Plus, Orson knew where I was now. I was on limited time which motivated me to act fast and think later. Fuck, I bet she tasted so good. I bet she’d gush after a good cut to the side of her neck. It’d pump out and paint whatever off-white carpet her apartment had. It’d spill all over the place and I’d roll in it like a hot pig lost in mud.
The door swung open and Katie looked down at me. My eyes zeroed in on her neck and I swear I saw her pulse flutter.Blood, blood, gallons of the stuff…that MCR song was suddenly running through my head—an upbeat soundtrack to what I planned to do.
“Yes?” She asked. There was no recognition on her face. Which was weird. Iknewshe knew me. I saw her every week for the past eight weeks and I always made an impression.
“I was wondering if we could talk?” I asked. She looked perturbed. My hand slid into my pocket and I fingered the self defense weapon I planned to use on her. It was a pink kitten keychain. My fingers fit into the eyeholes and the ears were sharp, thick plastic points that could sink into someone’s neck with the right effort.
“Talk about what?” She asked. Something was off with her. How did she not recognize me?
“Can I come in, Katie?”
“How do you know my name?” She asked defensively.
“It’s written at your desk,” I said, giving her attitude. Her mouth popped open in a perfect o and her confusion cleared up.
“You shouldn’t be here. Look, if you need to reschedule an appointment— “ she started to close the door and I shoved my foot in the opening.
“I don’t need to reschedule anything. I just want to talk!” Christ, why was it so hard killing people? Admittedly my plans pretty much relied on people just letting me kill them. Wasn’t really a plan.
“What the fuck!” She snapped, yanking the door back open. She stepped into my space and shoved mehard. I stumbled away and my back hit the wall. Cool, cool. This counted as self-defense now, right? Except in court, self-defense was only a good defense when someone usedreasonableforce. Pretty sure drinking the blood of my enemies would seem unreasonable to most people. Oh well.
I pulled my fist out. My pretty pink plastic keychain was ready to be christened with violence. A smile spread over my face and my mouth watered. Fuck, was I really doing this? It was like I couldn’t accept this was truly reality, that I was really about to kill someone even though my arm was moving to do just that.
“Bree!” His voice was sharp. It felt like a physical force, a rubber band being snapped on my arm. Doctor Orson appeared from behind the staircase, coming out from the darkness like an apparition. It stopped me dead in my tracks.
How did he get here so fast? How did he know exactly where to go? He knew exactly where Katie lived is why. I ground my teeth and decided I wanted to kill her even more now. I lunged at her, swallowing a war cry of rage so the neighbors wouldn't come out and bear witness to the crime. Katie’s eyes rounded to saucers as she saw me coming at her with something in my hand.
“Orson hissed a curse and then his hand wrapped around my wrist. I gasped at the connection. I couldn’t move an inch. He was so fast and strong. He pushed his body between Katie and me. His back filled my vision, along with his smell.
“Go inside, lock the door, and forget this happened,” I heard him tell Katie. A second later her door closed and the chain jingled as she slid it into place.
“Does she always listen to you so well?” I snapped. “Are you two fucking?” I spat rapid fire. Fuck me, make it obvious why don’t you?Jealousy isn’t attractive, Bree. Especially when you aren’t even dating.
Doctor Orson sighed while he marched us to the parking lot, dragging me along by the wrist. I stared at where his hand touched me, marveling at our differences.
“You shouldn’t kill my receptionist,” he finally said. “An no, we aren’t fucking.” I tried to read the emotion in his voice. Was he angry? Frustrated? He didn’t sound like any of those things. He didn’t really sound like he cared at all. So maybe he was done with me. This was it, he was breaking up with me… as a therapist. That was going to make seeing him harder.
“Are you going to report me? Guess I’ll go away for a year for the first offense and now this one…”
“Nothing happened,” Orson said. He pulled me to my car and pressed me against it. The metal was hot on my back. His hands left me and my wrist felt empty.
“What?” I asked, looking up at him.
“Nothing happened, did it? As far as I saw the only thing that happened was she shoved you but that doesn’t matter because neither one of you are going to report this. She’ll forget all about it and you’ll never do this again.”
“She’ll forget because you told her to?” I asked. He looked at me for a moment. I squirmed under his purple gaze. I’d never seen him outside his office before and I liked it. It felt like there was less between us—a desk for one. My eyes dipped down to his chest. There was just a few feet of air between us and my face felt hot. Always fucking blushing. I sighed in annoyance at myself.
“I’m glad you messaged me, Bree.” His voice had softened. I liked it when his voice softened. Though, I wondered what it would sound like when angry. Maybe one day I’d find out and like it even better than his soft voice.
“What’s going to happen now?”
“You’re going to go home and sleep,” he said. I scoffed and rolled my eyes but then it hit me. He came, he de-escalated, and he wasn’t going to tell on me. My eyes went up to his, searching for reasons why.
“That’s it?” I asked.
“That’s it,” he said with a small smile. “Maybe next time, give me a heads up a little sooner. I almost didn’t make it in time.”
“Shouldn’t therenotbe a next time?” I asked with a smile. Were we flirting? Kinda weird to flirt about my attempts at homicide but perhaps that was our style.
