The Trophy Cabinet

When she found his trophy cabinet, the horror of her discovery put her in a place where she had no point of reference; a chasm where she was falling, helpless and without recourse. Her revulsion urged her to act but she was scared: how do you confront someone who you know to be a killer?

Instead, she sat and thought about what to do, her mind leaping, like it was being continually jolted by electric paddles, unable to settle on one idea, her hands showing the outward signs of her inner turmoil.

-But I'm his mother! To turn him in is the ultimate betrayal.

-But he's a killer! You can't just ignore this!

And on and on and on.

Eventually, heart still lurching, she cried, questioning why she had been placed in this situation, what she had ever done to deserve this, what was the right thing to do. Of course, she knew that.

It was the confrontation that she could not handle.

*

She placed her feelings in a box, where they could only be stirred if prodded. She never let her mind go there, shutting it off as soon as it tried, but like a tongue seeking a tooth that's sharp, it was hard to leave it alone and she would wake in the night, wet from the sweat of her anguish and the tears of her indecision.

It was inevitable that something would upturn the box.

*

They were sitting on the sofa together.

The local TV news was on.

A missing girl.

She sat, still, wanting to shriek at him, but remained immobile in the face of evidence of his abhorrent nature. Details of the girl's disappearance corresponded with a night where he had come home late. She had deliberately gone to bed, not wanting to see if there was evidence of wrong-doing in his stature, his presence, his clothes.

She was sitting on her hands, literally and metaphorically.

He was eating ribs, savagely, staring at the screen, mesmerised, the sound of his mastication eating at her.

"I hope they catch him soon," she said, shakily.

It was his reply that decided her. The arrogance of it.

"They won't."

She called that night.

***

365 words

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