She refuses the deal.

My name is Bethany Esveld. I don't actually use the full name that often, so the entirety of my small Canadian town does indeed call me Beth.

I was into people's stories right from the beginning. I would want to know what makes people do crazy things. It has never turned out to be too simple, so it fascinated me. My parents managed to keep my brain in line, and it managed to secure myself in line: I was smart, nice, humble, talkative. I would never wrong anyone. I was a good person.

I got a journalist job at the biggest local news portal. Some interviewing, some writing. Feeds me, don't need much more. It made me better at my hobby as well. I would write poetry and novels, I would draw what I saw during my daily walks.

A couple years passed by. My town was small, so, being a journalist, I basically knew everything about everyone. I got bored of these people. When I would meet someone new, he would usually disappoint me by being pretty much like everyone else. That was until a killing spree was reported in the town.

The maniac was hiding among these ordinary faces, restoring my faith in the human ability to be interesting. He murdered four people, and this immediately became my personal puzzle.

I figured out that the local carpenter was the most likely suspect and, since I knew everyone, it was not a problem to talk to him in private. I did not want his confession, just a clue at how his brain worked.

He disappointed me. He was as boring as before. That made me lose my temper. He realized that I know. One in anger, the other three were witnesses. He was not smart enough to let me go and maybe get out of jail, like, thirty years later. The pain did not last long...

***

I stood outside the fence of his house. The snowflakes were falling all around me silently. I turned around and went home. I'll work harder to afford some traveling. I'll find easier ways to entertain my hungry mind. I've decided that I don't want to stay dead for knowledge, and I won't ever die again for it.

ENDING #45 (Beth-Earth)