She told me she loved me.
I believed her.
The love we made that night was torrid and heady, and when it was over I fell into a deep sleep, where she was spooned in my arms, wriggling teasingly to get me going again, knowing I couldn’t because I was spent.
“You’re cruel,” I said, my smile buried somewhere among her hair, neck, and shoulder.
She laughed, soft and low; something sounded wrong with it, but sleep pulled me under before I knew it mattered.
*******************
A sharp fingernail raked my cheek, and I could feel the skin tear and split around it.
I was dazed and groggy, and my cheek was on fire and warm with blood. When I sat up I could hear it patter on the sheet.
“What–?”
She straddled me, kissed me, then pushed me gently away like a dog that wanted too much attention.
“What is it with you?” I asked. “Why’d you scratch me so–?”
“Relax, baby.” She cupped my face, the pad of her thumb making circles, smearing the blood from the slice in my cheek over my lips.
I tried to get up, but couldn’t.
Blood spurted from my mouth, splattering her hair, neck and face.
She’d distracted me with the scratch on my cheek, and I didn’t pay attention.
She worked the blade into my chest with a butcher’s dexterity.
I felt skin and muscle tear, veins sever, and tendons pop.
Opening my mouth to scream, more blood filled it and my tongue had no purchase to form words.
With a playful smile pried the cut she made wider. Reaching her hand inside, she clutched my heart with strong fingers, her nails digging and slicing like five miniature scimitars as I felt blood cascading down my torso. She took some time, but she worked my heart loose.
“Do you see what I did to you, baby?”
She held it up in her hands; it was red and dull like a ruby plucked from a dusty mine.
Her smile was beatific.
“I’ve stolen your heart.”
She giggled again, the wrong sound beneath the lilt of it more prominent now.
As my vision failed, the smell of corrupt flowers and coppery blood grew redolent, and I felt her arms embrace me, pulling my bloody, cooling corpse against her.
“I love you,” she whispered.
She told me she loved me.
I believed her.
Nightshade Stories 