“This is Candi, leave a message after the beep!”
“C-candi…h-elp!” Fortunately for me, his cry for rescue is only in vain.Did he really think it'd be that easy?
“Oh, that’s too bad. She didn't answer. Don't beat yourself up too much. She's been so damn wishy-washy lately… The poorgirl thinks she doesn't know what she wants. But I know… She'll come back around when she sees I got rid of the one person who hurt her.”
“Please, don't! You don't even know me!”
“I know you, Zane Torrence. I know all of the things you say to her.” I pause my thought, letting go of the cable. His hands cling to his throat as he takes in many labored breaths. It only worsens when he sees me pick up the heaviest object sticking out of the many inches of snow.
“No, wait… Please! Y-you don't want to do this. You can have her, okay? Take Candi! Just don't kill me!”
“Are you sacrificing the woman you say you love so you can live?” My tongue clicks on the roof of my mouth in pure disgust. “I wouldn't call that love…”
“She's just a girl… We-we’ve broken up many times.”
“Candi Hart is not just a girl. She's the best thing about this fucking place. You never realized how good you had it! God, I only wish I could've had her! I would’ve killed anyone for her if she asked me to…”You don't think I can't see you moving further away?“... but you, you treated her like she was worthless!”
He gives me his best pleading look before he crawls backwards on his palms, hitting his ass on the snow in his yard.Do you think that I'm not fast enough to catch you when you try to run away?
Zane attempts to rise onto his feet, but he can't keep his balance once I bash the back of his head in with the heavy stone cross I found standing upright in his mother's flower bed. “I know that you use her.” Zane's blood starts to splash on the snow underneath us.
“Ahhh, what the FUCK man?!” His screams are his last words as he falls laxly in front of his mansion-style home, his face taking a mouthful of his own frozen crimson.
“... and how you cheat on her!”SMACK. The back of his skull caves in from the impact of the flat granite bottom. The noise of his bonescrunchingmixed with thesquelchingof his brain mashing together is one I'll never forget.
Zane’s once personable face is now unrecognizable. His eyes have popped out of their sockets and are crushed like jellied fruit. They roll around in his concave, bloodied cheeks when I rotate him onto his back. The bone from the bridge of his once-perfectnose protrudes out of his bruised and marred skin.
“There's a good little jock…” I taunt, but he can't feel the gentle pat I make on his deflated cheek. He can no longer feel anything.
Snowflakes gently cover his dead body as I grab my power cord from the porch. I wrap it around my blood-covered arm just as I would when I'm packing up after band practice. I keep my view on him as he lies lifeless in the puddle of red sleet, and the loud quiet in the air filters in around us.
When I'm done erasing the tracks from my combat boots, I can't help the feeling that I'm not finished yet.She has to know what I did for her. What I did for us.
The cold air hits my skin when I take off my wool mask, and it falls gently in the yard next to the bloody cross. “Andy?” Candi picks up on the first ring. “What time is it?” Her groggy voice is filled with sleep.
“I'm sorry, Baby. Did I wake you?” A new beam paints my cold lips when I hear her say my name.
“Is everything alright?”
“Yes, Candi. Everything is perfect.” I sigh, stuffing my now gore-covered glove in the side pocket of my jacket.
“Listen,” she begins, and I can hear the rustling of her covers as if she's sitting up in her bed. “I'm sorry about earlier. I-I just want us to be us. Like we once were. I love you, Andy.”
“Damn, baby, I'm so happy to hear you say that. I love you too, Candi. You know I would do anything for you… For us…”
“Who's out there?!” A man calls from behind the door, but all I can hear is Candi breathing on the other end of the line. “Who the hell are you and what are you doing on my property!” The older man yells out again.
“Andy, where are you?” Candi asks, her voice now more alert.
“I'm not too far from you, actually… I'm at Zane's place.”
“Why are you at his house?” She doesn't hear my answer, only the head-splitting shrieks from Zane's parents, who are now noticing his blood-soaked corpse.
“No, no, no! My baby! What happened to my boy!” His mother wails into his chest, covering her arms and face with what remains of Zane.
“Was that Mrs. Torrence? Is she crying? What's happening over there?!”
“Did you do this to him?! What did you do to my baby?!” She lunges towards me, only falling next to her son in a pile of tainted snowfall, and she braces her palms on the cross covered in Zane's bodily fluids. I brace myself in my boots; the more she cries out when she realizes her hands are painted with his blood.
