The Late Night Guest

Cornelius snapped awake.

A noise coming from the kitchen woke him. He sat on the side of the bed listening for any sound. The house was deathly quiet, but Cornelius was certain that he had heard something.

He quietly tip-toed to the closed room door and put his ear to the door to hear outside of the room better. Still, no sound could be heard. Now Cornelius was starting to feel silly for letting an imagined sound get him all paranoid. For all he knew, he more than likely had a disturbing dream about everything he had lost. He hadn't been sleeping well since his wife was no longer with him. One day she just up and went away and left him all alone. That day marked the beginning of the end of all of his joy and happiness.

As soon as Cornelius began to chastise himself and head back to bed, he heard the distinct sound of footsteps on the hardwood floor in the hallway. Now there could be no mistake about hearing something. Someone was in the house. A real cold fear began to grip Cornelius. He looked around the room for a weapon to arm himself with, and spotted the glass paperweight on the corner of his desk, and scooped it up.

The footsteps were getting closer and closer until they came to a stop right outside of the door. Cornelius was beyond panicking at this point. He went to the furthest corner of the room and prepared to throw the heavy paperweight at the intruders' head if he had to. Cornelius hears the creaking hinges of the door as it was being opened.

As the door slowly continued to open fully, Cornelius couldn't believe what he was seeing. The paperweight fell from his hand as he gaped at what he was seeing. There was no way that the person standing in the doorway could really be there. He had saw her die. He saw the flare from the muzzle of the gun. He saw her life's blood flowing from her body being absorbed by the freshly tilled earth. He alone made all the arrangements for the funeral. He was at the gravesite when they lowered the casket down into the 6 foot hole. This just could not be real. He was dreaming.

He had to be still asleep. This had to be one of those dreams inside of a dream that people have when they wake up and see and do things only to realize that they are still asleep. Cornelius willed himself to wake all the way up. He pinched himself as hard as he could only to hear himself saying "ouch" painfully. He grabbed the half-empty glass of water off of the night stand, and splashed a little in his face in the hopes that would snap him out of this dream.

After clearing the water from his face, the figure was still standing there with their eyes closed. Cornelius tried to become one with the corner as he stood there in abject fear. He was paralyzed by it. Just when he thought his heart was about to pound its way through his chest cavity, the figure stepped into the room and spoke three words: "How could you?"

The sound of the voice snapped Cornelius out of his petrified state, and his feet propelled him towards the open doorway. As soon as he made a couple of steps, he felt a searing hot pain shoot through his chest. The pain knocked him back into the corner. The figure glided over to Cornelius and stood over him. When Cornelius looked up at the figure, a bright green light was emanating from its eyes.

With complete certainty, he knew that this was going to be the night he died. He was now a firm believer in karma. He knew that one day all of the things he had done were going to come back to haunt him. But never in his wildest dreams did he think that retribution would be meted out like this. After all, this couldn't be real. This simply couldn't be. She was dead, and he was positive about that. He saw her eyes roll up into her head and felt her body go limp after he had pulled the trigger of the shotgun. He thought all of these things as he stared up into the beautiful, terrifying bright green lights coming from her eyes.

The figure spoke the three words again. "How could you?" Then Cornelius hears another voice in the room. "How could you?" Cornelius looked over at the other figure in the room to be greeted by another emerald stare. From another corner Cornelius hears the three word again in yet another different voice. Then another, and another until the room filled up with the sounds of all of these familiar voices saying the same thing. "How could you?"

Now the entire room was basked in this green light coming from the eyes of all of these women that had crossed paths with Cornelius. Each and every one of them were supposed to be dead. He had extinguished their lives himself with his bare hands, and now they were all here in his room asking him the same question over and over again. How could you? How could you? How could you?

Cornelius thought that all of his past transgressions would never be revealed, and he could possibly continue getting away with all of the things that he had done to all of these women. After his wife found evidence of all of the horrific things that he had been doing, he had no choice but to kill her too. He loved his wife dearly. She made his life easy. She loved him deeply. The day she died from the shotgun blast was the day that he made a vow to never hurt anyone else ever again. That was 20 years ago, and Cornelius kept his word.

Now, after 2 decades of clean living, it was time to pay for the things he had done. The pain in his chest went up a notch and caused Cornelius to clutch his chest. Pain was constant and excruciating.

Cornelius began crying out to God for mercy, but it became obvious that God wasn't listening. He was raised to his feet by some unseen force. His arms shot out from his sides and extended to their full wing-span. While still being conscious, he saw his chest begin to rip/tear down the middle. The figure that was his wife reached into his chest cavity and pulled his heart out and took a bite. The other figures in the room took turns taking bites out of his heart until there was nothing left of it. The whole time Cornelius was conscious. The last thing he saw before he faded out of his life was the green lights coming from all of their eyes.