MY GIRL (Psycho/Killer Hank Palmer)

My Girl

It was a gloomy day. No sun, just an enormous downpour of rain. Water rushed down the windshield like a waterfall and mostly blurred Hanks's vision. The squeaks of the wipers creating a rhythmic pattern that would drive most mad, but he'd already surpassed sanity.

His bloodied knuckles tightened against the steering wheel the faster he drove down the dirt road, hitting bumps and rivets the water carved into the earth. Next to him in the passenger seat sat the woman he loved, cherished and aimed to keep as his prized possession. Her legs curled into her chest and her arms wrapped around herself as she watched the trees pass. Not daring to look in the backseat.

A blood-soaked body laid unresponsive there; An unfortunate outcome of an unwelcome visitor. He was a neighbour of Hanks, one that was always very nice 'n usually remained on his own property. Only coming over the odd times when he had things to offer like lovely things his wife made.

Just like previous gestures, that generous man approached Mr. Palmer's door, wife's cherry pie in hand. She always insisted when she made her special sweets, that Mr. Palmer would have his own separate batch made. Ever since he came over when he first moved next door and made a big compliment on her excellent baking skills, she couldn't help but feel like it was a mandatory act of kindness. For her husbands' sake, she should've skipped the weekend's baking, as he'd not return from his short trip.

When he stepped up to the front door of Mr. Palmers' home, he gave the door a generously loud knock and waited to give him the container of food, but that's not what had happened. Instead, he heard a muffled shuffling sound and a woman's voice.

All these years of knowing Hank, he never once knew him to have a woman in his life. Usually never leaving his house, and if he did, it was at the late hours of the night. He looked over his shoulder to the driveway to make sure his thoughts were correct. No other cars were in the driveway besides Hank's newer Silver SUV.

The jiggling of the knob brought his attention back to why he was here; definitely not to snoop on his neighbour.

The pitch-black door, to the sleek modern house, flung open, but only enough to show half the man he expected to see. Standing a bit taller than himself, Hank peaked his head past the edge of the door. When he saw it to be a familiar face, he pushed the door more open and leaned on its edge. His breathing a bit heavy and erratic like he'd ran to answer.

Bringing the pie up to hand over, the friendly man shined a quick smile and spoke the words his wife wanted him to pass on.

"My misses sent me over to deliver this... she said it's got fresh cherries and just made in today's batch."

Hank's eyes moved down to see the large container and slowly trailed up back to the man's eyes. A fake smile spread across his lips.

"Awh, she's too kind"

Happy to hear, the husband to the kind woman chuckled.

"Yeah, If I wasn't married to her, I'd assume she had the sweets for you" His humour went unnoticed as he just received a clouded stare from Hank. He looked like he hadn't even heard the man's words and was elsewhere with his thoughts.

The awkward moment didn't last long since the pie was grabbed from his hands.

"I'll be sure to return the Tupperware when I'm done."

The two stood looking at each other for a moment, not breaking eye contact even when they blinked. Hank's behaviour was... odd. Odder than usual. Often enough he'd be in an overall good mood and very welcoming. Besides the occasional awkward encounter when he'd run into people. Something his neighbour marked as 'Strange', was Hank would always wait till night to bring out his rubbish, but that wasn't the 'Strange' part.