Bitches Shred In Pieces

02: Satisfying Or Horrifying?

"What are we going to do now?" Michelle Perkins hears her mother yell as she walks into her house, closing the door behind her quietly. She rushes to the living room, bemuse because her mother never yells, especially at her husband. In the living room, Mr. Perkins sits in the red velvet couch with his neck laying back, a wine glass intertwined in his fingers.

"What's going on?" Michelle interrupts their discussion, throwing her bag in the floor. Mrs. Perkins, who is standing near the window, looks at her with squeezed eyes.

"Leave please. This are adults speaking," she says, stepping forward to Michelle.

Michelle rolls her eyes, placing both hands on her waist while chuckling. "You know I'm old enough, right? I'm a senior! Soon graduating so consider me an adult, would you?"

"Don't talk like that to your mother, shortie. Everything is fine." His father looks at her mother as he speaks. "I simply lost my job at the marketing company."

Michelle claps a hand over her mouth. "Oh, my god!" Losing the spot as the manager from his company means deep trouble. He's been working with the same company for fifteen long years, and he's fired. Great.

  "Is there any way—"

  "Go to your room, Michelle." Mrs. Perkins says before Michelle finishes her words. "Please."

  But Michelle doesn't go to her room, instead she heads out the front door. Staying home wouldn't help at all. The problem is in the house, so might as well get out of it. She doesn't know where she's heading, taking turns and crossing streets. Honks and the smell of gasoline surround her. As she keeps going farther from her house, this reminds her when she ran away from Tommy's, an ice cream shop, after telling Joseph she didn't love him.

  While she's running, she crashes with an old woman. Michelle turns back and says, "Are you okay?" The woman leans down carefully, picking up a few papers that fell off her hands.

  The woman's big, brown eyes scan her, they are red and puffy. It's clear that she's been crying for quite a lot. Her hair, a mixture of auburn and white, is barely made into a messy ponytail. The wrinkles in her mouth make her look even more devastated. "It's alright. I wasn't paying much attention, darling."

  Michelle nods and smiles at her, continuing to step away from her house.

  "Wait!" the woman yells at her.

  Michelle stops, confused. She faces her again, asking, "Yes?"

  The woman jogs towards Michelle, holding a sheet from the stack on her other hand. Curious, Michelle takes it and examines the image pasted in it. A girl with curly, bloody-red hair with pale-white skin is smiling in the picture. Bad eyeliner, just as Michelle remembers it. She's also holding a small and cute breed of beagle dog in her hands.

  That girl is Karen.

  Underneath her picture says, 'Karen Flynn, age 17, has been missing since Monday night. She was last seen in the old Katerina Park before disappearing. If anyone has seen her, please dial this number.' And the phone number is there.

  "Is she your relative?" Michelle asks the woman, trying to sustain her normal voice.

  "She's my granddaughter. Karen barely came to Katerina about three months ago and now she's gone," as she speaks, her eyes fill with tears. "I miss her so much. I'm her only family. It's just the two of us... or was."

  Michelle can't help it, but release a small whimper. The sorrowful woman doesn't realize that on front of her own eyes stands her granddaughter's murderer. It's weird, isn't it? The things you can't see due to fear. The fear of a missing family member, or the fear of not knowing that the murderer is staring right at you.

  "I haven't seen her." Before rushing out of the woman's view, Michelle whispers, "I'm sorry and hope you find her," and breaks crying. She sprints at full speed through the crowd of people filling the sidewalks. Letting the paper go from her hands with the image of Karen, recalling the woman's words in her head. I miss her so much. What has Michelle done? She has destroyed a woman as much as she's destroying herself.

  Her legs begin to feel weak and unstable as she keeps running. Her breathing isn't in control either. She meets with less people as she gets farther from her town. She's exhausted, but she isn't stopping. Tears fog her view as she tries to wipe them, her hair also covering her eyes due to the wind.

  When she finally gets to see clear, she regrets it. The air gets caught in her lungs at such view, slowing her pace until she stops. How did she get here? On front of her stands endless pine trees that reach high. The same trees that surround the town of Katerina. The only sound coming from them are the wind and the squeaks of the swings from the old Katerina Park. These are the same woods where Karen was killed.

  The Hush Hush woods.

💋

Michelle steps into her bedroom, breathing heavily. After accidentally ending in the Hush Hush woods, she got a taxi back home. She knew that if she continued running, her legs would fail. Her whole body feels weak ever since she saw the missing poster of Karen. Her anxiety is taking over her.

"Michelle? You're back?" Mrs. Perkins asks all the way from downstairs.

Michelle yells back, "Yes."

She walks to her puffy, light-blue bed, carrying her legs. She plops face-first, taking a deep breath and closing her eyes. Soon, she'll forget about all this, right? It just takes time.

Who is she tricking? She knows that killing someone is hard to forget. Unforgettable.

She opens her hazel eyes, noticing the black note on front of her. She raises an eyebrow while picking it up, thinking that it might be her father who put it in her bed. Maybe he wrote a note to tell her that everything will be fine. That, eventually, he'll get another well-paid job. She lays a finger over the red lipstick kiss in the middle of the nicely folded sheet. She takes it back—definitely not her father.

  In shiny, gold letters that were typed mentions something totally different from loosing a job.

ʜᴏᴡ ᴅɪᴅ ɪᴛ ғᴇᴇʟ ᴛᴏ ʙᴜʀʏ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴡᴏʀsᴛ ᴇɴᴇᴍʏ? sᴀᴛɪsғʏɪɴɢ ᴏʀ ʜᴏʀʀɪғʏɪɴɢ? ɪ'ʟʟ ʙᴇ ᴡᴀᴛᴄʜɪɴɢ.

—xᴏxᴏ

~

A\N: Guess what, Michelle? At some point they are going to start looking for Karen. Just sayin'! Like and comment! Xoxo 💋