Chapter 10: A Monster's Justification

From the journal of Dr. Patricia Holbrook, Chief Psychiatrist, Riverside State Hospital

Patient: Liam Carter, Age 31 Admission Date: March 15th Diagnosis: Delusional disorder with homicidal ideation

The patient continues to insist on his version of events despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. He shows no remorse for his actions and maintains elaborate justifications for what he describes as "necessary sacrifice." Today marks our fifteenth session, and his narrative remains remarkably consistent, albeit completely divorced from reality.

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"You don't understand," Liam said, leaning forward in the institutional chair with the same intensity he'd shown in every session. "I saved her. Everything I did was to save Clara."

Dr. Holbrook adjusted her glasses and glanced at the file open beside her notepad. The crime scene photos were mercifully turned face-down, but she could still see the edge of one image—a woman's hand, wedding ring glinting in the camera flash.

"Tell me again about the casket, Liam."

His eyes lit up with the fervor she'd come to recognize. "It showed me the future. Death after death, all coming true exactly as prophesied. My grandfather drowning in his bathtub—I saw the terror in his eyes, the finger marks on his throat. My father burning alive in that basement fire, trying to destroy the thing that had haunted our family for generations."

"And you believe this casket... made you kill your wife?"

"No!" Liam's voice cracked with frustration. "That's what you don't understand. I didn't kill Clara. I killed someone else, someone who looked like her. The casket was trying to make me murder my wife, but I found a substitute. I outsmarted it."

Dr. Holbrook had heard this story countless times, each telling more elaborate than the last. According to Liam, he'd stalked and murdered a random woman at the quarry, believing this would somehow protect his wife from supernatural harm. The delusion was so complete that he seemed genuinely confused when confronted with the physical evidence.

"Liam, the DNA evidence—"

"Was contaminated," he interrupted. "Or planted. Don't you see? The casket's influence extends beyond just the visions. It corrupts everything around it, makes people see what it wants them to see."

The medical examiner's report was unambiguous. Clara Carter had died from multiple stab wounds inflicted by the hunting knife found in Liam's possession. Her blood was on his clothes, under his fingernails, splattered across the interior of his car. The locked bedroom door he claimed to have found had been secured from the outside—by him, after he'd dragged her from the house.

But in Liam's mind, none of this had happened. His delusion was so profound that he'd constructed an entire alternate reality where Clara was still alive, still teaching her elementary school students, still waiting for him to come home.

"She visits me sometimes," Liam continued, his voice dropping to a whisper. "Late at night, when the orderlies aren't watching. She tells me she understands why I had to do it, why I had to become a monster to protect her."

Dr. Holbrook made a note: Auditory and visual hallucinations persist. Patient unable to accept wife's death despite overwhelming evidence.

"What does she say when she visits?"

Liam's expression softened, becoming almost childlike. "She says she's proud of me. That I was braver than my father or grandfather, smart enough to break the cycle. She says she's safe now, that the casket can't hurt her anymore."

The tragic irony wasn't lost on Dr. Holbrook. Liam had indeed broken a cycle, but not the supernatural one he imagined. According to neighbors and family friends, both his grandfather and father had struggled with mental illness—Walter Carter had been found dead in his bathtub after what appeared to be a psychotic episode, and Frank Carter had died in a house fire he'd likely set himself during a period of severe depression following his wife's death.

Mental illness running through generations of men who isolated themselves, who grew paranoid and delusional, who eventually turned violent. The "curse" was genetics and untreated psychological trauma, not supernatural malevolence.

"Tell me about the night you were arrested," Dr. Holbrook said.

Liam's composure faltered slightly. "That was... confusing. I came home expecting to find Clara safe in our bed, but the police were already there. They said terrible things, showed me pictures that couldn't be real. They claimed I'd hurt her, but I knew better. I knew the casket was trying to make me doubt myself."

The police report painted a different picture. Neighbors had called about screaming from the Carter house around midnight. Officers arrived to find Liam in his basement, covered in blood, talking to an empty casket about protecting his wife. Clara's body was discovered in their bedroom, where she'd apparently tried to barricade herself before he broke down the door.

"The casket was empty when they found you," Dr. Holbrook observed.

"Of course it was. Its work was done. The substitute sacrifice had satisfied its hunger, at least temporarily." Liam's eyes grew distant. "But I made a mistake. I should have destroyed it immediately afterward, while it was dormant. Now it's waiting for the next Carter generation, building strength for another cycle of corruption."

"Liam, you don't have any children."

"Not yet. But Clara and I were trying. She might already be pregnant—we won't know for sure until she can visit the doctor." His face brightened with genuine hope. "Our son will inherit the casket eventually, but I'll be ready for it. I'll teach him what I've learned, help him resist its influence."

Dr. Holbrook felt a chill. Liam's delusion was so complete that he'd incorporated his wife's pregnancy into his alternate reality. Clara Carter had indeed been three months pregnant when she died—a detail that hadn't been released to the media but that Liam somehow knew.

"How do you know about the pregnancy?"

Liam smiled with the serene confidence of the truly delusional. "Clara told me, of course. She's excited about being a mother, but worried about the casket's influence on our child. That's why I have to get out of here, have to get back to the basement and finish what I started."

The doctors had hoped that medication and therapy might eventually break through Liam's constructed reality, but his delusion seemed to grow stronger with time rather than weaker. Every piece of contradictory evidence was incorporated into his narrative, every challenge to his story became proof of the casket's supernatural influence.

"What will you do when you're released?" Dr. Holbrook asked, though Liam was unlikely to ever see freedom again.

"Go home to Clara. Destroy the casket properly this time—not with hammers or fire, but with understanding. I know its weaknesses now, know how to break the cycle permanently." His expression grew cold, calculating. "And if that doesn't work, I'll do whatever is necessary to protect my family. Whatever it takes."

The session ended as they always did, with Liam returning to his room convinced of his own heroism while Dr. Holbrook updated his file with another entry documenting his persistent delusions. She'd treated many violent patients over the years, but few disturbed her as much as Liam Carter.

Most killers eventually accepted responsibility for their actions, even if they couldn't explain their motivations. But Liam had constructed such an elaborate justification for his crime that he genuinely believed himself to be the hero of his own story. In his mind, he wasn't a man who'd brutally murdered his pregnant wife—he was a loving husband who'd sacrificed everything to save her from supernatural forces.

The delusion was so complete, so internally consistent, that Dr. Holbrook sometimes found herself wondering if there might be some grain of truth buried in his story. Late at night, when she reviewed his case files, she occasionally caught herself thinking about the pattern of mental illness in the Carter family, the strange circumstances surrounding his grandfather's death, the mysterious house fire that had killed his father.

But those thoughts never lasted long. Reality was simpler and more tragic than Liam's supernatural narrative. A man with untreated mental illness, isolated and paranoid, had killed his wife during a psychotic break. The elaborate mythology he'd constructed was just his mind's way of avoiding responsibility for an unforgivable act.

As she locked away Liam's file for the evening, Dr. Holbrook made a final note: Patient remains a danger to himself and others. Recommend continued involuntary commitment with no possibility of release. Delusions show no sign of improvement despite treatment.

Three floors above, in a small room with barred windows, Liam Carter sat on his narrow bed and smiled. The doctors didn't understand, but that was acceptable. They'd never seen the casket's visions, never felt its malevolent influence. They couldn't comprehend the sacrifice he'd made or the victory he'd achieved.

Clara would visit him again tonight, just as she had every night since his arrival. She would tell him how proud she was, how grateful she felt for his protection. And someday, when the hospital staff finally realized their mistake, he would return home to his wife and their child.

The casket would be waiting in the basement, patient and malevolent as always. But this time, Liam would be ready for it. This time, he would finish what his father and grandfather had failed to accomplish.

He would break the cycle permanently, whatever the cost.

Even if it meant becoming an even greater monster than he already was.

Outside his window, the city lights twinkled like stars, and somewhere in that darkness, Liam Carter's delusion continued to grow stronger with each passing day.