My Wife

My life seemed like it was going pretty well. I had just received my bachelor's degree at the state college, and received the fairly well-paying job as an office manager. The thing is, something felt like it was missing from my life… I wanted love. I wanted to have a wife to keep me company, but the only women I knew worked at the office—and were drop-dead ugly.

After coming home one evening from a long day at work, I grabbed a coke, sat down, and booted up my computer. I was very desperate to find love as soon as possible, and it seemed my only choice to find it was through online dating. I visited a popular website, registered, and set up my interests in the hopes that I'd be matched soon.

The next morning I woke up and turned the computer on once more. I noticed that there was only a total of two matches, and, strangely enough, one of the two was a drop-dead ugly co-worker. The other had no profile picture, but the name was unfamiliar. Knowing how desperate I was I took a chance and private messaged this 'girl', asking her to meet up at a local café that night. The person replied back about three minutes later, saying okay. I was very excited, but at the same time anxious to see how this would go.

That night I was bitterly exhausted from the tremendous amount of work I had at the office, but my excitement overpowered it as I quickly got home, changed, and drove off to the café. The café was only a quick five minutes from my house, so driving was no problem at all.

I had no trouble parking, and soon enough I was inside ready to see my blind date. To my utter astonishment, the most beautiful girl I had ever seen in my life approached me—her most prominent feature were her eyes—the most gorgeous gray eyes in the world. "Hi," she said, smiling. "I'm Christy. You must be David, I saw your picture online."

"I sure as heck didn't see yours," I said, and we shared a laugh. I could tell already we were meant to be.

Our first date turned out great, and as it turns out we did indeed have a lot in common. As I dropped her off at her shabby apartment building, we partook in our first kiss, and I left. At this point, I felt like the luckiest guy in the world—like nothing could go wrong now.

Christy and I dated for only 4 months before I proposed to her, and she said yes with great excitement. Our wedding went like most, but there was a desolate turn of people. The members of the audience included my mother, Christy's father, a couple of my closer co-workers, and a few of her close friends. She was just so wonderful, and I was so in love.

That night I lost my virginity with her, but luckily she didn't get pregnant, because having a child this early on in our marriage wouldn't be too good. I wasn't financially able to afford a honeymoon, but she thought it was alright, and being with each other was all that mattered. She was just so nice like that. In place of that, I helped her move her things into my humble home, where we would be living together. Our life together was going by so nicely, and we were the perfect team.

A few months later I learned at work that one of the co-workers who attended my wedding, Kevin, was found dead with cuts all over his body. It was unidentified who did this, or what happened. They told me they were going to medically examine him in a few days. This news really brought me down, and it made the headache I already had even worse. I had been getting pretty bad headaches, which I presumed had to be from overwork. I got home late that night, and it appeared Christy was already in bed. I wasn't very hungry, so I went to my room to join her. I immediately told her about my friend Kevin being found dead, but she sat up suddenly, looked at me, and smiled—which was quite odd considering the situation, and said:

"Don't worry about it. He'll be fine."

I wasn't sure whether to be surprised or relaxed at her tone, but given her sweet nature I just ignored it and went to sleep.

The following morning I woke up sick, coughing very badly and feeling the urge to vomit. I stayed home from work which was the only nice part about it, beside the fact of Christy being so caring for me while I was in my need. "I love you, feel better." were the relaxing words spoken to me every so often that day. As night fell, she silently joined me in bed and turned off the lights. About 30 minutes in, I was having trouble sleeping. I wrapped my arm around Christy in an attempt to hold her, but just then my hand froze. I just couldn't move… Her skin was cold as ice. "Christy? Are you alright?" I asked, but she didn't respond.

I turned her over to reveal my wife—but the most horrific way I could imagine her. I screamed as loud as I possibly could, shoved her away from me, and bolted for the bathroom. What I saw was my Christy with her eyeballs missing revealing bloodied sockets, skin vein covered and droopy, and pale white skin—I wasn't sure about any other detail, because my eyes were not fully adjusted to the darkness. I sat there and cried, until I suppose I fell asleep. Surprisingly I felt refreshed that morning, but that quickly changed into fear as I remembered what I had just seen. My vision was blurred and distorted, most likely due to my excessive amount of crying.

I had to push on and overcome the fears I had about whatever I witnessed the night before. I opened the door slowly, making sure it didn’t make a sound. As I slowly turned toward the bedroom, I noticed she wasn't there. I heard something coming from the kitchen. Metal banging together. I rushed over to check out the scene, where I saw my beautiful wife there picking up pans she had dropped.

As soon as she saw me, she dropped them again. "What the hell happened last night?" she asked, but she sounded more concerned than angry. "I felt like I had to throw my guts up, and so I did." I lied. She took the bait, fortunately. "Aw… well, feel better." She kissed me, and went back to cooking up breakfast. My weekend wasn't starting off so great.

I contemplated what I had seen, what had just happened. I just couldn't explain it. I tried to think past it, like it would never happen again. But it did. It haunted my dreams—her lifeless body, her lack of eyes. But the worst part of my nightmares were what it did. Her body would just stand up like a marionette, and put its face to mine, sending the odor of rotting flesh into my nostrils.

"There's no escape," it whispered coldly.

"We'll be together forever."

It grinned showing her regular beautiful smile. That smile now sent shivers down my back.

I thought I was losing my mind. I saw that... 'thing' everywhere. It was hiding behind a cubicle. It was lying down in the park. I was frantic to get away from it but it just wouldn't stop. I wanted Christy. MY CHRISTY. The one I'm in love with, not that ghoul! I knew I needed to end it.

The following day I walked into my house, and saw the body standing near the kitchen, slouched over like in my dreams. I didn't take a minute to think before grabbing it, and shoving it into the oven, resisting its struggles. I closed the door, turned it on, and although it was painful I was relieved. The oven began to shake violently, and emitted screams which were so pain-filled and horrible to hear, I ran out of the house. The pain-filled screams went on for another ten minutes or so, and by then my house was filled with a thick wall of black smoke.

As I walked back in, the shaking and screaming stopped. The house felt dead. Silent, and eerie—like nothing else was alive in the world. I walked up to the oven to examine the remains, and what I pulled out destroyed me more than anything could have—what I beheld was Christy, my wife, burned beyond return—but strangely, her eyes were completely in tact. I fell to my knees, just staring—I couldn't believe this. I was there for fifteen minutes, thirty, as the police started showing up. They came in and picked me up, and of course arrested me for being on the scene of the crime.

I was put into a room and questioned, but luckily I was able to get my way around their persisting questions. They concluded that I was a husband who got home from work, finding the charred remains of my once beloved wife… They told me everything was going to be okay and that I would need to rent a room at a hotel while they inspected. I knew it wasn’t going to be alright. I KNEW WHAT I HAD DONE.

And you know what's even worse? I still see her. It. WHATEVER. I KILLED HER. I KILLED HER. I KILLED HER. I could never forgive myself. I ruined my life, her life, EVERYONE'S. I didn't want to go on, but here I am typing this. So, since I wanted to try to go on through my insane depression, I attempted to go to work the next day. As I pulled in and approached the doors, I noticed that there was yellow caution tape in front, with a small note stuck to the door, reading:

"Building has been condemned from operations until later notice due to chemical exposure creating hazardous working conditions." —State Department of Health

I felt chills run down my spine as I read that note. Not knowing what this would mean to me, I decided I needed to get this checked this out. I got into my car and sped down the road straight to my doctor. I neared his office and threw the door open, revealing I was the only client there. A nurse escorted me to him, and I asked him if he could test my body for chemical intake. He said yes, and agreed to do it. Shortly afterward, he diagnosed me a disorder caused by the inhalation of that certain chemical. Trembling, I pleaded for him to read the side affects included with the inhalation. He read them to me:

"Effects of inhalation or ingestion involve migraines, vomiting, weariness, and is uniquely linked to strange patterns and effects occurring within the senses. Long term exposure may result in brain damage, mental instability, and severe hallucinations."