Psychological Short Story – Through the Eyes of a Killer
Photo credit: dhester from morguefile.com
I look at the woman as she lays there dying. My stomach grows as it always did when I was working. I ignore it going back to work on my masterpiece. I had only wanted to scare her at first, a sick joke to get back at her for all the times she had treated me like I was less than her. Still sometimes what we want and what we need are two different things. What I wanted was to scare her. What I needed was to torture her. To make her as ugly as she made me feel each and everyday. Her eyes, those eyes that longed for release seemed so sad. Even before I made the first incision. I almost felt sorry for her though almost is at times short lived. She lets out one final scream as her soul leaves this world. I walk away a porcelain doll painted beautifully against a moonlight backdrop on this cold autumn night.
I wake up next to my wife, sweet dripping down my face. My palms are shaking. I reach over caressing her blonde hair. Like silk against my skin. I kiss her closing my eyes. I open them again to see the blonde again…no a woman with red locks smiles back at me. We make love for a few minutes then get dressed and head into the kitchen. I sit down at the dinning room table as she hands me a cup of coffee and the morning paper. Not too black and not with a lot of cream and sugar. Just right. I sip at it as I open the paper to read the sports page. A few minutes go by she places a plate filled with eggs, bacon, sausage and pancakes down in front of me. I put the paper down. Picking up the fork to eat.
She smiles as words escape her lips “I will be home late tonight Robert. Judith is having a baby shower for her daughter Grace tonight.”
I nod smiling though deep down inside baby showers were death to a man. I knew this all men knew this. It meant that all the fun you had had to make the child would soon be out the window. A dream that was just out of reach. My wife Lucy had always wanted to have a baby but to no avail she was barren. Lucy leaves going to her job as a psychologist for the criminally insane. I go back to my coffee and paper this time reading the headline. The car engine roars from outside- the coffee cup falls from my hand in slow motion-shattering into a million pieces. The blonde I had dreamt about. Her lifeless corpse was on the front page there to haunt me during my waking hours. Those empty eye sockets, ruby red lips and perfect…no this was not happening. Only a nightmare that I was trapped inside of. I stand up running past the kitchen. It’s walls white with brown cabinets. I must have still been sleeping up the lightly gray carpeted staircase. I begin to feel dizzy the world around me becoming disillusioned. The white flowery blanket covers something or someone. I grasp the sheet praying that I am still asleep. Pulling back the blanket quickly I see the bed is empty nothing underneath. I fall to my knees passing out on the carpet below.
“Robert? Robert?” I hear her voice. I hear her speak my name frantically. Slowly the blonde woman comes in to view. A white dress adjourns her small frame. Eye sockets devoid of life pierce deep within my soul. A black liquid flows from the emptiness within. I blink feeling as though my world was becoming a series of nightmares and reality. Slowly blending together to drive me insane. The woman fades into Lucy kneeling down in front of me. Her hand gently stroking my hair a look of concern filled her eyes.
“What happened” she asked me. I could not answer only sit there for a moment to figure out what was going on. Time seemed to slow down for awhile my thoughts wondering if Lucy was real or if I was loosing my sanity. Who was the woman I kept seeing? I had to find out. Without a word I stood up running out of the house. I could not be in there, something was drawing me towards it. I was a moth to the flame. The woman had been found in a garden near Fifth and Main. The police had already searched the area and had found nothing. No weapon of any sort that could have been used to murder this poor woman. Yet as if I had been there I knew where to look. An old tree just a few feet from where the body had laid decomposing in the dirt. My fingers glide over the trunk of the tree. Lightly tapping at the wood till I hear a part that was hollow.
My fingers dig at the loosened piece of bark that had been cut out then placed neatly back. A small hole had been carved inside. It was small enough to hide something little and only big enough to allow two fingers to slip through. I take my thumb and forefinger pinching at the bit of metal that poked out. Carefully I remove the scalpel from the base of the tree and grip it in the palm of my hand. I had never held a scalpel, nor had I ever gone to medical school. Yet it felt as natural for it to be in my hand as each breath I took. I fall to the dirt and once again my world goes black.
I awaken in an alley my knees pressed tightly against my chest. My clothes are wet how I cannot remember. Perhaps it had ran while I slept out here. Why was I out here? Didn’t I have a home to go too? The sound of footsteps approaching catch my attention. I look towards the sound, nervously wondering who was coming. I see her stroll up to me. Lucy…my wife… not my wife. Lucy is a doctor for the criminally insane. I remember now. She knells next to me smiling.
“You did good Robert.” she whispers in my ear. I feel the prick of something sharp piercing my skin. A knife? No a needle filled with some drug. I look at Lucy my world becoming a blur once again. “Sleep dear boy and fear not you won’t remember a thing”
If only Lucy had been right. I wish that when I woke up again I could not remember. My eyes slowly open I am in a hospital bed and there is a woman sitting next to my bed. Lucy… it had to be. She had set me up for murder and had kept me asleep this whole time. I grunt slightly to catch her attention. She stands up bolting for the door. I can hear her scream for the doctors to hurry. A sound of relief and joy in her voice. What a good actress she would make. Her hand caress my hair gently. I grab the I.V that was feeding me fluids, ripping it fro my arm. Blood begins flow out of my arm as I plunge the needle into her neck. I hear her scream. Something about “Why Robert?” and I think I hear an “I loved you.”
Her body falls across me. The doctors finally come in their eyes wide with panic at the scene. I didn’t care anymore. I had gotten my revenge.
“What happened?”
that voice? I knew that voice. But how? I look at the doctor standing there as everything finally comes into focus. There she was safe and sound…Lucy. But how was she alive? Had I not killed her? I look at the body. The blonde woman laid there her blood soaking the sheets. I leap out of bed knocking the blonde from off me. I push Lucy to the side and take off passed the doctors, passed the security. I run towards the door marked stairs and head up them. My blood leaving a trail for them to follow. I make my way to the rooftop this had to be a dream it had to be. I stand on the ledge over looking the world below. I close my eyes and step off, the world rushes up to greet me and then darkness.
“Bravo, Robert, Bravo.” the voice is scratchy and harsh. “I honestly didn’t think you had it in you.” I look up my body felt like it had been burned over and over again. “Who are you? Where am I?”
“Who am I? Well you can just call me Lucifer.” he says stepping out of the shadows “As for where you are…well dear boy this has been your home for the last several years.”
Did he just say years. I had to wonder what I had done that would have gotten me a spot in hell. Still none of it mattered I was happy to finally be awake.So none of it was real only a demented illusion as part of my torment. I smile walking away whistling “Do your ears hang low”.
The End
