Killed by death

She came forth

It was seven minutes after midnight. The stainless steel blade clung to my icy fingertips as I mulled over what I had just accomplished. The blanket of snow around me glazed the once mud slathered field. My own footprints were leading me back to the main road. The sea of tar ribbons around the hedges and trees. Walking beside that ribbon was th safest option so my mind became dormant as I stepped through the grass with the bloodied blade of steel.

The door uneasily shifted open to reveal my shack. Dry rot coarser through the floorboards and walls. The dank stench of ammonia and salt forced me to gag. To the left was a puny kitchen with no decoration whatsoever save for a five feet tall BUTSIR fridge ad a towering walk-in deep freeze. To the right lay a sterile slab of metal on legs with a dull glint on it, reflecting from the dust laden lamp. Straight ahead was a beech wood trapdoor, heavily caked with loam and an ebony tar-like substance. I took on step over the threshold and immediately exhaled, wriggling all of my nerves and worries from me. I pictured them slithering through the slits in the floor, desperately searching for an escape. I relaxed my brain; my dirt scarred knuckles kneading my skull. I allowed a heavy sigh before returning to my duties. My hands clasped hold of a coal black bin liner and my upper arm muscles heaved. The bag caught on a splinter of wood and a snake of colour tore a hole in the faceless plastic, allowing the colour to change from black to beige and finally a deep burgundy. The burgundy oozed out of the bag and leaked onto the floorboards, staining the wood. "Damn!" I cursed - under my breath. I would have to replace those particular slats of wood later.

The dead field returned and I was thrown to the ground. There was a tall-ish human shaped figure standing in the light of the moon so that each hair became a separate shade of ebony. Her hair was waist length. Before common sense kicked in, I thought that I was either drunk or was having a serious case of deja-vu. Then I saw sense. It was a twin. I stumbled towards her, shouting and cursing. Waving my arms in the air held to no avail. It was as if a cocoon encased me. An invisible cocoon weaved together by all my sins and bad words. I punched a heavy barrier made of nothing. It was invincible against my feeble attempts to weaken it. I could do nothing but sit down and watch this story unfold before me. One volunteered something to herself. It was inaudible to me and apparently also to the other twin. She then bent over as if tying her shoe laces, so I followed her steady hand. It was obvious she was deliberately being discreet - only I realised too late why. A dagger with a sapphire encrusted handle was visible in the girl's hand. Two snakes' tails entwined; the tip of each tail was pointed. "No." I took a tentative step back as realization slammed into me as if I had been rammed by a train. This was me. Murdering Annie. I raised the dagger whilst her back was turned. She had seen a figure behind her so she whipped her body around. In one spry movement, my hand clamped over Annie's mouth as my other hand lowered to her stomach. I never even paused to see the look of terror on her face. One spry movement. She squealed as the blade clung to her skin. In a fit of shock, Annie bared her teeth down on my arm until I could feel a steady flow of blood gushing into her mouth. I pulled away in pain, leaving the dagger to finish the job. By the time the blood on my arm had congealed, she was history. Inside the cocoon I sat, staring in horror. My fists pounded against the walls until they were bloody. Eventually, grief weakened me. My body, racked with sobs, hunched up in a ball and waited.

I lay curled up in a sodden heap underneath my sheets. My senses brought me back to reality as I breathed in the musty scent of the bedsheets and heard the door haul itself open. The estranged sound of a gun hammer being cocked paired with shuffling footsteps indicated the beginning. The beginning of the end.