He slammed the glass on the table and got up. Sitting there and looking at a ruined dinner was driving him crazy.
He paced the room like a tiger in a cage. He was so angry he just wanted to punch something.
“Aww, and I thought you two kids were gonna make it work,” Gobbert said before he quickly floated out of the way when Parklon launched himself at him with a roar.
Parklon grabbed fresh air and fell face first into the couch.
“Touchy subject?” Gobbert asked, while his bubble bounced in the air behind Parklon’s head.
“Go away,” Parklon muttered into the couch, with his face still buried in the cushion.
“She probably just got lost,” Gobbert said.
“She would have called.”
“Maybe she couldn’t find a phone?”
“It’s Carla. She could find a phone and overuse it in a no-call zone,” Parklon mumbled. He rolled over and sat on the floor, staring up at Gobbert. “She’s changed her mind, that’s all,” he said gruffly.
“After the high score on the barfometer kissing I saw today? I don’t think so.” Gobbert folded his arms.
“For all I know, she does that with every guy,” Parklon said with disgust.
“For all I know—oh wait, I was actually there, wasn’t I?” Gobbert shook his head at Parklon. “She doesn’t.”
“You’ve been following her since she got here!” Parklon was suddenly interested in what Gobbert had to say.
“Oh, now you want to talk?” Gobbert muttered.
“Please?” Parklon wanted to know about Carla. He needed to understand what was happening.
“Aww, bless your stinky cotton socks. You’re so cute right now.”
Parklon growled menacingly.
“Okay, okay. She’s just a girl. She gets lost. She does stupid things. She listens to the wrong people. But she’s a good girl. If she stood you up tonight, it’s for a good reason,” Gobbert said. “She’s broken and out of control, but not on purpose.”
“What do you mean by she’s broken?” Parklon asked him curiously.
“I dunno. Stuff’s not working the way it should.” Gobbert shrugged.
“Do you mean her powers are broken?” Parklon tried to get more information out of him.
“Everything is broken. It’s not just one thing,” Gobbert said.
“And I’m broken, too?” Parklon frowned. Nothing the little creature was saying made any sense.
Gobbert nodded. “Yep.”
“In what way am I broken?” Parklon asked.
“In every way,” Gobbert said simply.
Parklon flopped back so his head rested on the seat cushion.
“I give up.” He blankly stared up at the ceiling.
“Well, that’s probably why you keep getting stood up,” Gobbert said.
Parklon grabbed a cushion off the couch and threw it at Gobbert.
Gobbert popped out of sight into whatever ether he existed in, and Parklon played the day’s events over in his head.
Why didn’t she at least call?
Carla’s legs were dead, and her ass had gone completely numb. She didn’t know how long she’d been sitting in the same position, but she had continued to keep her head down and her eyes almost closed for what felt like forever.
She’d listened to Bex talk to the wall. The muttering never ended. It was a litany of random words and sentences, which made no sense, and it was driving Carla insane just hearing it.
Her neck ached when she finally lifted her head up and opened her eyes fully. She stared at Bex’s back. God, it feels better to sit up straight!
“And they don’t know me. It’s not their fault. Idiot demons, hate them…” Bex continued talking to the wall, unaware of Carla’s existence.
“Will you shut the fuck up?” Carla said loudly, and Bex jumped a little before she turned around. She seemed startled at first to see Carla there, then recognition registered on her face.
“I don’t think you’re in any position to tell me what to do.” She played with the tip of the knife in her hand and smiled evilly at Carla.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Carla eyed up the knife warily. “Bex, why are you doing this? I thought we were friends.”
“Friends?” Bex laughed crazily. “Why would I be friends with you?” She walked over to Carla, her fist whitening as she tightly gripped the knife. “You took everything from me. Sneaking around behind my back with my boyfriend and twisting things, so he thinks you’re something special. I hate you. I hate everything about you, you evil bitch!”
“I didn’t do anything to you! Bex, what the hell? I’ve only just found out you were Parklon’s ex-girlfriend.” Carla tried to push the chair back away from the knife when it neared her face, but the movement just crushed her hands between the chair and the wall behind it.
Bex held the knife up to Carla’s left eye, so it was all she could focus on. “Your pretty green eyes were all he could talk about when he came back.” She moved the knife to Carla’s neck. “Your lovely long hair.” She snarled and sliced the knife through a lock of Carla’s hair, which curled around her neck. The blade was so sharp it went through the hair easily and Carla watched the curl fall to the floor.
“You put a spell on him and stole him from me, but I’ll get him back when you’re gone,” Bex muttered to her. “It’s the only way.”
It was as if she was talking to herself again now. Carla gently tested the ropes around her wrists. Bex was too crazy. It was only a matter of time before the next thing she cut was Carla’s skin.
“You’ll be gone, and he’ll come back. Then we’ll be happy again, and everything will be okay.” Bex continued.
“I could just leave?” Carla suggested. “Go back to Derobmi and never see Parklon again?”
“Hah!” Bex waved the knife close to her face again. “Trying to trick me? I’ve given you enough chances to save yourself, and every time you refused to go.” Bex smiled at her with a wild glint in her eyes. Carla wondered just how insane she was. She’s riding the lunatic train on her way to Psychoville.
“It was destiny, really.” Her voice was almost pleasant. “I was planning a romantic weekend with my man, looking for a good hotel. We can’t travel too far in case he gets called into work. He has a very important job.” She confided in Carla as if she was sharing a secret with a girlfriend, not torturing someone in a broken-down shack. “And while I was looking around one of them, who should walk in but you!” Her tone changed again, back to angry and crazy.
“Did you think I wouldn’t find out that you’d sneaked over here to try to steal him away from me? That I wouldn’t know who you were?” The knife came dangerously close to Carla’s face again. “Do you think I’m stupid?” She slapped Carla hard across the cheek with her free hand.
Carla tested her jaw by moving her chin to the side while she recovered from the slap.
“No, I don’t think you’re stupid.” Carla assured her. I think you’re fucking insane.
“Wait a minute. You saw me arrive in Reeb and check into the hotel?” Carla asked.
“He kept your picture on his desk, the one of you, him and that stupid orange guy. I tried to get rid of it a few times, but he got angry. I used to look at your face and want to slice it to pieces every day. I guess now I can do it for real.” She laughed with a wild look in her eyes and slashed Carla’s cheek with the knife.
The cut burned like a streak of fire across her face. She winced and tried to pull her head away from further attacks, but none came.
“Then one day, it was gone, I thought for good,” Bex said, allowing her arm, which was holding the knife, drop while she reminisced.
“I thought he’d finally removed you from his thoughts and moved on. Then he went to the conference and gave me the keys to his apartment. I thought finally he’d come to his senses. We were going to happily live together.” Her smile dropped, and her eyes darkened with anger. “But there you were again, on his mantelpiece.
The same picture of you three together was ruining everything!”
“Did you hurt Bob?” Carla knew it was unlikely, but what if Bob had been Bex’s first victim.
“Who’s Bob?” Bex asked. She didn’t say she hadn’t hurt anyone else.
“The orange guy, the Kalamarian in the picture,” Carla said.
“No, don’t be stupid. Why would I hurt him?” Bex acted as if Carla was insane.
“Oh, I dunno? It just crossed my mind,” Carla muttered, with a heavy dose of sarcasm.
“No, it was you who was scheming to steal my love. You were the only one I hated in that photograph.” Bex didn’t notice the sarcasm and continued speaking as if nothing had interrupted her.
“I knew the first thing you’d do was look for Parklon. You’re obsessed with him,” Bex said, and Carla fought the urge to comment on that.
“I knew you wouldn’t be able to stay away from him for long, and you didn’t. You turned up at his office the next day, dressed like the desperate whore you are,” Bex said. “I saw you on the security cameras when you arrived, so I had to act fast. My first plan was to make you see him with me. But of course, he wasn’t there. If he had been, it would have been Parklon I was kissing in the office when you arrived.”
Carla realized that Bex actually believed she was in a relationship with Parklon. Like hell he’d kiss her!
“But he was away, so I had to lower myself to your level and kiss another man instead. Because of you, I had to betray my lover and be with another man!” She threateningly waved the knife at Carla again.
Carla remained silent. Talking to her wasn’t going to help. Bex was completely delusional.
“And still you wouldn’t go. You were supposed to run away crying at the sight of me with Parklon. I was trying to save you from this. I’m too nice for my own good.” Bex’s anger was flashing in her eyes again.
“You stupid, stubborn, greedy whore!” With each word, she poked Carla in the chest with the tip of the knife, leaving a little cut each time. Four tiny dots of blood appeared on Carla’s chest. One was near the neckline of her white camisole, and a little blood soaked into the material and spread over it.
I’ve got to get out of here before she does anything else! Carla struggled with the ropes around her wrists, trying to free her hands, but they were bound too tightly and refused to give.
“So then I came up with a better idea, and it nearly worked. Parklon hates whores. I just had to show him what you really were. What better way was there than for him to find you in bed with another man in his own apartment? So I let you stay there, pretended to be your friend.”
“God, it was hard. There were so many times when I could have killed you. But I stuck to the plan, and it nearly worked. Then you messed that up too! Even when I drugged you with Zoremones, you didn’t do it.”
Bex lowered her face close to Carla’s, staring her straight in the eye. “Why didn’t you just give in and screw around? You could have been happy. But no, you have to drive me to this, stupid bitch! Did you think I’d let you have him? Did you think I’d let you live after all the things you’ve done to me?”
She stood back and raised the knife above Carla, preparing to stab it down into her skull. “Parklon’s mine and you’re not going to ruin that!”
“Wait,” a quiet male voice interrupted, and Bex spun around to see who was speaking.
Carla hitched her breath. Thank God!
She glanced up to see Godfrey standing in the doorway. Oh, shit.
Godfrey had considered letting Bex finish the job on Carla, but it wasn’t neat enough for him. He wanted Parklon gone too, and what better way than to be killed by a psychotic ex-girlfriend? All he had to do was get him here and set up this crazy woman to take the fall. Once Carla and Parklon were gone, Godfrey could claim he had been set up by them, or even by this Bex person. No one was going to believe anything she said. Still, the hard part would be convincing a psychopath to play along.
“Who are you?” Bex pointed the knife at him.
“I’m someone else who wants to see that purple bitch die, but I’m worried about you doing it like this,” Godfrey said smoothly.
“What do you mean?” Bex eyed him suspiciously. “You won’t stop me killing her!”
“And I don’t want to. Do it now if you must, but I think it would be selfish of me not to warn you about what it’ll do to Parklon.”
“How do you know Parklon? What would it do to him?” Bex stood between Godfrey and Carla, holding the knife with an expert hand.
She’s done this before, Godfrey realized.
“I work with Parklon. We’re good friends, and I know how clever he is. How do you think he’ll feel when he finds out that Carla died in your house? It is your house, isn’t it?”
“Yes, my mother died suddenly and left it to me,” Bex said.
I bet she’s buried under the porch, he thought.
“Well, Parklon’s a clever guy. It doesn’t matter where you hide the body. He’ll find out where she died,” Godfrey said. “And the worst part is, he won’t understand. He won’t know why you did it. He’ll blame you for the wrong reasons.”
“You’re right.” Bex frowned. “How can I fix that?”
“If you let me help you, I think I know how it could be done.” Godfrey smiled.
“Why would you help me?” Bex narrowed her eyes at him.
“That purple freak ruined my life, too. But on my quest for revenge, I find myself wanting to help at least one of us get their life back to normal after killing her,” Godfrey said honestly. My life!
“What do you think I should do?” His honesty must have done the trick because she lowered the knife and relaxed.
“Carla has to die, and it has to be here. Parklon’s going to find out either way that you did it. But what if you explain why you’re doing it before you do it? Get him here. Let him see what a whore she really is, and he’ll thank you for it. I can be here too to back up your story. He trusts me. He knows I won’t lie to him. When he sees all the things you’ve done to protect him and how strong you are, he’ll see how useless and awful she is. He’ll understand when he realizes that you’d fight for him. Even risk your life for him. He might even help you kill her.” Godfrey lied.
Bex frowned, appearing to consider his words. “You’re right. I shouldn’t lie to the man I love. He needs to know how much I really love him.”
“No!” Carla shouted from the back of the room. “He’s lying, Bex—”
Godfrey punched Carla in the face. Her head slammed against the wall, knocking her out before she could expose his plan.
He turned back to Bex. “Sorry about that. She makes me so angry,” he said smoothly.
“Yeah, me too, and there’s no need to be sorry. She deserves worse. I enjoyed it.”
I bet you did, you freak. Godfrey smiled pleasantly at her.
“We should gag her before Parklon arrives. We don’t want her shouting out her lies all over him,” Godfrey said.
“Yes, that’s a good idea. I don’t want any interference while I’m talking to Parklon.” Bex nodded, ripping a strip of cloth from the torn curtain and tying it tightly around Carla’s mouth.
“On that note, perhaps I should be out of sight at first, so you and Parklon can talk. I’ll only step in if he needs more convincing,” Godfrey said while planning his attack.
“That would be perfect!” Bex nodded in agreement. “There’s an alcove here that will keep you hidden.” She motioned toward a dirty alcove under the staircase, which was concealed from view unless you stood in front of it.
Perfect, he won’t see me coming.
“Okay, I’ll hide here. Now, go and call him over,” Godfrey said with a smile.
I’ll kill two birds with one crazy stone.
Parklon pulled up into the driveway of the farmhouse and parked his car. He frowned at the farmhouse. How was it that he had known Bex since she was a teenager, but he had never known she lived here?
He thought back and realized that never once had he been to Bex’s home. Even when they were dating, she’d met him in a bar or gone back to his place. She’d told him she lived in the city when he’d asked.
He peered around the yard and examined the broken-down shack through the car’s windshield, wondering what exactly he was getting into.
Bex had called and said Carla was here. She’d asked him to come and pick her up. He’d assumed Carla had apologized to Bex, and they had become friends, but there had been something in Bex’s voice. Something was not quite right. She’d sounded pleasant and happy, but too pleasant, too happy, excited and nervous even.
When they’d dated, she’d been wild and fun. When they broke up, she’d shrugged it off, and they had stayed friends.
Since he had come back to Zoola, she’d been clingy and acting as if their short relationship had meant more than it really had. It was a long time ago and had only lasted a couple of months.
Twice he’d caught her trying to throw away the photograph of Bob and Carla in his office. At the time, he’d believed her comment about cleaning up and the photo accidently going in the trash. But in retrospect, her actions were not that of a platonic friend. What kind of friend doesn’t tell you where she lives?
Parklon pulled his gun out of the glove compartment and shoved it into the back of the waistband of his jeans.
Isn’t that a bit extreme? “Better safe than sorry,” he muttered as he got out of his car. He walked over to the front door of the farmhouse and knocked loudly.
Bex fluffed her hair as if she was about to answer the door to a date. Then she rushed to answer it. A second loud knock followed the first.
Carla scowled at Bex as she hurried past her. You might want to lose the knife, psycho!
Carla struggled with her bindings. She couldn’t watch them kill Parklon, and she knew that was Godfrey’s plan. He was in the alcove opposite her, tensing for the attack. Parklon wouldn’t see him coming.
Science Fiction and Fantasy Box Set 1: The Squishies Series Page 34
