FicWad

“Laura” I heard his voice calling to me. It sounded so far away.
“Open you eyes. Laura, talk to me.” My eyes fluttered open as the voice got louder.
“What?” I couldn’t seem to make my mind form any other words.
“Laura, you fainted. Tell me you’re alright.” I finally got my eyes to focus. Suddenly I remembered what had happened.
“Shit, the blood.” My voice shook.
He brushed the hair from my eyes. “Are you okay now? Can you sit up?”
I realized I was on the ground with my head in his lap. “I don’t understand.”
“I don’t either. I need to take a look at the picture. Can you sit up?”
Slowly, with his help, I did. He immediately got up and moved towards the wall. He yanked on the photo. It came off in his hand. “Fuck”
I still didn’t feel ready to stand. “What is it?”
“The photo was taped to the wall. There is a packet of fake blood attached to the wall too. It was set up so that when the knife was removed the packet tore and the fake blood ran down the wall.” He walked back over to me and squatted down. “See?” In his hand was a small plastic packet. Remnants of the fake blood still cling to the inside of the package.
“Holy shit.” I muttered.
He sat down beside me turning the packet over and over in his hand. “I don’t understand.” He said softly.
Okay maybe my brain wasn’t firing on all four cylinders because I had just fainted, “Understand what?”
He tossed the packet down and picked up the knife. “Look familiar?”
I looked at it and shuddered, “No.”
“That’s because you never got a good look at the knife that killed Merri. I thought you would have the night you came and got it. The night you said you got rid of it.”
The fog was lifting, “I did get rid of it but I didn’t really get a good look at it. When I got here Ray already had it. When we heard Christa coming he wrapped it up in a shirt. Later on when I threw it in the river it was in a bag.” I paused, “Why did you say the night I said I got rid of it? Do you really think I didn’t?”
His eyes were still on the knife. He ran his finger along the edge. Fuck, he looked like he was in a trance. “Gerard” I said loudly. “Answer me.”
“I didn’t mean to make it sound like I didn’t believe you. Looking closely there are differences between the two knives. Still they are pretty fucking similar.”
I had had enough. “We need to get out of here. Whoever did this is deranged.”
He slowly turned to face me. I couldn’t read the look in his eyes and that scared me. “Go back to the apartment. I’m gonna take care of his mess, do the painting then wait until a security system is installed. I don’t want anyone else fucking getting in here.”
“Okay, no.” I said staring into his eyes.
‘Okay, no?”
“I’m not leaving you alone in this fucking house. Not happening.”
He exhaled, “Look I can take care of this. You need to go back to the apartment and wait for the delivery truck.”
His words made sense but the tone of his voice was wrong. “Ain’t happening.”
As I expected his temper flared, “Damn it to hell, can’t you ever do what I say without arguing?”
I wasn’t going to back down. “Guess not. I mean if you seriously think there is in way in hell I’m leaving you alone in this house you are fucking insane.”
He stood and glared down at me, “Go back to the apartment.”
“Go to hell” I slowly stood but was still shaky. His hand came out quickly to help steady me. “I’m not going anywhere.”
We both glared at each other. Finally he took a deep breath, “Look, I can handle this. I’ll call a security company and pay whatever amount they want for them to come today and install a security system. I’m sure it will take hours. You need to go to the apartment and wait for our shit to be delivered.”
I shook my head. Shit, that made me dizzy.
He noticed, “See? You aren’t well. You shouldn’t be here.”
I closed my eyes and waited for the feeling to pass. “First off stop saying the apartment.”
“What?”
“You keep saying the apartment. It’s our home.”
“Fuck, at a time like this you’re gonna correct me for using the wrong word?”
“Yeah, I am. I don’t want you to forget we are married and we have a home.” I slowly leaned down and picked up the bowl from the puddle of paint.
“Stop” He reached out and knocked the bowl from my hand. “I told you to get out of here.” He was yelling.
“Stop fucking yelling. My head already hurts.” I yelled back. “I don’t care what you say I’m not leaving. Call Mikey and tell him something happened and we can’t get back. He and Alicia can get a key from the building manager and they can wait for our stuff.”
He shook his head, “Tell him what? Oh how about ‘Hey bro, I’m over at our old house and someone who think I killed Merri trashed it. They even stuck a knife in her photo.’ He took a step closer to me. “How does that sound?” The anger was coming off him in waves.
I took a deep breath trying to control my own anger, “Stop acting like a dick. Tell him something is wrong with the car and we can't get back."
"I want you out of here." He grabbed my arm.
"Let go that hurts." I screamed trying to yank my arm out of his grip.
He tightened this hold. "Are you going to leave?"
"I will not leave. I will not let you do this."
"I'm not doing anything. I'm just trying to get you out of here. Let me clean up my own fucking mess."
Finally he released his hold and I rubbed my arm. "I know what you're doing. You're pulling away from me. Trying to piss me off so I'll leave. It's not going to work. Your mess is my mess. We'll take care of this together." He had looked away so I gently touched his face to make him look into my eyes, "Then we'll go home together."
I saw the anger fade in his eyes, "I just want to keep you safe." He whispered.
"I am safe. I'm with you."

It took us over an hour to get the painting done. I watched as he took the picture of Merri and ripped it to pieces. He took the pieces and the fake blood packet and pushed them down into the almost empty paint can. The knife, we decided, would go with us. The security company came about twenty minutes after we were done with the painting. It had been a long, stressful day. As we drove home I leaned my head back and fell asleep.
"We're home." He whispered in my ear.
My eyes popped open. "Sorry, I didn't mean to fall asleep."
He looked at me a minute, "I'm going to call the doctor tomorrow."
I sighed, "We already had this discussion. I'm fine" I started to get out of the car but he put his arm out to stop me.
"Please."
The concern I saw in his eyes touched me deeply, "Fine. If it will make you happy."
"It will. Go on up and I'll be right there. I'm gonna take the paint can to the dumpster."
"Think they'll be mad we were gone so long?" I asked as we got out of the car together.
"Just remember to stick to our story. Car trouble."
I nodded, "Okay." Slowly I made my way to the elevators. I felt drained. That house sucked the life out of me.

"Finally" Alicia said with a smile when I walked in. "I love the new sofa and chair. Mikey and I have been sitting on it and it's comfortable."
"You two didn't make out on my new sofa did you?" I kidded.
"Fuck yeah, we did. It was made for making out." Mikey said walking in from the kitchen, "Where's bro?"
Shit, can't say throwing away paint can containing a shredded photo of Merri and what’s left of a fake packet of blood. I turned around and pretended to look behind me. "Well crap, I lost him."
They both laughed and thankfully before I had to think up a real answer Gerard appeared.
He and I both admired our new furniture. The sofa was as comfortable as I remembered from sitting on it in the store.
"Thank you both for taking care of this for us." I said.
"Hey, no problem." Alicia said, "Your bed was delivered too. Hope you don't mind but I saw the comforter set you guy bought so I made up the bed."
We all walked towards the bedroom. She had indeed made up the bed and man, did it look inviting. I turned and hugged her, "Thank you." I whispered.
She looked at me strangely, "It was noting. I mean it was the least I could do after Mikey and I tried out the bed."
"Very funny." I laughed. Gerard walked up behind me and I felt his arms slip around my waist.
"It looks great." He said
` Mikey cleared his throat, "Uh that's our cue to leave"
We thanked them again and walked them to the door. Mikey turned to Gerard. "Oh, I ran into Tony Collins today. He's having a party tomorrow night and invited us. I told him you were married and he want to meet your wife."
"Cool" Gerard said. He looked at me. "I went to art school with him. Nice guy."
"So should we just all go together?" Mikey asked.
Gerard looked over at me, "Sound okay?"
"Sure" I answered. I really did want to meet his friends and a party sound like fun. At least I thought it did.