The Gift

The gift was very small. Smaller than the previous package I had received. It sat beneath my windshield wiper like a lumpy parking ticket. The silver ribbon twisted and wavered in the autumn breeze, beckoning me with thin fingers. The setting sun glinted off the golden wrapping paper; a beacon of beauty on my dented, road-dirt grey sedan. Leaves skittered across the macadam, sending twitches up my spine. Every scratch on the pavement timed with the wavering tendrils of ribbon.

My footsteps slowed and my palms slickened with sweat as I approached my car. I jingled my car keys trying to drown out the thudding in my ears. A gust of wind drew the tendrils of ribbons toward me and they undulated, pulling me forward. The package was in my hand before I knew it and the wiper thumped back into place. The wind died. And the ribbons dropped over the little golden box tickling the back of my hand. The sound of my keys jangling against the parking lot pavement shattered the calm of the night. The wind picked back up for a second.

Dark reasons speared through my mind. Memories of the first package I had received. It was 3AM, three weeks ago.  The knocking on my front door woke me from a dead sleep. I had placed it in the freezer after cleaning up the vomit I had spewed across my dining room table. It still sat in the freezer.

The gift had broken my heart when I thought it had frozen over. What did it matter what had happened to her? We were broken up. So what if I didn’t return any of her calls. They would stop eventually and they had. It took approximately 6 weeks, but they had finally stopped. Okay…it was more like 6 and ½ weeks. “Fine!” I yelled at myself. “It was 53 days and 21 hours… or thereabouts.”, but I had stopped counting by then.

The caw of a crow ruined my memory. I gazed at the box in my hand and felt the edge of one ribbon caress the vein in my wrist. I glanced around for my keys and felt my shoe bump against them, sending them skittering across the concrete. The sound grated across the backs of my eyes. I jabbed my free hand down to grab them, tearing a fingernail in the process. The pain was sharp and it felt good; so little did now.

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“LIES!” she screamed. “YOU’RE FULL OF SHIT AND LIES! YOU CAN’T DO THIS TO ME!”

How could I respond? A number of responses rambled their way through my cortex but only one stood out. It was out before I had even settled on whether or not it was appropriate. “I don’t love you anymore. I’m not even sure I ever have.”

Her hair dripped in curls, framing her red face. Her chest heaved and her eyes narrowed; bare slits from which peeked rims of deep blue. She fully closed her eyes and placed her fisted hands to the sides of her head. She pressed her hands flat and started to shake her head, increasing speed as murmurs slipped from between her pressed lips.

“Sarah. Just because I don’t love you, doesn’t mean I want to upset you.” Again, I spoke before settling on the appropriate thing to say.

Meaningless sounds drifted from her in response.

“I think you should leave now Sarah.” This, I actually had wanted to say for the last 3 months. Somehow, I don’t think that would have ever been an appropriate thing to say.

Her head whipped up; wide cobalt eyes stared at me. A scream erupted from her throat. I took two steps back lifting my arms to cover my face as I expected volcanic fire to spew forth and obliterate me on the spot. Nothing such came forth and I was able to keep my arms from rising above my chest level. Instead, her hands flew from the sides of her head ripping out two fistfuls of hair.

Blood dripped like valentine teardrops over her ears and landed on the shoulders of her blouse. The chunks of her hair fell from her hands and slapped the floor like wet meat. A single tear crawled down her cheek. “I can love you like no one else ever has Jack.” Her pain riddled eyes flittered and she lifted her arms to me, bloody fingers reaching for my face. “Jack. Please don’t do this to me.”

I cringed, unable to keep the look of disgust from my face so I dropped my head and shook it. “I’m sorry Sarah. But you must leave now.”

She sniffed and wobbled a turn to the door. On the top end of a whimper, she uttered over her shoulder, “You haven’t heard the last from me Jack.”

My apartment door closed on its own behind her with a soft woomph and a muffled click. I lifted my head and viewed the afterimage of her. Still smelled her sandalwood scent tinged with fresh coppery blood.

I shuddered like a wet dog. “Well. That was not fun, but it is finally over.” I had to smile now and spoke over the silence. “How about some music? That would be good.” I muttered nursery rhymes in my head to purge the recent scene. I grabbed some cleaning products and a sponge after turning on my stereo. I cleaned up the remains of Sarah.

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I did my best to not glance at the package as it bumped and slithered on the seat next to mine. After a couple of potholes I turned the package over so it sat on the bow, trying to stop the silver ribbons from flashing at me and calling me from the dark well of the passenger seat.

“JACK!!!”

My head whipped around exploring the confines of my vehicle as I swerved into my own lane and slowed down.  I ignored the bleating horn from the vehicle now pulling ahead of me. I looked to the passenger seat watching the package slide away from me. The back seat was empty save a large box I had to take to the post office in the morning. I checked the rearview mirrors on the sides of my car but saw no one on the sides of the road. I shook my head and ran my hand down my face hoping I wouldn’t doze off again.

Night had fully fallen by the point I arrived home and parked. I glanced at the cloudless sky and tried unsuccessfully to disregard the gift. Without looking I reached over and grabbed the box feeling the ribbons skitter against my palm. Swallowing my gag reflex I opened my door and trudged up the steps to my apartment hearing the wind whisper through the treetops.

Inside, her scent still lingered. Airy and refreshing, yet draining into repugnant in its constant threading through the carpet. I would have to rent another steam cleaner and hope that finally removed her funk. I shook my head again and pasted a smile on my face, feeling my eyes grow with my facial muscles. I made the smile; therefore I had to feel better.

I set the box on the dining room table and busied myself with the normal routine of fixing a bite of dinner and packing a lunch for the next day. I lollygagged my way through cleaning the dinner dishes. Every minute or two, I would glance at the gold wrapped box sitting on the empty expanse of the clean white tablecloth. It called to me when my back was turned. I could feel one icy tendril of ribbon creeping up my leg, slithering inside my zipper, winding its way around my testicles. The other whispery thin trimming crawled its way inside my collar and twined around my throat. The melodic repetition of Peter Piper and Suzy on the Seashore kept the threads from tightening.

As deliberate as I tried to make every bite of food and every swipe with the dish sponge I finished my chores. It was time to open the gift. My feet shuffled every step to the table. The bottom of the box was warm as it sat on my hand. My fingertips shook when I reached for a strand of ribbon. It took me two tries before I had a solid grip on the end and could pull. It slipped like butter from the knot and came undone; each end fell a slow and wavering decent to hang from my hand.

I dropped the now loose ribbon and watched it flutter to the floor, landing in a twisted, glossy heap. I lifted the box with my other hand to turn it over and the gift inside thumped. It pulsed like a single heartbeat on my palm. My finger trembled as I attempted to rip the seam of wrapping paper. The sound of my nail along the paper flittered like laughter, taunting me with my ineptitude; quivering shrill-like in my ears at my failure to unwrap a gift without fucking it up.

She whispered to me “You should never have gotten rid of me. You’re worthless without me. I told you that you had not heard the last of me.” The cold breath of her words tickled the hair in my ears.

Behind my closed eyes I could still see the blood spattering the walls as tufts of hair were ripped from her skull.

The vision dissipated when I opened my eyes and shook my head. I slashed the tape securing the wrapping paper with my thumbnail.  The paper edge slid beneath my thumbnail into the pale flesh beneath. Sizzling bolts of pain zigzagged along my arm. Blood specks dribbled onto the gold paper, turning a murky brown and coalescing in the bed of the design.

I stuck my thumb in my mouth and rolled my tongue around the wound attempting to staunch the throbbing. But it was to no avail and I settled for dropping the blood dappled wrapping paper on the table and putting the box next to it.

I eyed the box and felt it beg me to peel back the lid and claim the prize beneath. My hand shook as I reached for the box, flinging a drop of blood onto the pristine white surface. The speck dribbled down one side leaving a cherry tear stain. A bubble formed at the bottom of the teardrop and hung suspended…then dropped with a small plink to the table top. The gift shivered and I stumbled back crashing into the breakfast nook bar with the small of my back. I crab walked along the bar never removing my eyes from the red smear on the side of the package. My balls attempted a return to the womb as the box shuddered again and moved, smearing the blood drop on the table.

Condiments jarred inside the fridge as I slammed my back into it in my rearward scramble from the dance on the table. A thump sounded from inside the freezer behind my head. My ears popped and all the sound whooshed from the room. The only noise left was a distinct keening that began in the freezer. The wail reached inside my head and twisted the little spot that kept my bladder in check. The acrid warmth gushed down my leg and puddled within my right shoe. My neck twisted on a rust pocked spigot and gazed at the freezer. The scrabbling sound of the gift fought with the keening wail for top billing. My eyes jiggled inside my head in an attempt to watch the gift and the freezer at the same time.

The keening edged up an octave and I flinched as the sound rattled around inside my skull. I took a step away from the fridge and put my hands to my ears hoping to block the growth of the wretched noise. The package hopped to the edge of the table. I could feel it reaching for me. The back of my head rapped on the freezer door, ringing in my ears and disturbing the contents inside. The cry intensified.

I debated taking a step away from the fridge when the gift on the table moved again, closer to the edge. Behind me something in the freezer bumped the door like a loose cantaloupe in the trunk of a car.

A kiss of vinyl forced me to take a jumpy step to the table. I whirled around slamming the flat of my hand against the freezer door resealing it.

The wail became an enraged shriek. I snatched my hand from the door as I felt something bump the inside again.

I stumbled back a couple of steps before remembering what was now behind me. I whirled back around to face the table in time to see the little package teeter off the edge. As it upended, the box top detached from the package and the air caught the inside of the lid flipping it around and above the package itself.

Gravity played a quicker game with the box and it landed upside down on the carpet with a soft plunk. The box top fluttered to a stop and perched crooked on the package.

It moved toward me. The box top shifted with it, wavering first to one side, then the other. It shifted forward again, sending the box top behind it, forgotten.

I backpedaled and another large thump from the freezer followed by the hiss of the broken seal on the freezer door. Another thump pushed it farther open.

I backed farther into my kitchen, away from the freezer. I glimpsed the chopping block and reached with a trembling hand for a knife. Something sharp, to ward the scritching noises I heard as the small gift moved from the carpet of the dining room to the linoleum of the kitchen. The largest knife was missing so I grabbed the next one I found; a fat bladed slicing beauty, with a scalloped edge. The steel shone in the fluorescent light. I held the handle tight against my belly. The blade wavered.

The freezer door bumped open farther and creaked on its hinge as something large rolled out and fell to the floor. It rolled toward the dining room and disappeared beyond my view due to the counter. The hair on my arms quivered and a shake started in my lower back. The freezer door closed with a whisper of expelled air. The quiet slap of vinyl forced me into action. I moved before I even considered my options.

I bolted around the corner of my kitchen bringing my right foot in a swing and kicking the round, blue-green mottled object under my dining room table. The yowl that had gone dormant raised its eerie teeth and chomped on the base of my spine.

The little white box on the linoleum shifted in my direction. I dropped the same foot on the package. The crunch and squish expelled a feminine shriek of disgust from my lungs as ichor flew from under the box; a spatter of matter landing on my left leg. It dripped down my pants and blended with the denim.

Trying to ignore the clotting touch of goo on my leg I sprinted for my front door and fumbled with the door knob. I could feel in my bones the thing from the freezer rolling from under the dining room table and coming at me. I wrenched open the door and fought with the pneumatic hinge to pull it closed. I watched the shadow of the thing rolled larger on the wall as it came toward me. Finally, the site was ended as the door closed with its soft woomph. Rage, like a July wave of humidity, emanated from my apartment; rolling over me and drilling deep into my brain. I staggered down the stairs and into the parking lot, slapping myself in the face with the keys as I clasped my hands to my ears.

The keys clinked in my hand, scratching the paint as I fumbled the key in the lock. The noise in my head rose to a sour pitch that scored my teeth. I jerked open the car door and fell into the driver’s seat. The noise emptied from my head when the car door slammed shut, echoing in the confines of the vehicle. My ragged breathing and watery whimpers surrounded me.

The lack of external noise forced me to rise up and peek over the dash. I flinched seeing the gift crawling up the hood of my car. I blinked and it was only my imagination. Nothing moved save the waver of trees overhead in a light breeze. The sodium vapor lights cast a yellowish haze to the inside of my car. The knife wavered in my hand. I dropped the blade on the passenger seat, surprised I hadn’t stabbed myself. The keys clattered around the hole of the ignition before slipping home. I felt something slippery on the keys. I looked at my hands and wondered at the smears on my palms. Glancing in the review mirror I saw dark streaks drooling from my ears. The muffled silence of everything set me to jittering again.

“Hospital” I thought. “I have to get to a hospital.”

I dropped the car in gear and backed out of the parking space. I took deep breaths which sounded like fog horns inside my head. Amalgamated nursery rhymes warbled in my brain, unable to calm me. I yanked the wheel and poured out onto the street rocketing to the hospital. The screech of my tires resembled a fork landing on a countertop. Other faces behind windshields mouthed nasties to me and my driving but they became less of a concern as the aural world fell further and further behind.

I pushed the accelerator to the floor. The hairs on the back of my neck wrestled with each other for attention. I brushed at my neck and something caught my hand. I yanked against it, swerving into the next lane to a rumbled blaring I felt more than heard. When I pulled my hand back it came attached to another arm that reached for my face with a hand missing the first three fingers. A second arm circled around my neck. My arms flailed up and hit the review mirror tilting it at just an angle that I could view the now empty box on the back seat; wrapping paper and cardboard hanging in tatters from the ruptured hole.

The first arm grabbed my face with a thumb and a pinkie finger, pressing in on my cheeks, forcing them between my teeth. The second arm wormed its way across my throat and forced my head back against the head rest.

Sarah’s headless body crawled over the back of the seat, dragging the arm across my throat. She straddled my body and pressed against me, shoving my face deep into the empty waiting snatch between her shoulders.

I felt the rush of air pushed from her lungs and heard her in my head. “Now you’ve heard the last of me.”