Chapter Sixteen: Bliss

Chapter Sixteen: Bliss

“So the first grave wasn’t the first Minerva?”

“She is the original, but somewhere out there in the mass of graves, there are others. Minerva’s from long before me.”

I ran to the wastebasket and threw up. I couldn’t believe that I had been the one to get away. Out of who knows how many? I don’t know what Emma saw in me, but I hope it wasn’t a bit of the real Minerva. Then again, I had misjudged Emma, so maybe I was hasty in judging Minerva.

My nausea subsided and I threw the wastebasket out of the window, leaving the window open to air out the room. John cradled me to his chest.

“I am so lucky to have found you. Do you know how living like this could have changed anyone else? They would have broken and enjoyed the kill. You are so strong. You were my queen from the moment I saw you. I love you so much.” He paused. “I hate to see you this way, just breathe for a minute.”

“ I’m sorry, it’s just thinking about how many Minerva’s there could have been....it just sickens me.”

He held me close as I shuddered and began to cry. He sat us on the bed and rocked me like I was a baby. We fell asleep like that.

I woke up early and slipped out of his arms. I went to the kitchen and started on breakfast. Soon enough I felt a pair of arms encircle my waist and his nose nudging my neck.

“Smells good....” He said, sniffing deeply. Something told me that he wasn’t talking about breakfast.

I finished breakfast and looked for some plates. The kitchen had been left stocked full, and the cupboards were no exception. In the third cabinet, I finally found the right size of plate. I put on Emma's apron and was startled to find a small bottle in the pocket. It was labeled ‘Cyanide’. That was the bitter almond smell that still pervaded the house. I ran around the house and threw open all the windows that I could reach. I then suggested that we eat on the front porch instead of in that horrific kitchen.

Out front, all we could see was the dirt road stretching for miles. We could pretend to be normal newlyweds for a while. We could pretend that there wasn’t a field full of bodies behind our house and we hadn’t just killed someone a few days ago.

We were typical, average, everyday people for a bit. Until rain forced us back into the house. There we were forced to face the stark reality of all that we’d done. Dreams of all those people who Jack and Emma had killed kept us awake at night. Nightmares haunted both of us to the point of distraction and insomnia. Sleep deprivation took it’s toll.

One day, a few weeks later, I chanced upon some sleeping pills at the back of a cabinet. It seemed that not only the two of us had had nightmares. I crushed some up and put them in a mug of hot chocolate which I served that evening. We barely kept our eyes open to the last drop.

The next morning we woke up at the kitchen table. John was confused as to how we ended up there.

“I guess sleep deprivation got the best of us. Maybe we should go nap and get it all out of our systems.”

“That was weird Jane, I was awake one minute and the next I wasn’t.”

We did end up napping that day, after a long walk. It was satisfying to have a time where there was emptiness. Nothing bothered up during our nap. That night at dinner, I reminded myself to scale the dosage back quite a bit. We didn’t need to be comatose, just tired enough to sleep.

And sleep we did. More than eight uninterrupted hours of bliss.