Freddie Page smiled as he washed his hands and looked at his latest victim. A young female, sitting cross legged, looking toward the sky, her hands on her knees with white roses stitched into her palms. "Hester", he thought, he will call her Hester, just like every other before her.. just like her. She was so beautiful. Dark hair and pale skin, with eyes dead yet still so vibrant looking. She will make a nice addition in his garden. He will brush her hair every evening and whisper sweet nothings. Freddie frowned as he saw a fly land on the pale, unmarred skin of the woman's leg.
Fucking flies. If there was anything Freddie hated, it was flies. He swatted his hand at it and turned to look at his problem.
Oh my darling, I am ever so sorry I did not get to you sooner. Freddie approached the rotting corpse of another young woman he picked up two weeks ago. Maggots were filling her mouth and nose, slowly eating her flesh away.
"Such beauty - wasted." He bent and kissed her decomposing forehead. Slimy residue of her skin clung to his lips.
The smell was the only thing that never bothered him. It was the smell of art. Of his life's work. Of beauty.
I never meant to get so distracted, my dear, but you see her, he tilted her head up so her dead, milky eyes could look at his latest piece of work, she had her lips. Freddie gently brushed the dead woman's cheek and got up. He will dispose of her later. But now; a smile curved onto his lips..
Freddie dressed up. He always preferred to be nude when working. It felt more natural, more intimate. Less messy. He put on his jacket and went upstairs to his main living room that overlooked a beautiful garden full of his masterpieces.
They were all in various poses but they all looked the same. Like her. He adored them all, but above all, he loved only one. His centerpiece.
He approached her slowly, eyes adoringly roaming all over her naked body. When she saw him she started trashing, a soft silk gag was muffling her screams.
"Ssshh, my beloved. It's just me. Did I startle you?". Freddie crouched and brushed tears from Hester's face with his thumb. "I have a surprise for you." He looked at the empty spot next to Hester. A spot that was already reserved for his last work of art. "I think you will like her". Hester screamed as best as she could, horrified eyes pleading but all Freddie saw was an angel who simply needed time to realize just how deep and unyielding his love was for her and. No tears or bruises could distort such stunning and delicate face.
A doorbell rang through the house and into the garden. Freddie ignored it. Hester started trashing more violently. Satin ropes painfully digging into her body making her bleed. Freddie took her face into his hands, "Shhhh, my love, shhhh. Those are just distractions, forget them. Enjoy the view," he turned her head left and right, "enjoy my work, my token of love for you. It's all for you, my sweet Hester, it's all because of you. Hester. Hester. Hester. Hester..", he chanted her name like a prayer.
A loud crash came from inside the house and dozens of steps could be heard running and approaching them in the garden.
Freddie sharply looked into Hester's wet, red eyes with fury and sadness raging on his face yet his touch remaining soft. "Why can't it never be just you and me?", he asked her sadly.
Doors swung open and men armed with guns all pointing at Freddie filled the garden. Some could be heard retching. Animals. Trampling all over the place, disrespecting and disregarding the beauty in front of them.
"Frederick Page! Step away from the female and put your hands where I can see them!", one of them shouted.
Freddie smiled at Hester. "They just don't see it, do they? ". Multiple voices demanding him to step away from her were muted by the muffled pleas for help from Hester. "No, they don't.", he leaned forward and hugged her, "Oh my Hester. Mine. Mine..."
"Step away from the victim!", one of the voices yelled, no more than a few feet behind him.
"Even the most beautiful flower in the garden has to wilter and die", he whispered into Hester's ear and just like a petal gracefully falling towards the ground, Freddie slit her throat with a straight razor.
Bullets started raining into his back yet it felt nothing compared to her blood washing his face. Her final blessing. He smiled as he slumped into her warm embrace.