Here’s what happened.
It was by far the coldest day of the year. As I swiftly walked to work I could feel the bitter cold air biting at my toes and fingers. I could feel my hands getting number by the second as I briskly advanced through the snow, my feet making crisp crunching noises with every step. I was praying that I would be able to go home; the school I worked at had a faulty boiler so it was possible it wasn’t working that day and I would have a day off. Sure enough, ten minutes later I was back out in the freezing cold weather, now fighting my way through hailstone. I was delighted not to be working; I had no energy whatsoever on that dull grey Monday, furthermore, my husband had the day off so it was going to be lovely to spend our third wedding anniversary reposing on the sofa, lazily watching television.
I ambled through the snow (I was in a much brighter mood after I found out I had a full day ahead of me to relax) and it was then that I heard a door shutting. I looked around but was unable to trace this noise to any house on the street – it must have been a back door I thought to myself, probably one of the children from school celebrating about their day off by making a snowman in the snow laden garden. As I opened the front door I felt a surge of cosy heat hit me like an oven and I immediately sent a sweet sickly sent of cheap perfume in my noise.
‘Jack! Guess what? I got the day off!’ I exclaimed happily through the house. I was surprised to receive a reply of ‘Aw great, on our anniversary too!’ from upstairs. I had assumed he would be watching TV or working in our office downstairs. However before I had any time to ponder this, I was overcome by the urge to make a cup of tea. I entered the kitchen, and noticed something most peculiar: the back door was slightly ajar. My mind thought of why this could be as I ran up the stairs to ask Jack. I found him in the bedroom looking flustered – his clothes were twisted and his face red. My eyes surveyed the room in front of me. Clothes were lying all over the place, at first I’d thought ‘trust him to not tidy up’ however I quickly realised that something was wrong. My eyes soon clasped on the sight that would destroy my life forever...
A bra.
It wasn’t my bra - it was fluorescent pink and it stuck out like a sore thumb in this, all of a sudden, miserable room. I looked at Jack, thunderstruck. I couldn’t believe he could be so surreptitious.
‘How could you?’ I exclaimed in disbelief.
'Please Madeline...’He said, I could hear the shame in his voice, yet it didn’t quite reach his eyes.
‘I can’t believe you could do this to me. I loved you Jack. I LOVED YOU! And this is how you repay me, after everything I have done for you, you’re my world!’ I said, my pain now evolving into anger.
‘I’m sorry.’ He replied – he couldn’t even meet my eyes.
‘No you’re not Jack!’ I could feel my blood boiling, I’d been about to explode.
‘Maddy, you are the one I love.’ He sounded pathetic, like a 3 year old.
‘Well you have a funny way of showing it.’ I replied like a moody teenager.
‘Please, you know it won’t happen again!’ he begged.
‘Too right it won’t.’
Then without properly thinking my arms had reached out a grabbed the glowing lamp on the table beside me. Then with all my might, I struck it down towards his head again and again. I didn’t even give him chance to move and I was sure he never would again.
I killed my husband.
My whole body had begun to shake. With what...Fear? Anger? Anguish? I didn’t know what to do, so I did the only thing I could think of. Run.
I ran outside and got into my rusty old car, then pulled out the drive haphazardly. I considered where I went. I decided to take the familiar route to my best friend’s Sally’s house; she was my best friend - the one person I could have trusted and at the moment even contemplate telling what I’d done. I pulled up outside her large, modern house and got out the car clumsily, then stumbled carelessly across her uneven driver, at this point I was so preoccupied with my thoughts that it was hard to control my body. However I tried to put on a straight face and act normally which was hard because my vision was hopelessly blurred and I was desperately fighting back tears, I wasn’t ready to tell her at that moment. I knocked on the door and it swung open almost immediately, she looked nervous, but her face softened when she saw me.
‘Maddy, to what do I owe the pleasure?’ she asked kindly.
‘I just needed to get out the house’ I said carefully, I tried so hard to keep myself together, my emotions hidden by my calm voice. I could feel myself about to crack any minute. She looked slightly confused so thinking vigorously I added,
‘It’s me and Jack; we’ve had a bit of a row – we’ll be fine!’ I continued as an unmistakable look of concern suddenly flashed across her pretty face. She relaxed slightly when I said this however there was still an unreadable expression on her face and a tension in her body that I could not translate.
‘So, is it alright if I stay the night? We, um, just need some time apart...’ I said awkwardly, fading away because I didn’t know what else to say.
‘Of-of course it is babe!’ She said in an overly cheerful tone, her face smiling in a false way.
‘Thanks.’ I said unsurely as a result of the curious way Sally was acting.
I stepped inside; I heard the lock of the door click loudly behind me. I looked at Sally and for the first time began to study what she was wearing. A dressing gown was hanging from her svelte figure. This was strange because Sally is a morning person; she always gets up at 7 am daily to go for a run. Then I had a sudden confused thought. How could I have not noticed this?
That’s my dressing gown.
Then it hit me- the mystery bra I’d found in MY bedroom belonged to the woman standing right in front of me – my best friend.
With everything that was going on I had failed to notice this explicit detail. I could feel myself beginning to shake uncontrollably. She seemed to have sensed it as well.
‘Are you alright Maddy?’ she said gently.
‘Don’t call me that.’ I said, no longer bottling up my feelings, but revealing exactly how I felt with the tone of my voice.
‘Wh-what?’ she said, clearly faking a flabbergasted look.
‘Don’t even dare speak to me, and don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about either - you are fully aware that you have ruined my life.’ I told her, I looked up and saw her kind expression flicker away to be replaced with a look of what could only be described as evil. Then as quick as a flash, I felt myself getting thrown violently on the cold wooden floor by unbelievably strong arms.
Suddenly, with a shock that took my breath away, I felt the cold tip of a gun being held to my forehead and felt Sally’s surprisingly heavy weight on top of me.
It isn’t that much fun staring down a loaded gun.
‘Don’t move’ she panted.
‘What is wrong with you? You’re mental, you steal my husband then threaten me with a gun!’ I said panicking. This was probably a stupid thing to say to somebody armed however looking at this gun felt like I was looking at my death anyway.
‘Well I’m going to have to kill you aren’t I!? You know about me and Jack. We’ve been behind your back for the past 6 months; you didn’t deserve him, because you see I’m the one he loves – not you.’
I tried to ignore these words but I couldn’t dismiss the fact that they were probably true, she’s always been the tall pretty one, next to me anyway, I always got pushed to the side when I was around perfect Sally. Who wouldn’t choose her over me?
‘How did you escape the house before I got there?’ I questioned her nervously.
‘He saw you down the street and I immediately ran downstairs and out the back door.’ She said sounding pleased with herself.
‘Ah, if only you’d remembered to shut the door.’ I dared.
‘Well it doesn’t matter now anyway because you’re going to die, me and Jack will finally be alone together.’
‘He’s dead.’ I choked.
‘What?’ she snapped quickly.
‘He’s dead,’ I repeated with a fake confidence that I used to try to conceal how terrified I actually was, I got lots of satisfaction from telling her so calmly. ‘I killed him when I found out about you two, hit him pretty hard with a lamp, he was dead within seconds.’ I said it all so relaxed just so it would annoy her more (I definitely wasn’t relaxed), which probably wasn’t a wise move considering she was pressing a loaded gun to my forehead. I felt her trembling with anger and disbelief, but all she did was get a phone out and dial 999, I watched as she reported that she had a murderer. She then told me with a sense of satisfaction I hated so much that the police were on their way to arrest me.
‘Enjoy your last minutes of freedom.’ She said smiling, her body still trapping me underneath her. This was horrible because I didn’t want to touch this disgusting woman.
She was insane.
Strangely, I felt the gun being removed from me, I took my only chance of freedom and in a second I was rolling over so that she was the one laying on the floor. And quick as lightning I grabbed the gun from out of her filthy paws and pointed it at my quavering ex best friend who lay on the floor attempting to get back up.
She looked at me, an evil smile plastered across her once attractive face, which was now, once you knew the truth about what a cheating liar she was, ugly.
I desperately wanted to kill her – I hated her so much I was surprised my petite body could hold it all in.
What came next happened so quickly at first I wasn’t even sure what happened.
‘Have all the fun you want in Hell with Jack.’ I blurted out dramatically.
The BANG of the shot rang through my ears as I pulled the trigger. A fast spread of crimson across her chest declared her death.
I hated her, she was the reason I was in this mess – she didn’t deserve to live. I already had at least a life sentence in prison, so another dead body on my behalf made no difference. Right? I felt no pain, no remorse; I’ll never regret what I did. She had it coming and it was all her fault.
I was so caught up in my own thoughts I completely forgot the police were on their way and I failed to hear the nee-naw of the sirens announcing my arrest.
The next thing I knew, my hands were clasped tightly behind my back in cold steel handcuffs, I heard my freedom disappear with the soft click of the lock. In a blur, I was dragged outside the crime scene and into a police car, the sirens still blaring away, and I was whisked to the station.
They questioned me; asked me why I did it and I told them. I didn’t try to conceal anything; it wasn’t exactly unobvious that I killed two people that day. I knew then that I was going to die. The capital punishment is the only way to keep the world safe and rid of evil. That’s what I am.
It’s funny because if somebody would have told me the day before it all happened that I was shortly going to find out my husband was having an affair with my best friend and I would end up killing them both, I would never have believed them – I would have laughed. I was no killer.
Jack was the best husband I could ever have hoped for, Sally was the greatest friend ever. Ha, not anymore they weren’t, when the truth comes out you realise it was all just a joke, all just a joke on me. Shame they aren’t alive to laugh at me. Well, it just showed me that the only person you can trust is yourself.
I was certainly not going to waste my tears over them, yes, they hurt me, but getting upset – well it’s exactly what they’d have wanted and exactly what I was not going to do.
So that’s how I came to be here, laying here on my hard, lumpy mattress in my depressing cell on the death row. I can’t wait to get out of here, I don’t mean to get out back into the world, I mean out of everything – of life. I’m going to die.
I think I’m supposed to be finding this horrible – the experience of knowing that you are soon going to be nothing more than a terrifying memory in the world. I’m not. On the contrary I’m having quite a fun time reliving the moments I killed Jack and Sally, I also imagine them begging me for their life, apologising over and over again - it’s extremely satisfying. You probably won’t expect this, but I feel no remorse at all - I certainly do not regret killing the two people who ruined my life.
Staring death in the eyes - it’s surprisingly peaceful. I’m glad I’m going to die actually. I couldn’t have lived without Jack and Sally, and knowing what they did to me, my Mum and Dad are already dead so I would be completely alone, besides, if I go to Hell I’ll find Jack and Sally, and I will make their afterlife torture. Just like they did my living one.