Forcing the words over her lips that she knew would silence the monster, Alice asked a question that cut her deeply because of the life that would be lost as a result.
“Have you…” She paused, barely able to speak the horrid thoughts rushing through her head. “Have you found another woman, Max? You’re scaring me right now.”
“I have,” was his curt response.
Nodding her head, Alice pushed what was left of her food around on her plate. “That’s good.” It was all she could manage in response.
After finishing their meals and washing the dishes by hand, Max and Alice climbed the stairs to their bedroom and made love in the first rays of dawn before falling asleep for an early morning nap.
When Alice woke two hours later, Max was noticeably absent from the bed. Alarmed at first at the lack of his warmth against her body, she understood where he had gone when she heard the commotion occurring outside their bedroom window.
Dragging her body out from beneath the security of her blankets, she padded across the carpeted floor to glance out into the garden below.
Max stood shirtless and sweating beneath the boughs of the stately oaks, his head turning slowly as he surveyed the damage the storm had left behind. He’d made quick work of most of the downed tree that had fallen upon the rose bushes and pulled up the skull, and all that remained was the trunk that lay heavy against the ground.
She watched him for several minutes, admiring the way his body moved as he hauled heavy branches and used an ax to chop the small trunk into pieces light enough to be dragged away. When he finished that task, he tossed the skull that the roots had uncovered back into the hole where the tree had once stood before reburying the bleak evidence of that past crime.
Alice considered joining him in the garden, but decided against it for the time being. Unsure of whether he’d finished with the new woman he’d acquired, she wasn’t certain that the monster had been satisfied enough again to sleep.
After showering and getting dressed, she made her way into the kitchen to make a cup of tea. Carrying the mug with her, a swirl of steam dancing behind her as she moved between the kitchen and the family room, she settled down on the comfortable couch and turned on the television.
It was self-abuse in the worst possible way, a habit she’d started when Max brought his first victim into the house. Usually it took a day or two before the first rumblings of a missing woman would begin to filter through the news. Alice didn’t know why she suffered through the endless tears and pleading voices, the happy pictures the family provided to the media that showed the smiles of the woman before they were lost to the monster. However, despite the knowledge that those images would be permanently seared onto her brain, she flicked the channels in search of the identity of the lost soul trapped in a cheerful room in the basement of her house.
...body...Beaumont...missing woman...
Alice spilled her tea when she shot up to the edge of the couch, her feet hitting the floor before she fell from that edge to her knees.
In the practiced voice of the news broadcaster, Alice heard words that her mind couldn’t comprehend.
…Delilah Beaumont was reported missing earlier this morning after failing to return home. Although Ms. Beaumont is a legal adult, the Sedgefield authorities declined waiting the standard forty-eight hours to begin a massive search in hopes of finding her alive. We’ve reached out to the police regarding the matter and the urgency given to this particular missing persons case and were told that, due to the questionable mental stability of Ms. Beaumont, she is considered a danger to herself…
Alice sat in frozen silence, her face a mask of unabashed panic. Even after the announcer had moved on from the morbid news broadcast regarding the disappearance of her sister, and was now introducing another person to discuss the mundane details of the weather, Alice remained frozen in place, her eyes unseeing as she stared at the television screen. The easy change in topic and the cheerful quality to the anchor's voice sickened Alice because it took away from the reverence that should have been paid to the news that a woman was missing.
Feeling him enter the room although he’d never made a sound, Alice finally blinked when she realized that Max was standing at the doorway behind her.
Her trembling hand reached out to steady her body where she sat, her heart shattering to splintered pieces inside her.
“What are you watching, Alice? I thought we talked about this.”
“You have my sister,” she accused, the words flat and without emotion.
Several silent seconds ticked between them before Max’ voice filled the space. “You were going to leave me, Alice.”
Heartache bled through his words, his fear that he’d lost the only woman he’d ever loved.
Alice crumbled over, her forehead pressed against the cool wood of the coffee table. Tears streamed down her cheeks, falling in heated drops upon the surface of the wood. Fear ensnared her, reality crumbling apart in front of her eyes.