Horror Stories by Liz Phair

Author:Liz Phair
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2019-10-07T16:00:00+00:00

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I’m planning a trip to Miami to oversee a mastering session. My parents are going to stay with the baby, and my husband is going on a weekend getaway with his friends. We’ve been getting along better, because we accept our estrangement. We’ve fallen into a rhythm of Don’t ask, don’t tell. I’ve even started sleeping in our bed again sometimes, and we’re having sex occasionally. I’m also sleeping with Ethan. It started a week ago, and it is incredible. In an odd way, things are better for everyone now that the tension isn’t at such a frenzied pitch. I’m having a run-of-the-mill affair. All that waiting was worse than the actual betrayal. Maybe this is how human beings are meant to be, I think, as I get ready for bed. Maybe if everyone were doing it, more marriages would turn out well.

I look at myself in the bathroom mirror, massaging cleansing emulsion into my skin. I’m a real grown-up lady, a sophisticated woman of the world. I’ve always loved how the warm marble in the bathroom casts a pink glow on my skin. I feel relaxed and loving, in control. I can’t wait to get down to Miami and lie out in the sun next to Ethan. Do a little day-drinking by the pool. Jim will have fun doing whatever he’s doing, Nick will get spoiled by his grandparents, and everything is going to be perfect. I don’t know what I was so worried about before. I bet all the couples around here have the same arrangement. It just makes sense. It’s better for everybody.

I rinse my face, dry off with a towel, and turn the lights off in the bathroom. Jim is already fast asleep when I crawl under the covers. I make sure I can hear the baby through the monitor, then settle down next to my husband. My breathing slows. My muscles slacken. I drift off, and my eyes roll back in my head.

In my dream, I’m walking up the side of a mountain. The dense foliage makes the trail ahead hard to see. It keeps winding around and doubling back on itself. I’m starting to feel out of breath as the incline tests my fitness. I see Ethan in a clearing about twenty feet up the hill. I wave to him. He has a strange look on his face, like he’s sneering at me. I’m suddenly uncertain, unsure of myself. I’ve never experienced him making fun of me before. I become shy, hesitant, and I loiter on the trail.

“Hi.” Ethan appears right next to me on the path. I jump back. How did he get here so quickly? I look into his eyes and see it isn’t him. Whoever this is, he looks exactly like my manager, but he’s vile, lurid. He has evil, crazy eyes.

“Who are you?” I back away from him, terrified. Ethan doesn’t answer. He keeps creeping toward me with the most sadistic, wicked smile on his face. He’s enjoying my fear.

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