9
"You know I really don't mean to do that to you. I don't know what comes over me." Her boyfriend says.
The fear and adrenaline evaporate from him. His body still enough that he reaches out for her hand. She briefly reaches out only to pull her hand back in and put it back into her jean pocket. A slight wave of hot embarrassment shoots up his spine.
"That doesn't give you the right Craig. And you not having a reason is what makes this even scarier. You can't just keep doing this to me." Raina says frightened with a pinch of frustration. Her eyes start to well up.
They carry on in silence walking by the spot where the confrontation occurred. Turning her head away from it she quickens her pace slightly and enters the Range building. Craig lingers behind her wondering what he could possibly say to her.
I don't know what to do. I don't know why I have been doing this. Why I can't stop it. It's like my mind shuts off in a bout of rage. I didn't mean to bully the other two guys either. They were just having a moment and I can't lose her to someone else. Jealousy is a fickle bitch. But I don't know why I do this. Yeah I used to take the occasional hit or belt from my parents but I don't hate them for it. It kinda made me turn out okay. Being a collegiate athlete with average grades isn't too bad. I just don't know.
He hangs his head low and rubs his forehead with strained fingers. No words he could say can fix his behavior and his problem. Repression often does lead to greater problems. The built-up walls he refuses to let down only traps him farther down the rabbit hole. He looks at the bricks neatly lining the archways and the walls all the way down the hallway. Each stacked up orderly in formation. Each with their rugged exterior and structure. But, given enough pressure they would give way to their delicate, crummy interior and a whole foundation would collapse.
A fluorescent tinge barely lights the empty hallway. The floor remains black and the walls an off-white grey. During school breaks electricity is put on low. Craig guesses that makes sense even though there were still a few exams that still had to take place.
They find themselves settled down by the fountain. Both sitting on a bench circling the reservoir. The urge to say the first words were only interrupted by the stagnant pool and utter silence. The two of them could still see snowflakes settling and evaporating on the glass dome of the lobby.
"I can't do this anymore Craig." She finally gets the courage to say it out loud.
"Wha…what do you mean?" Craig says taken aback.
Craig was always the guy who did the dumping in any relationship he had. He was known in high school to be the guy who "got around" quite a bit. All his fellow athletes would pat him on the back and commend him for it. None of the ladies could deter away from his charm and muscular physique. He even managed to sleep with the Prom Queen, Stacey Withers, right out from under Barry "The King" Mcgee's nose after football practice one day without even being Prom King.
He used to lull on that moment with pride thinking, Man was I REALLY the king in high school. I stole Stacey right from Barry. Ha. He was dating her, but man did she used to come clamoring for me after practice.
None of his flings lasted long though. Each of them only lasted one or two occasions tops. In fact, he went to both junior and senior prom without even having a date. He ended up winning one over while at both proms, but he never had a long term-relationship. He just never seemed satisfied with anyone he had been with and why would he stick around? He was only in high school after all. He never mistreated any of them either. He just never wanted more than a fling.
But Raina had been different. He fell in love with her almost immediately when they met in LU's library for a tutoring session a little over a year ago. As corny as it may seem, there was always something about her that captured him. Something that unmistakably gave him the urge to stay by her side even though it brought out a passion that resulted in such strong emotions that it lashed out in physical form. To him it felt like a curse. You always hurt the ones you love the most right? Its always the closest ones who see the worst in you.
And that is why her words shocks him so. A heat wave of surprise shoots up his spine. A baleful fear of being alone makes his head spin. Heated anxiety quickens his heart, shortens his breath and makes it hard to stand. He reaches over to the fountain leaning on it with hands outstretched and his head staring down at the floor.
"I…I can't accept….that." His voice cracks.
"You are going to have to Craig. I can't be treated this way any longer." She pleads.
The thought of being without her radiates in his mind fueling sorrow and defeat. He feels pinpricks of pain coming from his right hand. A stinging heat similar to the inflammatory response to anxiety pulsating throughout his head.
"I….I… can't accept that." He groans and turns his head towards her in a sadistic manner.
"What…what are you doing?" She squeaks in panic.
She sees him approach her from the fountain with a malicious aura. A stern look frozen on his face. She could see his fists clenched. His approaching strides full of purpose and terrifying determination.
"I WILL not accept that." He demands.
He lunges at her grabbing hold. With his brute strength he seizes her and muscles her towards the fountain. Her efforts at pushing him off are all for not. She is a pebble thrown at a giant. Each flittering punch only aggravates the beast.
"If I can't have you alive, I will have you dead!"
The air recedes to a murmur the longer she remains submerged. With each passing second her head grows hotter as the vessels in her neck constrict. Every moment she sees the transparent liquid steal a spurt of oxygen. The bubble moving upward to meet the falling snowflakes from the sky only to be prevented by the glass.
I can't struggle too much, though it's so fucking hard not to. The more I struggle the more energy I waste. Just hold your breath and wait for the right moment. Stop struggling bitch, you can do this. Just stop and wait a couple seconds. You can fool him and then….
The moment comes and he thinks she's gone. Her body still as the silence in the room. He loosens his grip and comes to his senses. He realizes that he may have made the biggest mistake of his life. Again, the realization and confusion strike him. His denial flutters about him like a moth to a flame. He reaches into the fountain to caress his butterfly.
She closes her eyes and musters all the energy she has left. She swings her leg up with the force of a wrecking ball and connects where every man counts their blessings. His moment of weakness proves critical as he begins to keel over. Raina, with a rocket of adrenaline, launches herself out of the fountain and flounces around behind him. The swift sashay so elegant only a device of pure art and danger could execute it.
With every ounce of strength, she had left, albeit with adrenaline mixed in, Raina shoves her former suitor. The body glides across the chassis of water stops short upon a sickening splush.
The gurgling strikes him. Blood overflows out of his mouth. His eyes become wide with fear and surprise. She looks at his impaled body with fascination. Not fully understanding the gravity of the event, she glares at the spout protruding from Craig's throat. The dark red metal stares at her menacingly. Raina looks down at an object floating on the calm red sea. His larynx had projected into the fountain.
What the fuck did I do? It was… It was invigorating but what the fuck? I….I just killed him. How did I? How did I do that? What is wrong with me? It feels pretty good. Why does this feel good yet terrifying? Shit, shit, shit I'm done. I'm going to jail. Maybe they'll kill me instead. End it sooner. Yeah. Yeah that'd be good.
"Oh dear. No. You've done well. You know I was betting on you. And you did not disappoint." An ominous voice echoes through the halls.
She sits on the tile floor at the foot of the low concrete wall of the fountain feet away from the corpse. She trembles with adrenaline and fear as she can not pinpoint where the voice was coming from.
"You need not worry. I'll take him from here." The voice bellows in its atmospheric animosity.
Things then go quiet for a few moments and everything waits in anticipation for the storm to come after. The lights in the lobby remain dim, the water still shut off and snowflakes settle on the glass dissipating on contact suggesting a rise in temperature in the room. It was almost as if the room did not recognize that anything happened at all. The room could care less, though something there did. Not knowing who it was, what to do, where to go, or what to think, Raina remains trembling at the foot of the fountain frozen with fear. Her heart beating so rapidly that she hears it
Who the fuck was that? What am I going to do? What's going to happen to me? I need to get out, but I can't. Something is keeping me here.
Something lapses the interval of silence. A sharp gelatinous sound emerges from somewhere behind her. Breaking her out of her conscious, Raina hesitantly peers over the wall of the fountain.
The cadaver hovers on the motionless basin. A body of unconnected spirituality motions forward as if being pulled by the strings of fate. The wine of the human body fountaining out of its neck as it goes, speaking with spurts and gurgles.
It glides forward and stops a foot in front of her. It stares back at her with lifeless gray eyes and a tilted head only plausible with a broken neck. Her former meat headed lover now just a floating piece of meat.
"See how you treat me? See what you did?" A raspy whimper escapes from its gaping mouth. The mouth had been motionless despite the audible words.
She remains frozen unable to speak or get up. An unseen aura plants her to the ground so that all she could do is stare at him. Stare at the abusive boyfriend that she did hate to love but loved him anyway. Tears down her face now confirming that.
"You know if you had stuck up for yourself to begin with, we never would have gotten to this point." The corpse struggles but retorts anyway.
A rumbling of heat rises within Raina and her tears disappear. She trembles but not with fear or anguish. She gathers herself to her feet and clenches her fists with a creased brow and an aura of astringency about her. All her innocence, all her virtue evaporated like snowflakes.
He may technically be dead but I'm definitely all about beating the shit out of him for a second time.
"Enough!" The ominous voice comes back raging with a force that pushes Raina right back to the ground by the fountain. "I will take him now."
Without another word from the voice, the corpse, or Raina, Craig's body begins to descend into the ground. No longer hovering, the body slowly and forcefully grinds into the tile. Almost like a mosaic paper shredder slicing and separating the layers of his body. Raina again freezes in horror as she watches Craig's skin being pulled from his body, his blood drains into unseen holes in the floor, and his bones splinter into fragments and eventually into dust. The sound of his bones snapping like twigs pierces her mind and tosses her stomach.
She continues to watch involuntarily as his head finally reaches the ground. Eyes pop and melt under some immense unseen force. The skull explodes with gravitas and she sees brain matter muddled with the remains of his blood being soaked into the ground with the rest of his body. No blood or brain matter ends up on her despite the gore and within seconds, any trace of Craig Gear was eradicated.
In the moments after, Raina sits by the fountain waiting for her time to come. The anticipation causes her to wet herself in fear and urine. No sense of if she would be okay or not. No idea of what just happened. Her eyes dart back and forth as if she would see the thing that took him, but nothing appears. Nothing approaches her and all she does is sit in the quiet still room wondering how it all started with a bloody nose, a stranger and a tear drop.