RED IS THE COLOR OF MY TRUE LOVE’S BLOOD

Submitted into Contest #27 in response to: Write a short story that ends with a twist.... view prompt

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Mystery

Red is the color of my true love’s blood.  It also was the color of the walls, the floor and my new starched white dress shirt.  Damn!


Pressure!  Pressure!  Pressure!


Now, I am pacing.  I hate when I pace.  


Barbara should not have said the things she did.  Now look at the trouble she has gotten me into and the trouble I am going to have to go through to clean up this mess.


I must admit though, I didn’t see this coming.  How was I to know she wanted to break things off?  After all, I apologized for the few incidents of physical violence pointing out the pressure I have been under at work.  This is the first indication she gave that she was unhappy with our relationship enough to end it.  Usually, any flare up I have when we have a disagreement is smoothed over by my powerful lovemaking.  She is usually very quiet during these episodes so I know she is concentrating on how pleasurable it is to have a very active lover who uses all manner of sexual accoutrements.


As I have explained to her over and over, work has been unbearable lately.  My boss has been unreasonable with his demands.  It is unreasonable to expect me to be at work every day, day after day.  And what difference does it make what time I get there, as long as I get there.  Also, as I explained to him several times, I am under a lot of pressure in my personal life with family and relationship issues.  The other employees don’t offer to help with my workload.  They are all so standoffish.  When I approach a group of them talking, they often break up the conversation and go back to their desks.  It’s hard to care about people who won’t let you in.  I constantly tell them, my desk is always open if you need any help, but they don’t reach out and take my offer.  The few altercations I have had with a couple of them weren’t exactly violent, but I did let them know that I would not allow them to be disrespectful to me or my opinions.


Not only was Barbara breaking up with me, she was threatening that she would call the police and get a RESTRAINING ORDER!  No one in my family has had a restraining order against them for at  least the last five years.  How embarrassing.  


Boy, my family will be up in arms when they find out about this.  She’s lucky I didn’t let them deal with her instead of me.  My family excels at “handling situations”.  She got off easy with me because I am generally a caring person and until she said some things about our relationship I didn’t fully agree with, I was also a very reasonable person.


Ok, let’s think about this.  I could walk away and let nature take its course.  Someone would eventually smell the decomposing body or maybe the maid coming in next week could handle it.  Surely, she gets paid enough for the light cleaning she does that an especially deep cleaning of the living room could be arranged.  I could leave a note along with a large tip, asking her to stay an extra hour or two and do a thorough cleaning job on the living room situation.  But, this would require me to remove the body.


Let’s see.   My cousin Lizzy favors just leaving the bodies onsite and making sure there are no connections to her.  She would be the one to contact for advice on what to do next and how to stage that scenario.


But to remove the body is going to need the whole family’s input.


Now, for an alibi.  Where could I have been during the time period this unfortunate accident happened?  Let’s see, I can’t say that I was at work as I haven’t been there in a couple of days.  I probably would be the last employee my boss would voluntarily provide an alibi.  


Looks like I will have to drag the family into this after all.


My family has a lot of history with this sort of thing.  It’s in our blood.  We are a close family and have always been there for each other.  I think the publicity given my family’s history does play havoc with any alibi my family members might provide. Yet, I think this warrants a family meeting to brainstorm and discuss my options.  


I need to frame the invitation to the family meeting to the members in such a way they will consider it an invitation to pit their wits to solve a plot for a hypothetical murder mystery.


I will send out invitations for a family game night and give them the scenario I am dealing with in this apt and offer a prize to the family member who comes up with the best solution for my current situation.  Of course, I won’t say my situation.  I will imply it is for a story I am writing that I need their help brainstorming.


I will post it on FaceBook.  Who knows, I might get some solutions to use in a future occurrence.  It doesn’t hurt to be prepared for what may lay ahead.


POSTED ON FACEBOOK


Everyone, let’s have a family game night tomorrow night at my place with a cash prize to the family member who can come up with the perfect alibi to save the unknown perpetrator in my latest short story from doing jail time who has accidentally slaughtered his girlfriend.  This perpetrator has a police record of only a few pages, so he is not a hard core murderer.  Keep that in mind. It was a crime of passion done by a passionate boyfriend towards a flighty girlfriend with commitment issues.


Let’s get all the Bordens together for a fun, challenging game night!



February 05, 2020 12:58

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1 comment

Anna Dumas
17:07 Mar 01, 2023

Such an interesting concept. It's a nice short, eye catching story!!

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