The Rejected Prom Date

"Help...help me, please! Oh, dear God!" bellowed Bella Cryer.

"Shut the fuck up, bitch! Twenty-three floors is a long fucking way down", fumed Rex Hartley.

Hartley tightened his grip on Bella's neck, jerking her upward, her feet dangling as Rex struggled to carry her to the edge of the roof. Swinging her left leg forward, then quickly back, she kicked Rex squarely in the groin. "Ow...shit", screamed Rex as he dropped Bella right next to the ledge of the wall that surrounded the edge of the high-rise apartment complex. Bella scraped both her knees and her right hand when she landed on the concrete. Rex fell in a heap, gripping the ledge with one hand, while the other grabbed at his groin. "You stupid, bitch. Now, you're going to die".

Bella wiped away the cold, damp rain from her eyes as it pelted her face. She scrambled to her feet yelling, "Someone please help me! He's going to kill me! Help! Help!" Bella staggered away from Rex. She located the rooftop door on the far side of the building and hobbled towards it. The rain matting her auburn hair to her head, Bella brushed aside the water that dripped into her eyes. Behind her, she heard him scream again.

"You are going to die. Do you hear me? You cannot escape me", cried Rex.

"Why are you doing this to me?" pleaded Bella.

"Don't you remember who I am?" hollered Rex above the smacking of the pouring rain on the concrete

Bella stumbled and fell to her knees. The door to the rooftop was still about a hundred feet away as she crawled towards it.

"I'm afraid I don't. I don't make a habit of socializing with lunatics and assholes", scoffed Bella.

"You rejected me, Bella Cryer."

"What?" a confused Bella asked.

"I had asked you to be my date for the Washington High School prom."

"I went to the prom with Randy Snyder."

"You did say that you already had a date."

"But, I don't even remember you ever asking me. In fact, I don't even remember you at all."

"I was very shy when I was younger." Rex reached into the back pocket of his blue denim pants and pulled out his wallet. "Here, perhaps this will refresh your memory?" He tossed his high school class picture to Bella as he stood up and took a tentative step towards her, his hand still cupping his balls.

Bella dropped the photo, but it landed within two feet of her and to the left. She hurriedly pulled it to her as she dragged herself backwards to maintain the distance between her and Rex. She glanced down at the photograph. Cautiously, she lifted her head and stared at Rex Hartley. In an instant, despite her current situation, a huge smile covered her face followed by uncontrollable, hysterical laughter. "Oh my God", she blurted out. "I do remember you", as yet another wave of laughter passed through her.

"What's so fucking funny, bitch", demanded Rex.

"You are...this picture...everything", laughed Bella.

Rex groaned as he began to walk towards Bella again. Still laughing, Bella leaned against the wall and pulled herself up. "You sat with me and my friends in the school dining room during lunch one day. You asked me if I had a date for the prom. I told you that I was going with Randy Snyder."

"I knew you'd remember", spat Rex. "You embarrassed me in front of all of your friends. Did it make you feel good to hurt my feelings?"

Bella looked at the picture of Rex Harley again. He looked pathetic. He was about 250 lbs. overweight. His shoulder length black hair was greasy and unkempt. His face was pock-marked, including a fresh zit about the size of a Skittle covering the tip of his nose. Apparently, the blemish was too big that the photographer could not disguise it in the picture. A new wave of uncontrollable laughter escaped Bella. Finally, she said, "Rex, I am sorry if I hurt your feelings. My friends and I were wrong to laugh at you, but I did have a date for prom night. Randy Snyder and I had been dating for almost three months at the time. I am so sorry if you did not know that." Bella bit her lower lip to avoid another fit of laughter.

Bella tossed the picture back to Rex. It landed about ten feet and to the right of Rex. He did not retrieve it. Instead, he abruptly leaned back, pulled a pack of cigarettes from his top shirt pocket, and sat on the ground with back against the ledge. He exhaled loudly, the pain in his groin began to affect his breathing. He tapped a cigarette out of the pack and lit it.

Bella rose to her feet noticing the holes in her jeans from when she had fallen to her knees. Her right knee still oozed blood onto her pants. She winced at the burning pain that emanated from her scraped knees. A drop of blood fell onto her right hand. Reaching up to her face, she wiped away more water from the downpour raining down on them and blood that was flowing freely down her face from the top of her head. She traced the stream of blood to a large knot in the middle of her head. The pain was immense and her knees briefly buckled. Using the ledge wall as a guide, she sat back down placing her head in her hands until the pain subsided. When she looked back up, her vision had blurred and she could not focus. Rex just stared at her as he breathed deeply trying to regain his breath.

"What did you do to my head", asked Bella.

"I hit you on the top of your head with my flashlight", replied Rex.

"How did I get up here?"

"I carried you after I knocked you out."

"How did you know where to find me", asked Bella.

"I've always known where to find you. Ever since that day in high school, when you didn't want to go to the prom with me, I've watched you."

"That happened twenty-five years ago", shrieked Bella.

"Yes, it did. I’ve watched you at the grocery store, I was at your first wedding, and I was the physician’s assistant in the room with when you delivered your first child. I’ve followed your life for twenty-five years,…yours and that fuckhead lover of yours Randy Snyder. Now it's time for you to pay."

Rex reached for the pack of cigarettes in his pocket. He tapped another one out and began to light it. While Rex was diverted with his cigarette, Bella decided to make her move and get away from this lunatic. Quickly, she jumped to her feet, spun around, and raced towards the rooftop door.

Catching a glimpse of Bella out of the corner of his eye, he jumped to his feet muttering, "miserable, stupid, bitch".

The rooftop door was only 20 feet away. Bella ran faster.

Rex hobbled after Bella. He knew he could not catch her. He was too old and out of shape, plus he still had significant pain in his groin from where Bella had kicked him. No, he could not stop her from reaching the door.

Bella clutched the handle to the rooftop door and pulled. The door seemed to stick due to all of the rain. She glanced over her shoulder and saw that Rex had stopped running and was now just casually walking after her…still clutching his balls in his right hand. With one great heave, Bella yanked the rooftop door open, but before she could dart down the stairs into the apartment complex, a huge, heavy object landed on her knocking Bella to the ground. Bella rolled the object over and realized this was no object, this was a person. ‘What kind of sick, twisted, trick is this’, thought Bella.

Rolling out from underneath the person, Bella soon realized that the body was that of her old high school sweetheart, Randy Snyder. "Oh my God!!!!!! You killed him, you killed him, you son of a bitch" cried Bella. From the appearance of Randy, or lack thereof, due to decomposition, Randy had been dead for quite some time. Sticky, slimy bodily fluids that had seeped through the layers of sheets spread onto Bella’s clothes and skin. "Noooooooooooooooooooo", Bella cried. She crawled out from under the body, took one step, and slipped on the ooze that was clinging to her every step. She tumbled to the bottom of the stairs and rested on the landing after banging her head against the wall. Everything started spinning faster, faster, and faster until she could make no sense of anything that had just happened. She heard a loud rumbling coming down the stairwell, before she could realize what it was, it banged into her hard, bouncing her head off of the wall for the second time. As the haze faded from her eyes and mind, she realized that good-old, dead Randy had also fallen down the stairs and landed on top of her. Then she passed-out.

Rex Hartley stood at the top of the stairs, shaking his head in disbelief. Now, he had to go back down the stairs and drag the bitch back up to the roof. Slowly, Rex began his descent, muttering to himself all the while, "Rex, Rex, Rex, now you have to go down and drag them back up to the roof", but Rex didn’t really mind. He was going to take care of that bitch Bella, once and for all.

Rex reached into his pocket and pulled out a cord of string. First, he tied Bella’s hands behind her back, then he her feet together. He was not going to make the same mistake twice. As a bonus, he stuffed his right glove into her mouth, so he didn’t have to listen to her pleas of mercy or her empty promises should he leave her go.

Rex brought out a thick electrical cord from another pocket and proceeded to tie Randy and Bella together. He even went as far as tying Bella’s head back, so they would be staring into the black holes that were the eyes of Randy the corpse.

Randy’s facial tissue had begun to group together meeting in a gob of tissue, pus, and bodily liquids that dripped down onto what was once Randy Snyder’s broad chest and shoulders. Fragments of flesh gathered at the base of Bella’s chin. Rex began the process of pulling them back to the roof.

Once finished, Rex stepped back to admire his handiwork. He smiled and daubed at the open wound alongside what use to be Randy Snyder’s nose, more pieces of flesh fell off of Randy Snyder and landed in Bella’s hair.

Rex proceeded to pull Bella and dead Randy closer to the ledge again. He was gooing to hurtle them to the street below and watch them splatter on the sidewalk for all to see.

The rain began to pour and the rope tying Bella and Randy together grew tighter as Rex brought them up against the ledge.

Bella only half coherent from the fall, simply said "Please don’t kill me Rex, I have a daughter who needs me".

Rex ignored them as he placed them on the ledge. One little push and down they tumble onto the street below in front of the entire city to see. Rex paused to light another cigarette, damn his balls hurt. He took a deep drag and breathed in deeply.

Bella, who was lying on to top of the long dead Randy Snyder, managed to loosen all of the knots and had begun to pull her hands free.

Rex finished his cigarette and slowly rose to his feet and approached Bella and Randy. Randy rested his hands on the sides of Bella and Randy and slowly began to push. "Good bye, my sweet Bella."

Bella swung her arms and feet free and attacked Rex with kicks and punches. Rex tried to grab hold of Bella, but surprise and exhaustion had taken over. Bella pushed herself off of Randy’s corpse and grabbed the surprised Rex. She put her left hand on Rex’s left arm and her right arm on his back and pushed.

Rex could not stop the force of Bella’s push as he crashed into Randy. Randy hurtled to the rainy, wet night streets below. From behind, Bella flew herself into Rex and down too fell Rex. A thud like a watermelon crashing open was all that was heard. Bella leaned over the and saw that Rex landed almost directly on top of Randy, just as when Bella was tied to Randy’s corpse.

Bella started to sob, as she pulled out her cell phone and called 911. She then sat down by the ledge and waited for help.