Ready, Love?

Prompt:

A serial killer who finds their victims through dating apps has finally found their next victim. They'd been texting for a while and had planned what would have been a fatal first date, but then... The country went on lockdown. The killer keeps in touch with them while in quarantine figuring that they may as well hang on to a potential future victim. Except...They're kinda starting to like this one.

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I have never felt like this before. All the other victims, men and women because I am not that picky, had been nothing more than prey. I know how I look; I know how to act and I know how to make them think I am their dream girl. I don't do it often because then it would get boring like my ‘a doctor a day’ program. It was fun, the risk and thrill of the deadline for each victim but it got boring after the thirteenth one.

One of my co-workers who thought that we were 'friends' introduced me to a dating app. I had been plotting to guide him to depression and suicide because I was bored but then decided to let him be because he did bring me this opportunity.

That’s how I started my ‘a date a month’ program. My first one was a woman in her forties. Widow, rich and interested in pretty young girls like me. She was so easy that it made me mad. The next one was a man. The one after was a girl. Then another man. I like the variety. I liked changing up the apps after each victim because I was not stupid.

Jamie too started as a prey. But then the country went on lockdown. I didn’t want to let go of a potential prey so I kept contact with him. That's when I started actually talking with Jamie instead of plying him with lies that would make him fall head over heels. I don't understand the guy. He doesn't mind my cynical jokes and he doesn't mind my morbid fascinations. Everybody has weird quirks is what he says. I think it’s during the third week of the lockdown that I understand that I am fond of Jamie in a way that I hadn't felt with anyone else. It's a shock to my system but I couldn't stop. I love him, I finally realize and then I am afraid. I can't kill Jamie. I don't want to but what happens when he finds the truth? I know I am skilled enough to pull a lifelong con if I wanted to. I can be his lover, his wife and the mother of his children and I'll sate my need for blood elsewhere. But I don't want to, I realize.

I want him to know and I want him to accept.

Three years later…

I made all his favorites for dinner. It has been three months since the last time I tried telling him the truth.

“Bad day at work Jamie?” I question kissing him softly on the cheek. He smiled at me.

“It was a bad day until I saw you,” he says like the cheesy romantic he is. I have long since accepted the fact that his overused romantics will make my heart flutter no matter how many times, I had heard them.

“You see me every day,” I laugh. It's been three years since we met online, two since we married. We don’t have any kids yet mainly because I don’t want to complicate things with progeny when he still hasn’t accepted the truth about me.

We have dinner and he tells me all about his work. I wait patiently as dinner is finished and we’re on the sofa cuddling and drinking cherry wine. It’s his favorite.

When the wine’s finished I hand him the file.

“What’s this honey?” he questions with his naïve innocence.

I smile and tell him, “It’s my list of victims.”

He chuckles thinking I am joking but decides to humor me and opens the file.

“I started eight years before I met you and I have killed seventy-five people in all and I have been smart enough not to get caught,” I explain watching his increasingly paling countenance as he looks through the file.

I sigh because I know what he is going to say before he even says it.

“What on earth! Please tell me you’re joking honey…”

I smile indulgently and turn to the last page of the file. He knows I am not joking when he sees the picture showing the dead body of Lucy, our last maid who had gone missing two months ago. The police had yet to find her and the main suspect was her abusive ex since he is in hiding. I tell him that the dead body in the photo below Lucy’s is her ex.

He staggers back from me.

“You-“

I sigh sadly. It’s one of those times. I sit back down on the sofa and waits patiently for him to fall. He does.

“Did you poison me?” he stutters out through tears.

“Shhh…” I coo and kiss his forehead, “Don’t be silly Jamie. I love you. I could never hurt you.”

He’s sobbing now. It’s the effect of the drug, I know, but it still makes my heart ache when I see him break down like that. He’s weak as a kitten as I maneuver him back into the sofa. I cuddle close to his struggling body and he slowly settles down as the drug takes over. By the time he wakes up, I have wiped away the signs of his tears.

“Ah,” he groans, “What happened?”

I look up at him smiling teasingly, “You fell asleep. Can’t handle your wine baby?”

He chuckles and then frowns, “What were we talking about?”

“We were talking about hiring a new maid since Lucy hasn’t been found yet…”

“Yeah poor girl. Her ex is a bastard. I’ll look for a new maid but I think we can hire her when Lucy comes back.”

I agree and tell him he’s too sweet. I hide his special wine before going to bed and replaces it with a normal wine bottle. I am a little sad but there’s always the next time.

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