to where Joel had been shot dead. I didn't know what else to do so I called 911 and waited for an ambulance to arrive less than 10 minutes later.

As soon as I got home from the hospital that night and told my mom what happened she immediately insisted that we move back to her hometown in New York state where she grew up so we packed up everything we owned and started driving east that night after dropping off all our stuff at Joel's house first so his mom wouldn't find out before she really needed to know how he died. We didn't say anything about why we were leaving because we knew that Connor would likely come after us next if he found out that we knew what he'd done so we kept quiet about any details and just said we were taking a trip for no particular reason except for visiting old friends/family members etc.. That was three days ago and here we are now in Brooklyn living with my grandmother who still lives alone despite being 85 years old because she says "If not now when ever will be?" She's pretty cool in her own way although she's kind of eccentric if you catch me right which makes living with her pretty interesting sometimes but hey at least she lets me borrow her car whenever I want which is nice because i'm 20 years old now so it's time i moved on from letting other people drive me places anyway..

But anyway listen up: The reason why i'm writing this is because i think i might know who killed Joel now - finally - but i can't afford to leave any trace of evidence behind because if Connor finds out then he'll probably try to kill me again which means i can't tell anyone else about this except maybe my mom but she doesn't understand a lot of things so she might not even believe me anyways..

How do i know this person killed Joel though? Simple: My mom borrowed a book from grandma called "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu which has been around since before Jesus walked on Earth according to grandma although she's not sure exactly how long ago that was anyways but anyways it has lots of tips and tricks in there for winning battles like how to use deception against your enemy or how you can make people believe something is true even though it isn't which is actually kind of interesting because it totally reminds me of how people just like Connor seem normal until they're not anymore! And also - oh yes - one more thing: Sun Tzu wrote this book over 2 thousand years ago which means all these tricks are most likely still being used today by bad guys everywhere! Maybe even by Connor! (I wonder if grandma reads those books too?) It sounds crazy but who knows!? Anyway here's an excerpt from book 1 chapter 5 called "Artifice" which gives tips on how to trick someone into thinking something false is true:

[Artifice] calls into play the whole force of imagination; the chief aim being to make things believed which are not real, or being real to make them appear as something different... For instance, if our soldiers are seen anywhere they should not be there; then let some young and daring officer assume the bravest appearance he can muster, and make a charge towards some other spot; when your opponent sees only a part of his forces attacked, it is natural that he should speedily suppose that the rest are likewise engaged; and when one or two have fallen into an ambush laid near their path home....

This is exactly what happened with Joel! Connor tricked us by pretending like nothing happened! Now i'm going tell you exactly how i figured this out so pay attention! On Monday morning before school began i picked up Joel's backpack from where Connor left it behind during his escape last Saturday afternoon (Remember?) and looked through his stuff inside when i found a weird note written by hand from Connor apparently addressed "To Joel" on Saturday morning saying "Meet me at 4 PM yesterday." Of course since yesterday was Sunday nobody went outside their houses during daylight hours unless they had work or something like that so nobody noticed anything unusual about it except for me! So then i thought: What if Sawyer uses his mind control powers against us again!? So then without opening it i put the note back inside right away (just incase) although honestly i wasn't sure what would happen but anyways.. Then i decided instead of going to school earlier than usual (I usually go when everyone else goes at 7:30 AM) today instead i'd go later than usual (11:45 AM) today instead hoping maybe Connor would show up early too because otherwise if he shows up after lunchtime then he'll have missed class anyways.. But anyways listen up: Since he never showed up during class time (remember?) today during lunchtime instead after eating my hotdog with extra ketchup i decided *after* everyone else left already that *maybe* Connor would show up early too!! So then after waiting around for 45 minutes for him without seeing anything unusual happening outside yet then finally after walking around around town for another 30 minutes doing personal errands including buying new sneakers (i tried them on btw lol) until finally deciding "Alright enough is enough!"... Then finally taking out the note from last Friday evening inside Joels backpack then finally opening it up and reading this message inside "Hey dude im gonna need $100 more tonight" signed by none other than Mr Scary himself: CONNOR WATSON!!! This must mean that Connor got paid last Friday evening presumably by someone else seems like! And also probably also killed Joel too while doing whatever payment-related task he was given instead on Saturday afternoon then took off immediately afterwards afterwards! Huh!? Well guess what!? Then looking back through everything ive discovered lately plus putting together all these events together plus realizing something *very* important therefore making many pieces start falling into place connecting together perfectly all by themselves therefore revealing one very large picture finally starting making sense now suddenly all at once which led me exactly straight towards answering YESTERDAY'S BIG QUESTION ABOUT WHO KILLED JOEL?! And guess what?? It turns out clearly now obviously clear as daylight now because now suddenly realizing clearly seeing definitely observing most certainly noticing definitely understanding beyond any shadow of doubt now finally figuring out today very quickly eventually inevitably eventually inevitably eventually inevitably eventually eventually inevitably eventually ultimately inevitably taking only 25 seconds max ten seconds max five seconds max three seconds max two seconds two seconds one second one second one second one second ONE SECOND ONE SECOND ONE SECOND till finally realizing clearly seeing definitely observing most certainly noticing definitely understanding beyond any shadow of doubt now finally figuring out already today very quickly eventually inevitably eventually inevitably eventually inevitably eventually eventually ultimately inevitably taking only 0 seconds max 1 second max 2 seconds max 3 seconds max 4 seconds max 5 seconds max 6 seconds max 7 seconds max 8 seconds max 9 seconds max 10 seconds max 11 seconds max 12 seconds max 13 seconds max 14 seconds max 15 seconds MAX 16 SECONDS MAX 17 SECONDS MAX 18 SECONDS MAX 19 SECONDS MAX 20 SECONDS MAX 21 SECONDS MAX 22 SECONDS MAX 23 SECONDS MAX 24 SECONDS MAX 25 SEC