THE WORST OF LOVE  CONTESTANT

Her face was cold.  Again.  It was always cold. 

Cold since he found out about the other guy in her life.  The truth was, no matter how painful it was to accept, the other guy was better for her.  He could provide more, he could accomplish more, he could give her more, but one thing the other guy couldn’t do better was love her.

Nobody loved Scarlet like Drake did.

“Why is your face cold?” he asked her.

She blinked.

“Please, just talk to me,” Drake said reaching out to grab her hand.

Scarlet didn’t return the gesture.

“Do you love him?”

Scarlet lowered her eyes.  She always did this when she was guilty. 

“You know, it’s kind of funny how you would get mad at me for never bringing flowers or getting out of work early to come see you.  Then the one day I do. . .”

“Please, stop,” Scarlet said.  “Please.  There’s nothing I can say to make this right.”

“Just tell me you don’t love him.  Tell me you love me.  Tell me you want to be with me forever.  Tell me.”

Scarlet was quiet again.

Drake leaned forward and hugged Scarlet.  He nuzzled his nose against her cold cheek.

“Please,” he whispered in her ear, “please just tell me.  We don’t have much time.”

“That’s your fault, not mine.”

“Love knows no emotion.  It never has and never will.  Don’t you get that?”

“I love him Drake, I do.  He’s good for me.”

“And me?”

“I love you too.  But you’re not good for me.”

Scarlet looked away.  She never made eye contact.  That was how Drake knew she was telling the truth.  She could stare him down and lie but an ounce of truth comes out and she looks away.

“He’s not so good now, is he?” Drake said with a smile.

“That’s not fair,” Scarlet said. 

She was beginning to sob. 

“I didn’t mean to kill him.  You know that, don’t you?”

Scarlet shook her head.

Drake dropped to his knees.

“If I just knew before hand, that’s all.  I saw a man on top of you.  I didn’t know what was happening.  I thought he was hurting you.  Then I. . . I. . just please. . .”

“It’s okay,” Scarlet said with a smile.  “We don’t have much time.”

Drake knew he only had a minute or so before Scarlet would have to leave.

“Just please,” he begged, “please, just kiss me.”

“Drake, I can’t,” Scarlet replied.

“Please.”

“Love knows no emotion, huh?” Scarlet asked looking away.

“None.  I’m crazy.  For you.  Please.  Just one kiss.”

Scarlet looked at Drake and he leaned in.  Even her lips were cold.  He held her face in his hands and kiss her.  He wished to go back and not mess things up.  He wished he could be with her in bed again, where it was warm.

“I love you,” he whispered into her mouth between kisses.

“I love you too,” Scarlet said.

There was a loud knock at the metal door.  It echoed through the small room.

“Hey, knock it off!” a guard yelled.  The guard turned around and laughed with another guard.  “He’s licking the wall again!”

Drake froze.  He looked behind him and then straightened his shoulders. 

Drake reached out and grabbed with one hand the rotting set of eyeballs he had placed on the window sill in his cell.  He was scared because the odor and mush of the eyes meant Scarlet was almost completely gone forever.  He wanted more time with her. . . he needed to know she had forgiven him and loved him.  He kissed the gooey eyes and whispered, “love knows no emotion” one more time before hiding them under his pillow.

 

©2009 Jim Wisneski
 
Jim Wisneski lives in Pennsylvania where he thinks, writes, and thinks.  Follow him and his many ongoing writing, poetry, and music projects through his blog at www.WritersnWriters.blogspot.com.

It was what felt like the worst day of Jack Hamilton’s life.  That was until he stumbled up to his front porch and found another dead body lying there.  This time, it really pissed him off.

“Another one?” he whispered under his breath.

He swallowed hard, still tasting the sting of whiskey.  Jack kept a bottle of cheap whiskey under the seat of his truck.  It was convenient; and it complemented his new found drinking habit.

The dead body didn’t piss him off, it was the fact that it was still daylight out.  What if a kid saw this mess?  Or a cop?  How do you explain to a cop that a demon lives under your house and has a compulsion to mangle people?  Top that off with sour whiskey breath and Jack could find himself spending a lot of time in jail.

And then the bodies would really pile up.

Jack hurried and opened the door to the house.  He grabbed the mangled remains of what used to be a persons hand and pulled it into the house.  Just as the tips of the toes crossed the doorframe, the door slammed shut.

The house smelled of dust and mold.  Half the lights didn’t work and Jack never had to urge to change them.  He wasn’t sure how electricity and running water was available to the house as it wasn’t Jack’s house.

It was the demon’s house.  And it was all part of the deal.

A while back, actually it was winter, Jack found himself almost frozen to death on a park bench in the middle of January.  He decided just before what could have been his last breath to walk.  Coming down an empty sidewalk he heard a voice.  But the voice wasn’t outside but rather in his mind.  A minute later he was inside the house.  The demon that seemed to overtake his mind explained what Jack called “the rules”.

Jack could live in the house as long as he cleaned up the bodies that demon consumed.  It sounds a little crazy, but Jack would have died that night if it weren’t for the demon.

Jack’s job was to take the remains and bury them in the basement.  It was a dirt floor basement and each time Jack placed a body there, it disappeared.  He assumed that the demon killed the victim and left it on the front step like a cat does with a bird.  Once buried, Jack would go upstairs to sleep.  The investment in whiskey was needed after the first time he heard the demon eat the body.

The whiskey also kept the demon at bay inside Jack’s mind.  Outside the house, Jack was free.  But at the start of the sidewalk that led to the house, the demon entered his mind.  Most of the time, the demon was quiet.  It was the notion of the demon being there that bothered Jack.

Jack stumbled away from the body and walked into the kitchen.  He tore open a cabinet and found a fresh bottle of whiskey.  Over the passing months, he learned how to open the bottle using one hand.  His thumb would twist of the cap and clank to the floor.

“It’s still light out,” he murmured.  “You’re gonna get me in big trouble.”

The demon spoke.  It wasn’t an evil sound as one might expect.  It wasn’t high pitched either.  It was just a voice.

“I feed when I feed.”

The voice began repeating itself.  The demon often did this.  Jack began to drink the whiskey heavily.  The pain of his throat burning wasn’t nearly as bad as the demon repeating the line over and over.  Each time the demon said it, Jack swore he could feel the demon moving around his body.  One time, he felt his heart beat in unison with the words.  The next, he legs shook with the words.

A minute later, the bottle was empty and the voice was gone.  Jack smiled and threw the bottle against the wall.  Glass shattered atop of the fresh corpse.  He turned back to face the kitchen and slid on a small puddle of whiskey and spit that had formed under him.  Tired and drunk, Jack fell to floor.  His head hit the counter on the way down and it knocked him out cold.

Jack regained consciousness in darkness.  He was no longer in the kitchen, but in bed.

The body, he thought.  I didn’t finish the job.

“I need to feed.”

Jack blinked and slowly the demon formed around him.  Small hands stuck of out the apparition and red eyes glowed at Jack.  A mouth of fangs somehow glistened even though there wasn’t any light.  Each fang got longer and sharper as the demon’s mouth opened.  Jack closed his eyes, preparing for the worst.

He hadn’t followed the rules.

When Jack opened his eyes again, the demon was gone.  It was still dark and he wasn’t in bed anymore.  He was on a hard surface.  He felt cold.  Just as he was about to turn his head, he felt something grab his legs.  Slowly he was pulled into his own house.  Jack tried to scream.  He tried to kick.  But he couldn’t.  He shifted his eyes down and saw that his body was mangled almost into pieces.  He wasn’t sure how much time had passed since he was in bed.

“Another body?” he heard a voice say.

Jack moved his eyes up and saw a man hovering over him as was guided step by step down into the basement.

Once the dirt covered Jack’s face everything became dark for good as the demon rustled up from underneath him and came out to feed.
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©2009 Jim Wisneski