Jason pulled up to his house and parked in the driveway. He got out of the car and sighed, feeling wiped after multiple meetings at the college that afternoon, and was ready for a relaxing evening at home. Unfortunately, that was not something he would get. In fact, this would be the most unrelaxing of evenings imaginable because, as soon as he put his key in the door and walked inside, he found not just his wife, Sarah, sitting at the dining table, but also Emily. Jason stopped in his tracks.
"...uh," he mumbled, "H...hi, hello, what are you doing here?" Emily wouldn't look at him. She looked down at the floor, and Sarah stood up, approaching Jason, pushing him into the living room. Once they were around the corner, presumably out of immediate earshot, she finally spoke, her voice low and bubbling with anger. "What the fuck were you thinking?" she asked. "What was I thinking about what?" Jason replied, feigning ignorance. "Don't even try to deny it, I know," she remarked, "but that's not even what I'm mad about. I mean, yes, I'm mad about it, but that is something I could've learned to live with. You know what I can't live with? Everyone else knowing, and guess what, everyone does now." Jason's heart sunk. What did she mean? What had happened? In the coming weeks, he'd get more information than he would've wanted, not just from her but also from the school, from the news, from various sources who were close to the situation but far enough removed that they felt comfortable talking on the subject. Jason's entire life changed in an instant, and he had nobody to blame but himself. Sure, people - especially other men his age - insisted he blame Emily, but he couldn't do that, not really. That was the easy way out, and she was only partially responsible, and not even then all that much because she was so much younger and inexperienced than he was. He took advantage of her, and he knew that. It wouldn't be fair to blame her in any regard. So Jason lived in his car now. He lost his job. He lost his family, his daughter, everything, in a single moment because of a single realization that brought the entire ordeal to the forefront. Lying in bed now, Jason could still recall the last thing his wife ever said to him before she kicked him out. Sitting in the drivers seat of his car, his bags packed and loaded in the back, Sarah knelt down and leaned her head through the window, her voice whispering. "...I thought you of all people would've known better," she said, "...I guess I was wrong." She was right. She WAS wrong. The people you never expect are the ones who are most capable of horrendous actions. That's the one thing he had in common above all else with Kelly Baker. *** "I don't use drills generally," Kelly said, "Too loud, too messy. Sure, it drowns out their screaming, on the rare chance I let them be audible, but it's just too much effort for too little reward. Sure, you could torture them a little while longer, but what's the point. The whole idea is to be in and out in no time flat." "So power tools aren't your thing?" Jason asked. Jason and Kelly were sitting in his apartment, Kelly lying on the sectional couch upside down, while Jason stood in the connected kitchenette, cooking steak and eggs for them. She shrugged and looked at her nails. "Too many cords," she said, "too much preparation, too many pieces you can leave behind. No. Power tools are not a good way to torture people. I prefer simple things, small things that can be used without batteries, that can be easily moved. Pliers, for one, are a good tool. But I'm not gonna go to all the trouble of buying a circular saw along with an extension cord just to kill someone with it. That's too much effort." "Too much effort? You're already killing people!" Jason stated, laughing, "That's the maximum amount of effort you can have! You know how much time and planning goes into killing somebody? I mean, of course you do, you've done enough, but you spend a whole lotta time thinking about someone you hate just to rid the world of them. Why not up the ante? Go for something a little more exciting?" "Okay, let's start dissolving people in barrels then, because I'm sure that's not suspicious at all," Kelly said, now sitting upright and sighing, "it has to be simple, it has to be clean, it has to be quick. It has to be virtually unidentifiable. Using anything unique gives you an MO. Suddenly you're not just some guy killing people, now you're some guy killing people with a blowtorch." Jason walked away from the kitchen and looked at her, one hand on his hip, the other running through his hair. "I guess I see your point. Why draw anymore attention to yourself when you're already doing something so horrible," he said, "...uh, I hope you didn't have anything planned for today, because I have to meet with someone soon." "I was going to do some scouting, but what do you have going on?" "...I have to meet with my ex-wife," Jason said. *** With Jason out of the picture for the afternoon and foreseeable evening, Kelly meandered. Instead of doing her scouting on her next victim, she chose to go to the mall and get her hair done and do some shopping. As she was standing in a clothing store, admiring herself in a mirror while holding a nice high priced sweater against her, she suddenly realized she recognized the woman standing behind her, pulling on a pair of shoes. "Anette?" she asked, turning around and walking towards her therapist, sitting on the shoe bench. Anette looked up, and the color in her face drained a bit. She forced a smile. "Hello Kelly," she said, "How are you today?" "I'm okay, just looking for some sweaters for the fall," she said, holding up the sweater, then asking, "you looking for some shoes?" "What I have hurt my feet something fierce," Anette said, "I need something that gives my heel more support while still being pretty flat. Kind of a surprisingly difficult combination to come across, actually. Do you not have anything going on today?" "Not really," Kelly said, reaching up and brushing some errant bangs from her eyes as she smiled and added, "I hope we still have an appointment this week." "Of course we do," Anette said, "You've got a perpetually standing appointment unless you tell me otherwise. How's your week been thus far? Anything exciting or unusual happen?" "No," Kelly said, shaking her head and biting her lip, "not yet. But there's still time I suppose." *** Jason was sitting at the little deli he and his wife liked to go to when they'd first started dating. Sometimes for late night meetings or early in the mornings, they'd come here and they'd order breakfast items or coffee or something sweet, but Jason hadn't been here in ages now, and even longer since he'd been here with Sarah. He was sitting by the window in the corner, near the back, when he heard the little bell over the door ring. He looked up and saw her entering. Sarah Willard - her maiden name, obviously - as lithe and tall and beautiful as ever. The moment he saw her, he couldn't believe he'd ever cheated on her. What was wrong with him? She made a beeline for his table and scooted the chair out, sitting across from him. "You look gorgeous," he said immediately, making her blush. "Thanks," she said, "I've been trying to go to the gym a lot, taking swimming lessons and stuff, you know? You don't look too bad yourself actually." "Yeah, I have an apartment now thanks to a friend with some money, and I've been eating better," Jason said, "For a while it was mostly donuts and coffee. The diet of a cop, apparently." Sarah laughed, which made him laugh. Jason had always been able to make Sarah laugh. "Um, so, Jason, I wanted to talk to you about Miranda," Sarah said, "uh...I...I know this isn't exactly the best thing to hear but I was thinking about maybe moving and taking her with me, obviously, and I just wanted you to be aware of that. I've been offered a pretty good job, and it would really improve her life, plus it would be good to have a sort of new start after what happened, you know?" "Yeah, I mean, makes sense," he replied, shrugging, "Where to? What complex?" "No, see, that's...that's the thing, um...it's out of state. It's...actually across the country," Sarah said, making Jason's brow raise in surprise. He felt his insides turn cold, and he suddenly wanted to cry. He couldn't believe what he was hearing, and the worst thing was he didn't have a leg to stand on when it came to defending his argument, considering what he'd done to their life. "Uh, wow, that...that is a lot to take in, hah," he said weakly, his eyes darting around the deli in confusion; he licked his lips and asked, "So, when were you thinking of-" "A few weeks," she said, "And you can come visit, and she can come visit you, and I don't wanna keep her from her father or whatever, I just...I need this, Jason. I need to start over, you know? For me, not even because of you. I need to do something different. She needs to have somewhere new." "Right, no, I-I get it," he said, stammering, holding back tears, "um...can I see her before you guys go?" "Of course! What day would be good for you?" Jason hesitated, thinking about Kelly. "I actually don't know, I'd have to check my calendar," he said. *** "Clear across the goddamned country!" he shouted. Jason was standing in the apartment, waving his arms around in irritants while Kelly sat on the sectional, spooning yogurt into her mouth and watching, both somewhat mildly bemused and extremely unhappy about the situation. "Boy, I tell ya, if anyone ever tried to take me away from my dad, I'd kill them," she said. "Yeah well, that's not exactly an option is it?" Jason asked, scratching the back of his head as he paced, "I mean, she's my ex wife, we have a kid together, I can't just kill her. Not that I want to, anyway. I...I still love her so much. I was hoping we might be able to fix things if we had enough time, but...maybe that was idiotic of me. I mean, what we do should only be reserved for those who deserve it, right?" "Not necessarily," Kelly said, crossing her thin tan legs and sucking on the end of her spoon as she said, "I don't just do it cause I want to teach a lesson, I also do it because it's fun." It's. FUN. That terrified him, though he wouldn't openly cop to it. He sat down on the coffee table and lowered his head into his hands, his elbows on his knees. He couldn't help it, he started crying, and surprisingly, Kelly leaned forward and patted his back. "I screwed up," he whimpered, "I screwed up so bad and I didn't even realize I was doing it until it was over. In the moment you don't even think about the repercussions, you know? You only think about the...the good feelings you get from doing something, not the bad shit that's gonna inevitably come as a result. God, I had it all. I had the house, the wife, the kid, the job, everything. The goddamned american dream and I threw it down the toilet for a college fling." Kelly was surprised. Up until now she wasn't exactly sure what had transpired to put Jason in the predicament he'd been in when she found him, but now she was aware. He'd had an affair with a college student. "You know," she said, "I don't say it much, but there have been some times where I resent some of the things I've done to people. Some of them, especially early on, were done out of sheer anger and not true reasoning. I regret those. But I can't change what happened. I can only learn from it and move on." "She looked so beautiful. She's been going to the gym, probably the same one we used to go to together when we first married, the Fitstruck over on 11th and Concord, and she seemed...happy? I hadn't seen her smile like that in so long. Lemme tell you, Kelly, if you ever manage to make someone smile in a certain way, don't lose them. Do whatever it takes to keep them around. Because chances are you won't find another person who smiles the same way and you won't know how much you miss it til it's gone." Kelly nodded. She'd take this advice to heart. She didn't respond, however, she just let Jason cry and she rubbed his back, sitting with him for a while, letting him get it all out. Eventually she ordered in dinner for them both, and they spent the evening watching game shows and true crime shows until she had to go home. But for the first time since they'd met, they really truly felt like friends, and when you're a friend to Kelly Baker... ...she'll do anything for you. *** Sarah toweled off after climbed out of the pool and then headed to the locker room. She showered, she changed, and then she headed to the parking lot. She had to go get dinner for her and her daughter, so she couldn't go directly home just yet. As she sat in the car, she started to think about her meeting with Jason. She'd loved him so much, and now, that love had softened into a strange sadness. Not wistful nostalgia, but a sense of what could've been had he not fucked up. She shook her head, started the car and prepared to back out when she heard a knock on her window that made her jump. She put one hand to her chest, and used the other to roll the window down. "Hi," Kelly said, smiling, chipper, "Um, I'm just new to the whole gym scene and I saw you coming out of here, is this one you would recommend?" "Uh, what is it you wanna do? It depends on what your goals are," Sarah said, "I'm into swimming myself, so it's great for that. Huge pool, double diving board. Also pretty quiet at night. You can almost be guaranteed you'll be the only one here." "That sounds great," Kelly said, glancing from the car to the gym then back to Sarah as she asked, "And membership prices are affordable?" "Yeah, absolutely," Sarah said, "Um, I have to go, I have to get dinner for my kid, but if you think you might wanna join, swing on by tomorrow night and meet me here. I'll be in the pool area, we can hash it out a bit more, I can show you around." "That sounds nice," Kelly said, "Thanks for your time!" Sarah smiled, nodding, as she finally pulled out and shut her window. As her car excited the lot and headed into the road, Kelly stood there, watching. Her brow furrowed. She bit her bottom lip. She made a mental note of everything Sarah had said. Standing there, she thought about how Jason had been that evening, how distraught he'd seemed, and she felt a fire begin inside her gut. She was going to persuade Sarah Willard from leaving town. One way or another.
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A rich teenage girl befriends a desperate man in his thirties to kill people that get in the way of her or her family happiness and fortune. Slowly, the mans guilt eats away at him, while the girl ego rises to dangerous heights. Archives
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