“I bet couples don’t sit like this anymore, you know, after so long together.” Steven said. “Just talking and enjoying each other’s company. Would you like a coffee? No, silly me, you drink tea.” Steven stood and went to the bench and flicked on the kettle. He waited while it boiled; made himself a cup of coffee and sat back down. Katie hadn’t spoken. So far he was doing all the talking. She was angry with him and he couldn’t blame her.
“We could try to be better people. Better together. Don’t you think, Gail?” He gave a short sigh, “Katie, I mean” he corrected himself. “Sorry”. She stared hard in return at him. “That makes me look the prize fool,” he laughed.
“You need laughter in a relationship to make it work. Laughter, Katie” he smiled, “is more important than sex. I know you agree. We did once laugh together. When did we last laugh?”
Steven hated it when women cried. He felt helpless and worse, sickened. It reminded him of his own weaknesses and the times he wanted to cry himself. Katie’s muffled sobs annoyed him but he kept a smile on his face. He wasn’t going to tell her not to cry. Women needed to feel their emotions freely, without restriction. He would wait until she stopped. He waited a full five minutes.
“I don’t like to see you cry. You just don’t know how deep that cuts me. Is there anything I can do?” She didn’t answer. “We’ve only lived a minute of our lives together, Katie. There’s so much more we can see and life that we can experience together. I want to experience it with you.”
She stared at him with wide eyes, following his every move. Sweat trickled down her forehead and around her left eye. Steven gently raised his hand to wipe her cheek and Katie shied from his touch, he hesitated and then wiped the drop away.
Steven shifted under her gaze. He didn’t like it when she stared at him like that. It was accusing. A hateful stare. Where did that hate come from? he thought.
He took a sip from his cup. “That’s a little hot,” blowing on it Steven looked around the kitchen, stood and went to a knife rack. Thoughtlessly he picked up a large knife and checked its keenness on his thumb, then sat back down, leaving the knife on the bench and forgetting to cool his coffee after all.
Katie was talking now. Talking fast. Her voice high pitched. Still so angry at him. Unable to think of any other suitable response, Steven said “This place is so clean, I like the house clean...I like order. It’s calming. You always were so house proud” He stammered a little.
Now she was shouting. Steven stood back up again and started to pace. He hated her shouting. She was always shouting at him for some reason or another. He sighed dramatically and he toyed with his cup.“Katie, please don’t yell. Katie? Please. Katie? SHUT UP!” Steven screamed in her face. “There. Isn’t that better? It’s nicer when you aren’t shouting.” Steven walked around the kitchen table and took a seat next to Katie.
*
Katie wanted to scream but the tea towel this stranger had wrapped around her mouth was tied tight enough to hurt. Her breath panted out her nose. She felt light headed, there was not enough oxygen getting to her lungs and they were starting to burn. She forced herself to check her breathing. Deep, slow breathes that helped calm her and settle the ache in her lungs.
Katie watched as he turned the kettle on and sorted through the kitchen searching for the coffee. While he had his back to her she tried her bonds, her hands were secured with zip ties to the frame of the chair and they were painfully tight. Her fingers felt fat and clumsy, she flexed them trying to get the blood flow back. It hurt but the pain made her think that at least she was alive. He sat back down. He talked. Spoke nothing important. Katie searched the room with her eyes, looking for anything that could help her. A way to escape or call for help. There was nothing. Her resolve broke and she cried. Cried for those friends and family she would never see again.
He stood back up and took a knife from the rack above the bench, he checked the edge. Katie’s silent sobbing renewed. Again he sat down, leaving the knife on the bench.
Katie tried to shut out the sound of his voice. He spoke so calmly. He was insane and Katie knew that she would die tonight. She thought of what she would miss when she was gone and of who would miss her. Her first thought was for her mother. She wanted to talk to her again, say goodbye. She hoped that death, when it came, would be quick.
He moved from the table like a cat. She saw the knife in a flash of reflected light. Such searing pain She couldn’t have imagined! She stared at him, her eyes wide with shock. She felt her blood slow, her breath slow, even out and then nothing.
*
“So much nicer when you aren’t shouting.” Steven sat down next to Katie and looked at his hand. Blood - hot and sticky ran through his fingers. He hated the knife in her. So ugly. He tugged at it but it was stuck. He blinked a tear from his eye. He felt in his pocket for his phone, took it out and dialled a number.
“Emergency. What service do you require?” A stern female voice sounded.
“Police please.”
