It was everywhere. On the walls, the couch, the pillow I'd used to beat him in the face at first, the lamp he'd fallen on. It was pooling in the carpet and under my nails. I'd gotten it on my shoes and my pants and my shirt and my face, oh my face. It ran into my mouth, salty, metallic.

And it felt so good.

"Lil' fucker..."

I didn't know that voice. It didn't sound like me. But I knew the one coming from the front door.

"What.."

Stammering, stuttering, my wife stood in the doorway. She was shaking, looking around the living room, at her lover she'd kept from me, and at me covered in HIM. Not just his blood..

in him.

Pieces of his skin torn from his face, and his arms. Chunks of his shoulders and stomach.


I'd taken the day off from work to pend with my wife, newly wed, just after our honeymoon. My boss was understnading, having gotten married only two weeks ago himself. I couldn't keep doing it, and it was her that pointed it out, not me.

It was the morning, early. Why we were already up I didn't know. But we were, and she was sitting at the table drinking coffee. God she was beautiful. I came up behind her and wrapped my arms around her and she jumped a little.

"You scared me.."

"I'm sorry.." I muttered into her neck as I kissed it. She gave a giggle and I sighed.

She'd felt so good..

She was trying to see how quickly she could get to the phone. It was only I few feet away, and I was on the other side of our huge living room, hunched over a dead body. Panting, sweating, crying.

The second I saw her hand flinch a noise came from my mouth. I had tried to say something, but what it was I wasn't sure. It made her stop though. It was that or the large knife still in my hand.

I don't remember that being there.

"You need help.."

I snaped back to her from the blade in my left hand and she quivered. I sighed. "What?"

"You.. need help.. I want to help.."

I was screaming. Incoherent. But it shut her up. I didn't want to hear her right now.

It was her fault anyway, wasn't it? If she hadn't brought this

this

other man

in here, it wouldn't have happened at all. Would it?

Or was it my fault. Overtimes and staff parties and working late in the other room..

Maybe I was to blame.

She flinched towards the phone again. I threw the knife and it landed in her shoulder.

Now we were both screaming. She feel to her knees and I walked over slowly, watching her intently. Was she going to get up? No. She just looked up. She was crying? SHE was crying?

Did she think she had any right..?

"Pregnant?"

She was grinning, running her hand over the small bump. Two months already.

"Is it great? A step closer to our family.."

"I guess." I wasn't ready for that, and I was swamped.

Oh dear. A baby.

I had her by her hair now. She was still crying, and had finally seen the damage I'd done to the man.

She screamed again. I suppose your lover's smaller intestines around his neck would do that to you.

She was now pleading with me. I ripped the knife from her shoulder and she shrieked. I was getting sick of that noise, but I was crying. She shouldn't have done it. She just shouldn't have.

"I love you.."

I was muttering it over and over to myself, but she heard me and stopped screaming. I saw her eyes light up; cogs were turning and she started muttering it back. I knew better. She'd done it before when I caught her on the phone with a number I didn't recognise.

I threw her into the wall.

Her shoulder left a dark smear as she slid down, crying again. I picked up the knife and walked over again, my eyes so blurred with tears that I could hardly see. All I'd ever wanted was her, to have her in my arms and have her love me..

I'd failed. And so had she.

She'd promised. I'd forgiven her once and she'd promised but now here he was in our house again, after we'd lost the baby. I'd taken a week from work, I'd tried so hard..

But I was smarter then he had been. I'd waited. He'd come before she had. I should've been at work. but instead I was in my closet, watching throguh the door, and he'd had the nerve to take his tie off and throw it over mine. Put his shoes next to mine. Put his belt on the bed where I'd had her before he'd even met her.

Now that knife was jammed somewhere in her and she was whimpering. I was still crying as I pulled it out and watched her die. Then I took it to my wrist.

She wasn't leaving me, goddamn them both.

I wouldn't let her.

It's cold now. It's dark and there are people taking her away, more people taking her from me. I tried to say no but my mouth wouldn't work the way I wanted.

And then it all stopped.