Blood, Sweat, and Tears

Chapter Three

Blood. Blood. Blood.

The crimson liquid pools around the middle-aged lady as she drowns in the substance that is meant to keep her alive. Her face obscured by her brown hair fanning out around her head.

The smell is so strong that there is a taste of metal in the mouth of the little girl that has stepped in on this gruesome scene. It's a familiar taste, but at that same time she can't quite put her finger on it.

"Mommy, why are you bleeding?" The little girl chokes out. Her pigtails seem limp as her stomach falls to her toes.

It's unclear where the wound that has gushed all the blood is on the body of the dead woman. Did someone slit her throat? Or was she shot multiple times? Maybe it was countless stab wounds in her torso. The little girl can't even fathom what is going on in front of her.

"Mommy, please, wake up," the small girl chokes out as tears begin to cascade down her chubby cheeks. "Please, please, mommy."

In the next moment, the sky opens to mimic the child's storm of tears. Thunder cracks out in all directions, and lightning lights up the darkness. Wind whips up out of nowhere, and the scene is changed in a second.

A young man, blood splattered around the chair that he is tied to, blood staining his clothes. His head is limp, obscuring his identity; all the girl standing in front of him can see is his messy hair.

"None of this would have happened if you just would have been a man, and came to me before going to her," the young woman, hair up in pigtails, twirls a knife stained with the man's blood. "All you had to say is you fell out of love with me. That would have been okay with me. I would have moved on in a week, and you could go off and be happy with her."

The man struggles against his restraints, a groan leaving his lips.

"Instead, you went off, slept with her, and lead me along. A cheater, that's what you are. Once a cheater, always a cheater," she sneers. "Don't worry though, your precious little girlfriend won't be harmed. She already knows you were cheating on her as well. Thanks to my boys," she smirks. "You know, when I saw you kiss her that day, my heart shattered into a million pieces."

"I said I was sorry," the man chokes out through a mouth full of blood. "Stop this."

"And then, almost instantly, it was glued back together with the fury of what I was witnessing. You should have never messed with me. You mess with me, you mess with my brother, and all my friends. I have an army of boys to protect me. You fucked with the wrong girl," she points the knife at the tortured boy.

"Honey, please, don't do this," a lady's voice rings out from all directions. "You don't want to do this."

The girl quickly spins around, looking for the voice. "Of course, I want to do this."

"No, no you don't. You are letting your anger get the better of you."

"What else am I supposed to do!" The girl bursts out, and in the blink of an eye she has returned to her younger self. A waterfall of tears streaming down her cheeks. "They took you from us, mommy. This is all I know to do. You can't teach me how to be a girl. I just have to learn for myself. And it's hard!"

"You're doing fine, honey. The ones who did this will get their dues."

Blood. Blood. Blood.