“That is usually where normal people start isn’t it? But since when am I normal? Plus, it’s just oh so boring to be predictable like that but I guess for speeds sake it will have to do. So, Jimmy,” she said turning her gaze back on him, “let me tell you a story. Let me take you back, way back to yesteryear, not just yesteryear but all the way back to a time you should remember quite well. Why would you remember it? I’ll tell you why. Because it was back in your heyday, back when you were a big man on campus, as it were. Its high school where my tale begins, and no not a tail from my butt so don’t ask.” This was mostly directed at Pete. At the mention of a tail he’d perked up and raised his hand to ask a question. When his dreams had been dashed he sadly went back to cleaning his finger nails.
Maria seemed to be taking quite a bit of pleasure being the center of attention. She’d slowly started walking around the room waving her hands in the air as if she was trying to paint a picture of what she was talking about. If anything it made her look even crazier. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen a grown woman walking around in her negligee telling a story surrounded by candles. It was almost but not quite comical. There was no doubt she was just as gone as Pete but whereas he was calm most of the time she was off the deep end. She was totally gone. He shot a glance at Johnny to see what he was making of the performance and was heartened to see he didn’t appear as sure of himself as he had. Jim could tell just by the look in his eye he still worshipped her but he also might be realizing she wasn’t all there. Jim quickly turned his attention back to Maria as she turned her attention back on him.
“Would it surprise you if I told you I had a huge crush on you back then?” she asked. “You must’ve known. There was no way you couldn’t. I mean I worshipped the ground you walked on. I followed you everywhere. Basically I made a total fool of myself but that didn’t matter to me as long as I was close to you. Unfortunately, instead of returning my feelings you acted as if I didn’t exist. Sure, you were nice if you saw me in the hall or happened to notice I was stalking you. Sometimes you even deigned to talk to me but usually nothing more than a quick hello or something but oh, how I lived for those little things. I tried working up the courage to actually carry on a conversation with you a few times but you were always too busy with your mean, little friends. I know they poisoned you against me. That’s the only reason I can think of that you never talked to me. Because of them.” She was becoming more and more excited as she spoke. Facing him she took a deep breath. This seemed to calm her because when she started talking again her voice sounded a little closer to normal.
“Tommy, Rob, Pete, and Jim bestest friends forever,” she said in a sing song voice. “Never letting anyone or anything come in between their close knit group. You know a lot of people thought you four might be gay or something. But I knew you weren’t. You had all the time in the world for girls, just not me! I would’ve treated you way better than any of them did. I would’ve treated you the way you should’ve been treated. I would’ve given you anything and I mean anything. But no, you thought all you needed was them. What bullshit! You didn’t need them! All you needed was me!” She’d become agitated again and had slowly been walking towards him. Before she was finished speaking she was so close he could feel the spit flying from her mouth as she yelled. She stood looking at him for a few seconds, shoulder heaving from her excitement before suddenly spinning and walking towards Johnny. He stepped forward and put his hands on her shoulders as she approached and whispered something to her. Jim hoped he was trying to talk her out of continuing what she was doing. She shook her head so whatever it was obviously hadn’t worked.
Jim took this break in the story for another opportunity to look around and try to figure some way out of this mess. He hadn’t had much luck before but maybe he’d missed something. Peeking at Jill he saw she was still dead to the world and Pete just continued rocking and mumbling. He was just getting ready to give up when he noticed something odd. He’d seen Pete rocking but he hadn’t seen him moving. Each time he rocked back he used his feet to push himself a little closer to the wall. Looking over Pete’s head Jim saw an open space with night and starry sky behind it. He was slowly working his way to one of the windows. Jim was sure it was just by accident but if it wasn’t and if he got close enough he might be able to jump out and run for help. The only thing tied on Pete was his hands. If he got out he really might be able to find help and bring them back but Jim didn’t hold much hope of that idea working. Pete wasn’t suddenly going regain his sanity and save the day. He was just sitting there rubbing his hands together and rocking back and forth without a care in the world. Nothing else. There was no grand escape plan forming behind those dark little eyes. He was in his own world where he was safe and nobody could hurt him. Why come out now?
“Now then Jimmy boy, let’s flash forward,” Maria said catching his attention. “When you left town, you just left. No words of goodbye, no telling me how you really had loved me all those years and would send for me when you could. No nothing. You just left without a word or a backward glance. Do you know how bad that hurt me? I was heartbroken. I couldn’t understand why you’d left me. You didn’t bother saying anything least of all goodbye. One day you were there then next you weren’t. I just didn’t understand what I’d done wrong. What was I to do?” She looked at him like she expected him to answer. Not knowing what else to do, he just silently stared back. She was deep into her delusion but as long as she was talking they were relatively safe. All the stuff spouting from her mouth was sort of true but only sort of. He remembered her from high school and how she was almost always in the places he was but that was it. She must’ve somehow gotten the idea that they’d had some type of relationship with each other. He didn’t know how though. All he could remember saying to her was hi.
“I knew we were meant to be together,” she said as she walked over to Jill and slowly ran a finger down the side of her face. “But we weren’t. You left to go God knows where and do God knows what with God knows who and left me here with no idea of when I might see you again. Then I thought maybe you were testing me to see if I really did love you and would wait for you. I knew I would but I also knew I had to figure out a way to get you to come back. Then, one day, a few years ago it came to me. I had an epiphany.” She brutally pushed Jill’s head to the side, spun and walked back to the center of the room. Stopping with her hand raised and looking up at the ceiling Jim almost thought she really was having a true vision then he remembered who he was thinking about and just shook his head.
“It was like a sign from the heavens. I didn’t know why I hadn’t thought of it sooner. I knew that day I just had to make it so you had no choice but to come back. After that the rest was easy,” she said smiling, “Do you want to guess what my idea was?” she looked at him expectantly. He wasn’t about to try to answering anything. He didn’t know what was right or wrong in this situation so he figured being quiet was safest. “Boy,” she said looking at Johnny, “I thought he was a lot smarter than this. It’s a good thing we didn’t end up together; our children probably would’ve made the freak over there look like a genius. Anyways, where was I? Oh yeah, my idea. Well, since you won’t guess I’ll just tell you.” She took a few seconds to gather her thoughts. While she did this she just looked at him with shinning, evil eyes. Her hands idly roamed over her body in many provocative ways but Jim didn’t think she was trying to entice him anymore. It seemed more out of habit than anything. He didn’t have much time to think about it, which was fortunate.
“I thought about it for what seemed a long time but actually wasn’t,” she began, “Finally, I figured out just what it would take. I knew if something happened to one of your precious little friends you would probably coming running home right away. I could’ve gone after your mother but I figured that was too old hat. You know something that someone else would do but not me. I’m better than everyone else so my plan had to be better than what someone else might come up with. The th
ing about my plan though, was that it had to be something drastic. It couldn’t just be some little accident. Why would you rush home for that? It had to be deadly. So the logical choice was killing one of them. I figured that would do the trick. Then, once you were back I would be here to comfort, console, and love and nurse your damaged emotions back to the way they should be. Then you would finally love me and we would be together forever and ever!” She sounded like she really believed her plan would work. Jim cast a quick glance at Pete to see what he was doing. He was a little closer to the window but still not close enough to jump out. Pete’s eyes flicked in his direction and Jim saw one of them wink at him. He thought he was seeing something at first but decided he hadn’t when he looked at Pete’s hands. His bonds were loose. Almost loose enough for him to get free. In a few more minutes he probably would be free. Then he could make a break for it and get help. At least that was what Jim was hoping for.
“Ok, at least I know why I’m here now,” he said trying to give Pete as much time as he could. “But why did you take Pete and Jill? They didn’t have anything to do with any of this. Well, I guess Pete did, but he was out of the way stuck in jail and probably on his way to the loony bin.”
“Well,” she said looking towards Jill, “little Jilly over there is here simply because she’s just like all those other girls you used to date. She was trying to take you away from me. See, you did everything that you were supposed to do as part of my plan. You came home and we reunited with each other but then you made a mistake. You went and met Jill and picked her instead of me! How could you go and do something stupid like that? You’re mine! Don’t you understand that? She sure didn’t seem to. When I found her earlier I tried to explain it to her nicely but she just got all smart and started asking all kinds of dumb questions so since she wasn’t cooperating I brought her out here to explain things a little better.” She looked at Jill angrily for a minute before continuing.
“Freak boy over there is here because my loving dolt of a partner got just a little bit ahead of himself. He thought it would be a good idea to change the plan from what I’d originally designed. I actually was content to leave Petey sit in jail and rot but Johnny boy thought of something else. It’s something I don’t really like, but I guess it might work. We don’t really have much of choice now either way but he can tell you that.” Maria was beginning to go into pout mode again but she surprised him.
“Why don’t you tell them what you had planned lover boy,” she said teasingly.
To Johnny’s credit that looked like the last thing he wanted to do but he took a deep breath and fixed Jim with a glare. “Well, let me tell ya, when you left all that while ago she was pretty messed up. I’m talking not eating, not taking care of herself, stuff like that. She was bad. Hell, all she really did do was drink and cry. Other than that she just sat in her place day in day out doing nothing. I didn’t really understand why until one day when I went over to check on her she finally told me. She was drunk as a skunk and was barely coherent but I understood enough to know what you done. I thought that was a pretty mean thing for you to do leaving her like that but then again I was happy too. See, I was there and you weren’t. I was there for her when she needed somebody. You weren’t. I’d loved her for as long as I could remember but every time I tried to tell her, all she wanted to talk about was you. But now all of a sudden you weren’t there anymore. You left. I knew she and I would finally end up together now. But no, she said she wasn’t going to let you go that easily.” Johnny paused here like he was remembering something he didn’t really want to and Jim guessed he was. He actually felt somewhat sorry for the guy. Johnny’d been in love with the crazy bitch all these years and all she’d ever wanted was Jim. If it’d been him he would’ve just moved on but it didn’t seem Johnny was able to do that. He held out hope all those years she would eventually love him back and she never did. Johnny himself was probably half crazy by now.
“She went on and on about how you’d come back for her one day,” Johnny said starting his story again. “She said you’d realize you’d made a mistake and you would come back and take her away with you and ya’ll live happily ever after. I tried doing things to get her to love me, hell, just to even notice me, but none of it worked.” Johnny was getting angry now. All of his pent up aggression was about to come poring out. Jim could see that trying to explain anything to Johnny right now was going to be a waste of time. “Then a little while ago she got her idea,” he said continuing. “I guess over the years she’d at least decided she could trust me so she told me about it. I couldn’t believe what she wanted to do at first. Then I thought of all the crap I’d been listening to about you and figured why not.” A change was slowly coming over his face as he talked. He actually looked like he was getting happier about something. Jim didn’t know what was going on but he hoped it was something good. Pete was still slowly struggling with his ropes so he still needed some time. Johnny was doing a good job giving it to him. Maria surprisingly was just standing nearby twirling her hair. She must’ve known about Johnny’s feelings. There was no way she couldn’t. Then Jim understood. She’d used those feeling as a way to get him to help her. Maybe in her own demented way she did care about him but Jim doubted it. At this point she probably didn’t care about anything but the revenge she thought she was taking on him.
“Actually I was kinda hoping it would turn out this way,” Johnny said startling him. “See, I hoped you’d come back and not want her. Then you’d be gone again and I’d have her back to myself like before. It’s a little unfortunate you three have to die but that’s how it’s got to be. Who knows, maybe once you’re dead and buried she’ll finally love me and not you.”
Even though Johnny was telling him they were going to kill him he still almost felt bad for him. He couldn’t imagine what it must’ve been like living with her all these years. If he’d had to do it he’d probably feel almost the same way except without the killing people and stuff. This thought sober him quickly and got him thinking right again. The reasons they had for doing the things they were doing were the reasons of the insane. One wanted to kill him because he didn’t love her and the other wanted to kill him because he’d had to listen to the complaining about him over the years. This really was crazy. He was going to be killed for pretty much nothing. At least if he’d done something maybe it would’ve made a little bit more sense but he hadn’t. There was no real reason except they were crazy.
“But you didn’t tell him the best part,” Maria said whined. “You didn’t tell him what we did after we had the plan all together. You also didn’t tell him what we did to Tommy and that was one of the best parts. With your little pee sized brain I shouldn’t be surprised you forgot to mention how I, myself, went out in those yucky woods where Tommy was and acted like I was the typical damsel in distress so he would come out of his tree and rescue me. That really sucked by the way, I got all hot and sweaty and stinky but boy was it worth it. You should’ve seen the look on his face when he realized what was really happening. I should’ve gotten some type of award for that let me tell you” She paused to make a few scared-surprised faces, mocking what Tommy must’ve looked like, laughing harder each time she looked at Jim’s face.
“You also seemed to have forgotten to tell him the rest of your involvement in this whole plan. How once he actually did come down to check on me you came up behind him and cracked him in the back of the head then threw him on that tree stump you’d cut earlier to make it look like some kind of dumb accident.”
Jim was grateful she stopped to catch her breath for a few minutes. She’d worked herself into such a state of excitement that she was starting to hyperventilate, which wasn’t a bad thing, but he also didn’t really want to hear all the gory details of Tommy’s death. Jim was actually hoping she would pass out then all he’d have to do is deal with Johnny. At least he still might be able to be talked out of what Maria wanted to do. Then again he had already killed Tommy so maybe it was better if Maria
just stayed conscious and kept talking. Left to his own devices Johnny might decide to put an end to thing and get out while the getting was good.
“You also didn’t tell him about what happened to Rob,” Maria chimed in apparently done calming down.
“That’s because you did Rob all by yourself!” he spit back defensively.
“Oh yeah, I did didn’t I? Sorry,” she said smiling. “Yes, it’s true. I did call him begging for help with my car. I told him I’d broken down out near the freaks place and I was scared and needed help. Him being the Boy Scout he was he rushed right out to help.”
“You took advantage of him!” Jim yelled. Pete still needed more time. He had to keep her talking.
“Of course I did. What else was I supposed to do?” she responded. “I couldn’t very well confess to killing his best friend in an attempt to make you love me could I? Plus Tommy’s funeral was coming up then you’d be leaving. I couldn’t let that happen. I had to find some way to keep you here a bit longer. You needed that extra time to realize where you belonged and that Jill was wrong for you. So to help you out I chopped Rob into little, itty, bitty pieces the first chance I got.” She finished with a giggle. “But,” she started again apologetically, “it wasn’t as much fun as I thought it would be. Sure the screaming was cool and all but you can only take so much of that before it gets boring. You should’ve heard him! When that hatchet hit him he let out such a scream that I thought they’d hear it all the way back at the sheriff’s station.”
She began limping around and moaning to demonstrate as she was talking. She reached behind her acting like she was trying to pull something out of her back until she finally fell down. She lay with her eyes closed for a moment before they popped open, “And do you know what the best part was?” she asked whispered only a few feet from his face.
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