DERANGED

The killer carefully cut off the left breast. Who ever thought one person could have so much blood? Looking at her face, killer noted that she still looked proud even in death. Proud and beautiful, as she had always been referred to whenever she made headlines, which was often. The boob didnt look so perky and attractive in killer's hand. Just a blob of fatty flesh. She was such a beautiful woman, her dead skin didnt look pale yet, as rigor mortis had not set in.

 She looked like she would open her eyes at any moment, and give one of those her million dollar smiles that she flashed for cameras. Her eyes were open, and killer stared into them. Eyes that seemed to hold a lot of secrets. Alas the joke was on her.
She knew nothing, she was nobody, how else could she be lying on the floor stark naked and dead? She deserved to die, and finally she is dead. Standing up, killer took the left breast and walked away not looking back, deeply engrossed in a secret.


Harold sat by the pool, watching Cassie try to teach Lunar to swim. He watched them for a while, then let his gaze wander to where Muriel was seated, playing with her doll. He couldnt believe that it was four months already, since his world came crashing down. One phone call was all it had taken, and there was no going back.
 "Society's darling murdered"
"Wife of oil tycoon found brutally slain"
"Beauty Queen and heiress hacked to death"
"Police investigations rule death a ritual killing"

The headlines had gone on and on. He had gone through the motions, from identifying the corpse to burying his wife. Everything had been surreal. He couldnt function without Cleo. Thank God for cassie, she had stepped in to look after the children and even though she was nothing like her sister, the kids loved her and responded better to her and seem to be coping well.

If only he could say the same for himself. He had not set foot into his office since her death. How could he? when everything and everywhere reminded him of her. The morning he had dressed up to leave for the office, he had found himself sitting in the car, waiting for her to come down and tell him what she would bring to him for lunch, and kiss him goodbye. He had sat in the car for two hours, before going back into the house. He hadnt given it another try.

His thoughts strayed to the day they met, as it often does. He had been waiting by his car, for his driver to bring another car for him, as the one he had been driving had gotten a flat tire. Being the impatient man he was then, he had been shouting at his driver on the phone for taking too long. He hadnt noticed when she parked her car, and came towards him.
 All he knew was that he caught a whiff of her perfume, turned around and found himself staring into the most beautiful face he had ever seen. And that mouth, that small lips that were laughing at him. He had stopped mid sentence, and promptly hung up on his driver.

"Feel free to close your mouth whenever you want" Her famous pickup line. Yes she was that beautiful. She stopped to ask him if he couldnt change a flat tire, because he was lazy or because he didnt know how to.
 That was it. Right there, he knew that he had hit a jackpot. She watched while he changed the tire, soiling his armani (which was what he had been avoiding), but he didnt give it any thought, as she cheered him on all the way. Less than a year later, they sealed their vows with a kiss and his world was complete.


His Cleo was boisterous, bold, brilliant and beautiful. She was a dream, but her death had awoken him from that dream of only eight years. Lunar shrieked in happiness and his happy thoughts fled. He looked at his daughter, still a baby and wondered if she would have memories of her mum. Very unlikely as she was just three years old. Andre walked towards him, from the house. He was one person that seemed to have died with his mother.

Being the first child of the family, and the only son, the bond between he and his mother, was special. In the past four months, he had shed so much weight and had withdrawn from the world. Harold was really concerned about him. Andre hardly talked to anyone, but the therapist assured him that it was just his own way of grieving and that he would get over this phase.

Cleo had been such a wonderful mother, and whenever his friends came around, they didnt fail to be amazed that someone of her status, could be so focused on building her home. She always told them that being a beauty queen and model, was not as fulfilling as being a mother. And she had to die in such a terrible way? go figure....


Thank God Cassie had stepped in to look after the kids.He didnt know what he would have done without her, as the nannies he had hired had not been able to make the children lively. Cassie was so different from her sister though. Where Cleo had been boisterous and bold, Cassie was shy and reserved.
They were both beautiful though. In different ways. Cleo had always said Cassie had never gotten over their parents' deaths. Their parents had died mysteriously four years ago, leaving them a fortune. The case was still unresolved.


Two months later, things seemed to be getting much better. Andre had started responding to people, though once in a while Harold still finds him crying in his mother's walk in closet. He knew he should pack her stuff away, but had not been able to bring himself to do it. Muriel 's grades had been better this term, and Lunar... well Lunar has always been Lunar. The one who was too tender to understand.
Harold owed this all to Cassie. She seemed to dedicate all her time and energy on the kids, and for that he was grateful. She had taken time off from work initially, but had resumed now that everyone was better. She is a pharmacist. She took the kids to school and did everything a mother should. He had finally gone to work, but not before series of therapy, and countless letters, pleas and memos from his company's staff and board of directors.


It was Andre's birthday, and his therapist had thought throwing him a party would be good for him. So they had a party. It was good for everyone. Family and Friends were in attendance, and food and drinks had been overflowing. It was about 11pm, when the last of their guests left. Harold went into his room, to drown himself with whiskey.

Throughout the party, all he could think about was what Cleo would have wanted differently. By 11:45, he was very drunk and he knew it. He sat on the chair, and dozed off too tired to retire to bed. He dreamt of his Cleo. Her hands were all over him, and she removed his clothes and assisted him to the bed. Then she kissed his forehead, "Cleo,baby" and he caught a whiff of her scent, and he became alert, as alert as he could be in his drunken state.

He opened his eyes, it was not his wife. It wasnt her scent. He knew how she smelled. His vision was blurred fro. all that alcohol. When his vision steadied, he saw Cassie, sitting by his bed. She looked peeved.

"I am not Cleo! I am Cassie. Cassie"  she said slowly
"Is everything ok? the kids?" he asked
"The kids are fine" she said.
With that, she opened her bathrobe, no Cleo's bathrobe. That was when he noticed that she was wearing it. She was stark naked beneath it.
"What do you think you are doing?" he said, as she climbed unto the bed.
"Giving you what you have been longing and yearning for" she replied calmly, too calmly.
Harold tried to sit up. "Stop this Cassie, I neither want nor yearn for you."

The transformation on her face was immediate. She seemed confused, and she paused and looked at him like he was crazy. “What do you mean, you don’t want me?” she asked. “I don’t know what you are talking about Cassie”

A pained look crossed her face. He felt a prick on his neck, and saw that she had injected him with something from a syringe he had not noticed. He broke into a cold sweat. He tried sitting up, but couldn’t . His body grew numb
“What is going on? Cassie”

She stood up from the bed, and tied the bathrobe. She began pacing.
“Cassie, what did you do to me?”
“Shut up and let me think. What are you saying? Are you joking? Don’t you remember me” she asked all at once, still pacing the room. Harold made one more futile effort to stand up, wondering what exactly was going on, with Cassie.
“Don’t try to get up. I just gave you an insane amount of a drug that kills all your muscles. I didn’t know it would come to this, but I am always prepared. Now you better answer my questions, or the next prick you wont feel,  is going to be lethal. Do you remember me?” she asked. Gone was the quiet and calm Cassie and in her place, was a deranged woman.

“Remember you from where? You are Cleo’s baby sister” Harold asked
“The first time we met. Don’t you remember that? How can you not remember” she turned to him perplexed
“I remember. Cleo brought you here from your parents’ house, when you returned from England” Harold answered, wondering what exactly had come over her, and where all this was going.
“No! that was the second time we met….. The first time, was fifteen years ago. Can you remember” she said, staring at him expectantly.

“No I cannot remember. I don’t know what you are talking about” He was beginning to be even more alarmed at the situation.
“ I can never forget. That was the night that changed my life. How can you forget so soon? Have all my efforts been in vain? No, it cant be. You must remember me. That was the night I lost my innocence. The night I fell in love with you” Cassie rambled on
Harold tried to think back, to all the girls he might had deflowered, but he knew he couldn’t have deflowered Cassie. He was not that stupid. But he still had no idea what she was talking about

“I was just fifteen” she continued

“I sneaked out of the house to attend a party. It was fun, until some guys decided that I was ripe for the plucking. I stormed out of the club, to go home. But they followed me. They attacked me by the road, and took turns mounting me. I screamed out for help, and there you were. You were passing by in your car, when you heard my screams. You stopped and came to my rescue. You singlehandedly fought three of them off, and saved me though the harm had already been done” Cassie said looking straight ahead like she was back to being that fifteen year old.


Realisation dawned on Harold, as he remembered the night in question. He had been twenty four years old then, and had been on his way home from a late night at the office. He remembered how frightened the little girl had been.

He had wanted to take her to the hospital, but she insisted on going home, because she didn’t want her parents to find out that she had left the house. He had obliged her, and carried her into his car, consoling her until he got to her house. He couldn’t imagine that Cassie was that little girl.

“I remember now” he said slowly. “I always wondered what happened to you. Did your parents find out?” he continued, wanting her to keep talking until the drug in him wears out.
“That was the day my life changed” she continued as if he had not interrupted.

“I fell in love with you, and I knew fate had brought us together for a purpose. Then I found out I was pregnant… such a disgrace they said. Blaming me.. they all blamed me… did I rape myself? They didn’t care. I was a rotten egg. Would soil the family name.bring them shame. Why cant you be like Cleo? Why cant you be Cleo? That was all I heard…. Then to a discreet doctor abroad, out went the baby.

Don’t come back to Nigeria, stay there, stay away, alone… alone…. The discreet doctor said a complication, damaged womb! They still blamed me…. Cassie.. Cassie became a taboo.. on exile. Don’t spoil Cleo’s image. The beauty queen, the model, they forgot about me… they didn’t want me around them, or their famous daughter.” She had been talking like she was in a trance. She whipped her head up, and made an effort to control herself.


She looked at him and smiled. “They wouldn’t even let me come for her wedding. I was a bad omen, such a failure.  I hated them from my core. I knew exactly how to make them pay. And they paid. No one ever suspected me, hahahaha the shock on their faces, when they saw me in their bedroom. Harold I made them pay. I had wanted to come back, to look for you. I begged them to let me come, let me come and search for my soul. You… they raised their noses at me. No man would want you, you have no womb, they said.

Again and again… I was an outcast, so I made them pay. I came to Nigeria secretly, and fulfilled my desire on them. Then I went back to England. Why did it take her two weeks to call me, to inform me of their death? Did she think she was better than I was? I did it, and I was glad.”

Harold could not imagine what he was hearing, how was it possible for no one to have known how sick she was, Cleo always said she had a terrible feeling around her, but she had never told him that she had been raped, or sent on exile abroad. He couldn’t begin to imagine what Cassie was capable of, and his mind went to his kids. He tried to move, but he still couldn’t.


“Then I finally come back home,finally I can look for my soul, so we can be together. But no! Cleo had to take that from me too…. I nearly died. You, her husband? No  no no no…… I couldn’t let her get away with that. I just couldn’t. I saw it in your eyes, you were not happy. No woman can make you happy except me. Not even Cleo, especially not Cleo…..not after everything. I finally found you, in her arms.
I was angry, but I thought and I knew what to do. I decided to let her have our babies for us. That way, the family would be complete. So I pretended, for years I watched and waited. But how long can I wait? How long can I wait? Answer me” she screamed at him

Tears filled his eyes, as he knew what was coming. He knew that this had happened because of him. His perfect Cleo had died because of him. Cassie turned and saw tears roll down his eyes
“don’t cry baby, don’t cry don’t cry don’t cry” she repeated cleaning his tears.

“I did all this so we can finally be together, my sister didn’t deserve you. Now we are complete. We have our children and our family would be happy. Don’t you see? You should thank me, I saved you from your sadness. She didn’t make you happy I knew that. So I plotted, and did everything perfectly, no one knows. No one would ever know… do you hear me?” she spoke into his ears.

“Yes. You did  the right thing. No one would ever know” Harold replied, knowing his best choice was to play along with her. “I am very happy now, you are so beautiful. Thank you” he continued.
She smiled and sat on the bed… “Very good, now where do you think we would be happier? Here or in heaven” she asked him looking very happy.
“We would be happy anywhere we are, as long as we are alive and together” he responded.


She looked at him, and stood up. She walked out of the room. Harold had no idea where she had gone, but he was able to move his leg a little. He tried his best, but he knew the alcohol was not helping him. He needed to check on his children. He couldn’t let the deranged woman lay a finger on them. He was finally able to sit up, but when he heard footsteps, he lay back on the bed.

Cassie entered the room, wearing Cleo’s wedding dress. “how do I look?” she asked.
“beautiful” he replied, forcing down the bile that was coming up his throat. The revulsion he felt, seeing her wearing Cleo’s gown. She went to the dressing mirror, and sat down trifling through Cleo’s jewellery box and make up.

Then she walked up to him “I know we would be happier in heaven. We should get ready to go. I have prepared the children already. The world is too corrupt for our family” but Harold was no longer hearing her. All he could hear was that she had prepared the children. She raised her hand, and he  saw another syringe in her hand. She smiled at him “I couldn’t get the faster drug I wanted, but this would have to do” with that she came nearer and tried to inject him. He had a surge of adrenalin, as he grabbed hold of her hand, and struggled with her. The syringe pricked her skin, and she screamed. Harold pressed harder, releasing all the contents of the syringe into her arm.

Then he picked up his phone and ran out of the room.
He was still very groggy, and he made a call for an ambulance. He checked on the children and they were too still. He screamed and was out of his mind. He couldn’t bear the pain. He couldn’t fail his children. He shouted on the phone, until the ambulance arrived.


Two weeks later, he walked out of the hospital where Cassie was on admission. His children had long been released, she had injected them with enough to kill them, but the ambulance had arrived in time. Cassie was in critical condition, as she had been hit with a dose too lethal for a person her size. The doctors said it might take some time, but there was hope for her. The police had been alerted, but Harold knew what she really needs is psychiatric help.




LIFE IS A CHOICE MY FRIEND
SO CHOOSE WISELY
ENOUGH SAID