Love Me or Else

"I'm sorry Lanie, I just can't do this anymore." Joshua explained to his girlfriend of three years.

"Why not? Do I not love you enough? Am I too ugly for you?" Lanie cried out.

"No, that has nothing to do with it. If anything, you love me too much. You've been tracking my every movement with your phone. You stand outside of my work all day crying because I'm not home with you. You're losing your shit, you need help." Joshua explained.

"Fine, fuck you then!" Lanie screamed shrilly.

Lanie stormed out of Joshua's apartment, smashing everything on her way out. Joshua was happy it was over.

They met at a bar in the cities historical district. It was a romantic meet up. They both had come dressed up for a special western themed night. She was in a tight dress, something that pressed her breasts almost out of it. He was in a classic cowboy outfit. He had the wide brimmed hat, the brown leather vest, he even wore a holster. They spied each other from across the room and met in the middle just in time for the line dance. They hit it off instantly, within six months she was moving in with him.

A year and a half into dating, Joshua was becoming concerned. She became obsessive, possessive, and controlling. His friends left and his family shied away. They urged him to leave her. He wanted to give her a chance. Six months before the three year mark she became jealous of him and a coworker, when they were assigned a project together. She was leaving threatening voicemail's on his partners phone, she would even pop up in places that his coworker was shopping. Lanie discovered his plans to break it off with her and became violent with him.

Joshua was leaving work one night when Lanie pounced from the bushes with a knife. She tried to stab him but only managed to slice him once in the arm. He had her arrested, they forced her into a seventy-two hour psych hold before proceeding with charges. The doctor's diagnosed her with a mild case of psychosis and prescribed anti-psychotics. They held her for three months in the psych ward. Joshua decided to give her another chance as long as she agreed to strictly adhere to her regimen of medicines.

The next couple of months went by without a hitch. She followed her doctor's orders and her and Joshua were happy again.

The month before the break up Joshua was walking into his apartment when she smashed a vase over his head. He awoke from unconsciousness a few minutes later to Lanie straddling him in a see-through piece of lingerie. He threw her off of him, then threatened to call 911. She bawled for several hours and promised to get back on her meds. He did not call the cops that night.

She continued to skip doses and have unhinged outbreaks which is what finally led to him breaking up with her.

He was relieved once the breakup was through. He could move on with his life and maybe even try to find a normal woman to date. Joshua started hitting the singles nights at the bars, even taking a few ladies home with him on several occasions. He never heard from most of them again, but had a great time with them. Watching the news before another singles night, he watched a report of several missing women. At first, he thought nothing of it, it was a big city and women disappeared all the time. Once they showed the missing women's pictures, he broke out in a cold sweat. Every picture they flashed across the screen was of the women he had been with over the past several weeks. There were no suspects yet, but he knew who it was.

Joshua stopped attending singles nights and was jumping at every little noise; sleep had become elusive. He was having coworkers pick him up for work so he was not alone. His nerves were frayed.

After arriving outside of his apartment building, on what would be another boring Friday night, a loud crash startled him. He heard footsteps racing towards the front of the building. The thud of his heart made him shaky as he tried to unlock the front door. He could not get the key in. Suddenly, from the side of the building two men flew by, one tackled the other into the street. It was just a couple of homeless guys fighting over the leftovers in the trash. He let out a nervous giggle, then a deep sigh of relief. He finally entered the building and made it to his apartment.

Upon entering his apartment, he was startled to see his whole apartment flooded with balloons. There had to be more then two hundred filling the living room. Bright red roses lined the kitchen counters and a romantic, but haunting, song played in his bedroom. It was a song by an indie artist named August Eve called Ghost. "Slow down, I am on fire Chasing each, enough to the dead. Threw my heart against the wall, cuz I want to watch it break.

Bleeds on every single moment, every second that I waste." were the lyrics he walked in on. The melodic but echoing music raised goosebumps on his skin. The door slammed behind him before he could turn to run. Lanie, in a ghostly white robe stained with bright red blood, smiled, wild eyed, at Joshua.

"Come darling, to the bedroom." she whispered. Joshua did not know what to do. "Move your fucking ass, babe!" she commanded, waving a bloody knife in his direction.

"What are you doing? Let me get you to the doctor's. Where's all of that blood from? Did you cut yourself again?" asked Joshua in a frantic voice.

"No more fucking help! Listen to me!" she screamed, then calmly said, "We need to be together, I have a present for you. Follow me to the bedroom"

Joshua shakily walked through the mess of balloons with Lanie holding the knife to his back.

"Close your eyes before you go in. This is going to be a great surprise. I did it all for you." Lanie proudly exclaimed.

As they walked into the room, Lanie guiding Joshua along the way, she said, "Open your eyes!"

"Wha-what the fuck did you do this for?" he asked while looking at seven body-less heads laid out on his bed.

"I wanted you to know how dedicated I am to having you all to myself. See. I did what any women in love would do. I cut out the competition." she said, then cackled about her clever use of words.

"This is not what you do for love. This is fucking psychotic. I'm calling the cops, right now!" Joshua said as he lunged for the phone next to his bed.

Lanie lunged towards him, sticking the knife through his leg until it came out the other side. He howled out in pain while she yanked the knife out then licked his blood off of it. She smiled at him, blood dripping down her chin, then pushed him onto the seven heads. She pounced on him like a wild animal.

"Let's fuck right here and make these bitches jealous." Lanie said, at the same time, trying to pull Joshua's pants off.

He fought with her but the blood loss was making him weak. He struggled. He heard something thumping on the floor below them. The neighbor downstairs was hitting his ceiling with a broom, yelling for them to shut up or he was calling the police.

"Why don't you just come up here and join in the fun or shut the fuck up down there!" Lanie hollered back.

She snapped her attention back to Joshua. He tried again to shove her off but failed again. She cut his shirt off, nicking his stomach in the process.

"Oh baby, I'm so sorry. Let me fix up that boo-boo for you." she said, then licked his wound as she ran her mouth down his stomach towards his crotch.

She lifted her head, Joshua heard a metallic clunk, then Lanie fell unconscious on top of him. He looked up to see his downstairs neighbor with a pan, with a smatter of blood now on it, in his hand. Sirens and screeching tires could be heard outside. Joshua was fading in and out of consciousness while his neighbor rolled Lanie's body off of him. The cops barged in with guns drawn, demanding everyone to stay still. Before Joshua passed out he burst out in heaving sobs, partly out of relief, partly out of stress.