Psychotic

It was nine in the evening when she finally returned, tired and exhausted and hungry too. She pushed her keys into the key hole and fiddled with it for a while before the door unlocked and opened, she sighed as stepped in, flinging her bag to the couch. Then she could hear the sound of running water, it was coming from the bathroom.

"I don't remember leaving the shower on. Oh Lord, how long must it have been running?"

Dropping her keys on the table, she headed up the stairs. The bathroom door was slightly opened just so she could see the shower running into the bath tub which was plugged and full, the over spilled water was everywhere. She felt goosebumps rise on the back of her neck, she knew something was not all right here but still she stepped closer and pushed the bathroom door opened. She was suddenly grabbed from behind with over hand around her waist to lift her and another over her mouth to keep her from screaming. She trashed around in desperate attempts to get free then the hand over her mouth was removed, she didn't have enough time to catch her breath and scream before a white hanky replaced the hand. This time she didn't struggle much and in seconds she was unconscious.

*

*

*

The darkness covered him like a cloak, allowing him blend into the dark shadows and hiding his evil deed. The street was void of people and moving vehicle and the street lights in this part did not light up. He knew, he had known this for weeks now during the time he stalked her and he knew people in these parts didn't like to get up too early or stay up too late. Everything was calm and the only sounds that reached his ears were the growing sounds of flowing water. He was closer to the waterfall, away from people.

He walked without tripping or slowing down but he also didn't seem to walk fast. Carefully, with her in his arms. He carried her lightly and delicately, feeling the curves of her body where he held her and the full of her hips pressing against his abdomen. His heart pounded in his chest like a lion in heat, faster and faster as energy pursed through his veins, sending sensations throughout his body.

She had a bit of weight but he didn't mind, he had the man power to hold her in this position for longer. His legs ached, his back hurt, he had been waking with her in his arms for a long while. The sun was just beginning to come up when he laid her by the river, her body was cold, stiff and lifeless. He leaned down and kissed her cold blue lips once, twice, then continuously, trailing a hand over her face and hair.

"I love you..." he whispered in between kisses. "I love you, I missed you terribly Pearl."

He pulled out a knife from his pocket and cut a lock of her hair. He kissed the lock of hair as tears came up to his eyes and he cried. He kissed her forehead and her eyes and her lips and her neck and her breasts. He started removing her clothes, he took her shirt off first to reveal deep red scars on her breasts and the side of her abdomen - still fresh, he had marked her only hours ago. He kissed them. He removed her pants, the lines on her thighs and in between were dark red, he kissed that too. Her body spoke of torture and of pain, nail scratches and whipping, fists and knives.

He savoured the feeling of his fingers caressing her naked body, allowing excitement build in him again then he carried out his ritual, slowly and at ease before finally releasing and feeling at peace. He had practiced this so many times over the years and with each new time he did so again by the edge of the waterfall, it felt like the first. He kissed her again.

"I'll love you forever Pearl. You'll always be mine. You are now and you'll always be."

He knew it was time to let her go. He didn't want to and it pained him but he knew he had to. He kissed her again then placed the lock of her hair into his bag, beside several other different locks of hairs belonging to different women.

He wrapped up her naked body into a large transparent plastic bag and gently lowered her into the water. Her lifeless body floated a while over the cold water carried by the strong current and was then flung 43 meters down through the waterfall, plunging underneath before floating back up.

“I love you Pearl. I will always love you. You are mine…” he mumbled, his eyes fixed upon her body floating out of sight. “I will find you… I will always love you Pearl. Always…”

Her name was Maggie.