The Perfect Woman

by Abundis, Jesse

  “ You say they, why?” Karen reopened her eyes, letting the Killer look into her dark eyes that held a story of it‘s own, letting him fall deeper into the void.

  “ Do you remember Ruby? ” that name made Karen cringe, he saw it the moment he said it. “ she was your daughter.”

  “ This was all your fault, you brought this upon you, you corrupted that boy!” The voice of her mother began to slam at the walls of her mind. “ This child is a blessing, it was God’s doing, you can’t change it.” She could feel the flood of grief and darkness begin to claw at her.

  “ Stop running, Karen, just accept it.” She smiled at the killer as the voice of Jamie whispered in her ear once more.

  “ You want to know the truth?” She undid the chains blocking her past, she could feel the images pouring back into mind, it was like watching a movie in fast forward, what was old felt so new to her.

  “ I need to know.” He begged her.

  “ Ryan and I were friends, I cared for him, I loved him, but I could never love him the way he wanted to. One day we were alone in his house, he wanted to kiss me and I should have said no, but I let him anyway, he wanted to go further, I told him to stop, but he wouldn’t.” The Killer grip Karen’s shoulders encouraging her to go on. “ Next thing I know he has me pin to the ground, I’m laughing and he’s getting mad, I can’t stop laughing, I just can’t. He’s ripping my skirt off and I feel him pushing inside of me, I wanted to cry, I was so scared, I didn’t want to believe this was him, because he would never do such a thing to me, he was my friend, someone I grew to lean on when things got hard.” She chuckled loudly. “ I don’t remember what happened next or how many days passed but I’m crying and telling my mom what happened, but she’s not trying to console me, she’s yelling at me and blaming me for what happened. She says it’s the way I dress and act, that Ryan is the victim, that I led him on, she tells me to keep this hidden. Then they find out I’m pregnant. My mother tells me this child is a blessing, this is God‘s will. I look to my father for help, but he’s quiet and never says a word.”

  “ You didn’t have to make it so hard, none of this would have happen if you just loved me.” Ryan whispers into Karen's ear right before their wedding, she's dressed in white and everyone they know is there, they‘re holding the wedding at their home, she looks on with her fake planted smile. But there’s someone under the oak tree that grabs her attention, it’s a dark shadowy figure, wearing a bunny mask. She walks up to this person and asks who they are, they smile and say. “ I’m kinda a new friend and old friend of yours.”

  “ I never knew who that person was, when I met them on my wedding day.”

  “ Who was it?” The Killer leaned in closer.

  “ Something about them didn’t feel right, they just kept looking at me with that bunny mask. I didn't question it, I let it sink away. It took me awhile, but I understand now.” Karen inhaled a deep breath.

  “ What happened afterward?” The killer pushed her to move forward.

  “ We’re married, living a lie, a lie I believed, people kept telling me how wonderful I look, how beautiful a couple we are, that we were meant to be together.”

  “ Keep pushing, it’s almost here, keep pushing you’re doing great.” Flashes of the day she delivers Ruby into the world replays in her mind, every emotion comes sinking back in, fear, excitement, anxiety.

  “ Nine months later Ruby is born, the moment I lay eyes on her, I don’t feel joy or happiness.”

  “ well mama, this is your baby girl.” The Doctor hands her Ruby.

  “ I feel regret, anger, and I know this child isn’t suppose to be.” Karen digs her nails into the table, hoping to find strength to carry on. “ I saw through the lie, I saw the man not for a husband, nor a lover or friend, I saw a two-face monster that raped me and force me to be his. So one night, my old friend was outside my porch again.”

  “ I’m glad you called, I was wondering when you would.”

  “ He told me to drug his drink with some sleeping pills that I kept in the cover, I smashed them inside his drink and handed it to him. I watched as the pills took effect. I could see him looking at me, he knows I did something to him. He’s scared and frighten, he thought he had me under his thumb, he wants to fight back but he can’t.”

  “ Let me handle this, just go and hide, Karen.” Her friend taps her shoulder as she’s holding the gasoline canister and matches. “ If you don’t see it, you can’t be held responsible, go under the oak tree and wait for me there.” Her friend pours the gasoline all over the house and she drenches baby Ruby’s room, making sure everything lights up quickly and that the child dies as fast as possible. Her masked friend makes one last stop before leaving the house.

  “ I hid under the oak tree, I never saw what happened… never..”

  Her friend hovers over Ryan, watching his eyes open slowly, it strikes the match and leaves him with one final word of advise that he of all people should have learned a long time ago. “ Never think with your dick.”

  “ I just hear his screams for mercy through the fire, telling me he’s sorry. I just cry out for him, then I hear Ruby screeching through the pit of flames, it was the most god awful sound I ever heard in my life. I tried to run back in but it was too late, the fire engulfed the house in seconds, there was nothing I could do. The last thing I see is my friend standing outside the burning house, chuckling, then it starts to weep… I didn‘t understand it, but now I know, I hid a side of me for so long that it started bubbling to the top when I saw my life go deeper down the shit hole, I killed them, I was the monster hiding under the oak tree just waiting to strike.” the realization of it all left her breathless and gasping to find air.

  The Killer shook his head. “ You’re not a monster, you were a victim regaining her innocents back,” He held her head still and he tried talking some sense into her, he needed Karen to regain her composure, he couldn’t bare to see her in this state. “ Ryan was the monster, he was a wolf in sheep clothing, he thought he ruled the fields but he never thought he’d run into someone like you, someone different, someone that knew the darkness much better than him, his actions set your course in life.”

  Karen smiled joyfully as he said that. “ I understand you now, I can see everything so clear.”

  The Killer felt his heart melt as she said that. “ I knew you would.” He caressed his face with hers pausing for a moment to indulge in the love, he then reached into his pocket and pulled out a sharpie and began to finish the markings on her forehead. “ Once this is done, you’ll be free from everything, you’ll feel alive.”

  “ Thank you, just thank you.” She said in tears. “ I just want to say something to you before I go. I want to whisper something to you, my love.” She smiled so lovely at him that it was hard to resist her request.

  “ I’m coming,” He set the sharpie aside, lean in by her side while holding her hand in his, he brought his ear close to Karen’s mouth waiting to hear those words he knew she would say, “ what is it you wanted to say, my sweet angel?” Instead of being showered with love, he felt the cold hard sharp pain of Karen’s teeth clamp down onto his left ear, he screamed at the top of his lungs as he felt the pressure and blood squirt from the side of his neck. Karen quickly held a death grip on his left wrist, using everything she had in her to cause him discomfort, she could hear the bones crack, one down, seven more to spare.

  “ Let go, now!” He howled at her, the more he squirmed he could feel the top part of his ear being bitten one hundred times harder. If he wanted to end this little dance he‘d have to make some sacrifice. With one mighty pull, he yanked himself free from her grip, having the good portion of his top ear still in her mouth. She was like a cat holding a wounded bird, his blood drench down to the side oh his shoulder. “ You fucking bitch!” The first fouled words he ever used on his lovers. Out of sheer blinding rage, he flipped the table Karen was on, on it's side.

  The moment Karen toppled to the the ground, the r
estraint in her left arm broke free, a few broken bones but nothing that would stop her. She raced in a panic to undo the other. She could hear him still moaning in pain. “ Hurry, hurry!” Her mind raced, as she leaned to the restraints on her foot.

  “ What are you doing!?” The Killer ran over in a blink of an eye, quickly going for the same choke hold he did in the alley. “ I'm so sorry, please forgive me.” He cried out to Karen.

  Karen fought under the hold, this time she was ready, she knew fighting to break away wouldn't do it. So she reached back and jabbed her thumb into his eye as deep as she could. “ Mother fucker!” He release the grip and topple to the floor grabbing onto his bloody eye.

  Karen didn't stop to catch her breath, she pulled the straps loose from her legs and ran towards the elevator shaft, only to have the Killer tackle her to the ground. He was refusing to give up his last piece of the puzzle. “ I'm not like them, you sick piece of shit!” Karen screamed at him delivering a swift kick to his head, he retaliated back with a punch to the gut.

  “ You're the answer to it all, your not going anywhere, this is what you're meant to be,” He returned back to his feet, pulling on her legs, sliding her slowly back to the table. “ Why can't you see that!” He yelled like a demon as he tried to drag her back to the operating table.

  Karen saw a wooden bat laid down between two wooden crates, not far from her, she knew that was her last shot. Karen drove her foot into his stomach and groin until he undid his grip, she dashed to the crates with the Killer coming right behind her. “ Where are you going?” He laughed at her.

  “ This is for Peewee!” She screamed with all the rage bottle inside her as she grasped the wooden bat and swung for the fences, the shot cracked his face, sending teeth flying the moment it made contact. Karen rose to her feet as the Killer fell to his. “ He was my friend!” She slammed the bat down into his ribs, she repeated the attack until she heard them break.

  “ Stop it, please, stop!” For the first time in a long time, the killer's eyes were engulfed in fear.

  “ Is that what Peewee told you too!” She delivered a striking blow to the Killer's skull, ending his pleads but not his life.

  Karen paused as she notice the black curtain that seemed to hide something behind it. “ Is that were you keep them?” She asked him, he could only mumble a word she couldn't make out.

  Karen walked over in pain, knowing she was about to lay eyes on his creation. She yanked down the curtain to find a human meat puppet strapped to a wooden chair, the flies had begun to swarm around it. Electric wires were placed all around it, leading to a portable generator and a few gallons of gasoline. “ Is that it, is this what you killed them for?” Karen asked in tears.

  The killer rolled over, the side of his skull had been cracked, he couldn't stand, but his will was still strong enough to speak his words. “ They're free, can't you hear them talking, they wanted this!” He cried out to Karen.

  “ There's no one speaking, it's just in our minds.” She said to him.

  “ No, you're too blind, you don't understand it.”

  “ Save your preaching,” She turned around to the meat puppet that stared at her. “ I don't need it.”

  “ What are you doing?” He asked as Karen took a stance of a batter. “ Leave Miranda alone!”

  “ This isn't Miranda!” She swung at his creation, the first hit ripped the dead bodies face off, sending the eyes attached to it hurling into the air. “ Miranda is dead, this shit isn't real!” She swung once again harder each time, breaking it piece by piece, the rotten flesh flew in the air, old organs tumbled out with maggots feasting on them already.

  “ No, please, stop hurting them!” The killer whaled out in pain with every hit. Karen couldn't stop if she tried. She swung until all of it was destroyed. The body laid in scattered chunks, there was no head, just a caved in torso too hard to identify.

  Once it was over, Karen walked over to him, seeing this unknown man's soul shattered once and for all. “ How does it feel?” She asked him, covered in the flesh of his lovers.

  “ Just kill me, just do it, there's nothing to live for, all I --” Karen fulfilled his wished and silenced his nonsense by cracking his skull with one more mighty blow. Chaos had fallen deaf, all there was, was harmony.

  EPILOGUE

  Karen didn't move an inch from her spot, still standing over the killer's body. She knew what she had done, she knew what led her down this path, it all led to that night. In her mind, if she had died that night with them in the flames, Peewee would still be alive, he would have had a life, maybe a dysfunctional child of his own. “ I'm sorry, Peewee.” She cried out as she poured the gasoline around the studio, trying to end the madness that started, trying to put an end to the wrong.

  “ I know I'm no saint, I did my wrongs. Now I'll make it right.” She tossed the empty canister aside, reached into her jacket and pulled out a lighter. “ This is where the story ends.” She lit the flame and tossed it to the ground. The fire roared around her, not once did she move or flinch. She let it be, closing her eyes and begin taken to that field of gray, where the mustang roared and that sweet innocent face of Peewee greeted her on that lonely road.

  “ You need a ride?” He could hear him say as the fire covered her body.

  “ Where should we go?” She asked, feeling herself leave the fiery hell her body had been consumed in and being welcomed to a new place and time.

  “ Anywhere you want to go.” She felt Jamie creep behind her and embrace her with open arms.

  “ I'm home.” Karen said with a smile.

  FIND JESSE ABUNDIS

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