The blood pooled at my feet. The woman’s mangled body sprawled on the floor; her face was barely recognizable. My heavy breathing slowly subsided and a big grin appeared on my face. The thrill of killing was exhilarating! The small giggle that escaped my lips quickly changed into a thundering laugh. I continued laughing until I heard the front door open.

“Sweetheart, I-” My husband walked through the door with a cheeky smile as if he had good news. His jaw dropped and he stood in the hallway just staring at me.

“Don’t look at me like that!” I screamed in my head. Why was he looking at me like that? If she didn’t interfere with my marriage, I wouldn’t have had to kill her!

“Why?” He managed to ask as he dropped his work bag and rushed to the dead woman’s side. He caressed her head; his ugly crying made me furious. My eyes narrowed, I took a deep breath and clenched the knife in my hand.

“Why? What do-” My laugh was returning, my body began to tremble. My husband looked up at me, his eyes were red from his pitiful sobbing. His eyes were so full of sadness, as if his heart was broken by his first love; mine dropped. I stopped laughing. “This was your fault!” I brought the knife to this neck. I could never forget the look in his eyes; it was as if he were looking at a monster.

I remember the first day I met my husband. He was the manager of a renowned restaurant and I was just a high school graduate. Of course, I was just looking for a part-time job, I wasn’t expecting to become so attached to one place. Coming from New York, I wasn’t used to the intimacy of a small town. Everyone knew everyone. It probably wasn’t that I liked the restaurant, but the man I worked with. His long hair was always pinned back behind his ear, and his tall stature never felt as if he was looking down on you. Those bright green eyes of his were always smiling even if he physically wasn’t. He was always open and sincere; he never ceased to make me smile every day. What happened to the man I fell in love with?

He was so sweet to me in the beginning.

“Clarisse,” He smiled that friendly smile of his. “How about we go out for coffee tomorrow?” He turned his back to me to finish cleaning up the table. “You know, since we’re both off work…” Now that I think about it, he never seemed like the type to make the first move on a woman.

“We work in a restaurant, we could just grab a coffee on the way out if we wanted.” I laughed at him, not noticing the strained look on his face as I passed him to return the dirty dishes to the kitchen. When I returned, he was sitting down at the now cleaned table with coffee for two sitting in front of him. Those green eyes of his looked almost tense, like the calm in the middle of a raging storm. I stood behind the chair across from him and watched as he poured the coffee into the first cup. He hesitated before pouring the next cup and sliding it in front of me.

“Black coffee?” I smirked. “Only the wolves of  Wall Street drink their coffee black.” I laughed before taking a sip of the bitter water. He watched me carefully only to watch me pull a sour expression from the coffee. I was never a fan of black coffee, or anything bitter for that matter; I preferred more sweet things. Derek laughed at me and gulped the bitter liquid down as if to spite me.

“So, does that mean you’re the lamb that the wolves would devour?” He asked, smirking at me now. My sour expression changed to one of surprise. He had changed my economic reference to one of the bible. I shook my head with distaste, however now harboring a now pleased expression.

“Not if the wolves and lambs feed together.” I recited and looked back at him. His eyes lit up, as if I had ignited some small flame inside him. Derek stood up now, still smiling his sweet smile though holding his coffee in hand and taking small sips every few seconds. As much as I hated that strong scent the coffee gave off when it mixed with his, I couldn’t help but want to indulge myself in it. Like the wolf who would gorge himself on the lamb’s flesh, I felt hungry - for him. He lowered the cup from his lips, looking down at me.

“So, why don’t we go out tomorrow -  a date?” His lips were coiled into a smirk now, as if I were falling right into his trap.

I sighed, trying to hide the fact that my cheeks were the rosey color of scarlet. “Fine…” I muttered. He bent down to look eye-to-eye with me. My eyes darted away, though out of the corner of my eye, I could see that his smirk had reverted back to its sweet smile once again. I sighed again, this time inhaling his robust scent, almost suffocating in it. I took a step away from him, still looking away and trying to hide my smile. Why had I fallen so hard and so quickly? My eyes seemingly avoided his no matter how many times he tried to move my chin to face him. “You’re to get me at noon.” I said, finally looking at him as if I was his superior. Derek laughed at me, then quickly shyed away as he retrieved the coffee from the table and brought it the kitchen. I stood in the same spot as where he left me. When he returned, that smirk returned, though it seemed almost twisted this time. I was so struck by his smile that I had forgotten what he had said. It took me a moment to realize it but he was already on his way out. “Dress Warm.”

“Warm? But it’s still spring!” I called after him, however he just waved goodbye without turning back to me or giving any sort of explanation.

I was glad that I actually listened to him the next day. He had actually remembered that I was from New York. He took me hiking and had set up a picnic in advance. It was so sweet! The food wasn’t all that great, but it was still a sweet gesture none the less.

A tear rolled down my cheek as I was called back to the present by a crack of thunder. The front door was still open and the rain was beating down harder than earlier. I looked back down, sighing as I remembered what happened before I blanked out. My husband’s eyes were closed now. I figured that they closed as he fell to the floor. I scratched the back of my neck, dropping the knife before hand and began thinking of ways to get rid of a body.

“There’s always hydrochloric acid… Or burning the body…” I thought to myself as I paced around the room and closed the front door. “But where would I get the acid? And how would I get the fire hot enough to burn the bones?” I bit my lip, then brought that woman down to the basement, dragging her by her hair and threw her down into a far corner. “Nobody would look for you.” I laughed at the corpse. “You were never wanted to begin with.” I slowly made my way back up the stairs to fetch my husband’s body.

However, it was gone. I looked around and found smears of blood across the floor. I stood there silently, chuckling to myself. My husband shoved me to the floor so I was looking up at him. “So this is my Happily Ever After?” I asked him, snickering. His face was scorned with hatred and everything turned black.