Great Dane ✶ Original Fiction

𝖀m;

" REDDER THAN RED "
01 november 1997

𝔗he sound of the clock's hands striking twelve caused Moses to look at Rue. The sky turned from its daytime attire into a dark cloak that cast itself over buildings. He could see her eyes. They looked completely different that night; the irises lost their beauty and they appeared tired and colourless, as if they didn't belong to her.

An unsettling gloom and quietude lingered in the small area of the bathroom. The ambience always felt cold and the patch of deep green mold dispersing from a damp corner on the ceiling seemed to be the only thing possessing colour in the room.

"Don't you see?! We'll never be the same! I love Iman, not you!" He pushed her into the sink. Rue's back collided with the rim of the sink, sending waves of pain into her spine, and her head hit the mirror.

Moses, blinded by rage, was unaware of damage he had just caused on his girlfriend.

"Moses, please.. think about this.. you need me." She sobbed, kneeling on the floor, wincing in agony.

"No, I don't! I never needed you- you were just a weight holding me down from all the things I could've achieved, all the people I could've met and you've ruined my life. Ugh! How did I not notice this before? I'm so stupid."

The truth was unraveling; Rue hated it. She was losing control. "No, no, you need me." She struggled to sit by the bathtub with her back towards Moses. Every last attempt to maintain her power over her boyfriend was waning.

"No, you needed me, That's why you tried to keep me away from Iman."

"No, I didn't." It was evident she was trying suppress her tears.

"Just stop lying!"

"I'm not!" she cried.

Moses saw something glimmer in the corner of his vision. It was a shard of glass. His mind - even in the midst of its fury - recognised it must have broken off the mirror when he pushed Rue. And again, he glanced at the sharp object.

With his sight planted on the scintillating material, an unmanageable feeling of hatred for Rue came over him like a tremendous wave.

The mad passions of a predator stirred within him and Moses loathed his girlfriend more than anything he had ever loathed.

The glass' serrated edge looks like it can cause bloodshed, Moses thought.

He moved slowly towards it, passing Rue as he did so.

"What are you doing?" The woman asked through her sobbing as she heard his footsteps.

As soon as he got to the mirror, he seized the shard. Rue stirred in her position as if she was going to get up but Moses was quick to reach out and force her down with his free hand.

Swiftly, he dug the shard into the vein behind her ear, crushing the woman's head on the floor. "Moses.." he thought he heard her say as he repeatedly stabbed into various places of her neck.

Then, there was a grotesque sound of the choking of blood. "Moses..." His name was a hideous red in the mouth of Rue and he hated it.

He watched as her arms shot up with the last of her subsiding strength, fingers stiff while waving aimlessly as if trying to grasp onto something for comfort and the assurance she would not die.

Tired of her pointless gestures, Moses stabbed her once more and this time, the macabre episode was complete. Blood began to trickle on to the floor.

He waited for a moment, still pressing the head down. Next, he threw the now deep red glass across the floor and listened. Moses could hear nothing but the unceasing dripping of blood on the bathroom tiles.

In this moment, the murderer wondered what Iman was doing. He wondered who she was with, what she was wearing and if she was thinking about him as well.

"Snap out of it, Moses." He murmured to himself.

Once again, he looked at the corpse, expecting to feel some kind of remorse for his evil action yet he felt nothing at all.

Moses realised that if the red, thick, jagged tears pouring from Rue's neck and the clotted black pool around her head that was slowly widening on the floor weren't there, one would assume the girl was simply, peacefully, finally asleep.