Page 2 of The Neighbor
Why should everything be so alive while I felt like I was dying inside? I knew I wouldn’t feel like that if she would just join me, but she didn’t. Hour after hour I walked along the trails, and by the time the sun set, I’d spent the day alone, my mind racing with thoughts of how I wanted to get back at her for abandoning me.
At first, I decided I’d just not talk to her when she walked up to me. I’d look away and not be sucked in by her big blue eyes and pretty mouth, no matter what she said.
By mid-afternoon, that idea had morphed into something darker. I would talk to her, but I’d take what was mine whether she liked it or not. I’d hold my hand over her mouth if she screamed or cried, even as I hoped she wouldn’t.
She had spent the past three days with some guy. She knew me for weeks. Why would she have a problem being with me in the woods after all that time?
Just before the sunset settled in behind the mountains and the red and orange remnants of the day gave the world one last surprise, I abandoned the idea of having sex with her for something else. It wouldn’t be special anyway since she’d been with whoever he was during all those rainy hours.
No, I’d do something that would ensure she never spent time with any other boy again.
“I hada feeling I’d see you here today. I wanted to come yesterday, but I was busy with getting ready for vacation. My mom insisted I clean my room and wash all my clothes. She’s so silly sometimes. Who cares if your room is clean when you aren’t even at home? We’re going to Myrtle Beach next week. What did you do on those rainy days?”
Amanda’s words came tumbling out of her Cupid’s Bow mouth like she had no control over them. I listened, unable to turn away like I originally planned. Her voice was just so sweet that I couldn’t stop myself from hearing her out. She did say she wanted to come to see me yesterday. That’s something.
Still unsure who she spent all that time with, I mumbled my answer about what I did during those three days of rain. “Not much. Just hung out in my room.”
We began walking, and a few seconds later, she turned to look at me and gave me a smile. “Is your room at the front of your house? It’s the white house with the blue shutters, right?”
I nodded, happy to know she took the time to think about where my room was like I had done with hers. “Yeah. You can always tell it’s my house because of my father’s car. Nobody has an El Camino anymore.”
With a giggle, she said, “And your room is the one with the windows right in the middle?”
Again, I nodded as happiness filled every crevice of my being. She had thought about me those days we couldn’t be together. Maybe she hadn’t spent all her time with someone else she liked better than me.
And then she said the words that will forever be tattooed on my brain. “I thought I saw you sitting in the window. I was going to wave, but I figured what was the point?”
As each syllable left that beautiful mouth of hers, my heart sank deeper and deeper until it felt like it came torest somewhere in my gut. She didn’t see the point to doing something as simple as waving so I could see her.
Her thoughtlessness crushed me. Suddenly, my head filled with thoughts of rage like never before. She didn’t even want to bother waving, an action that would have brought me more joy than she could imagine. She saw me and didn’t care enough to let me know.
Everything I felt for Amanda Michaels evaporated into thin air in those seconds after she said those words. If ever there had been a shred of possibility I wouldn’t kill her, she dashed that to pieces with her careless statement.
I walked beside her as she continued to chatter on about something. It didn’t matter. I wasn’t listening anymore. My mind had shifted into a gear that included a single thought.
I had to kill her.
When we came to where the woods grew denser and the pathway turned to mostly grass because few people ever walked this way, I looked around even as I knew there wasn’t another soul in these woods but us. The trees with their very green leaves blocked out the sun so this spot felt perfect for what I needed to do.
She stopped to pick up something from the ground, and that’s when my body sprung into action. It was almost like I was hovering over myself watching as I jumped on her back and pressed her to the grass. She let out a tiny whimper, almost as if she didn’t mind me doing this but felt like she needed to protest a little for appearance’s sake.
But I wasn’t trying to get into her pants. The time for that urge had long passed.
I wrapped my hands around her neck and was struck by how small it was. I never noticed that. She had a neck like a tiny bird. Easily snapped if I wasn’t careful.
She said my name, but she sounded far away, like a memory of some voice I couldn’t clearly remember. My fingers pressed against her petal-soft skin, sinking into her flesh as they slowly cut off the air flowing through her windpipe. I didn’t know how long it would take until she stopped breathing. I’d never killed anything before.
As the seconds passed, she clawed at my hands, but she was no match for me. I may have looked like a teenager, but I had more than ten years on her, and that time came with more strength than she could handle. She croaked out my name over and over, along with wretched pleas for me to stop.
But I couldn’t. Amanda had to die. I was too far gone down this path to let her leave these woods alive.
“Stop!” she begged hoarsely. “Please stop!”
I heard those words, but my brain couldn’t process them. The singular thought that she must die crowded everything out so all I could think about was killing her.
As the minutes ticked by, she slowly stopped her futile struggling, and then she fell still. No more crying out my name. No more begging for me to stop. No more frantic struggling to pry my hands from her throat.
Nothing but silence.