Sunday Short: The Final Draft—When Fiction Becomes Confession
- Faiz Faisal
- Apr 6
- 3 min read
“And now, dear reader, if you’ve made it this far… you know my name.”
— Final line from Elliot Crane’s unpublished manuscript, The Crimson Pen
I don’t usually post stuff like this.
My blog is mostly reviews, theories, deep dives into obscure horror media. But this… this is different. This is real. And it’s been haunting me for days.
Some of you might know the name Elliot Crane—the reclusive crime-thriller novelist who practically invented a new genre of elevated gore. His books read like autopsy reports laced with poetry. He was brilliant. And, as it turns out, completely unhinged.
What you probably don’t know (or are just starting to hear) is that his final manuscript, The Crimson Pen, wasn’t a story.
It was a full-blown confession.
Chapter One: The Author
Elliot lived in a secluded cabin in upstate New York—classic horror movie setup, I know. He claimed it helped him “get into character.”
His fans worshipped him for his attention to detail. The killer in The Crimson Pen, nicknamed The Craftsman, was a perfectionist. Every murder was methodical. Clean. Intimate. He left no trace behind—except for a carved number in the victim’s flesh and a small personal object, a “trophy.”
Sound familiar?
It should.
Because weeks after Elliot’s suicide, police recovered his manuscript from a vacuum-sealed bag in his freezer. And it turns out, every single victim in the book existed in real life.
Chapter Two: Fiction Turns Feral
Here’s where it gets dark. Too dark.
Elliot described one victim with “a cherry blossom anklet and chipped molar on the left side.” That girl—Haley J., 24, went missing in 2022. Never found.
Another: “A faint crescent birthmark tucked behind her right ear.” That matches Maria C., a barista in Elliot’s neighborhood. Last seen leaving work two years ago.
The manuscript didn’t just have story arcs—it had timestamps. M.O. descriptions. Forensics-level accuracy. And yes, the trophies were real too. Police found a hidden compartment under the floorboards containing items belonging to at least nine missing persons.
He wrote it all down. Not just the murders, but how he forgot them. Buried the memories. Convinced himself it was fiction.
Chapter Three: The Final Draft
This is the part I can’t shake.
“He types with bloodied fingers, the stench of death in his nose, the silence of the woods pressing into his skull like a whisper he can’t ignore. He writes because he must. Because if he stops, he’ll remember.”
— The Crimson Pen, Chapter 22
At the end of the manuscript, The Craftsman realizes the story he’s been writing isn’t a novel. It’s his life. He forgets after each kill, but the act of writing dredges it up. Memory by memory. Murder by murder.
The last line hits like a scalpel:
“And now, dear reader, if you’ve made it this far… you know my name.”
It wasn’t a sign-off.
It was a trap.
Chapter Four: The Horror Behind the Horror
Here’s the real mindf***: The manuscript was emailed to his publisher three days after his confirmed time of death.
How?
No one knows. Autotimer? Delayed send? A final message from a man trying to immortalize his darkness?
It doesn’t matter. The publisher thought it was brilliant—art imitating life. They thought he’d faked the gore.
Until the DNA evidence came back.
Final Thoughts: We Read a Killer’s Diary
Now The Crimson Pen is scheduled for release next spring, under a new title:
“Final Draft: The True Story of Elliot Crane.”
It’s already topping pre-order charts.
We’re about to read the innermost thoughts of a murderer—packaged, edited, typeset, and sold in hardcover with a premium dust jacket. I don’t know if that’s horror… or just publishing.
I haven’t been sleeping well since I read the leaked pages.
Not because of the gore.
Because it’s too well-written.
Too… real.
Makes me wonder:
How many “fiction” authors are just trying to remember what they’ve done?
What do YOU think?
Is Final Draft the literary equivalent of a snuff film? Should it be banned? Or is it a necessary deep dive into the mind of a killer?
Drop your thoughts below… if you’re brave enough.
Sweet dreams, horror nerds.
– FF@SundayShort
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