Still and Quiet

What happens when your darkest desires are no longer just random thoughts, but real plans that sound so darned logical?

"It was a lot easier than I expected."

I jumped, the pale moon light the only witness to my own voice scaring me in the gloom. Well, the moon and Dean. I watched Dean, who was perched on the edge of the bed with an oddly still face, watching me. My sweaty hands were still gripping the small pillow tight and I looked in awe when I realized what I had done. That fragile feather-fluffed device, the cushion of dreams and constant bedtime companion, had been made into a weapon the minute I had placed the purple pillow case over her delicate features. I looked down now at the very still body of my niece and tried to remember what had happened, what had happened exactly. The last thing I remembered really clearly was...

I had plodded from the bus stop to find Dean waiting for me on the stoop. My tired body, clinging stubbornly to the smells of burgers and desperation, stumbled up the three short brick stairs and nearly caused my aching head to hit the peeling door frame. Dean had jumped with a curse, glaring balefully at me from his new position. "Damnit, Laurie, watch it!"

"Sorry, Dean."

"Did you bring me anything to eat?"

"No, Dean," I had answered, my throat sore from calling out orders all night. I had to fumble with the keys, trying two or three before sliding the correct one home and turning the lock.

"Laurie," he whined.

"Sorry, Dean." He followed me into the hall where I told him to hush. My sister and her boyfriend would be sleeping, as would Brittney, the devil disguised as my niece.  He wasn't supposed to be here, both Andrew and Charlotte hated him with great passion. But Dean was the only one that really paid any attention to my schemes and dreams, to my heart ache, the only real friend that knew of my loneliness. He made the dark not so unbearable with his huge marble green eyes and his so dark brown it looked nearly black hair. He had rubbed his face against me which had caused me to giggle in response. "Well, I guess I could make you something."

"That's my girl!"

I had giggled again as he nearly ran past me to the kitchen and rummaged around. "Dean, shhh! Char will kill us." I scolded him gently though because his blinking eyes just melted my heart. I started to dig through the fridge searching for the left meatloaf that I had prepared the other night. I frowned suddenly, because the platter wasn't there. In the harsh light of the fridge I searched, but can't find it. I shivered in the sudden cool air as I started to use both hands to dig through the unorganized shelves. I knew I had seen it earlier before I left for work. I had even checked with Charlotte about dinner, so that I knew I could have it when I got home. Charlotte had made an off hand comment about Andrew taking her and my niece to some fancy restaurant while she did her nails. But now there was no meat loaf.

"And I was really looking forward to that," he had hissed out.

"Me too, Dean. I wonder..."

"There!"

I had to turn to look at where his eyes were staring, like two hot lasers of burning hate. There on the floor had been what was left over of the meat loaf near Jasmine's water dish. They had fed my homemade meatloaf, my dinner to the Labrador. And on Mother's good China platter! "How could they?" I had cried out softly. Dean looked just as angry as I felt, and I covered his face with kisses. At least he understood how awful this was.

I had then stomped up the stairs to one of the smaller bedrooms, Dean trailing behind me. "Why are you living in this closet?" he asked me, as he always did.

"I told you, Dean. Andy and Char need the bigger room because there are two of them," I sighed, pulled off my ketchup stained shirt, and tossed it towards the laundry basket. I remember toeing off my shoes with great effort and sitting on my bed in just a bra and my black Dickies.

"And the Brat?"

"Brittney has more things than I do, it just makes sense that she get the other large room," I explained again, trying to make my muscles relax.

"Your house, but you get the smallest, darkest and coldest room. Your food but they eat it all. You pay nearly all the bills, watch their daughter after they borrow money to go out on, and didn't they just recently wreck your car?"

"Dean," I had started with a sigh.

"No, Laurie. No! You give them money, you make their meals, you watch their devil spawn, and you work two jobs on top of that! They don't appreciate you, they never have. It was supposed to only be till Andrew could find a new job but all he does is play X box. They have been here for nearly a year and take such advantage of you that it makes me sick," he hissed out the harsh words as he had stalked around my room, perching first on the bed then the low dresser and then my chair. Dean was only that restless when truly upset. "They don't even let you have your friends over!"  

"What should I do, Dean? Kick them out?"

"Kill them."

"What?!" The breath had exploded out of me in my surprise. I remember the laughter, the actual laughter that seemed to echo around the room. "That is just ridiculous."

"Is it, Laurie? Aren't they killing you slowly? Won't it just be self defense?" Dean had answered as though it was completely logical.

"I think you should leave, Dean." I had opened the door and he gave me a dark look before he had strode out.

"I'll be back. And just think about what I said, Laurie."

Days and days went by where one small thing or another would happen and each time Dean saw what my sister and her family put me through, he gave that look. "Laurie, you know I am right." On more than one occasion I made Dean leave.

The final straw had been when I came home to find the house full of people I didn't know. Andy had invited drunken friends, and even drunker friends of friends over to my house to eat my food while being careless with my things. It was late and I was beyond fed up. "Out. Everyone has to leave now!"

Char and Andy were driven to embarrassed anger. There had been yelling and accusations thrown like verbal javelins. I tried to get them to see my side, for them to hear my words but they acted as if I were invisible. Just as I was about to give up, Brittney had come stumbling into the living room, the air around her had reeked to the sky and back. "What in the world?"

"Could you shut up! I have to sleep," she had whined straight to me. My eight year old niece was telling me that her parents yelling at me was bothersome. I couldn't get over the irony of it all.

"Brittney, why do you smell so bad?" I had asked, trying to keep my distance from the smell, but concerned enough for her that I took a few hesitant steps.

"I wanted to smell pretty and Mommy wouldn't let me play in her perfumes so I used yours," the mite had explained as if this was the dumbest question she had ever heard.

I gasped, reaching out for her arm and I remember giving it a good shake. "What? What perfumes?"

She had cried out, though I was already loosening my hold by this point. "What perfumes? Not... not the ones that Mother gave to me from Paris! Which ones?"

"All of them! Let me go, Aunt Laurie, you're hurting me! Mommy says it's not like you need them! You never go any where anyways and that they are wasted on someone like you!" Brittney had tugged her arm free and scurried to hide behind Charlotte.

"Laura! How could you hurt her like that? She is just a child!" Andrew had roared, surprising me into a laugh. This was the same man that took a belt to Brittney's butt just a few short weeks ago for stepping on his X Box cord while he was playing something stupid or something else equally dumb.  

I hadn't been able to take anymore. I stumbled up the stairs and fell onto my bed with my chest heaving. They couldn't be so cruel, so uncaring; it was impossible! I had cried until my mouth was cottony and my eyes burned.

"Kill them."

I had jumped at Dean's voice, and was startled enough to give a squeak in the darkness. "Dean? How did you get in here?"

"I came in during the party and then snuck up here to wait for you. I told you to kill them weeks ago," Dean said, before he had moved towards the bed. "You should have listened to me, Laurie. They don't care about you. They never have. And the minute they are gone we can have our lives back. We can be together!"

I had tired to ignore him, but he kept refreshing my memory with every slight. My broken speakers. Nail polish poured on the oak dining room table. Clothes that Charlotte never bothered to ask to borrow that ended up wrecked and in her laundry that I did for her. Meals that I cooked that they didn't say thank you for. My car wrapped around a telephone pole because Andy didn't know to ask for a DD. Money begged for or just missing. Dishes broken, mail lost, their dog chewing through my good work shoes. A year is a long time to stack up grievances and it seemed that this past year had been a good year to start.

"Now, your sister," Dean cajoled from the hallway, breaking me out of  my memories.

"She always wanted this," I said and picked up Mother's heavy Waterford crystal vase on the way to her and Andy's room. The first swing made a sound like faeries laughing as I broke her nose and a few of her teeth in one swoop. As I bashed her again, Andy stirred slightly but I heard my sister gurgle on her own blood and I decided she was on her way to Hell.

Then I grabbed a leather belt off their messy floor and wrapped it around Andy's thick neck, pressing the silver buckle to his Adam's apple. I rose over that man, riding his bucking form in a parody of sexual ecstasy. Though he was stronger, I had surprise on my side and a little God given strength to battle against the pain in my life. Soon the thrashing stopped and I looked down in stupefied fascination at the purple tongue hanging out of his mouth like a slug trying to escape. Dean giggled from the edge of the bed and nodded his head, his eyes not blinking in the nearly perfect dark. Soon his giggles turned into warnings as Charlotte started to making noises, weak sounds of distress and I gasped at her.

"Hit her again! Hit her again, Laurie! God, she's reaching for the phone!"

I was in a panic, feeling sick and depleted. I couldn't find the vase and caught my sister punching three buttons on the bed side phone out of the corner of my eye. "Laurie! Laurie hit her again! You have to hit her again!"

I grasped for something, praying for just a little more help. In my hand was one of Char's spike heeled leather boots. I held it by the toe and drove the spike into her eye. There was a muted popping sound that made Dean laugh and then I was thrusting the heel over and over into her face until my sister finally stopped struggling. "Die! Just f*****g die! Leave me alone!" I hit her one or two more times just to make sure that she was actually dead and then I collapsed onto the floor while there was an odd buzzing sound coming from under her body.

I was covered in gore and my muscles hurt in a way that seemed like liquid agony. The smell of blood and feces was heavy in the air, making me gasp out breaths so I didn't have to hold in the smells longer than necessary. Dean jumped onto the bed and leaned down to peer first in Andy's face and then Charlotte's. I watched as he leaned over and licked her cheek, and I threw the shoe I was still clutching at him. "Don't be disgusting!"

Soon the room was awash in flashing blue and red pulses of light. I heard the police kick in the door and call out to who ever was home. I struggled to stand on aching knees, brushing my bloody hands on already bloody jeans and went to meet them. "It was self defense, I swear. They were trying to kill me!"

The police took one look at me and threw silver handcuffs on me faster than thought. I shook my arms, my sore muscles protesting the fact they were bent behind me so oddly , and the chain between the bracelets rattled ominously. "You choked a man with a belt, beat a woman to death with a shoe and some blunt object and smothered a child. How could that possibly be self defense?" The policeman leading me out to the squad cars jerked me down the short red brick steps asked me over and over to explain it in a tone that was ice cold.

"Ask Dean! He's a witness, he'll tell you. Ask Dean!"

The cop shook his head and tossed me into the back end of a squad car that smelled like stale sweat and rubber. I stressed my eyes, searching for any sign of Dean. Where had he gone? The police were everywhere and soon a small crowd was forming on the side walk in front of my house. It didn't matter, soon Dean would emerge and explain it all to them. Just as he had to me. But Dean never came out with the police and every time I shouted for some attention they just told me to shut up. I felt my muscles crying out, causing me to shake as I sat hunched over with my face pressed against the cool glass and my breath fogging the window.

"There! There's Dean," I cried excitedly, bumping the door with my shoulder. The policeman glared down at me, his blue eyes cold and empty. I shook off the look and used my head to indicate where Dean stood on the porch. "There! Right there, that's Dean. Ask him, he'll tell you everything!"

The policeman looked at Dean and then me with a grim frown. He walked over to the man in charge and pointed at Dean. Finally, everything was going to be okay. Dean would fix it. Dean would fix everything. And then I would be free.

******************

"What?"

"I know, Chief, I know. But she swears that he's her alibi."

"Jacobs, I know you're a rookie but you did notice that her witness that these three murders were self defense is a cat? I mean, you get that, right?" Chief Reynolds shook his salt and peppered head hard enough that his cap shifted on his head. "We can't question a cat."

"I know that. Sir," young Jacobs added belatedly. "She was adamant about it, Sir. I was just informing you of the suspect."

"Yeah, well, if she thinks she can get off for being crazy and blaming the cat for telling her to murder her whole family, she's got another thing coming. I am not going to loose this one to St. Judith's!" The Chief removed his cap and snapped his gum, wishing for a cigarette. That little girl had been about ten year old. At least she hadn't suffered much; the boyfriend was probably lucky too. It was the image of the sister's battered in face that was going to bother him for awhile. He walked towards the steps and stared down at the marble green eyes of a nearly black cat. "Scram!" he yelled as he kicked out at it.

Dean took off and hid under some bushes before he started to nonchalantly clean his back leg, barely irritated by all the movement and noise.

Author's Note

Lemme Have It

Reviews

[Micheal Teal]

Wonderfully descriptive and darkly pleasing story. This would be something well worth expanding into a book or script. You create images that send chills down the spine yet still mange to captivate the reader. Also I have a soft spot for stories that involve cats.

You are a fine writer and I admire and respect your work.

One really cant call themselves a writer until somebody has read their work and gifted them with that title. I have read your work - You are a Writer!

[An owl on the moon]

Haunting and impossible to stop reading. An amazing, intricate story with a wicked twist! Everything so well developed, you can see and feel the tension in the house; sense the darkening presence. Absolutely brilliant! (Hope you will consider sending it to a short story magazine!)

[CarrieLynn {Chameleon A..]

I really liked this..great twist in the ending....:)