The Woman in the White Dress

I thought my boss was joking when he produced a photo of a young woman with a big smile on her face. She was beautiful, the kind of innocent thing you would see in a Disney princess movie. He was smoking a cigarette from Gale's pack. I could tell he was irritated that the boss wanted to borrow one from him, but he knew better than to talk back to him.

You never talked back to the boss. Only my girlfriend could, and that was because they had been best friends for many years. 

In other words, she had the balls to do so, while we all acted like cowards. 

I was glad to see that Mitch was going to be there with us for this assignment. Gale was always such a huge pain in the ass, and even though I was already used to his sarcasm, he did get to me sometimes. 

He was smoking another cigarette, the car now smelling like smoke. I rolled down the window, waving my hand. 

"Can you not do this right now, Gale?"

"If you don't like it, jump out of the car. You'll survive the impact, remember? One of the perks of being immortal, Waylon," Gale sneered. 

"Gale, stop being such a dick. We're all in the same boat, remember?," Mitch said with a sigh. 

I could see Gale give a sarcastic smile in the rearview mirror, and then it instantly faded as he went back to smoking. I kept the window down the whole time, until we reached our destination. It was a home, located on the bad side of town. It was the only nice house in the entire neighborhood. 

"Well, will you look at that? Reminds me of my old home life. It was fucking horrible, but I had a nice house at least," Gale muttered. 

Mitch pulled the car to a stop. "Come on. It's time to take care of this target."

I hesitantly got out of the car, as Gale and Mitch went ahead of him. I thought of what the boss said, remembering how shocked I was when I first heard what this beautiful woman did. She had murdered both of her children, and her ex-boyfriend was the one who came to us for the assignment. 

He told us that they were dating, and it was going well. Until he mentioned that he didn't care for children, and then she disappeared on him for a whole week. Then she contacted him again, telling him that something came up, and she had to take care of it. He didn't suspect anything, until she went to the bathroom, and he decided to throw out the trash for her. 

He had spotted a bag full of children's clothes, and it made him quite suspicious. He continued to stake her out for a long time, and then he ended up finding the nail on the coffin. She had hidden boxes of photos of herself and two children in the attic, and he started to notice an awful smell from the steam trunk located in the corner of the attic. 

He told the boss that he knew he was jumping the gun here, but he had a horrible feeling that she was responsible for the death of her children. The boss then had him continue his investigation once he found real proof, and then he came back to him in tears, confirming the dark truth. 

Mitch knocked on the door, as Gale put out the cigarette with his boot. Mitch looked back and forth in the street, as Gale did the same. I stood in the back, feeling revulsion start to well up within my body. I jumped when the door opened, and a beautiful young woman was standing in the open doorway. She was wearing the same white dress like in the photo, and she looked radiant when she smiled at us. 

She looked like something that would never hurt a fly.

"Can I help you - ''

Mitch and Gale shoved the woman back inside the house. I followed them quickly inside, as the girl started to scream. 

"Shut the fucking door, Waylon!," Gale yelled. 

I slammed the door shut, sweat already falling down my face. I felt like I couldn't breathe, and I leaned against the door. A comforting hand patted my shoulder. 

"You're going to be alright, Waylon," Mitch whispered. 

Gale grabbed the woman when she attempted to run. He wrapped an arm around her midsection, and covered up her mouth to keep her from screaming. She struggled and kicked, trying to pry away his arm. There was pure horror in her eyes, and I suddenly wondered if perhaps this was all a big mistake. That maybe her ex wanted to take some sort of messed up revenge on her. 

Mitch took out a photo from his back pocket, and showed her the image. She stopped struggling when she saw the picture. 

"Did you kill your kids?," Mitch asked casually. 

She began to struggle again, but Gale kept a firm hold on her. 

"Listen to me. If you tell us the truth, we can let this go. Just talk to us. Truthfully. We know what you're hiding in the attic."

She stopped, and only stared at Mitch. She dropped her arms, now hanging limply at her sides. Gale let her go slowly, and she dropped into one of the kitchen chairs. She buried her face in her hands. 

"Did you kill your kids?," Mitch asked again. 

She nodded meekly. "Yes."

"Why?"

"Greg didn't want kids. So, I thought it would be a wonderful fresh start."

"What kind of mother says that? That does something so awful? So evil?"

She looked up at Mitch, anger in her eyes. 

"I lost my freedom once I had those fucking assholes. They were taking everything from me."

"How did Greg not know about your two children?"

"I kept them locked up in the attic."

I flinched upon hearing those words. Gale looked in my direction, mouthing, "What the fuck?"

Mitch crossed his arms over his chest.

"You are one sick bitch. You know that? They were kids. Children. You were their mother. You were supposed to be their mother. Not their fucking executioner."

The woman bowed her head. She didn't say a word. 

"Are your children still in the steam trunk?"

The woman didn't respond. 

"I'll take that as a yes."

Mitch pulled out his phone, and put it right in front of her defeated frame. 

"You have two options. We call the police, and you go away for life. Prison will not take kindly to a woman who murdered her own children. Or we will cut off your arms, since it was your own hands who took the lives of those innocent souls. We will not call 911. You will stay here and bleed to death. Your choice."

The woman raised her head. Tears were streaming down her face. 

"If you were in my shoes, you would understand why I did it."

Gale let out a disbelieving laugh. 

"My home life sucked ass, but at least my parents never wanted to kill me. They were just awful cooks."

The woman started to cry. 

Gale mimicked a phone call, directing his gaze at Mitch. He called 911, and suddenly put on a surprising acting performance. He was crying real tears, doing a good job with mimicking a panicked man. He sounded just like Greg.

"God, please send someone. My girlfriend…I think she had kids. I think she -I think she killed them. Oh God, the stench, the steam trunk - oh god."

He hung up. 

"Let's get out of here."

Gale shrugged. "We should go pick up some fast food. I'm fucking starving."

He left first, with Mitch following close behind. I stood there, watching the woman. It was hard to watch, but I couldn't bring myself to feel an ounce of sympathy for her. The picture of her and her children was on the kitchen table. The smile on her kids' faces was so hard to look at. 

It really made me wonder if she forced them to pose for that picture. I stormed out of the house, and ran back to the car. I threw myself in the backseat, not realizing that Gale was now sitting in the passenger seat, like he knew that I needed that space all to myself. I was sobbing. 

I hated crying like this, I thought I was done with this shit. I was supposed to be made of steel at this point of the job, but that picture was what broke me. Mitch started the car, and we left the scene. 

Once I was done crying, I sat up in the backseat. Gale was smoking another cigarette, but this time, it didn't bother me. It was comforting, in some way. 

"I thought…I thought the boss never allowed targets the option to live."

"It was Greg who insisted. He said that she deserved prison. That it was the only punishment she deserved," Mitch replied. 

"So…that arm thing…was that a lie?"

"Greg said that maybe if we came up with a fucked-up threat, she would comply."

"Oh. How did the boss feel about that?"

"He felt so sorry for the guy, that he decided to give in this one time."

"Oh. That was nice of him. I guess."

Gale blew out a smoke ring. 

"I don't agree with the boss on this one."

Neither of us said anything after that. The silence broke once Mitch ordered Panda Express for us. And we remained quiet, and the only sound we could hear was Gale stuffing noodles into his mouth. I forced myself to do the same, to make myself forget the job. 

It helped. In some way. 

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Thank you for reading!

Emy Quinn