Therapy Sessions

'The Murder'

(TRIGGER WARNING: drug use, violence, murder, s****l assault)

-

While at her weekly therapy session, Ana had been given a choice; talk about childhood trauma or talk about 'the murder'. She of course had chosen childhood trauma because murder had just seemed too heavy a topic to discuss. But having it even be mentioned had brought Ana back to the fatal winter night that changed her life.

She hadn't been the murderer. At least not on paper anyway...

Janurary, 2016

A pair of chocolate brown eyes with black outer irises stared into the brunette's icy blue hues. Both sets of eyes were blood shot and tired with dilated pupils. Cocaine eyes.

-

-

-

Tyler was two years older than Ana, a foot taller than she was, and filled with more emotional damage than she could comprehend. He had shaggy brown hair with small waves throughout, a bright smile with a small gap between his two front teeth, and a certain sadness behind his eyes. Ana had met him two years prior, when she was 14 and a freshman. She had quickly fallen in love but with her being so young, he ignored both of their feelings for her and rejected her. Tyler was well aware that he would bring her turmoil and pain. They were better off friends.

By the time Ana was 15, Tyler had seen her date three other guys, of course none of them lasted. He too had gone through a few girlfriends throughout the year but nothing serious. Anastasia was different than all of those girls. They had been superficial and shallow, they only cared about popularity or school dances or parties, they gossiped too often, thought too much of themselves. With Ana it had always been different. Deeper, more real. She didn't talk about school dances, she talked about philosophers and the stars, old poetry and political topics that were too mature for her age. She talked about outer space and the cosmos and the depths of the ocean. She saw a world beyond high school and stature. It was that that Tyler had fallen in love with only harder as time went on.

In her sophomore year, they had officially quit friendzoning and delved into their romantic relationship instead.

Now here they were a year later, 16 and 18 and still in stupid love but only, less innocent than before. Their relationship had grown dark early on, involving drugs and alcohol, and too many crimes to count.

-

-

-

A pair of chocolate brown eyes with black outer irises stared into the brunette's icy blue hues. Both sets of eyes were blood shot and tired with dilated pupils. Cocaine eyes.

On the ground at their feet was the body of an unconscious man. Blood pooled at his head and splattered the couple's clothing and skin, kissing the wall with crimson red, like paint.Tyler held a wooden bat in his hand and in Ana's, a knife. The night had started off so normal, so how had they gotten here?

Their night had started young, they met at a local hotel where they indulged in vodka and soft kisses. But vodka had soon become not enough and they quickly switched their vices. From booze to fine white lines of cocaine. Their soft kisses soon turned into bickering at first, and then a fight.

"f**k you, Tyler!" The brunette had snapped, her gaze darkening. She sniffled back the cocaine drip that was at the back of her throat and shot the male a scowl.

"Ana," he ran his fingers through his dark brown waves and heaved out a heavy sigh. "C'mon don't be this way." his tone was laced with obvious frustration but he was trying so hard to be patient with her. To no avail of course because it was written all over her face that there would be no level headed discussion, she was angry.

Taking her hand, he led her over to the queen-sized bed where they both sat down. He opened his mouth to speak but before he could, she was interrupting.

"What the f**k was this to to you, huh? You f**k me, get me to fall in love with you, and then just dump me? In some shitty f*****g hotel? Real classy, Ty," sarcasm dripped in her words.

"I'm not dumping you," he groaned. "I love you, Anastasia Elizaveta Kosc. Get that through your thick f*****g skull but I am toxic. Look at you. Look at us. When was the last time you were sober? Have you even eaten today? Look I never wanted to introduce you to this s**t, let alone get you hooked and it's f*****g killing me inside to know that I did this."

"Jesus, Tyler. You act like I'm addicted to crack." she rolled her eyes. "But I get it okay," she was yanking her hand out of his now, standing up from the bed and grabbing her coat. "You don't have to give me some bullshit excuse, okay? I get it." Sliding on the jacket, she grabbed her phone and slipped it into her pocket. She could hear him saying something but ultimately tuned him out as she walked out of the hotel. As far as she was concerned, they were done. She'd take a bus home, climb into bed and call it a night.

Unfortunately, that isn't how things panned out.

Instead of making it home to the comfort of her bed, Ana had only made it as far as the hotel parking lot before being approached by a stranger. It was a man who reeked of cheap liquor and stale cigarettes. He wore a dark black sweater with the hood pulled over his head. His hands were stuff in his pockets as he approached and at first she had mistaken him for a homeless man. Wrong. Oh-so-very-f*****g-wrong.

"Where you heading to, princess?" his voice was deep and scratchy and dark all at once. The way he called her 'princess' had sent chills down her spine and immediately she felt uneasy. She had tried to ignore him and continue walking on but that only seemed to fuel his fire. The faster she walked, the faster he followed, the closer he dared to get and then he was grabbing her wrist, too tightly, violently, enough to rattle her to her core.

"Please," she could feel her jaw quiver. She felt so helpless and yet couldn't seem to yell or scream, it was as though she was vocally paralyzed. She jerked her wrist to free it of his grasp but he wouldn't release her.

"You think you're too good for me? Too good to talk to me?" his voice was mean now as he shoved her smaller body onto his car--a beat-down volkswagon.

"No," despite it being a single syllable, it managed to come broken. "Please, I'm going home, okay? You wanted to know where I was going. Home. My dad is waiting for me and I-"

"I'll show you," he hissed and his rough fingers made quick work of her throat, squeezing her jugular as his free hand trailed down her body and between her thighs. His knees pinned her legs against the car, holding her in place. "You f*****g b***h" he had started to say but before his thought could finish, a strong hand ripped him away from his victim, prying him off of her and shoving him to the pavement with a hard thud.

"You f*****g piece of s**t!" Tyler's voice sounded. He had left the hotel room shortly after Ana, not feeling right about her being so messed up and by herself at night, not feeling right about leaving things as they were. And now he was glad he had chosen to chase after her. The thought of what this sick bastard was going to do to her had he not been stopped, made his stomach turn and he could physically feel his blood boiling.

As the man began to get on his feet, Tyler socked him in the jaw. Hard. Hard enough that he tumbled back down onto the cement. Tyler couldn't help himself, he soon found himself towering over the older man, sending him punch after punch, kicking him in his gut with all his strength. The man groaned and gasped and coughed and curled up in an attempt to protect his body by Ty was ruthless.

"Tyler stop!" Ana suddenly shrieked. It wasn't that she felt bad for the man but she was fearful that they would create a scene and that the police would get involved and they would get into trouble for bodily harm despite the circumstances.

"Yeah, yeah baby, you're right." The teenager moved over to his girlfriend and draped an arm around her, stealing a kiss on her cheek. But even in the darkness of the evening, she could see something behind his gaze. Something dark and sinister. Something that told her he had ulterior motives and whatever was to come would be a lot worse that a public beating. "I'm going home. Go ahead, take your new bestfriend back to your room, not like a give a f**k anyway." And with that, he stuffed his hands into his pockets and walked away.

At first she was puzzled, but she knew better than to believe what he was saying. He was simply setting the stage. He wouldn't dare leave her alone with the asshole stranger and go home and she knew it but she was prepared to put on the performance of a lifetime.

Her baby blues found the wounded man on the ground and she offered him a look that was so soft and inviting--sympathetic almost. Lending out a hand, she helped him to his feet. "Are you okay?" she asked. As if he hand't just physically pinned and trapped her, as if he wasn't the foulest piece of s**t she had ever been so unfortunate as to encounter. As if he had been some innocent bystander that Tyler had, by chance, taken his anger out on. "Let's go get you washed up, I have some ice back in my room." She was referring to his bleeding lip and swelling eye.

Having had his stomach kicked so many times, he seemed to be having a bit of trouble walking on his own, so Ana helped support his weight on the way to the hotel room. She showed him to the bathroom where he went inside and shut the door and fromher seat at the little table the room provided, she could hear running water.

Poor sap didn't know what he had coming.

While he was in the bathroom cleaning up, Tyler came back into the hotel room, armed with a bat and roll of duct tape around his wrist like a loose-fitting, chunky bracelette.

"Knock, knock, motherfucker!" Tyler stormed into the bathroom, hitting the man on the head with the wooden bat.

From where Ana sat, she could hear the sound of the impact but remained unphased. In fact, she was surprised he hadn't slit his throat at that point.

Standing from her seat, she casually made her way into the bathroom where her boyfriend stood over a now unconscious body. "I wanna do it," she knew what the plans for the night were now. It wasn't about teaching him a lesson, it was about killing him. And while Ana wasn't a murderer, at least not yet anyway, she felt enraged enough to do it. She was angry at Tyler for trying to call it quits, she was angry that the cocaine was wearing off but even angrier that this son-of-a-b***h had ruined her high. She was angry that he had assaulted her, something that had brought back deep-rooted trauma from childhood, and she was angry that he was wasting their time now. She needed a release and if she could find that in stripping away his life, then so be it.

It didn't take convincing, Tyler would happily give her the honors. Lifting the man's body, he dumped him on the bed and wrapped his mouth with duct tape, taping it all the way around his head. Thrice. Just to ensure it would stay put. He used the tape to bind together his wrists and his feet and shortly after, the man had awoken. At that point, the couple had already ransacked his wallet. It contained two one hundred dollar bills, two singles, three credit cards, a debit card, and one drivers driver's license with the name 'Henry O'neil' printed across it.

When Henry awoke there was confusion evident in his eyes. Of course there was.

Ana straddled his body, wearing nothing but a black bra and a matching thong. She grinned down at him once he had woken up. "This is what you wanted, right?" she murmured softly into his ear, nipping at his ear lobe. Her lips and hot breath trailed across his jawline and down to his throat where she planted a warm, wet kiss. And then, without warning, she plunged the blade of a fishing knife between his ribcage, giving it a twist. The man groaned in pain, unable to manage a scream with his mouth tape and muffled.

Tyler stood off in the corner, watching the performance. But as the violence began, he moved to the side of the bed for a better view.

Ana retracted the knife, raised it in the air and slashed it down on Henry's chest, puncturing a lung. "f**k. You." she hissed and twisted the knife and she pulled it out of his body. This time, she slit his throat. Blood pooled and he choked and gasped for air but to no avail. It took a few short moments for him to die.

"We gotta clean this up," Tyler spoke casually. And with that, they lifted his body from the bed, using the sheets as a sort of Hoyer lift. They rested his body on the floor. Tyler picked up his bat, watching for a moment as blood spilled their victim's neck and pooled around his head. He threw his bat next to the body, grabbed Ana's knife and tossed it with the bat. They'd need to disposed of any and all evidence.

"He deserved it," he mumbled, trying to reassure her. She seemed uneasy It wasn't her first time seeing a dead body, but it was the first time she was the cause of one.