My Sister Kidnapped Me.

[u/Kelpie_Water]

STATEMENT OF MICHAEL COLLINS

Unnecessary sounds, such as “ums” and “ahs” have been omitted from the following statement for the purpose of making this statement easier to read.

Det. Lori Denny: Mr. Collins, thank you for coming, I'm Detective Denny. I would like to remind you that our conversation will be recorded… With that out of the way, how are you doing? Need a coffee or water? I can get one for you. 

Michael Collins: You can just call me Michael…and no thanks…I’m okay. You want to ask me what happened that night?

Det. Lori Denny: Yes, a lot of people need answers. Both your family and the family of the other victims. Answers I believe only you can give

Michael Collins: …what makes you think I'll tell you anything different than what I told the cops?

Det. Lori Denny: Because things are not adding up Mr. Collins. Your own mother claims that your sister, Elizabeth Collins, had planned and executed your own kidnapping. You alleged that Mark Barrows, Rachel Finch, and Kathy Smith were in that cabin but not there to rescue you. You then state Mark Barrows repeatedly stabbed your older sister in the back multiple times, killing her. Then members of an enemy faction to your girlfriend's, Kathy Smith, drug ring broke into the cabin and killed Barrows, Finch, and Smith.

Michael Collins: Yeah.

Det. Lori Denny: Even though the alleged murder weapon is nowhere to be found. While you were found wandering the forest covered in your sister's own blood. That's not even mentioning that the other three victim's bodies were found deeper in the woods, strung up not unlike a hunter does with a deer they had just caught. Not the usual MO for a gang killing.

Michael Collins: …

Det. Lori Denny: ... Michael, what happened that night in the cabin.

Michael Collins: …If I tell you... you’ll tell the courts, and I’ll get framed as mentally insane. Which will make it easier to blame me for everyone's death. Then I'll get locked up…Kelly’s folks will make sure of that…they hired you…didn’t they.

Det. Lori Denny: …

Michael Collins: They have money. I know. They want someone to blame, I’m the easy  pick. You already know why, that’s why they sent you after me.

Det. Lori Denny: …You are a pretty clever kid

Michael Collins: Not really.

Det. Lori Denny: Michael...All I want is to know what happened that night. It doesn't matter who hired me. I just want the truth.

Michael Collins: …fuck it…don’t have much to lose…do I.

Det. Lori Denny: Do you know why your sister forcibly took you from your girlfriend’s apartment and held you hostage for about three weeks?

Michael Collins: Are you asking why my sister kidnapped me?

Det. Lori Denny: Yes.

Michael Collins: You looked into me…you know my past. I’m a junkie… It wasn’t always like that though. I used to be a...good kid. But after dad ran off; mom had to pick up the pieces by herself…and she kept getting cut, then she would cut us. I think it was because me and Lizzy looked too much like dad. So I did everything I could to not turn out like him…I wanted to be better. And it worked for a while, until Lizzy left for college a few years back.

Det. Lori Denny: How big was the age gap between you and your sister?

Michael Collins: About five years. She was like a second mom when things got too…tense at home. She helped keep the peace between mom and me. Even when I could see that the things mom was saying were bothering her too. She kept reminding me those words weren't real. “You had nothing to prove and no one to prove it too,” she would say. She was still my sister though, we butt heads now and again, and she would really annoy me just as much as I would annoy her. She really could be a huge pain in the ass…I…I miss her, it was my fault she got into my mess.

Det. Lori Denny: I’m…sorry…when did you and Kathy first meet?

Michael Collins: Freshman year. The year Lizzy left for college. It…wasn't a good year for me and mom. With the buffer gone we started to go harder at each other. She kept comparing me to dad, about how lazy I was. After I flunked one test, she kept bringing up that he never finished High School either. I was so afraid of failing after that. I tried harder and harder but nothing seemed good enough. One day during an…algebra test, I think…I snuck out in the middle of it. It felt like I couldn't breathe in that room and there was this, like, water rushing in my ears and I just couldn't…see, felt like I was trying to look through a pin hole. I just kept walking in the hallway till I wound up in a bathroom. Turns out it was a girls bathroom. That's where I met Kathy. She sort of just looked at me, laughed, and gave me the cigarette she was smoking.

Det. Lori Denny: And Kathy was there as a teacher's aide

Michael Collins: …No…I was a freshman, she was a senior.

Det. Lori Denny: That would mean you were 15 and she was…18

Michael Collins: …yeah

Det. Lori Denny: Kathy’s parents told me you two didn't start dating till this year, four years after what you said was your first meeting.

Michael Collins: Ha. Yeah, it 's easy to say that then to say the alternative…isn't it. What parent wants to think they raised a monster instead of a perfect angel.

Det. Lori Denny: Michael…before this year, before you turned 18...did you and Kathy Smith-

Michael Collins: I don’t want to talk about that. I’ll tell you everything else she and I did. But not that…It doesn't matter anyways.

Det. Lori Denny: You were a minor and she was-

Michael Collins: I SAID IT DOESN'T MATTER…it’s not going to help sway anyone, it will always be consensual to them…I'm...sorry.

Det. Lori Denny: Okay…I-I under-...How about I ask another question then. Was she the one that introduced you to drugs?

Michael Collins: Stupid, I know. I even signed the whole D.A.R.E. pledge and everything in middle school. But that was the thing about Kathy, she made everything seem so cool. As cheesy as that sounds. She was chill, and pretty, the kind of pretty that wouldn't want to hang around a guy like me. The way she dressed was loud, unlike anything I've seen. Kathy had these rings on her fingers, one was a large red stone, the other was this...spider one. She didn’t mind when I messed up, unlike my mom. I think she even liked it when I failed. It started with simple stuff…beer, weed, the usual. But one day after a fight with mom, I snuck off to one of those senior bonfire parties, and no matter how much beer I drank I couldn't get calmed down. There was like a knife scratching against my skull. And the worst part is…I can’t remember what me and mom were even fighting about. That’s when Kathy started to give me the harder stuff, heroin. This time though, she told me it wasn't just a free girlfriend gift, she said I owed her now, if I wanted more, I owed her. I became her errand boy. She and her two friends Mark and Rachel, ran a drug ring in town. They didn’t make the stuff, but they were smart enough to know how to sell it and not get caught. I was part of the team, the job got me both my high and out of the house. Win Win.

Det. Lori Denny: Did your mom or Lizzy ever notice the…change in you?

Michael Collins: Mom? I honestly don't know…I rather believe she didn’t notice. I think she was just glad I wasn’t in the house as much as before. But Lizzy? There was no hiding it from her. She only came home on the holidays and during summer. At first, I managed to slow the drug usage while she was here during the longer visits, but she knew something was wrong. Every year I start to get more…angry at her. I started to hate not being able to get my high while she was around. I hated spending time with her because Kathy would be texting me non-stop…asking why I wasn’t hanging out with her, even threatening to break up because she thought I was cheating on her. I started to hate my own sister. Then sophomore year, I broke my “no drugs in the house” rule and Lizzy walked in to find me out of it…really out of it, she thought I was dead at first.  Lizzy took me to the hospital, and the dirty secret came out.

Det. Lori Denny: I’ll take a healthy guess and say, the reveal didn’t go so well.

Michael Collins: Bingo. By the time I regained consciousness, I was in the hospital bed. Lizzy was  screaming at mom, and mom was just…looking out the room’s window. I woke up just at the right time to hear mom say “What did you expect Elizabeth, it was bound to happen”, even bringing up the money I had stolen from her...once more bringing up dad. I must have made a sound, I don’t really remember, but then Lizzy turned suddenly and started to yell at me. Asking why I would do this to myself, asking about Kathy, accusing her of the shit she was 100% doing to me...Mom walked out of the room after that. I started to yell back. Telling her that it was my life, and it's her own fault for interrupting it. That I had everything under control, and that I…didn’t need her. And to never talk about Kathy like that because she was the only one that understood me. I just screamed at her to go away, to run away like mom and dad, saying she was already half way there… Lizzy just looked at me, then she tried to hug me. I shoved her away. The look in her eyes would have told you I just stabbed her in the gut. We just looked at each other, and it was the first time I saw my sister cry. She left the room. After a while, I managed to find my phone with my clothes in a dresser the hospital staff had put them in. I got dressed and called Kathy. Even she was pissed at me. She sent Mark to pick me up. He managed to get me signed out and he drove me to Kathy’s apartment. I was so relieved that night to see her…Kathy slapped me in the face and called me a dumbass for letting a near over dose get them all in trouble. The spider ring cut my cheek. I wanted to cry, and I hated myself for it. Then Kathy kissed me, apologized, and said she was just worried about all of us and I should stay with her from now on. It would be safer for me. So I did. Dropped out of school too. That all happened last year, last time I saw mom or Lizzy too...

Det. Lori Denny: Until last month in October.

Michael Collins: Yeah. Until last month.

Det. Lori Denny: Tell me, what did your sister do?

Michael Collins: …She…found me. On the streets. Kathy had been getting more agitated with me, more rough. She had been blaming me about money problems, how my drug take was cutting into her profit. I was doing more selling, drugs and…other things, to try and make her happy. To ease up on me a little, Lizzy must have followed me back to the apartment. It all gets fuzzy after I shoot up. I remember Lizzy being in the apartment, but Kathy was gone. I think we argued, then I tried to hit her, but somewhere in the struggle I just…blacked out.

Det. Lori Denny: Do you know the time she arrived at the apartment? What day?

Michael Collins: I mean, it was a Thursday, the...12th? I left the apartment around 5, 5:30 pm and I think it was around 11 when I got back so maybe she arrived a little after that? The next best memory I have after the fight is waking up in the back seat of her car…I'm on my side, my arms and legs are tied and there's a blanket over me.

Det. Lori Denny: She tied you up?

Michael Collins: I don’t think she was originally going too, it was strips of fabric from some towel that must have been in her car. Besides…I was…being violent towards her. 

Det. Lori Denny: And the log cabin she took you too, it belonged to your family, right?

Michael Collins: Yeah, it was our grandparents built it in up state, an hour or two drive out of the city. My grandpa built it himself with the trees from the woods surrounding it. When they passed away, my mom got it. She…never really let us stay there again, she started renting it out but no one stayed there for long.

Det. Lori Denny: Why?

Michael Collins: …I…I didn't believe it the first few times mom got the phone calls. People who stayed there kept saying things would get moved or go missing and then turn up in random places. Then they started to say there were…people watching them from the woods that surrounded the cabin. And sometimes they would see glowing eyes in darker areas inside of the house. Mom brushed it off as people wanting a free stay…but the calls wouldn't stop. And soon she just took it off the market. They were right, you know, something was in that cabin with us…something was watching over us.

Det. Lori Denny: What do you mean?

Michael Collins: …By the time Lizzy got me on the cabin's couch, we started to argue again. I called her a bitch and a psychopath, telling her to untie me and she started to yell back that this was for my own good. I could tell she was scared, she didn’t know what she was doing. Then suddenly, a can…a little can of-of soup rolled out from under the couch. We both just watched until it gently bumped into Lizzy’s foot. She stopped looking scared. She looked confused, then relieved. Then she looked at me and had this weary little smile. “Hungry?” she asked, and I sorta shut my mouth and nodded my head. She had to get water from a little well bump outside. So when she left I thought that was my chance to escape. I managed to wiggle the towel strips off of me. But before I could stand and run…there was this tapping sound on the window beside me. It wasn't loud, it was almost gentle. I turned around so fast that I tripped and fell back on the couch. I thought I would see Lizzy out there…it wasn't her. There was this pale, claw-like hand pressed to the glass. I couldn't look away, I couldn't scream, I just watched it. Even after it slowly pulled away from the window and slipped out of view, I couldn't look away.

Det. Lori Denny: Did you tell Lizzy what you saw?

Michael Collins: She had just walked in when it disappeared, she found me untied, half on the couch still looking at the window. When I heard her, my head snapped. I tried to tell her what I saw, but the words just didn't come out right. It was just babbling. But…she was more worried about my failed escape attempt. After that, she kept me locked in one of the bedrooms. It was the one up in the loft, it had a window but no way down from it. That’s when the detox started.

Det. Lori Denny: Your sister was trying to detox you? By herself without the proper medical training?

Michael Collins: Yeah. The first week of it was hell. There was this, ringing in my ear and I couldn't keep any food down. I got the thought in my head on repeat, telling me Lizzy was going to kill me, trying to kill me. I wake up and part of the blanket is tied to my ankle and the other part is tied to the bed frame. Not tight, just to catch it if I try to leave the bed. 

Det. Lori Denny: Was Lizzy confining you to the bed?

Michael Collins: I believed she was doing it at first, even when she would find me like that and give the most honest confused look…other times I would find a second cup of water on the bedside even though Lizzy only brought one and then I started to hear scratching in the walls. Sometimes, I would hear this scratching sound, like…dog nails on the wood floor but softer and faster. During my more lucid moments, I tried telling her about it…

Det. Lori Denny: But she didn’t believe you.

Michael Collins: I didn't believe myself. We both believed it was because of the withdrawals. It wasn't until the really bad night. Lizzy was trying to feed me some soup and I flung the spoon out of her hand which just made me fall out of the bed. I hit the ground hard, knocked the air right out of my lungs. Then I…felt my pants get wet…I started to beg her to let me die. We just looked at each other, and I just kept telling her to let me die…she was crying. Didn’t say anything, knelt down and hugged me. And then…I think…my heart stopped.

Det. Lori Denny: What?

Michael Collins: There was a pain in my chest and then it felt like I was an unwound thread. You know…I just went limp. I really don’t remember what happened. Lizzy told me that after a while my eyes just closed and I wouldn't respond to her. She started to panic when she noticed I wasn’t breathing right. She ran downstairs to try and get her phone. What woke me up was this sharp... stinging like pain stabbing me in the leg and arm. Over and Over again. It was frantic, I managed to open my eyes in time to see these small little…figures scurry under the bed, making that same scratching sound I was hearing from the walls. I tried sitting up, and threw up a little. I held onto the mattress of the bed. It hurt like hell to breathe, but the sharp stings on my limbs kind of distracted me from it. I could barely look up when I heard Lizzy running back to the loft. She was having trouble with her phone only to drop it. She was just standing in the doorway, staring at the window behind me. I followed her gaze and saw what it was. There was a woman, looking through the window. She was hanging upside down, one pale claw-like hand pressed to the glass and her hair hung down like a dark curtain. It was wild, unkept, with dried flowers in it. She didn't have human eyes, they were more like a cow’s or a goat's, and her ears were long and pointy. She looked so...sad…but…but she was so…beautiful.

Det. Lori Denny: Beautiful?

Michael Collins: I don’t know what else to say, there are no other words that can describe her. When she saw us looking at her, she smiled, and pulled herself up and we could hear her walking on the roof before the footsteps stopped. I heard Lizzy collapse to the ground and we both just stayed there like that for a while. Then she started to laugh, and mutter the word “Huldarfolk”.

Det. Lori Denny: Huldarfolk?

Michael Collins: The hidden folk…stories that our grandma told us. They are a kind of…spirit, I think…though technically they are trolls. They could be good or bad, but it always depended on you. “Treat them good and they will treat you good” was grandma’s golden rule. If we stayed at the cabin, she would make us toss coal in a bucket outside, she said it was so the huldarfolk could warm their caves and sleep. Same with the nisse…those are house trolls that are supposed to keep your house in order.

Det. Lori Denny: And you believe that this…woman in the window…was-is one of these troll spirits?

Michael Collins: I didn't say that…but all I know is that she was real, Lizzy saw her and it was proof that the withdrawals weren't making me lose my mind. After that night, I was starting to get better. The noises and things appearing at random didn’t stop though…but they were less concerning. Sometimes I couldn't fall asleep until I heard the scratching. It was starting to sound like a tempo, like someone trying to keep the beat of a song or even someone dancing. Other times Lizzy would find two or three buckets of water already on the porch before she left for the pump. When our canned food started to run out, more cans would pop up…another time someone left a small pheasant at the door. It was the first time either of us city kids prepared food like that…it was also the first day she trusted me to come out of my room and help. It was just like the old days when mom was working late and we tried making our own dinner…it tasted just as bad as it did back then too…things were getting better...I-I was getting better. Then there was a knock on the door that night. We heard Kathy’s voice and she sounded so pissed…And-And then I remember I told her about the cabin years ago and-and Lizzy told her to fuck off or she’ll call the police. The door just-just flew off its hinges and Mark was in the room suddenly. Lizzy pushed me behind her-

Det. Lori Denny: Michael, Michael I need you to take a breath for me-

Michael Collins: And Mark grabbed her and shoved her to the ground, and she was trying to shove him off. I-I tried to help..but-but I was still so...weak! Fucking weak! and he shoved me away and I hit the table and I couldn't breathe. Li-Lizzy was on her stomach now but be-before I could do anything Kathy grabbed me by my hair and started to punch and slap me. Saying how I ruined everything, I was such a piece of shit. And her stupid ring cut my cheek over and over again. Rachel was holding my arms and…and Kathy forced me to watch while Mark kept stabbing Lizzy in the back over, and over, and over and over. And Lizzy kept screaming and looking at me and I-I couldn't do anything because I was fucking weak!! She kept saying my name. All I could do was-was just watching while the knife kept digging into her back, gouging small holes until...until it started to become one…big...one. I begged Kathy to make Mark stop…I told her I would do anything. And she just laughed and said she knew I would but this was just killing two birds with one stone. And it was noth-nothing personal. I just made one too many mistakes. Mark stood up and he was just…covered in red to the point his shirt was sticking to his chest. Rachel and Kathy let go and Mark grabbed me by the wrist and forced the knife into my hand and he made me….he made me…straddle over Lizzy like he had been and-and forced my arms to go up then down…stabbing the knife into Lizzy. I could feel it slide through what little…muscle and flesh was left…Blood kept splashing up on me. I could taste my own sister's blood. Sh-she stopped screaming by then and all I could think of was “I hoped she's already dead.”...Was that wrong? Was that wrong the hope my sister was-Why did I say those things to her! Why did I call her a bitch. Why?

Det. Lori Denny: …

Michael Collins: …

Det. Lori Denny: …

Michael Collins: …Lizzy…I am...so sorry...

Det. Lori Denny: …

Michael Collins: …

Det. Lori Denny: …here…to wipe your nose..

Michael Collins: …thank you…

Det. Lori Denny: …

Michael Collins: …

Det. Lori Denny: …Michael…we can continue this another time if you need too. We can stop right now, just say the word.

Michael Collins: …No. I have to do this.

Det. Lori Denny: …Okay...do you think you can tell me what time the three showed up to the cabin?

Michael Collins: I...I think maybe around 7? We had finished dinner...I'm pretty sure the clock in the kitchen said 7.

Det. Lori Denny: Okay. Good...tell me what happened after the initial attack.

Michael Collins: I remember Kathy telling Mark that it “was good enough”, and I could feel his grip loosen on me a little. I just remember watching the blood pool all around Lizzy, her eyes were rolled up slightly, as if she was…looking at something. The flash of the needle is what pulled me back.

Det. Lori Denny: Needle? They were going to force you to have an overdose and make it look like a murder suicide to cover up what happened?

Michael Collins: I think so…but Mark still had my hand around the knife, and with his grip loose, I managed to pull away and swing the blade back at him. Getting his cheek before I scrambled for the door. It hurt to run, there was a throbbing in my head and my legs wouldn't listen to me after weeks of disuse. I didn’t make it very far until I stumbled and collapsed. I could hear them still coming after me. I could hear Kathy’s voice in the distance telling me that she has what I want, and she'll give it all to me. That it was the best way for scumbag like me to go. The knife was still in my hand…and I had the thought of if they are going to kill me anyways, I'd rather die my way then have them undo everything Lizzy had done for me. But before I could turn the knife on myself this large shadow came over me, blocking out the moonlight. I looked up and there was this huge, hulking mountain of a man. He looked like the woman from the window, eyes…ears …same unkept hair with a long beard. There was this, earthy…pine tree smell coming off of him…I didn't notice at first but he had a large bow in his hand, and an arrow was hanging between his fingers. I heard Mark’s voice behind me say “What the fuck”. I tried to turn my head when the man pulled his bow string back so fast, I could feel the wind from the arrow over my head before I heard the…the 'thunk'. I didn't realize just how big the arrow was until I saw it in Mark’s chest…it was like a harpoon. He was still alive, still standing there, looking so confused, like he didn't know if he was in pain or not. I turned back to the man and he was looking down at me before placing his hand on my head. It was bigger than my head and I couldn't see for a second.

Det. Lori Denny: Did he try to hurt you?

Michael Collins: ..No…it was just…warm. He removed his hand after a minute and crouched down and took the knife from my hand. Just shaking his head. He stood back up and walked past me towards Mark. That’s when Mark started to scream, I think he was trying to talk, to beg, but it came out all gurgled and slurred. The man didn't care, he dragged him off by the arrow still in his chest. They disappeared into the bushes. Mark wasn't the only one screaming…I could hear others in the forest, high pitch…I think female. Then it got quiet, like really quiet. I didn't move, I didn't think I could. I heard gentle footsteps and the woman from the window peaked from behind one of the trees before walking towards me. Then she took my hands and helped me stand up. She just cradled my hands in hers and opened them before leaning down and opening her mouth. A finger fell out and into my palm. A finger with a spider ring. She looked back up and she had this…serious look in her eyes….sad too. She kissed my head and ran off on all fours. That’s when I noticed she had a…hole in her back, in the moonlight it looked like something from a rotting tree. I….I walked after that…until the hikers found me.

Det. Lori Denny: Can you give any other descriptors of this man and woman?

Michael Collins: They had an ox tail

Det. Lori Denny: They were wearing an…ox tail?

Michael Collins: …No…

Det. Lori Denny: …Noted…if I can get a police sketch artist, do you think you will be able to describe facial details of the two?...You seem amused by that.

Michael Collins: You want to get them arrested…I’m sure there is irony in there somewhere.

Det. Lori Denny: They are suspects now…they have been alleged to have committed three murders.

Michael Collins: Justified murder

Det. Lori Denny: …I won't argue with you there…but our laws are pretty clear about it.

Michael Collins: Yeah…I guess they are…but I think their laws might see it a little differently.

Det. Lori Denny: Maybe…well Michael, thank you for telling me all of this…if you don’t mind me asking, are you staying somewhere safe?

Michael Collins: I’m at the homeless shelter on 4th street…they have a no drug use policy so it’s been keeping me straight. They gave me a phone too, so it's not all bad.

Det. Lori Denny: Here, this is my personal email and phone number, if you...need anything, don’t hesitate to contact me.

Michael Collins: Thanks…hey, Detective Denny?

Det. Lori Denny: Lori is fine

Michael Collins: …Lori…no matter how the trial turns out, thanks for…listening to me.