HASTE

By Catie Rhodes

from Tales from the Mist

A betrayed wife who murders her cheating husband and his lover in a fit of rage becomes the victim of her own impulsiveness.

eg drove the knife one last time into Ted’s unmoving chest and then stabbed Brittany again. She flung the knife at the wall of the storage building.  It connected with a metallic clang and thumped to the dirt floor. 

"This is what you think of me?" Meg screamed into her husband's bloody face. "You bring your trashy whore into my house?"

Technically Ted had brought Brittany into their storage building.  To hell with technical. 

Meg sucked in a breath to continue her rant but gagged.  The stench coming off the dead lovers reminded her of an outhouse in summer.  She swiped a hand over her mouth and willed the contents of her stomach into submission.

“You ain’t so pretty now, are you?” She sneered into Brittany's mutilated face. “Bet you wish you’d kept that tight little ass at home today.”

Killing her husband had been easy. His back had been to her as he rummaged through the storage building shelves. He never saw her coming. Meg struck the back of his head with the machete, and Ted hit the dirt floor of the storage shed like a sack of shit.

Brittany didn’t even fight for her life. She just stood there with her hands on her cheeks and screamed. Enraged, Meg hit her with the machete until she could no longer lift it.  There wasn’t much left of Ted's lover.

Now that Meg’s rage had ebbed away, she knew she’d fucked up. She had lost her temper and acted without thinking. Again.

Act in haste, repent at leisure. All her life, people had said that to Meg after she’d done something rash. She always swore to do better. And she did. Until the next time she flew off the handle.

Now she’d gone and killed her husband of nearly twenty-five years and his trashy girlfriend. Ted had been a good man for the most part, but nobody played Meg Baker for a fool. It set her off every time.

The unsavory incidents that dotted her forty-plus years were trivial compared to this screw-up, however. Murder didn’t just go away.

She had to fix this. But how?

She watched shows about this kind of thing all the time. True crime documentaries, detective shows, prison reality shows. She loved them all. She combed her memory of them, searching for a solution. Her mind darted from idea to idea, but none of them were any good. It was no use.

Blood, bits of gore, and dirt covered her skin. She scratched at it and studied her fingernails. Half-moons of black gunk lodged underneath them. Blood stained the cuticles. A shudder rippled through her body, bubbling in her stomach.

She had to shower. She would know what to do after she cleaned up.

~~~

I hope you enjoyed this little teaser of Haste by Catie Rhodes. The rest of this, and eleven other horror/paranormal short stories are in the Tales from the Mist anthology, available instantly at most online retialers, including Amazon, and will be available very soon in paperback.

If you'd like to download this sample to share, you may do so here.

Copyright Catie Rhodes 2012
published here with her permission.