Today’s Brew: Absinthe or something equally poser goth. It’s Marilyn Manson night.
by Kristen
I’ve been working on the second book in the Night Songs Collection, Night Moves. We meet another muse, Melanie, and eventually, another band, Soul Divider. Here’s Chapter One, an afternoon that will change her life forever.
The governor ordered everyone off the roads by four in the afternoon. It didn’t surprise me in the least that my office waited until the last possible minute to let us leave. The powers that be considered our work too important to be interrupted by little things like natural disasters. Hardy New Englanders shouldn’t freak out over a foot or two of snow, the bosses chided us when we complained about the dangerous conditions awaiting us. Of course, they had hotel suites waiting for them within walking distance. I did not. My commute was miserable in perfect weather.
Snow piled up on the roads, covering icy slush. It wasn’t so much to have to watch for these invisible landmines, but to also have to avoid the bumper car derby taking place all the way down Route Three.
Travel aside, I was actually psyched about this Blizzard. Its Friday afternoon timing was perfect. I looked forward to getting home before dark and cuddling up under blankets with my boyfriend, Jamie. I was always so stressed out and exhausted from work we never got to have any fun anymore. It was getting to both of us.
Jamie had been striking a big red line through every day on the calendar in our kitchen. I asked him what he was counting down to. He told me it was a count of the days since we’d had sex. It made me want to die inside. When we first got together, we needed both hands to count how many times we were together a day. What happened to us?
The month was drawing to a close, and those red lines taunted me like twenty two middle fingers sticking up at me as I made my coffee every morning at four forty five. This weekend, we were going to break that streak. By a landslide.
“Babe?” I peeled off my wet winter layers as I entered the dim apartment. We’d already lost power. The fire alarm screeched in the hallway. I’d expected Jamie to greet me at the door like a hungry dog. He’d never know how to entertain himself without all his electrical toys.
“Jame?” Maybe he was napping. He practically scheduled naps into his day. Jamie worked from home doing web design. If it wasn’t for the on and off trickle of money he dragged in, I’d think it was just a fancy way of saying he spent his day screwing around on the internet. For once, his nap didn’t annoy me. It gave me an opportunity to wake him up with a nice surprise.
I heard murmurs and soft laughter as I rounded the corner. Weird. The apartment walls were thin. Maybe it came from downstairs. The kids that lived downstairs must have been bouncing off the walls, trapped in the house with no electrical enterainment. The voices grew louder as I rounded the corner to the bedroom.
“What the fuck is this?” I exclaimed as I entered our bedroom. Jamie’s naked body jumped up slightly over the bed, surprised by the sound of my voice. He couldn’t go too far, since a very important part of him was inside Angela, our crazy white trash bitch of a downstairs neighbor.
I didn’t say another word. My whole body shook as adrenaline took over. Jamie’s ass was frozen in mid air, his arms holding him up over that skank’s body. Her surgically altered breasts jutted out ridiculously from the tangle of sheets. The least she could have done was save up for a decent boob job. Although, our tax dollars had probably paid for them, so I guess if these were normal circumstances, I could have seen the humor in her botched implants.
My brain ceased to function rationally. I marched over to my bed and grabbed a handful of Jamie’s overgrown snowboarder hair. With strength I didn’t know I had, I slammed his head down against Angela’s. Over and over again. Blood splattered against my beloved Pier One upholstered headboard. I didn’t stop until I saw Angela’s brain oozing out on my pillow, down her chest, and into her exaggerated cleavage.
I dropped Jamie’s limp head into the mess. Even broken and bleeding, he somehow looked peaceful. I backed away from the bed in horror. A scream stuck in my throat, threatening to choke me.
I didn’t mean to do this. I didn’t want him to be dead. I covered my mouth with my hand. This was my fault. Sure, he was in bed with that nasty slut, but why couldn’t I have just given him a little bit of attention before it came to this?
God, I hated my job.
As I began to come back to this planet, a different kind of shock washed over me. I had two dead people naked in my bed. And a state issued order to stay in the apartment with them.
Deadly Ever After 