The Uninvited Visitor

It was early morning or late night, depending on your view. She had just turned the corner when she saw her step daughter. She knew she would come for her, such a sick and sadistic soul she was. Murder and death were the scent of her aura, if auras had a scent. A mix of dirty rain and hopelessness.

Mary and Ben had had the perfect life together. They had been married quite happily for 30 years when he died in a horrible car accident. Mary was younger than her husband by almost a decade, which is why him having a daughter from a previous marriage wasn't unheard of.

Mary actually didn't even meet his daughter until their wedding. If she had, maybe she would have called off the wedding. If she had known prior what this woman was capable of.

Never had Mary ever met anyone with so much hate radiating off them. His daughter was dressed in a long black fitted dress; not the norm for such a joyous occasion. Her long white hair hung almost to her knees if not for a tight bun she'd put it in. Her skin was as pale as snow. She wore no jewelry, just perfectly applied bright red lipstick. No, those happy years with Ben were well worth what she knew was going to happen next.

She thought about running in the other direction, she was too young to die. Not being one to run, but to face her fears, she walked towards her step daughter with ease and grace. She would be seeing Ben sooner than she had planned. Oh how she missed him, so hard to believe this evil woman in front of her had her husband's blood running through her veins.

This step daughter had killed many. A long trail of lovers whom had fallen under her evil spell had found themselves with untimely deaths. When Ben was gone on one of his business trips out of the country, Mary had done some research on her. It was amazing what you could find out about a person when you had the resources to do so.

Another little thing Ben had forgotten to tell her before the wedding was how many mental hospitals his daughter had been in. Probably half her life was spent in one or another. Mary was shocked at all she had discovered about her. And dear Ben had never shared any of this with her. Yes it hurt, but perhaps it is a fathers love that had him wanting to protect his only child, or maybe he just didn't want to see it. They do say love is blind.

She knew this woman was not stupid. Oh, she could fool almost anyone with her innocent beauty or the way she behaved like she didn't know any better. Yes, Mary knew how smart this woman was. That is why she knew she would not get out of this encounter alive.

I wonder how she is going to kill me kept running through Mary's mind. Her final minutes alive seemed to last forever. She would not die like the others, that would be to coincidental. She was too smart for anything that would send up red flags.

The trail of lovers had such a variety of deaths. The worst was the man who was found with his head sawed off. Another had fallen from a twelve story balcony, one had even been found without his tongue. Mary hoped that would not be her fate, she hated the sight of blood. Then there was the Olympic swimmer whom had drowned, another had simply found death by being run over. Maybe his death would be believable as a hit and run, if he hadn't been run over repeatedly.

No, this child of Ben's was not one you wanted to cross. Mary didn't know why she was hated so much by her. She had always been welcomed in their home, invited to all their parties, even asked to join them on the travels they took around the world.

It couldn't be for money either. Mary had been very serious when Ben proposed to her, to sign whatever paperwork needed to leave the majority of his estate and money to his daughter. She didn't want anyone, especially his daughter, to think of her as a gold digger. She simply loved Ben and wanted to spend her life with him.

As Mary walked closer to this beautiful woman, dressed in a black dress. This one was a flowing gown, not fitted like the one she wore when her and Ben said their "I do's." And her hair was not in a tight bun tonight, but flowing all around her like a white cape. That is when she saw it, the glint of the revolver in the moonlit sky. She then knew what would cause her to be with her beloved Ben once again.