The Beautiful Ones
“Hush, my beauty, I won’t hurt you.” She screams louder, and the sound reverberates in my skull. It bounces around my brain and thuds against my eyes painfully. “Catherine!” I yell, and she whimpers, falling into silence. “Please, you know me.”
Tears stain her cheeks. Her lovely yellow Alexander McQueen dress, which I purchased her, is ripped at the bodice, and I’ll have to buy her another. I cluck my tongue. Besides, this one is tainted with the memory of her wearing it for another man.
Thunder rumbles low in the sky, and the crack of lightning strikes near the house, illuminating our room. Blood stains the wall and floor. My hair is disheveled, and my suit is wrinkled. However, I look a damn sight better than the man in the corner.
“Please, Viktor, don’t do this.” She whimpers.
“Do what?” I ask, holding my hands out by my sides. “What you’ve done? Ruined our relationship! I painted a perfect picture in my mind of us, Catherine. I brought to life every dream and aspiration you ever had, and you smashed it all! In minutes! I am so in love with you, my dove; why don’t you love me the same way?” I yell, and she shirks from me, holding her hands up. Fear crusts her eyes, and my stomach turns in disgust. I never want her to look at me like this. “No, no, my lamb. I would never lay a hand on you. You know that.” I croon softly, and Catherine turns her face from me. “Every touch from me to you is in love.” Anger creeps into my mind, scratching at the base of my skull. How could she think otherwise? “You know that, Catherine, say it.”
She sobs, sniffling her nose. “Please, Viktor, I’m scared.”
“Say it!” I’ll be hoarse by morning if I have to keep this up. “I’d disappear without you! I’d be nothing! A pile of ash and soot. A madman searching forever for my love!” Why doesn’t she understand me? Why is she playing so hard to get? She’s making me kill. She’s making me do this! “I have found you, and I will keep you! Say it!” Rushing over to her, I grab Catherine by the shoulders, forcing her to face me. “Fucking say it or so help me, Catherine.”
She wails, stammering out her words. “You only touch me in love.”
Silence falls around us like a curtain, and suddenly, my anxiety has gone from 20 to 9. I can breathe easier; the beast within me seems to secede for a moment as I envelop her body in my grasp and take a deep breath. Jasmine and Neroli. The scent of her skin and hair alone calms me; it soothes this lurking creature in my soul that aches when she is not near. There was no way she could let me go; she’d have to take me wherever she went! To the grave itself, and I’ll see us both there before I let anyone else have her.
The man moans in the background—his audacity to still be alive. Catherine stiffens in my arms, her fingers curl around the lapel of my jacket. “I need to finish something, dove.”
“No.” She scrambles towards him and away from me. “Viktor, listen to me. We are not together, and he-” She realizes her mistake. Hands flying to her mouth, the mascara stains around her eyes make them seem wider than they are.
“Oh, my dove.” His blood is still wet on my hands, and as I trail my forefinger from her cheek to her mouth, she knows exactly what I mean to do.
***
Paint a Perfect Picture
Neither of us was supposed to be on Tellman Avenue at 9:38 p.m. on Saturday, October 14, 2023. I was supposed to be at an Irish pub half a block up meeting some colleagues but decided against it. Something inside of me told me to take a walk. I never liked Jacob to start with, I always thought he was a pretentious, two-faced asshole, but Eric thought he was alright, and I said yes to coming. As I neared the doors, I swore I could hear the man’s obnoxious laughter before I entered, and my stomach rolled in nausea.
Not tonight.
My legs took me past the doors, and I pulled my coat around my neck and face as I walked into the darkness beyond the pub. I didn’t have a trajectory; I knew another bar was farther up. This one was much classier than the pub, where I could get a scotch and a cigar and ignore Eric’s phone calls.
I didn’t expect the dark-skinned beauty to walk across the street in red-bottomed heels. The bright red of her pea coat whipped about her legs along with her knee-length dress. She was on her phone. I suppose she didn’t see the truck coming from the alley to her right, either. Why his headlights were off was a mystery to me.
She laughed out loud at something someone said on the phone, and as she stepped down, she slipped on a patch of unseen ice. The truck roared as it accelerated, and I had a choice.
Leave her in the street.
Or.
Snatch her out of the way.
I’m well aware of the crimes Truck Senpai has committed, and there must have been a reason for me to walk this way and not turn around. I don’t think I thought about it. I knew I had two options, and I chose without really knowing why, and as the poet said, that made all the difference.
My left arm snatched around the woman’s middle; my right protected the back of her head as she screamed. The truck careened out of the alley and past us as we rolled on the cold, wet ground towards the sidewalk. Slamming onto my back, I held her close to me until the rumbling of the truck was heard far from us down the street.
We said nothing, but I was acutely aware of her knees snuggled into my sides, her dress hiked to her waist, and the press of her body on mine. I’d say it was the adrenaline rush that got me hard as a rock because when she shifted her body, she sucked in a breath. Her fingers gripped the lapel of my suit jacket to the point of stretching the seams as she stared into my eyes.
“Are you ok?” Spearmint breath rolled across my face.
“I should be asking you that; you were the one who almost got crushed.” My back screamed in pain, but her warmth kept me from feeling most of it. Tilting my hips to the right did nothing to put distance between us. “I apologize for that.” In the darkness, I don’t think she could see me blush; the heat from her nether region cradled the front of my pants in a blanket that I was dying to be inside of.
She chuckled, thankfully ignoring the bulge pressing against her. “I think we’re gonna need a chiropractor.”
She wasn’t prepared for my hands on her hips, holding her steady as I sat up. Her gasp and arms flying around my neck told me that, but when I stood up, cradling her ass in my hands, she narrowed her eyes and glared at me with something in between lust and confusion. “Good thing I know a great one.” I chuckle. “Should I give you his card?”
“After you put me down, don’t think I’m too rattled up not to know where your hands are.” She smirked and shimmied. “Please?”
It was torture to let her down, but as her feet touched the ground, she groaned. “My damn heel snapped. Can’t we find that guy and sue or something?”
I shrug and wipe off her dress. “My name is Viktor, by the way.”
“I am so sorry.” She covers her face. “I’m just so—” She shakes her hands before her face. “I’m sorry, Viktor. I’m Catherine.” She holds out a hand, and I take it, leading her under a street light to examine her clearly. It’s now that I can see her beauty.
Oval-shaped face, high cheekbones, round-doe eyes, and full lips with a slight cupid bow. Her dark curls are mussed slightly, and she attempts to fix her hair with one hand. “It’s wonderful to meet you, Catherine, though it would have been ideal under better circumstances.”
“You’re telling me, oh, my phone!” She steps forward, forgetting her heel is broken.
“It’s smashed.” I step in front of her. “Saw the truck go over it.”
She leans her head on my chest. “This night cannot get worse.”
“Allow me to make it better?” Her confident steps piqued me as she crossed the street. My attraction was solidified when she rolled on top of me and stared into my eyes.
My attraction to Catherine grew each moment I was in her presence, and I knew it wouldn’t stop. I was curious about her, and just like a cat, I wouldn’t be satisfied until I claimed every inch of her.
Catherine was now mine.
***
Bring to Life the Vision in One’s Mind
Her body is slick with sweat, and my hands graze over every plane and line of Catherine’s body. She moans under my touch, and I am happy with myself. It’s the fact that I am making her feel this way—this woman that I have yearned for since my eyes first fell upon her.
Catherine is bathed in moonlight, and her smooth, dark skin reflects the haze it casts upon her. She lies on my bed, arms slightly to the left and above her head, mouth open, lips wet from my kiss just moments before. Her face is turned into a pillow. Her body is bare, and her legs are open as my eyes drink in the essence of my beauty.
What started as a foot rub has turned into this escapade between us, and I will not play coy and say that I did not orchestrate this symphony. Dinner, a carriage ride, drinks, and back to my place. Why? I had a present for her, and in truth I did. It was this, which was also a present for me.
Her left leg is over my shoulder, and her right is bent at the knee, with her toes firmly planted on my sheets. A gold anklet with her initials, birthstone, and favorite animal, a crow, decorates her body now. She’s gripping the sheets with her toes, and a smile takes over the right side of my mouth. She’s comfortable, she trusts me, and it takes everything in me not to crawl over her body and plunge myself deep within her until she’s gripping me with her hands and her pussy.
But no. She has not asked me to pleasure her beyond using my fingers and mouth. So, I continue to swirl my index finger lazily around her clit, watching as Catherine’s chest rises and falls heavily. I trail my fingers up and down her slit, plunging two within her to watch her thighs clench and her mouth open wider.
Catherine groans. “More.” Biting on her lower lip, her hooded eyes gaze down at me in lust, and I nearly cream my pants because she has no idea what I’d do to keep her next to me. She has no idea what I’ve done, blood that stains my hands from wayward glances and would-be suitors.
“Ask me nicely.” My middle finger is thick, and I curl it inside of her, touching that spongey mass that makes her hiss and her hips arch. “Let me hear you say please, baby.”
“Viktor.” Catherine closes her eyes and reaches for the pillow behind her. “Make me feel good, please.”
Sitting forward, I climb onto the bed until my face is near the apex of her thighs. “Have you been a good girl?” I nip the skin of her thighs from behind her knee to where it meets her waist. “Have you been my good girl?” She hasn’t, and I know this. I know this, and my grip tightens on her.
“Yes.” The lie comes so easily from her mouth. I’ll have to rectify that. Catherine pushes her cunt towards my lips.
I lick my lips and brush past her lower ones. Catherine’s smell is musky and tantalizing. The way my nose is drawn to her slit is mesmerizing, and I drag the tip of it through her lips to bump against her pearl. Catherine moans loudly, her hands reaching down to grasp my hair; she pushes my face against her body and plants her feet on the bed. I rub my face against her pearl and relish in the husky tones that flow from her mouth.
“You’re mine, Catherine.” My arms curl around her thighs. “Remember that.” I open my mouth and plant my lips on her body. “I’d hate to have to remind you.”
She doesn’t hear me. My lips and tongue are swirling around and inside of her body. My teeth gently nip on her clit, and she squeaks in pain only to moan in pleasure when my tongue lavishes sweet attention on her whole body. She writhes, pines, and calls for me, and my heart soars with every call that erupts from her throat.
Catherine wants me. She needs me. I found her. I saved her life; therein, she is mine. Even now, as she pulls my hair and begs me for release, I give everything I have to her, just the way she needs it, at the exact moment she craves it.
Why?
Because I know what I want…Catherine, and my only job in this life is to please her.
***
The Beautiful Ones Always Smash the Picture
“You’re just…” Catherine falters. “I feel like you’re love-bombing me, Viktor.”
What the hell does that even mean? I stare at her doe eyes and fall deeper in love. Look at her. She’s the sum of all my wants and the epiphany of all my dreams. I see my future in this woman’s womb, and I want nothing more than to crawl into her skin and-
“Are you even listening to me?” She slams delicate hands on the table, making the silverware rattle gently. “Viktor, please.”
The black Tiffany Dupioni that graces her body is clinging tightly to her breasts, and my mind wanders. She hasn’t let me touch or see the delicate brown mounds of flesh she keeps hidden. Gods, she is beauty incarnate and all mine.
“Yes, my love?” I answer her finally, and Catherine rolls her umber brown eyes outlined in gold shimmer. “What is it? Let me fix whatever it is.”
“There is nothing to fix.” She says tightly between nude-painted lips. “Viktor, I don’t want to do this anymore.”
Something cracks within me upon hearing those words. I was a marble statue, and with her fateful utterance, a single hairline crack burst up my seams. My eyes waver, and my hands begin to shake. “Excuse me?” I can’t breathe, some disturbance in my brain overriding my every urge to burst into anger and a fit of sobbing. Her hair falls over her shoulder, catching my attention, and I zero in on the sound of my breaths to steady myself.
Catherine speaks slowly. “You’re love bombing me. The dresses, shoes, and purses. The flowers, cards, and trinkets. These fancy dinners, rides in your cars. It’s too much, and you keep calling me your love and your only.” She purses her lips. “I like you, Viktor, but we’ve only known each other for two months.”
“When a man knows, he knows!” I speak desperately. “I know how I feel and what I want with you, Catherine.” Reaching across the table, I scramble for her hand. It feels limp in mine. Her touch is cold. Is this a metaphor? “You have me in a chokehold. Trust me, there is nothing I wouldn’t do. No line I would not cross, no blood I wouldn’t spill to hear you say my name.”
She frowns, and ever so slowly, she pulls her hand from mine. Catherine sits back against the crushed garnet velvet of her high-backed chair and sighs. Her eyes are on mine, traveling over my face. I used to be very self-conscious. I didn’t think I was anyone to look at. No one ever stopped me in a fit of heated desire and asked me for my time.
I found attraction like no other in Catherine’s eyes, and in that moment, I clung to her like a sinner to a saint. I couldn’t not be parted from her divine light. Now, she crosses her arms over her chest and takes a deep breath.
“I can’t do this again, Viktor, and I’ve told you that.” The sound of her chair scraping on the floor grates my soul. The screech threatens to separate my sanity from my baser side, which I must keep in check. “Don’t contact me.”
I can’t follow her. I know that. She’ll scream at me. She’ll push me away, or worse. She won’t return, and I know I must give her time. I need to allow her to feel her emotions and understand them before she returns to my arms. So I sit and watch with watery eyes and fists clenched so tight that I can feel the pearls of blood pooling in my palm as she sashays out of the door.
***
Do You Want Him? Or Do You Want Me?
I rub my eyes and watch from my vantage point in my car as my Catherine goes on a date with another loser. Some man is probably asking what she’s bringing to the table because he can’t afford plates and cups—or showing off the fact that he has 50K in his account that’ll be gone in 3 months because he doesn’t have life goals and plans. My favorites are the ones who are dead broke assholes looking to score a woman with more than them to use and abuse and get out of their mother’s house for a few months.
I protect my girl from them all, but that doesn’t mean I don’t find the act utterly vexing. She doesn’t need those men. She needs me! Gripping the steering wheel a little too hard, the leather of my gloves and the steering wheel creaks enough to snap me back to reality. Catherine isn’t smiling anymore. Her mouth pinches around the corners when she’s annoyed with something. He’s said something to make her upset.
Her eyebrows are lower, her eyes narrow, and the fool sitting across from her is laughing, not noticing that her attention is gone and that this trash person no longer piques her interest.
Good.
She excuses herself and takes her purse. Will she leave him at the table and pay for her tab? Like last time? That was comical. My lady had no problem pretending to go to the bathroom. She paid her bill at the front and walked out the door to her car. I stuck around the restaurant long enough for the jerk to realize what happened. He called her several times that night before she blocked him, and it took a harsh word from me to make sure he got the point.
I might have to do the same thing tonight. Looks like it.
He’s finally noticed that she’s not laughing. His whole body language has changed. He’s challenging her, trying to intimidate her.
Catherine stands up and tilts her head to one side. She says something snarky enough that the man seems taken aback, and he lays his palms flat on the table. Catherine digs in her purse and lays money on the table before shouldering her bag and walking out.
Oh, baby. My dove. Don’t you realize these men aren’t good enough for you? You miss me! You want me! You’re searching for me in all of them and finding nothing!
No one!
You are searching for what I did; they cannot compare to me! I’m frustrated. She hasn’t answered any of my calls, ignored my texts, and even now, she leaves the flowers on her porch for days before bringing them inside. I don’t want to…pressure her. I don’t want to wake her while she’s sleeping and make her remember the way I made her body feel.
Or.
Could it be that is what she wants? She wants my tongue in between her nether lips only to cascade between her ass cheeks and circle her rosette. I love the taste of her; I miss her on my tongue. Smacking my lips together, I watch my goddess as she enters her vehicle and drives away carefully. As I followed her, I noticed that the man hurriedly left the restaurant and did the same. It doesn’t take much maneuvering to place my vehicle behind his; he’s following Catherine home.
Stupid of him. I have no problem getting out of my vehicle, and-oh, and this will be too good. If I save her again? She’ll be endeared to me like never before. Viktor…always coming through and being there at just the right moment. Viktor. The way she says my name makes my cock hard, just from a memory.
Catherine parks in her driveway, the man parks on the street, and I park farther down with a vantage point. She doesn’t notice him, which doesn’t surprise me. She didn’t see the truck! He exits his vehicle and jogs up the sidewalk as she nears her front door. She’s surprised by him but keeps her composure. Rolling down my window, I listen to what he has to say.
“I didn’t realize you were a little uptight over jokes. I apologize. Please, let me make it up to you.” The dark-haired man breathes heavily.
Catherine shakes her head. “No, seriously. The fact that you followed me home? I’m not interested anymore, Robert; go home.”
“Catherine.” He grabs her elbow, and my hand is on the car door, ready to leap out at the first sign of an altercation. “Please, I apologize.”
She wrenches her arm from him. “I heard you. Goodnight.”
When she enters her home, he doesn’t move. He stands a full 30 seconds outside of her door before returning to his vehicle. Then he does something stupid. Robert gets out of his vehicle with something in his hand—a knife. He approaches Catherine’s vehicle and slides the blade from her driver’s side door to her trunk before spitting on the car.
Stupid Robert. Touch my woman and make her upset? I was already going to rough you up.
Destroy her property? Do you know how much that’ll cost? The time it’ll take to fix it? Now? Now I have to hurt you.
Robert gets back into his vehicle, and I follow him home. I pull on my mask just as I make it to his shitty apartment on the other side of town. Right up the stairs to his third-floor apartment. Pulling on my gloves, I reach him just as he approaches his door. My hand wraps around his mouth, and I slam his face into the brick wall. Blood spurts forth and coats the red brick in a shade darker. Robert stumbles, and I snatch the key from the hand to open his door. Dragging the man inside, I lock the door behind me and stare at his confused face.
“What the hell are you doing?” He nearly screeches. “What do you want?”
I could be funny and say something like justice in a Batman voice, but no. “Stay away from Catherine,” I say slowly. “I’ll fix what you did, but when the police come looking for you, you will admit to what you’ve done tonight.”
“Fuck you!”
Wrong answer. Raising my foot, I slam it down on Robert’s shin and listen to the satisfying crunch of bone. His leg snaps under my boot, jutting away from his body, and I take a step back, watching as the man howls in pain. He reaches for his leg, which he can’t do. He’s in too much pain.
“You’ll admit to your crime, yes?” I ask again, and this time, he cries out and nods.
Squatting down, I cup my hand around my covered ear. “I’m sorry, was that a yes? I need verbal confirmation, Robert.”
“Yes! Fuck!” His hands clench his thigh, and he is too afraid to reach down and touch the white bone protruding from his leg. “Please, just stop.”
“Stop?” Standing back up, I crack my knuckles. “I’ve done nothing, Robert. You did this to yourself; surely you realize that.”
He groans and breathes heavily. Blood is beginning to pool under his leg, and I take a step back as it reaches me. “Over a bitch?”
Something about that word causes my eye to twitch. It causes a membrane to burst within me that I knew existed but ignored. Some may say that I grow attached to things and people too quickly. I can’t entirely agree. I’ve never been in love like this before. Infatuated? Sure, but those women were not my Catherine. Those women came to me. Catherine was the only one I found, the only one I saved, and that’s all that matters to me.
Robert’s blood is thick and coats my fingers. Pieces of his nose bone are lodged into my gloves, and I pull them out, dropping them on the ground. The teeth he has left are hanging loosely in his broken jaw, and the rest are on the floor. I was a gentleman and called him an ambulance so if they got there in time, they could save them. Possibly put them back into his skull, I don’t know.
What I do know is that he won’t say shit about my beauty ever again. He’s learned his lesson on that. Peeling my soaking gloves from my hands, I sigh heavily and toss them onto the passenger side floor of my Aston Martin. As the vehicle starts, I push a few buttons, and the call is answered on the first ring.
“4538 Lavello Street. There’s a vehicle in the driveway. Take it and junk the whole thing. Deliver a black Audi TT before 6 a.m., and I’ll send the details. Leave the packet on the front porch with a red rose.”
The voice on the line clucks his tongue. “Understood. Anything else?”
“No.” I hang up the phone and sit back in the comfort of my car before watching as the ambulance finally rolls into the complex with the sirens blaring. “Good, maybe he hasn’t choked on his blood yet.”
Cause I Want You
I would have thought that she understood after that night. When Catherine woke up the following day and looked down at the envelope and the Audi in her driveway, she backed inside and closed the door without taking anything.
I knew she’d call, and I knew my phone would ring. “Yes, my dove?” I purred into the line, and she breathed heavily in response.
“Viktor, where is my fucking car.” She’s huffing, and it only reminds me of how she sounded that night.
I can’t help but pull my hardening cock out of my pants and begin to stroke myself. “It’s in your driveway, my dove.”
She growls, and my hand moves faster. “I’m not fucking playing with you! Where is it!”
“Baby-”
“Stop calling me that.” She hisses. “Viktor, you’re driving me crazy! This is exactly what I meant. You’re smothering me. We aren’t together, and you’re still doing this. Why? Just leave me alone.”
The way she breathes into the phone is so erotic. Squeezing the tip of my cock produces a mass amount of precum, and I stifle my moan, leaning my head back on the car seat. “I miss you, Catherine. Please. You know no one else can do it for you like I do. You know no one else will ever compare to me.” Rubbing vigorously, my hardened shaft throbs in my hand, and I wish it were inside of her. I wish I could smell her, taste her. I might have to sneak in tonight. “In the short time we were together, I gave you everything.”
She sighs. “Viktor. Where is my car?”
My hand lowers to the base of my shaft, where I squeeze hard. “Driveway. You’re welcome. Can I come to see you?”
“For what?” She huffs, and the silence on the phone is filled with her breathing, enough to get me close. “You can see me to take this expensive ass vehicle away.”
“The insurance is paid for the next five years and in your name. The vehicle is paid off and in your name.” If she keeps breathing, huffing, and groaning into the receiver like this, I’m going to burst.
Catherine says nothing. She hums a bit, and it causes me to erupt all over my steering wheel. I can feel my orgasm building again when she speaks her following words. “Thank you, Viktor. I don’t know why you did this, but thank you.”
“May I see you?” I’m hopeful, but I know her answer, even though she says no. I’ll do what I want.
“I told you, no.” The phone line dies, and I shove my cock back into my slacks. Tonight it is, then.
***
One Thing Is For Certain, Baby. I Know What I Want.
I didn’t expect her to go on a date tonight, but I do know the man she’s with. He’s a co-worker. Three days after I met Catherine, I knew everything about her. Or very nearly everything.
This man, Tyler Antonio Stevens, is a co-worker of hers, and when I saw her texting him, I could tell by her flippant answers that she found him attractive. He rubbed me the wrong way when he sent all those stupid emojis. This was the man she told me was “just a co-worker.” Obviously not.
This hurts me more than the strangers. She’s with a man that she told me was nothing to her. She told me she looked at this man as a friend. When he gets to her door and hugs her with both arms wrapped around her waist, I know different. When he kisses her cheek and she smirks at him, the shy look in her eyes-I feel different.
The others were random.
They were not men who knew where she lived.
They were not men with whom she shared workspace.
The others were not men that she smiled at like this. Like she once smiled at me.
This? This I cannot bear.
So, as Tyler takes her on the date, I am cautious to watch what he does. I pay attention to what he says and how he acts. How many times has she smiled at him?
Full-on smiles? Thirty-seven.
Grins? Twenty-one
Smirks? Eighteen.
My breath catches in my throat, and I feel my anger pooling low in my gut. It takes everything in me, absolutely everything, not to jump out of my car, march into the restaurant, and start beating his face into the edge of the table until his brain matter spills onto a plate. It’s beginning to rain, thunder rolls across the sky, and he doesn’t even open an umbrella for her! He holds his arm above her head as they run to his SUV.
They head back to her house, and why does Catherine invite him inside? The living room lights don’t turn on, and I panic getting out of the car. Why aren’t the lights turning on? The stair light illuminates, and I’m at the front door, opening it softly. There are no sounds, but I can hear soft moaning.
My heart vibrates in my chest so hard and so fast that I’m nearly blind with grief and rage as I follow them up the stairs. She doesn’t notice me. Neither of them do.
I’ve done everything I knew to do. Why?
I’ve done everything for her; there’s no bridge in this world I wouldn’t crawl across with glass shards in my knees for her. But now, as I stand at the precipice of this shattered heart, the tears I’ve held back feel like an endless river flowing through the canyon of my soul. Her absence echoes in every corner of my life like a haunting refrain that refuses to fade. Each day, I am a mariner adrift in a stormy sea of memories, unable to navigate the treacherous waters of my heartbreak. Once so vibrant and full of promise, the world has turned gray and lifeless in her absence.
Her arms are around his neck, and they stumble into the bedroom. He cups Catherine’s ass, and the room remains dark. I can hear them; I can nearly smell her arousal. I lean against the doorframe as they fall onto the bed. There’s a ripping sound, and I find myself replaying the moments we shared, like a broken record spinning the same sad tune. I can hear his slacks unzipping, and that’s when I lose all sense of self. Reaching for my dagger, I quietly enter the dark room and pull Tyler off Catherine.
He cries out in shock, and there’s a sense of satisfaction and relief when my knife finds its home in his shoulder. He’s facing me, and I keep one hand around his throat. I can feel the blade slide under his skin and scratch against the bone of his scapula. He cries out, and Catherine scrambles across the room, turning on a large lamp in the corner near the window.
“Viktor!” She screams, two hands on her mouth as she watches me pull the blade from Tyler’s shoulder and jam it into his hip. His blood flicks against the wall, red and vibrant against the cream surface. I want him alive -for now. “Viktor! Please!” Tears cascade down her cheeks. For what? Him?
Flinging Tyler to the ground, I wipe the blade on my pants leg and stare at her in shock. “I love you, Catherine. You know that.” Tyler lays still, and my eyes briefly find him before returning to her. “Don’t you understand that?”
“Leave him alone.” She sits on the bed, hands clasped in front of her chest.
“Answer me!” I don’t mean to yell, but she erupts into tears, and I must let this energy go somewhere.
Kicking her door leaves a hole in it. I rip pictures off the wall and knock over her alarm clock and nightstand. Catherine sniffles and watches in pure terror. Then I walk towards her, and she scrambles towards the headboard, choking on her wails. My hand grabs her ankle and-
“Hush, my beauty, I won’t hurt you.” She screams louder, and the sound reverberates in my skull. It bounces around in my brain and thuds against my eyes painfully. “Catherine!” I yell, and she whimpers, falling into silence. “Please, you know me.”
Tears stain her cheeks, and her lovely yellow Alexander McQueen dress, which I purchased, is ripped at the bodice. I cluck my tongue. I’ll have to buy her another. Besides, this one is tainted with the memory that she wore it for another man.
Thunder rumbles low in the sky, and the crack of lightning strikes near the house, illuminating our room. Blood stains the wall and floor. My hair is disheveled, and my suit is wrinkled. However, I look a damn sight better than the man in the corner.
“Please, Viktor, don’t do this.” She whimpers.
“Do what?” I ask, holding my hands out by my sides. “What you’ve done? You’ve ruined our relationship! I painted a perfect picture in my mind of us, Catherine. I brought to life every dream and aspiration you ever had, and you smashed it all! In minutes! I am so in love with you, my dove. Why don’t you love me the same way?” I yell, and she shirks from me, holding her hands up. Fear crusts her eyes, making my stomach turn in disgust. I never want her to look at me like this. “No, no, my lamb. I would never lay a hand on you. You know that.” I croon softly, and Catherine turns her face from me. “Every touch from me to you is in love.” Anger creeps into my mind, scratching at the base of my skull. How could she think otherwise? “You know that, Catherine, say it.”
She sobs, sniffling her nose. “Please, Viktor, I’m scared.”
“Say it!” I’ll be hoarse by morning if I have to keep this up. “I’d disappear without you! I’d be nothing! A pile of ash and soot. A madman searching forever for my love!” Why doesn’t she understand me? Why is she playing so hard to get? She’s making me kill. She’s making me do this! “I have found you, and I will keep you! Say it!” Rushing over to her, I grab Catherine by the shoulders, forcing her to face me. “Fucking say it or so help me, Catherine.”
She wails, stammering out her words. “You only touch me in love.”
Silence falls around us like a curtain, and suddenly, my anxiety has gone from 20 to 9. I can breathe easier. The beast within me seems to secede for a moment as I envelop her body in my grasp and take a deep breath. Jasmine and Neroli. The scent of her skin and hair alone calms me; it soothes this lurking creature in my soul that aches when she is not near. There is no way that she could let me go. She’d have to take me wherever she went to the grave itself, and I’ll see us both there before I let anyone else have her.
Tyler moans in the background—his audacity to still be alive. Catherine stiffens in my arms, her fingers curl around the lapel of my jacket. “I need to finish something, dove.”
“No.” She scrambles towards him and away from me. “Viktor, listen to me. We are not together, and he-” She realizes her mistake. Hands flying to her mouth, the mascara stains on her eyes make them seem wider than they are.
“Oh, my dove.” His blood is still wet on my fingers, and as I trail my forefinger from her cheek to her mouth, she knows exactly what I mean to do.
***
Just To Please You, Baby
Tyler is tied to a chair now. He groans and lolls his head from one side to another. I’ve made Catherine remove that dress. She sits in a lovely oversized shirt in the middle of her bed.
How did we end up here?
Tyler’s blood is smeared across my forehead and cheeks from his fruitless struggle against me as I placed him in the chair.
“I painted a perfect picture of us, Catherine.” Shaking my head, I stand behind Tyler and tap the flat of the blade against the top of his head. “The beautiful ones.” I point the tip of the blade at her and smirk. “It’s the beautiful ones who smash the picture.” Anger is taking hold of me once more. “Always!” I bark, and she flinches. “Every time!”
Catherine swallows hard, holding up her hands. “Let’s talk. Let Tyler go, and we can-”
“Stop!” I scream, slicing his cheek with the blade. “Stop saying his name!”
“Yes!” Catherine sniffles. “Alright.”
“What has he done for you? I don’t understand. How could you choose him over me?” Madness is being on the edge of reality, teetering between the known and the unknown, where the boundaries of sanity blur and the mind’s abyss stretches. It’s both terrifying and alluring.
“I didn’t.” She chokes out.
There’s only one thing left to do here. One thing, and I won’t have her saying something silly. Either way, it doesn’t matter what she says. She’s going to do what I say now.
“I’m going to ask you a question, Catherine, and I want you to be very honest with me.” Standing on Tyler’s left side, the man clenches his arms against the extension cord wrapped around him. “Can you be honest, baby?”
“I can.” Her eyes dart from Tyler to me. “I will be.”
“You’ll be my good girl?” Another slash on Tyler’s cheek makes her close her eyes. “Notice I said, my good girl. Me! All mine!”
She nods, and a tear hits the surface of her peach-colored duvet.
“Do you want him, or do you want me?”
The silence stretches in the room for an eternity between Catherine and I. The weight of unspoken words hangs heavy in the air, filling the space with a palpable tension that neither of us can bear to break. It’s as if time has slowed, each passing moment intensifying the unspoken emotions that have driven this chasm between us.
“I want you.” She squeaks out.
I know. She thought I’d spare him if she said that, but I don’t take chances. The cold steel of the knife in my hand sent shivers up my arm as I plunged it into his stomach. Tyler yells, and his eyes meet mine for a brief moment. His were wide with shock and pain, and mine... mine were as lifeless as the abyss itself. It wasn’t a choice; it was a matter of love. I had to protect what was mine, even if it meant extinguishing the spark of life in another. Catherine’s screams fall on deaf ears. I want to have her to myself, and I will. Pulling the blade to one side, Tyler’s mouth drops open, and I feel the tension behind the knife as I cut through muscle and his intestine.
I leave Tyler where he sits. Bleeding, gasping, and shaking as the lights in his eyes slowly begin to dim. The guttural sound of his last breath escaping him fades into a chilling void.
Catherine stares in abject horror. She doesn’t fight me when I lift her body from the bed. She hardly moves when I toss her over my shoulder and carry her down the stairs. She doesn’t say a word when I buckle her into the passenger seat and engage the child safety lock on her door.
I wanted to have her to myself. She was mine and always would be. I’d make sure of that.
Catherine was now mine.
