Murder Anthology - Paul Weightman (best way to read e books .txt) 📗

where I wait.” The mother now was sitting between the children, holding one in each arm.
“Wait for what?” The children asked in unison, wrapping their arms around their mother.
“The time. And it’s not time yet.” The little boy did not look happy with the cryptic answer given by his mother.
“What time is it?” he asked, hoping that it was time, for whatever it was, so they could live with their mother forever.
“It is time for a change.” She answered firmly, looking each child in the eye.
“A change?” asked the little girl in a whisper.
“Hush now children. You have to go back, but let me give you something..and everything will be better.” The children quieted as their mother gave each of them a kiss on their forehead. ”I will always be with you…and now, you are strong enough.”
“We wanna stay with you.”
“It’s not time… Don’t you feel what I’ve given you? Do you feel stronger?”
“A little…are we going to grow really big?”
“You don’t have to be afraid anymore. Nothing can hurt you, ever again.”
The children stared at their mother and knew she was right.
“It’s time to go back now. But don’t be afraid, I will always be with you.”
“But we don’t wanna go back.”
“You must go back. Things will be better when you go back. You have the power to stop the bad things from happening.”
The mother led the children out of the tent, and held them once more before telling them to leave. They looked back once, before walking hand in hand back to the dark room.
When they arrived in the dark room, they realized that two children lay on the floor, huddled together.
“That’s us.” said the little boy, who’s still double lay cold and wrapped in a blanket on the floor.
“I don’t wanna go back.” whined the little girl, before re-entering her body.
The siblings heard footsteps the moment that they were both back in their bodies. They sat there, and waited for what was to come.
“That was the Market.” said the little boy, as they waited.
“I want to be dead again, so we can go back.”
“We can’t. It’s not time yet.”
“Nothing can hurt us ever again.” said the siblings in unison, as the door opened. They stood, hand in hand, ready to face what was in front of them.


Suicide?

I had that goddamned dream again. You’re standing on the edge of a cliff looking back at me. “Catch me, you coward!” you scream. Then you jump.
It’s obvious I’m too far away to grab you before you fall, so when you implore me to catch you, what do you really mean? You want me to jump after you so I can catch up to you? I was never your hero so I assume you wanted me to suffer your fate too.
I can hear you call me a coward again as you vanish into the unknown; you know I won’t follow you into the abyss, ever. I run to the edge: Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck! But you’ve vanished.
Once again you torture me. Seventeen years of this, goddamn you. It hasn’t been easy maintaining a normal life with your fucking voice screaming in my head all the time. Twice I cracked and everything fell apart. Twice I had breakdowns like a whimpering child; I am sure you enjoyed watching me crash and burn both times; how you cackled with glee as my shaking hand reached for my bottle of Ativan and I popped several of them until I passed out. But both breakdowns were long ago. Now I merely suffer in silence. Age brings wisdom and wisdom means coping without breaking. That which does not kill me makes me stronger; you’re a cruel cunt for teaching me this lesson the way you did.
You were the coward, Petra Stein; you killed yourself and blamed me. I was an untrustworthy prick and a cheating asshole, sure, but I wasn’t worth your life. What a shitty trade you made. Worse: I would never kill myself over you. And I loved you more than anyone in this entire world. Did it occur to you I was unworthy of your self-sacrifice?
So do I have to spend eternity apologizing for your self-destruction?
Did it ever occur to you I hated myself and loved you, but hating myself made it impossible to love anyone very well? My hating myself led me into the arms of others; my hating myself destroyed your love for me; my hating myself certainly wasn’t your problem, and your solution sucked ass; you correctly blamed me but punished yourself, you idiot. Leaving me wasn’t enough; you had to punish me by leaving everyone. You were supposed to be the strong one, you coward.
And always in my head I hear you sing that miserable Talk-Talk song, “Talk-Talk,” like you’re serenading me from hell (or wherever tortured spirits go); it’s your suicide requiem: How ironic that this swan song of yours, this suicide requiem, was the song playing when I first saw you; what a harbinger of doom, that song. When I first saw you the club was packed and yet I could only see you on the dance floor, flowing red hair, pale skin, blue eyes, full red lips, freckles, perfect body; you looked so fierce, passionate, and intense; my Teutonic tiger, you. You were hottest piece of ass within 1000 kilometers... Self-hating coward that I was, I couldn’t just walk up to you and introduce myself, even though you looked right at me and beckoned me with your sparkling eyes; no, I just stood there hyperventilating and convinced myself that there’s no way this goddess wants me nearly as much as I want her. How many times had my cowardice denied me love? Would my courage fail me again?
Then you walked up behind me and pinched my butt. Your fingernails dug into my ass cheeks until I looked into your eyes; even a fool like me could take a hint. You smiled; I nearly fainted. We realized right away neither of us spoke the other’s language well enough to communicate, yet it didn’t matter—we communicated with lust and touching and the anxiety of knowing now was not soon enough for both of us. I was so in love with you the moment I met you that I had a horrific panic attack; I panicked because I realized how empty my life would be if I couldn’t have you. I had to have you.
And had you I did—for a while. And in that while, we had a torrid love affair. We were two young, beautiful, absolutely hot beings; when you touched me I felt as if I was being electrocuted.
And then one night you saw me walking out of the Kino with another girl. You never asked me why I cheated; you just blamed yourself and punished me by denying me the chance for your forgiveness. I remember your Aunt Claudia warning me that you loved me too much and I must be careful; I never imagined she meant that much.
You made your decision without consulting anyone; boy were we all surprised when you killed yourself! Not only that, but your family wouldn’t let me anywhere near your funeral; I might as well have slashed your fucking wrists, they blamed me so much. You were dead and the dead make lousy villains. So naturally I became their villain. I let them blame me because I blamed myself.
Seventeen years have passed. You’d be thirty-five now; you’d be Frau Petra, your boobs would sag a little, and there’d be lines on your beautiful face, and yet I’m sure you’d still be the hottest piece of ass within 1000 kilometers. Our kids would be bilingual wunderkinden. You’d be a doctor just like your parents. You’d never miss Germany because you always wanted to live in America. You’d be here to love me and protect me from myself. But you’re not here. I don’t even have photographs of you; someone I dated after you died burned them because she hated competing with your memory. It didn’t matter; she lost to you anyhow. When she left me she wrote “Fuck you and fuck that dead Kraut bitch” on my bedroom wall with a magic marker.
Seventeen years.
You made it clear you’d never forgive me the moment you opened your arteries with a #10 surgical scalpel blade. What a melodramatic little ceremony, your suicide; you waited for your parents to leave for their shift at the Krankenhaus; then you filled the bathroom with dozens of lit candles like a Catholic alter during Easter; you filled the tub with hot water and bubble bath like we used to do when we bathed each other and then fucked; “Talk Talk”—your goodbye note to me—was playing on your tape deck; a framed black-and-white photograph of me in my Army uniform was perched on the sink so you could look at me as you mutilated your arms and then slowly bled to death. How clinical; how dramatic; you stupid fuck!
Your family never spoke to me afterwards, so your best friend, Heike, related all the gruesome details about a year later when we ran into each other by chance in Saarbrücken at Club Gloria. Her grief over your suicide equaled mine, and we hated you so much for what you’d done that we fucked all night in your memory. In the morning Heike cried and left without saying goodbye. Did she cry out of guilt or because I called her Petra while I fucked her?
You knew I’d never love anyone ever again; you knew they’d all be mediocre compared to you; you knew I’d never let go of you; you knew I’d fall apart; you knew I’d hear your voice for eternity; you knew the emptiness I’d face without you. What were you thinking as you sat in that tub full of bubbles, bleeding profusely? Was I worth dying over?
Guess what? You killed me too, you hacked my wrists that night with that scalpel—I’m just taking longer to bleed to death than you.
See you in hell. I hate you, Petra Stein.


Imprint

Publication Date: 01-22-2009

All Rights Reserved

Dedication:
A collection of short murder stories