Fifteen

Chris slides dejectedly to the floor, his breathing labored and frantic, his expression beset with deep emotional pain. Trembling, he reaches for his glass of water and drinks thirstily, and all the while he keeps his eyes away from her.

She sits up slowly, her eyes tearing into him with confused fury. She is still aroused, still unfulfilled and greatly in need of him but his sudden rejection of her advances has thrown her into a quagmire of confusion and emotional pain. She stares imploringly at him as tears shimmer in the depths of her eyes.

"Chris?" she says painfully. "What's this? What are doing?"

Chris sighs painfully, puts his glass of water down, and gets to his feet. He looks at her, and she sees the pain etched rather thickly on his face.

"Sorry, Barbara. I can't," he says dejectedly.

"Why?" she asks in a tearful whisper. "Why, Chris? Is it because of Effe?"

"No, Barbara," he says passionately as he shakes his heads sadly. "This has nothing to do with Effe. I'm just not the same man anymore. Five years ago, I would've made love to you passionately without pause and without a shred of guilt."

"Please. Don't do this to me, Chris, please," she says, her voice unsteady and spilling with desire. "Love me. Make love to me, Chris, please."

Barbara is lying on the sofa, nipples still taut, legs still enticingly spread open.

"Barbara, I promised myself that the next time I made love it will be with meaning," he says painfully, emotionally. "If we make love it will be because I want to spend the rest of my life making love to only you, and no other woman. If we make love it is going to have a meaning, not just using your body to slake a lustful thirst! I'll never do that to you, or any other woman."

"Chris, please. Stop this. I need you," she says in a taut whisper. "My body needs you. I've waited a long time for this moment, to feel you in me. I fell in love with you, Chris. Please, don't spurn me."

He sits beside her and takes her hands. He speaks to her earnestly.

"Barbara, forgive me, but I'm not going to make love to you simply because you're here and available, or that we both feel like it. I want it to have a meaning. I want to make love to you so much, believe me, but I'm putting that part of my life behind me. If I make love to you in the future, it'll be because I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Please, understand me."

She snatches her hands away from him and sits up. She reaches for him desperately, draping her arms around his neck, crushing her lips blindly against his. He grunts and pushes her away gently but firmly, and then he quickly stands up. Suddenly, she gets up with a cry and runs desperately away from him.

"Oh, Lord! He spurned me!" she cries tearfully, heart-brokenly. "He spurned me, oh dear Lord!"

"Barbara, no, please wait! Barbara!" he says in a dejected voice.

She disappears into the kitchen.

For a moment, Chris contemplates going after her, and then he concludes it is best to leave her alone for a while to cool down and get over it first. He slips into his shirt, pours himself more water, and as he puts the glass to his lips, Barbara comes back from the kitchen.

She is holding a broad-bladed knife with a sharp tip.

She is glaring at him, and her face is a nasty, twisted, horrible grimace. Her eyes are very red, and her hair is disheveled and standing straight like hackles. She speaks, and spittle flies out of her mouth. Her voice is clipped and seething with fury, venom and hatred.

"You bastard! You fucking bastard! Spurn me, would you? You fucking stupid bastard!"

Chris is so shocked that for a moment he cannot move as he stares at the girl who was so tender and so loving just a minute ago, and who is now looking like a character from a horror movie.

"Barbara!" Chris says, tensed. "Cool it, please."

She glares at him, and he notices that she is foaming around the mouth.

"You bastard! You fucking bastard! Spurn me, would you?"

Suddenly, she tears across the room at him at incredible speed, screaming shrilly, the knife raised and aimed at his throat. She is like a woman possessed. She gyrates and slashes maniacally at Chris with the knife, screaming all the while!

Chris only survives her vicious attacks because he is an expert in GojuFist and knows how to defend himself.

However, he is completely shocked by the changed Barbara so much that his reflexes are slow, and a downswing strike Barbara launches almost buries the tip of the knife in Chris' eye, but he brings up his arm just in the nick of time, and the knife buries itself deeply into his arm.

He grunts with the sharp pain, and pushes Barbara away from him. She lands on the floor. The knife is still stuck in Chris' arm, and he is bleeding rather badly.

He pulls it free and holds it as blood spurted from his arm in bursts.

It is a deep horrible cut, and he stares at it in horror for a moment.

"Damn it, Barbara!" he says with shocked incredulity. "What's wrong with you? You could've killed me!"

Barbara's lips are drawn back from her teeth in a snarl, her eyes red and wild, her hands bent like claws. There is nothing sexy or alluring about her anymore, even though she is still naked. She looks like a wild animal as thick spit drools off her mouth and falls down on her breasts. Her voice has become the terrible growl of a wild beast.

"Spurn me, would you? Bastard! Fucking bastard!"

She picks up a glass flower pot by the armchair, rushes forward, and crashes it down on Chris' head. He moans with pain as glass shards rain down on him, and blood spurts from a cut on his forehead.

Suddenly, she turns and runs straight at the glass frame that forms the French Windows leading to the balcony. As her body goes through the glass, Chris Bawa shouts with sudden fear.

"Barbara! Nooooooo!"

She crashes into the glass with a growl, and she falls heavily on the balcony in a shower of broken glass! She lies lifeless in a shower of fragmented glass. Her face and body are cut in a million places, and she is bleeding all over her naked body! Chris is stunned as he looks at her with absolute fear.

"Oh, God! No, no, no!" he whispers, aghast.

She is lying still in her own pool of blood as if she is dead!