October 7th

"Oh my god," Tina said, breathing heavily. "That was amazing."

"Thanks," said the man whose name she didn't remember. He smiled and rolled off her naked body.

"God, I'm dizzy." He leaned over to kiss her. "In a minute. Let me catch my breath."

He lay on his back, a huge grin on his face. He felt her hand reach over and rub on his chest.

"You're so sexy," she said.

"Thanks."

Without another word, she snatched a knife hidden between the box spring and the mattress and swung this in an arc, coming down full force into his throat. He gurgled, but died almost instantly. She pulled the fitted sheet, now soaked in blood, off the bed and dragged him out of the bedroom in the makeshift sack. The bed mattress, previously wrapped in plastic sheeting, remained free from bloodstains. Tina grunted as she used all her strength to get this man out of her house. She lived out in the middle of nowhere, and so was relatively safe from observation while lugging around a dead body. In the backyard over the dirt, she retrieved a small chainsaw and cut off the stranger's limbs — first his arms, then his legs. She severed his head, divided the torso into five pieces, and stuffed this all into four heavy-duty trash sacks.

As a child, she used to swim to the dock in the middle of the lake on her property, climbing up the ladder and diving off repeatedly with her friends. Now it served as an ideal place for hiding her victims. She placed a cinder block into each sack, double bagged the body parts, then wrapped and tied each with ropes. The crickets chirped in the surrounding forest as she paddled. The water was still and silent this night, the only disturbance being the oars as they dipped into the surface with each row. She passed the dock, and gasped at the strange item resting there. It was a Halloween jack-o'-lantern, a picture of a hand holding a knife carved into it. The flame inside burned brightly. It couldn't have been here for very long, and yet the water had been still when she arrived. Whoever it had been must have left shortly before she arrived.

Why this particular image? Why a hand stabbing with a knife? Had there been a witness? She had no answers to these questions and knew she had no choice but to proceed with her plan. She dumped the body into the lake, rowed back to shore, and walked through the woods back to her car. She remained vigilant, listening for any movement in the trees or any indication somebody watching or following. Driving back to her house, she turned on the radio and smiled at the song playing.

"I used to love her, but I had to kill her," she sang along with Axel Rose. When she pulled to her house, a truck sat in the driveway. She walked inside and saw a man drinking a beer in the kitchen.

"Hey, Dale," she said to her husband.

"Hey, sweetie," he said. "How was your day?"

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