Truth or Dare

by Dwayne S. Joseph

  Seconds of tense nonresponse commandeered the heated back-and-forth.

  Jayson stared at his screen in disbelief.

  A few more seconds passed before Jess responded.

  I’m sorry, Jayson. I really am. I didn’t mean 4 things 2 go ths way

  Jayson scoffed.

  U jst ended wht is obvsly the real thing, and thn you clled me a fckng tool. How the fck did u thnk it was gonna go?

  I wnted us 2 b friends, Jayson. I’d hoped that it would have been possible. Tht’s obviously not going 2 happen. So ... good-bye.

  Jayson sat unmoving, breathing heavily as Jess logged out of AOL. Love, he thought. She was in love with him. He knew it. She wanted to be with him. No matter what she’d said. She was the yin to his yang, and from the first time they’d chatted, to the first time they laid eyes on each other, to the sex they’d had, the connection between them was obvious and real.

  They belonged together.

  Jayson flared his nostrils and opened and closed his hands into tight fists over and over as he ground his teeth. Together, he thought. He and Jess. Forever. They would be. This was their goddamned time and place. His breathing quickened as did his heart rate as he stared at the words Jess had typed.

  Esias.

  He must have found out about them and forced her to say those things, because Jayson knew she couldn’t have meant them. Not after the things they’d done. There was no way in hell she believed any of the words she’d typed.

  Esias.

  Jayson was going to let Jess break the news to him. He was going to let her tell him that she was going to leave him to be with the man she was really supposed to be with. But that plan had now changed. Esias was fucking with her head, and it was up to Jayson to see that his bullshit was put to an end. Jess would come around then, when her mind was clear. And, if for some reason her mind remained clouded, he had a folder with her name on it to help clarify things.

  His cell phone chimed. Picture mail.

  Jayson shook his head and grabbed his phone. Regina again, with another picture. This one a close up of her dark, brown nipple, with a message reading, I can’t wait 4 u 2 run ur tongue around ths.

  Jayson stared at the picture and felt nothing but rage. For Esias and for Regina. They were fucking up everything. His game. His destiny. They had to be dealt with. Regina first. Then that son of a bitch.

  Jayson typed, I’m gng 2 do a lot more than run my tongue arnd it, and then hit send.

  Seconds later, Regina responded.

  I dare u 2 do tht and more.

  O, trust me ... I will.

  Mmmm, I’m leaving my front door unlocked. I’ll b on my bed naked waiting 4 u.

  R u sure u r ready 4 it?

  I’m more than ready, baby. I can’t wait 4 u 2 gve it 2 me.

  Jayson ground his teeth together and as he did, he thought about Jess and her words; words that she’d undoubtedly been coerced into typing. She wanted to be his, all his. And, after he gave Regina more than she bargained for, and after he made Esias disappear, Jess was going to get her heart’s desire.

  Chapter 32

  Reggie tossed his prepaid cell phone to the side and picked up the unregistered .22 he had sitting beside him. He had never fired a gun before. Never even held one—until he purchased it from a street hustler he had approached with three thousand dollars cash. It was more money than had been necessary, he knew, but he didn’t care.

  He raised the gun up to his nostrils and inhaled its metallic scent. He’d heard people talk about the power they felt with cold steel in their hands, the feeling of invincibility.

  He hooked his index finger around the trigger and squeezed it. “Bang,” he whispered as tears ran down his face.

  He squeezed the trigger again and thought of the moment when an actual bullet would propel from the .22’s barrel and sink deep into Jayson’s head.

  More tears ran down.

  His hand remained steady.

  He squeezed the trigger one final time. It was going to be a powerful moment.

  “Bang.”

  Chapter 33

  Jess closed her laptop, planted her elbows on top of the dining table, and covered her face with her hands. Jayson’s reaction had surprised her. She’d expected that he would be hurt and possibly upset by what she’d had to do, but she hadn’t been prepared for the vehemence and the biting language.

  During her decision-making process, she had thought about telling him face to face that she couldn’t go on, but she decided not to because she didn’t trust herself to resist the desire to feel him inside of her again. With the ugliness that had come out of him, she was glad that she’d made that decision.

  For some reason, she thought she had known Jayson, or at least some of him, but after their exchange, it was obvious that she had never really known him at all, which made her regret what she’d done, even more. But that was over now.

  Jess exhaled, releasing with it some of the tension and guilt from her shoulders. Step one was completed. Now step two had to be made. She had to make amends with Esias, not with words, but with actions. She had to give him the love and attention he deserved; something she would do now without Jayson to distract her. She also had to make amends with her daughters. During her slip into darkness, she had been neglecting them also by not paying full attention to their elementary school tales, not taking the time to fully go over their schoolwork the way she usually did, and worse, by rushing them to bed at night when Esias wasn’t home so that she would have more time to chat with Jayson.

  Jess pulled her hands away from her face and looked around at her home. Toys were scattered around, one or two in the dining and living room, a discarded pair of socks sat balled up in a corner, a T-shirt lay across the arm of a chair, a light film of dust coated some of their cherry-wood furniture and electronics, and the carpet needed to be vacuumed. The toys, the clothing, the dust—they were all minimal, but prior to Jayson’s existence, minimal was too much for Jess, who was anal about keeping her house cleaned.

  Neglect. It had become her theme for far too long. That was all going to change now.

  She rose out of her chair, turned off the light as she walked out of the dining room, and headed upstairs to her daughters’ room. Standing in the doorway, she watched them while they slept soundlessly beneath their Tinkerbelle sheets. She felt a pulling at her heart and whispered, “I’m sorry,” as a tear escaped from the corner of her eye. “I’m home now.”

  She watched them for a few more minutes, and then went to her bedroom and stood in the doorway there, and stared at the bed she and Esias shared. She couldn’t remember the last time they had made love in it.

  She frowned as she looked away from the bed to a framed picture of her and Esias on her night table. It had been taken the previous summer during a picnic in the park. Jess looked at the genuine smiles on their faces, smiles that made it apparent to anyone who viewed them, that no matter what obstacles fell into their paths, they could, and would, conquer them together because they were in love, and they were a team.

  She looked back at the bed again, and with a determined nod, promised herself that when Esias got home, she was going to make sure that the bed would be used for more than just sleeping.

  Chapter 34

  Jayson was there.

  Reggie’s heart hammered beneath his chest so heavily he found it difficult to take a full breath. He was there; the man who was responsible for his wife’s death. The man he had nightmares and wet dreams about.

  A chill ran through Reggie as he sat down in a maroon love seat Rita insisted they purchase because it had matched the maroon stitching covering their two bedroom windows that ran from floor to ceiling. He leaned forward, braced his elbows on his knees, and sat motionless for a few seconds. Then he sat back, lay his right ankle across his left knee, his left elbow on the chair’s armrest, and remained still for a moment or two before putting his foot back flat on the floor, leaning forward, and resting his elbows on his knees ag
ain.

  He couldn’t get comfortable. His anxiety wouldn’t allow it. He was nervous, anxious, eager, fearful, determined, and doubtful, all at the same time. He tried to get himself centered, tried to calm the trembling that had started to overcome him.

  He took another half breath. Held it and counted to twenty, and then released the air slowly as the weight of the .22 he held in his right hand increased. He was going to kill Jayson. Without a word, without hesitation. He was going to raise his arm, point the gun, squeeze the trigger, and then watch the man who had sent his wife to an early grave, die.

  He had never killed anyone before, and had never thought he would. But life had a way of throwing wicked curveballs, and there had been no more vicious a throw than the day he read his wife’s good-bye letter. Nothing could have prepared him for that.

  But he was ready now.

  Reggie took another breath as he heard the front door downstairs open. His heart began to beat harder, faster. The .22 grew heavier.

  You can do this. You have to do this.

  Reggie tightened his grasp around the butt of the .22 and, although he had never been very religious, he said a prayer when, a few minutes later, Jayson began to ascend the staircase.

  Chapter 35

  Regina was waiting for him. Naked. In her bed. She wanted Jayson to walk into her home, come into her bedroom, and fuck her until she was sore. She’d said this in a text she’d sent him, a dare, just before she sent him her address.

  Jayson was ready.

  He was going to do what she wanted. He was going to make her scream, make her beg him to stop. But he wasn’t going to stop. He was going to continue to ravage her, to teach her a lesson for disrespecting the game. For playing out of bounds. She’d taken the desire, the hunger, away. With each unrequested picture, he wanted to violently hurt her more than he actually wanted to sexually hurt her.

  He was going to take his anger and frustration out on her. Jess hadn’t responded to him. Since her last chat message, she hadn’t come back online to class. She hadn’t logged on to AOL. She hadn’t responded to any of the text messages he’d sent her. All because of Esias. He knew.

  That made his blood boil.

  Regina was going to pay for the happiness Esias was trying to deny him and the woman he loved, and because of this, he was going to fulfill Regina’s dare ten times over. But then she sent her address, and Jayson knew at that moment that Regina wasn’t real because Regina’s address was Rita’s address. And Rita was dead.

  Jayson paused at the foot of the wooden staircase he’d ascended once before and looked up. At the top of the staircase, down the hall to the left, in the room at the far end, someone was waiting for him. Someone who he was sure wanted to do him harm.

  After the address, he sent a text back telling her to be ready. To be naked with her legs spread wide. He wanted her pussy to be wet and dripping for his dick. She replied back that she would be; that she was already wet. Jayson sent one final text telling her that he was on his way. He waited for her to respond, saying that she couldn’t wait before he deleted her file, and then got his gun, a Ruger Mark III Standard, .22 caliber, that he’d purchased from a gun show a few months before. He owned ten different handguns. Glocks, .45s, .357s. He’d used all of them on the target range. He hadn’t yet fired the Ruger.

  Jayson turned and took a look behind him. He’d already checked to make sure no one had been waiting for him before approaching the staircase, but he wanted one last look anyway.

  Jayson turned back around and clicked the Ruger’s safety to the off position. Regina, who wasn’t, was going to die.

  Chapter 36

  Candy sat with her fingers clamped around the handles of the black duffle bag filled with half of her money. She was going to get the other half of her payment soon. She just had to wait until her benefactor with the troubled eyes came back down.

  She smiled. She didn’t know what the man had done with the pictures of her that he’d had her take of herself, nor did she care because the woman that was going to walk away into the sunset with two different duffle bags in her hand wasn’t going to be Candy. It was going to be Shannon Hall. The woman that had dreamed of becoming an actress, but who’d never had the money for acting lessons.

  Shannon Hall had always dreamed of seeing her name on the big screen. One hundred thousand dollars could get her a great acting coach who would show her how to tap into her raw emotions. With those lessons learned, she could go on auditions and wow casting directors who wouldn’t hesitate to give her the starring role. And if, for any reason at all, the director did hesitate, Shannon could certainly suck a mean dick to help convince him.

  Candy smiled.

  Soon. She just had to wait a little longer.

  Chapter 37

  Reggie heard the footsteps clicking on his hardwood floor. Easy footsteps. Not light or heavy. Just easy. Relaxed. He imagined Jayson strolling toward the room with a self-satisfied grin on his face. He was coming with the expectation of getting his rocks off. To hell with Regina. To hell with what his “game” would do to her, the emotional effect it would have. Jayson didn’t give a shit about her, just like he hadn’t given a shit about Rita.

  Reggie took a short breath and fought back a tidal wave of raw emotional pain wanting to crash down on him as he thought about the woman he loved unconditionally, despite her infidelity. No tears, he thought. No sadness. Just rage. Just hatred, disgust, desire. Desire to hurt, to maim, to kill.

  No tears.

  Reggie tightened his hand around his gun. Its metal butt was warm against the palm of his slick hand. Kill, he thought. When Jayson stepped into the doorway, he was going to shoot him multiple times. One shot after the other, until he had no bullets left. There was going to be no thought, no hesitation, no words. He was just going to squeeze the trigger and smile as he watched Jayson die.

  Jayson’s footsteps grew nearer. Reggie’s heart beat harder, faster. In a few seconds it was all going to be over; and then he was going to let Candy, his hired model, go, and somehow, someway, he would find the will to move on.

  Jayson’s steps grew louder. Reggie took another breath and tried to ignore the sick feeling churning in his gut. A feeling that he wasn’t supposed to have.

  Fear.

  Chapter 38

  In four more steps, Jayson was going to be face to face with someone who had outsmarted him. They had walked backward, dropping crumbs as they did, and had watched him shove each morsel into his mouth, as he followed them to the trap they had laid for him. In four steps it could all be over for him. Jayson didn’t know what they’d had in store for him, but whatever it had been, Jayson knew that in four steps, they had him.

  But then they had fucked up, and now they were going to pay much, much more than Regina was ever going to for making a mockery of his game. Initially, Jayson had been pissed that he could have allowed someone to get the better of him. But the more he thought about it, the more he began to realize that his being outmaneuvered wasn’t something to find disgust in, but rather, it was something to learn from. He had been careless, and that was something he couldn’t be. His father had never slipped. His father had shown him time and time again how to have his cake and eat it too.

  In four steps, before he killed whoever it was that had played him for a fool, Jayson was going to thank them for reminding him that he always had to be on his game.

  In four steps.

  Jayson took step one with his right foot and took a breath. On step two, he exhaled. His hand holding his Ruger rose with step three. With step four, he stepped into the doorway to Rita’s bedroom and saw, just across the room, off to the right, a man pointing a gun at him.

  Jayson smiled.

  Chapter 39

  Reggie stared at Jayson as his heart beat with the force of a hammer coming down on the head of a nail. Jayson. The man who’d submerged his wife in a tub filled with regret and shame. He was holding a gun too.

  Reggie steeled himself. He’d
never had a gun pointed at him before. His heart rate tripled as he pressed his finger against his .22’s trigger. Just a little more pressure and it was going to be over. Jayson was going to be dead. Rita was going to be avenged. Then, and only then, would he allow himself to hate her for what she’d done. Then, and only then, could he let go of the rage he felt, not for Jayson, but for his wife, the unfaithful bitch.

  Reggie looked at Jayson as Jayson stared back at him with an amused grin. He had never planned to come and fuck Regina at all. He’d come simply to kill her.

  “Looks like we have a Mexican standoff,” Jayson said suddenly.

  Reggie remained silent as his line of sight went from Jayson’s eyes down to his gun, and then back up.

  No words. No words!

  He applied more pressure to the trigger and waited for the crack of the gun to pierce the air, for Jayson to grunt, to fall down dead. But none of that happened because as much as he tried to, Reggie couldn’t seem to will his finger to move anymore.

  No!

  The pace of his heart increased again as his hand began to tremble ever so slightly.

  Do it. Squeeze the trigger.

  The thought traveled from his brain stem, but somewhere on its way down to making his finger respond, it got lost and nothing happened.

  “You’re Rita’s husband,” Jayson said. “I recognize you from a picture that used to be above the bed. I remember staring at it when I fucked her. It was a good picture, but not nearly as good as the ones you sent me.”

  Jayson’s smile widened, and as it did, Reggie’s heart stopped beating for the longest of seconds as the realization of what was happening hit him. Jayson had seen the picture above his bed. The picture that he had taken down and thrown away with all of the other pictures in the house. The house that he had planned on burning down when he was finished.