The Internship

Chapter 5: Why Did I Do That?

"Wait here."
It has been ten tormented minutes. Ten minutes in the dark night. Ten minutes with the butchered man at her feet. Ten minutes alone with her thoughts.

Ten minutes and the old man was nowhere to be seen.

The accusing tone sneered at her: you have done fucked up.

Thoughts invaded her mind; what if this was all a joke? What if he called the cops on her, and they're gonna send her to prison? No, I can't let it happen.

"Let's get back together." Came a voice from behind Mara.
"Why?" Mara turned back to the voice, her eyes glistening with unshed tears, "give me a reason, Mark. Give me a reason as to why I should take you back, you ungrateful, cheating prick!" She shouted. A tear slid down her cheek.

"I didn't mean to hurt you like that." Cried out, Mark. Mark, the person Mara loved. For three whole years only to be paid with betrayal.

"Oh please," cried out Mara, her hand sweeping up the few fallen hairs from her face, "like that? You cheated on me for half of our relationship, and with whom?" A laugh crept out from her, eyes turning red from unshed tears. "My neighbor of all places?" She sneered, eyes dilating.

"Baby, please hear me out!" Pleaded Mark, stepping towards Mara, arms outstretched.
"No! Mark Losloso," Mara pointed a jabbing finger at him, "you listen to me!"

The cold breeze felt like a slap to Mara's face as it blew past them, dried leaves accompanying the wind. Like the swaying leaves, Mara felt her emotions and strength swaying to the whims of the wind. Freezing. Wavering. Gone.

With a shaky breath, Mara stepped forward. Her face was a breath away from Mark's.

"I had trusted you, put all my faith in you. I loved you more than you ever did." She scoffed, fighting the urge to smack his face against the concrete ground at their feet.

Silence followed her outrage. The faint buzzing of the rush hour city traffic hovered over them. The sun was on her way to clocking out for the day, but it eerily felt like she just didn't want to witness Mara's heartbreak. The strong evening breeze sent a shiver up her spine; only her absolute hate for the man in front of her kept her from freezing to death. Or maybe she already died. Died the moment Mark admitted to cheating on her.

Cheating. He lied. That word- cheat- pulled her from her spiraling thoughts as she looked up at Mark. Staring straight at his green eyes. Green, tear-stained eyes. He looks so fucking ugly now.

"Mara, please. I'm begging you to take me back." Mark pleaded once more, hands stretching out to grab her arms in a pleading motion. "I love you, baby." The proud, egoistic man crumbling into a hunched, pathetic stance, begging for her forgiveness, gave Mara a chill she never expected to enjoy so much. This feels nice, watching him beg with a snot-covered face. Pathetic.

She removed his hands from her arms, stepping back from him. Away from his pathetic ass.

"You can beg all you want, but I can't take you back." She breathed out. "You broke my trust, and honestly, I don't think I can ever trust or even love you anymore. You are gonna ruin both of us."

"Ruin?" Mark's bloodshot eyes shot towards her, making Mara wobble a bit in her walk with the intensity of his look. "I will ruin the both of us?" He questioned manically. His hunched stance slowly straightened into his former tall, proud self.

With an accusing finger pointed toward Mara, Mark snickered out, "You ruined both of us! You made us into what we are now. So," he put his hand behind his back, searching for something, "you don't get to accuse me for ruining us when it was all your pathetic, pretty privileged nature."

"You are lying! You just want to blame someone for your acts." Mara cried out, finally letting the tears cascade like a dam being opened. "You always played the victim, always. Even now." She shouted out, breath hitching as she noticed the knife in Mark's hand. He brought a weapon.

"Shut up, you bitch!" Mark hollered, marching toward her, the knife clutched in his firm grip. In her attempt to avoid the knife, Mara slipped on a puddle and fell on her behind, which made Mark miss his aim and stumble forward. Face first. To the ground.

It took a minute for both of them to realize what had occurred, and within seconds of the situation registering in Mara's head, a laugh bubbled up within her. She liked how pathetically he was behaving, off his high horse and face first to waste puddle.

But her laughs did not last long as Mark, in all his red-faced fuming glory, grabbed Mara's unsuspecting ankle and pulled her beneath him. Knife aimed a breath away from her face.

It had been minutes, maybe even hours. The sun had set, Mara noticed. Noises- the buzzing of the distant traffic, the chirping of birds returning home for the day, the flickering street lamps- infiltrated her aural senses. Even the skittering of the ever-busy sewage rats' tiny feet seemed too loud to her. Breathing heavily, she assessed her surroundings. It was a blur what happened after, the sharp point of the knife still clear as day in her mind.

"You...bitch..." came a heaving murmur from beneath her. Her eyes saw red. She was straddling Mark Losloso, who was covered in blood. It was at this moment that Mara noticed the knife in her hand. The blood splatters, who knows whose, dripping from her face and falling onto Mark's.  She had been stabbing Mark in her stupor.

"You," Mark heaved, blood sputtering from his mouth, "will ruin everyone." He heaved, taking in gulps of shallowed breath between each word. "You fucked up, bitch." He spit up at her face.

"Shut up. Shut up. Shut up." The knife poured stabs after stabs on Mark's wide-eyed face. The sound of blood splatters enveloped the alley they had found themselves in during their altercation. The skittering sounds of sewage rats, the blinking street lamp behind her urging her to keep striking. The terrified look of her lover before she struck his perfect, handsome face fueled a hunger in her.

"You are the problem." Stab.
"Fucking bitch." Stab.
With every accusing words of Marks' floating on her mind, Mara felt herself grow angrier. Even after her myriad of assault on the man beneath her, the look of pure hatred and disgust that Mark showed her still surfaced on the massacred, bloodied face.

"You have done fucked up." A slash straight down his body from his head. Tears and blood mixed with each other as Mara let herself drown in the repetitive plows.

No, no, no. Shut up. Shut up. Shut up.

"Woah, what's happening out here?" Mara felt a pair of hands grab hold of her arms, pulling her back.
"You have already beaten the man to death," a chuckle, "he's had enough, I believe."

It was then that Mara realized she had started kicking the dead Mark as she spiraled.

Mara just stared back at Greg, an unreadable expression set on her face. Greg sighed and moved towards the body.

"Well, let's just get him inside. I don't wanna be seen with this shit out here." He grimaced and bent down to grab its lower body. Mara followed suit.

I cannot let this ruin me.