Her usual lavender scent filled me again, but all I could think of was the smell of the decomposing skull in the secret room. Her voice reaching my eardrums but all that came to mind were the screams of her victims as the coup de grace was delivered. The sight of her beautiful appearance, replaced by the illusion of a woman whose hands have been stained by the blood of innocent men who only wanted to know that they were worthy of love. I just needed one thing so that I could justify my actions and I knew the very means of obtaining that evidence.
“Dear, would you mind jotting down something for me?”
“Sure honey, what is it? Hold on, let me get a piece of paper and pen.”
As she finished writing, she gave it to me and asked what it was for. I studied it carefully, looked at her in the eyes for one last time and it was then I knew that it was the right thing to do.
People believe that when an individual enters a stage of extreme shock, you become immobilised and they lose close to all sense of coordination and control over their own bodies. In fact, they will be filled with so much fear that it is considered a privilege to even let out a scream. That was what exactly happened to me. My mind blanked out on me. Is that a human head that I was looking at? I reasoned with and thought to myself that I could be imagining things. Maybe it was supposed to be a prank for Halloween, to scare the neighbours’ children while they were out trick-or-treating around the neighbourhood. I took a few steps closer into the room and then I ran out, holding back the urge to throw up. The slight trace of the scent of decomposing human flesh was unmistakeable and although the person did a decent job in preserving it, it was not enough. Maggots were starting to appear on the surface, digging and crawling around, digesting anything that they came across and in a matter of days, putrid odours would be emanating from it, only to be blocked out by the shifting slab of six-inch concrete. Covering the remains of the unfortunate victim with my towel, I quickly shifted my attention to the other things that were in the room. I acknowledged the presence of a worktable to my right and as I made my way towards it, what I saw sent chills down my spine and made my blood curdle. Pictures of me, circled in red, were scattered all over the top. My routines, sequenced chronologically with notes scribbled all over the place, essentially showing and notifying the intended reader how I behaved and structured my lifestyle. While I was rummaging and sifting through the pile of pictures and documents, a newspaper cutting caught my attention and seemed so familiar. After spending a few seconds trying to recall where I saw it, my heart sank. It was yesterday’s paper and the heading read:
“REMAINS OF MAN UNEARTHED AFTER 2 YEARS, FIANĆE STILL MISSING”
My hand shook as I started reading the rest of the article and I continued until I came to a part where a picture of Paige was staring right back at me. I was horrified. Turns out that the man’s missing fiancé is currently living, eating and worse, sleeping with me for the past six months. I refused to believe what I read. There could be another person in the world that was identical to the love of my life or maybe the room had a bad lighting and my imagination was working overtime after discovering a decomposing head in the depths my very home but I could not lie to myself any longer as I knew that an individual’s social security number cannot be changed so easily and I was reading the article directly under a table lamp. There were older cuttings, dating to about a year back with her pictures on it and all the pieces of the puzzle started falling into place. My girlfriend was a budding serial killer and a smart one too. She did not confine herself to a single location and she chose her targets wisely. She picked the ones who had a low-profile in society, the ones who were seldom noticed. Now I knew why my face was circled in the pictures, my life all planned out like how one would program a robot and why she did not choose to kill me in my sleep. No, she was too intelligent for that sort of barbaric and crude modus operandi. Why get your hands dirty when you could pay a thug few hundred dollars to do the job and at the same time stage your own demise? Why step into the fray and run the risk of getting caught? As a matter of fact, it was her decision that we settled down in this house. Had she known about this room all along? I could not help thinking to myself how many ways of murder she has already planned within the four walls and it sickened me to think that after the deed was done, she kept “trophies” of her victims which was a twisted way to remind herself of her successes. Then I heard a sound of our front door being opened and closed, indicating the presence of another human being. It was probably Paige coming back home, unsuspecting of my recent discovery of what she has tried to conceal from me since we got together. I panicked and quickly ran out of the door, pushing the lever so that the wall could slide back into its original position. Praying that the ominous grunting could not be heard by anyone and once the wall was back in place, I quickly rotated the showerhead to look normal once more. As I was getting dressed, I reached for my gun that I had stashed away in my drawer in anticipation of a situation which would call for it and it seemed to me that this would be the time where I would need it the most. I took a deep breath, kept the small handgun in my pocket, muttered a prayer and went downstairs to check if my assumption was true and there she was smiling at me as I walked down, only this time that smile will be her last.
There it was again. Witnessing one of God’s greatest gifts to mankind, this caught and
still catches my heart till today. It was indeed the best curve, in my
opinion, to find on a woman no matter what time of the day you choose to look
at her. She was running towards me with her arms wide open, expecting me to
catch and draw her into my embrace. The enticing scent lavender filled my
nostrils as I ran my fingers through her long hair, the sound of her voice
reaching my eardrums as soon as I walked through the door and the very sight of
her beaming visage, what more could a man ask for in life? It took me a
considerable amount of time wooing her but hey, it was worth the wait and
effort. Not that we are married but being more than “just friends”, I think I
would call that a good start considering the fact that I’m not considered to be
the best catch in town, not especially with my messy appearance and shy
personality. As a matter of fact, I never expected it to work out as we come
from two different worlds. She’s beautiful, witty, outspoken and I’m just your
average Joe who just so happens to come from the same local university as she
did. I could go on about how we met and what I did before we got together but
that would just bore the readers. After giving her a peck on the cheek and
leaving my belongings by the stairs, I collapsed onto the sofa and started
ranting about how my boss was treating me unfairly and all the trivial things
in life that annoyed me throughout the day. Being the patient listener, she quietly
listened to what I had to say, giving the occasional sympathetic gesture of
holding and squeezing my hand, telling me that everything will turn out to be
what God would want it to be in time. Feeling better, I decided that it was her
turn to receive my attention and so allowed her to pour out all that was on her
mind so that we could exchange roles and ease her worries of our on-going
financial worries and situations. With bills piling up to your neck, it does
not help when your boss refuses to give you your expected salary promptly at
the end of each month. We sat and talked close to an hour regarding these
issues and then we decided it was better to leave such matters aside for the
time being and concentrated on the current dilemma which was our dinner. I
asked her to head upstairs and get dressed as it was decided the day before
that we would go to a restaurant for our weekly candlelight meal tonight so
while she was busy changing, I flipped through the newspapers, scanning for
interesting headlines and articles that were printed in that day’s edition and
a particular heading came into my line of sight.
“REMAINS OF MAN UNEARTHED AFTER 2
YEARS, FIANĆE STILL MISSING”
Just as I started reading, Paige walked over and checked to
see if I was ready on my part. Folding the papers, I nodded and we left the
house immediately so as to stop the growling from both of our stomachs. That
night in the restaurant, we reminisced on how we first met. It was really
surprising that throughout the years of our courses, we have never met until we
bumped into each other about half a year ago in a bookstore five blocks away.
We laughed and talked and enjoyed ourselves until it was almost time for the
restaurant to close for the night. After paying the bill, we went for a movie
in a mall nearby and by the time we got home, we were already too exhausted to
even walk upstairs into our bedroom. As I lay on my bed and started to doze
off, I thanked God that He gave me such a precious jewel that I never expected
to find before I met her but as they usually say, it is always calm before a
storm.
