8. And That was That

The human vocal chords are so weird.  You have these little strings of human tissue and when air blows through them, it makes noise.  As humans, we learn to control these noises into sounds and eventually into words.  People who have accents, speech impediments, cool voices, or annoying voices, all have the same little chords.  How cool is that?  I’m pretty sure I tore mine apart by screaming when I saw Simon.

With rage pumping through my veins like adrenaline, I ripped my left arm free by breaking the bed post.  The belt and post swung around and blasted Candice in the face.  I loosened my right arm and feet and then jumped on Candice.  I only had one arm to fight with but I made the most out of it.  I bashed in her face as hard as I could, screaming like a feral cat.  Since she’s stronger and tougher than I am, she pulled me to the ground, got on top of me and squeezed the rotting tissue around my right forearm.  This hurt like hell and it stopped me.

“What are you doing?  I did you a favor,” she yelled.  Through tears and pain I screamed back, “How could you kill him?  Why did you do that?”  Candice looked completely frustrated and held back the urge to knock me out again, “He was a cheating pig and now you can eat him without hurting yourself.”  “I’m not a cannibal, you dumb bitch!” I said.  “Then what the fuck is wrong with you?” she asked.  Good question.

I’m sure this could have gone on for a while, but something much more important interrupted us . . . the doorbell.  The sound of that simple bell silenced us like two kids hearing their parents coming up the stairs.  “You stay here,” Candice said as she got up.  “No, I’ll answer it,” I responded.  Candice shoved me to the bed and said, “Look at you.  You look like a monster.  I’ll handle this.”  She walked to the door as I inspected myself.  I did look like a monster.  I looked like a gutted turkey after Thanksgiving.  I used to be so pretty.  What happened?

I heard the door crack open and then the sound of trouble, “Oh hello.  Where’s Novi?” Eesha asked in her sweet voice.  I limped to the hallway to make sure Candice wasn’t going to mess anything up.  “She’s not here right now, thanks.”  Candice said as she tried to shut the door.  She obviously doesn’t know Eesha won’t give up that easily.  The landlady stuck her foot in between the door and the doorway forcing it to stay open.  “I heard a very bad scream,” Eesha said, “Where’s Novi?”  That old bitch was still looking out for me.  

“I’m here Eesha and I’m fine, thanks.”  I said, my voice still shaken from everything.  “Novi, is that you?” she asked.  “Yeah, she’s fine lady.  Please leave now.” Candice shoved the door on Eesha’s foot causing her to cry out.  “What is going on?” she demanded. “I’m calling the police.”  She turned, but I jumped out from the hallway, “No Eesha, it’s fine really.”  I called after her.  She looked back at me, and that was that.

She ran into the room, shoved Candice out of the way and embraced me.  “Oh my, Novi!  What has happened to you?  What has this person done to you?  We must get you to a hospital.”  I didn’t notice Candice lock the door as Eesha basically carried me into the bedroom.  She was trying to rest me on my bed but tripped over Simon.  This caused both of us to take a pretty heavy spill on the ground and she landed awkwardly twisting her knee and with her mouth covering Simon’s bullet hole.  Obviously, she screamed her lungs out, started crying hysterically, and got up to run.  She had enough with helping me and was now looking out for herself.  But it didn’t do much good. 

Candice stood in the doorway, calmly.  As Eesha started screaming and turned to run, Candice lifted her gun and shot Eesha four times in the chest.  Candice didn’t flinch, pause or grimace.  She just squeezed the trigger four times like she was aiming at paper.  Eesha landed on the floor with a thud.  Her eyes were the size of golf balls.  Blood trickled out of her mouth as if the hand of a giant was squeezing her stomach. 

I was starting to get tired of screaming.  And now that I had eaten half of my body, my lover was dead, and my land lady laid beside him, I started to understand that things weren’t going to be ok.  I looked up to Candice with tears in my eyes.  What I saw was the barrel of a gun staring back.