Attraction Fatal

Cold. His hand lay like a rock against his still bleeding corpse. Lifeless. “The Slaughter House” headlines would read the following morning. Mark Taylor had gone from the all popular high school dream guy to a small town's worst nightmare in a matter of a week. How? The question stalked the minds of the towns citizens for years after the murders of the Slaughter family.
Just a week prior to the murders, Mark Taylor ran the most humiliating touchdown of the season when he scored a touchdown for the other team. “What the hell were you thinking?!” His teammates bumped and shoved him as they shuffled into the locker room, having lost the game that would take them to the state game. Mark couldn't think straight that night, he was distracted by the argument he had with his girlfriend earlier that day over a rumored affair with one of the other cheerleaders, his girlfriend Natalie being the captain.
Mark was crazy about her. He would never dream of being with another girl. How could he replace those eyes, deeper and bluer than any sea, yet every time he looked at them he felt himself falling into the sky. The way her silky, straight blonde hair fell down her back just enough to cover the tattoo he made her get with his name. She stood 5'7” and he 5'11”. To all who were a witness, they were a perfect couple.
Mark would get so angry when she was upset with him, and normally his best friend Anthony would be around so that he could at least vent his frustrations before the game, but he was nowhere to be found that day. All Mark could do was remember the last words he pleaded to his girlfriend before she threw her hand across his face and stormed off to her best friend's car.
Even after the football field was clear and the audience dispersed, Mark sat staring at the same empty bag of popcorn until a sudden gust of wind set it out of his sight. A storm was now just a few miles east, and he decided that he needed to be with his girlfriend. He followed the whistle of the winds, now with increasing speeds, to his car in the parking lot. Before he got in the car, he watched the popcorn bag blow in front of a speeding car.
He rode in silence to focus on the road, which seemed to wind and turn more than any other night in the midst of an increasingly intense thunderstorm. All four of the phonecalls Mark made to Natalie went directly to her voicemail, so he pressed the gas a little harder until the miles per hour on the car matched his 90 heartbeats per minute. It was 11:08 p.m. when he finally pulled up to his girlfriend's house. He thought he saw a car out front, which he found odd because she said her parents were out of town for a week. He proceeded in the rain to the back of the house where he would normally enter to avoid contact with Mr. Slaughter, Natalie's dad. Mark cautiously approached the window, unsure of who was inside. He peered through the cracks in the blinds and was instantly broken.
Mark found his best friend and girlfriend shirtless in her sheets. The way they looked at each other, the way his arms wrapped around her and covered his name on her smooth, soft skin. His heart dropped. He could feel himself being blown around inside of that empty popcorn bag. He watched himself in the bag, being blown around and eventually hit by a speeding car. It was the moment of impact, it knocked the air out of him, and caused him to lose his form and momentum. There on the gorund he lay, out in the pouring rain, burning internally all the while. Every drop of rain was gasoline added to the fire.
At 2:41 a.m, Anthony left Natalie's house, giving her a kiss before cautiously stepping through the mud. Mark watched his best friend pull of onto the roadway and immediately followed behind him. Mark drove at a normal pace, trying to decide what his next course of action would be. Anthony swerved a few times, it was clear that he was tired. Enraged, Mark flashed his bright lights twice before speeding past his best friend. A half mile down the road, he made a u-turn and accelerated towards his best friend down the one way road. Anthony, panicking and half awake, swerved again, this time losing control of the wheel and hitting a tree before landing in a ditch clear off of the road. Mark pulled over and left his car out of plain sight before disappearing into the trees to finish what he had done.
“No one has found the body”. The comments and rumors echoed throughout the halls of school the following Monday. Mark, when asked, only replied replied with a smug expression and a few short words. “Just when you think you know someone, they show their true colors, which in this case happen to be INVISIBLE.”
Mark sat with Natalie at lunch and sought an answer in her deep blue eyes. He hadn't let her know what he had seen. “Where do you think he might be?” he asked her, hoping she might confess to something. Instead, Natalie avoided the question and continued in thought. “I just hope he's okay.”
That nights, Natalie's best friend Nicole came over and offered her a shoulder.
“You did what?!” Nicole pretended to munch popcorn as Natalie confessed her infidelity. “You know Mark is gonna kill you.”
“No he's not, nobody knows but you and I, and I expect it to STAY that way,” Natalie glared at her friend.
“Of course,” Nicole insisted. “It won't leave this house.”
Nicole left late that night, stumbling from a little bit of alcohol back to her car. She got in and adjusted the mirror to find an anxious Mark in the back seat. “HELP!” Natalie heard Nicole's cry and called her on her cell phone.
“If you say a word, I swear I'll cut your throat. Tell her you're fine.” Mark held a blade to Nicole's throat to ensure her complaince. “Tell her you'll see her tomorrow.”
Nicole complied, and after Natalie finally hung up the phone, Mark slid the blade deep across her neck and watched the blood spill onto his hand. He couldn't leave any traces.
The next day, back at school, Natalie was nervous to see that her best friend wasn't present, and wasn't answering her phone. Out of other resources, she turned to Mark for comfort.
“I'm sure she's fine, babe.” Mark reassured her. “She probably just had a hangover from the drinks you guys had last night.”
“How did you know we had drinks?” Mark paused. He looked into the space as if searching for his own answers, and responded.
“You told me, God babe were you that wasted? You need to calm down. I'm headed home early today to go to a doctor's appointment, but I'll come by later on, okay?”
“Okay babe. Just call me before you do, my parents come home today.”
Mark headed to the parking lot and Natalie to class. After school that day, Natalie came home relieved to see a familiar SUV in the driveway. Her parents had come home, and she could finally vent about the events of the past weekend. She approached the door and found it unlocked and slightly ajar. “Mom? Dad?” she called out. Natalie followed a trail of candles to her parents bedroom, and peered inside. The room was pitch black, and an unidentified odor contaminated the air. She reached for the light switch, and before she could turn it on was forced into the bed. To her horror, the lights were turned on to reveal Anthony, Nicole, and Natalie's parents were all laying there, lifeless, staring back into her beautiful blue eyes. Mark grabbed Natalie by her neck and slammed her face against the wall. Lost and in a daze, she struggled to her feet and tried to figure out who had attacked her. Mark grabbed Natalie again, but not before she could call 911 and allow them to trace the call. He smashed the phone quickly with a heavy leather boot, before pulling Natalie back up to her feet, only to throw her down again and mount his weight atop her. He couldn't stand the sight of her anymore. The beautiful, smart, talented young lady he fell in love with was not the person before him. His massive right hand covered her face, as he reached for a knife with his left. He stabbed her, 7 or 8 times, until he finally felt his strength completely depleted. He looked at her bleeding, and threw her to the side. Disgusted and confused, his attention returned to the knife in his left hand. A cold, salty tear streamed down his face and he pressed the knife into his own wrist, and collapsed on top of her body.
As he lay dying, he again remembered the last thing he said to her after their argument. “Baby don't go,” he whined. “I would kill for your love,” and “without you I would die”