Instinct

Dick was driving down main street in his blue sedan after dropping off his daughter Nell at Lucy's birthday party. The shops were quieter than he was used to seeing them, it was the middle of the day after all. There were housewives gossiping outside the grocery store and a group of pensioners feeding the pigeons and swapping stories about their grandchildren.

Dick's boss had given him the week off from working at the lumber mill because of the accident. He had been stacking freshly cut wooden planks when he heard a scream. Not a scream of fear but more of a deep down instinctive scream, like someone would make if their parachute doesn't open, the kind people make when they know they are well and truly fucked.

He turned in time to see his best friend and long time drinking buddy Jim, lose his balance and fall head first towards the band saw. Everything was happening in slow motion but he was unable to move. He saw the terror in Jim's eyes, the impossible struggle of a body fighting against gravity and leverage. Without thinking, the doomed Jim threw his arms up, making a sacrifice of them to save more important appendages. All this was done with no thought on the victims part. The saw bit into flesh and cut through bone as easily as if it were air, and there was Jim sitting up with a dopey look on his face, armless and bleeding.

The town passed around Dick without him noticing, he was driving on autopilot, hell, he seemed to be living on autopilot since Jim lost his arms. The nightmares never came like he thought they would, he slept like a baby actually. The only effect it had was this numbness, basic tasks were performed automatically but when there was nothing to do he just sat there staring with his mind a blank. Dick could sit like that for hours until his daughter spoke to him or his phone rang or something else snapped him out of it.

The Sedan pulled into the driveway, he got out and walked towards the house, keys in hand. It was an old colonial style house with a screen door and three wooden pillars supporting the roof jutting out over the porch. His mother had left it to him after the cancer finally got her and it was all he had. He thought about selling but found he just couldn't part with it yet. It stood on the edge of the town like a relic, more like a mausoleum, a repository for all his memories. That house was as much a part of him as Nell was.

They had lived there like a family; Dick, Nell and his wife Jane. Things were ok for a while but it all went bad very fast. Jane had always been insecure but ever since the wedding she was slowly overcome with paranoia. She called him at work to make sure he was there and if he went out for a few beers with Jim she would scream at him when he got back.
“You can't do this to me! I'm your wife Godammit, I need you at home!”

He thought maybe she was right. They were married and had a kid now, he had responsibilities. So he spent all of his time at home and devoted himself to his family. But things just got worse. She would scream at him and beat him for no reason, she even beat Nell but he knew she was only so wound up because she loved them. That was until she took their daughter to the bridge out of town eight months ago and threatened to jump. He'd had her committed after that.

The door creaked inwards as he put the key in the lock, he must've forgotten to lock it again. He pushed it shut and walked through the house to the kitchen. If he had been more alert he would have noticed that something wasn't right. A door was open that he had left shut or a picture was slightly out of place but all he felt was a slight uneasiness, like a fly buzzing beside your ear.

He filled the kettle and put it on the stove, lifted a tea bag and a mug out of the cupboard and went to the living room. His favourite chair sat near the middle of the room, he flopped into it and turned on the tv. He sat there flipping though the channels, not even seeing what was on the screen. He had never really cared for tv but at least it was some company. When he was alone the silence became deafening and he was convinced that his head was about to explode.

The kettle started to whistle on the stove and he sat there trying to work up the motivation to move. A floorboard creaked behind him and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up like he had just put his finger into a plug socket. Someone was in the room.

“Where's Nell? Where is my daughter?”

Jane's voice, impossible, she was locked up in the loony bin. He slowly turned and stood up. Jane was in the doorway. She was wearing crisp white linen pyjamas and toe-less slippers. Her hair was wild and there was blood smeared along her left side.

“Jane, what are you doing here? Are you hurt? You shouldn't be here.”

She raised her eyes to his and in that moment he realised the situation was not going to end well. Her eyes were all white with pin pricks for pupils, they made contact for a second before they continued roving around the room, looking at everything but seeing nothing. He raised his hands, palms up, and took a step towards her.

“ Just relax Jane, Nell is at a friends house. If you let me go I'll get Nell, come with me, lets just go to the car and I'll take you to your daughter...”

“ You took her from me, she's mine but you took her from me Dick, I just wanted to be with her always but you sent me away....”

“OK I'm sorry Jane, it's my fault, I sent you away but just calm down, come with me, we'll go see Nell, we'll be together again.”

“No Dick, you can't be with us, you took her, you sent me away. Now it's time for you to go away.”

“Jane please, please don't do this, don't...”

The kettle started screaming on the hob.

“SHE'S MINE!”

The thing that used to be his wife sprang at him, white foam and drool spraying from it's teeth. Something hard and shiny flashed in her hand and before Dick could move she was on him. Pain bloomed in his chest and his legs gave way under her weight.

“TIME TO GO AWAY, TIME TO GO AWAY DICK, I'M GOING TO CUT YOUR FUCKING HEAD OFF!”

She slashed at his face but he instinctively threw his arms up to take the blows, it flashed through his mind that this must be how Jim felt. He seemed to be far away watching himself getting murdered. As he watched, he saw his arms being cut to ribbons, blood was pooling on his chest, spurting from a wound on his right side and the creature on top of him just kept slashing and screaming, not even human any more.

What about Nell? I can die but who will look after Nell? Suddenly the haze he had been living in was burned away in a bright flash of realisation. He had to survive this, he had to protect his daughter. He was back in his body now, looking into the face of pure madness, feeling the jagged blade rip his flesh to pieces.
With a roar he pushed her off him. He was on his feet in an instant and with strength he never knew he had he picked her up by the hair and threw her. She crashed through a cabinet, covering the floor with broken glass and he lunged for the door. A hand groped at his leg but he brought his boot down on it and it opened with a spasm.

He reached the hallway and made for the door. There was too much blood, the gore covered him making his boots slip on the wooden floor. He lost his footing and went to one knee, before he was able to regain his feet she was on him again, shrieking and pulling puling him through the house. He tried to struggle but he was getting weak, his strength was running from his the tattered ruin of his arms and the sucking would in his chest.

She took him into the kitchen, she was screaming and pulling at her hair, stamping around in the blood and beating her chest. Dick lay there looking up at her, the haze was closing in again. She seemed to have forgotten he was there. With the last of his strength he grabbed onto the counter and dragged himself to his feet, he couldn't get a breath and darkness was closing in around around the edges of his vision.

Jane whirled towards him and a scream ripped from her as she raised the blade and ran at him. Dick stood and watched seeing everything with a stark clarity. He saw the footprints in the blood, the sun shining through the window casting crazy shadows across his wife's insane face, the kettle whistling on the hob....
The kettle...
His hand shot out and closed on the burning handle and he threw it. The boiling liquid sprayed, covering her face and body, she stopped in her tracks looking wonderingly at him. The madness seemed to slip from her then and he saw Jane the way she was before they were married, before her mind became warped and twisted. The knife dropped from her hand and she touched her face, the fleshed slipped off under her fingers showing the glistening bone underneath.

“AAAAAHHHHHHHRRRAAAWWWW!!”

She fell to the floor thrashing with the flesh falling from her skull. By the time she stopped Dick was lying beside her dying. He didn't know why but he was holding her hand, staring at the ceiling as he slipped away, there was no pain any more just a cold numb feeling spreading from his chest.

He thought of their daughter, tried to picture her face but he couldn't see it through the darkness. It didn't matter, she would be safe now.