The Rosella Restaurant was crowded that night. It was Valentine's Day, and the restaurant was packed with people celebrating the holiday. James Riley, a twenty-four year-old man was a regular customer. Sometimes, he brought his parents; sometimes he came with his friends. But tonight, James was alone.
After reading his newspaper and having a cup of coffee, James got up and decided to leave. He walked over to the waitress and asked, "How much?"

The waitress gave him a quick smile and handed him his check. Looking at the amount of eighty-nine dollars quickly put a frown on his face. He loved this restaurant, but it seemed to be more and more expensive each time he came. He reached into his right pocket and discovered he’d forgotten his wallet at home. He bit his lip in frustration before remembering that he still had his checkbook in the left pocket of his jacket. He wrote out a check and walked out of the door.

Walking slowly toward the parking lot, James exhaled a breath that froze in the air. A chill crawled down his spine. He stood still in front of his car, taking out his keys. As he opened the car door, he felt a soft, chilling pat on his right shoulder. A gasp escaped his throat but fleetly a smile appeared on his face.
         

"Hello," he whispered. Through his eyes, he saw a 6 foot tall woman with hair as ebony as coal and eyes as blue as the drowning sea. She was wearing black shirt with a white skull painted on it, and black pants with holes, revealing part of her flesh. She had eight ear pierces, and a stud in her nose.
         

James was standing silently, expecting a reply from the woman.
         

"Spare any change?" was the woman's reply. An expression of disappointment slowly faded on James' face. Inside his mind, he was imagining that the woman was going to kneel down and give him a blowjob. But James knew that such imagination would never be true.

Staring into the woman's piercing blue eyes, James' breath was taken away. All of a sudden, no more was James at the park lot. No more was his body imprisoned in his outfit. Moans of pleasure were let out from James and the woman. They were sitting in a tub filled with hot, blistering water. With eyes shining, the woman smirked innocently.
         

"You want me to suck your cock?"
         

"Yes."

Her head disappeared in the water as James smiled, shutting his eyes.

"Yo man, do you got change on you or not?" asked the woman, bringing James back to the real world.
         

"Sorry. Yes, I do have change!" he said, placing his hand inside his pockets, and grabbed all the change he had.
         

"Thank you!"

The woman slowly walked away. James was hesitant. He wanted to say something, but he felt like his voice was paralyzed.

"Hey—hey lady."

The woman stopped walking, turning around and looked at James. "Do you want more than what you got? Do you?"
         

"Yeah. Why not? Sure, but what do I have to do?"
         

"Get in the car. And we can talk as we get home."

The woman smirked as she nodded her head. "I know what you want!"
         

"I know you do, but hey, it's Valentine's Day!"
         

"Yes, it is."
         

"By the way, I didn't get your name."

There was a moment of utter silence. The woman took a heavy, deep breath. "Sarah. My name is Sarah."

It was midnight. The moon was full, its light shining through James' bedroom door. James and Sarah kissed passionately as they were standing. James ripped open her shirt, and then he unclipped her bra. Sarah got on her knees on the bed and smiled as she slowly unbuttoned James' pants. Unzipping his pants, she kissed his boxer, feeling his erected penis in her hands.
         

"Oh, baby, it feels good," she whispered, as she giggled. James shut his eyes, as his penis disappeared into Sarah's mouth. Then, James dug his hands in Sarah's underwear, removing it off her creamy, white skin. Sarah pushed James to the bed and was on top of him as his penis was jammed deep inside her pussy.

After the lovemaking, Sarah and James were lying on the bed. James grabbed the white blanket on the floor, covering them.
         

“How much do you want for spending the night with me?” he asked.

Sarah sighed and said, “I don’t want any money. Just sleeping with you is all I wanted.”
         

“It was fun, eh?"
         

"Yes, it was," she said, with a smile on her face.
         

“I want to take a shower, James. Do you mind?”

“No, not at all, babe.”

Sarah slowly walked toward the bathroom. Opening the curtain of the bathtub, she turned on the hot water. She waited until the tub filled up with hot, sizzling water. And then, she placed her small finger in the tub, feeling the hotness. She stepped into the tub and moaned softly. All of a sudden, she caught the sight of a figure entering the bathroom. It slowly approached her. The figure opened the rainbow colored bath curtain. Sarah let out a high-pitched scream!
       

 “Err…you scared the shit out of me, James."
         

“Can I join you?” James asked.

Sarah smiled and nodded as James stepped out of his boxer and jumped into the tub. "Oh…the water is hot. Too hot."
         

"I know, but I don't like cold water. I prefer the water hot. Burning hot like you!"

Their lips locked into a kiss of passion.
         

"You're gorgeous, babe. I swear, from the moment I saw, something about you grabbed me by the throat."

Sarah placed her hands on James’s back, and hugged him tightly. “I love you,” she whispered.
         

“I love you, too.”

         

James glanced at Sarah and let out a gasp.
         

“Shit! Sarah… Your… Your body is melting!"

Sarah grinned and said, “Oh! I know. And so will yours.”
         

"WHAT THE FUCK?" James shut his eyes tightly. "This isn't happening. This is just my fucking imagination. I'm just imagining."

James opened his eyes and screamed at the top of his lungs as he watched his body melt into pure liquid. Tick…Tock… The tub was completely empty.

All of a sudden, James opened his eyes again and glanced around. He was surrounded with darkness. Where was he? In front of him, Sarah was standing with a grin on her face. A chill crawled down to James' spine.
         

"Where are we? Sarah, answer me. Where the fuck are we?" James asked, with eyes of madness and anger.
Sarah laughed as her laughter echoed through the air.
         

"James…James…Remember what I'm going to say. From now and on, you're going to be mine. Just mine. Mine only. And I will be yours. Just yours. James, welcome to our world: the dead world!"

Placing the receiver close to his left ear, Mr. Riley dialed James' phone number for the sixth time. He waited for his son to pick up the phone. But unfortunately, there was no answer.
         

"I'm really worried, John,” Mrs. Riley cried.

Mr. Riley sighed and said, "I'm as worried as you are, Sandy."
         

"Call the police," James' mom said.

It didn't take a long time for the police to arrive at the Riley's house.
         

"Where is my son, officers?" James' father asked.
         

"Weird! Did James ever tell you that he was going out somewhere, Mr. Riley? Perhaps with his friends." one of the officer asked.
         

“No, he didn’t. I know my son, he would tell his mother and me if he was going away," Mr. Riley replied.
         

"Mr. Riley, I don't think James would call you just to tell you that he's going out with his friends. Now, would he?" another officer commented.
         

"Yes, officer. James calls us every day and he tells us how he is doing and what he is doing."

The cell phone of one of the officers rang. He answered it quickly and was talking with the caller for a few minutes. After the phone conversation was officer, the officer hung up.
         

"They looked everywhere in James' house, but I'm sorry to say they couldn't find a trace of him. I'm very sorry. You know what I think? I think he just went somewhere and forgot to inform you guys."
Sandy gasped as tears filled her dark brown eyes.
         

“James is an adult, Mrs. Riley. But, don't worry; we will keep searching for him. Let's hope that we find him soon."

Mr. Riley and the police officers made their way downstairs. "Please, officers, search for him. He's my only son. I don't know what I'd do if I lose him."
         

"We will try our best, sir."

After the police officers exited, Mr. Riley closed the house door. Tears filled his eyes and streamed down his cheeks as he asked, "Where are you, son? Where are you?"

Tears of misery and guilt filled James' eyes as he whispered, "Oh I wish I could meet mom and dad. Oh, I want to kiss my mother's hand and hug her tight. And dad—oh I'm missing those days when we drank together in the garden and sung Frank Sinatra songs with our raspy voices."
Naked Sarah slowly approached James and gave him a soft kiss on his unshaven cheeks.
         

"What's wrong with you, baby?"
         

"Oh, I wish I could see my parents again!"
         

"What the hell is wrong with you? Seriously, James. What's wrong?"

Staring at Sarah with angry eyes, James yelled, "You bring me to your world, and you ask me what's wrong with me? You're a fucking bitch. You know that? You have to take me back. You have to, or else…" His voice trailed off.
         

"Or else what?" Sarah interrupted.
         

"I don't know. But please…I want to go home."

Sarah giggled. "You just don't understand."
         

"Understand WHAT?"
         

“Honey, you’re already dead just like me. If you go back, you will be someone else, not James.”
         

“I don't understand. What do you mean?” James asked.
         

“This is your world now, James. If you want to go back to the living world, you can, but your parents and your friends won’t recognize you because your spirit will be in another body. Now, do you understand?"
         

"No! You fucking bitch. I hate the day that I met you."
         

"Calm down, James. I'm serious! There's nothing you can do about this. You just have to deal with the fact that you and I are going to live in this world until Judgment Day arrives."

A shocked expression stamped on James' face while Sarah smiled, giving him a smooch on his dried up mouth. “You’re not like the other men that I brought into this world. The other men were glad and thankful that I opened the doors to a better place than Earth. I guess you can say that most of them were loners. They pretty much didn’t have a life. I made their lives better. But, I let them go and went back to Earth to find another man. I started searching, and then I found YOU. I know you’re wondering right now why I chose you. Well, I chose you because you’re so handsome and you’re a loner.”

James listened silently to the explanation that Sarah was giving.

“Yes, you are a loner, James. You only had two or three friends. That was all. I just don’t understand why a cute man like you didn’t have luck with Earthly girls? Why didn’t you have a girlfriend?”

James inhaled a deep breath. “I don’t know. I guess I didn’t find the woman that deserved to marry me.”

Sarah nodded.
         

“And you expect me to believe this bullshit?"
         

“Tell me, how did you die?” he asked.
         

"Why are you trying to change the subject?"
         

"How the hell did you DIE?"
         

"If that's the way you want it, then I'll play the game. I died in a car accident, James."

One cold, gloomy night, Sarah was walking on the sidewalk all by herself. She looked at the sky and felt a chill crawl down her spine. She stopped as she was crossing to the other side. Suddenly, a car driven by a drunk driver coming from the other side crashed into Sarah, whose skull was shattered through the window.

"People thought I was dead, but I'm not. I'm stuck between the world of life and death," Sarah explained.

There was a moment of silence, and then Sarah broke the silence when she said, "Baby, I'll be your girlfriend. I'll be your wife, your mom and dad, your everything."
         

"You're not my mom nor my dad. My parents are live on Earth, and I'm going to see them soon whether you like it or not."
Suddenly, Sarah vanished into the darkness.
         

"Where the hell did you go? Sarah, where the FUCK did you go? Goddamn it!"

James' parents were sitting down in the living room, watching television with the hopes of getting an answer from the police officers about their son—James. Suddenly, the doorbell rang as Mr. Riley stood up and went to answer the door. "Can I help you, young lady?"

These were Mr. Riley's last words. He did not see the sharp butcher knife that stabbed him in the guts. Walking toward the door, Mrs. Riley asked, "Who is it, dear?" When she caught the sight of her husband's dead body, she screamed as loud as she could. The sight of a woman standing beside the body caused Mrs. Riley to gasp. She ran away, but she slipped and fell on the floor. She cried for help before the woman placed her hands on Mrs. Riley's neck and twisted it.

The crack of a neck darted into James' ears as Sarah reappeared. "Hey baby," she said.
         

"Where the hell were you?"
         

“You can’t do anything now, James. Your parents are dead. You will never see them. But after Judgment Day, you might be with them. If you were good when you lived on Earth, then you might go to Heaven. If you were bad, then you might go to Hell,” Sarah said.
         

"NO! You fucking bitch! I hate your goddamn guts," James yelled. "I know where you're going. You're going to Hell because you're a goddamn murderer."
         

“I know that I’m going to go to Hell. But for now, I’m with you. So, let’s enjoy our time before it runs out,” she said.

Tears filled James’s eyes. “I hate your fucking guts! I hate you, bitch.”
         

“Make love to me, James,” she said.
         

“You don’t deserve to be made love to,” he whispered angrily.

She gave James a soft kiss on his lips. Then, she ripped his shirt open. “Now, do you want to do it?”
         

James wiped the tears off his eyes, then nodded, and kissed the rosy lips of Sarah. The two made love. Not just any kind of love. They made Dead love.

Slowly opening his eyes, James yawned as he looked around. He sat up and gasped. "Where am I?"

Beside him lay a black-haired woman, whose eyes were shut. And then, the woman opened her eyes and smiled at James.
         

“Sarah?”
         

“Good morning, James,” she replied.
         

“Where are we?” James asked.

Sarah laughed softly and said, “We are home, husband.”
         

“What the hell? Husband? You—you're not my wife!” he replied.

Sarah sat up and looked at him. “Is something wrong, James? Are you okay?”
James slapped Sarah as he yelled, “You’re a psycho bitch… You first melt my body, and you take me to the dead world. Then you kill my mom and dad.”
She gasped.
         

“James, I think you’ve gone crazy.”

He slapped her again and then punched on her guts. Sarah yelled. “What the fuck is wrong with you? I did not kill your parents, James. Your parents died in a car accident. And you know it. I guess maybe you were dreaming that I killed them.”
         

“Don’t lie to me, Sarah. Don’t lie. I never married you. Why are you saying that we are married?” he replied.

Sarah pointed at the wedding ring on her finger. James looked at his hand and realized that he had a wedding ring, too. “Damn you!” he yelled.

Tears filled Sarah's eyes as she whispered, "Calm down, baby," trying to comfort him.
         

“Don’t tell me to calm down,” James shouted.

He punched Sarah powerfully on her stomach and on her face. Walking out of the room, he headed to the kitchen. And then, he grabbed a butcher knife from one of the drawers and walked back to the bedroom. Sarah was lying on the bed. Her shirt was soaked in blood and her face had scars and wounds. Silence filled the room and James held his breath as he raised the knife and plunged the knife into her chest, leaving her bleed to death.

Looking through the window in her bedroom, Sandra Wayne was shocked to see her neighbor hovering over a lifeless body, knife in hand. She ran quickly to the living room and grabbed her cordless phone. Dialing 9-1-1, she waited for an answer. A male operator answered the phone, "Police, fire, or emergency."
         

“Police! My neighbor is stabbing someone. I think he is stabbing his wife, Sarah,” Sandra said with fear surrounding her throat.
         

“What’s the address, ma’am?” the operator asked. When Sandra gave the operator the address, he said with assurance, "Okay. Police will arrive as soon as possible.” And then, the phone line went dead.

Wiping the blood off the knife and throwing the sharp object into the sink, James covered the body of Sarah with as many blankets as he could find.
         

“I hope you go to Hell, bitch,” James whispered, with anger in his voice. All of a sudden, the police arrived at James' house. They broke into the house and yelled, "Police!" James had the hopes of running away, but two police officers caught him. The lifeless body of Sarah was found in the bedroom. James was handcuffed and arrested.

Sitting down on the uncomfortable bed in his private prison cell, James was blaming himself for committing the terrible crime.
         

"Why? Why did you kill your wife? Why did you take the life of the woman that you loved? She did not kill your parents. She was innocent. It was the horrible nightmare that made you think that Sarah was the one who melted you and took you to the dead world. Now, you can’t change the past, James. But hopefully, she will forgive you." These thoughts haunted him.
         

“I will never forgive you,” a voice whispered into his ears.
         

“Who said that?” James asked.
         

“I did,” the voice whispered back.
         

“Who are you?”
         

“It’s me… Sarah!” the voice replied.

He gasped and looked around. But, he didn’t see anything. “You’re not Sarah. This is my imagination. I’m imagining things just like before.”

Sarah appeared in front of him with a grin on her face. “Are you really imagining, James?”

James let out a bloodcurdling scream.

The prison guard hurriedly opened the lock and entered the cell. “What’s going on?” he asked.

James gasped and took a long, heavy breath. “Nothing is going on,” he replied. “I was just having a dream, a bad dream.”

The guard nodded and walked out.

James lay down on the bed and shut his eyes. Suddenly, a sharp noise darted into his ears, startling him. He opened his eyes and let out a bloodcurdling scream. His face was soaking in sweat. He took a deep breath, reassuring himself, "You heard nothing. It's just your frickin' imagination!"
         

“James…James…Darling…James.”

He glanced around and gasped. “Who the hell said that?”
         

“Don’t you recognize my voice, love? It’s me…Sarah.”
         

“This is bullshit!”
         

“Do you love me, James? Do you want me?”

Feeling a soft pat on shoulder, he turned around quickly and let out a shriek when he caught the sight of…Sarah! A grin appeared on her face as she placed her hands on James’s head. He shut his eyes and blacked out.
         

“Don’t worry, James. Don’t worry!”

The sun vanished, and the sky darkened. James was walking through the tombstones in the cemetery. He stopped in front of a mysterious gravestone. The name ‘Sarah’ was inscribed in red on it.
         

“I’m going to forgive you, James, for savagely murdering me. Do you know why? It’s because you’re going to regret stabbing me to death.”
He took a deep breath and said, “What do you mean?”

He opened his eyes and gasped. He was lying on the bed with a woman, whose hair color was ebony and eyes were blue. “Who are you?” he asked.

The woman smiled. “Silly question, James. Don’t you know who I am? I’m Sarah!”

He shook his head.
         

“I want to take a shower, James. Do you mind?”
         

“No!”

Sarah slowly walked toward the bathroom. Opening the curtain of the bathtub, she turned on the hot water. She waited until the tub filled up with hot, sizzling water. And then, she placed her small finger in the tub, feeling the hotness. She stepped into the tub and moaned softly. All of a sudden, she caught the sight of a figure entering the bathroom. It slowly approached her. The figure opened the rainbow colored bath curtain. Sarah let out a high-pitched scream!
         

“Err…you scared the shit out of me, James,” she whispered.

He was holding a sharp butcher knife in his hands.
         

“Why are you holding a knife, baby?”
         

“Why? Do you really want to know? I’ll tell you. I want to stab you to death with it. I want to end my nightmare."
         

“What nightmare? What’s wrong with you?”
         

“You’re my goddamn nightmare.”
         

“You’re crazy, James. You need to get help!"
         

“Goodbye, Sarah.”

Without a warning, he jammed the knife into her chest. Blood rushed out, filling the bathtub. And then, the door creaked open. James gasped and turned his back. Suddenly, Sarah opened her eyes wide and grabbed his throat.

And then, as James opened his eyes, he found himself back in the prison cell. Through his eyes, he saw Sarah with a smile on her face.
         

"Goodbye, James, husband. I shall miss you. And you know what—I forgive you. So, don't feel guilty anymore!" As James blinked, Sarah vanished. Taking a deep breath, he lay on his bed and shut his eyes.

"Goodbye, James, husband. I shall miss you. And you know what—I forgive you. So, don't feel guilty anymore!"

Copyright Hasan Abood 2005