Tell Me I’m Pretty
The muzzle flashed. Terrified, he checked to see if she had missed. She had. He sighed with shortsighted relief.
“Just a warning shot my love; I could kill you whenever I want. I choose to wait. I like to play with my food first.” Bella screeched and then laughed. Her horrible cackle put a shiver down Tom’s spine. She was serious! She meant to kill him!
“Why are you doing this to me!?!” Tom cried as another bullet whizzed past his head, so close, he could feel the heat of it. He dove for cover behind a burned out car. He was afraid. Terrified; more terrified than he had ever been before. He knew he wouldn’t get out of the junkyard alive. He made a mad dash for the exit. As he reached for the gate latch, Bella took a potshot at him, narrowly missing his hand. He stumbled backward, tripped over a displaced muffler and fell to the ground. Tom looked up and saw fire burning in Bella’s eye.
“Why!?!” he pleaded once again.
“Why?” she asked “Because you lied to me!” she screamed “Now, Tom, one last time, tell me I’m pretty.” She said in a silky smooth voice.
“You’re pretty Bella!” he sobbed “You’re beautiful!!”
“LIAR!!” Bella screamed as she pulled the trigger. The loud crack of the gun broke the stillness of the night. Tom slumped to the ground, his life gone. As Bella walked away from her former husband, she spied her features in a cracked car mirror. How could anyone believe she was beautiful? Bald, missing an eye from birth. Squished nose that looked more piggish than human. Hairy mole on the cheek. She was hideous! She let that fool trick her into thinking she was gorgeous.
Seven years earlier, when Tom and Bella had first met, she thought he was just being kind when he asked her out. They dated for six months, all the while Bella was in heaven. She couldn’t believe that someone actually loved her! They married and almost lived happily ever after, that is, until she heard Tom and her father talking one night:
“You have to, you have no choice!” her father’s voice yelled.
“Fine!” Tom snapped “But I want more money! It isn’t worth it anymore! Her face isn’t the only disgusting thing about her, she smells putrid and is just a horrible person in general!”
“Watch it, Tom!” warned her father “She is still my daughter! You know her birth defects cause all of that, she can’t help it!”
“That’s not my problem anymore, unless you pay me more.” Tom countered.
“Fine, I will pay you one and a half, will that satisfy you?”
“Certainly, pleasure doing business with you.” Tom snidely replied.
Bella couldn’t believe her ears; her father was paying Tom to be her husband! Just then, Tom walked into the hall, said hello and walked off. It was then that Bella snapped. Running into the bedroom, she pulled the dresser drawer open and grabbed the .45 pistol. She chased him into the junkyard and shot him
“You’re next, daddy dearest.” Bella whispered as she looked in the broken mirror. “I’m not THAT bad” she said, running her hands across her smooth scalp. “I think I’m beautiful, and that’s all that matters; beautiful in my eye.” She walked away, ready to face her father for the last time, with a new confidence.
