She Had To Be Clean

“No, no. Please don’t do this...”

The look of pure terror seemed to enlighten his heart. He quickly looked, then back again, and continued what he was doing. To his complete surprise, the face he saw was different. It was a face of his own, but younger...

          The small boy stood in the doorway, nervous. He appeared to be perturbed by the monster that stood opposite to him. The ‘monster’ was a woman in her late thirties, quite voluptuous, and occasionally wore a mask of happiness and tranquillity that she kept for guests.
She beckoned him. He inched closer, cowering in her presence. He was just twelve years old.
Monster continued to signal him closer and closer until he could feel her stale breath against his skin; on his face.
“I overheard the conversation you held yesterday with Peter”, she mused, while glaring at the frail child. “You know you’re not allowed to talk with other children. They are bad people. They make you sin and do bad things. Do you want to go to hell?”
“No mother, I do not”
“Well child, as a matter of fact, I know you‘ve been thinking horrid things, and I would take you to the church to repent your sins, but there’ll be nobody to look after your brother at home”
The boy said nothing. He knew what was coming next and he couldn’t do a single thing about it.
“Follow me. I’m gonna have to punish you myself. God will be pleased with me for teaching you the right way to live your life. He will reward me, and one day you’ll be thankful I taught you the proper way”, she leered.
She started to lead him towards the bathroom. In any other circumstances’; her duck-like waddle would have made him giggle, but he understood that today was different. He had to be clean today.

“David. Please stop. Don’t. David, I love you.”

What?
David paused for a second. What was going on? Love?
Pfft. He brushed it aside.
Too slow! There was a sudden shooting pain, within his lower groin. She had kneed him! The devil had wounded him. Another reason why she should be dead.

He struggled to maintain composure, and within those moments, the devil had started to get up and run away. He staggered to his feet. By now, she was already halfway out the window. David lunged towards her, and managed to grab a hold of her hair. She squealed as her head was jerked back. She turned around and took a bite of the arm that was gripping her head. He yelled in surprise, fell backwards and tripped over the pile of rope he had used to try and strangle her earlier. He hit his head on a pole. David raised his hand to the back of his head. Blood. His blood seeping through his fingers. He felt woozy, but still persisted. She was the devil. Evil. All women were evil. She had to die. He grew closer to the lady, as she scrambled to get to the window again.
“No! Please!” she screamed; a sound that pierced the silence of the night. He loomed towards her. Once again he snatched her hair, as well as grabbing her arm and twisting around to her back. Once he had a proper hold of her, he forced her to walk down the hall, towards the small pool.

The woman could feel his hot breath on her neck. She had to get away, get to the police. She couldn’t believe who David was. How could she not have seen it before? How could she even have feelings towards something so… so vicious? She remembered when she first saw him in the park, observing others around him. He wore a long brown coat, dark sunglasses and a serious expression. She had merely thought he was lonely. He certainly looked it. David had pushed her away, many times, but she still continued. Eventually David gave in. He had seemed so nice and friendly, but yet always quoting lines from the bible. Always talking about what Father Johnson had said, when David attended church. Very strange. And his eyes… there was something about his eyes… something dark and sinister. But she loved his kindness, especially towards the children. After a while, their friendship had turned into something more.

“David, David. Don’t you love me?” she whispered, as they paused at the doorway before they entered the room. “Please say you do. Don’t you remember the fun times we had?”

David said nothing. She had changed his feelings for her. He had trusted her. She said he needed help. Help? David needed no help. He was fine. He only tried becoming more open to her; expressed his feelings, like she said he should. He had refused help. She kept commenting that he should stop going to the church and seeing Father Johnson. She said she would go and tell the police. She didn’t understand why David had to do what he did.
But now? Now he felt nothing towards this woman, this monster. Monster… Monster?

         He reluctantly followed her towards the bathroom, smelling the acrid odour of the substance that filled the bathtub.

“David. Get in. It’s bath-time.”

The five words he had heard many times before. He knew what to do. As he slowly took off his shirt, he felt his hands skimming across the top of his skin, on his chest. The scars will never go, but it was lucky that he even survived. Of course, it wasn’t that strong, it was extremely diluted, but still enough to cause some damage. He pleaded with her one last time, though he knew it wouldn’t do a thing.
“Mother, please. I’m sorry”
She said nothing, but simply pointed towards the bath-tub. His head sank. “Doesn’t matter,” he thought. “I probably deserve this anyway”.

When he had taken off the rest of his clothes, Mother gave a hard shove towards the bath with the fire poker she held in her hand. David closed his eyes tightly and waited for the worst as he slowly made his way to the bath. Mother picked him up hastily, and dropped him into the acidic bath-tub.

Pain! He felt the rush of it all, the sharp stinging pain, he remembered so vividly. David felt numb, as the pain overwhelmed him. He just wanted this to end. He felt like it would go on forever. His skin was peeling away, as the diluted acid was washing around him. He passed out.

Next time he awoke, he was still sitting in the bathtub, but the watery substance was gone. David’s skin was red and raw. He felt lethargic.

“Well, I hope you have learnt your lesson.” His mother walked in, and filled up the bathtub with just plain water. He jumped with fear, and cowered away from the monster.
“Ha! No more disgusting thoughts for you”, she exclaimed and walked out of the bath room.

She was right. No more shall he misbehave.

David smelt that familiar acrid smell. The devil shall die, right within this room.
Her last shriek echoed, as he threw her into the pool. Her skin was being eaten away, much more quickly than he ever experienced.

Ha! It was not diluted! Now the Devil shall pay.

And with her screams echoing in his head, he walked away. He caught a glimpse of himself in a dirty old mirror, at the end of the hallway. He touched his face, his skin. That rough scarred face. David gave a small smile, walked outside, and put on those dark sunglasses. He picked up the brown coat and wrapped it around himself, as he yawned towards the rising sun. A brand new day.

The devil was gone. Eaten away. David gave a small chuckle. “Mother, you were right. They were bad people”, he said to no one.

She at first seemed like a nice person. But she was the devil. She had to be clean.