Evil is not any superhuman, but it is human.
Agatha Christie.
Warning: explicit content proceed with caution.
Derek entered the living room, as his thoughts recollected back to his dispute with Victoria earlier and wondered if that despicable woman had disappeared off somewhere to go and lick her wounds from their heated discussion for the time being. He saw Melissa and her father but Victoria had been strangely nowhere to be seen.
"Honey, have you seen my mom?"Derek heard Melissa ask leaping up from the sofa, as soon as she saw him come in.
"She's been gone a while and I want to go see where she's wandered off too,"she insisted."Knowing my mother - she's more than likely got lost somewhere."
Derek nonchalantly shrugged his shoulders, as If he were just as much as in the dark as she was even though, he knew why she'd more then likely left. Derek was just about to leave the room with Melissa, but Edward eagerly stopped him dead in his tracks from making it to the door in time.
"Derek I'd like to speak with you," he heard Edward say with a friendly but condescending tone in his voice.
He knew all to well that when Edward wanted to speak to him it was never a good thing and he simply was not in the mood. He'd already had a quarrel with Victoria, and he most certainly wasn't going to stick around and listen to the ramblings, of this senile old chauvinistic delinquent.
"Look I know you and I haven't always had the best relationship." He heard Edward confess.
If that isn't the understatement of the year.Derek thought forcing an insincere smile on his face.
Derek knew he had no intentions of ever seeing this man in a different light ever again. In his eyes, this man wasn't human - he was a monster. A wolf in sheep's clothing, and that's all he would ever be to him.
Derek watched his father in law approach him now.He noticed he was holding a whiskey glass in his hands. When he looked at the whiskey sitting in that man's glass he could feel it starting to stir up a profound distorted, emotion inside him. He would have been one hundred days sober today and seeing that whiskey was an enticement so great, he became appalled at himself for even considering the idea again. He had a wife and child to consider they were the most important aspects of his life, without them was nothing in this world.
He had to remind himself that whenever he got the sudden and unexpected urge to start up again, he knew how far he had come to get where he is today and why he lost everything because of turning to the bottle in the first place.
Derek remembered his dad once telling him when he was a young boy, that if you have thought that thought even if you have not committed and acted on your impulses, you have done it already even if it's only in the dark corners of your mind.
Those words still to this day remained fresh in Derek's memory, whenever he second-guessed himself, he had to forcefully prompt himself that going down that path of destruction and chaos, was not only not an option but it was totally and completely out of the question.
Derek's thoughts soon returned back to Edward, when he heard him speak after a long and unsettling lull of silence between them.
"I just wanted to tell you that I'd like us to start getting along." Derek heard him say.
I know you being unemployed has been rough on you and Melissa, especially after your struggle with your drinking problem and losing your job and credibility as a doctor."
"Yes," Derek answered him precipitously knowing his act of concern was yet another facade in disguise.
He quickly cleared his throat before continuing.
"Which is precisely the reason why I stopped drinking to be a better husband to Melissa and a responsible father to Holly," Derek assured him.
"They all that matter to me in this world, unfortunately, becoming a doctor again, and getting my medical license reinstated is out of the question, but I have learnt to come to terms with that and move on with my life to something hopefully more promising in the not so distant future."
"That's good to hear," Edward said.
But Derek could detect the subtle and underlining sarcasm in his voice and he wondered where Edward was really going with this.
"The accident that happened to you recently, I hear you have been having a difficult time with nightmares and insomnia. That must be extremely difficult for you..."
He heard Edward drivel on much to Derek's annoyance.
"Where are you going with this?"Derek promptly impeded him.
It was an extremely sensitive topic, one that he didn't particularly wish to discuss especially with the likes of him.
"I know you have never given a damn about me in the past, so why the sudden change of heart?"Derek asked him harshly.
He watched Edward pace up and down on the living room floor like a drug addict wanting his next fix reaching for yet another glass of whiskey. Derek could feel the anger slowly settling inside him he was intentionally testing Derek's forbearance, he reminded himself he was better than this and it would have been a much wiser choice to leave rather than provoke an unnecessary argument between them Mel didn't need to walk in on them having yet another brawl, especially not on their first night of moving into this house.
He knew leaving now would do more good than harm.
"I don't mean to be rude." Derek abruptly interrupted him.
" But I'm going to see, where Melissa is we can continue this conversation at a later stage."
And with that Derek promptly dismissed himself, from his presence.
He was just about to steer down the long narrow hallway, when he heard Melissa screaming hysterically, it sounded as if it were coming from upstairs. Derek quickly bolted up the stairs, hearing his wife relentless screams drive him faster at charging up that decrepit old staircase, her screams became louder in between vociferous and frantic cries. As he made his way to the top of the staircase did Derek then realise that her screams were coming from inside the bathroom.
He found her crouching on the floor, sobbing and screaming hysterically.
"Honey, what's wrong?! What's going on?!"
Melissa looked at him whatever little colour, she had left had completely vanished and began pointing at something, but Derek couldn't quite make out what it was as yet.
Assuming it must have been a rat walked in with repose at first, and to his horror caught sight of the most disturbing image he knew would now be forever imprinted in his mind for the rest of his life.
Victoria lay there like a ghoulish mannequin: her oesophagus and arteries protruding out of her body like a corrugated and rubber tubing her black hair, bloodied and discoloured with her own blood.
Her complexion, that was once healthy and full of life, was now morbidly pale and her motionless eyes, resided open with not an ounce of existence in them. She was just endlessly staring at something, almost If she were trying to tell them something and Derek could tell by the ghastly tormented expression on her face that she suffered greatly before she died.
As much as Derek detested the woman his heart still deeply went out to her at this moment, nobody deserved to succumb to such an ugly death, not even her.
"What the hell happened in here?!"
Derek shrieked recoiling back at the blood splattered on the walls where her body lifelessly lay.
Just as it were in his nightmare only this was real.
Never in Derek's thirty-five years of existence on this earth, had he ever seen anything as significantly vicious as this.
It was an absolutely brutal and ugly sight and Derek wished to God he had never seen it.
He felt himself wanting to be sick all over this floor.
Derek caught sight of Melissa desperately punching in the digits on her phone she was trembling, when Derek tried to reach out and comfort her she immediately jerked away from him, as if he were responsible for this before anxiously answering the 911 helpline.
" I'm calling the police!" Melissa lamented.
She couldn't even look Derek in the eye and that's when he knew then and there that she was surely pinning this on him.
Derek stood there hidden in the shadows watching her report her mother's murder and felt a darkness begin to creep upon him, and he knew something was drastically wrong.
"You don't honestly believe I had something to do with this?!" Derek exclaimed trying to reach out and touch Melissa again but she refused to touch or even acknowledge him.
Then suddenly she looked up at Derek and had nothing but fear and terror in her eyes.
She looked at him as if he were a cold-blooded murderer and no longer her husband, and what's worse is she wouldn't even acknowledge his own presence, it was as if she were trying to get away from him.
"You tell me, Derek."Melissa sobbed.
"Ever since that accident you have been a completely different man and now this."
Each word was a hammer blow, the world was falling in on him. Derek couldn't believe this, he was now been possibly framed for this atrocious murder- a crime he knew, he had nothing to do with.
He hated Victoria there was no denying it, but never would he have resorted to doing something like this.
Edward came scrambling in soon afterwards, Derek tried to stop him but Edward hastily propelled him out of the way. He walked in and looked at his dead wife, for only a brief a second and quickly navigated his eyes to Derek and he knew not only was Melissa blaming him for this but so was her father.
"You did this, didn't you?!"
He heard him say his eyes burning right into Derek's as if he were about to kill him with his bare hands.
"Come any closer and I swear to God, I will have no choice but to defend myself!" Derek threatened him venomously.
His attention soon shifting back to Melissa, he was going crazy thinking that she thought he was responsible for this it was driving him to the brink of insanity.
"Baby please listen to me." Derek pleaded collapsing to the ground in front of her.
"You know I had nothing to do with this, and I will prove it when the police get here."
Melissa shook her head at Derek, she was struggling to believe him, Derek could see the tremendous confusion in her eyes, it was as if she wanted to believe him but didn't know where to turn at this point.
Honestly, I don't know what to believe anymore." She sobbed bitterly.
Derek could hear the ambulance and police sirens screaming down the road.
He slowly stood up and felt something cold and empty creep past him, and that's when he caught sight of the gloom of darkness, begin to encompass itself, on the bathroom mirror in front of him. He caught a glimpse of that loathsome woman's face appear in front of him, looking at Derek and grinning wickedly at him, and that's when he knew who was accountable for this insidious murder and she was looking right at him grinning like a Cheshire cat; her wicked and crooked discoloured teeth protruding from her horrendous smile.
Derek watched her write on the mirror with what appeared to be Victorias own blood
I'm coming for you, Derek!!!!!! It read, and that's when the pieces of the puzzle slowly, began to fall into place.
In the process of being edited and rewritten.
Total word count:1955
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