"It's not your fault." Court put his naked arm around her naked shoulders, kissed the soft skin on her long, naked neck.
Really, Windsor thought, watching them through his electronic peephole, not your fault, then who's is it? Not mine, that's for damn sure, looking down at his wife and his best friend, lying there, together, tangled up in his blankets, sweating in his bed, their tanned skin on his white sheets, framed by the dark wood floor in his bedroom, an overhead shot through the hidden camera lens from inside the ceiling fan he had recently installed so as to capture them in the act.
"Well, I feel like it was my fault," Ulva said.
"Equally mine, then," Court said. "His best friend, and all. But here we are."
"Yes," Ulva said, snuggling closer. "Here we are."
Yes, there you are, shameless, unfaithful, cheating, betraying. Well I caught you. I catch you in the act every day. If you have no shame now, you soon will. I'll shame you.
"One thing I always meant to ask. Why didn't he want you to take his name?"
"What's wrong with Hepinstall?"
"It's a beautiful name, Ulva Hepinstall, but I want you to be mine."
"You want to own me, brand me with your last name? You want me to be Ulva Carpenter, is that it?" She smiled as she said it. Windsor zoomed in, saw her eyes close as they kissed, the flutter of her lashes.
Is that it, if I'd insisted on you taking my name, becoming Ulva Maxwell, would everything have been different, is that what you wanted from me?
Revenge. That was his whole existence now.
"Yes," Court said. "I want you to be Ulva Carpenter."
"So, wait a minute," Ulva said. "Was that a proposal, Court Carpenter? Did you just ask me to take you name? Are we getting that serious, this fast?"
"I am," said Court. "Are you?"
"Ask me again," said Ulva, "when ... well, when some more time has passed. I need to get things in order. Settle things properly, you know."
Do you think I'll let you divorce me? Think again. I have a surprise for you.
"I will," Court said, "ask you again, when the time is right. I understand. Believe me, this doesn't feel right to me either. But I can't help the way I feel about you. I can at least say how I feel. I love you, Ulva."
"I love you, Court."
Love?
Did he love Ulva still? No, Windsor realized, he hadn't loved her for a long time. Maybe he never did. But she was his. No-one took anything that was his away from Windsor Maxwell. There would be retribution.
I'll settle things. I will give you both what you deserve.
Windsor reviewed his plan, all the angles. Literally, all the angles, checking the monitor, the sixty-four high-definition images streaming from the cameras he had installed throughout the bedroom, in the shower, above the couch in the living room, above the center island in the kitchen, above the whirlpool on the patio, all the places he captured them. They were living in the Panopticon of his making, and they didn't know it.
He licked his lips, thinking about his next editing session. He didn't sleep much these days. When he wasn't watching, he was assembling the footage into his masterpiece of revenge, the movies, so many movies. Stockpiling.
When he was ready, he would upload them, all at once, to every dirty website in the world. He thought of the emails he would send to all their family, friends, coworkers, church members, with the links, the links, the links.
I'll make you famous.
"I think someone's watching," Ulva said, pulling away from Court.
Windsor froze. Had he made a sound? No, this place was soundproof. And besides, he wasn't even anywhere near. Only his electronic eyes were watching them, and those eyes were quiet as the grave.
"What I mean is: sometimes I wonder," Ulva said, "whether he can see us."
"You mean — "
"From up there." Ulva pointed towards the ceiling fan, almost directly into the camera lens, as if somehow she could sense the roving eye watching her, watching them.
Court hugged her tighter. "Really, you need to stop."
"I know," she said. "But ... maybe I could have — "
"Changed things?" Court ran his long, thick fingers through her hair.
"Yeah."
"Most men lead lives of quiet desperation."
Thoreau, Windsor thought, how typical, Court, casually dropping the semi-intellectual quote. Well, your life will soon scream desperation.
"You don't really believe that, though," Court said.
"About desperate men?"
"No, that he's watching us," Court pointed up towards the camera lens in the ceiling fan, "from up there."
"No ... yes ... I don't know. Who knows, right? I mean, anything is possible."
"I don't believe in — well, then, who else is watching, your parents, my grandma?"
She laughed. "I know, it's stupid. It's just a feeling."
"I think he was selfish."
"That's not fair."
"Maybe not," Court said. "I guess it's not fair. But honestly that's how I feel. I feel shitty for him. But I hate even more to see what it does to you."
"I feel guilty."
As you should, Windsor though. You should feel guilty. Both of you. And you'll be sorry.
"But I do like having a man about the house," she said, snuggling up to him again. "It's ... handy."
"That's me, I'm your handyman."
She giggled.
"Hey," she said. "Mr. Handyman. This weekend, do you think you could install the ceiling fan?" She pointed up. "I'm tired of seeing those loose wires dangling down. It was the last thing Windsor did, buying that new ceiling fan, taking down the old one, the last thing he did before he —."
Her face suddenly contorted into a grimace, tears streaming down, then she buried her head into Court's neck, her shoulders shaking with heavy sobs.
***
Windsor remembers now, the oiled-metal taste of the gun barrel in his mouth, the cold trigger under his index finger.
***
The monitor dissolves and with it all the camera angles, including the one of the couple on the bed.
What remains of Windsor is left in cold darkness.
So, being dead, I won't be able to get back at them in that way.
But isn't this better, after all?
He has eternity now to plot and exact his revenge. All he has to figure out is how they do it: the ghosts, the poltergeists.
How to do the haunting.
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22 comments
Geir, this was well done! The reveal at the end is a great twist, and you give just enough hints towards it so it's not jarring. I also love that the story obviously continues, even after the last line. Good job!
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Hannah, thank you! Yes, it was a fun challenge to skirt right up to the edge of revealing too much before the reveal at the end! I'm glad you liked the story.
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I found the story creepy but in a clever way. Interesting twist at the end.
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Thank you, Karen, I'm glad you liked the creepy little story (that feeling was exactly what I was going for).
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Nice twist there Geir , cleverly concealed with the few breadcrumbs dropped allowing us to figure it out just in time for the reveal. Smart!
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Thank you, Derrick, yes I had fun planting the clues (hopefully) subtly enough that the reveal was a surprise.
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I really like the subtle build of the twist, but I think it could have been hinted a little sooner and more obviously. It’s still an extremely good twist, though, and I appreciate a character who committed suicide being portrayed as a flawed being and not as a saint. I wish we could have learned more about why he did it, though. This story leaves a lot of unanswered questions— to be fair that’s how you know it’s a good story. When you want to keep reading more. I want to know more about this ghostly revenge story. Windsor seems very compelli...
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Luciano, yes it's hard to know exactly how much to hint, and how subtly, balancing between making the reveal too obvious (and therefore not a reveal) vs it coming out of the blue with no "fair play" clues. So, it's good to get this feedback which tells me that I likely erred a bit towards subtlety. In a final version, I could nudge the hints up just a degree or two, perhaps. And, yes, it seems to me that Windsor must have had some issues with being far too possessive, for example. Those can't just have developed suddenly after death. Howev...
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Gee. I was waiting for fun. Waiting for narrator to be aroused. Arousal anger... At seeing his wife. Shrug. She'll ghost buster you.
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I like this one more than Valentine because as the comment below this one says, you set it up nicely. I like how he still plans to get revenge, even when he realised he's dead.
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This is one of the best stories I have read on this platform. I love the way you portray the anger in your writing. When I came across the plot twist my jaw dropped! It truly was a wonderful read.
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Ja'Zaria, thank you so much for those kind words. I'm so glad you liked the story. (And the "jaw drop" was exactly the reaction I was going for).
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This was a fun read with great twist that I didn't see coming. I have often thought when watching films about ghosts, how nightmarish it would be to just be able to watch on everything after you have died. You would hear people talking about you, and see former partners in new relationships etc. Very well written dialogue as well. Great work
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Tom, I agree that being a ghost would be a terrible state, and Windsor is living in his own private hell in some ways, which is the intent of the title, based on a quote from Francis Bacon: "A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green." His need for revenge is why can't let go, perhaps forever, since he seems to be rubbing his ghostly hands together over the prospect of an eternity to plot and exact his revenge. I'm so glad you liked the story!
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Nice twist! Very intriguing. Ghosts: voyeurs seeking revenge. Thanks for sharing and for sharing your process on your blog. I glanced at it before reading, but not too much to spoil the ending. I noticed you said you used a random name generator for the story. I think the names were the only drawback for me. They seemed too much like soap opera names and were a little distracting to me, personally; however, I enjoyed the story immensely and enjoyed seeing your process. Thanks for sharing!
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David, thank you, and I'm glad you liked the story. Yes, the danger of the random name generators is that the names can seem a bit artificial.
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Geir, you have done the prompt ‘Dialogue’ proud. Flawless exchange between characters. I envy your talent.
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Thank you, Judith. To be honest, I didn't notice the little "Dialogue" tag at the end of the prompt so the fact that I chose to make the story dialogue-centric was a coincidence, honestly.
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Great idea, Geir. I like the idea of ghosts being confused and disoriented by what is happening to them. I think this is a good take on it. He would invent a scenario to rationalize things. Good work.
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Thank you, Chris. Yes, Windsor was in denial about the reality of his condition. The movie "The Others" was an inspiration, naturally.
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Kind of a funny twist.
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Yes, Mary, I had fun with the twist. This was a "Pantser" story for me, so at first I didn't know exactly where I was going. The title is inspired by a quote from Francis Bacon: "A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green." So, I knew i wanted it to be about someone who was so bent on revenge that they were keeping their "wounds green", unable to let go. The twist evolved from that.
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