Just Hanging Out

It was storming outside so I made a mug of hot cocoa and went to bed early. I thought I heard tiny scratches at the front door. At first, I blamed a tree branch rocking back and forth from the wind, but the scratching grew louder and louder. I knew the noise was no tree, so I got up out of bed to check. I walked to the front door, firmly grasped the knob, turned it slowly, then jumped when I felt something wet against my legs.

She was laying in her bed. I saw her from my spot in the tree. She got up and started walking towards the front door, so I silently slid from the tree. I pressed myself against the house, just feet from the front door. She opened the door and jumped. I slid inside her home.

I quickly turned around and watched something streak down the hall to my bedroom. I shut the door and followed. As quietly as I could, I snuck into my room. I could faintly make out the shape of something on my bed. The covers lifted and fell with every breath the mystery figure took. Picking up my tennis racket, I pulled back the covers and let out a scream. It was no pillow on my bed. 

When she turned around to shut the front door I ran into her room. With silent, even breaths, I watched her footsteps as she walked to the bed.

“Cooper!” I yelled. That silly dog must have gotten scared and wanted inside. I picked him up and carried him to his bed in the laundry room. After drying him off, I thought I heard a noise in the kitchen. Leaving the laundry room door slightly ajar, I made my way towards the kitchen.

After she left her room I snuck out of the closet and looked in her mug to see if she had left any hot chocolate. I was cold from watching her in the freezing rain for long, so imagine my disappointment when I saw the mug was empty. I walked down to the kitchen and got some hot chocolate. Clumsily I knocked over the cup. Hot chocolate dripped off the counter onto the floor.

I stopped in the doorway and listened. Drip, drip, drip.

Before she had even left the laundry room, I climbed on top of the fridge. She stopped in the doorway and listened. As she crossed the floor to the counter, I slid into the shadows. Kill her now, the voice in my head told me, she’s unsuspecting. Jump off the fridge and strangle her.

I walked to the counter. It was my mug of hot cocoa. I didn’t remember getting myself a second cup or spilling it for that matter. Paranoid, I looked around. You’re okay, I thought aloud to myself as I cleaned up the mess, the only person here is you. It’s storming. No one in their right mind would be outside. And besides, the only thing you have to worry about is if there is someone in the tree outside your room. I laughed at that ridiculous thought. Who would do that?

She laughed. It was the cutest laugh I’ve ever heard. I’ve spent months hearing that laugh. In the grocery store, the library, the movie theater, the bakery. Never this close, though. For just a second, I wanted to hop off of the fridge and declare my love for her. I regained myself. The voices told me to kill her, not to love her. 

After I cleaned up the mess I headed towards my room. Remembering I hadn’t brushed my teeth yet, I stopped in the bathroom. I left the door slightly open so Cooper could find me. Somehow I got hot cocoa on my cheek so I leaned over and started to wash my face. 

I stood outside the bathroom door and listened to her brushing her teeth. She turned the water on but didn’t shut it off, so I carefully peeked into the room. She was bent over washing her face. I noticed how muscular her arms are. She must dig holes for a living, I joked to myself.  

I shut off the water and put a towel on my face. When I looked up at myself in the mirror, I saw a shadow move and a clunk. 

“Go back to your bed, Cooper,” I yelled, smirking.

She looked into the mirror. I knew if she saw me I’d be done for. Turning to get away from the door, I ran into a table. I froze. She yelled for Cooper to go back to his bed. Thank god! I thought to myself. Quietly now, I ran to her room. Crawling under her bed, I caught my breath. 

I put lotion on then went to bed. I laid there, with my eyes closed for hours. The storm was keeping me awake. At one point I thought I saw some shadows move across my floor, but I’m sure they were just a trick of the light. 

I laid on the floor, listening to her soft, even breaths. I knew that if I listened to the voices I could have her, all to myself, forever and always. My heart longed to love her, my arms to hold her, and my eyes to stare into hers. My mind longed to kill her, my hands to strangle her, my lips to suck in her final breath. For hours I fought with myself as her breathing slowed. I thought she was finally asleep.

Climbing out from under her bed, I stood there, watching her. Her golden curls around her head like a halo, her long lashes casting shadows across her cheekbones, and her light pink lips practically begging for me. I reached down to grab for her neck, but I couldn’t do it.

I ran from her room and paced the floor for a while, then walked around her house. Upstairs there was a string hanging from the ceiling. I pulled it. A ladder came down.

Rain pattered against my window. I heard clunking upstairs. 

I climbed up the ladder to the attic. A rope with a knot, a chair, a piece of paper, and a pen were sitting there. It was almost like she knew what I was going to do. I wrote a note to her. I figured that she would be a little creeped out if she found me in her attic, so I explained why I was there. 

The noise stopped as suddenly as it started. I waited to see if it came back.

I tied the rope to a rafter on the ceiling. I climbed onto the chair, set my note next to my feet, put the rope around my neck, and jumped. Each breath hurting more than the last, I said my final words, “Forever and always…”

The noise didn’t come back so I figured it was time to go up.

My breathing slowed. Darkness surrounded me. My last thought was the sound of my love’s laugh. It filled me with happiness as my breath escaped me.

I climbed up the ladder to the attic. Hanging there, gently swinging back and forth, was the man from the grocery store, the library, the movie theater, the bakery. On the chair next to his dead body was a note. It was addressed to me. He admitted his love to me and told me of the voices in his head telling him to kill me, and of how he fought them. 

I laughed as I read the last line, “I will love you forever and always…” A touching line, if I were some lovestruck high school girl. I dragged him down to the basement. Laying him in his hole, I began to decide where I should dig my next. So much of the basement floor was filled with mounds of dirt, it was a bit of a puzzle to find a spot without a body. 

Do it in the morning, I thought to myself as I filled in the hole with dirt, go to bed. You deserve it.

As I went upstairs to my bedroom I began plotting my next murder. They’re so fun when I can trick the men into killing themselves. So much less work that way. Then all I have to do is make them fall in love with me, read their notes, and bury their bodies. Gently, I set his note on my bedside table. 

In the morning I would have to find my next man. My signature death is finding a man, making him fall in love with me, then waiting until he goes insane. They all prefer their own way of suicide. It’s up to me to find that out and get it ready for them. I hate having to be the one who kills them. Then they don’t die loving me. It gets tiring trying to pretend that I don’t know the men are in my home. Maybe next time I’ll try something new.

Exhausted from burying him, I laid my head down and shut my eyes. I slept well that night. It was an evening well spent. 

The next day…

I saw a man. He was with his wife and child. We locked eyes from across the room. I knew then exactly where his grave belongs.

And so it begins again...

Ms. E