Snapped
by Kia Storm

Blood splattered walls. The phone hangs off the hook. Dan is sitting on the bed holding a large shiny slaughter knife. Not sure of whether to scream or run, I hesitate. We lock eyes. I dash for the door, but Dan blocks me. We stand awkwardly, staring at each other. “Are you going to kill me?”

Dan seems appalled by the question. “Jesus, Tom,” he says slowly. “You’ve been my best friend since the age of ten. Why do you think I called you?  You’re the only one I can trust.” 

Dan’s knife hangs freely in his hand, so I snatch it. My own hands are trembling, and I struggle to keep the knife from doing the same. I feel a panic of shockwaves through my body. I stifle the need to shake him, to strike him hard until he passes out. Instead I camouflage my emotion.  In the army Dan and I had been shown how. We vow to do our duty, to never run away, and to never desert our friends.  Dan had refused to leave me and carried me bleeding.  We killed so many, and for Dan, he would never be the same.

“Tell me what happened?” My Gaze rests on the loveliest woman. She is lying on the bed covered in blood. She is half naked. Even in death she looks beautiful. I feel sadness in my heart, and I struggle against tears.

“I stabbed her fifty times. I counted each stab. She made me that angry.” Dan stands up and walks towards the bed. “I loved her very much.” He sobs, running a shaky hand through her hair before asking me for a cigarette.

My fingers stiffen around the knife. I meditate to the rhythms of deep breathing. As he looks at her, I raise the knife from behind. I try to talk myself out of not using it. I see myself stabbing him again and again, but then I lower the blade.  

“I said, you got a cigarette?”  I remind myself I’ m not a monster.

“Yeah, sure.” In my mind I hear her screaming and pleading for her life.

“I wasn’t ready to be a dad, but she wouldn’t abort it.” Dan blows a puff of smoke in the air. “What am I going to do without her?”

“Pray for your soul.” I dial 999 and speak through gritted teeth.

“You think I´ll go to prison? I’ve hit her before, but never this brutally. I just snapped, man. The knife was just lying around. You always warned me about my temper.”

We hug each other, and again a thought comes back to haunt me. I raise the knife above his back. I close my eyes. I wanted him to die in the same way she did.

“I don’t know what I would do without you,” Dan said.

I loosen the knife from my grip. We sit and wait for the police. Dan mumbles about how sorry he is.

I weep for her, for our love, and for my unborn baby. She promised she would leave him, and now I´ll never know what she was planning to do.

“I need you to stand by me,” he said. “They are going to kill me in there.”

I lay the knife on the bed beside her. I kiss him goodbye on the cheek. I knew then I didn’t have to hurt him.  I wasn’t a monster.

BIO: Kia Storm lives in England, where she occasionally daydreams about sky diving over the Pacific Ocean, climbing Mount Everest and dreads the day when she will have no choice but to grow up, well at least that’s what her friends tell her anyway.

Other work by Kia has appeared in numerous on-line venues including, Down Dirty Words,  Blink Ink , Thrills Kills n Chills , The Lip Stick Pages, and various others. Her short story, ‘Run Coward Run,’ was published in “Twisted Dreams Magazine”, 2010 Issue. The Invisible Alien Watcher has been featured on http://www.microhorror.com/microhorror/author/kia-storm/the-invisible-alien-watcher/