The Last Acts of Despicable People

I hate to say it but this story will not be a crowd-pleaser. There are no heroes to be found here, only lost, damaged souls. It wasn't a story that gave me a warm feeling while writing it. But some days, I am only a channel for my muse, to get the stories out of my head, and this is one of those days. At least it's relatively short.

As always, I'll a) apologize in advance for typos, and b) take any feedback, even if it's, "Peyton, why did you make me read this @#$%^?"

#

David groaned and stirred. He tried to shuffle his feet but they wouldn't move. Panic penetrated his hazy thoughts. He opened his mouth to shout but his lips wouldn't cooperate. His arms felt leaden and sluggish. He moaned again.

A moment later, gentle but insistent hands grasped his arms, preventing him from moving. "Mr. Russo, try not to move."

"Guhh ..."

"Please, sir." The voice hovered near his face. "You were hurt. If you thrash too much, you'll rupture something."

David relaxed. The moment he did, his entire body began to throb. He wanted to lick his lips but his tongue was dry and swollen. "What ... what happened?"

"Just relax for the moment. As you wake up more, we'll talk."

David tried to muster his thoughts but before he could, he slipped into darkness again.

He woke again. This time, his eyes blinked open, though the grogginess remained. David lay still for a moment, orienting himself. He took in the starched sheets, IV drip, the steady ping of the heart-rate monitor.

"Hospital?" he muttered. "How ..."

His words trailed off as memory interceded. The car. He was arguing. Then the bright light, followed by nothing. Until now.

The room's door squeaked open and a young nurse stuck her head in. She was casually pretty in a caretaker kind-of-way, with her black hair in a ponytail and her form-fitting scrubs. Her round Asian face sported a smile. "Good afternoon. I'm Kathy, your attending nurse for the day shift."

Her voice was the same one that he'd heard when he woke the first time. David concentrated, trying to find the words. "Afternoon. What ... how long have I been here?"

Kathy walked to his bedside and noted his vitals. "Doctor Simmons is making his rounds. I'll let him know you're awake. He'll be able to explain to you more fully."

Though he was desperate to know, David lacked the energy to argue with her. "Okay."

Kathy gestured across David's body and her smile faded. "I'm sorry to say that your wife hasn't woken up yet."

"My wife?" David lolled his head to the side. His eyes fell on the bandaged body in the next bed. His chest constricted and all of a sudden, his breath came short. "My ..." New energy filled his limbs. He grappled with the sheets, trying to pull them off.

"Mr. Russo!" Kathy's voice held a note of alarm. She stopped him from rising. "You need to stay down, sir. You'll hurt yourself."

"You have to let me go." David heard the crack of his voice. It was close to breaking. He didn't care. "I have to get out of here."

"Your wife is out of danger. She's going to be fine."

"No!" he yelled. "I'm here because of that stupid bitch!"

#

In the end, it took Nurse Kathy and two orderlies to restrain David to keep him in bed. Kathy kept babbling something about his internal injuries and him not being ready to move. David barely heard it. He just wanted to be away. They hadn't sedated him—yet—but they had restrained his arms in cuffs. In his weakened condition, he lacked the strength to even fight them. So he lay on his back, breathing hard and waiting.

A thousand wicked thoughts ripped through his mind. He wanted to get up run, head back to his house, pack a bag, and disappear. He wanted to drain the bank account. He wanted to finish what he started the other night. He muttered and cursed to himself. He yelled once in frustration—for naught, since he remained where he was, pinned to the bed.

Through it all, Veronica lay quiet. Her large chest rose and fell with each deep breath. David gazed at her as she dozed. Her curly brown hair fanned out on the pillow behind her. Ronnie's perfect nose, high cheeks, and smooth skin meant that even at forty-five, she was still very attractive, with the face and body of a woman ten years younger.

"Of course she is," David said to himself. "The most beautiful creatures in nature are the deadliest."

He flipped on the television and waited, letting his mind drift, and dozed, fading in and out.

Some hours later, his attention was drawn by a slight cough, followed by a gasping moan. The sounds made him smirk. It meant the bitch was in as much pain as him.

Ronnie's eye fluttered open. Her gaze was as unfocused and bleary as his had been. He heard her gasp in a breath of air, then her wheezing attempt at speaking. "What ... what ..."

David winced. Icicles penetrated straight down to his heart. That voice ... no matter how hard he tried to suppress it and deny it, her voice—laden with honey and love—still cut right through his defenses.

Suddenly enraged, David stabbed the nurse's call button. Kathy appeared in seconds. "Yes, Mr. Russo?"

He thumbed in the direction of his wife. "She's waking up."

"Oh good."

"Can we shut her up?"

Kathy's mouth fell open, then closed. "Mr. Russo, even if you and your wife are having problems—"

"That's an understatement."

She continued as if he hadn't spoken. "—you're going to have to deal with it. We have a finite number of rooms available because of Covid. You can take it up with the doctor but I expect you'll both have to stay here."

"Great."

Kathy checked on Ronnie and adjusted her IV flow. Ronnie sank back into unconsciousness. The nurse shot David a look of disapproval and left.

Thirty minutes later, his wife groaned again. David hoped Kathy would return to dope her a second time but like he had, this time Veronica blinked fully-awake. She gazed around and her droopy eyes fell on David. "David? What happened?"

He refused to look at her. "I don't know. The doctor hasn't been here yet."

"How did we get here?"

"You go deaf? I told you I don't know."

She lapsed into silence.

Fifteen minutes later, the doctor waddled in, with Kathy right behind. He wasn't what David would have sought as a health-care provider, being at least a hundred pounds overweight. Still, David supposed it was a case of beggars not being choosers. Since they'd come in due to some emergency, they were stuck with whatever attending physician was on duty.

"Mr. and Mrs. Russo, good afternoon, I'm Doctor Simmons. How are you feeling?"

"Tired." Ronnie groaned. "Sore."

David crossed his arms. "Fucking fantastic, Doc. Let's get on with it."

Simmons looked taken aback. He shook his head slightly as if kick-starting his spiel again. "Yes, well of course. Do you two remember anything?"

They both shook their heads.

"You were in a car accident. You drifted head-on into the path of a semi. The driver managed to partially swerve. Your sedan bounced off the front corner of the rig rather than hitting it square, which is probably the only reason you are both still alive." He peered over his glasses at David. "Most of the time we see this, it's due to drinking and driving. However, the report says you were driving, Mr. Russo, and your blood-alcohol was zero. Only Mrs. Russo registered any in her system."

"Because she's a lush, Doc."

Ronnie's lip curled. "It's the only way I can take being married to this asshole."

Simmons held up his hands. "Folks, please. Mr. Russo, you had two broken legs and ruptured your spleen. You went through a few surgeries but you should be fine. Mrs. Russo, you broke an arm, two ribs, one foot, and dislocated your hip. Same. Beyond that, it was concussions and bruises, and you both lost a fair bit of blood. Both of you will have some impressive scars to show your friends." Simmons laughed at his own joke."

David ground his teeth. "Can I move to another room?"

Simmons shrugged in apology. "Look, there are obviously some problems between you two. I am sure the nurse told you, we're a little short on beds right now so, unfortunately, I can't move you. Both of you need a few days of bed rest. I advise you to be civil or we will have to sedate you both."

David wasn't sure if the doctor could legally do that but he was unwilling to take that chance. "Fine."

Ronnie grunted her assent.

Simmons nodded. "Good. Can I assume you'll behave? I'll take these cuffs off for now." The doctor spoke to Kathy before he left.

Kathy unstrapped David's cuffs. She kept watching him like she was waiting for him to do something stupid but resignation had taken hold; he was stuck and he wasn't going to take it out on the people who could make his stay tolerable or miserable.

The bitch in the other bed, on the other hand ...

Kathy glanced them over. "Either of you need anything? How's your pain level?"

"Fine," David said.

Veronica sighed. "I'm managing."

"All right. Buzz me if you need anything." She followed Simmons out.

David looked at his wife, doing his best not to snarl. "You can have the television. Just don't talk to me."

She crossed her arms and looked away. "No problem."

They sat in silence for several hours. Ronnie didn't turn on the tube. She stared at the wall. David had no idea what she was thinking and didn't much care. He rang the nurse to see if they get something to eat. Cheery Kathy had gone, replaced by Phyllis, an unsmiling battle-ax worthy of the tradition of Nurse Ratched. Phyllis grimly informed him he was on a liquid-only diet until the next day. She offered him a lovely choice of fruit juice or jello. He shook his head to both and let her stomp out. Ignoring his stomach, David imitated Ronnie and stared at the wall, thinking bleak thoughts. After a while, he drifted off.

David woke. He glanced at the clock. It was a little after three in the morning, meaning he had been out for over nine hours. He risked a glance at Ronnie, hoping she was unconscious, but even there, his luck deserted him. She was awake and staring at him.

David groaned to himself. He recognized that look. She was about to start some long-winded speech.

Sure enough, Ronnie cleared her throat. "David?"

"What?"

"Do you hate me?"

"Yes." Even as he said it, he knew it was a lie.

Undaunted, Ronnie asked, "Is that why you did it?"

He sighed. "No, I did that because I was mad."

"If it makes you feel any better, I did it for the same reason."

He snarled and looked back over at her. "You fucked your coworker because you were mad at me? That doesn't make any kind of sense."

"It does if you stop flailing around like a hurt child." Her gaze was steady. "Besides, I didn't say it was the right thing to do. It was wrong, I know it was."

"You knew." He spat the words between gritted teeth. "You knew how bad it would hurt me and that's why you did it. After what Adrienne did to me—"

Her eyes flashed. "I am not your ex-wife. I did not carry on multiple affairs behind your back for years. I made one slip and—"

"Same difference! You cut my heart out, Ronnie. Do you have any idea of how much that crushed me? You had to know what that would do to me."

Her nostrils flared and her cheeks reddened. When she spoke, her tone was in deadly earnest. "If that's true, why did you hit me in the face and split my lip?"

"Because you cheated on me and rubbed my nose in it!" David yelled.

"Even after everything I suffered at Paul's hands?" Tears clouded her eyes. "Do you have any idea how much you crushed me? You had to know how much it would hurt me."

David opened his mouth to protest but it died on his lips. Ronnie's first husband had beaten her through their five-year marriage, culminating with putting her in the hospital after nearly killing her. He went to prison and she went to therapy, both for a long time.

She nodded, apparently seeing the realization in his eyes. "It took me a long time to trust a man ever again. I thought—no, I knew—that no matter what happened, you would never hit me."

"Just like I never felt I could trust a woman. I was always waiting for them to cheat—except you. I knew you would never cheat on me."

She sighed and lowered her eyes. "I guess we were both wrong."

They fell silent. For a long while, there was no sound save the beep-beep of their monitoring gear.

David recalled the night he'd busted her. He hadn't even tried. The moment Veronica came in the door, he'd caught the mussed hair, the flushed skin. More than anything, the overwhelming guilt in her tear-streaked eyes. He'd known, right then. He'd confronted her and rather than her apologizing, David had found himself on the receiving end of a full-scale artillery barrage.

His ears stung anew as he remembered the blistering insults, as he heard again as Veronica mocked his penis size and sexual abilities. Echoes of Adrienne's taunts had reverberated in his ears. Ronnie had gotten nose-to-nose with him, screaming obscenities. And he snapped. One minute, she was upright, her eyes full of flame and anger. The next, she was on the floor, her mouth covered in blood, with him standing over her. Her eyes had shown no pain but an animal-like fear of a predator. And in instant, all of David's anger had morphed to nausea. He had no idea how he had avoiding throwing up.

David closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. She was right and he knew it. No matter how he spun it, no matter the justification ... he was a domestic abuser. He'd hit his wife.

The self-loathing he'd been fighting roared through his mind. David's shoulders slumped. "Ronnie?"

She flinched and raised her gaze from her lap. "What?"

"Why didn't you leave?"

"Beg pardon?"

"After I hit you," David said. "Why didn't you leave me?"

Her answering smile was laced with sadness. "I wouldn't say I deserved what you did—nobody does—but I understood. Paul used to hit me for no reason, or for something as insignificant as the laundry not being folded. I betrayed you in the worst possible way and you didn't break until I berated you as a man. After that night, I didn't know if we could get past it all but I wasn't quite ready to give up."

"That doesn't make any sense, Ronnie."

"It doesn't have to. It's my muddled mind, not yours." She eyed him. "Let me ask you something."

He swallowed. "Okay."

"Why did you push me away in the car?"

Memory flashed through his mind. They'd gone to the dinner together two weeks after their confrontation. They'd barely spoken since that night. David had been avoiding her. He alternated between wanting to apologize, to beg forgiveness for striking her ... and choking the life out of her cheating ass.

Ronnie's face had just healed enough that makeup would cover it. Even though their only words had been to discuss imminent divorce, Ronnie insisted on coming to his corporate dinner. She'd said they needed to maintain the image of a happy couple, to aid David's upcoming promotion. David assumed she wanted him to get the promotion so she could collect more alimony but it would be more money for him too, so he reluctantly agreed.

They didn't speak on the way there but once they arrived, Ronnie took his arm and played the dutiful spouse. His gut churning, David kept a plastic smile on his face as he hobnobbed with his boss and coworkers. He avoided alcohol. Ronnie, on the other hand, drank like a woman determined to reduce herself to unconsciousness. Immediately after dinner, David made his excuses and dragged her out, telling his boss she was upset due to a loss in the family.

He didn't tell the man the loss was her own marriage.

On the ride home, Ronnie had been all over him. She kissed his neck and fumbled with his belt and fly, no matter how many times he gently pushed her back. He didn't understand her aggression and in light of her comments, had no idea why she'd even want his "shriveled-up cock" as she had put it. His dick was as stiff as it had ever been, which made things even worse. Ronnie had lowered her head and tried to blow him while he was driving. He finally shoved her away, which was right when they drifted into the path of the semi.

"After everything you said about me," David said, "I had no idea why you'd even want to be intimate with me, on any level. It felt like you were trying to manipulate me through sex. That just made me mad. And as far as I know, you went bareback with Mr. Coworker, so who knows what you were infested with?"

Veronica looked away for a moment. Tears wandered down her face. Her voice quaked as though she was on the verge of losing control. "First off, I did have an STD panel done. I was waiting for the right time to show you, once we started talking again. It's all negative, though I understand if you don't believe me. I will take another one if you like."

He grunted. He didn't ask about pregnancy and she didn't bother to deny it, since they both knew she'd never been able to carry a child to term.

"Second, I absolutely did not mean the horrible things I said that night. I was angry and I took the fastest, surest way to hurt you."

"It worked. You did."

"David, I have always treasured making love to you. Trust me, there is nothing wrong with your size, or your ability. We've been together ten years, married eight. Can you honestly say I have ever turned you down?"

He wanted to say she had but he knew that would be a lie. "No, you haven't."

"It's because I love you and I always wanted to be there with you. I enjoy us being close. Even on days I was tired or not in the mood, it was important to me to make you happy."

David sneered. "Sure. That's why you fucked him."

"Do you know the last time we actually had sex?"

"When?"

"Almost six months before I cheated. You hadn't given me more than a light peck of a kiss for four. You've done nothing but work, twelve-plus hours a day, six days a week. When you were at home, you were exhausted. I know you were focused on the promotion but I wanted a little time too. You ignored me. I stopped kissing you goodbye for a week and you never said anything. You never even noticed. Do you know how often you've turned me down for sex? At least twice a week in those six months."

He frowned. "That ... that can't be right."

"I told you we were growing apart. I begged, I pleaded with you to give me just a little time. Look, I know the job is important to you—"

"Not just me!" he snapped. "It's important for our future!"

"But not if it costs us our marriage. What's the point of a secure financial future if we have no future?" She sighed. A great tremor rippled through her. "I told you I was mad at you. Furious. So I cheated. Yes, I am a cheater and I have to bear that mantle forever. In the car, I wanted ... I just wanted us to be close again. I was the one who set our downfall in motion so I figured it was up to me to try and narrow the gap. Even if all I could get was a blowjob and nothing else, I thought it would make you happy, which would make me happy too. I wasn't thinking about everything I said."

He scoffed. "I figure you were so drunk you were imagining yourself with your lover and that turned you on since I didn't."

Ronnie snorted. "No. Listen to me, and listen carefully. My time with him was about anger and frustration and nothing else. He's good-looking but he's also a jerk. And the sex was terrible. He basically used me to get himself off. I didn't come; I didn't even get warmed up. He didn't get my mouth or my ass, or anything I wouldn't do for you in a heartbeat if you asked. When it was over, I felt so filthy and disgusted with myself. I left while he was in the shower and cried the whole way home. By the time I got to the house, I resolved that either we would work things out and get to a better place, or we'd divorce. I wasn't going through that again. I would have taken it to my grave as my dirty, secret shame. Unfortunately, you knew as soon as you looked at me."