I can not promise the short stories this week are of the best quality. Working full-time, caring for a puppy, and trying to get my blog off the ground again has left me a little behind in my writing. I am churning out stories with minimal editing, so bear with me if it just outright sucks and is awful. I promise I am getting better at managing my time and bringing you better-quality stories.

Enough chatting, let’s get to the story!

There was once a time in my life when I let a man take care of everything. I loved him so much that he could do no wrong in my eyes. It didn’t bother me when he yelled because I had been too loud. It didn’t bother me when he called me a thousand times a day to make sure I was doing what I told him I was doing. If my job had allowed it, he would have stayed on the phone with me until I got home every day. He just wanted to keep me safe, and he needed me to be smart about my time.

I never ate anything that would make me gain weight. When I wanted my nails and hair done he insisted he go with me. He needed to make sure no other men bothered me. I had to go to bed when he went to bed, but I had to be awake before him with breakfast on the table and his lunch packed for work. It was my duty as his wife to make sure he was taken care of. I owed him because he had given me a beautiful home and no one else was ever going to love me like he loved me.

I woke up. I saw what he was doing the whole time, but it took me years to work up the nerve to leave him. He had torn me down to nothing. I was a shell of the person I was when I first met him. He wasn’t always so possessive and cruel. He used to be sweet and loving and worshiped the ground I walked on. He changed slowly over time. I found out later that he had been cheating on me. He said that it was because I wasn’t even a real woman. After all, I had been unable to carry a baby to term. He wanted a family. I did too, but my body could not carry a child. I begged him to try other options. His other option was getting another woman pregnant. That was when I had finally had enough and left. He didn’t protest much. He only hounded me to get all my belongings out of his house.

That was 15 years ago, and he had three children with the woman he cheated on me with. He also had three children with the woman he was cheating on her with. Six kids. Both women left him and he was now alone. After 15 years of trying to move on and live my own life, I hadn’t been able to do anything but think about him and how he destroyed me. I had been to therapy multiple times, but as soon as the therapist started talking about a stay at a mental health facility I would stop going. I don’t know why this man has caused me so much turmoil, I don’t know why I can’t let him go.

Now, I sit in his living room. Watching a lonely man cry into his hands about how I was the only one who ever loved him. Of course, when he called me an hour ago, I came rushing to his side. I always knew I would. I always knew he would come back to me, and I was going to wait for him for as long as it took.

I know what you are thinking, I left him, but he needed to see what life would be like without me. He needed to know that I was the best thing that could ever happen to him. He will be asleep so very soon. I had put some meds in his food to help calm him down. After 15 years I still remember his favorite meal.

I caught him right before he fell over, fast asleep. The couch was not the ideal place for what I had to do, but I was too weak to carry him to the table. I laid him on his back and cut open his shirt. I forgot how hairy his chest was. “You were my special Teddy bear.” I whispered as I brushed my fingers through his furry chest and laid my head, listening to his heart.

“I will never stop loving you.” I muttered, looking at his calm face. I pulled the scalpel from my purse and placed it on his chest. “I have to make sure your heart is mine forever.” I smile as the blood runs out from under the blade. My love is still fast asleep, though I feel he may wake up soon. I work fast, cutting away layers of his skin, and slicing him open. His heart is beating fast, and I realize his eyes are open. He can’t move anything but his eyes. “I was hoping you would be able to watch.” I reach up and kiss his forehead. “15 years was too long of a separation.”

“No.” He gurgled. A snap rings through the air as I crack one of his ribs to fit my arm through. My love screams. I missed his loud yelling so much. The back of my neck tingles as the goosebumps spread down my spine.

“You can never leave me again.” I say as I reach my hand into his chest. I feel the beating heart in my hand. Such a strong heart. “You are forever mine.” I say with a tear of joy streaming down my face. I grip his heart and yank it from his chest. The heart beats a few times, pumping nothing but air. My love’s eyes stare at me and I watch as the light fades from those cold brown eyes I had dreams and nightmares about. His heart is in my hand slowly beating. I watch as he dies, his heart stops and everything is covered in blood. I kiss his heart with the last beat and smile. I wrap it in a silk cloth and shove it into my purse.

“Sadie?” A voice comes from the front door. I turn to face a horror-stricken mistress.

“Katie.” I say, standing up and throwing the strap of my purse over my shoulder. “I told you he would come back to me.

“Sadie, what have you done?” Katie asks.

“I took what was mine. It’s my treasure. It was my chest to open.” I say calmly. “It was mine.” I say again. “You can’t have it. You can’t have him.”

“Sadie, you should sit down.” Katie looks at me. I watch as she pulls her phone from her pocket and dials 911.

“You can’t have him.” I growl. “He is mine!” I shout, losing my patience. “He called me. He wanted me to come here. He wanted me.”

“He didn’t call you.” Katie says, putting up her hands. “No one called you here.”

“He did!” I shouted again. “You left him and his other whore left him. I loved him and he wanted me to come back.”

“Sadie, I didn’t leave Jeff. We have been married for 15 years. There is no other woman. This is all in your head, Sadie. Remember.” Katie moves closer to me. She was always so manipulative. “Remember, you and Jeff didn’t work out in high school. You broke up before you graduated. He met me in college. When your mom died your brain created a safe space. Jeff was your last safe space.” She moved closer to me. I stepped back shaking my head.

“No.” I say. I trip over my feet and fall to the floor in the puddle of blood under Jeff. “I married him. We got married and he hated me because I couldn’t have kids.”

“Oh, sweetie. How did you get out of the hospital?” Katie asked. She reached out to me, her hands touching my shoulders. I jerk back and watch her look at Jeff and back at me. Tears streamed down her face.

“What are you talking about you harlot? They never put me in the hospital. I was just waiting for Jeff to come back to me.” Sirens could be heard outside.

“Sadie, please.” Katie cries. “You need to go back. You still need help.”

Cops ran into the house and tackled me to the ground. I couldn’t fight back; they were too strong.

“No, wait.” I grunted. “I had to do it. I had to open the chest and get my treasure back.” I yelped when I felt a pinch in my arm and the world grew black.

“Sadie.” I know that voice. I grumble as I come too. “Welcome back.” Dr. Smith says. She is a small woman, with long blonde hair, but she has become my best friend.

“I don’t want to be back.” I speak. The room was spinning, but I pushed myself to sit up. “I want to go back to my dream.”

“The one where you are married to your high school sweetheart, Jeff?” She asks. I nod. When he and I broke up, my world crumbled. A month after we parted ways my mother died. I had no other family, and I was alone. I couldn’t get my life back on track and I spiraled. I was sent to the hospital, where I have been for 15 years. I get lost in dreams of Jeff because that was the last time I was happy. In my dreams, I am married to him, and we have children and my mother loves watching them.

“Do you remember what you did?” Dr. Smith asks me. I look at her and cock my head to the side.

“What do you mean?” I ask. “When?”

“Yesterday.” She asks.

“I just did the normal stuff.” I say, trying to recall the day before. It was hazy and I couldn’t remember much of anything. My head started to hurt. “I remember getting to go out. Yesterday was shopping day.” I smiled, proud of myself for remembering.

“You got away while you were out shopping. You slipped away from Trixie.” Trixie was my caretaker when I was out of the hospital. I always had to have supervision, but I got days out for good behavior.

“Oh.” I said, my face going red. I remembered running away. I just wanted to get to a computer and look up Jeff. I had been dreaming about him a lot lately and I wanted to see how he was doing. “Oh.” I said again when I remembered finding his address and going to his house. “Oh no.” I whisper. I didn’t just go to his house. I knocked on the door. I told him I was glad he called me, but he didn’t call me. I had made it up in my head when I saw his picture. I had made up a whole story that he wanted to be with me again and that he had left his wife Katie. “None of it was true.” I say to myself.

“You remember it all?” Dr. Smith asks me.

“Now I do.” I say, unable to meet her eyes. I had killed him. I had ripped his heart out and put it in my purse. “I killed him.” I lean over my bed and throw up bile. I can see him lying on his couch with his chest ripped open.

“You did.” Dr. Smith says. She stands from her chair and walks to the door. “I am sorry, Sadie.” She says with her back to me. “I have failed you.” She puts her hand on the door. “I don’t know what is going to happen. Trixie and I will do what we can for you, but the state may sentence you to death. Jeff’s wife, Katie, knew about you. She knew everything. She feels sorry for you, but you took her husband away from her. You took a father from his children.”

“She took him away from me.” I growl. “He wanted me back!” I scream.

Dr. Smith knocks on the door for it to be opened. “We are unable to help her from here.” She says to the officer who opens the door. “We leave her to you.” Dr. Smith turned to look at me one last time. “I am sorry that you have gone through so much, Sadie. I am sorry that I could not help you heal.”

The door slammed shut, leaving me alone. All alone as I have been for 15 years. No one wants me.

“I want you.” A voice from the corner says. “Sadie, I am always with you.”

“Jeff!” I laugh. “I knew you wouldn’t leave me.”