“Ok, at least I know why I’m here now,” he said trying to give Pete as much time as he could. “But why did you take Pete and Jill? They didn’t have anything to do with any of this. Well, I guess Pete did, but he was out of the way stuck in jail and probably on his way to the loony bin.”
“Well,” she said looking towards Jill, “little Jilly over there is here simply because she’s just like all those other girls you used to date. She was trying to take you away from me. See, you did everything that you were supposed to do as part of my plan. You came home and we reunited with each other but then you made a mistake. You went and met Jill and picked her instead of me! How could you go and do something stupid like that? You’re mine! Don’t you understand that? She sure didn’t seem to. When I found her earlier I tried to explain it to her nicely but she just got all smart and started asking all kinds of dumb questions so since she wasn’t cooperating I brought her out here to explain things a little better.” She looked at Jill angrily for a minute before continuing.
“Freak boy over there is here because my loving dolt of a partner got just a little bit ahead of himself. He thought it would be a good idea to change the plan from what I’d originally designed. I actually was content to leave Petey sit in jail and rot but Johnny boy thought of something else. It’s something I don’t really like, but I guess it might work. We don’t really have much of choice now either way but he can tell you that.” Maria was beginning to go into pout mode again but she surprised him.
“Why don’t you tell them what you had planned lover boy,” she said teasingly.
To Johnny’s credit that looked like the last thing he wanted to do but he took a deep breath and fixed Jim with a glare. “Well, let me tell ya, when you left all that while ago she was pretty messed up. I’m talking not eating, not taking care of herself, stuff like that. She was bad. Hell, all she really did do was drink and cry. Other than that she just sat in her place day in day out doing nothing. I didn’t really understand why until one day when I went over to check on her she finally told me. She was drunk as a skunk and was barely coherent but I understood enough to know what you done. I thought that was a pretty mean thing for you to do leaving her like that but then again I was happy too. See, I was there and you weren’t. I was there for her when she needed somebody. You weren’t. I’d loved her for as long as I could remember but every time I tried to tell her, all she wanted to talk about was you. But now all of a sudden you weren’t there anymore. You left. I knew she and I would finally end up together now. But no, she said she wasn’t going to let you go that easily.” Johnny paused here like he was remembering something he didn’t really want to and Jim guessed he was. He actually felt somewhat sorry for the guy. Johnny’d been in love with the crazy bitch all these years and all she’d ever wanted was Jim. If it’d been him he would’ve just moved on but it didn’t seem Johnny was able to do that. He held out hope all those years she would eventually love him back and she never did. Johnny himself was probably half crazy by now.
“She went on and on about how you’d come back for her one day,” Johnny said starting his story again. “She said you’d realize you’d made a mistake and you would come back and take her away with you and ya’ll live happily ever after. I tried doing things to get her to love me, hell, just to even notice me, but none of it worked.” Johnny was getting angry now. All of his pent up aggression was about to come poring out. Jim could see that trying to explain anything to Johnny right now was going to be a waste of time. “Then a little while ago she got her idea,” he said continuing. “I guess over the years she’d at least decided she could trust me so she told me about it. I couldn’t believe what she wanted to do at first. Then I thought of all the crap I’d been listening to about you and figured why not.” A change was slowly coming over his face as he talked. He actually looked like he was getting happier about something. Jim didn’t know what was going on but he hoped it was something good. Pete was still slowly struggling with his ropes so he still needed some time. Johnny was doing a good job giving it to him. Maria surprisingly was just standing nearby twirling her hair. She must’ve known about Johnny’s feelings. There was no way she couldn’t. Then Jim understood. She’d used those feeling as a way to get him to help her. Maybe in her own demented way she did care about him but Jim doubted it. At this point she probably didn’t care about anything but the revenge she thought she was taking on him.
“Actually I was kinda hoping it would turn out this way,” Johnny said startling him. “See, I hoped you’d come back and not want her. Then you’d be gone again and I’d have her back to myself like before. It’s a little unfortunate you three have to die but that’s how it’s got to be. Who knows, maybe once you’re dead and buried she’ll finally love me and not you.”
Even though Johnny was telling him they were going to kill him he still almost felt bad for him. He couldn’t imagine what it must’ve been like living with her all these years. If he’d had to do it he’d probably feel almost the same way except without the killing people and stuff. This thought sober him quickly and got him thinking right again. The reasons they had for doing the things they were doing were the reasons of the insane. One wanted to kill him because he didn’t love her and the other wanted to kill him because he’d had to listen to the complaining about him over the years. This really was crazy. He was going to be killed for pretty much nothing. At least if he’d done something maybe it would’ve made a little bit more sense but he hadn’t. There was no real reason except they were crazy.
“But you didn’t tell him the best part,” Maria said whined. “You didn’t tell him what we did after we had the plan all together. You also didn’t tell him what we did to Tommy and that was one of the best parts. With your little pee sized brain I shouldn’t be surprised you forgot to mention how I, myself, went out in those yucky woods where Tommy was and acted like I was the typical damsel in distress so he would come out of his tree and rescue me. That really sucked by the way, I got all hot and sweaty and stinky but boy was it worth it. You should’ve seen the look on his face when he realized what was really happening. I should’ve gotten some type of award for that let me tell you” She paused to make a few scared-surprised faces, mocking what Tommy must’ve looked like, laughing harder each time she looked at Jim’s face.
“You also seemed to have forgotten to tell him the rest of your involvement in this whole plan. How once he actually did come down to check on me you came up behind him and cracked him in the back of the head then threw him on that tree stump you’d cut earlier to make it look like some kind of dumb accident.”
Jim was grateful she stopped to catch her breath for a few minutes. She’d worked herself into such a state of excitement that she was starting to hyperventilate, which wasn’t a bad thing, but he also didn’t really want to hear all the gory details of Tommy’s death. Jim was actually hoping she would pass out then all he’d have to do is deal with Johnny. At least he still might be able to be talked out of what Maria wanted to do. Then again he had already killed Tommy so maybe it was better if Maria just stayed conscious and kept talking. Left to his own devices Johnny might decide to put an end to thing and get out while the getting was good.