Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-25763427-20150817145329

THE DAY BEFORE

''1: Sunday ''

I don’t remember the day before yesterday.



That doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with me. That doesn’t mean that SHE was right. Plenty of people are forgetful, plenty of people spend fourteen hours a day at work.



She’ll be back soon too, she can’t stay away forever. In her haste to abandon me, she forgot her wallet. She’s been gone for a day now, she’ll be back by tonight. Or by tomorrow morning (Monday) if she’s feeling particularly stubborn. She must be staying at a friend’s since the car has been left in the driveway. Probably Susan’s, or Harriet’s, those two always conspired against me, insisting that I wasn’t good enough for their mutual friend.



<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">Both of them, harpies. Nasty voices with bug eyes and rotting hair. That’s all I remember of them, their flapping mouths. Our last conversation is gone to me, but it matters not. I hate them and they despise me. I’m as happy to have forgotten them, as I am to have forgotten the fight me and her had on Friday.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">But that’s why I’m keeping this blog. Not for anyone who stumbles across it in the hundreds go meaningless egomania, but for myself. Somethings are made to be remembered.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in">''<span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;mso-fareast-font-family:Arial; mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">2: Monday ''

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">She didn’t show up this morning.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">Deciding that she was being ridiculous, I left the house after breakfast intent on finding her. It was foggy out, and I decided to walk instead of drive. I had a vague memory of running all the oil out the day before, doing something important (I checked my blog but it didn’t mention it).

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">She wasn’t at Susan’s though, and the harpy glared at me like I was the idiot. Wasn’t at Harriet’s either, apparently she hasn’t contacted any of her friends in quite a while. I had to stop by the park she likes, in the meager hope she might be there. She wasn’t, and I had to sit down on a bench to compose myself.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">I was going to call her parents, but I didn’t have any cash. Walking home, I felt eyes on the back of my neck. My neighbors were all staring at me, some with terror, and others with confusion. A woman ushered her child inside, as though I was an enemy soldier returning from the battle which marked their doom.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">I need to get back to work. Stop worrying about her, I’ll call tomorrow. I have a lot I need to write, I need to stop procrastinating.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in">''<span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;mso-fareast-font-family:Arial; mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">3: Tuesday ''

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">Blood.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">It’s all over the back hall. I went back there to find some files, and I found a bunch of words written in blood. Not my blood. Not my work. It can’t be my work. I’ve been mostly in the office the whole week.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">But that means that someone’s been in my house. That must be what those morons were all scared of. They must have seen a strange man exit the house. They must know something I don’t. Maybe someone died. Someone must have died, there’s too much blood anyone to survive without.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">The bloody messages warn me not to go into the cellar. They all repeat this over and over. But what’s in the cellar? I don’t remember anything of importance being kept there. Why does The Murderer not want me down there? It must be where they are hiding. I locked the door to the basement so that they could not get out.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">I can’t call the police. My phone has been gnawed on. The Murderer doesn’t want me to call help. Sharp teeth and sharper claws, I can hear them scratching against the basement door. Their working together with the harpies, they drove her away so that I’d be all alone and they could come for me in the night.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">I bought some bear traps today, placed them in front of my basement so that if the intruder escaped in the night they would get a nasty surprise and would not kill while I slept. On the way back from the store THEY watched me. Their eyes follow my every move. Those rotten bastards with their rotten bastard children are all watching me now. If I leave the house they’ll call the boys in blue. They’ll lock me up and throw away the key.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">I have to board the windows, I have to keep the door locked. I have to remove the stains.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">I have to finish my work.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in">''<span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;mso-fareast-font-family:Arial; mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">4: Wednesday ''

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">The sharp claw is getting louder. I can hear its claws scratching across the door, its screeches. My cereal was scattered across the kitchen floor this morning. Bloody paw prints were all over the rug. I don’t know if they were there before, they shouldn’t have been.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">I’m going to the basement, that’s where The Murderer is hiding. For some reason the steak knife in the kitchen is bloody. The Murderer must have used it.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">With knife in hand I’ve tip toed between the traps, if I survive I’ll post again.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in">''<span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;mso-fareast-font-family:Arial; mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">5: ''

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">The moment I opened the door a horrible stench wafted up. I could only assume that it was the smell of The Murderer, who must have pissed and defecated whilst locked down here. My foot bumped against a dark red bucket, and I kicked it down the rest of the way. As the sound of banging against wood died, I heard hissing.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">A beast, with flaming red eyes and yellow teeth jumped on top of me. It stabbed its teeth into my shoulder, and I punched it, sending the giant rat down the stairs. I leaped down the rest of the way and decapitated it, watching the foaming head come to a stop beside a body.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">The beast, a raccoon, had eaten most of the flesh. And I must have removed most of the blood judging by the slit across her throat. But she was still my wife. The wedding ring remained on her shriveled bone finger. Just seeing her triggered the memory of her pushing me, and me pushing her back. I had watched her descend fall down the stairs in slow motion, and drained the blood from her body to warn myself.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">I climbed back up the stairs, shivering because of the cold and holding my nose for the stench. I wasn’t paying attention. I was stupid. God, I was so stupid!

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">Before I had time to react, one of the traps went off. It took my foot. Now I’m lying at the top of the cellar stairs, with a bloody stump kicking the air. The smell of my maggot buffet wife and the corpse of a raccoon who must had gotten in through the basement window, fill the air. Even if I could disarm these traps, my phone has still been destroyed.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">I can hear those rotten bastards throwing rocks at my house, even now. As the blood drains away, I get the feeling that this building rage inside of me is not going to evaporate.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">It’s going to stick around, like my corpse, for a very long time.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height: 115%;font-family:"CopperplateGothicLight",sans-serif;mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">  

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: 115%;tab-stops:center3.25in"> <ac_metadata title="The Day before (unreveiwed)"> </ac_metadata>