Trenchcoat (1365 hits)
Category: UberMadness! EntryRating: 1 on 1 review (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Bart Cilfone <uberuser.at.cilfone.com> (View user info) at 2006-10-24 03:51:34 EDT
This post was an official UberMadness! entry. Click here to view the original matchup.
I left my job a few months ago and got a place in the city. Working in an office nine to five every day, coffee pots and water coolers aren't my thing, but it sure is a nice way to make rent. Still, it's a lot of stress and not enough action, and I'm just looking for something else to do.
Standing in the rain with a bloody knife taking the fall on a murder rap for some dame in a trenchcoat wasn't what I had in mind.
She started working in marketing a few weeks ago. I had no reason to talk to her, but I couldn't stay away. She was gorgeous, the kind of girl with legs that go all the way up. I started walking by her desk on the way to the bathroom, but I was going out of my way a bit because the shortest path would have been to walk through the door by the printer.
I had my eye on her but had never talked to her until
"Hey!"
I looked around. She had to be talking to me because there wasn't anyone else there.
"Hey" I said back to her not sure what to say next.
"Do you know how I can make this print to the back printer?"
That was the printer near my desk.
"Yeah, sure, it's on the network in the shared printers area on the department drive."
Her look told me that she knew what the words meant but didn't understand the sentence.
"Let me show you... can I use your chair."
She stood up so that I could sit down. Holy mother of god, I'd never been this close to her ass. This is the kind of girl that could start a war and she's going to think of me as the guy who fucks with the office printer.
"You go to the network neighborhood... here... this folder... and... that should do it. Let's give it a quick test. What were you trying to print?"
"Oh don't worry about..."
Before she answered I Alt-Tabbed back to her previous window. It was a picture. To be more specific, it was a picture of her. To be even more specific, it was a picture of her whole body, bare legs, bare breasts, body turned to the side with her head turned towards the camera and her long brown hair hanging over her shoulder.
"Holy." I couldn't think of any next word. I stared at her screen for what seemed like the entirety of my pubescent years. I became a thirteen year old boy looking at my father's dirty magazines again, only this time my pants were still on and the model was standing over my shoulder.
"Let me just get that off the screen," she said as she reached over me to her keyboard and toggled back to her Outlook inbox, covering the picture from anyone who might walk by.
"I'm, uh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..."
"No, no, don't apologize, it was my fault, I should have closed that picture before I grabbed you." She set her hand on my shoulder. "I really wasn't thinking, I was just getting frustrated trying to get the printer working. This is embarassing... I had a friend take those pictures..."
There were more?
"... and I wanted to print them out on this paper," she held up an envelope of 8 1/2" x 11" glossy photo paper, "for a modeling try out I'm going to after work today. I was going to use the back printer so that nobody noticed what I was doing, but so much for that plan."
"I'm sorry. Look, I won't tell anybody. I don't care what you print out - I'm not the printer police." She laughed a little. "Besides, it's refreshing to see someone around here who wants to do something meaningful with their life outside of this place. What kind of a modeling gig is it?"
We started talking. We talked for maybe fifteen minutes and shared our first formal introduction.
"Anyway, I guess I should get back to work. I've got to get a couple things finished before I head out for the audition."
"Ok... funny, I don't even know your name."
"Kelly."
"I'm Rick. It was nice talking to you, Kelly."
"It was nice talking to you, Rick."
And with that, a shiver ran down my back. This was good.
We started talking more at work. I asked her out for a drink. She said yes. We started going out every few days or so, more as coworkers than anything else, but I was still looking for the anything else.
See, Kelly was the kind of dame that, to put it lightly, made you remember that you were a man. All of the watered down politically correct happy corporate mumbo jumbo talk that turns all the black and white into a boring shade of gray... that all goes away. The sound of the television gets drowned out and arguments about federal import/export policies disappear as your thoughts turn to the Animal Planet instinct inside that's kept the gene pool propagating for the past million years.
I was reborn every time I saw her. It was all I could do to cover up the sounds of my racing heart and quickened breathing. She knew it too. I could tell she knew it, but she maintained her coworker front, albeit a flirtatious one. All she had to do was ask a question and whatever it was, my answer would be yes. She knew that too.
One day at work, I walked the long way to the bathroom past Kelly's desk and she wasn't there. She wasn't there the next day either and she wasn't there the day after that. I tried calling her, but there was no answer.
On Thursday night, my phone rang. It was an unknown number.
"Hello?"
"Rick, it's me Kelly." She was crying.
"Kelly? Where have you been? Are you ok?"
"Can you come meet with me?"
"Yes, yes, where are you?"
"I'm at Murphy's on Green Street."
"Is everything ok?"
"I'll explain everything when you get here. Please hurry, it's raining."
Darling? She had never called me darling before. Of course I went to meet her at Murphy's and by the time I had gotten there she was standing outside.
"Kelly! Are you alright? What's wrong?"
She wrapped her arms around my chest. Her tears started again.
"What is it?"
"It's Michael. He's going to kill me."
Michael? Who was Michael?
"Who's Michael and why is he going to kill you?"
"Michael is my boyfriend."
Boyfriend?
"You have a boyfriend?"
"No, he's not really my boyfriend, but he was, and he thinks he still is, and he went crazy, and I tried to get away from him, but now he's found me again. He'll kill me. He'll really kill me. I had to get a restraining order and I had to move here in secret. I... I don't know what to do."
"I'll protect you. I don't know anything about this man, but I know that as long as I'm around, nobody is going to hurt you."
"Rick, I don't want you to get involved. I have to handle this myself."
"No you don't, and besides I'm already involved. If he knows about us, that means he knows about me, so I'm in as much danger as you are."
Kelly paused and then looked at me.
"You can still get out of this."
"I don't want to get out. I want to help you. I want to be with you. You called me for a reason and that was because you were afraid. Come with me, stay the night, and we'll take care of all of this tomorrow."
"Thank you Rick, but I should just go home. I'm pretty stressed out by all this and I need to relax."
"Ok, then I'll spend the night at your place. I'll sleep on the couch."
"You can go home tonight. Michael doesn't know where I live, so I'll be ok there for now. You and I can see each other tomorrow."
I didn't go to work on Friday. I didn't even call in sick. It was raining heavily, so I could always use the car trouble excuse if I got pressed for a reason on Monday.
Kelly had told me that she was going to run out and pick up some things. I didn't even know where she lived. I tried calling her to see if she was ok, but there was no answer.
I started to prepare myself for whatever I would need to do to defend myself against a crazy jealous ex-boyfriend. I wasn't quite ready to go saw off a shotgun, but I put a baseball bat next to my couch and made sure I knew where the knives were put away. I also remembered that I still had my hunting knife in the back seat of my car from the last time I went camping.
Kelly called me around noon and asked me to pick her up at the corner of 4th and Green. She didn't have much with her other than a small bag in one hand, an umbrella in the other, and the trenchcoat she was wearing.
"Thanks for picking me up."
"No problem at all. Where are your things? I thought you were going to pick up some stuff?"
"Rick, I have an idea. I think I know how I can get Michael to leave me alone."
"What? How?"
"I can't go into a lot of detail, but can you drive me to 31st and Sacramento tonight? I talked to him on the phone today and I agreed to meet him there. I think that I can calm him down, but I need you to be there in case things get out of hand."
"Of course I'll be there. Are you sure this is a good idea?"
"Yes, I think this is the only way."
Kelly and I spent the day together talking about what had happened between she and Michael. He sounded like a mildly violent drunk who couldn't handle a break up, became obsessed, and turned into your ordinary every day stalker. Calling, driving by the house, stopping by work, and harassing her to the point that she had to change her number, get a new job, and move to a different city in hopes of avoiding him.
Her plan was to go meet with him and try to talk to him into leaving her alone. She thought that if he could see that she was really no longer interested in him, that he would stop thinking there was a chance he could get her back. I thought this was the worst idea I'd ever heard, so I just made sure I knew where the hunting knife was in case things got ugly.
9:00 pm rolled around and we drove to meet with Michael. I didn't realize how empty this part of town was at night, but I was starting to think that this was a really bad idea. Apparently we were meeting him at a restaurant, but when we got there, the restaurant was boarded up and looked like it had been out of business for years. There was nobody around and this suddenly seemed like we were being setup.
"We should get out of here. This isn't safe." I said.
"Rick, I'm sure he'll be here. You don't understand how crazy he is. If I don't show up, there's no telling what he'll do."
"Are you kidding me? There's nobody around here. He's not going to be..."
"Wait! There he is!"
Kelly pointed to a guy standing in the rain by himself in the abandoned parking lot of this restaurant. This was a horrible idea.
"Pull into the lot, but don't get too close. I'll go talk to him and if things get ugly, you come over and help."
"Kelly, please, please, please be careful."
"I will. Just keep an eye out for me."
Kelly got out of the car and walked over to Michael. They exchanged what looked to be somewhat pleasant words. As pleasant as words can be in the rain at night in an abandoned restaurant parking lot.
They talked and then I saw Kelly point over to the car. I heard Michael say, a little muffled, something about "Who's that guy?". I grabbed the hunting knife and held it in my hand, out of sight from the people outside.
The conversation grew more heated, turning to yelling, at which point I took the hunting knife and got out of the car. I held the knife in my hand at my side and started walking towards Kelly and Michael.
That's when things got ugly. He yelled something and then tried to grab her and she fell to the ground.
Immediately, I ran towards them, knife in hand. Michael looked at me and said "Mother fucker!" and began to reach into the inside of his coat to pull out a gun.
That Animal Planet instinct returned. In one flashing moment, my heart was racing, my breaths came quicker, I saw Kelly lying on the ground, and seeing Michael reaching for something inside his coat, I knew I had to act quickly...
and I stabbed him.
I stabbed him right in the top of his stomach, just under his ribs, with an upward jab of the knife. His motion stopped. My heart still racing, I pushed the knife up and in harder just to make sure. When I was sure that he was dead, I pulled the knife out and stared at the blood on my hands, knowing that something wasn't right.
I heard a police siren in the distance. A few minutes late if you ask me.
I looked down at Kelly, just getting up from her seat on the broken asphault and asked, "Are you ok?"
She stood up shocked with tears in her eyes. "Rick! Yes! I'm ok. For once in my life, I am really ok. I'm sorry Rick, I'm sorry you had to do this. Thank you! Thank you for protecting me!"
"Kelly, I would do anything for you. I... I love you."
"You... love me? Rick, I'm sorry, but I don't date coworkers."
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Submitted by TheUniter (user info) at 2007-06-05 12:23:57 EDT (#)
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