Thirteen Steps

"I saw blood. And why is she made up like that?"

"It's fake blood, Mr. Tompkins. Apparently she and her companion were engaged in sexual behavior of a deviant nature. They were dressed in leather S&M outfits, and had numerous sexual toys in play. Are you swingers, Mr. Tompkins? Do you enjoy a bondage and punishment lifestyle?"

"What? No! We're pretty conservative people. Or I thought we were. Who is the other person? How did he die? It was a male, right?"

She looked at her notes. "His name is Damien Phillips. Twenty years old, a college student. And before you ask, he died of strangulation. It looks like your wife might have done it, accidentally, we suspect. Did you know the deceased?"

"No. I've never heard the name before. What's going to happen now?"

"Well, first, you need to find a place to stay until we clear the scene. I need to be able to contact you, so I'll need to know where you're going to be."

"I guess I'll go back to the job site. I still have a few days worth of things to do. Four or five days enough time?"

She said it was, but wasn't happy that my job site was two hundred miles and one state away.

"Look, I'm a pretty respected person in my field, and I have to travel to satisfy the job requirements. You have the hotel number, my number, here, I'll give the the number for the production company I'm working with. I have a clean record, no arrests, no complaints. I own this farm outright. Do you really think I'm a flight risk? Just call, and I'll come."

"You seem remarkably calm, Mr. Tompkins. Doesn't the sudden death of your wife bother you?"

"I was in the sandbox, Captain. Four years as a private contractor after I left the service. Of course I'm upset, but I haven't forgotten my training, so I'll hold on until I'm somewhere safe and private. Then I'll allow myself to process it, and probably break down. Does that make you understand?"

She nodded, then slipped off her jacket,, and pushed up the sleeve of her shirt to show me the tattoo. "Three tours, and I worked a year for what I bet is the same company before I came home. You're free to go, sir. We'll call you when we're done with our investigation."

Everyone on the set knew something was off, but I didn't tell anyone except Mike and Harry.

"Bloody hell! She's dead? She was cheating on you? Bitch got what she deserved, if you ask me."

Harry wasn't a real big fan of cheating wives. He'd been married four times. Three cheated on him and got caught, and then he screwed up the last one by cheating on her. The divorce was uglier than usual, and with Harry, that's pretty ugly.

Mike just shrugged. "Sucks to be you right now. Sorry brother."

I still couldn't get over how clueless I was. Pippa told me much later it was because I was such a good guy that I thought everyone else was good also. I'm a lot more cynical now.

.......

Five days later I was in the state capitol, across a desk from Captain Sarah. She looked tired.

"We've finished with the scene and your wife. I'm releasing her, you need to decide who picks her up. Her death has been ruled accidental. The autopsy revealed a hidden heart problem, a weak valve, that was fine until you put it under a lot of strain. We speculate the excitement of what she was doing caused it to rupture."

I nodded. "How did the boy die?"

"I shouldn't tell you, but it will be common knowledge soon. Your wife strangled him. A zip tie, you know what a zip tie is? One was found around his neck. We suspect they were experimenting with sexual asphyxiation. When she had her heart attack, the strap was in her hand, and she must have tugged it on reflex. Judging by the scarring of the headboard, the bruising of his wrists and ankles, it most likely took him over half an hour to die."

Fuck! What a shitty way to go. The captain cleared her throat, like there was something sticking in it.

"Mr. Tompkins, when we did the autopsy, we found your wife had two different strains of STD in her. It looks like they were just past the incubation stage, but you need to get checked, and if you're positive you need to inform any partners you've had recently."

"I've only had one partner," I told her sadly, "and it's been almost five weeks since I've had relations with her. I'll still hit the clinic this afternoon, just to be safe. Thank you for your time, Captain. I wished we'd met under better circumstances."

She apologized once more, and I left.

I buried Cora beside her parents in her hometown.

I took a few minutes before the service, asking to be alone with her. I told her that I didn't mean to kill her, if I'd known about her heart I'd never have done it. I also told her I'd have thrown her out on her ass for being a selfish, cheating cunt, divorcing her as soon as possible, and telling everyone why.

There wasn't a very big turnout, the story had hit and gone national. Her fuckbuddies had found her, and while they didn't leave a name when they called 911, the guy named Brad used his own phone. When they interviewed him, he spilled his guts.

In all, thirty-nine out of sixty-three people tested positive for at least one STD. I tested, and was disease free. Penny was thrown out on her ass and got little out of the divorce. Eight students were expelled for corrupt behavior, and five professors were fired. There were seven divorces and six lawsuits. The college suffered a big blow to their image, and enrollment was down for two years.

I ended up marrying Pippa, seems she still had a bit of a crush on me, but we didn't get together until after she married someone else and it cratered fourteen months later. We became a two person support group, and still are today. Three kids, all girls, perfect little China dolls for Daddy to dote on. We had all the kids while we were living at the old house, remodeling the top floor and making a new master bedroom. The room where the deaths occurred was officially a guest room, but in the seven years we lived there, it was never used. Halloween is one of our favorite holidays, and the house is full all that day while Pippa makes up the kids and all their friends. We've been disqualified from the country club costume contests, for obvious reasons. Pippa got her revenge by picking a different friend every year and going all out on her.

Harry married her sister, making him my brother-in-law. He seems terrified of her, and she's smaller than Pippa.

Mike married his movie star, she said it was cheaper to keep him up than pay him. Her biological clock had already struck midnight, so a year later they adopted twin girls from China.

You see her with Mike and the kids every once in a while on a fan show, drooling on the kids. It actually boosted her career, and she often plays a sexy soccer mom in family movies.

When it became obvious I wasn't going to have a son, we honored the trust and gave the house and property to my nephew. When the house had to be destroyed, it opened a loophole in the the trust, and we bought the farm back. Pippa, her sister, and Mike's wife are already planning the new house. I get absolutely no say on it, which doesn't bother me. I told her it didn't matter how the house looked as long as I got to live in it with her and the kids. Really good statement, judging from the loving I got that night.

I think about Cora from time to time, wondering what would have happened if she hadn't become such a screaming whore. Pippa recognizes my look and makes sure she and the babies snuggle up to me, and I quickly put her out of my mind.

.........

We stood at the top of the stairs, watching the bulldozer tear off most of the front of the house. Termites had gotten to it, and the county declared it unsafe, so it had to be razed.

"As soon as the top step is gone, so am I. I don't know how I know, but I do." In the last ten years, I'd learned to read him, and he had what passed for a smile on his ruined face. I think I'm going to miss him.

"What about us?" whined our third companion. If I'd known we were going to be ghosts, I'd have picked someone better to have been riding when I passed. I can still remember it, seeing the ruined face, feeling the blood flow as he slashed my throat. My last conscious thought on earth was that I thought blood was warmer.

I was really pissed when I found out it was fake blood, but not nearly as pissed as I was when I realized I was dead. I remember him apologizing for killing me, but telling me if I was still alive I'd have been thrown out on my ass.

I watched him bring that little Chink bitch in, crawling all over her every chance he got. I tried to remember if he ever fucked me with as much passion. She popped out three little replicas of her pretty fast, and it sickened me to watch the way they fawned over them.

That's all I could do, watch. I had no manifestations at all. I couldn't make noise, I couldn't move things, all I could do was just watch.

Oddly, I don't remember Damien being such a whiner, but then again, he'd have that big cock jammed up in some orifice most of the time, and I was the one whining.

I'll tell you another thing, if I had known I was gonna die, I'd have dressed better. Then again, with the boots, the clincher, the hose, the heavy makeup, and the fake blood, I looked pretty good as a ghost. The rub was no one saw me, at all. I'd tried over the years, but it never happened.

Damien just looked stupid, the zip tie around his neck, his blue face, the chaps, the vest, and collar on a pretty scrawny body. His ghost cock looked just as foolish, but then again all we could do was look, we'd tried to touch in the past and just went through each other.

So he whined. He whined about missing out on life. He whined about not getting to have sex ever again. He whined about what a stupid bitch I was for killing him. We'd get into some pretty big rows, than Wilfred would materialize and tell us to shut the fuck up, he was trying to haunt here.

The dozer was inside the house by now. As the landing started to shake Wilfred disappeared, and Damien whined.

"Hold my hand!"

"Moron, how am I supposed to do that?"

I turned around, feeling the dozer blade go through me, praying to ever god I'd ever heard of to release me.

.........

Well, there it is, my Halloween story for this year. I hope you enjoyed it. Comment and vote if you like, they're always appreciated. I'd like to thank all the people who have supported my stories here and my projects offsite , and I'll have a new story up shortly.

Q