Can You Hear Me

“Can you hear me”, I asked. Seth could only move his eyes as I held onto his hand and listened to his heart beat rapidly in the dark and quit room.
I could barely look at his face as it held on to whatever skin was left. His eyes could not close for his eyelids were no longer there. His lips were covered in blood, but I could see that it was ripped in half. The hairline around his ears was balled and covered with glass.
“I told you Seth. You have to stop playing with my emotions.” A smile of well done went across my face as I stood up to wash the blood off of me.
“What did you think was going to happen?” Poor, poor Seth; I didn’t feel sorry that he lead me to bashing the guitar, vase and portrait on his face. Oh, and the fax machine.
He lied to me. He made me believe that he wanted me, that we could actually spend the rest of our lives together. What was he thinking?
“Man, am I dirty”. I had blood all over me. There was nothing around to clean myself off with. “Fuck you Seth Core! You’ve ruined my perfectly good jeans. Look how slim it makes me look!”
Tears fell from his eyes as he could do nothing but look at me. I almost cried inside, but had to refuse when this man just played and ruined my heart.
I’m lying to myself. I love him. Look at him, well, before the damage. He was once beautiful.
I remember the first time I saw him, motioning me over to say hello, and offering me coffee. I knew he wanted more, but why move so fast? It was our first meeting and I couldn’t have him think I was a whore.
He was barely dressed, working out in his yard with no shirt on. His smile was magnetizing, and I could not resist his alluring eyes.
“See Seth", looking down at him after finding a rag that lay under an old clothing basket. “I told you over and over again you were playing with fire. All the times I repeated how I fall in love so easily and been hurt so many times. But did you hear me? Did you hear me Seth”?
He poured the coffee into my cup very slowly, as if showing off his muscles. I wanted to laugh at his ridiculous undermine flirtation.
“You did this, not me”.
I can see he was trying to move. But where would you go Mr. Seth Core?
He was so awkward, laying my hot cup of coffee into my hand. I smiled up at him and he smiled back with those deep dimples and perky lips.
Nearly spilling half of his cup on himself, he tripped over his own foot as he tried to explain his relationship issues. He was giving me a hint right then and there, poor baby.
“Lies, all lies. Did you think I wouldn’t find out? Did you think I wouldn’t discover what’s been going on in your home while I slept at night? I know everything”!
We would talk nearly every day after that, taking me out to the golf court with him, showing me to his buddies. They loved me, why didn’t he?
Time to finish you off and leave you in the dirt where you belong.
“I took this knife from your kitchen. I hope you don’t mind? I couldn’t find anything else. Man, you guys keep it so unorganized around here”.
I could see that Seth wanted to scream, but I wouldn’t let that stop me. The blade landed over and over and over again as I sliced into every bone of his body.
“You did this Seth. Can you hear me”?




“I can’t breathe”, cried Lillan Core as she watched her husband’s body being pulled out her neighbor’s car.
An officer pulled her away into a police car where she would head to her sister’s home. He closed the door after her and headed to speak to the other officers on duty.
“This is the weirdest shit I have ever seen”, said Officer Stance as he watched the police vehicle head into the darkness.
One of the officers smiled, covering his face with his hands to keep anyone but seeing. “It’s funny but then it’s not”, he responded, making the others hold back their laughter.
“The shit isn’t funny, it’s scary, cruel and fucking embarrassing”, yelled Stance. The officers straightened their faces, watching Stance pace the blacken road.
Another officer walked up as Stance quickly walked away, back into the Core’s resident. “What’s wrong with him”?
But no one said anything. It was true that the incident that happened that night wasn’t a laughing matter. That a man who fell in love with his neighbor’s husband was unnatural and unreal in their little town. Then to go and kill him after he finds out that the husband wasn’t gay.


Raymond McCary, 21 years old, had always struggled with his sexuality. Somehow Seth had cured him.
He had been in many relationships before, with females, but he knew that wasn’t what he wanted. He sat behind the cells dreaming of his first love. But how quickly that disappeared when he noticed an officer staring at him.
“How beautiful he is”, thought Raymond? “Let’s see if he hears me”.