Disclaimer: I Don't Own Anything Saw.
The Former Mrs. Jigsaw
Jill wandered across the dorm building to John's room. Their friend, Charlie, had told her that John was finishing up a project and he wanted Jill there to see it. She made it to the room and saw him screwing something together.
"So what is my crazy engineer up to?" She asked using her favorite nickname for him. John wasn't too crazy but a lot of the inventions he constructed made Jill think otherwise.
"It's an automated rotating key holder." John said. He stepped back and showed her the machine. It was a foot-tall wooden column seated on a motor with hundreds of keys hanging on it. "You press the switch and it starts moving."
John pressed a button on the machine to demonstrate. The machine stalled then, slowly picked up pace until all of the keys hanging on it shook back and forth almost making a melody.
"Good job." Jill praised, "But how are you going to get a key off of it if it's moving?"
"Oh. I knew I forgot something. I'll put the battery on drain. You might want to get under the table." John shut the door to the room and got under the table with Jill. Without looking he tapped a button on the key holder.
The motor suddenly went on full power making a loud whirring noise. A second later the sound of the keys hitting the walls and door went off like gunfire. One key even broke through the window. The motor continued going until there was a loud spark and it stopped.
The couple crawled from under the table. They looked carefully around the room. Many of the keys were lodged in the walls. Shattered glass was piled in front of the broken window.
"Well that was a huge success." Jill said. "You destroyed the entire room."
"I didn't know it would do that but hey I did get it to stop." John smiled.
Jill kissed him then opened the door. "You're cleaning this up yourself."
"Fine. And don't you worry I'll have the key holder fixed by tomorrow. Hopefully."
Jill tried to push the thought to the back of her head. It was years since that happened. John did manage to fix the key holder though. He in fact sold it to the dean so he wouldn't get in trouble with the room repairs.
Jill could remember a lot about her relationship with John. They met in college. He was already a junior but she was a freshman. They dated all through college and married shortly after. They both became successful. He was a civil engineer; she became a nurse and owned a drug clinic.
It wasn't until late in their marriage that Jill got pregnant with the couple's first child. It should have made their relationship better but it did just the opposite. One night during a robbery at the clinic a man named Cecil slammed a door into her stomach making her miscarry. They were devastated, John more than Jill. From there things got worse; John was diagnosed with colon cancer and an inoperable brain tumor. He tried to kill himself but lived and the couple divorced sometimes afterward.
Jill stayed out of the spotlight but John became known as a crazy engineer. He wasn't the same crazy engineer Jill knew though; he was a serial killer known as Jigsaw. He used his ideas to make traps for people who in his opinion didn't appreciate life. Only two out of many survived; one was a seventeen year old boy that was being held captive for his father's test. The other was a former drug addict. She survived two of John's traps and was believed to be his accomplice.
Jill was interrogated almost endlessly about John. She gave every last bit of information that she could but still was called back. Even today she was being called back which was why she started to think about him.
Jill waited in the detective's office until he arrived. It would probably be her fifth meeting with the detective. She couldn't remember his name but she knew his last name was Hoffman.
"Sorry about the delay, Ms. Tuck. There was a teenager calling saying he knew the whereabouts of your husband. It turns out he was lying. I should have known." The detective apologized.
"John is my ex-husband. Why can't you detectives get that right? Isn't that in the records somewhere?" Jill said.
"I'm sorry. It's just last time you were referring to him as if you were still married. I just thought that's how should respond."
"Forget about it. What do you want from me now?"
"This isn't an interrogation, Ms. Tuck. I have a few questions but they're not about John as Jigsaw. They're about you and John. You said, you loved him even after you divorced. Is that still true?"
"Yes. But I'm pretty sure that's common."
"I guess that's true. Next question, do you still love him?"
"What does that have to do with anything?"
Hoffman got up and closed the door. "You can't tell anyone about our meeting Jill." He said in a lower, more serious voice. "I know where John is. He's requested to see you tonight. But I'll only take you if you have something to say to him. He has a lot to do and I don't think he needs any visitors."
Jill was stunned. Of course she had things to say to John. There were things she needed to figure out. She came to the half true decision that she wanted to see him. "Yeah. I have stuff to say to him." She said.
"I'll take you to him now. Let's go."
They pulled up to the Gideon meat packing plant soon after it got dark. Jill walked behind Hoffman who had a gun ready at his side until they got in the building. Hoffman led the way until he got to the main floor of the plant. He told her to stay there until he finished talking to John.
Jill walked around the floor. She remembered how it looked when John first showed it to her on a blueprint. It was his first building and he promised that it would make them millions. It almost did but the company failed and the building was abandoned.
Jill prodded at several things. She didn't touch any of the traps or prototypes of them. She looked over at an empty bed situated in the room. There were stacks of books under the bed about philosophy and evolution. She went over to the shelves with the pig masks. She wanted to try one on to see if it would make her feel different but Hoffman called her over to him.
When Jill entered the room the first thing she saw was John. Her heart broke watching as he lied almost helplessly in the middle of the room on a gurney while a woman gave him water. Jill stood next to him almost bursting into tears. "Hi, John." She whispered.
"Jill, it's nice to see you again." He replied. "Amanda, please excuse us."
Amanda stared at Jill like she was checking to see if she was good enough to talk to him. She turned toward John. He nodded and she left.
"Isn't she one of the survivors?" Jill asked.
"Yes. She's also the one who will replace me once I'm gone."
"No can replace you, John. You're one-of-a-kind, my crazy engineer."
"I'm still yours?"
"Whether you want to be or not. So you and Amanda are you two…" Jill didn't finish her sentence.
"Jill, you know me, I wouldn't do anything like that. Besides she's much too young for me."
"I know but the way she was looking at you fooled me."
"She just takes care of me, Jill. She helps me do things I can't."
"Okay, I believe you."
"But you were accusing me. You were accusing me of cheating on you but how could I if you're around all the time."
Jill grabbed John's face and smiled at him. "John, we aren't married."
"I know."
"Then why did you say you weren't cheating on me and that I was always around?"
"I like thinking we're still married sometimes. It feels like I'm still married to you sometimes. Maybe it's my brain playing tricks on me but I still love you Jill."
"I love you too John. I never really stopped." They shared a kiss then Jill started to cry, "Why can't you come home with me? We can start all over. A new life everything will be different. I don't want you to die here."
John stroked Jill's face and wiped away her tears, "I want to go home. I want to get away from this but how can I? The minute I'm out, I'll be jailed. I'll die in a jail cell. I'd rather be here with someone who knows me."
Jill pulled away from him. "Can I visit you at least? Just a few hours every day to make sure you are all right."
"Of course. But you would have to ask Hoffman ahead of time, to make sure you won't get in to trouble."
"Okay. I love you."
"I love you, too. I'll see you tomorrow."
"Bye, Mrs. Jigsaw." He joked.
"I'm the former Mrs. Jigsaw. Don't forget it." Jill left the building with Hoffman.
As they traveled back to the police station, Hoffman said, "You never answered my question. Do you still love, John?"
"Of course I do." She answered, "He's my husband."