Sinister Stories

1... 2... 3... Breath in. Breath out.

With the thundering of a thousand drums, my heart felt as if it would rip from my chest. That the fear and adrenaline would get so much that I wouldn't be able to hold it down. I had really just witnessed as she hit the ground. As the life fled from her body. As the woman I loved was ripped away.

Instead of running, instead of getting myself away from danger I trapped myself in the secret cabinet that was tucked away on the wall by the window. There wasn't much room inside of it. The purpose wasn't meant to hold a person, I could barely even stand. The slit which I had to leave to be able to free myself when it was safe was only just big enough to see out of when I lent towards it.

Like a child playing hide and seek, I chanced looking out.

My eyes couldn't linger from the body now laid on the ground.

Meters away from where I had chosen to hide, the blood was running from her nose, her eyes were staring straight towards me. It was unnerving. Why was she looking at me?

Was she trying to alert them of my presence?

Give away where I was so that I could be the next victim?

Puffing out my cheeks and blowing short puffs, I felt myself shaking with fear. I had to slow my breathing. I couldn't give out to where I was, if they heard my breathing I was a goner for sure. No mercy would be shown. 1... 2... 3... Breath in. Breath out.

1... 2... 3... Breath in. Breath out.

1...2...3... Breath in. Breath out. Swallowing back the dryness in my throat, I shut my eyes hoping it would help. In seconds I was forced to open them again when it seemed like movement was coming from inside the room.

As if the lifeless being with red paint pooling around them wasn't the only one in the room...

Instinct kicked in again. I held my breath. My eyes were stuck on the gap. Not on her this time, what else was in the room. Late in the evening with only a corner lamp flickering a beam across the room, her body cast a shadow against the wall where the TV used to be. If someone entered the door they would appear as a shadow seconds before I would see them.

But there was nothing.

What had I heard?

A car door? Someone using the house door? Someone looking around the house?

1... 2... 3... Breath in. Breath out.

I exhaled. My heart was still racing in my chest.

I gave in.

My attention plummeted down.

She was pale. Awfully pale. Her eyes were glass. Fixed forward. Kissable lips were spread apart and stained in the fluid that seeped from her nose. Almost like a film star, her delicate curls framed around her face and fell across her shoulder, to the arm closest to me. Her wedding ring was still there with the vows forever broken as death had terminated the contract. The boyfriend jacket she borrowed was tampered evidence never to be returned.

My final memory of her...

Lost in thought I must not have heard them enter.

The ceiling light came on and the entire room was flooded with amber. The doleful expression was even clearer. One of them knelt down to her, to the outstretched hand. Two fingers.

"She's dead" they pronounced.

The others showed no mercy, they began kicking back the sofa, pulling forward dressers.

And then one of them came over to the wall, as if they knew that I was there.

But I held my breath and lent back into the darkness.

He traced the crack with his finger. Puzzled he went to turn away but he saw it in her eyes.

Flowing the trail of deceit, he figured it out.

Pushing in and sliding the door aside, I was exposed.

The knife was still in my hand. My own wedding ring covered in her blood. My sobbing body.

"I am arresting you for the murder of your wife."

1... 2... 3...

Breath.