Anything but Ordinary... (A Short Story)

 

           Gerald Hughes was anything but an ordinary man.  On the outside was a seemingly flawless exterior.  The thirty-two year old had the perfect trophy wife and two beautiful, well behaved children; yet something about him just didn’t fit the picture.  Some people have reported seeing him walking the streets in the late hours of the night, alone.  It sounds like a perfectly normal thing to do, right?  Taking a late night walk into town to calm your nerves or to think something over seems like something a completely ordinary person would do; this is where you’re wrong.  Gerald Hughes was anything but ordinary. 

 

            Buttoning his trench coat from the bottom up just until he reached the second button from the top, Gerald walked down the normally busy street which seemed almost completely deserted with the exception of the occasional taxi driving by.  He tilted his hat forward a bit, to where it just barely covered his eyes and shoved his hands into his pockets.  The air was still; completely silent.  There was no source of light but the dimly lit street lights which gave the area an eerie atmosphere, and the bedroom lights of the very few people still awake at two AM in the surrounding apartments.  Upon first glance, the man looked like a lost shadow wondering the streets.  He kept his head down in hopes nobody would recognize him, though many did.

 

Gerald Hughes was never fond of eye contact, he told his wife it simply made him feel awkward in the presence of strangers, but she knew differently.  Sophie Hughes, Gerald’s wife, knew every detail about the grim second life Gerald lived after hours; in the darkness.   Although she would never tell him, she knew.  Sophie was smarter than Gerald gave her credit for.  Gerald treated her like she should know nothing but how to clean, cook, and tend to the children while he was at work.  He had used the “I have to work late tonight” excuse far too frequently for his wife to believe him, although Sophie liked to pretend she did.  She thought that if she kept telling herself he was telling the truth that she would believe it.  That rarely ever worked, much like Gerald’s attempts at walking the streets unseen.  One night when Gerald had used this infamous excuse, Sophie decided to follow him.  The family of four didn’t own a car, Gerald preferred to walk everywhere.  He told Sophie it was for exercise, but she knew that was a lie.  Sophie walked quietly behind Gerald, careful not to step on one single dry leaf or twig that could give away the fact that she was less than five feet behind him.

 

            She followed him around every corner, down every dark ally, allowing every completely unrealistic idea of what could lay ahead float freely through her mind.  Deciding ‘what ifs’ wouldn’t get her anywhere, Sophie limited her thoughts strictly to what was in front of her.  She constantly moved her eyes from the back of Gerald’s head to the concrete ground, hoping nothing would go wrong and she would go about following her husband unnoticed.  After what seemed like an hour, Gerald finally reached his destination, completely unaware of his wife’s presence.  They had reached a dumpster behind an old abandoned restaurant downtown.  Cliché? It’s not over yet.  There stood another man, not very tall but certainly well built.  Sophie swiftly ducked behind a large trashcan, her blond hair sweeping in her face.  Covering her mouth in an attempt to muffle the sounds of her breathing, she focused intently on listening to their conversation but she couldn’t make out a single word being said.  The man took a step to the right, revealing a young boy, not much older than about seventeen years of age gagged and bound at his feet and wrists.  His face was streaked with tears and his eyes were filled with fear and worry.  Gerald was grinning from ear to ear as he gazed into the eyes of the terrified boy on the ground.  “Perfect,” was the one word Sophie managed to hear.  The man drew a knife from his coat pocket and handed it to Gerald.  In the blink of an eye Gerald was kneeling down next to the wide eyed boy, holding the knife to his throat.  He gracefully moved the knife from his throat to the ropes that bound the boy and cut them.  In an instant the boy was on his feet and tried to run, but Gerald gripped his upper arm firmly and pulled him back to where he was previously sitting.  Wasting no time, Gerald slit the boy’s throat and relentlessly pressed his lips to the wound.  After what seemed like a lifetime, but in reality was a mere ten minutes, the color had been drained from the boy’s body and Gerald released him.  The boy sunk lifelessly to the floor and Gerald turned around walking back in the direction of which he came, leaving the man to clean up his mess. 

 

Sophie followed Gerald back home and walked inside through the back door, greeting her husband with a hug and a kiss.  Though Sophie still loved him, all she could think about were his blood stained lips as Gerald dropped the body and walked away.  Thus, bringing me to my point; seemingly perfect Gerald Hughes is anything but ordinary.