After working hard at the local grocery store and hearing my boss complain about how I didn't stock the shelves the right way for the fifteenth time. I was ready to come back to my house to turn on the television set and watch the 5 o'clock news and have that old fuck sitting beside a beautiful woman telling me about a catastrophe happening in some third world country halfway across the globe.
Once I opened the front door to my apartment complex, I walked slowly up the several flights of stairs leading to the door to the only place I have ever considered home. Ignoring the sounds of the couple in 308 arguing and the loud smack coming from behind that door, I pulled the key out of the pockets of my black jeans and quietly opened the door to my apartment and shut it just as quietly. Putting the chain through the lock on the top of the door and after hearing the click of the second lock, I threw my set of keys into the small clay bowl on the desk beside the door. I then stretched my arms, since riding my bike always seemed to make my arms tense up. One of the few positives of getting older, your body actively tries to kill you. As my mind filled with that happy thought, I lied down on the dark green couch in a room that was almost too small for the couch and the small television set in front of it. I turned the TV on and lo and behold; there were the two chatting about some explosion in Cairo. After listening to them chatter on about the "horrific event," my eyes began to close by themselves, and I soon found myself asleep, curled up on the two-seated couch. About two hours later, I was jolted awake from my sleep by some ear-piercing sound emanating from outside. Jerking myself up from the couch, I pulled back the curtains, expecting to see some teenagers breaking into one of the cars parked in the lot beside the complex, only to see nothing. All the cars seemed fine, but the noise remained. It took me a few moments to suddenly look down at the lawn to see a small dog yelping away. I stared at it for awhile, stunned that such an abrasive sound could come from such a small lump of fur. Two minutes went by, and I suddenly noticed a door for the house next to the opening and out stepped a young girl, possibly in her 20s, looking at the dog. She stood on the patio and patted her knee and yelled something I couldn't hear properly, whatever it was made the dog turn around and rushed to the house. She petted the dog and walked inside with the small thing happily following behind her. Still annoyed by the sound having awakened me, I glanced down my watch and noticed it was about the time for that show that my coworker refused to stop yammering about every new episode. I figured that since I was up, I might as well switch to that channel and give it a try, so I could have something to add to the conversation other than just being a machine nodding and muttering 'mmhmm' every few minutes. After turning on the program though, it was only ten minutes before I gave up on this stupid show and I turned off the television and laid back down on the couch to try to sleep once more. I was just about to get to sleep when I heard the yelping again. Growling in anger, I moved myself up from the couch to look out the window to see a light on in the house with a small bit of fur continuing to bark and I'm not sure if I just stayed there at the window, but I do remember not sleeping at all that night. The next day at work, it was the same exact thing as usual, other than my sleepless brain making it harder to focus. The day was full of stocking the shelves, getting yelled at the boss again, and hearing my co-worker gabbing about how she couldn't believe that the main character in the show picked the zombie instead of the vampire to take to prom. I thought that no way working at the cash could be worse, I was just proven wrong. Thankfully, the day went by fast, and as I was riding my bike back home, I realized that I had just passed by the house of the yipping dog. I suddenly turned my bike around and rode back to the house with plans to give the owner a piece of my mind. I angrily approached the door and began pounding on it, not expecting it to suddenly open with the 20-year-old woman that I had seen last night. I quickly put my fist down as I realized that I still had it up. "Um, hello?" she said meekly, "Can I help you with something?" For a brief second, I was unsure of why, but my brain quickly cleared of anger. "Are you the owner of that dog that was barking away last night?" "Oh my God, I'm so sorry!" she said as her tanned face turned bright pink, "I didn't hear Paddles at first, I'm a deep sleeper, and I was exhausted after classes. I'm sorry, it won't happen again." Classes? So, she must be a college student. Huh, didn't think a college student would want to live this far away from the local college. Focusing once again on what I had come here to talk about, I didn't know why it was so hard for me to focus around her. "It's fine," I accepted her apology. "But please make sure that it doesn't do it again, it kept me up all night." "Yes, of course, Mr..." she paused, looking at me and it was at that moment that I hadn't introduced myself. "Maloy, Edward Maloy" I replied to her confusion. "Mr. Maloy," she repeated my name and smiled as if she liked the sound of it. "My name is Rebecca Sufton." Quietly groaning under my breath, I knew this usually meant that I would have to be a part of some conversation, the same way that my co-worker roped me into hearing her Zombie High recaps. But I decided to play along regardless. "Nice to meet you, Rebecca," I replied with a forced smile on my face and tried to walk away subtly. She nodded, "Nice to meet you too, Edward." I now wish I didn't call her by her first name; I didn't want to be on a first name basis with the 'heavy sleeper dog owner.' Her voice shook me out of my complaining thoughts though. "Well, um... I should probably get back to studying," she replied with a tone that sounded like she wanted to get away as much as I did. "Oh, of course," I responded, thankful that she came out with an excuse for me to escape. "Thank you for understanding about your dog." "No problem, Edward," she said with a smile as she started to close the door. "Paddles probably won't be barking anymore; she just wasn't used to the new place yet." I nodded my head as if I understood why the dog would have problems; it was just a dog anyway. As soon as she closed the door, I hopped onto my bike and rode it back to the complex. The rest of the day went on as normal with the news about some new incident that people were taking credit for and I soon fell asleep. A few hours later, I woke up again by the same sound from last night. The yelping. Well, it's like the old saying; if you want something done well, do it yourself. I spent a few hours just sitting on the couch with a scrap piece of paper and a pen, attempting to figure out the right way to get rid of this dog, all while trying to ignore its infernal barking. Finally, I had a complete plan, all I had left to do was to wait for the perfect moment. I stood beside my window, staring through the white, almost transparent curtains at that house with only the sound of the morning news to keep myself company. After what felt like days went by, I saw the door open and watched as Rebecca walked out, stopping only to bend down and pet that piece of fur. She then walked away, most likely heading to her class, and after waiting for an hour more to make sure that she wouldn't be coming back, I put my plan into action. I grabbed a pepperoni stick that I had bought at a gas station and placed it onto the hot plate in my make-shift kitchen, which was basically two TV trays. After waiting for a few minutes, I slipped on my oven mitt and picked up the pepperoni stick, slowly carrying it down the stairs, making sure to cover the smell, so to avoid any other dogs' attention. Opening the front door, I noticed a beer bottle lying on the ground; I thanked random choice as I grabbed the perfect weapon off the ground. Carrying the meat in one hand and the beer bottle in the other, I walked towards Rebecca's house. The closer I approached the house, so began the infernal yapping. I tensed my shoulders to try to make sure that I was going as slow as I possibly could and approached the door. Ignoring the barking, I placed the pepperoni stick onto the porch and waited as I heard the dog stop its yelping and then beginning to make what sounded like sniffing noises. As I hear the pattering of the dog approach the door, I tested the doorknob in the hope that she didn't lock it. Thankfully, she must have been late for class because she left the door perfectly unlocked. I was enjoying my luckiness when I was suddenly shaken out of it by the barking and scratching coming from behind the door. Smiling, I placed the stick on the ground and moved on the side of the porch to slowly open the door. As soon as the door opened, the small dog padded outside and grabbed the meat in its tiny, tooth-filled jaw. Once the thing was fully outside, I quickly closed and grabbed the dog with my other hand, holding inside my arm, the same way that a football player would carry a ball. As if it knew what was going on, it opened its mouth, dropping the pepperoni and began to howl. Infuriated at the sound, I gripped harder on the beer bottle and smashed it against the doorway. Thankfully, it split apart in one smash, and no one could possibly hear the sound over the dog’s yelping. Taking the shattered bottle, I plunged it into the dog's body, marvelling at how this small thing could make such a racket. It made one last whimper as blood started gushing out of the wound, covering the hole as best I could with my hand, I carried it up through the front door, up the stairs and through my door to then throw the body onto one of the trays. After a few hours of sitting on my couch, staring at the subtly decomposing body of the dog I hated and occasionally glancing through the window to look across the street, waiting for my neighbour to come back. Finally, after what felt like forever, she finally appeared on her doorstep and began to place a key into her keyhole when she suddenly froze. I couldn't help but smile as she slowly moved her head around, having her brain processing the blood and broken glass on her doorstep. Even from up here, I could hear a light scream carry over the wind as she hurriedly rushed inside of her house, yelling what I presume to be her dog's name. Feeling weirdly pleased with my accomplishment, I turned on the television to watch the latest "news report," while occasionally glancing over at my prize of a dead pooch. Whether it was because of relief of not having that loud, obnoxious barking anymore or because the adrenaline from my kill disappearing, I fell asleep, only to be rudely awakened by the bright red and blue lights of a cop car. Jumping to my feet, I slowly pulled the curtain to the side to see a man in a police uniform talking to my neighbour. A brief moment of dread passed over me as I began to wonder if I had somehow left any evidence pointing towards me. But nothing appeared to happen, the cop just scribbled some stuff on his notepad and shook his head as he placed his hand on her shoulder. He then got into his car and drove away, turning the lights off as he reached the corner. I slowly peeled myself away from the window to lie back down on the couch and let loose a large laugh. Not a big, maniacal laugh or anything like from a crazy man, but one you would hear from someone enjoying their favourite comedy. Once I was able to stop myself from laughing, my curiosity began to get the better of myself. What did she say to the officer? Does she know who did it? Even though I tried to fight back my morbid curiosity, it won out, and I began walking down the steps to talk to Rebecca. As I approached her door, the more I began to doubt whether this was a good plan or not. But before I could back out, I noticed my fist raising up to bang on the wooden door and knew it was too late to stop my curiosity. As soon as I finished knocking, she opened the door, almost as if she was expecting someone. "Oh!" she said in surprise, her eyes still filled with tears daring to fall. "What are you doing here, Edward?" "Well, I could see the flashing lights from my apartment, and I just wanted to make sure everything was okay," I replied quietly, obviously lying because even if I didn't do it, I could still tell from the unspilled tears. She smiled, a weird match with the tears and running mascara. "That's sweet of you, Ed." As quickly as it came, her smile disappeared. "But everything's not okay..." "Oh no, what happened?" I said, trying my damnedest to hide a smirk. "I-I believe someone killed my poor Paddles," she said as she began to sob. "Oh, that's horrible!" I said in faked horror, "Do you know who did it?" She looked back up with tears now streaming down her small face, "Well, don't tell her, but I think it was Mrs. Ratherton. She always hated my dear Paddles." Hearing that, I could no longer hide my smirk. Thankfully, Rebecca had her head down as she sobbed, so she didn't see me again until I regained my composure. "Don't worry, Rebecca. I won't tell anyone, but are you sure Puddles didn't just run away?" Looking back up at me with an indignant stare, "It's Paddles. And no, she would never run away from me; she's a good girl." Feeling a bit of disdain for myself for forgetting the name of the one I killed wrong, I then apologized. "I'm sorry, Rebecca. I hope everything works out in the end." "Thanks, Ed," she said as she closed the door in my face. I smiled as I knew that I had gotten away with it. But then I began to wonder; if I could get away with that, what else could I get away with? As I slowly approached my apartment building, a macabre plan began to form in my mind. After getting back inside my apartment, my plan was then put into action as I grabbed the butcher knife that my mother bought for me, just in case I ever needed to cut a raw steak or in this case, a small dog. After the job was finished, I placed the knife down as I briefly marvelled at the creation in front of me. What was once whole was now in many parts, covering one of my trays. As blood began to drip slowly off the tray, I grabbed the next part of the plan; a large cardboard box that I kept over from moving. I began to slowly move the parts into the box, initially attempting to place it, so that it looked like it was all together, but as the parts slid apart with a moist sound, I realized that there was no chance of that happening. Once they were all in there, I taped the box together and wrote the address for my neighbour on it with a black sharpie. Then the next phase of action was just to wait simply. I laid down on my couch and fell asleep as the smell of fresh blood reached my nostrils. I woke up to my phone's alarm going off to let me know that it was time to go to work, after having a quick shower obviously. Work was just as stupid as usual, spending most of my time, checking out mothers trying to use expired coupons and my co-worker recap yet another episode of Zombie High. But this time, I didn't mind, because unlike usual, I had something important to come back to doing. By the time I got back to my place, it was dark with the streets illuminated only by the streetlights’ glow. At first, I was afraid that I was too late, and that Rebecca would be back from her classes already, but thankfully, the lights were still turned off. I quickly rushed up the stairs, unlocked my door, grabbing the box and running back to place it on the path leading up to her door. Then just as quickly, I went back to my place and closed the door before those nosy neighboring apartment-dwellers got intrigued by what was going on. Throwing my key into the clay pot, I then sat down on the couch, turning on the TV on low enough volume that I could still hear the outside. After what felt like forever, but most likely, was only an hour, she came home. She cocked her head to the right as in confusion once she noticed the box but took it inside anyway. Unlike last time, I could hear that beautiful scream all the way from down below. A few days went by with nothing else happening to the point of boredom. At first, I planned to stop by Rebecca's place, but I figured it would be too suspicious and beat back my curiosity. Then on the weekend, there was suddenly a loud pounding on my door. Hearing the pounding, I approached it and unlocked the two locks and opened the door to see Rebecca standing there. "Oh, hello there, Rebecca." I said, trying to let my surprise not appear in my voice, "What can I do for you?" "Don't you hello me, Edward!" she yelled with unbridled rage in her voice, "I know what you did." After being stunned for a few moments, I then tried to reply casually. "Uh... What are you talking about?" "I know you're the one who's been leaving parts of Paddles." Rebecca answered, "Ms. Ratherton saw you drop the box off from her window." Crap. I was so preoccupied with making sure that Rebecca wasn't home, that I had completely forgotten that she also had neighbours. But I wasn't about to go down that quickly. "How do you know it was me?" I replied with a slight bit of nervousness accidentally appearing in my voice. "It's not exactly hard to figure out that it's you from your distinctive limp and the glare on your glasses from a streetlight," she responded, crossing her arms. "I'm going to the police." "Wait-" Before I could say any more, she had already turned around and started running towards the stairs. This couldn’t possibly be happening. I wasn't going to go to jail all because of some pathetic dog and its idiotic owner. I quickly ran after her, rushing down the stairs two steps at a time. By the time that I had gotten to the start of the third flight, I saw Rebecca standing there, holding her cell phone up to her ear. As fast as I could, I ran up behind her and wrapped my arm around her neck. She was still trying to talk on the phone, but luckily, her voice was quickly getting more and raspier. I could feel the pulse in her neck slow down as she tried to elbow me and kick me with her black boots. Before she was able to do much harm to me though, she had collapsed onto the black metal ground, dropping her phone on the floor. After making sure that she was unconscious, I put one arm under her head and one under her knees and hurriedly carried her back up the stairs before any more neighbours catch sight of me. Fortunately, no one came out of their apartment to see what caused the noise, so I was able to carry her all the way into my home without anyone seeing. With her in my arms, I carried her bridal-style past the doorway, kicking the door shut as we went past and brought into the bedroom that I hadn't used in all the years I lived here. Placing her on my bed, I suddenly had an idea on how to make sure she wouldn't be able to escape before I was able to finish what I wanted to do with her. I started quickly pulling her clothes off, even while I was rushing to get everything off before she woke up, I couldn't help but realize that she was a rather attractive specimen. Her skinny stomach had a four-pack and her breasts, while small, were still perky and beautiful. Shaking my head to clear my mind and focus on the task at hand, I finished with her clothes and rooted through my drawer until I found a roll of vinyl tape. Promptly, I started wrapping the tape around her and the frame of the bed to make sure that she was attached to it and was not going anywhere. Just as soon as I finished applying the last piece covering her, she started to move her head around, trying to figure out where she was and what was going on. I watched her move around until her eyes locked onto me standing there beside her. "What the fuck? Where am I?" she said, trying to sound as angry as her grogginess would let her. Her voice quickly changed to fear as she looked down and realized that she was completely naked with only transparent tape covering her. "What- What are you going to do to me?" I couldn't help but chuckle as I knew exactly what she was thinking. "Relax Rebecca. I'm not interested in forcing myself on you; I have no interest in such a thing." Even with the fear in her eyes, she seemed confused; I decided to explain myself. "You see, if you try to escape without anything covering you, it will cause you so much more pain than if you were clothed." She shivered at my words, but still trying to appear strong; she decided to ask the fated question. "Then- then what are you going to do to me?" "Well, you see, Becca." I answered as a grin started to appear on my face, "I don't want to go to jail, so I can't let you go to the police." "Wa- Wait!" she responded quickly before I could finish explaining, "Let's make a deal, I won't go to the police, and I'll never come near you again, and we can just go on with our lives." I tilted my head, almost thinking of taking her deal until I realized one massive fault with it. "Well, that won't work, Becca. Obviously, if I let you go, you could go back on your word and talk to the police anyway, and I would be sent to the slammer just for your stupid bitch." I spat that last word as if it was poison; she winced as my spit hit her face. "So, there's only one way that I can get away with it." I slowly left the room to grab something from my makeshift kitchen, I could hear her struggling to escape, and even though I had what I came for, I couldn't help, but stand there and listen to her struggling. In some weird way, it was rather addicting to imagine her trying to escape from her tape prison without ripping her skin off. After listening for a few minutes, I slowly began walking back towards the bedroom. As she saw me in the doorway, I watched her get more erratic with her movements as she tried ever harder to escape from her constraints. Part of me just wanted to watch and see if she would be able to get out, but I knew I wouldn't be able to get her again. I continued walking towards her as she looked down to see the large butcher knife, still dripping with her dog's blood, which I was holding in my right hand. "Wait, please no." she started begging, "Please, I'll do whatever you want, but please-" If there was one sound that I hated most of it all, it was the sound of whining. "Shut up!" I snapped, "I don't know if you're aware, but you're not in the right position to be in power." I brought the blade down to her left foot, and slowly, as she started whimpering and begging as tears rolled down her face, I brought it up to her chest. "You have no power, only I do!" I exclaimed with a large smile, almost feeling like my lips had stretched impossibly long and reached to the sides of my ears. Enjoying the feeling of power that I had over a fellow human, I reached the knife back, holding it right beside my ear and plunged it deep into her heart. As I did so, her body began convulsing, as much as it could while being contained and blood began flowing out of the wound, beginning to cover the bed frame and floor underneath in crimson red. Enjoying the sight, I brought the knife down several more times until her body completely stopped moved and I couldn't see her beautiful chest moving up and down. As her body lied there, I was able to get a much better look at it than I could before, it was a gorgeous body. It was a shame that it had to have ended up like this. Then something in my brain clicked as it suddenly dawned me that it would be a waste to chop this body up so soon. I began to unzip my pants and was in the process of pulling them off my legs when I heard yet another pounding at the door. I rushed towards the door and peered through the peephole to see two police officers standing there. I opened the door, making sure to stand in the doorway. "Uh, hello officers," I said, trying to make sure that I didn't sound suspicious in any way. "What can I do for you?" "Supposedly, a Rebecca Sufter was here and was on the phone with her friend," started the female cop as she started flipping through her notes. "Anna Stackhouse. After Ms. Sufton saw you and Ms. Stackhouse said that she heard a struggle." I swallowed quickly, in a rush to get her upstairs, I had completely forgotten that she was on the phone when I found her. "Um, sorry officers," I quickly came with a lie. "I haven't seen anyone all day, it's my day off, so I was just resting and watching television." It appeared that they believed it until a poodle wandered out of the 308 apartment into the hallway and started barking with an old, balding man following behind it. "Oh good, officers." he started saying as he slowly leaned down to pick up the runaway poodle. He spoke in such a halting way; it was if he was afraid that if he talked too fast, he would have a heart attack. "You finally showed up for my noise complaint." "Noise complaint?" the male officer turned to look at the old man, "We didn't hear anything about a noise complaint." "Well, I filed one." Mr. 308 replied grumpily, "It was hard to hear the game between my wife's cries and the screaming coming from there." As he finished the sentence, he pointed towards my home. Both of the officers turned back to face me; the female officer was the first to speak. "Excuse me, sir. Would you mind if my partner and I examine your place of residence?" "Um..." I replied, trying to think of some excuse. Unfortunately, nothing came to mind. "It's... um... very messy in here and..." Before I could come up with anything, they already pushed past me and already started searching through everything. One of the nice things about owning a small place is that you can find things quickly, it's not so nice if you're the one trying to find things. I stood there, dumbfounded and unsure if I could figure out a way to get out of here quick. But it turned out that I had run out of luck as the male officer walked into the bedroom, I tried to back slowly towards the front door, but before I could run, he ran out of the room and grabbed my arms. "Mr. Edward Maloy, you have the right to remain silent..." as he continued with his spiel, he gestured his head towards the room, and his partner walked into and came out, looking completely shaken up. I felt him place handcuffs on my wrist, as soon as I heard the click, I knew that was it. But I wasn't done yet. As he attempted to place the handcuff on my other wrist, I took my chance and was able to shake my hands out of his grasp and started rushing towards his female partner. Within a few seconds, she had pulled out her gun and pulled the trigger, point blank, into my head. I fell on the ground, and I could feel blood and what felt like brain matter escaping from the wound, but through all the pain, I couldn't help but smile. I wasn't going to jail.
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