The Kill

“Jay!” I screeched into the darkness. I rushed to his side but was stopped in my tracks when all at once, with terrible suddenness, the window shattered into a million pieces. Flying shards of glass pierced my skin as I flattened my body against the floor. Anything out in the room fell down to the floor or was caught in the torrent of the winds. Cutting myself on even more glass, I crawled across the floor to the hallway.

Shutting his door, I darted to my room to get my cell phone.  A chilly wind rushed up my spine and filled the whole room, blowing out the candles until only one remained. All was cold and dark. The mirror on my dresser cracked, splitting it in to. I grabbed my cell phone but when I swerved around, he stood there, obstructing me path.

He was partly covered in shadow. I only had a back view, but that was sufficient enough; I should not have cared to see his face. I felt paralyzed, unable to feel my legs. His knife shimmered with a bloody red coating; my brother’s assassin. Rising, knife in hand, he approached. In the sudden blackness that followed the extinction of the flame, I could see his ghastly white face and glowing eyes. He kept his eyes set in my direction pressing forward with growing distinctness. I fell back as the knife clattered to the floor. I could hear myself breathing heavily.

His gaze softened as he continued forward, a sad smile gleaming faintly across his face; the face of a stranger, but so familiar. Only inches away from my face, in his warm voice he whispered, “Where were you yesterday? I waited for you.”

My entire body felt repulsed as a shiver ran through every part of me, “I-I didn’t think you would actually come for me.”

“How, could I not? I love you.”

I felt nauseous as if I were going to barf.  Love me? Gently he touched the tips of his fingers to my cheeks and pushed the strands of hair out of my face behind my ear. Every touch felt like dry ice on my skin, burning through my flesh, but I was helpless to it.  It would only get worse if I resisted. Slowly, he touched his cold lips to my forehead causing me to wince.

                “Why did you kill him?” I asked.

                “I wanted something, and he was in my way.”

                  “He never hurt you.”

               “But he would have stopped me from getting to you.”

Tears of helplessness rolled down my cheeks. It was my fault he was dead. I was too selfish. I didn’t want to be his girlfriend, he was too pushy, and he put too much pressure on me but I could have put up with it if I realized how far he would go to get what he wanted.

“Shh, don’t cry,” he cooed, pulling me in for a hug. My entire body tensed, I felt violated. It felt so wrong to be against him. Jay didn’t want me to put up with this and I wouldn’t put up with it either, I would avenge my brother if it was the last thing I did. Behind him, the blood stained knife was glinting in the little streams of light in the room. All I had to do was get a little closer. My mind was on overdrive and I could no longer form coherent thoughts. There was only one thing running through my mind: Kill him! Kill him! Kill him!

I pressed my body against him as I leaned forward, despite the fact that every fiber of my being wanted to run in the opposite direction for ten miles and wash off any hint of his presence off of me. He groaned underneath me, tightening his hold on me, drawing circles into my back.  Only a few more millimeters away I pressed in as far as I could.

“You feel so good against me,” he sighed,” I knew we were meant to be.”

My eyes bulged as I furtively grabbed the knife from behind him. I raised the knife up for a good clean strike, but hesitated for a moment. I wouldn’t be able to stop once I started. I couldn’t allow myself to. Could I really kill him? Could I really go through with it?

                “I think it was worth it, killing your brother,” he said, “It was like sacrificing one life for the happiness of two others. Now we can life our happily ever after. You’ll be my princess forever, until the day I die.”

                My blood turned cold and my brain rewired into overdrive once more: Until the day I die. I die. I die. My heart was rapping, beating down the walls of my chest.With a subconscious suddenness, I raised my arm with all the fury in my heart and swung it down into his back. He gasped at the impact and groaned as the pain began to sink in. The feeling of cutting through bone and muscle was so appalling I let go of my grip instantly. Running to the corner of my room I tried to catch my breath. Oh my god. Oh my god. I didn’t just do that. I began to sob uncontrollably, covering my face with my hands. “I’m sorry,” I wept, but something inside me was boiling. It felt like contentment. I only feared my punishment for my brash act. I wasn’t sorry at all.

                “Come here,” he commanded as he staggered onto his feet.

I shook my head, “Please don’t hurt me. Please!”

Before I knew what was happening, I was yanked up to my feet and turned around, my face smothered against the wall. He flung up my shirt to my shoulders, I felt a sharp pain puncturing the skin on my back. He rested his head in the crook of my neck, kissing it gently, and teased my back with the tip of his knife, causing each muscle on my back to constrict. Pressing the knife further into my skin, I felt the cool liquid trickle from the spot. Dragging it around my back, he drew a bloody heart into my back and etched an H into the middle. Raising his head to my ear he murmured, “You belong to me. You do as I say. You will be obedient. You will love me, and remember, I always get what I want, always.” At that, he stabbed my back at the middle of the heart where his first initial was carved.

                I cried out like a wounded child and fell to the floor. I turned around to face him gasping for air. I was going to die. I would die with my brother at the hands of the same madman. I kept one hand behind my back, scratching at it to grab the knife, but feeling the life drain out of me with every drop of blood. He knelt down to me and cupped his hand against my cheek, staining it with the blood coating his hand.

“I’m sorry, baby, but I had to do it. It’s okay. I won’t let you die though.” He pulled my chin up and before I could even squirm away from him, he smashed his lips to mine. In that moment with all the strength I could muster, I gripped the knife in my back, drew it out and slashed it across his jugular.

“YOU WILL NEVER TOUCH ME AGAIN!” I bellowed.  He clutched his throat in attempt to stop the bleeding, but the cut was far too large. Blood bubbled through his fingers as he slowly crumpled to the floor like a melting wax candle. Unable to watch him any longer, I looked out the window to see the storm now almost over.  I smiled like a Cheshire cat.  Soon enough, it would be just a distant dream, but the damage had been done and the scars would remain over the little town.

                Staggering out of my room, keeping my gaze towards the door, I thought I heard him whisper one last word, “mine”, but it may very well have been the last whispers of the wind. Dragging my hand across the bland wall, I painted it red with the agony on my hands, unable to wipe off the actions of the past. Finally reaching the end of the corridor, I turned the knob to my brother’s room again. I gently pushed the door open. Standing in the door frame I observed his body lying there in deadly silence. Tears gushed from my face as I stumbled and struggled to reach his side.

                “It’s done Jay. I did exactly what you told me. I didn’t let him push over me anymore. You were right when you said I deserved better," I breathed heavily, "but why did you have to leave?” I spluttered. I kissed him gently on his cheek as I used to when I was young and I was sure he was asleep.  Carefully, I crawled into his bed next to him and held his body to mine, my body shaking as I wept into his.

                “You were there for me all my life, you never left my side, and now I’ll never leave yours.” Curling up next to him, a sinking feeling fell over me as a dark haze covered my eyes and I slowly drifted into a familiar warm darkness.