Maniac

It's over. Nothing could hurt me anymore. As I looked towards my husband's house, I saw growing flames that I had started. I laugh hysterically loudly, as if our next-door neighbors can't hear me.

"What have you done, Evonne?" I saw my spouse pulling up next to the flaming home. He had recently returned from a trip overseas. He shakes his head, like nothing is unfolding in front of him. He drew me into a tight hug and kissed the top of my head roughly.

"We need to get out of here as soon as possible before you're charged with arson." I shook my head at his illogical suggestion. The issue is, I want to be found. This is my story, and I want to share it. It can't be kept in the burning home with the ashes. I slid off my wedding ring and gave it to him.

"Roan, I'm sorry, but I'm not going to bring you down with me. There is nothing wrong with you". I adore you, yet it is my adoration for you that drives me mad.

***

"Are you certain you'll attend this wedding? If you have second thoughts, my car is only over there", my brother teased me as he reattached my veil. Because he is the only family I have, our bond is unbreakable.

"Stupid, you're envious that I'm going to marry into a great family and you can't even communicate your feelings to the one you love."

"I see a low blow coming on. In all seriousness though, who has a whole 75-acre estate with a mansion in it? Is he part of the mafia or something?"

Our playfulness got stopped quickly when the wedding coordinator told me that the wedding will start in 10 minutes. Is it just me, or have I seen a bloodied lady in a dress identical to mine gazing at me in the mirror? I shook it off and finished doing my makeup.

"Evonne, you look stunning in my mother's gown." When Roan's eldest son stood near me, I shuddered. Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, a sixpence in your shoe. We've followed tradition, and I borrowed Katrin's white summer dress with puff sleeves. Katrin was Roan's late wife and her wardrobe is heaven for fashion enthusiasts. Sebastian, 22, Benjamin, 18, and Monika, 10, are their three children.

I went downstairs in the mansion to the lawn, which would be our wedding venue. With my brother on my side, we walked the aisle. You'd come to regret it. You will not be able to take my children away from me. I shivered into the unfamiliar cold breeze on a summer afternoon.

***

"What made you believe you could do that to your husband's family's home?" I've been at the police station since I completely submitted when they saw me sitting motionless in the sidewalk with a swarm of neighbors raising a commotion.

"His evil wife made me do it. During my husband's and his children's absence, I've been living alone at the mansion. Not a single day she would tell me to kill myself."

"But missus, his wife died 10 years ago from an almost miscarriage of their youngest child."

Then I came to think to myself, it wasn't her?

"What makes you think you'd do anything like this, Evonne? Why did you destroy the one and only thing that reminded us of our mother? You're extremely self-centered. I hope you're incarcerated forever", Benjamin, the sweetest Ben cussed me out.

Sebastian drew his brother away from me and gave me a disappointed look. I'll never see those men or Roan's little princess, who adored me like her own mother. I screwed up. “That's what you get for messing with me,” a female officer's visage changed into the same bloodied lady from the wedding. I exclaimed, and the first thing I did was assault her. She shattered the life I had established with my family. 

Two additional cops and my brother rushed to stop me from harming the poor officer whose face had become blue and who was not the bloodied lady in my visions a while earlier. The next thing I know, I've passed out.

***

“Evonne, accusations of arson and assault on a police officer. What happened to you? My wife and I are really concerned. I almost hit your spouse, but he got away because you told him to!” my brother exclaimed when we were in the station’s triage. 

“When I see her, I can't help but feel an overwhelming hate erupt in my system.” “There's a doctor you should visit. This isn't a good idea because what you've done has caused quite a stir.” Oh my goodness, is he right? Is it possible that I'm not in my right mind after all? I watched my brother describe what occurred to the cops, and he's obviously going to bail me out. 

***

I slept off again on the way to my brother's place. I'm exhausted. My entire body is numb.

My boss has always changed from partner to partner. I know he's a heartbreaker, yet I still fell for him. “Aina, have you arranged and prepared for my dinner with Katrin Brams?” As a good secretary, I nodded in answer. I knew this was going to be a short-lived romance. I was sorely mistaken. I had to suffer everything from their wedding to the birth of their first child. Fortunately, the last birth of their daughter was hugely dangerous for the family. I've sent her a handwritten message stating that her husband is cheating on her and that he will soon leave her and his family. That day, she wept a lot. 

Roan finds consolation and asks for a drink with me one night when the kids are with their grandparents. “How come you never left like the rest of them?” One thing led to another, and we were in our agony and pleasure together, and this was the most valuable gift he ever offered to me—a chance. We awoke the next day to realize that it was his wife's funeral. He's so ashamed of himself that he grabbed a gun I had no idea he possessed and aimed it at me. He shot me while I held white sheets in my arms.

“Shit! Shit!” When my brother heard me wake up from a dream, he hurriedly pulled over to the side of the road and got out. "She's warning me," I said. I turned around to see my gorgeous spouse pointing a pistol at me from the rear. "Aina, do you know her?" He laughed, but his eyes were terrible.