This Guy Kills Me

by Anlyn Hansell

  *****

  “I need to talk to you.”

  “Why? I mean, I’m pretty booked today and your appointment is on Friday, can’t it wait until then?” Dr. Mike stated into the phone.

  “Just a couple minutes, I need your take on something.”

  “I have appointments all day today; I suppose you could come by at lunchtime.”

  “How about right now? I’m walking in your building -”

  “Joe! I…there’s a patient in the waiting room!” he responded in an exasperated tone.

  “Yeah, Ok…so I’ll be right in,” Joe replied lightly. He could hear his name called out as he removed the phone from his ear and pressed a button to end the call.

  *****

  “So what on earth is so damn important that I have to reschedule my day?” Dr. Mike bit out as Joe closed the door behind him and leaned his back on it.

  “It’s Jane,” Joe stated, his eyes connecting and holding the Doctor’s.

  Immediately, the older man’s features softened and a somewhat friendlier expression took over.

  “Ahhh…Jane. How is our lovely Jane?”

  Not OUR lovely Jane. MY lovely Jane. MineMineMine. Not yours, asshole.

  “She’s…I don’t know. I guess she’s Ok,” Joe stated instead as he walked toward the chair in front of the desk and sat down.

  “Aaaannnd…?” Doctor Mike prompted.

  “And so, I think that I’m…well, you see, I wasn’t sure at first and then…last night…so like, I’m sleeping with her pajamas, right? Don’t look at me like that, they kind of smell like her – kind of a mango/floral thing going on, and I must like her if…who does that? IS that weird? You’re looking at me like that’s weird. But…I miss her. No. I mean, yeah…I miss her…but I also think that I kind of…love her,” he finished softly.

  “You’re not supposed to have relationships like that Joe. You know that,” Mike quickly stated in a flat tone.

  “I know that. But…it’s like I can’t help it. It has to be love. I think about her all the time.”

  “Joe? Are you taking your meds?” Mike leaned in, his eyes practically boring into Joe’s.

  His answer was a set of clamped lips on Joe’s end.

  “Dammit, Joe! You need to take your meds. You can’t do this! You were doing so well. I mean, on paper you are quite possibly the most screwed up human being and yet you are the most well-balanced, well-adjusted person I’ve ever met. But ONLY when you’re on your meds.”

  Little did he know, the prescriptions were filled, just never taken…

  “Yeah, Ok. So…what do I do?”

  “What are you asking me?” he - asked carefully as he sat back.

  “What should I do? I wrote her a poem. I was going to slip it under her door, but then I’m thinking…too much. Maybe it’s too much, but I don’t know if I can say…what I feel. Like, I’m going to screw it up and…”

  “Do you have it?”

  “Have what?”

  “The poem.”

  “Oh! Yeah! Why?”

  “Let’s hear it.”

  “Oh, yeah - you don’t wanna hear it,” Joe stated with a shake of his head.

  “I certainly do. It may help. Who knows?”

  Joe sat for a moment, his eyes darting left and right before he opened his jacket and pulled out a folded piece of paper from an inside pocket.

  “Ok.” His eyes rose from the paper before he blew out a breath. “It’s kind of…different -”

  “Joe? I’m a little pressed for time,” the Doctor reminded him.

  “Yeah…Ok. Here goes,” he stated before unfolding the paper. He took a deep breath.

  “Your eyes are the window into my soul,

  I want to stuff my junk in your hole.

  Magic happens when our eyes connect.

  If any man ever dares to touch you, I will rip his head off and shit down his neck.

  I will desecrate his grave with my pee.

  Just to prove how much you mean to me.”

  He slowly raised his eyes to find Doctor Mike with a somewhat surprised look on his face, eyes wide, mouth open.

  “Eh? What do you think?” Joe asked eagerly.

  “It’s ummm…” Doctor Mike trailed off absently.

  “Pretty good, if I do say so myself…” Joe nodded.

  “No. You…just…it’s different. I mean…you probably shouldn’t…Joe? You don’t…talk about poop and pee in a…is that supposed to be a romantic poem? I’m a little worried over here,” he stammered.

  “It’s a joke! An inside joke. Jane’ll crack up. I think it sends the message, though. You know? Like, hey! This is funny…but it’s…true. I mean…the sex part and…maybe the other stuff too, but not really. Well, actually, yes. I do believe if anyone tried to touch her I might have to…Nah, I was just kidding about that part. But I do love her, or I at least think I do,” he stated rapidly.

  “Don’t give her that poem, Joe,” Doctor Mike stated forcefully.

  “Why not?”

  “Let’s just say it may have the opposite effect you were hoping for.”

  “But -”

  “Joe. Stay away from her. Take your meds, buddy.”

  The intercom on his desk buzzed before Amanda’s voice filled the room.

  “Dr. Mike?”

  “I mean it. Joe,” he stated quietly, ignoring the interruption.

  “But -”

  “Does she…have you told her anything about your…issues?”

  “My what? I…no, no we haven’t really got into that, but maybe I don’t have issues. I feel normal. I mean, when I’m with her? Totally normal, kind of…happy. She makes me laugh. I want to be with her, but then I’m like, ‘no, you can’t be with her’ because I shouldn’t, but then again, why not? Why should I be alone? I don’t want to be alone. I wanna have sex, and not with some random chick. I want her. Only her. But…more. Like a real relationship…maybe even…I don’t know what I’m saying, here. I need to think. She’s messing with my head.”

  “All the more reason to leave her be. You’re not ready for this, Joe,” Dr. Mike replied sternly.

  “Dr. Mike?” Amanda’s voice again…

  “Right. So, I’ll just…think about it,” Joe stated as he stood up.

  “Joe? Don’t give her that poem,” he heard as he walked toward the door and opened it.

  “Joe?! Did you hear me?!” he heard as he walked through to the waiting room.

  “Yep! Got it!” he tossed over his shoulder before giving a small wave to Amanda and walked rapidly to the front door.

  *****

  He gave her the poem.

  Slipped it right under her door after she left for work that night. He would text her later, see what her reaction was. She was going to laugh. And then she was going to think. And maybe she felt the same way. Maybe she didn’t…but she kissed him back. She had to feel the same way, right?

  Maybe you should stop thinking and get to work.

  Tonight’s hit was a particularly good one. Some slimeball with an arrest record a mile long and quite varied too.

  Tonight was the end of the line for Conrad Voight. Drug dealer, suspected rapist, possible murderer. Perfect hit. No one would miss this asshole, except maybe his junkie clients. They’d get over it. Plenty more where that came from…

  Oh, I need to get the hell out of this town. He thought as he prepped for tonight’s activities. Jane was safe in her office building, he would take care of business and text her later. Another coded message showed up on his beeper earlier with another job. A job he would make his last one. Ever. He would simply leave everything with the body, just like he told D. And then…what then?

  He would go to her, tell her how he felt. Total honesty. She would appreciate that…

  *****

  Sparkling.

  No other word to describe it. This office was an absolute train wreck when she entered it earlier. Apparently they had a Birthday Party at some point during the day and she w
ondered if they even had plates available – there was that much food on the floor, embedded in the carpet, icing smeared on the conference table…

  She turned the lights off and grabbed her plastic tote, ready to head to the third office of the night.

  “Hello.”

  The sound of a deep male voice caused her to jump and turn toward the source. A huge man stood in the hallway staring down at her. A rather menacing looking dude with a bald head and a scar that ran from his left eye down to the corner of his mouth. Fear immediately took hold causing her to take a step backward. He wasn’t the typical late working office dweller she encountered sporadically. He resembled a more ‘maximum security prison inmate’ look, maybe an MMA cage fighter or movie villain. Definitely not an office worker, she thought as her pulse quickened.

  “Can…can I help you?” she stammered as she pulled the tote in front of as if that would protect her or something.

  “You Jane Hamilton?” he asked in a gruff voice.

  “Ah…no?” she answered nervously, taking another step back.

  “Yeah you are. You’re coming with us.” He took a step forward.

  Us? Her eyes darted to the right and left of the otherwise empty hallway, the dim lighting cast sporadic shadows down the long corridor. Her right hand crept into the tote; her fingers feeling for a cool metal can as she sidestepped to avoid the wall behind her.

  There was a stairwell at the end of the hall. If she could somehow get to it…

  “I…have seven more offices. Could you um, you know, wait…or something? Who are you? Where did you…um…want to take me, exactly?” Her mouth was moving and things were coming out without any real thought behind them. Her fingers clasped around the can and her forefinger felt for the nozzle direction as she took another step back.

  “I don’t think you need to worry about your seven offices. Put your shit down, let’s go.” He was grabbing something from inside his coat.

  Oh god…

  Her arm shot up and out, her finger pressed down on the nozzle as Scrubby Bubble foam spewed forth and splattered on his face. She threw the tote in his general direction before turning and running as fast as her legs would allow, straight into something extremely hard and completely unyielding. Something clamped around her waist and a sharp piercing pain exploded in her neck as her body twisted and turned, trying to break free from whatever was holding her. Her legs kicked wildly, looking to make contact and failing. Her arms were trying desperately to land a punch before they fell limply to her sides. Her whole body was slumping as panicked thoughts swirled through her brain. Her eyes were closing, the lids fluttering as unintelligible words escaped her slackening mouth.

  *****

  NO NO NO…

  “Where are you going?” he whispered to himself as a series of blips and pings sounded, disturbing the silence and causing his concentration to shift from the house he was watching to the smart phone in his lap. She left her building. She had at least 4 hours left at work but she left her building. Oddly enough, her phone was still where it was when she arrived hours earlier. His palms felt sweaty, his eyes darting from his lap and back through the scope.

  Where are you? He silently chided his mark as his eyes continued to flit back and forth.

  No sign of him. It was ten o’clock and Conrad Voight was already late for his poker game. Of course, he wasn’t going to make his game tonight anyway, but he didn’t know that.

  Come on Come on… This block was absolutely perfect for this hit. He was stationed in an abandoned building across the street from the house which was surrounded by a partially burned out building on one side and another abandoned house on the other side. It couldn’t be any more than 20 degrees outside, leaving the neighbors that did still occupy this neighborhood, inside their homes. One quick shot, silencer attached. Conrad would fall; D was already alerted and was probably hanging around somewhere. Now all that was left was this asswipe doing something as simple as walking out of a house.

  Another ping. She was on the move and she didn’t have her phone. They took her. They had to. She wouldn’t just leave her phone. Oh, please hurry up. His concentration was officially shot to hell as he lowered the rifle and pulled out his device and began typing. As soon as he was done, he stuffed it back in his pocket, grabbed his gun and backed away from the open window. Something was moving, causing him to stop for a brief moment. Voight was walking out of his house. You are one lucky asshole, he thought as he turned and ran silently through the building, his phone pinging inside his coat.

  *****

  Whoa. That smelled bad…

  What is that? Stop it, get that out of my face, she tried to swat away the offensive smell under her nose, but couldn’t. Her arms wouldn’t move, well…no, they moved, they just wanted to move together. Her eyes fluttered open, the first sensation she felt was that…it was cold. Really cold. And her butt was sitting on something cold and her arms were tied together at the wrist and her…damn, her legs were too. Her body began to shiver, her teeth started to chatter. It was dark, but slowly changed to dim as her eyes adjusted. One of the huge brutes had a vial of something he was waving under her nose. She turned her head to escape the smell.

  “She’s awake.”

  “Good. Hello, Jane.”

  She knew that voice. She just heard it a few weeks ago.

  She blinked, her vision was blurry and the lighting in the room wasn’t helping matters.

  “Rick?” she croaked out as a pair of shoes stepped into her line of sight. Suddenly, the body crouched down and Rick’s face came into view. He really was a nice looking guy…too bad he was such a rotten ass bastard.

  “So…why don’t you tell me why you were really looking for me?” he demanded softly.

  “Huh?

  “Don’t play dumb, Jane. What do you know?”

  “I don’t know anything!”

  “You’re a crappy liar, Jane. You certainly weren’t subtle when you were asking around about me. How do you know Joe Peters?”

  “Who?” A shudder surged through her body causing an involuntary jolt, or maybe that was the extreme cold. She was in what appeared to be an abandoned warehouse or maybe an old manufacturing plant. Whatever it was, it was old and crumbling. She could be anywhere…

  “Jane, you’re dead, no matter what, so you might as well tell me -”

  “I…really don’t know. I…” Oh, what the hell…

  “Did you kill Marcus Peters?” she blurted as her eyes firmly attached to his.

  “Do you think I would tell you that?”

  “You said I was dead anyway. So did you?” Her vision was definitely tunneling as her breath started coming out in small gasps. Her throat was…closing, making breathing a chore. A body was above her, arms extended, hands clenched around her neck. Something bright was catching the light as her eyes tried desperately to focus on a small metal object that was swinging wildly. A choked gasp escaped her throat as her bound wrists raised to her throat.

  “What’s wrong with her? What did you give her?” She could hear in the distance as another loud choked gasp racked her body.

  I don’t want to go to jail…

  The pressure on her neck was increasing; she was powerless to fight this person off. The metal object above her was fading, her brain was buzzing; everything was buzzing until… nothing. She was looking at Rick again. He was standing up in front of her and backing away.

  “I don’t wanna go to jail…” she heard her own voice croak out slowly. Rick looked stunned before shaking it off.

  “Kill this crazy bitch. Grind her up and throw her in the Detroit River,” she heard as another chill racked her body.

  “Wait!” Sshe gasped out as his body continued to retreat.

  “Gotta go, Jane. You did this to yourself. Such a shame…” his voice was fading as he continued to walk toward the opposite side of the dilapidated building.

  Her eyes slowly traveled from his retreating back to the two huge men standing in fro
nt of her.

  They were staring down at her. The guy with the scar was scowling at her accentuating the fact that he was butt-ugly. The other guy wasn’t much better looking. They were both huge, both scary, except…what was that? Her eyes caught and held what she assumed was the man that caught her and drugged her. He was looking at her with a strange expression on his face. Contemplating something…

  His hands were jammed in her hair, pulling it back toward him, was that her back? He was moving behind her, a slapping sound, grunting…

  “So…you’re gonna kill me? Right?” she mumbled as she continued to watch the scene in front of her.

  “Come on…” She heard a gruff voice in the distance.

  “You…want some of this?” Eye contact must have been broken because she was looking at two pairs of boots in front of her.

  “If you untie me, I…could do…both of you. I’m gonna die anyway, might as well go out with a bang, right?” Her mind was racing.

  “What?” she heard one of the men’s voices, but not sure who.

  “Yeah. I’m…like a total…skank. Untie me so I can at least…you know…I’m so…horny right now…and you guys are so…sexy. I just have to…have you both. At the same time. Untie me.”

  They were looking at each other. The one with the scar looked skeptical. His buddy was obviously all for it. He was nodding his head enthusiastically.

  “I don’t know…” scarred guy stated.

  “Why? You guys afraid of a girl? What am I gonna do to you? You guys are huge. Come on. I wanna suck you off and you can get me from behind. Whaddya say?”

  “Oh god, man. She’s hot. Come on.” His hand was already on his zipper.

  “Rick’s gonna freak.”

  “He ain’t here. Come on. We’ll waste her after.”

  *****

  Finally.

  Rick Trayer was close enough to grab.

  This is what you wanted. Go for it. Get him. Go…

  His eyes were firmly attached to Rick as he backed away and walked toward the side door of the building. Joe tucked himself firmly into a shadowed corner, his heart beating rapidly in his chest.

  This is it. Follow him out and grab him…

  He was alone. This was so damn perfect.

  The heavy door opened and a cool rush of wind blew into the already cold building. His eyes darted from Jane, tied up and seated on the floor in front of two huge men, to the open door and back. His foot took a step toward the door before her voice rang out.