G.O.A.T.

"See you, Monday, Ann Marie."

"See ya," 8-year-old Ann Marie replied as she head across the high school football field to take the shortcut home.

As she passed the empty bleachers, she heard, "Hey, pretty, can you give me a hand?" Ann Marie smiled at the high school boy who had called to her. He had a sling on his right arm and his books were scattered at his feet.

"Sure," she said walking towards him.

"So, sorry for the bother."

"It's okay," she said as she knelt to pick up the books.

"What's your name, sweetpea?"

"Ann Marie Burr," she said passing the books to him.

"Headed home?"

"Yes," she said standing up to hand him the last one. "Bye!" she said as she turned to walk away.

"Thanks for the help, sweetpea," he yelled after her. As she skipped away, he muttered, "See you soon."

"I don't think so, Ted," I said from behind him. He whirled around, ready to strike at me - with a now perfectly functional arm.

Ready, but no longer able.

"Hello, Ted," I said, moving into his space. "I've waited a long time for this moment."

"Who are you? Why can't I move?"

"It doesn't matter who I am. What matters is that because of me, you will no longer have the opportunity to continue down the path you were headed today."

"What are you talking about?"

From under the bleachers, the crow bar he had hidden flew out and rapped him behind the knees, knocking him to the ground.

"What the he**?"

I sat on the bleacher closest to his head.

"You see, Ted," I kicked him in the belly with my steel-toed boot. I allowed pain to flow through him. He screamed, but couldn't move. "Today would have been a turning point for you. You would have graduated from trapping, torturing and killing small animals to kidnapping and killing your first human being. It would have been the first day of your life as a sadistic sociopath."

"That makes no sense. None of this makes sense. I'm fourteen. I didn't do anything! I'm just a kid."

"A kid with a crowbar," I said as I made him smash his face into the ground. "A kid who planned to sneak into the living room window of 8-year old Ann Marie Burr, remove her from her home, bludgeon, rape and dismember her before burying the pieces where none would ever find them -- even decades after her disappearance."

"You can't possibly know what I haven't done yet. It hasn't happened yet!"

"And now it won't. Ever."

I could feel the fear began to overtake the bravado. I could smell it. I knelt on the ground next to him.

"I've studied every aspect, every minute detail of your miserable existence. I've been you in every virtual reality program the Academy offered. I know you better than you know yourself.

"I know every woman you have killed. I even know the men no one considered your prey. And the animals on which you practiced that led you to today."

His eyes were wide and unblinking.

"How could you...no one...I didn't..."

"Where I come from, you are the textbook example of sadistic sociopath. You proclaimed yourself "the most cold-hearted son of a bitch you'll ever meet" and one of your own attorneys said you were "the very definition of heartless evil.'"

"You're crazy," he shouted. I silenced his tongue. He gagged as it swelled in his mouth.

"And you," I whispered, "are dead. But instead of dying in the Florida electric chair at age 42, you will die right here in Tacoma, Washington, age 14, an apparent heart attack victim despite your youth." I paused. "You will be mourned by your mother, perhaps, and then forgotten. And all those who would have suffered at your hand, will live."

His eyes pleaded with me. I released his tongue.

"Please, I don't know what you're talking about, but if nothing happened yet, I can be better. I promise ."

I laughed.

"Not an option, Ted. Teddy. Theodore." I stood up and walked a few paces away. Looking at him I said, "I was quite young when I was chosen for this honor. Because of certain...special abilities I have," I caused him to rise in the air and slam into the bleachers before falling at my feet. "Each training I ever received over the course of my years at the Academy had this moment as its goal."

A small container appeared in my left hand, a scalpel in my right.

"Wha...what is that?" He stuttered, staring at my right hand.

"You, Theodore, have the pleasure of being the first serial killer the Academy will remove from the annals of history. We know a great deal, of course, but when it comes to selective termination, it is imperative to leave no rock unturned."

"Selective termination?"

"It's a complex process. We've already compiled a complete analysis down to the nano-elements of a so-called healthy brain. We've also conducted in-depth examinations of myriad sub-nano threads linked to sociopathic behaviors gleaned from the few current murderers in custody of the Academy.

"Once we have the fullest picture by harvesting, comparing and charting the brains of other well-known serial killers, the first of whom will be you, not only will we be able to determine from birth who should be terminated due to a 99.99% chance of sociopathic tendencies, we will also have eliminated from the collective memory of humanity some of the most evil human beings that ever lived."

I placed the scalpel and box on the floor as I knelt next to Ted. I looked into his eyes. I sent a thought. He looked confused, then horrified then excited. "I did that?"

"Oh, Teddy," I murmured, "that is not even a fraction of what you have done."

"But, how can...how did you...but I haven't done any of that. You know I haven't!"

"I had the pleasure of meeting the you you become and appropriating all your memories before I came back for you."

As he began to accept the reality of my words, I allowed him to feel the fear I could smell. He began to tremble.

"I met him, you, in the antechamber moments before you were fried. You were unrepentant and cocksure. With pleasure, I took your memories and you went to the chair confused and screaming you were innocent. You soiled yourself as they strapped you in."

"Why are you telling me this? You're gonna kill me. Just do it!"

"Now, where's the fun in that?" I picked up the scalpel and inserted it into his ear, activating the suction element as I placed the capture box next to his head.

"This is going to hurt, Teddy."

I silenced his scream but allowed his pain and fear to roll over and through me. Every needle of fright ignited sensations of pure pleasure. I shivered.

I understood him better than anyone ever suspected.

Than anyone will ever know.

When I have provided all the grey matter the Academy desires, I will have fulfilled my task. No one can say I am not a woman of my word.

But it will be too late.

My powers have allowed me to slip out of the time tunnel without leaving even an atom to follow. Very soon, I will have managed to acquire all the darkest memories associated with the men and women whose brains the Academy wishes to study.

And then, with the greatest perpetrators of evil eliminated, I will give new meaning to the phrase, Greatest of All Time.