Pseudosapien

Jealousy

"I was thinking about getting a pet." Garth started one morning while she was over to escape the crowded park that spring steadily brought with it. They were in his kitchen, snacking on whatever they could find that went with coffee.

"Have you tried going on dates and finding a girlfriend instead?" Anemone questioned with a look of disinterest in the topic.

"What's wrong with a pet?" He defended.

"Nothing, they just don't seem to like me. Dogs bark, cats hiss, birds screech and flap around, fish commit suicide on me. I'm lucky I have plants in my house that don't just randomly die on me." She stated with a shrug, not having to add that she wouldn't be able to come over anymore if he got a pet.

"Maybe they don't like the way you smell." He gave her a confused glance."You don't seem surprised by their apparent dislike of you."

"Well, you didn't exactly want to walk up to me and say hello." She pointed with a smile. Anemone had just gotten off from work that day and still had her hair up in a low ponytail.

"That's normal?" Something was weird here.

"For a large majority of people around me, yes. It goes to show that people are like dogs, cats, and birds, Garth. They can smell when something is different about you. You are one of few that want to get closer to me and I attribute that to you being of a similar degree of...different."

"A word that speaks for most of what surrounds many of us. Simple but fitting."

"You want to say something else." Annie urged on, noticing that he seemed to be holding something back.

"It is a trait that a lot of serial killers are known to possess." Anemone let out a chortle.

"That's not the first time you've heard that phrase, is it?"

"Not even close."

"Makes sense since you dated one too. It might've been what drew him to you." Garth mused.

"Actually...I started that relationship." She muttered, moving her eyes in every direction but his and taking another sip from her coffee.

"What was he like?"

"Chip Shilling?" Did he really want to know?

"Yes, my dear. It's story time."

"Well, let's see. He didn't freak out the first time he met me, when I made a move, or when he asked me to be in a relationship."

"I don't get it."

"I made the first move means that I made it clear to him I wanted a relationship, but he had to ask me." Her explanation was said with a cheeky grin.

"So you didn't have to?" Garth nodded before letting her continue on.

"Precisely. Chip was funny, kind, and 'seemed' like your normal, everyday guy. He wasn't too quiet or too loud. He was flirtatious and a hilarious drunk. " She inhaled as she thought of more ways to describe him.

"He put off sex for the longest time and, at first, I wondered why, but now I definitely know. Aside from the necrophilia thing, he was an amazing man. No one would've figured him for any sort of killer. Not from his features, his personality, his aura; not to me. We tried normal sex and it was fine...until one night when he tried to strangle me during it. That was a red flag...when I knew regular one on one sex with a living woman wasn't cutting it for him. He needed a dead girl." Annie sighed. She had genuinely liked Chip quite a bit.

"It must have been very complicated."

"Yes, it was my ultimatum. Let him kill me to give him what he wanted or break up and hide in a locked room until he left."