9 Tales Told in the Dark 16 by 9 Tales Told in the Dark

Author:9 Tales Told in the Dark [Dark, 9 Tales Told in the]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bride of Chaos
Published: 2016-08-21T22:00:00+00:00

THE END.

HEARTLESS by Calvin Demmer

I’d given her a sedative. Not your over-the-counter type drug however, it had been a potent narcotic. I needed her to be out for an extended period of time and I must admit I wasn’t sure on the correct dosage. So I guessed.

I had crushed the pills into her morning orange juice. Then I sat, trying to temper the dance of my right foot beneath the dining room table while she sat across from me. I watched, waited. She grimaced when she took a sip from the juice, though this had become normal behavior. Trying to portray my usual inquisitive self, I asked, “Why drink it if you hate it?”

“Good for you.”

No smile had followed her words. In fact, there had been zero hint of emotion in her moss green eyes. Her curly brunette hair all that moved, aided by a breeze entering from the open kitchen window. She waited to see if I’d respond. I didn’t. Her continuation of routine actions led me to believe that she had not tasted anything ominous in the juice.

Less than an hour ago, she had returned from her night shift; she had showered and prepared breakfast for me. She ate nothing, while I dug in, which was usually the case. We would have a quick chat, mostly about mundane subjects. Déjà vu ran rampant during these minutes. I could swear she asked the same questions and repeated the same answers. Sometimes I would steal a glance over my shoulder, half expecting to see someone standing behind me with a large cue card. There was never anyone. All I would see were framed photos of a childless household.

After breakfast, she would retire to the main bedroom. There, I believed she would lie comatose in our bed until it was almost time for me to return home from work.

Sometimes dinner was ready when I arrived, sometimes she would still be preparing it. Over the meal, of which hers was always a significantly smaller portion and looked a struggle to get down, we would have another of our perfunctory chats. I would clean up and she would head off to work. Marriage to a woman, who favored part-time work at night, well, it sucked.

So why on this seemingly routine morning had I chosen to give her the sedative?

I had simply endured enough, our sex-life was nonexistent and there was barely any communication. It seemed as though she no longer cared about me, us, or anything. In my forlorn attempts to caress some feeling from her, all I would sense was a heartless statue. Added to this, I could not recall when last we had been out together, like a couple should. No, wait--I braced as a shudder retreated down my spine--I could remember a trip to Barbados. That had been over six months ago.

Her skin much paler now, and she spoke in a new found monotonous tone. Gone was her expressive and extroverted nature which I had fallen for. I had been left with a monosyllabic recluse who only ventured outside at night.

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