Somethingcrashed upstairs but Amber paid it no attention. She thought it wasimportant but could not remember why when she looked into herhusband’s dead eyes. She began crying then, thick tears slidingdown her face and making rivers through the blood there. She curledin on herself and sobbed out her agony.
Then a thickhand slammed down on her shoulder and something with too muchweight to it knocked her over the head. Amber felt her eyes rollback into her head and knew that she would not wake up from this.She fell into Greg’s still chest and closed her eyes knowing thatshe would at least be with her husband soon.
Amber openedher eyes to see her bathroom ceiling staring back at her. Sheblinked in abject wonder at the simple fact that she had been ableto open her eyes. Heavy breathing came from beside her but for themoment she did not want to turn her head.
Pain trailedalong her right side, sharp and immediate and she tried to pushthrough the haze of her mind to figure out what was causing thispain. Her side throbbed and she let out a little moan but did notclose her eyes. Finally she turned her head to the right and sawthe stranger lying right beside her with a grin on his face. Shescreamed and tried to roll away but an ache erupting along her sidestopped her still.
“You’llpull out the stitches if you do that again,” the man whispered toher and Amber noted that he had cleaned himself up.
“Stitches?” She stuttered in confusion.
It was her headthat had been hit and there was no reason for her to have stitcheson her side. There was no reason for her not to be able to feel herright arm. It should be squished under him but she did not feel thepins and needles associated with it. The only thing she could feelwas pain that sung along every nerve on her right.
“I sewedus together so we can never be apart,” the man explained with agrin.
Amber stared athim for a long moment the implications of that statement settlinginto her person. Her throat closed and her vision narrowed to twolittle pinpricks of detail as her gaze shifted to stare at her ownbody.
Bile rosestrong in her throat as she looked at the stump that used to bewhere her right arm was. It was joined with thick black thread tothe stump were his left arm had been. The precise stitchescontinued all the way down her side, joining him to her, her to himuntil they stopped two inches above her obscenely pink panties. Shenoted a small dot of blood where a needle had entered her flesh ather stomach and realized that he had put her under.
“Who,why, oh God,” Amber tried to mutter out around the thick lump thathad settled in her throat.
“My nameis Russell and I did this because I love you,” the man said with alight chuckle and shifted to kiss her cheek.
Memoriesflooded back over her. He was the stalker from high school. Hisglaring looks as Greg protected her year after year. The shouts ofher ex boyfriends when they found Russell trailing behind them ontheir dates. She coughed and tried to turn away again but onlymanaged to turn her head.
Bile poured outof her mouth as she winced in pain from the stitches. The only goodthing about this was that she was in fact left handed. If sheremembered correctly, so was he. Amber saw with some absurdlucidity that her right arm was lying along beside her. She almostlaughed but the smile turned into a sneer as she picked up the armand slammed it into Russell’s face.
He yelped ather and tried to grab her own severed arm away from her but she wasdriven by an animal passion that caused her to keep bringing thelimb down on him over and over again. Russell took the blows butdid not pass out. Amber realized the arm was not sturdy enough todo the job and gave him a final whack across the eyes beforeturning away from him the best she could.
“Betternow? I hope so, you are wearing my necklace after all,” Russellmuttered after a moment.
“What doyou mean?” Amber questioned without turning.
“Theroses, the chocolates, the bear, the necklace, they were all fromme. You’re my sweet Valentine,” Russell’s words poured over herlike molasses.
A glint ofsilver caught her attention and Amber noticed the knife he hadlikely used to kill Greg sitting in her immediate vicinity. It wasstill clutched in his left hand, attached to the arm he had severedto join them. She noted another large knife a few feet away butdismissed it. Amber’s left hand skittered along the floor as he wasstill talking and she grabbed the deadened left hand ofRussell.
Peeling backthe fingers one handed was frustrating but Amber knew just where toapply pressure to get the knife to release. It did not clatter tothe floor and it merely slid out of the now loosened grip of thedead hand. Amber’s lips pulled back into a snarl. She howled infury as she turned with the knife in her hand.
Russell yelledat her to stop but she brought it down hard into his eye. She wasnot sure which eye it was but she did not care because she yankedthe knife out and slammed it into his other eye. His right handcame up to grab her wrist and she slashed at it, the flesh oddlymalleable under the blade.
Blood pouredfrom the gash on his wrist and she pushed the knife through thecenter of his right palm before jerking it free again and slammingit into his forehead. He shuddered a few times and his right armfell weakly to one side. She did not noticed as she was too busypulling the knife from his forehead and pushing it into his throatwith a cry of rage.
The knifeseparated flesh again and she tugged it free as blood sprayed herin the face weakly. She made no notice to this and pounded theknife through his sternum before pulling it free again and cuttinginto his stomach four times.
With heavingbreaths, she stilled with the knife still
