The Return

I thought she was dead, but I could see her staring at me with her delicate hazel eyes-  that soft brown hair, beautiful smile- staring right at me. I kept telling myself she's dead, she's dead, it’s all in my head. The rumbling stayed in my stomach and I recalled when her eyes were less flat. 

Meg’s father once owned several businesses around the world, but sadly he found himself underneath a train with a handwritten note folded inside his blazer pocket. He left all of his money to Meg. We were in high school when I found out Meg was suddenly wealthy. I wanted to marry her, so I could take her money. Little did I know, this would be the worst mistake of my life. 

The only way to get Meg’s money was to kill her. So that's what I did. When she got back from work, like the caring husband I was, I gave a refreshing glass of water. Little did she know, I put poison in her water, one that would not come up in a police investigation. She started to have a coughing fit. I thought this was it; this is when she dies. But she informed me that she just choked on her water. It wasn’t until the late evening she told me she felt very weak and tired. She said she was going to bed. That’s where I found her an hour later, motionless and unbreathing. I called the ambulance, and they told me she was dead. They confirmed her death was a heart attack. Her funeral was a few days later. Many people tried to console me, but I didn’t need consoling. My plan worked. The money was mine and no one would know what I did to get it.

A few months went by after the incident when I met another beautiful girl named Mya at a cafe where she worked. Her golden shoulder-length hair wisped around her hair, and her sapphire eyes caught the light, twinkling. I was hooked on her smile; I felt I wanted to hear her laugh for a lifetime. We got to know each other for weeks. My feelings for her were growing exponentially. I was at her house one day munching on lemonade and cookies while we chatted. Our conversation was disrupted by the sound of my phone ringing. It was from the police station. I started panicking. Maybe they found out I killed Meg I thought to myself. My palm started to sweat as I picked up the phone. 

The police officer on the line said, “Mr. Roper, I am sorry to inform you, but we got a tip that something was going on at the cemetery where your wife is buried. When we got there, we saw your wife’s grave was empty. We need you to come to the cemetery to see if anything looks familiar to help us understand what happened.” I quickly grabbed my jacket and car keys headed out.

            I was driving in pitch darkness. while I was driving I heard Megs laugh. I felt like I was going insane. “WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME MEG?” I screamed. But I kept on hearing her laugh throughout the drive. When I finally arrived at the grave all I saw were flashing lights, blaring sirens, and people dressed in bullet-proof vests. I ran to Meg’s grave—nothing. An empty basin of earth giggling, as if calling me to step in and consider its possibilities. The lead investigator put a hand on my shoulder, and I jumped. He said he had some questions for me and to come to the police station. I was nervous, but I didn’t want to seem suspicious, so I complied. The investigators started by asking me personal questions about my relationship to Meg.

          Without warning, the investigator suddenly asked me how Meg died. My palms and face began to sweat. I asked if I could go to the bathroom. The investigator begrudgingly agreed. Once in the bathroom, I splashed cold water on my face to shake myself out of it. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a piece of paper being slipped underneath the door. I picked it up and all the color drained from my face. The words were written in blood but what chilled my body to the core were the three words: “I am back.” I flushed the note down the toilet. I tried to open the door but it was locked. I peeped under the door and saw her red pair of stilettos. It was Meg. 

The walls felt as if they were closing in. I was drenched in sweat. I knew she was trying to get me. I tried calling Mya but there was no signal. I grabbed the metal toilet plunger in the corner and hoisted myself on top of the toilet. Bam! One smash against the glass window and the plunger kicked back into my ribs, but I saw a small crack. Another smash and the glass looked like a spider web. Bam! I shimmied out the window and tumbled onto the gravel below. 

I didn’t know where to go so I ran back to Mya's place. I tumbled in the middle of the streets. I felt weak and disoriented, but I chalked that up as a reaction from the fall. A car was hurtling towards me. I could spot the driver a mile away; it was Meg. She stopped the car a few feet away from me. Meg wasn’t the only one on there, Mya was there too with a gun in her hand. Relief flooded through me, until I saw the barrel of the gun pointed directly at me.

          With a wicked smile on her face, Meg said “I knew you were the one that tried to kill me. I was cleaning one day and came across a secret compartment behind the bookshelf. That’s where I found your plans and the bottle of poison.” She started pacing with a smirk on her face as she continued “I switched out the poison with a similar bottle full of water.”

“But how did you fake your death?! The EMT’s pronounced you dead! We had a funeral for you!” I exclaimed. 

“Silly silly man, you forget I have a lot of money. I just bribed some EMT’s to say I was dead when I really wasn’t. And just before you all put the coffin in the ground, Mya helped me escape, undetected.” She said arrogantly. She gestures to Mya and explains “My cousin, but I think you’ve already met, haven't you?”

I collapsed to the ground. I was feeling woozy, but I didn’t think that because of what Meg was telling; there was something wrong. Meg went on, “I had Mya start a relationship with you. The day you got the phone call from the police, she drugged your drink with the same poison you were going to give me.” 

My body turned to ice, but I could see that Meg was unraveling. In a blink of an eye, she grabbed Mya by the throat and got a hold of her gun. Meg started to strangle her. I could see Mya trying to escape. Mya tried to get some words out. “Why... are... you.. doing this... to me?” She gasped. “I was the one... that was helping you... and now you are... betraying me.” She barely got out. Her face was turning pale. She was gasping for air. Lightning shot through her heart seeing Mya in pain. I tried to get up and help her, but I felt pinned to the ground. Then Mya fell down on the ground. Dead. 

A gutted “why” was the only word I could get out. “Because you tried to have me killed. The life of the one you loved for the one whose money you loved! Or kind of a life, since your plan failed” she replied offhandedly.

I didn’t think I could be any more surprised, but all of a sudden I saw Meg’s not-so-dead father approaching. “Why is he here?” I asked. Meg whipped her head around and saw her father. Rather than look surprised, she was speculative.

She turned back to me and said, “hm, I guess he's here for revenge. He didn’t try to commit suicide, I tried to kill him and make it look like a suicide. Apparently, he escaped.” She drawled on. “You see, he was going to write me out of the will. He said I was ‘unstable’ and ‘can’t be trusted.’ He was right of course. So I tried to kill him just like how you tried to kill me to get my money.” Without blinking, she turned around and shot her father. He collapsed with a thump and never got back up. “There! That ought to do it. Now where were we?” she said deviously.

The poison was starting to take hold. Things started to get blurry, I was struggling to breathe, and I was losing the ability to move. I knew this was my time to die. My body felt as though I had been stabbed with a knife a million times. The only thing I knew in this world was pain. As I was slowly falling into permanent darkness, I saw Meg crouch beside me, she put her hand underneath her chin and I heard her sigh into my ear, “the funny things we do for money, right?”