Vengeful Bitch

He never knew what hit him.

Not until I came along.

But really, I knocked him off his feet… spun his head around and loved him right. 

He enjoyed me for me… and I loved him from the bottom of my soul to the end of time.

That was until he cheated on me with another woman and thought I’d never know.

I did.

He smelled different.

He acted different.

He treated me … different.

Okay, it was the same, but still I noticed the small things about him that only a girlfriend would notice when her man has done something wrong… and he hopes she never picks up on it.

But I did, and what I was going to do about it was going to make him pay.

I planned a surprise for him on our first year anniversary.  I can cook gourmet… and I mean, really gourmet.  So, I tracked down his other favourite red meat… and she was still nice, fresh and on the run.  It didn’t take much to take it down.  And the police report said it was an animal attack.

One of my other friends – who is like me – helped me get rid of the dregs that I couldn’t use.  He’s a butcher; in every sense of the word, and he was more than happy to take the rest of the stuff I couldn’t use off my hands at a price. 

Hey, okay, I maxed out my credit card… but this was worth it.

Then, he arrived home and I was dressed in my sexiest lingerie with the whip and handcuffs at the ready.  He dropped his briefcase and took up the large glass of scotch I had ready in my leather-gloved hand.

“Oh, baby!”  he grinned, “I thought you had forgotten.”

“No.” I smiled, “Come here, Loverboy.”

He put his filthy mitts all over me and I almost snapped his neck right there; but then, my surprise would have been wreck.  I had to play this out properly. 

We ate dinner… well, he attacked the wonderfully hot meal I had created.  I told him I had eaten earlier (which I had… the heart her was tasty) before I put a small amount of downer in his drink and he guzzled that down.  He hit the floor harder than I expected.

The glutton.

His eyes opened to me tying him to the bedposts with my scarves.  He was naked, so was I.  He loved it when I took control like this; and I could see he was being turned on about this.  And let’s face it, I loved being in control as much as he loved me taking it.

I pulled out the body paint with some of her blood mixed into it… and the sheer smell of it make my mouth water.  I grabbed a paintbrush and smoothed some of it onto his body as he sighed watching me lick it off.  His cock twitched and moved as I placed the container on the bedside table with some of the bloody chocolate dripping down the side; my hand enclosing his sex and playing with it… he was really getting into it.

“Honey…”

“Yeah…” he groaned, his head lost in the pillows as my playing became a little rougher, and he squirmed on the bedding.

“I hope you enjoyed your meal tonight.”

“Yeah, I did.” He smiled, “Delicious.”

“Good.  Glad you enjoyed her… fully.”

“What?” his head snapped up, his eyes looked at me.  He had learned to take careful note of what I said and how I said things, “Her?”

I let go of his manhood and straddled him so he was forced to look at me.  I rested my hands on his chest, “Yes, her.”

“What did you do?”

“Nothing.” A smile crept onto my face.  I observed him as he began to freak out; as he figured out that I knew about his affair, “But sweetheart, I know about her.”

Guilt flickered across his face, “And you have had her for the very last time tonight.”

“No I didn’t… I’ve been here with…” then the penny dropped.  I almost heard it hit the bottom of the very empty skull of his as his mind ticked over and he whimpered, “Oh shit, you didn’t.”

“Oh, but I did.” I nodded, “And now, you will never see her again.”
He turned an unhealthy colour, as though he was going to be sick before he be pulling against his ties, “You’re psychotic!”

“You’re unfaithful.”

“But how did you know?”

I locked eyes with him, letting him see what most men don’t, “I’m not completely human.”

For a long minute, he simply just stared into my eyes.  They were a lovely colour of green one moment, then turned a bright amber the next, “I’m part human, part wolf.  So, when you came home all freshly showered saying you had been to a new gym to try it out, I could still smell her perfume on you.”  I blinked and my eyes went back to green, “But then, I knew you had her every week – every night – you said you were working late.”

“What are you going to do with me?”

“Well, you know I killed her.  So, I can’t let you live.” I regarded him, “And you usually let me go to my mother’s house on a full moon.”

“Oh shit…” his eyes scanned the darkened room helplessly as I heard his heart rate increase.  Oh!  The excitement of your prey panicking… trying to find a way out when there is none is just hilarious when you’re the one who is tracking them down.

“Yes, oh shit.”

He started shaking… I love this part… but he had yet to see me change from human into wolf.  This part isn’t pretty, and I usually don’t let anyone see it, but tonight is special; and I was hoping to let him and his terror take on another shade – namely red – the same shade as my anger towards him.

The wolf inside me howled, breaking through my feeble human exterior.  I let it through happily this time.  I wanted to let it through to take over what I couldn’t do.  The last thing I remember before it turned out my lights was the look of horror on his face as the wolf ripped out his still-beating heart.

The early morning sun beat red through my eyelids as I heard sirens in the distance.  I opened them to be greeted by my friend who had found me in bushland behind my house with a suitcase.  He put it on the ground, opened it and quietly helped me clean up, get dressed and finally held me close as I started to cry.

“Did I do the right thing?” I sobbed.

“Yes.” He said, “Sara, I would have done the exact same thing if the person I devoted my life to had cheated on me… that the thing with us, we must find loyal partners; otherwise it doesn’t work.  And for you it didn’t work.”

The sirens were closer now.

“It’s time to go.” I stood, taking a deep breath in the chilly air.  But I wasn’t sure where I was going.

He gave me a set of car keys, “Here, take my car.”

“I couldn’t.”

“I have another with my wife in it.  She knows what happened and told me to help you.” He pushed the keys into my hand, “But, please just stick to animal hearts okay?”

“Well, until the next dickhead breaks mine again.”

He smiled, “Yeah.  That was fun.”

The White Lady

Chuck gave us cocktails to work off.  Our title was a cocktail and we based our flash fiction on it.  Mine?  The White Lady... pretty cool.  I've never drunk it as I don't drink alcohol... but ooohhh... it's getting late and my imagination is working overtime.

The cell was crowded, but she was there standing outside the bars looking at me smiling… and it was all her fault.

I hated her for what she made me do at the bar.

Out in the car park…

…oh, God, to that cop…

Tears blurred my vision as I looked down again whispering, “Shit.”

The problem was that nobody believed me about her… they said there was nobody of her description near me when I exploded into that white hot rage she caused when she was nearby.

And glancing around, I’d say a few of these guys in the drunk tank have seen their fair share of their own pink elephants, green imps and crap-arse nymphs flippin’ them the bird from a tree branch in their time.  But for me, it was the White Lady who got me in trouble each and every time… and I mean the drink and that bitch over there.

Now, let me start from the beginning… okay?

My mates and me were going out on the town to enjoy our evening.  We hit a few clubs and sunk a few brews before we decided to have a couple of cocktails with some ladies… they were sweet, sexy and dressed to rock-and-or-roll!  You know that type, one or two were teases, there was always one dressed like a dude who was normally the leader of the pack (and kept her head above water, even if she did get a few into her), and then there were the ones who looked like they just got out of control no matter what the leader did to help them.  But they were all in for a great time.

The great time turned nasty very quickly; and thanks to the leader of the ladies pack, they split in time for me to lose it.  How that happened was that they started ordering cocktails… you know the types:  very strong ones… Flaming Lamborghinis, Sex on the Beach and Hurricane’s Winter (yeah that last one was a new one I’ve never heard of, but it kicked arse!).  Then, one of them ordered everyone The White Lady… well, we were all off our faces enough from the strong ones, but when this last one hit us, it hit us bad – or good, it depends on how it affected each of us. 

Some of the girls were crook as hell.  The leader was violent and picked a fight with me, which she won, but got put into the ladies’s lockup for the night.  But I heard her talking about the white lady telling her to do all that shit… now, I hadn’t drunk my White Lady cocktail when she was blathering about this.  And when I did, my whole world turned upside down.

One minute it was great, the next?  Well, I found myself on the ground with two cops sitting on me and cuffing me, telling me my rights and that bitch dressed in white smirking at me from inside the paddy wagon… she chatted to me all the way to the station; whispering into my ear.  I did my best to ignore her and ended up pushing my face into the corner crying because she just wouldn’t shut the fuck up!

Now, I’m here, she standing there staring me down. 

Her voice is going around and around in my head.

And that bloody smirk is really getting on my nerves!  But I am trying to stay calm… I won’t break… I swear.

Daybreak.

I feel like hell.

But the white lady isn’t around anymore… damn.  It was the drink that caused my problems.

How the hell am I going to convince the court about this?

My folks bail me out and I’m taken home.

Mum and Dad sit me down and talk to me… asking me what the hell went wrong and I tell them what I remember, but they exchange a look that only means that there’s more to this story.

“Sweetie, your friends are dead.” Mum said.

Dad frowns, “You went into a rage and killed them.”

“What?”

They can tell I honestly don’t know what they’re talking about.

My court date has arrived.  I’m fumbling with my tie… and Dad fixes it for me.  It’s the middle of Winter and I’m sweating like a pig.

“I’m scared out of my mind.”

He stops fixing it and looks me in the eye, and I know he’s scared too, “Yeah, same here.”

Mum calls from the living room, “It’s time to go.”

Man, I looked and sounded like a mad man in court that day.  The judge gave me a withering look for the whole time I spoke; but he seemed to listen to my side of the story as my friends’ parents glared at me from across the peanut gallery. 

I had one problem in that courtroom that day… the white lady was sitting in the far back corner.  And when the lawyer asked me if I saw the person who provoked me in the room that day, I said yes and pointed her out.

But nobody saw her, and so it wasn’t recorded legally.

I’m sitting in the day room of the institution writing this out in a diary; just as the shrink has asked me to.  She told me that they’ve seen so many people pass through here due to that new cocktail who have lost so many friends to what it does to them. 

The white lady is in here too… her voice is in my head all the time.

She in my dreams…

The white lady won’t leave me alone… and my shrink knows it.   

It really makes you wonder…

Exactly how many people are in here who can see the white lady?  And…

…is she sitting across from them now, as she is sitting with me now, whispering always in my ear… to always … do … bad.

The Terrarium Phoenix

It started with a large, empty terrarium.  It was found at my late Uncle’s house, in his garden I believe, and everyone in the family wanted it for their own wants and needs.

One cousin said it would look great with her collection of rubber bands and paper clips.

Another cousin said it would look great filled with coloured stones sitting on a coffee table.

My Aunty wanted to do it up as it used to be… but she never found the time or space in her home to have it sitting in the right place without her ex-husband walking around acting like a bull in a china shop (and I mean he actually would knock it over just to piss her off).

Then my folks took it home.  It sat at the bottom of their back steps for over two years, all grubby, all dirty, filled with bird shit with the original cork sitting sideways in it… it was obvious they weren’t going to use it anytime soon.  So, my brother and his girlfriend offered to take it home; but never did. 

Me?  I kept walking by it saying it would look great in my home – seeing I had a 1970’s vibe going, and this terrarium would pull it all together – but my folks said my brother wanted it. 

So, I left it alone… and kept on looking at it every time I walked past it when I visited.

Then, the day came!  Mum and Dad offered it to me.  They said my brother didn’t want it anymore, and I had the damned thing in my car faster than you could fart!

Well, once I got it home, I put it on the coffee table, and it lived there for two weeks!

Two weeks!

Before I got my arse into gear and did some serious research on just what made a terrarium work its jungle magic in that special way where I put it together and it took care of itself… and you know, it didn’t take me long to find a place around Brisbane where they fitted terrariums.  And just last week, I was off in my Little Green Machine (aka: my car) to the other side of town using the GPS to find the place and get the cork for it.  It was fantastic!  I met the lady, also had a terrarium, and she showed me hers; which was heading towards 40 years old and it still had the same plants in it that she had put into it all those years ago.  How cool is that?

Well, that afternoon, I was off to Bunnings (a huge gardening store here) and I found all the elements that were going to make my empty, sad-looking terrarium live again.

When I got home, I unpacked the car, washed out the terrarium with dishwashing liquid and wiped it out.  Then, following the instructions I wrote out from the net, I put in the gorgeous stones I had bought, put in charcoal, sphagnum moss and then the potting mix! 

What a mess I made!  But it was so much fun!

The plants were next… and they were gorgeous little leafy things and looked like plastic, but I love putting them in.  And then?  It was time to decorate.  I found the stuff I had bought for the fishies when I had them last year or so, scrubbed them with a toothbrush until the colour was back on them, and rinsed them off.  Then, I found some shells, stones and a large shell I had bought down the coast at Brunswick Heads.  I spent around two hours working and working how everything was going to look before getting the spray bottle and misting it all to start the process of being its own ecosystem. 

I couldn’t stop looking at it last night.  I had put in a shipwreck inside the bottle and the whole thing looks like it’s in its own little world. 

But I have found I have brought the bottle back to life in a way… it was a live way back in the 1960’s and 1970’s in my Uncle Allan’s time, it died when he put it outside into his garden and had been lying dormant for all this time…

Lying there waiting for somebody to help it,

… assist it …

…bring it back to life, just as a Phoenix never dies, neither does a terrarium.  It may lay dormant, but it doesn’t really die.