Bug and Bugger

Bug and Bugger
By Scott Wilson
Word Count: 486

“Listen, damn it,” Jermaine said. “This is my gig. You do it my way or I swear to you I will crush you like a bug.”

“Very funny, bunny,” Melissa said. “How long have we been going out now...two months? Haven’t you learnt by now that that’s not how it works?”

Jermaine grabbed Melissa by the neck and shook her. She smiled at him, enraging him to grip harder until he could not feel his fingers any more.

“That’ll do,” Melissa said, pushing his hands away effortlessly. “Don’t you know you can’t hurt me?”

Jermaine looked down at his hands. They were around his own throat, chocking himself. He quickly released his grip and stumbled backwards, tripping over the coffee table and crashing to the ground.

“How did you do that?” he muttered, his voice croaky and harsh.

Melissa smiled and extended her hand to help him to his feet.

“I can’t tell you, my love.”

Jermaine coughed, his throat burning and swollen.

“You have to listen to me,” he said. “If we don’t follow my plan, the cops will catch us. I don’t know what power you have over me, or why I can’t get away from you, but you have to listen to me this time.”

Melissa nodded, sat down on the couch, and said, “Okay, humour me. What is your plan, darling?”

“I need to get a drink,” he said. “My throat is killing me.”

Jermaine did not intend to get a drink, at least not until he had taken care of this woman. He picked up a large serrated knife, and then walked back to the lounge room. He walked behind the couch, trying to keep out of her line of sight. Maybe he might be able to get her if she did not see him coming this time.

“Are you going to tell me now?” she said.

“I’m going to lay it all out on the table in a second. You’ll be surprised, I hope.”

He raised the knife above his head, ready to plunge it into Melissa’s skull. Jermaine had never let a woman have any control in any relationships before, and hated that this one seemed to be different. She was not even the best-looking girlfriend he had had, so he did not know what was so different about her.

“I’d be careful,” she said.

“That’s the plan.”

He swung his arm down.

Melissa shook her head.

The knife plunged into Jermaine’s stomach, penetrating into through his organs and stopping abruptly in his spine. He staggered backwards, his legs giving way.

“I told you to be careful,” she said.

“How...?” Jermaine mumbled as he passed out. Before his vision faded, he thought the room was empty. There was no woman in his apartment at all.

THE END