SWEET REVENGE

SWEET REVENGE

The wind howled outside, and the rain rattled against the windows as if beating out an urgent message to all who lay sleeping inside their houses, huddled beneath their warm cosy covers.

Amy awoke with a start! Was she late? Had she missed the alarm? No, it was only four fifteen.

It was the third time that night that she had woken in such a manner. She sighed and turned over in the hope of getting some rest.

As she lay there, drifting back off to sleep, her sub conscious mind once again took over her thoughts and brought with it the reoccurring nightmare that she’d been having for the past four nights.

Amy was standing over the body of a middle aged man, that was lying face down.

Her hands were stained with blood, as it trickled down to the tips of her fingers onto a long thin knife, making streaky opaque patterns on its once shiny blade. The knife dangled limply before falling to the ground, leaving her hands shaking.

Her whole body joined in, quivering to a tremulous dance sequence of its own rhythm.

Amy’s legs started to buckle and she crumpled to the floor with a thud.

Hot salty tears were cascading down her pretty face and there was a slight twisted smile on trembling lips that still bore traces of the bright red lipstick that she’d bought that day.

She turned the body over very slowly.

The breath that had been trapped in his lungs as he gasped his last breath and collapsed to the floor, whooshed from his throat, making a long, low moaning sound.

Amy felt her body stiffen, panic wrapped its steely claws around her heart. For one awful moment she thought he was still alive.

No, she was safe, the body now lay still.

The eyes, hollow and dark, seemed to scream out to her in their torment of sudden death.

Why?

Why did you do this to me? I loved you.

The question pierced her brain, how could something so dead make so much noise?

She stared at the corpse, its familiar features, the strong jaw line, the aqua-line nose, the lips that were once so sweet, so tender, so passionate and demanding of her own.

Amy bent to plant a gentle kiss on his mouth, remembering how it used to be.

Oh Andrew, she sighed, when did it all go so wrong? We were happy for so long.

Twenty eight years was a lifetime.

We had everything, the kids were grown and striking out on their own.

No financial worries at last, we had everything, or so I thought.

Then ‘she’ came along!

She, was Susan, a secretary at the firm you worked for.

First it was drinks, then it was a dinner party with Susan and her husband, Peter, tagging along quietly beside her like a little whipped pup.

Susan flirted outrageously with every man she met, young or old, she was shameless.

Me! I just followed on regardless, innocently deceiving myself that you, my darling, wouldn’t be taken in by such provocative behavior.

Even when we went on holiday together, Peter couldn’t take the sun so he stayed in the shade most of the time. I always seemed to be the one on the other side of the camera whilst you were in the lens, always with Susan, laughing and draping herself around you.

I even remember the fourth night, when we quarreled about her. You said I was being neurotic, stupid to think that you would be interested in her. After all, she was half your age, like a daughter you said.

You said a lot of things, Andrew, you told a lot of lies, I hated you for that.

When we came home, you worked later and later, for the promotion you said.

But I never saw the extra money, in fact all I saw were bills and final demands.

You talked about her non stop, all I heard was ‘Susan does this, Susan does that.’ Then ‘Oh, poor Susan, Peter’s found himself another woman and left her.’

I hadn’t thought much about Peter until he did that, now I admired him immensely, he was the sensible one, I had been the idiot.

The bills mounted up and the more I tried to sort things out with you, the more you stayed out. The more Susan felt your older, broader, comforting shoulders…and everything else!

My mind became slightly unhinged as I imagined you both together; laughing, touching, kissing, making love, as you used to do with me.

You thought that I was out of your life for good when I was admitted to a mental hospital. You thought I was crazy and didn’t come to see me after the first month.

Susan moved into our house; my house; my life.

The struggle back from the nervous breakdown was hard and I slipped a few times; but I made it in the end.

The lady from the rehabilitation center helped me a lot, she gave me confidence to rebuild my life, to study and pass exams. To fight back for what was mine; mine.

Mine, you’re mine, not hers, Amy heard herself say as she carefully opened the large brown bottle. Its red label read DANGER. HYDROCHLORIC ACID.

A slight feeling of remorse crept over her as she sprinkled the foul liquid all over the corpse.

The stench made her recoil and the vapor from the burning flesh made Amy want to be sick. She shut her eyes tight and held her breath, until she was forced to breathe again so as not to pass out.

She dared to look down.

What she saw, took the little breath she had left, clean away.

The bones that remained were perfect, smooth and white.

Just like porcelain, Amy thought, as she remembered a china doll she’d had as a child. Even after all her research about the acid, never in her wildest dreams did she expect such a good result, she was mesmerized by their beauty.

Now to connect the remains and keep you together my darling, Amy murmured.

A mist was swirling around her now and there was a pneumatic drill going off inside Amy’s head. What was happening?

Amy’s body jerked violently and her head flipped back, nearly snapping her spine.

Her eyelids peeled open to reveal the alarm clock screeching and its bright red bulb flashing, burning her retina and making her wince in pain.

Oh god, it was time to get up, she felt like hell.

Amy stood in a hot stinging shower for twenty minutes before she felt anything like human.

Her head was still throbbing as she climbed elegantly out of her sleek jaguar and strode across the carpark. She mounted the cold grey stone steps of the imposing building and made her way to the front of the large hall where eleven stern faces sat facing her.

Amy took a deep breath and set up her display.

The man in the center spoke to her, “ We’re ready for you Amy” a slight smile showed across his lips, “ You have thirty minutes to explain your thesis on the human skeleton.”

Come on darling, Amy murmured to herself as she took hold of the skeletons right arm and maneuvered the fingers. You always said you were there for me in everything I did!

Jane Myers 1/2/26