Chapter 3
Murderer
Katy shrugged off her outer clothes till she was down to her chemise and slipped under the thin sheets. She had a cramped little apartment with basic furnishing which she sometimes shared with Edward. Bunking with her did not, however, indicate a wish to procure her intimate affections, although he had readily admitted to affairs with a number of women – at least those who were not immediately sent shrieking by his menacing appearance.
He also told her, often in a passing manner, of the heinous crimes he had committed – a murder here, an assault there. She heard all this and could not believe half of it. Until he came to her apartment one night with bloodied hands.
"Why ain't you hidin' this from me?" she asked as he washed his palms clean. "I could hand you to the coppers, y'know. I mean, I won't of course, but I could."
"I do not hide it from you," he replied in his usual emotionless tone, "because as the only person who truly knows this side of me, you must know the truth. And the truth is that I am, quite simply, a monster."
She shook her head. "No one is ever 'simply' a monster," she said as she tried to scrub a bloodstain off his coat. "A person can be many things. A man once beat me up after I bedded him, just because he could, or because he liked to see me scared. That same man had a lovin' wife and daughter – I saw him walkin' in the streets with 'em the next day."
"Oh yes; so he, too, leads a double life. What if I told you that I am no better than he? In fact, worse…for most people are good and evil simultaneously, each side balancing the other. But when I am evil, I am completely and utterly evil. And as I have told you before, I like being evil."
She looked down at the damp coat. "Actually, you said you liked being an ugly…two-faced something."
He grabbed the cloth from her to wipe sweat off his brow. "Same thing."
As he finished cleaning himself up, Katy studied his harsh, cruel, magnificent profile. "Are you being evil now?" she asked quietly.
Slowly, in an act of leisurely menace, he turned to face her. "I could kill you now without straining a muscle."
"But you won't."
"And why not?"
"Because you have no reason to."
Again, that terrible familiar smile. "I had no reason to kill a good man by the name of Carew."
The confession shook her, though she did not show it immediately. "Edward?"
"What?"
"Please…don't mention anymore names. I don't want to hear 'em."
He pulled off his boots, giving no sign of acknowledgment.
"I mean…" She struggled for words. "You stay with me, you put up with me mainly 'cause I listen to the terrible things you say you do, and I don't judge you for 'em…but if you were to put a name to – to those you killed, or hurt – " Her eyes glazed painfully with tears. "I don't want to judge you, Edward Hyde. You're one of the only friends I got. And," she continued with difficulty, "I want to believe there's some good in ya – I want to believe that you're, you're just a man who made some mistakes. That's all."
"I see." He put out the dim gas lamp. "You want to believe in a fantasy."
She could tell he was in a black mood, so she held her silence, shifting awkwardly on the creaky bed.
In the empty darkness that was left, he added quietly, almost to himself: "So do I."
That incident, the murder of Carew, had been four days ago. But the tension between Edward and Katy eased little. Though she still appreciated his company (as he must have grudgingly appreciated hers), she could no longer remain in his presence without thinking: murderer. He acted the same as ever toward her – indifferent, brusque, companionable in his strange way – but he must have known, too, that she now felt differently about the man who had been her friend in a lonely and dangerous world, and who was also a criminal and a heartless fiend.
It was frightening, the duality of man. One of the deep, morbid thoughts she had begun to entertain ever since she had chanced to know the mysterious, unpredictable Hyde.
She lay on her back, sheets pulled tightly around her shoulders, eyes wide open in weary sleeplessness. Unbidden thoughts stirred like restless mares in her head. Her throat was dry. Perhaps she should get some water –
A cold hand brushed her neck heavily. Without meaning to, she screamed..
Edward's dark, intense eyes looked into hers. In the dark his teeth glimmered as he spoke.
"You do fear me."
Ashamed, she pulled her gaze away. She felt as of she had failed the test of friendship, if what they shared could be called friendship. Perhaps they had both failed from the start.
Minutes later she heard him gathering his things and pulling on his coat. He was leaving.
She never saw Edward Hyde again.
Ah, but will she see Ed again? I dunno. There's more to come after this chapter, though. Or possibly just a tying up of the plot (not that it's much of one, really). But it has been scientifically proven that reviews speed up the writing process! ;)
