“Helen’s dead?” he closed his eyes, waiting for the answer in the silence.
“Yes, Johnny,” Zoe replied. “I didn’t lie to you about that.”
John hung his head, the earth feeling like it was slipping away from him.
“And…you killed her?”
“Yes,” she replied. “Out there in the farmhouse. There’s a bedroom in the back and –”
“I know, I know,” he interrupted her. “I saw it.”
“Oh,” she sounded sad.
The wind gusted once more, howling in the night.
“It wasn’t meant to happen that way,” she continued.
John’s mind was gearing up again, working through the events of the weekend as he remembered them, trying to piece it all together, step by step.
“And the calls from Fox? His men following you?”
“All lies,” she muttered.
“You driving across the country to escape him? The fight you had with him?”
“Lies,” she nodded. “It’s all fake, Johnny. The whole thing.”
The rain began to fall again.
John looked deeply into the candle flame across the barn.
Oh, Helen. Why? Why!
“Oh God,” he shook his head.
“I thought it would be over so quickly,” she continued. “I just had to tell Helen what you were doing. That would solve it all. But it got bigger, Johnny. Out of control. The whole thing just spun out of control and the longer it went on the more lies I told and the deeper I got. I wanted to tell you. I wanted to let you know! Believe me, I did!”
John ran a hand through his wet hair. Lightning flashed through the window.
“Helen wouldn’t believe me,” she continued. “Amazing, huh? I tried to tell her. But she wouldn’t listen. She wouldn’t believe any of my story. And, boy, she put up a fight. She fought for you, Johnny. Be proud of that fact. She fought for you sooo hard. And then I guess I just went a little too far.”
John turned to her as thunder echoed through the valley.
The rain fell harder.
This can’t be happening. My God, I have to get out of here.
I have to get Sherrie and we have to go! Leave now!
Shit! Sherrie! I have to get to her.
How long has it been?
I have to get to her before Zoe does.
She’ll be going crazy.
Like the rest of us…
“I didn’t want it to end up like this, Johnny. I really didn’t.” She turned to look at him. “It just got out of hand. The scenes got bigger and bolder. I couldn’t stop myself. I set out to destroy you, but I couldn’t. I wanted what was mine. But it was sooo good to be with you.”
She paused before continuing.
“And I think I fell in love with you.”
He stared back at her. Their eyes locked. He didn’t know what to say.
“I just wanted you to love me too.”
He sighed, spoke slowly. “But Zoe, I…”
She nodded, “I know, I know…”
Silence fell between them.
“I love Sherrie,” he whispered. “I’m sorry Zoe, but I love Sherrie.”
She nodded.
“I know,” she raised the revolver. “And so do I.”
His eyes darted to the gun pointing at his head.
“Game’s over!” she said as she pulled the trigger.
Sixty-seven
He dived at her, tackling her and flinging her back against the workbench.
The gun fired close to his right ear as they fell backwards, the bullet shooting into the roof of the barn. His ear stung from the noise, a loud ringing taking over from the rain and thunder.
John reached out and struggled to pull the revolver from Zoe’s grip. He could hear the hammer falling over and over as she pulled the trigger.
The gun was empty.
No use to me now.
He slammed her hand against the workbench and the gun jarred free, slipping across the bench and falling to the floor with a clatter.
He spread himself across her, trying to pin her to the bench. She struggled underneath him, clawing at his back and hair.
He reached up above the workbench for the tools, trying to grab a hammer that hung there. She grabbed at his left arm. He reached higher and then he felt her teeth bite into his wound.
The pain sliced up his arm and into his mind. He buckled forward, crashing down on to her. He heard the back of her skull hit the workbench hard. She froze for a moment, as if stunned, and then continued fighting him.
“She’s mine,” she yelled at him. “You leave her alone! She’s mine!”
He reached out across the workbench with his left hand.
He noticed the quickly spreading bloodstain on his torn shirt. She’d opened his wound with her bite.
Bitch!
Fucking bitch!
He grabbed what he could find as firmly as possible. Metal or steel, cold and heavy.
He raised it above her.
“No!” she gasped. “Don’t! Please?”
He stopped and looked at her; stared into her eyes.
Is that fear?
Or another lie?
“Please don’t, Johnny,” she pleaded and tried to smile. “You know I really do love you.”
The gash on her left cheek looked deep.
Probably got it when she drove into Sherrie’s car.
Serves her right.
I want to make it deeper…
The bruise on her forehead was darkening too.
“We can work something out,” she continued. “We have to, for all of us.”
John continued studying her.
What’s the truth and what’s a lie?
I don’t know anymore.
It’s all so confusing…
“Please, Johnny.” Pain crossed her face as she talked. “You’re hurting me.”
He climbed off her, pushed her away in disgust, but still held his weapon high, ready to strike.
“I do love you, Johnny,” she smiled as she sat up slightly on her elbows. “And I know how much you love Sherrie. Well, I do too. Maybe this is the best for all of us. Maybe we can all live together. We’d make a great threesome.”
John sighed deeply and shook his head. He took a step away from her, lowering the weapon as he did so.
“You’re not well, Zoe,” he said to her as thunder rolled over them. “You need help. You’re sick…”
“All the help I need is here,” she replied. “You and Sherrie. Let’s go get her and we can all go home together. Think of it, John. The two women you love, in bed with you every night, naked and hot and wet and horny.”
She leaned forward, a new gleam in her eye, a smile breaking onto her face.
“It’d be just sooo wonderful. We’ll do anything you want. I’ll do anything you want. Fuck me like a dog, cum in my mouth until I gag, cum in my arse until I leak, fuck me until I bleed…anything. As long as we’re together, all of us. It’ll be great!”
John stepped back further.
“You just don’t understand,” he said.
Zoe spread her legs wide apart.
“You want this,” she said. Showing him her wet pussy. “And you can have it all whenever you like. Remember how good we were together? Remember how it felt with my mouth around your cock? You haven’t experienced anything yet, Johnny. You haven’t been inside me. Inside my cunt. Imagine how good it would be to stick your hot cock inside me. I want you deep inside. You want to be there too, I know it.”
Pain pumped through his cock as he felt himself harden.
“This isn’t right,” he said.
“But it’s good,” she replied.
“You killed Helen,” he said. “And you tortured me! I can’t possibly be with you.”
Zoe rolled her eyes, closed her legs and pushed herself forward to sit on the corner of the workbench. She crossed her arms in front of her breasts.
“Don’t get all high-and-mighty wi
th me, Johnny,” she said. “Need I remind you that you’re the one fucking your personal assistant behind your wife’s back! You’re the one not sleeping in the same bed as your wife. You’re the one who’s wanted to fuck me every way you possibly could this weekend. If anything, I did you a favour killing Helen! You don’t have to lie anymore!”
John tightened his grip on the metal in his hand.
“She called for you, you know,” Zoe continued. “I told her the truth, but she wouldn’t believe me. And just before she died, just before she let out her final breath, she called your name.”
John shook his head, he felt dizzy and sick. Guilt swept over him. The room began to spin.
No! I can’t hear this. NO!
He looked to the floor of the barn, he watched the tears well up in his eyes.
“Oh God,” he muttered. “Helen…”
“She really loved you,” Zoe continued in a soft voice. “But you didn’t love her.”
Nooo, oh no! Oh, fuck, what have I done?
This is all my fucking fault.
All because of me.
“If it helps any,” Zoe continued. “I did it quick. She didn’t feel much pain. I’m sure of it.”
John lifted his head and stared at her. Tears ran down his cheeks, but he didn’t care if she saw them – not now.
“How did you do it, bitch?” he asked in a strained voice. “How did you kill my wife?”
She pointed at his hand.
“With that.”
Lightning struck and thunder roared across the barn.
He looked down at his hand.
And at the fireplace poker.
Its double-pronged tip was covered in dried blood. Some strands of hair were stuck to its side.
“I got her right on the temple, first time,” Zoe continued. “It was quick. I assure you.”
He dropped the poker. He watched as it fell away from him, almost in slow motion. It clattered to the floor and echoed around the barn.
The rain fell with it.
Zoe took a step towards him.
“I may have done it for me to begin with,” she said as she took another step. “But in the end, I did it for us. All those years planning, for us. I just can’t believe it’s almost over. I did it for all of us. You and me and Sherrie.”
He shook his head.
“We can all be together now. All three of us. We’ll all be happy.”
“No,” John said through clenched teeth. “I won’t let you get away with this.”
“It’s too late, Johnny,” she said. “I already have.”
“You can’t go unpunished…”
“You already know I like to be punished. And so do you,” she moved closer.
“Where is she?” John asked in a slow calm voice.
Keep a lid on it, pal. Don’t lose it.
“You said she was at the farmhouse,” she replied with a crooked smile.
“Not Sherrie! Where’s Helen?”
“Well, she’s not here,” Zoe replied, shrugging her shoulders.
“I know that. What the fuck have you done with her?”
“She’s around,” she replied stepping closer to him, tilting her head and still smiling at him.
Lightning lit up the barn.
“Tell me, Zoe.”
“She’s out of harm’s way for now. No one will find her. Not yet anyway.”
John tensed, “What do you mean?”
“It’s simple,” she sighed. “She’s my security, Johnny. I have to make sure both you and Sherrie will agree to my terms.”
“Terms?” John’s lip curled as he spat out the word. “What makes you think we’ll agree to any terms you give us?”
“That’s easy,” she continued, only a couple of feet from him now. “We will all live together, as a threesome. And we will all love each other.”
“We won’t agree to that.”
“Yes, you will,” she said as she bent down and picked up the fireplace poker. “You have to.”
“We won’t.”
Zoe shook her head, “Johnny, I thought you would’ve understood by now.”
“Look, Zoe,” he interrupted. “Your sick little fucked up game is over. You’ve lost. I’m walking out of here, taking Sherrie with me and I’m going to find Helen’s body and then we’ll go straight to the police.”
“I wouldn’t dooo thaaat,” she replied in a little girl’s voice as she stood back up with the poker in hand.
“I’m going to do it, and I’m going to do it now! You don’t control me, Zoe, not anymore.”
He marched past her, heading for the door.
“Yes I do!” she called after him.
He kept walking.
You need some of the tools for Sherrie!
I can’t risk it. I can’t stop now. I’ll find another way to get her out.
How?
I’ll get her out somehow. I just can’t stay here! Not now!
“She’s at the church,” Zoe said from behind him.
John stopped in his tracks and turned to face her.
She was licking the tip of the poker, licking off the dried blood and hair that was stuck there.
Helen’s blood and hair!
“She’s at the church?” John repeated.
“Well, sort of,” Zoe continued as she licked. “Nearby anyway.”
John turned to leave, “You’re one sick fuck, you know that?”
“Aren’t we all?”
He placed his hand on the barn door.
“Don’t go to the police, Johnny!” she called after him.
He rested his forehead on the cold wooden door and closed his eyes. He just wanted everything to go away.
“And give me one good reason not to,” he replied.
“Game one is over,” she called back in a sing-song voice. “But game two is only just beginning!”
“Huh?” he turned to face her.
“Life’s full of choices, Johnny,” she smiled at him and rested the poker across her left shoulder. “And so is this game. You can play it my way, or yours. But believe me, my way is much easier. Want to hear the rules?”
He nodded slowly, a heavy feeling of uneasiness settled on him as the thunder shuddered around the barn.
Things were about to get a whole lot worse.
He knew it.
“My way is easy,” she continued. “You and me and Sherrie go home together and fuck until we’re exhausted for the rest of our lives. Easy.”
“Go on…” he said.
“To help you decide that my way is the best, I’ve got some security up my sleeve.”
She fingered the half-heart gold pendant still hanging around her neck.
“Helen’s somewhere near the church, that’s true. But there’s nothing to link her to me.”
“Apart from my testimony…and Sherrie’s.”
Zoe smiled, “Good boy, you’re thinking finally!”
She looked pleased with him.
“But the trouble is,” she continued, “you and Sherrie have been having an affair. A loooong hot steamy affair. Your very own secret little fuck-fest. Helen was in the way. Suddenly she goes missing from work. Then, so do you. And then, so does Sherrie. All very murky, don’t you think? Gossip will already be rife at American Eagle Electronics. The cards you leave for Sherrie are still at her home. She kept them all in a little vase on the top of the dresser in her bedroom. She’d look at them every night when she was alone, you know that? Reading the little love notes you’d write on the back for her. Knowing that one day she’d be yours. Now, you’re both together but your wife is missing… You go home and call the police and say I killed her? Come on, they’re not going to believe all that.”
“We’ve got enough proof.”
“You might think you have,” she continued as lightning flashed across her face. “But when the cops find her body, they’ll find your cum inside her mouth and pussy. They’ll find your pubic hair deep inside her, and they’ll find a glass covered wi
th your fingerprints by the body. I made sure there was no trace of me anywhere.”
John’s breathing became shallow. His mind was spinning once more. “What?” He couldn’t think straight. There was too much information and not enough time to process it. “How? Why would you do this?”
“Why? Because I love you and want you, Johnny! And always have. The how was easy. I didn’t just shave you and give you head for the fun of it! I needed your pubic hair and cum. So I took it! And the glass you used when you untied yourself is with her now too. Even this fireplace poker has your fingerprints on it!”
“But it has your fingerprints as well...”
“I know. But I also know where I’ve touched. I’ll wipe my prints when I leave it by the body, just like I did when I left the glass.”
“You fucking murdering bitch,” he said between gritted teeth.
“They’ll add this to the stories of you acting weirdly at the hospital. Witnesses will say they saw you at the shopping mall with a strange woman. The stories will just pile up next to the evidence, Johnny. What do you think they’re going to decide? All dirty fingers will point to bad boy Johnny and his little slut Sherrie.”
“You’ve had all this planned?” he whispered as thunder crashed around them.
She nodded, “Yes. Well, this scenario and a few others. It all depended on how you reacted, Johnny, and how far to the edge I could push you. I’ve had a variety of options that I’ve been planning for a long, long time.”
“You’re sick, Zoe. I mean, really fucking sick! You need help.”
“No, not me,” she said as she stepped towards him. “But it looks like you do! Now, you can decide to have a happy life with me and Sherrie, or you can take your chances and try to convince the cops you didn’t bring your wife all the way up here to beat her to death and then fuck her corpse. Your choice.”
“I’ll never choose you,” he replied.
Zoe’s face quivered. A shadow fell over it.
“And neither will Sherrie when she hears what you’ve done.”
Silence.
“I just want us all to be together, Johnny,” she replied.
“It’s never going to happen, okay? You understand? Can you get that through your evil little mind? NEVER!”
Love Lies Dying Page 52