Tango

Chapter Nine






Scarlet came home not five minutes after Derek had gone and she could see that I had been crying again. Of course, with my nose running, my eyes red and puffy, and tear tracks streaming down my face, a blind person could have know too.

“What’s wrong?” She asked. I still hadn’t told her about Nicholas and I sure as hell didn’t want to tell her about Derek showing us, so I opted for the former.

Just as expected, when I was done telling all, Scarlet was on the phone to Alex, who arrived minutes after with Kleenex, chocolate brownies, a romantic movie, and alcohol.

We spent the night locked away up in Scarlet’s bedroom so that we wouldn’t have to face my Aunt and Uncle, who were both home for a few days, and by midnight the three of us were more than slightly buzzed, running on a sugar high, and cackling like a bunch of old hens. My mood had lifted considerably, I chalked that up to the vodka we were drinking, and I wanted to put in the movie that Alex had brought. I figured that a little romantic plotline wouldn’t bother me once I was drunk.

I was wrong.

As soon as there was even a hint of love between the main characters, who are supposed to be bitter rivals, I broke into tears again, as did Scarlet and Alex. We had to take the movie out of the player and then we just looked at it.

“Let’s smash it.” Declared Alex suddenly, giving the tape the evil eye.

Scarlet began to prod it before saying, “I agree. Where is that baseball bat?”

I then acted on sudden impulse and took the heel Scarlet had lying under the bed and smashed the tape with all my strength. I broke Scarlet’s heel while doing it too, but sacrifices need to be made sometimes.

We all began laughing and while as were enjoying our drunken joy, Scarlet said, “That was my favourite right shoe…I mean I loved those shoes!” That just set us off even more and it was a while before we were able to calm down again.

Eventually, each of us began to fall asleep while talking more about why we hated men and pondering if they had more than a dozen uses in the world. We were really being quite feminist with our conversation, but it finally turned to who was hot on prime time television and we relaxed into sleep.

Just as I was about to pass out, almost literally, on Scarlet’s bedroom floor when I dragged myself up and stumbled into my own room so that I could sleep in my own bed.

- - - - - - -

That night I tossed and turned as I sleep and sleep was in fact harder to come by then normal. It wasn’t my normal dream, nor the dream that I had the night that Nicholas was with me in the house. Instead, it was a more morbid dream that kept repeating over and over.

“Glad to see that you finally showed up Derek. Too bad you didn’t have the balls to do anything when you had the chance. Coward.” Hissed a female voice whose person was encased in the shadows of the bridge tress overhead. There was the slight drone of machinery in the background. Most probably it was turbines for the hydro companies.

Derek stood leaning casually against the railing as if he didn’t have a care in the world. He had a smug smile on his face and there was laughter in his eyes.

“Aw, come on baby. I think that you are just jealous of the fact that I almost nailed her and not you. Admit it, you are full of envy more then you are of hatred and pure evil. But lucky for you, I like that in my women. Elizabeth has always just been a toy to me and you know it. Sure she’s sweet but you are what I crave and desire. Now come here and give me a kiss will you? I’ve had a hard day full of unexpected rejection.”

The shadow person quickly closed the space that was between the two of them and embedded her lips into Derek’s. Her fingers wound his hair around them and I could see Derek trying to get her to do more. His arms around her waist wrapped tighter and brought her fully against him. He stopped kissing her and buried his face into her shoulder, inhaling loudly. Her hair was secured under a baseball hat and her face obscured by the bill of the hat as well. It was impossible to see who she was.

Derek then pulled away from her, looking deeply and lustfully into her eyes, then he leaned forward again to continue what they had started. The shadow figure pulled back and placed one hand on Derek’s chest to stop him from kissing her again though, obviously needing to get a word or two more into the conversation before anything more happened. “I have something that I need to tell you my love.” Her voice cooed at him, full of malice and discontent, masking the love that was evident, “It’s your turn now.”

“My turn to what?” Asked Derek, a slight hint of playfulness in his voice. He thought that she was playing with him but I knew, I knew what she was going to do. Desperately I tried to warn him to run but I couldn’t. I was not really there to them. I was a ghost, nothing more.

Slowly, she ran her left hand up from its place of rest on his chest and up to his face, standing there caressing his cheek as she drew the object out of her coat with her right. That long black trench coat she wore which allowed her to blend into the darkness so well also allowed her to hide things deep in their recesses unnoticed. I saw the metal shine in the light of the quarter moon as she drew it down to her side. It cast a sliver of light onto Derek’s torso and I could see a look of ecstasy flash across face with the wonder of what good things were to happen to him once the two of them were inside some cozy room, free to do whatever they pleased.

Ghostly tears were running down my cheeks because I knew that I couldn’t save him. He was going to die and there was nothing that I could do. I couldn’t even warn him to run, to not be such a sex-driven man for once in his life and to see what was about to happen.
The lady of shadows placed a gentle kiss on Derek’s lips and smiled a cold smile that would have never reached her eyes. “It’s your turn to die.” She stated calmly as if it was the most common thing to say to someone.

Then with the speed of a lightening bolt she thrust the screwdriver she had hidden in the folds of her coat into Derek’s chest and pushed him over the barrier of the bridge before he could even react. I rushed to the side and looked down to see his body floating down the river towards the turbines. I clutched the metal railing so hard that my knuckles turned a ghostly white and I felt that if I let go, I too would fall to my demise.

In the blink of an eye I was standing on top of the great turbine, watching Derek near the great propellers that churned the water into white caps. I wanted to look away but I couldn’t force myself to do it. It was as if my eyelids were glued open and my feet stapled to the ground. Paralyzed I watched him enter headfirst. I could hear his bones snap and crunch under the impact of the wheels. I turned and saw the bloodied water pour from the opening on the other side. I could also see Derek’s mangled body emerge from under the turmoil of water.

Tears dripped from my chin as once again I was on the bridge and heard the whispered words of the shadow girl, venom dripping off of every word with the intent of poisoning me, “You’re next Elizabeth. Just you wait.”

I awoke screaming, only this time Nicholas wasn’t there to hold me.

- - - - - - -

October was then filled with police questioning me about Derek and investigating the relationship between Derek’s death and some major mob activity in North America. They wanted to know if I thought it was actually murder or if Derek was the type of guy who would have jumped from the bridge in order to end his own life. But then they got the coroner’s report that he was stabbed before he died, which was something that he couldn’t have done to himself. Eventually, though, they started to drop the case, unable to come to any conclusions about the reasoning behind the whole affair. They told us all that they would continue to watch over everything but they couldn’t promise anyone that they would find out who did it.

Scarlet and I later talked about it. Well, really, she was the one who listened to me cry over him and the events that had taken place. I told her everything that had happened between him and I, even the visit that he had paid me before he was murdered. She offered some insight of her own and we both came to the conclusion that the police who were on the case were incompetent and that they didn’t know more than anyone else. Also, that a terrible thing had happened but it wasn’t my fault. I think that she mainly said that to make me feel better for a moment, but there was some truth in it. We were just thankful that my name had been kept out of the papers, which meant that I wasn’t exposed and could stay with my family.

Everything that happened after that was pretty much uneventful, both in a good and bad way. You see, ever since the murder,
people were more cautious. Parents never let their children out of sight for very long, school breaks were heavily supervised, and the public was warned to keep their doors locked at all times. We were all kept under watchful eyes, Scarlet’s parents trying to make sure that one or both of them were home ever night to be with us. They didn’t want us to be alone at home if something happened again. The good thing about nothing happening was that it was somewhat calm and we all had time to really work on our school stuff for the end of semester projects and we had time to just spend together.

However, these end of year projects also forced Scarlet and I to be in a group with Jessica for our Drama 12 final assignment. Our teacher wanted us to write and direct something to be performed in front of the class, or filmed and shown to everyone via the big screen. This forced me to have to be civil towards Jessica, who was her bitchy self to me anyways, and we all agreed on filming our project instead of doing it live in front of our peers.

We also had to decide on the genre, which was horror, and the basis for our plot line. It was that stupid project and Jessica’s insistence for the location that we found ourselves in the industrial part of town on a Saturday afternoon.

“Is this the place?” I asked as Scarlet pulled the car pulled into the parking lot in front of a cluster of warehouses.

“Must be because there’s Jessica’s car sitting over by that door.” Scarlet answered.

“She’s probably waiting inside, setting up things. No wonder she wanted to make the film here. Very creepy.” Just looking at the place gave me goose bumps

“Yeah is does give off the whole Halloween-slasher flick vibe doesn’t it?” Commented Scarlet, leaning on the steering wheel. “Nicholas’ car is here too. I guess we are the last ones to arrive.”

“They are probably making good use of the extra time.” I spat, “Without us there they can grope in peace.” Scarlet didn’t say anything. Either she didn’t hear me or she chose not to.

After the night that I ran out on Nicholas in his apartment, he began to date Jessica. It seemed to happen almost instantaneously after the break-up – or should I say after he climaxed with her name on his lips.

That’s what really got to me. I had sent Derek away because I still had really strong feelings for Nicholas still, but I really regret doing that. Maybe I should have just gone home with Derek and went back to where I knew everyone and how they ticked. Anita was always irritable when things weren’t going all that great at home, and she sometimes went into fits of silence and wouldn’t talk to any of us. Aaron was all Goth until baseball season started but as soon as the season was over he never looked at his uniform until the next year. And Derek was always really sensitive and deep. Sometimes it was hard to tell if he was joking or being serious. But I think that came from his parents being university professors, and when he was five his dad taught him how to bluff in poker.

Thinking of Derek made me miss him so much that I almost started to cry. It seemed that all I had done in the last couple of days though was cry. And I guess that I had no more tears to cry out because none fell.

Scarlet parked her car next to Nicholas’ and we both got out. Making a small stop to get our gear out of the trunk, we headed inside where we were met with an odd silence. The warehouse had great acoustics and the sound of a pin dropping probably would have magnified off the walls. You would think that at least you could hear two people making out, but no. There was only the low hum of the air-conditioning.

“Hello?” Scarlet shouted out, but only her echo greeted us back. “Well that’s weird. I wonder where those two are.” She whispered in my ear.

“Yeah it is a little odd.” I whispered back, “But why are we whispering?”

Scarlet shrugged. Her silent answer was met with the sound of a door closing at the back of the building. We both started to walk forward towards the noise when suddenly Jessica popped out from behind a large crate.

“Hi guys. Glad to see that you finally showed up. Come on, I’ll show you where we are setting up the stuff.” She led us through the labyrinth of big old crates and boxes until she stopped in front of a large box marked ‘FRAGILE’ in red paint. It looked as if the person who wrote that on the box had spilled a few drops onto the floor. Jessica saw me staring at it and seemed to have read my mind. “It’s not paint Elizabeth,” She hissed at me, “It is Nicholas’ blood.” I did a double take at her. She had called me by me real name. How could she know my real name? I inhaled deeply and she just smiled at me, a smile full of venom.

“God Jess, what have you been smoking? You should know Renee’s name by now.” Laughed Scarlet.

Jessica didn’t say anything, just motioned for us to follow her behind that big box. As I went around, the first thing that I saw was Nicholas sprawled on the floor face down in a small puddle of blood. I gasped and squeezed my eyes shut, hoping that when I opened them again I would not be where I was. It didn’t work. The few seconds that it took to register this sight in my brain was enough to make Jessica let out this high cackle of a laugh.

I rushed over to Nicholas and kneeled down beside him. I pressed my fingers to his throat and saw that he was still alive. Despite his predicament I could feel that his pulse was strong. It seemed as if he has just passed out or something. Scarlet, on the other hand, was going into a frenzy of hysterics. She was hyperventilating and searching around in her bag for her inhaler. She didn’t see the knife that Jessica had in her hand, but I did.

“Run Scarlet!” I screamed at her. Jessica took a swipe but missed as Scarlet took off the way that we had come from, but she didn’t make it. I quickly followed them, not wanting to leave Nicholas but needing to try and save Scarlet. But before she had even gotten 100 yards, Jessica caught up to her and right in front of me she thrust the knife into Scarlet’s abdomen.

“You bitch!” Gasped Scarlet, and out of nowhere she slammed her fist into Jessica’s face. Then seizing the moment Scarlet kneed Jessica in the stomach.

“You’re going to pay for that you no good concubine. I’m going to enjoy this.” Sneered Jessica, still hunched on the ground from the last blow.

Suddenly, faster then my brain could compute, Jessica tripped Scarlet and had her pinned. Then Jessica jabbed the knife into Scarlet once again, then about a half dozen more times. Jessica then turned and with this crazed look in her eyes she started to come after me.

Scarlet was covered now in the red liquid that was her blood. Had it not been real, I might have laughed and made a joke to her about truly living up to her name and that right then she looked nothing like Scarlet O’Hara. But this wasn’t something to joke about. Not now, not ever again.

I started to back away slowly but then was stopped by this weird sensation running through my veins, all through my body. It must have been adrenaline because Jessica was advancing on me and I can totally admit that I wanted to turn and run. But I didn’t. I held my ground. Just because she was on a high and she had a really long, sharp, blood covered butcher knife didn’t faze me in the least.
Oh, who am I kidding? I was scared shitless. I could still see Scarlet’s body sprawled out. Hidden slightly by some crates. Her blood was pooling all out from around her. She was already dead. I could tell because she wasn’t moving any more. Her chest wasn’t rising at all. Also no one could lose that much blood and not be dead. Nicholas had to be still out cold or even dead at the other end of the warehouse. I only could hope that when he came too (if possible), he would have enough smarts to run like hell, get out of here, and call the police.

“Why are you doing this?” I asked Jessica, hoping that I would have more time to think of a way to get out of here.

“Perhaps I can explain.” Came a familiar voice from the foreboding shadows. From the darkest corner, Kelly emerged, wearing all white, looking like a fallen angel.

But it didn’t stop her. Jessica lunged at me and grabbed me around my neck. Damn she had long fingernails. They were jabbing into my neck, almost completely cutting off my supply of oxygen. With a look of pure hatred in her eyes she ran the knife up and down my side, eventually cutting into my skin. I cried out in pain but that just brought a satisfied smile to her lips.

Finally she loosened her grip, only to be replaced with Kelly. There was an unsettling silence as Kelly slowly brought out a gun, pointed it at me, then slightly shifted it and fired. Jessica fell to the floor in a slump and the grip once again tightened around my vocal cords.

“Liz, Liz, Liz.” Came Kelly’s voice once again, “Have you not figured it out yet? My father, and yours too, is Sam Burns. Really, I thought that you were smarter than that? Oh… unless you didn’t know… Sam Burns is the man who wanted you dead, the man that your mother had an affair with. Until he was caught and put in jail for life without parole he had been hunting you down. But I am here to avenge him. I loved my father dearly and he gave me all I ever wanted. And so now I return the favor. It’s too bad that Derek got in the way of my plans. But I made sure he was properly dealt with.” Her voice had been growing higher and louder as she raged on. The anger that she held towards me was just adding fuel to the fire.

“You were the one to kill Derek? But why did you kill him? He didn’t know anything about you or your father. In fact he thought that I had killed those poor people until I told him what the truth was. And even I didn’t know who was after me.”

“You really want the truth? I was jealous. But mostly I did it because your boyfriend Derek was stupid just like you. He was supposed to kill you himself. But he didn’t because he found out that he still had ‘deep feelings’ towards you.” She made air quotes with her fingers to stress her thoughts of stupidity behind the entire process.

I was confused and horrified at the thought. Never in my life would I have imagined that Derek could possibly have agreed to do something like that. I knew that he loved me and in my own way I loved him back. We had such a history with each other. He had always been the one to rescue me and hold onto me when I cried. The Derek that she was describing was nothing like the one I knew.
Kelly loved what I was going through. She was thrilled to know that she was telling me all of this. “That’s right, he worked for my father. But he let his feelings for you get the better of him and he died for it just like your new boyfriend is going to. The only thing my father wanted was to see you dead. He had nightmares about you. Horribly terrifying nightmares that left him screaming your atrocious name in the middle of the night. So for him, I will slice your pretty little thro-” Kelly suddenly stopped mid-sentence. Her eyes shone with tears, frustration and horror as she fell to the ground.

Wide eyed I looked up to see Nicholas standing behind Kelly’s body with a 2x4 on the ground next to him. She was still conscious and moving but it gave Nicholas enough time to grab me as I collapsed from the pain in my abdomen. He picked up the knife off the ground with his right hand before Kelly could get her grubby hands on it and held it at an arms length away from him. Nicholas then put his left arm around me to help support my body so that I could somewhat mange to limp to the door when there was a knee-breaking hit from behind to my head. I slumped to the concrete as Nicholas turned around to see what had hit me.

There was Kelly, barely standing and holding the 2x4 that Nicholas had used on her, in her hands like a bat. She lunged at Nicholas screaming nonsense. Caught by surprise, Nicholas turned with the knife in his hands and the impact of Kelly leaping onto Nicholas forced the knife far into her stomach. For the last time Kelly’s body fell down, on top of Nicholas, blood trickling out of her. Realizing what had just happened, Nicholas let go of his hold on the knife and rolled Kelly off of him. His clothes were covered in blood. Both Kelly’s and mine. I was barely keeping my eyes open but I could feel him gather me up in his arms into a sitting position. And finally I knew that my long time dream had come to be. But it was a little different. It was more painful and real.

As I lay on the cold concrete, I realized that I truly loved him. I felt stupid for not realizing it before this had all happened and not sticking with what my heart was telling me all along. How could I have been so blind? Now it was too late to say anything at all. I was drifting to and from consciousness but I could feel his strong arms surrounding me. He was whispering to me then that it was all going to be all right, that I had to hang on for just a little while longer. I could feel his tears landing on my cheek, blending with my own. I knew that I had to tell him how I felt, so I gathered all of the courage and strength that I had and whispered, “I love you.” I sank farther into Nicholas’ arms and let the darkness surround me like a cocoon.