The Missing Bride: a cellphone novel by Alysse Aallyn

Chapter 21 – Grievous Bodily Harm

I blazed at him: “It’s just a job!”
Derek spluttered.

“I’ve got not beef for nakedness.”
“Will you get naked so I can study you?”
His face reddened. Suddenly he
Was fifteen years old. “Not unless you do.”
“I won’t. You’d be the only
Nude person in a room full
Of clothed people.”

He huffed, “Point taken.”
I regretted it. Too much distance
Opened up – my fault –
Just when we’d been getting along
So well. His solid trustworthiness
After Verne’s weird creepiness.
“Sorry,” I mumbled.

“Hey, look at this.” Bad moment was over.
“That used to be mine!”
It was a child’s recording
Boombox – purchased from who knows what
Antique garage sale. I loved it
And dragged it everywhere –
It had a mic and –
“There’s a cassette.”

I showed how to open it.
“Press play.” Verne’s voice:
Cruel, whispering, insistent,
Abortive calls no one sane
Would ever answer. “Mirabel?
Don’t think you’ll escape me.
You’re in the
Endgame.”

You can’t win”
My teeth chattered and
Derek’s eyes bugged.
Verne threatening he’d find her and
The longer she made him wait
The sorrier he’d make her.
Did she want her whole family
MURDERED? Did she want her friends
DEAD?

He had nothing left to lose. Through the
Thirty minute cassette
He attempted different ploys;
He loved her –
They were made for each other –
She knew it had never been good
With any but her.
Who wouldn’t want to be Lady Verne?
Wasn’t every bad thing
That had ever happened to either of them
Entirely her fault?

Didn’t she owe him?
He’d would find her
Wherever –
He’d smell her out.
He knew who was lying and
They’d all be punished eventually.

“Call me, Mirabel.
You’d better call me.”
Derek and I looked at each other
Pale as ghosts.
“He did it,” we both said together.