Maria seemed to be taking quite a bit of pleasure being the center of attention. She’d slowly started walking around the room waving her hands in the air as if she was trying to paint a picture of what she was talking about. If anything it made her look even crazier. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen a grown woman walking around in her negligee telling a story surrounded by candles. It was almost but not quite comical. There was no doubt she was just as gone as Pete but whereas he was calm most of the time she was off the deep end. She was totally gone. He shot a glance at Johnny to see what he was making of the performance and was heartened to see he didn’t appear as sure of himself as he had. Jim could tell just by the look in his eye he still worshipped her but he also might be realizing she wasn’t all there. Jim quickly turned his attention back to Maria as she turned her attention back on him.
“Would it surprise you if I told you I had a huge crush on you back then?” she asked. “You must’ve known. There was no way you couldn’t. I mean I worshipped the ground you walked on. I followed you everywhere. Basically I made a total fool of myself but that didn’t matter to me as long as I was close to you. Unfortunately, instead of returning my feelings you acted as if I didn’t exist. Sure, you were nice if you saw me in the hall or happened to notice I was stalking you. Sometimes you even deigned to talk to me but usually nothing more than a quick hello or something but oh, how I lived for those little things. I tried working up the courage to actually carry on a conversation with you a few times but you were always too busy with your mean, little friends. I know they poisoned you against me. That’s the only reason I can think of that you never talked to me. Because of them.” She was becoming more and more excited as she spoke. Facing him she took a deep breath. This seemed to calm her because when she started talking again her voice sounded a little closer to normal.
“Tommy, Rob, Pete, and Jim bestest friends forever,” she said in a sing song voice. “Never letting anyone or anything come in between their close knit group. You know a lot of people thought you four might be gay or something. But I knew you weren’t. You had all the time in the world for girls, just not me! I would’ve treated you way better than any of them did. I would’ve treated you the way you should’ve been treated. I would’ve given you anything and I mean anything. But no, you thought all you needed was them. What bullshit! You didn’t need them! All you needed was me!” She’d become agitated again and had slowly been walking towards him. Before she was finished speaking she was so close he could feel the spit flying from her mouth as she yelled. She stood looking at him for a few seconds, shoulder heaving from her excitement before suddenly spinning and walking towards Johnny. He stepped forward and put his hands on her shoulders as she approached and whispered something to her. Jim hoped he was trying to talk her out of continuing what she was doing. She shook her head so whatever it was obviously hadn’t worked.
Jim took this break in the story for another opportunity to look around and try to figure some way out of this mess. He hadn’t had much luck before but maybe he’d missed something. Peeking at Jill he saw she was still dead to the world and Pete just continued rocking and mumbling. He was just getting ready to give up when he noticed something odd. He’d seen Pete rocking but he hadn’t seen him moving. Each time he rocked back he used his feet to push himself a little closer to the wall. Looking over Pete’s head Jim saw an open space with night and starry sky behind it. He was slowly working his way to one of the windows. Jim was sure it was just by accident but if it wasn’t and if he got close enough he might be able to jump out and run for help. The only thing tied on Pete was his hands. If he got out he really might be able to find help and bring them back but Jim didn’t hold much hope of that idea working. Pete wasn’t suddenly going regain his sanity and save the day. He was just sitting there rubbing his hands together and rocking back and forth without a care in the world. Nothing else. There was no grand escape plan forming behind those dark little eyes. He was in his own world where he was safe and nobody could hurt him. Why come out now?
“Now then Jimmy boy, let’s flash forward,” Maria said catching his attention. “When you left town, you just left. No words of goodbye, no telling me how you really had loved me all those years and would send for me when you could. No nothing. You just left without a word or a backward glance. Do you know how bad that hurt me? I was heartbroken. I couldn’t understand why you’d left me. You didn’t bother saying anything least of all goodbye. One day you were there then next you weren’t. I just didn’t understand what I’d done wrong. What was I to do?” She looked at him like she expected him to answer. Not knowing what else to do, he just silently stared back. She was deep into her delusion but as long as she was talking they were relatively safe. All the stuff spouting from her mouth was sort of true but only sort of. He remembered her from high school and how she was almost always in the places he was but that was it. She must’ve somehow gotten the idea that they’d had some type of relationship with each other. He didn’t know how though. All he could remember saying to her was hi.
“I knew we were meant to be together,” she said as she walked over to Jill and slowly ran a finger down the side of her face. “But we weren’t. You left to go God knows where and do God knows what with God knows who and left me here with no idea of when I might see you again. Then I thought maybe you were testing me to see if I really did love you and would wait for you. I knew I would but I also knew I had to figure out a way to get you to come back. Then, one day, a few years ago it came to me. I had an epiphany.” She brutally pushed Jill’s head to the side, spun and walked back to the center of the room. Stopping with her hand raised and looking up at the ceiling Jim almost thought she really was having a true vision then he remembered who he was thinking about and just shook his head.
“It was like a sign from the heavens. I didn’t know why I hadn’t thought of it sooner. I knew that day I just had to make it so you had no choice but to come back. After that the rest was easy,” she said smiling, “Do you want to guess what my idea was?” she looked at him expectantly. He wasn’t about to try to answering anything. He didn’t know what was right or wrong in this situation so he figured being quiet was safest. “Boy,” she said looking at Johnny, “I thought he was a lot smarter than this. It’s a good thing we didn’t end up together; our children probably would’ve made the freak over there look like a genius. Anyways, where was I? Oh yeah, my idea. Well, since you won’t guess I’ll just tell you.” She took a few seconds to gather her thoughts. While she did this she just looked at him with shinning, evil eyes. Her hands idly roamed over her body in many provocative ways but Jim didn’t think she was trying to entice him anymore. It seemed more out of habit than anything. He didn’t have much time to think about it, which was fortunate.
“I thought about it for what seemed a long time but actually wasn’t,” she began, “Finally, I figured out just what it would take. I knew if something happened to one of your precious little friends you would probably coming running home right away. I could’ve gone after your mother but I figured that was too old hat. You know something that someone else would do but not me. I’m better than everyone else so my plan had to be better than what someone else might come up with. The thing about my plan though, was that it had to be something drastic. It couldn’t just be some little accident. Why would you rush home for that? It had to be deadly. So the logical choice was killing one of them. I figured that would do the trick. Then, once you were back I would be here to comfort, console, and love and nurse your damaged emotions back to the way they should be. Then you would finally love me and we would be together forever and ever!” She sounded like she really believed her plan would work. Jim cast a quick glance at Pete to see what he was doing. He was a little closer to the window but still not close enough to jump out. Pete’s eyes flicked in his direction and Jim saw one of them wink at him. He thought he was seeing something at first but decided he hadn’t when he looked at Pete’s hands. His bonds were loose. Almost loose enough for him to get free. In a few more minutes he probably would be free. Then he could make a break for it and get help. At least that was what Jim was hoping for.