Sarah watched Josh rinse the dishes and stack them in the dishwasher while she curled up on the couch waiting for Real Time with Bill Maher to start. Josh had made dinner tonight and she had to admit that it wasn’t half bad. He’d found a recipe for enchiladas in one of those little recipe books you picked up at the supermarket and had baked her some, using tortillas, Monterey Jack cheese, fire-roasted red chilies, cream-of-mushroom soup, and Old El Paso green enchilada sauce. It was actually pretty good and Sarah had eaten half the pan. She’d have to do a long run tomorrow or else she’d be packing on the pounds. She knew Josh would love her even if she got fat.
“Would you still love me if I gained a bunch of weight?” It didn’t hurt to ask.
“When you marry a woman, you always have to assume that she’s gonna gain at least thirty or forty pounds. You’ve still got like twenty pounds to go.”
“What? I’m still the same size I was when you met me.”
“I don’t know about that. You’ve been eating a lot of ice cream lately.”
“You’re a pig. You know that don’t you? A male-chauvinist pig.”
“That’s just how you like me.”
“Now you’ve got me thinking about ice cream. Why don’t you run to the store and get us some?”
“Why don’t you? I cooked dinner. Remember?”
Sarah hugged the afghan wrapped around her.
“But I’m so comfy.”
“You’re the one who wants ice cream. I’m just the guy who deserves it.”
“You’re such a jerk. I can’t believe you’re trying to make me feel guilty.”
“Guilty for what? For not getting ice cream for your poor tired hubby after he’s worked hard all week and then slaved over a hot stove all day to make you a nice meal? I did cook you breakfast and dinner.”
“Well, I made lunch and you burned the pancakes this morning, so we’re even.
But the enchiladas were pretty good. I guess that’s worth a trip to the grocery store.”
“Wait until I finish with the dishes. I’ll go with you.”
“That’s a good hubby.”
“Don’t push it, woman.”
Josh and Sarah were arm in arm, looking like new love as they walked out of the house and climbed into their SUV. When they drove off, they glanced only casually at the house across the street. There was a light on in the den and Sarah thought she could make out the silhouette of the neighbor’s head through the closed blinds.
An hour later they were curled up in bed with a couple pints of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, watching Dexter on Showtime. Sarah was asleep before the credits rolled.
Josh must have gotten up and turned off the television after she’d fallen asleep because the room was completely black when Sarah awoke suddenly to the sound of her husband choking. She reached out for him and her hand came back wet. Josh was bleeding. His throat had been cut. He was choking on his own blood. When Sarah’s eyes adjusted to the darkness, she saw the new neighbor standing above her husband, stabbing him in his chest again and again.
“Oh my God! What are you doing? Josh! Oh my God! Josh! Get the fuck away from my husband! You’re killing him! Heeelllp!”
Sarah grabbed hold of her husband and began scrambling off the bed, trying to drag him with her, away from the crazed man with the knife.
The neighbor put the knife, dripping with her husband’s blood, against Sarah’s throat and raised a finger to his lips.
“Shhhhhhh. Shut. The. Fuck. Up. I don’t want to kill you but I will and I’ll enjoy it.” Dale smiled to emphasize the point. “I’m going to fuck you anyway. Dead or alive.”
“Y-you-you killed Josh. Oh my God. You killed him!”
The neighbor’s fist lashed out and punched Sarah in her mouth, knocking her back onto the bed.
“I told you to be quiet. Since you won’t cooperate, I’m just gonna have to kill you first.”
The neighbor climbed over her husband’s corpse and straddled Sarah’s stomach.
He drew the knife across Sarah’s throat, cutting through both her jugular vein and carotid artery and lacerating her windpipe all in one clean cut. Sarah watched her own blood spray out over her breasts. She was struggling to breathe, lungs filling with blood, drowning, as she watched the neighbor begin to undress. When she saw him remove his erect penis from his pants she hoped that she would be long dead before she felt that puny uncircumcised thing inside of her.
The neighbor was fondling her bloodied breasts and stroking his ugly little cock.
Her blood squished between his fingers as he squeezed her breasts and pinched her nipples. Sarah was beginning to lose consciousness. The neighbor slid his cock between her breasts and was using the blood from her severed throat as lubrication as he fucked her tits. When he finally came, his cum splashing onto her neck and face and mingling with the blood in a sickening mess of red and white, Sarah had already begun to convulse.
By the time the neighbor was hard again, she was already dead, sparing her from feeling his cock between her thighs and in her mouth.
It was still dark when Sarah woke up in her bed with the taste of blood and semen on her tongue. Josh was snoring quietly beside her. The sheets smelled fresh, like they had just been washed. So did Sarah. Even Josh smelled unusually clean. He smelled like Irish Spring and ammonia. Sarah screamed.
She kept screaming even when Josh woke up and wrapped his big, strong arms around her. Even when he began to rock her back and forth and stroke her hair and tell her that everything would be okay. She was still screaming as he kissed the tears from her eyes. His eyes were half closed and he was still blinking the sleep from his eyes and trying to clear his head but even half-asleep his first priority had been her.
“It’s okay, Sarah. It was just a bad dream. Everything’s okay.”
Sarah checked Josh’s neck and chest. Then she checked her own. There were no wounds, no blood. She dropped her head onto Josh’s shoulder and began to weep.
“That sick bastard. You don’t know what he did to me. He killed us. You were dead. We both were. The new neighbor…that guy…uh, Dale…he murdered us!”
“It was just a dream.”
“No! He stabbed me! He stabbed you and…and he raped me! It wasn’t a dream!”
“Baby, you’re okay. You’re not dead. I’m not dead. It was a dream. That’s all. A
bad dream. Now go back to sleep. You’re safe. I’m right here. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Sarah laid her head down on the pillow and pulled Josh’s arms around her. He snuggled up against her back, spooning with her as she slowly drifted back to sleep. He didn’t notice the door across the street open and the porch light click off, but Sarah did.
Sarah shivered and began to weep again. She buried her face in the pillow and shook her head back and forth.
“No. No. No. No.”
It was a long time before she fell asleep again.