Jealousy Kills

“Be careful, Aidan!” Katherine Murphy called out, her three-month-old daughter cradled securely in her arms.

Lara’s light blue eyes were shut tight against the daylight. Tufts of black hair could be seen sticking out of the blanket she was wrapped in against the chilly spring winds.

“It’s just a few tree roots, Kat…how much trouble could I get into?” her husband of just over a year teased as he climbed back up towards them.

“Knowing you, I’d say a lot.”

Aidan laughed as he finished climbing the cliff, using the tree roots that provided access to the waterfront.

Lara stirred in Kat’s arms. Kat pulled her daughter inside her jacket more as a breeze cut across the water. She shook her head, her long red hair stinging her eyes.

“You have fun, I’m leaving,” she said, walking towards their car, a blue BMW that her father had purchased for them when her ancient truck died on I-97. She hated Aidan’s habit of climbing the cliff. She could still remember the murky water pulling her under over a decade ago.

She didn’t notice the man watching her from the rundown blue shack perched at the top of the curve.

Chase Stewart grinned as Katherine passed the window. Her beauty never dimmed. Having a child had made her even more beautiful…so gorgeous he couldn’t bear to be away from her much longer.

Aidan Murphy had taken her from him. They’d been roommates once at college…and Aidan used that connection to lie and manipulate Katherine, stealing her from him. Now, now she belonged to Aidan…Aidan the thief, Aidan the cheater…

Chase growled as he saw the dark-haired man appear beside the old tree, smiling as he jogged after his wife. Katherine laughed when his arms encircled her waist.

Inside the house, Chase slammed his fist into a wall. Katherine should be with him! That should be their child in her arms, not Murphy’s. She should be at his side!

He would fix it. Katherine would be his…he’d make her come back. Murphy would lose this time.

The security system was pathetically simple to bypass. Oh, Katherine… you’re just begging for me to take you back, aren’t you?

He glared at the photographs of Aidan with his arms around her that lined the walls. Murphy wasn’t worthy of having her. Katherine was supposed to be his!

Chase started to climb the stairs, heading for the master bedroom. The door wasn’t even closed. He slipped right inside and saw her, her chest rising and falling lightly as she lay in the bed, Aidan’s arms possessively wrapped around her thin frame as she slept. Her red curls spilled across the pillow.

His heart started to race. Mine! You’re supposed to be mine! He doesn’t deserve you—I love you!

It would be so easy to stab Aidan right then. Stab him in the heart and take his place. Katherine wouldn’t even notice.

A loud cry came from his left. Chase’s blonde head whipped around to see the baby, Katherine’s child, starting to cry. No, shut up! You’re ruining it!

Katherine bolted up in the bed, her blue eyes alert. She hurried over to her daughter, holding her against her chest as she tried to soothe the baby. Lara’s cries quieted. Katherine smiled at the infant in her arms, kissing her daughter’s forehead.

So beautiful… you’re both supposed to be mine. He’s not worthy…

Startled blue eyes pierced his in the dim moonlight. The shades hadn’t been drawn in the bedroom, allowing him to make her out easily in the darkness. Katherine’s arms tightened around the baby as she backed towards the bed.

“Get out!” she whispered urgently.

“No, you know I can’t do that, Katherine…”

Chase stepped towards her as she fell back on the bed. Aidan groaned, starting to move.

“Aidan! Help!” she cried, crawling towards him.

His eyes flew open. “Kat?”

Katherine was pressed up against Murphy now. Chase growled low in his throat, agitated with her. She wasn’t supposed to wake him up. She was supposed to go with him and leave Murphy. Couldn’t she see the mistake? Aidan Murphy had stolen his life!

Aidan moved in front of her and the child. “Leave now,” Murphy was hissing at him. “Katherine doesn’t want you here.”

“Of course she does!” Chase scoffed. “Right, Katherine?”

She held Lara closer, shaking her head firmly.

He walked up to the bed. He slipped the knife from his belt. Aidan saw the blade and tackled him, knocking Chase away from Katherine.

“Go, Kat! Run!” Aidan yelled.

She did, her barefeet hardly making a sound on the wood floors as she raced down the hallway with Lara wrapped tightly in her arms.

“She’s mine! Give her to me, traitor!” Chase demanded, determined to drive his knife into Aidan’s heart.

The dark-haired man cried out in pain as the knife nicked his skin. He tried to roll away and Chase struck again, scraping his arm.

Aidan barely reacted as the blade touched him. He kept moving, trying to evade the blows. Anything to buy Katherine time to escape…

“No! Get away from him!” Kat screamed, lunging in front of the knife.

Chase struck flesh. She let out a gasp, her body slipping towards the floor. Aidan’s arms reached out, catching her. He slipped down to the ground, whispering, “No, Kat… no!”

The knife was buried hilt deep in her heart.

“A…Aidan,” she gasped.

“Kat…oh God, Katy…”

Chase sank to the floor next to them, speechless. All he could see was Katherine’s blood on the knife, his knife… hear her pained breaths…

What have you done now, Murphy?

She was trying to speak. No words tumbled from her lips.

The gasps slowed, and then ceased to exist. Katherine was gone, her pale skin light by the moonlight streaking through one of the windows.

“How could you? How dare you?!” Aidan’s voice was breaking as he cradled her body.

“I…I didn’t mean—“

“She never loved you! You just couldn’t accept that, now could you? Look what you’ve done!”

“Katherine…I would never—“

“You killed her!” Aidan accused. “You and your jealousy—you killed my wife! You killed Kat!”

Chase backed away. “No, I—“

“Look at her! Look what you did to her!”

“No! No! That wasn’t me!”

“You did this! You killed her!”

“No! No! No!” he cried as Katherine started to fade. “No! I didn’t! I couldn’t! I love her…I love her… I love her…”

“I love her… I love Katherine… I’d never do that… never hurt her…” Chase muttered, shaking his head. “No, that wasn’t me…”

He opened his eyes, flinching when sunlight filled them. “Katherine…”

Chase Stewart glanced down at his watch. It was 4:15pm…she was already there. He rubbed his eyes, slipping towards his window. Sure enough, her red hair was being touched by the sun as she stood atop the cliff, a baby wrapped tightly in a blanket as she anxiously shifted from one foot to the other, her blue eyes looking out towards the water.

“Be careful, Aidan!” he heard her cry out.

Chase watched, memorized as she headed towards the BMW, walking right past his window. He couldn’t contain his smile until in the reflection of the glass, or perhaps it was the sunlight nearly blinding him, that he could have sworn he saw a knife sticking out of her heart.

He shivered, pulling the shades on the window. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to visit Katherine at night anymore…

Author’s Notes:

This short story ties in with my original (NaNoWriMo) version of Kill Zone. It takes place almost a year afterwards. I wrote it for an AP Literature assignment where I had to write a short story containing one of the seven deadly sins that could be considered the root of all evil. The sin I chose was envy.

Kat is 26 years old, Aidan is 29 years old, and Chase is 29 years old in this story.

Please read/review! Constructive crit is welcome!