Susan Pollack watched from the woods, smoking. Her car was hidden safely around the block from the apartment house.
At around one P.M., she saw Charlie and his brother pull up.
Chase.
The two of them stayed in the car and talked for a while before going in. Though far away, something in Chase’s hanging head and tormented expression gave her a feeling of delight. It was too bad that his nosy brother and his whore of a wife had escaped the little present at the market earlier.
It had made her giddy, watching the two of them fighting for their lives in the flaming car. As it was, just hearing the bitch’s screams, seeing the shell-shocked looks of panic and fear on their terrified faces, had almost been enough. She knew there would be other times for them. And soon.
Soon, my darling. Mags smiled from the woods.
Her blood stirred with an exhilaration she had not felt for many years. Susan, that shell of a dried-up woman, who had dutifully done what was asked of her, was dead now.
But Mags was very much alive.
You never left me, all these years. Not for a single second. Our thoughts have always been entwined. I know it was me all along who nurtured you. The one you truly wanted. The others were just the playthings who threw themselves at you. They were candy to make you smile. But it was me, your Maggie Mae, your Mags, who was your music. Who gave you the will to do what had to be done.
Who was your true music!
She saw movement coming from the car. Charlie and his brother got out and went inside.
Well, wait till you see what the music has in store for you now, Charlie.
Her thighs felt alive, moist for the first time in years. Isn’t that what you said, my love? That nothing could ever be evil, not if it comes from love.
And what greater love could I have shown for you? This is my gift. I am yours whenever you want me. I always have been.
I know you can hear me, Russell. There are walls, but what is between us cannot be kept out. It knows no walls.
“No one knows when the master will choose to come back, or in what manner.”
I have never forsaken you for a second, my love. You gave me the gift of love back then. You protected me.
You left me behind.
Now I give it back to you. In full.