Love Lies Dying (64 page)

She was only a few feet away from him.

“Hi, my lover,” she said.

John’s heart began to pound hard, his breathing increased and he stopped dead in his tracks.

“I knew you’d come to me,” she continued. “You can’t deny what we had together. You can’t go back with Sherrie, not after you’ve tasted me. And I
know
you like what you tasted.”

John stared at her.

“Is this all part of the game?” he said through clenched teeth.

Zoe’s face fell.

Thunder drummed loud and deep.

“Is it?” he asked again.

She shook her head, “No, Johnny. It isn’t. I miss you and I want you back. That’s why I’m here. I want us to be together forever. I made a mistake and I’m sorry, but I want to be with you. Can you forgive me?”

“
Forgive
you?” John couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Are you
serious?
”

“Please…?”

“You tortured me for days and you
killed
Helen! Do you remember that? You
killed
my wife!”

“You didn’t love her anyway,” she replied.

John’s mouth opened to reply, but he couldn’t think straight. He didn’t know what to say to her. He shook his head and just stared.

“John?” Sherrie called to him.

Zoe’s eyes darted over his shoulder towards the caravan.

“Stay where you are!” John called back to her.

“Does she
fuck
as good as I do?” Zoe asked, staring back at him. “Does she?”

John didn’t answer.

“Does she give you what you want, fulfil your dreams like I do, Johnny? Does she make you cum so hard it hurts? Does she bend over in all the positions you like? Does she drink every last drop of your cum? Does she?”

No reply.

“I’ll take that as a no, then,” she continued. “And you’re right. I know, I’ve been with her too, remember? She can’t satisfy you like I do. I know that already. But you’re giving me up for
her?
”

“I
never
loved you,” he replied. “So I can’t give you up.”

“You’re turning me down again…” she said to herself. “After everything, you’re still saying no.”

“I
love
Sherrie,” he said. “I
never
loved you.”

Sadness swept across her as lightning broke the night.

“I swore this would never happen, Johnny,” she said in a sad, soft voice. “I swore no man would ever break my heart again.”

“I’m sorry, Zoe. But I still want to help you. I think you need help.”

“I swore you’d never break my heart twice. But you have.”

John stared at her, his mouth wide.

“
Twice?
”

“How could I be so
stupid?
”

Thunder rolled and the rain returned in a wave, hard and heavy, beating into the ground and trees around them.

They stood in silence.

One last chance…

“Zoe, come with us and we’ll get you some help,” John held out a hand to her. “If you tell the police everything, they’ll understand and use it in your favour. With a few years of the best doctors and psychiatric help, you’ll get better. I promise.”

“I don’t need your promises, Johnny,” she replied, rubbing her shoulders. “I don’t need you at all anymore. I should’ve known nothing would’ve changed.”

“Let me help you,” he reached out further to her.

“No!”

John took a step towards her, “Please…”

“NO!” Zoe screamed and took a step backwards.

John let his arm drop away and fall to his side.

“Stop hurting John to get revenge on me!” Sherrie called from behind him.

He turned to see her walking towards them.

No! Get back!

Zoe looked puzzled, “What are you talking about?”

“You know
exactly
what I’m talking about,” Sherrie was by John’s side now. “I’m through with you, Zoe! I told you months ago. So, just leave John and me alone! Leave us and take your sick evil games elsewhere. I don’t love you anymore!
Get it?
”

Zoe smirked, “This has got
nothing
to do with you, Sherrie. This is all between John and me!”

“Huh?”

“I’m not here for revenge on you!” she continued, her smirk widening and stretching the jagged cut on her left cheek. “I left
you,
remember? This is between John and me.”

“But I don’t even
know
you!” John replied.

“Really?” Zoe placed a hand on her hip. “Think
really
hard, John. Be truthful to yourself and think
really
hard. Go back through the years and find me. You will. And
remember
what you did to me. I’m there, you just have to find me.”

“Zoe, I don’t know what you’re
talking
about!”

“Don’t start believing your own lies, Johnny. That’s when you’ve become
really
sick, when you can’t even remember what’s the truth and what’s lies anymore. Are you that
far gone?
Have you deluded everyone, including
yourself?
”

The rain fell heavier.

There was silence between them all.

Lightning slashed at the sky.

John looked between Zoe and Sherrie.

They were both staring at him.

“Pal, it’s time the truth came out,” Richard said loudly in his head. “It’s time to sweep away all those lies…”

Seventy-two

“You’re
so
blind,” Zoe continued. “You can’t even see it anymore. You can’t remember, because you’ve blotted it all out. Covered it all up…”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” John replied, but he had an uneasy feeling about the direction the whole conversation was taking.

Thunder rolled.

“What’s she talking about, John?” Sherrie asked.

“I have no idea,” he replied.

“I think you do,” Zoe continued. “But I don’t know if you want your lover-girl here to know it all.”

Sherrie put her arm around John. “I stand by him, Zoe, no matter what!
Nothing
you can say can change how I feel. Nothing you can do either.”

Zoe laughed, “Sherrie, you’re so loyal. So blinded by everything you feel for him. So noble. And so fucking
boring
…”

John stepped forward, shielding Sherrie.

“You
won’t
talk to her like that,” he replied, staring straight at Zoe.

“
Yes
, Johnny.
No
, Johnny,” Zoe mocked him. “Whatever you want, Johnny.”

The rain fell in a steady torrent around them. The night was cold. Their breath fogged and hung in the air.

Rivulets of rain streamed from Zoe. Down her hair and over her breasts and erect nipples, snaking their way down along her tight stomach and around her belly button diamond. Down to the valley between her legs. And deeper.

“Think back, Johnny,” she continued. “Think right back to your past and the events you’ve buried in it.”

This is crazy.

She’s crazy!

We’re playing to her rules again.

Yes, we are!

She said this was my game.

MY rules!

We’re not playing by hers any longer…

John grabbed Sherrie’s hand.

“Come on,” he said. “We don’t have to listen to this bullshit. We’re leaving.”

He turned and marched away from Zoe, heading back towards the caravan.

Sherrie followed.

“Think about Patricia Bourke!” Zoe called to them.

Who?

“Who’s Patricia Bourke?” Sherrie asked as they neared the caravan.

“I don’t know,” John replied.

Lightning crisscrossed the sky.

Patricia Bourke…I know that name…

From where?

“Remember ‘Pattie the Fattie’! Remember what happened to her!” Zoe called again.

John stopped in his tracks and turned around.

My God! ‘Pattie the Fattie’? From college?

He let go of Sherrie’s hand.

“
John?
”

And stepped back towards Zoe.

“You
know ‘
Pattie the Fattie’?” John called to Zoe through the rain.

Zoe shook her head.

“I
am ‘
Pattie the Fattie’,” she replied.

John’s world shook with the thunder.

What?

No!

But she was…ugly. She was disgusting.

Zoe’s different. She’s crazy but she’s different.

She’s LYING!

She has to be. She can’t be Patricia Bourke.

It’s not possible.

She CAN’T be!

It’s just NOT POSSIBLE!

As if reading his mind, Zoe stepped towards him.

“I’m Patricia Bourke, Johnny. And I’m taking my revenge.”

He stepped back away from her.

No, no, nono. She’s lying. She has to be!

“She’s not lying, pal,” Richard said in his head.

Fuck off, how would you know?

“It’s what I’ve been trying to tell you, pal.” Richard continued. “Don’t let the lies you’ve created over the years blind you to what really happened.”

Fuck you!

“Open yourself to the truth for the first time…” he whispered in his head.

Fuck off, go away! I don’t need your fucking voice in my head now.

“John?” Sherrie was by his side.

He turned to face her. He didn’t know what to say. He stared at her, confusion in his eyes.

“She’s lying,” John said to her.

“I don’t care,” she replied. “I just want
you
.”

“She’s
lying
,” he said again.

“Let’s go,” she took his hand.

He shook his head.

No!

I won’t run from this.

I can’t.

My game.

MY RULES!

John let go of Sherrie’s hand.

“What did you do to Helen?” he called to her, trying to change the subject.

Zoe tilted her head and smiled, “You don’t want to know that, Johnny.”

“Yes,” he nodded and stepped closer to her. “Yes, I do. I want to know
now.
You’ll tell me how you did all this. You’ll tell
us
how you planned and acted out your little sick fucking game that you dragged us into. And you’ll tell us
now!
”

“My, we are
forceful
when we’ve got our back up against the wall,” Zoe replied. “I like it!”

“Tell us!”

“Of course, I always preferred it with my
front
up against the wall…”

“
TELL US!
”

Zoe sighed.

The rain fell heavier as lightning flashed.

“Too much truth is obviously a health hazard for you, Johnny.”

He stepped closer to Zoe. They were only a few feet apart again. “Tell me,” he said through clenched teeth, the rain running over them.

“You
don’t
want Sherrie to hear this…” she warned.

“She’ll hear it all, I don’t care! Now start talking or I’ll fucking beat it out of you.”

Zoe smirked, “Even I know you haven’t got it in you, Johnny. You’re too weak, too easily led and manoeuvred. You couldn’t hit me or beat me if you tried. You’re not the kind of person who can stop events or change them. You never have been, have you?”

John looked to the puddles on the ground around him.

His hands unclenched, his head spun.

She was right.

“Please, Zoe,” he said in a soft voice. “Tell me it all. I
need
to know.”

Thunder rolled.

Zoe leaned up against the closest trunk in the forest.

“Okay,” she said. “You have to know anyway, I guess. Revenge is no fun unless the victim knows. And it’s clear to me now that you don’t know. I can’t believe you’ve lied so much even you believe your own lies. But this is all because of how you treated me and Maureen O’Reilly. I don’t know how much you remember, I don’t know if you even
knew
it at the time, but you hurt me so badly, and so deeply. You
violated
me. You and Laura Austin.”

Laura? What does she have to do with this?

“Do you remember a post-game party Donny DuBois threw at the house he was renting just off campus?”

“Which one? There were several.”

“The one I was at. Maureen was with me.”

He nodded, “Yeah, I do. But I didn’t speak to you that whole night.”

Zoe’s eyes fell to the ground and her face broke.

“You
really
don’t remember, then,” she replied. “That makes it even worse.”

“I met Helen that night,” he replied.

She looked at him.

“I didn’t know that,” she said.

“Just after I left, I met Helen. Her car had broken down,” he continued.

She shook her head, “It’s a small world.”

“Secrets, John?” Sherrie said, by his side again. There was an edge to her voice now. “More lies and secrets?”

He didn’t know what to say.

Rain drove hard into them and the forest.

“And do you remember my mother’s funeral?” she continued.

“Your
mother?
”

“Yes,” Zoe’s voice was quiet now. He could hardly hear it above the rain. “You attended the funeral, and then walked out halfway through it with Laura Austin. You made a spectacle out of yourself to go out and
fuck
Laura Austin.”

Laura?

It was Zoe’s
mother’s
funeral?

Zoe was looking deep into his eyes.

“You
can’t
remember?” she said. “I don’t know why I’m surprised by that.”

“Lies upon lies,” Richard whispered.

This is crazy!

She’s doing it again!

My game.

MY FUCKIN’ RULES!

“Tell me about Helen,” he yelled loudly in the night.

Zoe jumped at the force of his words.

“I want to know and you’ll tell me.
NOW!
”

She sighed. “You hurt me so much, Johnny.”

“
Tell me…
”

“I lived my life, lost weight, changed my name, changed everything about me so that I could never be reminded of who I was. ‘Pattie the Fattie’ no longer existed. She was the first one I killed. My new life was a good life, Johnny, and I’d forgotten about you totally.”

“This has nothing to do –”

Zoe held out a hand to stop him.

“Yes,” she nodded. “It
does
. Listen and I’ll explain.”

John fell silent as thunder rolled in on the night.

“I changed everything about me. I changed my whole life to prove people like you wrong. And I did it! I was successful. I promised myself never to be hurt like that again. Never to be hurt in the same way Johnny Murdock hurt me. I got my belly button pierced and I put a diamond there to prove I was truly beautiful and to remind me of what you had done to me. And I got on with my life. It took me years, Johnny, but I did it all the same. I swore a man would never hurt me again. I sought out the love of another woman instead; a soul mate, a true and real person I could spend the rest of my life with. Someone who would never hurt me like you did.

“I met Sherrie and we were happy.
Sooo
happy for so long. She was perfect in every way. Kind and loving and she wanted to be with me. Just
me!
But guess what? Who knew it would happen like this?
You
came along, Johnny.
YOU!
You came back into my life like a whirlwind and snatched away the only person I truly loved.”

“Oh God,” Sherrie muttered from his shoulder.

“You’d hurt me again, Johnny. Just like you did in college. And the saddest thing is that you probably had no idea about how much you hurt me on each occasion. Once I can live with, Johnny, but twice is taking it too far. You had to suffer. You
had
to pay.”

Lightning flashed and thunder followed.

“Is it getting any clearer now, Johnny?” she asked him. “Do you remember now how much you hurt me? Want me to continue?”

He shook his head.

His mind was spinning.

He couldn’t remember any of it.

She’s lying, she must be!

“Can you understand the
pain
, Johnny? No? Don’t worry, you will. You’ll know soon enough…”

The rain sounded louder in John’s ears. So did his heartbeat. His breathing increased and he felt hot all over. Boiling up, he stared unblinkingly at Zoe.

“Sherrie and I had a huge fight the night she told me she had fallen in love with someone else – with
a man!
But not just
any
man –
you!
I told her it wasn’t that easy. I told her I’d make her suffer. She couldn’t just end it like that. But she did. So I knew what I had to do.