Curt pats my shoulder. “Can’t save ‘em all, but this can’t be good for her.”
“Apparently, it might be. The emotional damage it does, she always takes out on scumbags like this. I have therapists and counsellors on call for anyone who might need to talk it out or want to do the work.”
My memories flick back to the situation. Clara was distraught and didn’t get out of bed for days. I was there to make sure she ate and drank, and eventually she came out of the depressive episode, but I believe it beats inside of her.
She’s a combination of light and love and darkness and death.
“What’re you gonna do, kill me? Like my life isn’t over anyway in the eyes of the law.” The monitor attracts my attention again.
Clara chuckles. “They won’t do fuck all. First offence? Keith, you’ll be out to prey on women again in no time. I want to show you what you did to her.”
He starts to bop around, and as he grips the edges of the metal again, he rips his hands away and holds them to his chest.
The fire underneath burns bright and orange. Clara pours something onto the flames, and he screams out.
“That bitch deserved it. You don’t know what I had to endure to be with her.”
“Men are such fragile creatures. You walked into her life and acted like Prince Charming. You played her like a fiddle until you had her in your web, and then you screamed about what a whore she was or how awful she treated you.” Clara laughs again and continues to circle him.
“Why is it getting warmer?” Keith jumps around and glares at her.
“Because this is what she had to go through. You, the amazing man, got into this drum of your own accord, didn’t you?”
“Yeah. I didn’t know you were a crazy cunt, though.”
Maniacal laughter leaves her, and she pulls up a chair to watch the entertainment in front of her. “Almost like Alma didn’t know what an abusive prick you were? So she got into the relationship willingly, right?”
“I was good to her. You bitches are all the same.”
Clara leans back for a minute and crosses her legs. “Yeah, that’s what the lukewarm water was. It felt good, didn’t it? Even when it was a bit hotter, it felt alright?”
“Yeah, but now it’s too fucking hot and I can’t get out.” His skin is an unhealthy shade of red, and he keeps holding his hands to his chest.
My dragonfly stands and circles him again. “Just like you fucking did to her,” she says, pouring more liquid over the fire. “You made it uncomfortable, and she couldn’t leave. Then you amped it up like this.”
His animalistic screams fill the air, and Keith’s body turns almost as red as the flames under him. “Why?”
“Great question, Keith—why would you want to hurt her? Trap her in a life that tore her apart from the inside out? You shattered her entire being. Alma was a mere shell of the woman she once was, and for what reason?”
Keith tries to get out again but whips his hands back and screams louder. Keith dips under the water and pops back up like a buoy.
“No one will be coming for you. This is exactly what you deserve, because you fucking boiled her alive, man. You took a precious human being filled with love and light and you extinguished every part so she would be your puppet to play with, right? Control her to act the way you thought was right?”
“Yeah, power and control,” he whimpers.
Clara moves out of the frame for a second before returning. The water bubbles, and it turns my stomach to watch a man being cooked.
“Then what did you do when she finally could escape your talons?”
“I killed her because ifIcouldn’t have her, why should anyone else?”
She spills water on the fire. The orange flames quickly fade, and black smoke fills the area. “And now no one will ever fucking have you.” Clara steps closer and slits his throat.
The knife seems to cut smooth as if sliding through a slow-roasted duck.
“Do you think boiling him made him tender?” I ask Curt, but he’s already at the door.
“She’s gonna decapitate him. Think she’ll live with that?”
