This Guy Kills Me

by Anlyn Hansell

  *****

  Her mind was on high alert as they walked down the darkened alley later that night; the shadows from the detached garages making it difficult to see ahead. She was almost expecting something, anything to jump out of those shadows and attack. She kept her hands fisted and her body poised to beat the living daylights out of anything that even so much as moved in their general direction.

  “This one,” he stated quietly as he wandered through a collapsed section of chain link fence. She followed him, looking in all directions before hitting something hard and bouncing back.

  “Hey!”

  “Sorry. You stopped,” she whispered back. His body was still; he was staring at the garage for the briefest of moments. It sounded like he took a deep breath, letting it out slowly but loudly for some reason.

  “Are you all right?”

  “Let’s go,” was his only reply as he wandered toward the back of the house. Weeds and shrubs were overgrown but the concrete walkway still afforded some clearance up to the back door of the home. He immediately set the small black duffle bag he was carrying on the step and pulled out something and handed it to her.

  “Shine this on the door and keep a look out, Ok?”

  “Ok,” she agreed before pressing the button in the heavy flashlight.

  He pulled out some sort of tool with a long blade, wedging it between the door jamb and the wood beyond it. A soft whir could be heard until the bladed came into contact with what was most likely a nail. He swept the tool down one side and gave the wood a push but it barely budged. He set to work on the top side, the sound grating as the blade cut through metal then stopping only to start again a brief moment later. He pulled his arms down and pushed his foot against the wood, pushing it inward. It gave slightly before he pulled his leg back and kicked the large piece of plywood causing a loud creak of splintering wood. She looked around quickly as he stuffed the tool inside the bag once again. A beam of light immediately shone on the wood and beyond as he pushed it to the side and took a step in.

  “Do you want me to stay out here and keep a lookout?” she whispered.

  “Do you want to?”

  “Not particularly,” she answered honestly.

  “Then, come on.”

  She gave a final glance around the backyard before following him into the house.

  “Be careful where you step,” he spoke softly as the beam of light illuminated the floor ahead of them. Three steps led up to a kitchen area, the linoleum was cracked and patterned with orange and yellow swirls. Very outdated, in fact, from the gold colored appliances, it looked as if the home was stuck in some kind of time warp. A chunky kitchen table was still situated in the corner, two of the chairs still sat at the table; one was on the floor, broken into several pieces. Empty liquor bottles were strewn on the table surface as she swept her own flashlight around the room. Another room lay beyond, possibly a dining room. Another table with yet more liquor bottles could be seen as she flashed her light inside.

  “This way,” he ordered as he stepped further into the kitchen toward an opening on the other side of the room. Graffiti embellished the walls in the kitchen, covering a rather tacky looking wallpaper print, the colors matching the appliances and flooring to a tee.

  The floor creaked as he stepped over a piece of broken chair and continued toward the arched entry way. Beyond that opening, a living room or at least what once was a living room came into view. A ragged couch was situated on one end, more graffiti graced the walls and a couple of chairs were lying on their sides in front of what was once probably a rather nice fireplace. He turned to the right, revealing a long hallway with doorways into three rooms all open. Almost immediately he stopped and turned, shining the light and revealing a set of stairs to the second floor. He stepped on the first stair causing an extremely loud creak to jolt her. She jumped then immediately took a deep breath to calm her nerves. She cast one last glance around the room behind her before she hurriedly climbed the stairs after him, each step resulting in a creak or groan or a combination of the two. At the top of the landing, he shined the light on a small door, his fingers snapping and turning a small latch and pushing in. The door gave immediately with a rusty groan as he shined the light inside. A cool blast of air escaped from the room as well as a musty smell that immediately assaulted her senses and caused her to sneeze.

  “Bless you.”

  “Sorry,” she responded quickly as she shined her own light in. Moonlight beamed in through collapsed portions of the roof revealing boxes, and other assorted junk strewn throughout the small room. Wood beams were situated every foot or so with smaller planks recessed between them.

  He carefully stepped on one of the beams, testing his weight. “I don’t know how sturdy this is. Just stay out here, Ok?” he ordered quietly. She watched as he stepped only on the beams, crouching and stepping around various objects. Something scuttled on the far side of the small room; the sound was like a shotgun blast to her system. He didn’t flinch. He kept stepping carefully before crouching down and settling the duffle bag beside him. She swept her light outside of the attic, revealing two open doors, one near the opposite end of the house and one in the middle of the open hallway. Something small passed through the beam of light causing her breath to catch. She stopped and shone the light on the entrance to the first room watching intently. Another ‘thing’ ran across the beam causing a rather loud “Eww” to burst from her lips before she turned and stumbled into the attic.

  “What are you doing?” she could hear as she righted herself.

  “I’m coming in.”

  “I said stay out there,” he responded calmly.

  “I can’t. I think this place is infested with rodents,” she stated as she balanced herself on the beams.

  “No shit. What do you think is in here?” he responded sarcastically.

  “I don’t care. I’d rather be with you,” she stated breathlessly.

  “Don’t step on the planks, unless you want to fall through the floor,” he ordered in a dry tone causing the foot she just stepped on to pull up quickly and step on a beam instead. She grabbed onto one of the angled eaves overhead to catch herself. She immediately pulled her hand back and began waving it erratically in front of her. Spider web. Great. Gross.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Nothing.” She wiped her hand on her jeans and concentrated on getting to him as quickly as humanly possible. He was jamming a screwdriver between two planks, popping up a piece rather easily as she crouched next to him finally.

  She heard his slow intake of breath as the contents were revealed, Oh! And a rather large black spider that quickly skittered away from the beam of light.

  “Gah…”

  “You’re at least a hundred times the size of that dude, he’s more afraid of you than you are of him, tough girl,” he stated as his hands began to pull out a couple packs of cigarettes, revealing the stack of magazines and comic books she saw in her vision earlier that day.

  “I really hope I don’t find anything. I’m mortified – if he saw this shit, he probably thought I was the biggest perv,” he breathed out as one hand pulled out the stack and began thumbing through it. There had to be at least twenty of them. Nothing was revealed between the magazines, no paper, no envelope, nothing. She shined the light inside the small compartment revealing a few papers at the bottom. “There you go!” she uttered excitedly as her hand reached in automatically to grab the paper. He was still restacking the magazines as the paper crunched in her hand.

  “My love is like a rock song. The pounding beat of my heart like the constant -” she began to read.

  “Whoa. Give me that.” He quickly snatched the paper from her hands and crumpled it before stashing it in his pocket.

  “What was that? Was that poetry?” she asked, clearly amused.

  “Shut up.”

  “My loooove is like a Hair Band...” She giggled out before a warm hand closed around her mouth.

  “I’ll ad
mit. I was a weird kid. Now, you wanna help or make fun?” he asked as his hand dropped from her face.

  “Make fun. Who was that for? Boobs McGerk or shall I say, Joanne of the inner tube lips?” Her hand reached in for the next paper but was swatted away as he grabbed it from the bottom. After a moment of silence, realization dawned.

  “It was! No freakin’ way! You were hot for Joanne?”

  “She was gorgeous back then. Everyone was hot for her.”

  “I was wondering why your voice hit a new octave when you talked to her at the bar.”

  “It did not.”

  “It did too.”

  “Are you jealous? ’Cause you sound kind of jealous,” he stated with the slightest hint of amusement.

  “Jealous of her? You’re right. I’m jealous of someone with a constant look of surprise, two mismatched tits and a floatation device permanently attached to her face.”

  “You are jealous. What did she ever do to you?”

  “Nothing. What did she ever do to you?”

  “Do you care?”

  “No,” she stated emphatically.

  “Yeah, you do.”

  “That’s it. You caught me. I’m totally hot for you and I’m jealous of some chick you were in ‘hair band’ love with years ago. I have a special attraction to dudes with lifetime subscriptions to ‘TWAT’ magazine. That’s it. You nailed it. What’s that?” She peered into the small compartment.

  “What’s what?”

  She grabbed a small bottle from the opening and held it up.

  “Gimme that.” He reached for it before she held it out next to her.

  “Is it lube?” She giggled as he made another grab for it, knocking her off balance before catching her to him.

  “No. It’s salicylic acid,” he stated. His arm was wrapped around her, their faces close.

  “Oh. For your acne,” she added knowingly.

  “It didn’t work,” he stated softly, grabbing it and tossing it back in the floor. She stared at the compartment before blowing out a breath. He steadied her before removing his arm from around her back.

  “So, I guess I was wrong. Are you sure you don’t want your copy of “TWAT”?” She grabbed the magazine from the top of the pile and waved it in front of him teasingly.

  “There’s a spider on your leg,” he commented blandly causing her to smack the magazine on top of it repeatedly.

  “Are you kidding!?”

  The magazine opened, the pages crunching as she continued her assault.

  “Holy…crap,” she heard him breathe out as she continued to swat.

  “Did I get it? What…”

  He was reaching for a folded white paper that clearly fell out of the magazine in her hand.

  “What is that?” She checked her leg quickly before laying the magazine down and staring at the paper. “Joe” was written on the outside.

  “That’s my dad. I mean, that’s his writing,” he stated as he stared at the paper in his hands.

  “Wow,” she stated absently as she shined the flashlight on it. It didn’t move. He didn’t move; he was still as a stone.

  “Joe?”

  No response.

  “Joe – open it. Do you want me to read it? Or maybe we could just take it and get the heck out of here? Did you hear that?”

  Something or some things were on the move at the opposite side of the small room.

  “Let’s just go. We can read it outside. Mice give me the creeps.” She gave his sleeve a slight tug but he continued to stare at the folded paper.

  “Those aren’t mice,” he mumbled. “They’re rats,” he added still not moving, still staring.

  “Gah…” she blurted as a chill ran down her spine. “All the more reason to get out of here.”

  “Go ahead, if you want. Just…give me a minute.” He slowly unfolded the paper as she watched; completely transfixed and suddenly not so intent on leaving. All thoughts of spiders and rats completely left her mind as she watched the choppy script appear in front of her.

  Joe –

  If you’re reading this, something happened. I’m either in prison or dead. They set me up. I don’t know who. I just know that it has something to do with the narcotics ring I was investigating. They planted the money in the garage and someone tipped off IA. I’m being followed. I’m writing this because I don’t want you to think I had anything to do with this. Somebody is going out of their way to cover their own ass and I have no idea. Don’t tell anyone about this note. Don’t tell Scott for obvious reasons. There’s a kid – Rick Trayer. He’s involved but he’s just a kid. There’s someone else pulling the strings and I think I got a little too close. I don’t know what I’m saying here. I don’t want you involved, but I don’t know who else to trust anymore. I want you to tell your Mother that I didn’t leave her. I’m scared they’ll go after her to get to me – I don’t know. I wrote her a note and said I was having an affair. I left the house and I won’t go back until this is all cleared up. I don’t want her involved but I don’t know what else to do. I love her more than my life. You tell her that. I would never even look at another woman, I just can’t be around her. She doesn’t know and I don’t want her to know. If something happens – I don’t even want to think about that. You just tell her, Ok? Help your brother, he’s screwing his life up and I can’t even help him right now. As for you – I’m so proud of you, son. You’ve really turned your life around. By the way – I know I came down hard on you about the Tony incident, but secretly? I thought that was great! I am, however, a little concerned with your choice in porn. I’ve known about your hiding spot for a while now. Don’t smoke. It’s bad for you. I have to

  “He didn’t finish it,” she stated softly.

  “I wonder if he wrote this the same night that…” he cut his statement short. The ensuing silence was broken by the pitter patter of tiny feet. A few of them. Yuck.

  “The same night as what?” she prompted, trying to block out the sound.

  “Maybe someone surprised him here, maybe that’s why he didn’t finish it,” he mumbled; his eyes still trained on the paper.

  “Ok, maybe. Can we go? I think the natives are getting curious.” A few squeaks and more movement – and the sound seemed…closer.

  “That would make sense,” he added absently.

  “What makes sense?”

  “They found him here.”

  “Here?” She looked around with a grimace as another chill raced down her spine.

  “Not here. In the garage,” he responded softly.

  *****

  Her eyes were fixed on the TV screen but she wasn’t following the movie.

  He left her at a new hotel. This one had to be another 5 Star, she surmised earlier from the opulence of the room. One hot shower later, she was propped up in the king sized bed, the cuff firmly encasing her right ankle. At what point he would actually figure out that he could trust her not to run – she wasn’t sure. He basically took her to the room, waited for her to shower then attached the stupid thing to her leg ignoring her protests and whining before he left without so much as a word. He was clearly distracted. Was he going back to his Mother’s house? Where did he go?

  Looking at the digital numbers on the alarm clock on the nightstand, it was three o’clock in the morning and he had been gone for hours. A yawn erupted and caused her to push the button on the remote as she settled her body on the bed. Darkness surrounded her but her opened eyes refused to close. What was he doing?

  Chapter 11

  The distinct sound of pinging and clanking roused her from a very nice dream. Scratch that…a rather naughty dream. A gloriously naked Joe was kissing his way up her equally naked leg hopefully headed for a certain area between her legs that was tingling in anticipation. His eyes never left hers as he made his way up ever so slowly; the smoldering gaze he was giving her caused her legs to spread further waiting for his touch. Almost there… His mouth was caressing, teeth nipping every once in a while causing her bre
ath to catch. He was rising up…Wait! Wait…NO! Get back down there, what are you doing?

  He sat up, abruptly pulling two metal objects from behind him, her eyes straining to see them before they started moving rapidly. Who knew – Joe could play the spoons, and not very well. And he was naked, sitting between her legs…bouncing spoons off each other in a rapid, disjointed beat and…that is the dumbest thing EVER…

  Her eyes flew open as a flush spread across her cheeks, heating them immediately and causing her hands to clamp over them. She could hear a murmured voice speaking between the clanking. Joe’s voice, not the TV, just his voice. Adjusting her eyes to the brightened room, she quickly pulled the covers back, glancing at the pillow next to her. It lay positioned exactly as it was last night, undisturbed and clearly not used. He was either out all night or he slept on the couch. Whatever he did, she intended to find out.

  He was seated at the small table in the main room of the suite. A tray laden with glasses and a metal covered dish was stacked on top. A vase with a rather pretty arrangement of flowers was situated in the middle of the table. He was eating and listening at the same time. An “mmm hmm” would sound from his mouth accompanied by an eye roll to the ceiling as he continued to chew. He must have noticed her appearance at the door because his eyes locked on her before he finally spoke.

  “Hold on. She’s up…” he stated before holding the phone out to her.

  “What?” she asked, clearly confused.

  “It’s Betty.”

  “Oh,” she stated as her feet plodded across the fluffy plush carpet toward him.

  “Hello?”

  “Mornin’ girlie. So listen up, I was thinking we could take a trip downtown today. We’ll tell Joe you’re taking me to get my hair done or something, but we’ll hit the Greektown Casino. You in?” she was whispering for some unknown reason.

  “Ahh…I don’t -”

  “Come on. I’m bored. Plus Clarice works tonight. We’ll get back here and give her the stare down.”

  “Yeah…see, I don’t -”

  “What does she want?” Joe whispered as he watched her intently.