The Woman He Won't Talk About

I passed Doug on my now panicked rush towards the exit. Doug ran to keep up. "I can guess what you are going to tell me," I called back at him.

Doug smiled grimly. "He said that if he found the man his girlfriend was with he would kill him. And he had an aura about him that suggested he knew how to kill, that it was something he could do easily. Did I mention that he was stocky and he looked strong?"

"Where are the others?" I asked.

Doug smiled grimly. "They got out when I told them. Left me to look for you."

"Thanks, friend," I uttered. I managed to look straight ahead, not look around to catch the wrong eye as we strode down the stairway with careful haste, not to attract the wrong attention.

Doug and I marched into the freshness of the night. We looked around us with a shared unspoken concern. I couldn't see anyone. I looked to Doug who shook his head. It was a short walk to my car. "I'll drive," Doug suggested and I didn't oppose. My head was pounding, my heart was racing.

I looked around as we got into the car. And once we were off, I checked through the back window that we weren't being followed. It was only when we got close to home that I started to worry about what may have befallen Chlorine. But I knew that I had no ability at all to interfere with whatever she had to face.

Then I started to wonder. What game was Chlorine playing? She had seemed so into me. But had she set me up for a beating at the hands of her jealous boyfriend. Or did she perhaps think I could rescue her from him? I knew I had no idea what her thoughts or motives were. What I did know was that for a short moment she and I had connected with a depth that I had never experienced before. And I wondered why that was. I was home and I was safe.

++

"So where did you go on the weekend?" Dilara asked me Monday at work sitting at her workstation right next to mine.

"Ghosts," I admitted.

She looked impressed. "I've always wanted to go there. That place was it fun?"

I smiled. Let her think what she wanted.

Dilara gave me the same look that Jeremy did when he gave me a history lesson. "I've heard about it. It's supposed to be quite eerie," she recounted, "and not just how it looks from outside. You know about the murder there?" I shook my head. "It was a long time ago." Dilara did the Duck Duck search and showed me her screen. She had a scan of an old newspaper article. The headline reported a murder and asked why he did it. The article explained a romance on the rocks, an outgoing girl, a possessive boyfriend. To make him jealous on the night of the crime she flirted with another man. The news story hinted that the flirting had gone beyond innocent. It was believed that she had 'stepped out'. And the last words that she said to her jealous boyfriend before he shot her: "I don't care, I'm going to have fun."

I felt a sudden chill.

"Are you all right?" Dilara asked. "You look pale."

I tried to laugh it off. And then noticed that Kasey from reception was loudly introducing a new colleague to the office, starting over near her desk and coming closer to Dilara and me. Only when Kasey reached our workstations did I recognise the shapely blonde who I already knew. She smiled like she expected to find me.

"This is Karen," Kasey smiled, "she's the temp replacing Marnie while she's away." Dilara smiled generically and shook her hand. Kasey hung back a step to chat with Dilara which allowed our new colleague a private moment with me. Karen gave me her engulfing smile and leaned close whispering "I'll be seeing you later. I'm going to have fun."

And she walked away, walked like she was floating above the floor. She walked away again.

++

This story is entered in the Halloween competition, so please exercise whatever remedies you need and vote if it haunts you.