His Black Heart 🖤

Her trusting heart was filled with yearning and disappointment as he was going away for the weekend, right up until his heartbeat messaged hers for the first time.

Her startled heart received his signal.

Their pulsations synced up, thumping together as one. 

He said he would make it up to her for leaving unexpectedly.
He said he was sorry. 

His palpitations told her otherwise.

Every word spoken by his lips was a lie.

She wondered aloud if he truly loved her.

He laughed, saying of course he did.

That was even worse than a lie. 
His heart pounded with pity.
His heart was contemptuous.

Her anodyne bloodstream was so unsettled by his garbling blood that their link snapped. 

Her own unique rhythm became solely hers again (albeit sped-up).

His smile was not just handsome, it was so considerate and kind.

His heart revealed it was fake.

She saw something mocking behind his eyes, a gleam she had always mistaken for attraction.

When he kissed her goodbye, her heart tensed up, afraid his pulse might reclaim hers.

But then he left, leaving her alone to commune with her worried arteries.

Her mind told her that she was being paranoid and pessimistic.  She was letting her morbid imagination get the best of her.  Intellectually, she knew her pulse wasn't coded.  Her blood couldn’t formulate opinions.

Her heart couldn't be a receiver for transmissions from his heart.

Her blood knew otherwise.

Her cardiovascular system felt threatened.

Her brain was beaten down by her heartbeat.

She sought solace in her kitchen knives. She chopped up vegetables to make comfort soup.

Later that night, when she was in bed, his heart barged into hers again, knocking her out.

Six hours later, her muffled mind came back to some semblance of awareness.

While she slept and dreamt (?), her heart had been kept up most of the night by his.

Her blood remembered. 

He’d broadcasted his traitorous rhythms—the rapid drumming of an animal in heat.

Her mind couldn’t fathom any of this.  On her usual superficial level, she just felt agitated, disturbed in a way she attributed to not getting enough sleep.

Meanwhile, her veins were thrumming with epiphanies. 

Barely aware of what she was doing, her body performed its normal morning routines: shitting, showering, dressing, grooming, cooking, eating.

As she was quietly doing her breakfast dishes, she received a text from him. 

Clicking on her phone to see what he wrote was enough to reestablish the heart↠transmission.

His insistent heartbeat forced itself into her chest.

His pulse was strong and remarkably calm considering he’d cheated on her last night and planned to lie to her tonight.

He told her he was coming over at 7.  He told her. He didn’t ask. He never asked.

She felt dominated.  She felt overpowered. 

She didn't want to still love him but thought maybe she did.

Desperation and shame crushed what was left of her thinking mind. 

After he hung up, she sat her phone down on the kitchen cabinet.

She took up her knives.

She struck them together.

Shortly before the appointed hour, her heart felt his approach. 

The closer he got, the louder his blood roared.

She gritted her teeth, trying hard to keep her knives beating in time with her heart and her heart beating in time with her knives.  But as he drew nearer, his heart synced ever stronger with hers. She couldn't stop herself from changing the speed of her metallic strikes to match his pulse.

Her heart was losing itself to his.

His heart was subjugating hers.

⚞Clang clang⚟ ⚞Clang clang⚟ ⚞Clang clang⚟

Thump-thump Thump-thump Thump-thump
Thump-thump Thump-thump Thump-thump

She had to preempt his lies.

She had to reclaim her sovereignty— reestablish her free will.

She had to sever the connection.

Finishing preparing her cutlery with two last ⚞Clang⚟s, she hid in the front closet.

He had his own key to her apartment.  He used to have the key to her heart until she discovered the contents of his.  He didn't deserved open access to either.

She became aware of yet another heartbeat tangled up with his.  Like perfume left on a cheater’s neck, lingering traces of some bitch's heart still pulsed in his blood.

He walked through the door, calling her name. 

She snuck quietly out of the coat closet behind him.

Her mind played no part in this murder. Her cardiovascular system was in complete control of all her muscles. 

She lunged, stabbing him in the back of his neck.

He fell, spurting stunned blood, his heartbeat going crazy, frantically booming inside them both. 

She almost instinctively covered her ears to blot out his heart's screams, but she knew that he was sending her was not sound. 

To silence his heart, she had to defeat its dark conquest.

She leapt on his back and started slashing and stabbing.

🩸🔪 She let her knives have their moment.🔪🩸

His heart was so frenzied, she thought her own heart might be pulverized along with his. 

His bloodstream squealed like a pig.

Yelling meaninglessly, she chopped as fast and hard as she could, determined to still his panicked rhythms.

He finally stopped making noises. 
He stopped moving.
He stopped breathing. 

She was panting.

Dropping her knives, she grunted with exertion, as she flipped him over on his ravaged back.

He bled out. His blood squeaked like a stream of mice as it flowed out of him.

She knew he was dead.

But his heart was still quietly beating along with hers.

She grabbed up her knife again.

She carved.

It was frustrating. Her heart was angered. His ribs kept getting in the way. 

Her bloodstream controlled her hands, making incisions first over and then under the longest rib.

Once she had a big enough hole dug out around the bone, she grabbed it with both hands and pulled. His body rose up a little bit off the floor, but the rib didn’t break.

She heard it crack the second time, but it still didn't come out.

She stepped on his body, bent down, and found the leverage to snap the bone.

She ended up cracking open six ribs, breaking into the cage that protected his heart.

By the time she finished, she was drenched with sweat and blood.

The only thing that kept her moving was his horrible heartbeat. She was still being pummeled by it.

When she saw inside the cavity she made, the meat that had attacked her wasn’t palpitating. 

It was most assuredly dead.

But it's signal wasn't.

So she cut our his offending heart.

When she held the muscle in her dripping hands, she wasn't surprised to see it turn black. And then it did pulsate in her grip.

She had end this. She prevailed upon her knives for one final favor.

She divided up his dead black heart, slicing it into bite-sized chunks.

She ate quickly, hating the way it trembled on her tongue.

Once she was finished devouring it, once they were both inside her body, her heart battled his. Her body began convulsing like she was having a seizure.  Her teeth chattered like she was cold. Her hair stood on end like she'd received an electrical jolt.

Their hearts fought ferociously for 127 throbs before her tremors subsided and her muscles relaxed.

When she finally terminated the last of his dark signals, her mind kick-started.

Looking around at all the gore she was sitting in, she shrieked.

Eventually, she wept.

When the shock finally wore off, she realized she no longer had a preternatural awareness of her bloodstream. She was no more conscious of it than here stomach acid.

Her heart had defeated his.

Now it was up to her brain to figure out how to deal with his body.

 🖤

 ~҉-҉↯҉-҉~

_________________Bolt⚡