"I said that your kind doesn’t belong here! Don’t you understand?" Meredith screamed into the mirror as her face reflected distaste and malice. This always managed to get her mind worked up and in a ‘thinking’ mode, as she needed now. She was simply mimicking what she’d seen just an hour earlier across town at the Dempsy Apartment Complex.
Waving her hand in front of her face as if she were erasing the horrible grimace that appeared, she replaced it with a softer, gentler demeanor. Taking a quick and deliberate notice at the difference herself, she left the room. Meredith knew that she had a lot of work to do and a very little amount of time to do it in, but she was quickly becoming used to the concept.
She remembered when it all began as she sat down to the computer, she’d pulled up several pages before sitting back and smiling at what she’d found. It seemed to be an entire galaxy of war implements, right in front of her for the asking. Of course she knew that the government had their hands in everything and could trace the inquiry down. But she also knew that it would take time for them to complete their research with all of their neck ties and stacks of paper. By the time they discovered where the order had originated, she would be living somewhere else with a different name and different appearance, just like the other times. Hopefully this would be the last time that this drastic measure would be necessary. She didn’t understand why the men that behaved like dogs in heat always managed to get her attention. What she needed was a respectable man, like her mother had always taught her.
Meredith closed her eyes and tipped her head back remembering her mother and relishing the thought that she’d succeeded in acquiring her mother’s good looks. Being an only child had been fantastic for her and her parents seemed to love her greatly. In fact, they’d often refer to her as ‘le femme fatale’, because her father told her what a fatal beauty she’d be when she was all grown up. That is, until he came home stone drunk one night and after having a brutal discussion with her mother that turned into a hellish argument, he killed her. Meredith had only been eight at the time that she entered the room to find her father standing over her mother’s mutilated body with a shotgun in his hands which still had smoke drifting up from the barrel. What had been her mother’s beautiful face was simply a mass of steaming bloody matter. Stunned and repulsed, she could hear someone screaming very loudly as it echoed off of the walls of the apartment around her. Everything went dark for a long time and she never did realize that it had been her cries in the night and that they’d haunt her for years.
The next thing that she could recall was sitting in some shrink’s office as a woman took her by the hand and introduced her to a family where she’d stay for the next six months. After that, moving from one home to another became a way of life. Finally, eleven homes later, she turned eighteen and was released to be on her own. That was almost five years ago.
In the time that she’d been a legal adult she’d met many men. Most of them were stupid and weren’t worth wasting her time on, but occasionally she’d find one that merited the chase. Her latest quest was Gavin and she was playing at first, pretending that she was really thrilled with him, but it didn’t take long for her to realize that she loved him. Of course she’d thought that with a couple of others as well, but this time it was true!
Gavin was tall and lean with blond hair and blue eyes that seemed to go on forever. Sometimes she’d stare into them to try and decide what he was thinking and other times she’d look away because she thought she determined unclean thoughts going through his mind, especially when he appeared exceptionally pleased. He was the first man to ever bring her a bouquet of roses with baby’s breath and everything in them. There’d been a note inside the cluster of red petals that said that there wasn’t a minute that went by that he wasn’t thinking of her. She’d silently cried as he gently wiped away her tear with his fingers and hugged her with his breath in her ear. His breath, she remembered, was calm and even as he held her close for a long time.
Everything had been good. Everything had been splendid until one day when he told her about his ‘business meeting’ in Texas that would take a few days. He didn’t need to lie to her, she told herself. She would have understood if he could have trusted her with the truth, but he lied. If he had been telling the truth, he would have asked her to go with him. After all, she was sure that her employer could find someone else to manage her tables at the restaurant for a while or so. But, he never even asked.
Although Meredith had never been to his apartment, she knew where it was because over the course of the two weeks that they’d been dating, she managed to follow him… a little each day, until she saw his apartment building. When she’d approached it, there was his name "Gavin Eastman" above one of the ringers. Gawking at it and almost pushing it, she decided that it was best to wait until he invited her over. That way, if his apartment was messy or something he could straighten up before company came in.
Days had gone by since she’d pulled up the computer’s treasure map as she finished tying the package up with string. The box inside of the paper wasn’t that big, but the rock and two marbles inside of it, caused it to be a bit heavier and made an interesting sound when it was shaken. Maybe it wasn’t fair to ‘test’ him, as some would call it, but if he really did leave town he’d have nothing to fear. However, if he was lying and simply trying to elude her, he’d get exactly what he deserved… a liar’s punishment.
The Dempsy Apartment Complex stood just as threateningly as it had when she’d been here last, taunting her, even daring her to attempt to get inside of it. The people here weren’t very friendly either, she’d noticed. Meredith was glad that the package wasn’t heavy because she didn’t know how long she’d have to wait. One man even went as far as to wave his hand in front of his nose as he passed her with his head cocked back like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing and was trying to shoo her away in his mind. If he hadn’t preoccupied her by doing that, she might have gotten in the door that he’d just exited from, but it swung closed and latched as she dashed up the steps to it. Working up a snot ball in her throat she turned to spit at the man, but missed. He didn’t even look at her after that. "I said you don’t belong here. Don’t you understand?" she repeated quietly in a low voice under her breath.
Calming herself down, she knew that she wouldn’t be able to count on luck and still be timely. She realized that she would have to do some thinking this time.
Eyeing the names out she pushed the one that was next to Gavin Eastman’s, Betty Ross. After what seemed an eternity, she prepared to push it again when she heard an elderly woman’s timid voice, "Hello?"
"Yes Mrs. Ross, I’ve left my keys in my friend’s car and she just left. Do you think I could use your phone to call her?"
There was silence for a moment before she was answered, "How do you know me, do you live here?"
Without a second to waste, "Yes, just down the hall from you."
"Oh, you must be that little doctor that just moved in…" she sounded as if she were reminiscing about younger years, "I’ll wait to finally meet you, dear."
The buzzer sounded, alerting her that the door was unlocked. Shifting the package under her arm and feeling the metal of her new apparatus biting into her stomach from beneath her waistband, she opened the door. She was entering another world as the noise and lights from outside were filtered through the glass behind her. There was a stairway to the left and a hallway to the right littered with kids’ toys, while two little kids sat huddled together in the corner arguing. They both stopped talking as the door squeaked closed and gawked in her direction. Meredith ignored them because she had business of her own to attend to.
As she slowly mounted the stairs, they groaned beneath her feet as if they were old and tired, ready for retirement. When she made it to the top of the first flight, she noticed that there were only four apartments on each floor, which meant that Mrs. Ross was still waiting upstairs for her, but Gavin’s apartment would be on this floor… number eight. There was enough light to make out the numbers next to the doors and she could see that five and six were across from each other, so eight must be in the back, rear corner. She stood, holding the package in front of her when she noticed that a small trickle was tickling the side of her face… she was actually sweating. A chuckle managed to escape her lips in amusement as she considered herself as being nervous. Taking a deep breath and releasing it, she blinked hard, trying to decide if this was the best idea. If he was really in Texas on a trip, he had nothing to worry about and would be none the wiser as to what was going on, right? I have nothing to lose! she reasoned with herself.
Creeping quietly to the old wooden door, she glance up for a second to make sure that she could see the number eight displayed in the center of it. Setting the package gently down on his welcome mat, she admired the fact that he was a bachelor with the common sense to put one down. Straightening up, she reached inside of her shirt and pulled the gun from her waist before knocking briskly at the door and quickly stepping back, holding the gun which was aimed directly above the package. No one answered the door, but upstairs she could hear Mrs. Ross call her to come up and ask if she was okay. "Stupid busybody," Meredith muttered under her breath, but the door wasn’t answered.
"Thank God!" she sighed aloud as she began to lower the pistol, but then there was a rustling at number eight’s door. It creaked open as if the occupant was hesitant to answer it before spying the package. Leaning down toward the box Meredith could see the two hands followed by a blond head of hair. "Son of a bitch!" she shrieked as she pulled the trigger, hitting her target surprisingly dead-center. Brains, bone and other debris exploded across the door and the threshold, leaving nothing there but the bloody soaked package which contained two marbles and a rock. Mrs. Ross began to howl wildly from upstairs for the police while Meredith turned to leave the apartment building just as swiftly as she’d arrived.
As she approached the windowed door at the bottom, she came across the man that she’d passed when she was seeking a way inside. His key had just been inserted when she heard the children behind her slam the door as they escaped whatever unkindness had just occurred to someone less fortunate upstairs.
The man saw the children and the look of fear as they darted into their home. He thought, but wasn’t sure that he’d heard a gunshot. After all, at his age, hearing wasn’t his best attribute. For an instant that paralleled an eternity, he watched her through the door as his key remained in the lock. Without warning, Meredith pushed the door open wide and knocked the old man down a couple of stairs. He began to curse and swear at her until she showed him the weapon she had just shared with her unfortunate victim. He cowered up against the side of the railing while both hands grasped at it wildly.
Several police cars pulled up simultaneously and screeched to a halt as the men dove out, but remained behind their open car doors.
"What the hell is going on?" someone yelled, approaching up the sidewalk at a rapid pace. Meredith turned to see Gavin walking toward her as a cab pulled away from the curb.
"Sir, please stay where you are!" one of the officers called to him. Gavin’s face was befuddled as he stopped and dropped his suitcases by his feet on the sidewalk.
"Meredith?" he sounded genuinely concerned, "Is that you?"
"Yes, it’s me!" she was elated! She hadn’t killed him and there he was right in front of her! It had been a business trip and he had been telling the truth! It was all true!
Just then, an old woman pushed out of the door behind her, nearly knocking her down, and began yelling, "She killed Ms. Eastman! Mr. Eastman, she killed your sister!"
"Meredith?" his face contorted as if he were looking for her to deny any involvement as he stumbled over the luggage toward her. He blinked several times as if the reality of it was soaking in before his eyes moved to the door behind her. "Diana! Diana!" he screamed with his mind going in a thousand directions at once.
Meredith didn’t know what had happened, except that she was being denied after all, as she pointed the gun toward him and began to pull the trigger. She never heard the bullets exit the guns as the officers of the law had their culprit in their sites. Meredith was never let down by another man again and it was the last time that she tried to kill the man she’d loved.
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