Post 4-1

And now her phone rang at an inconvenient moment.

Norma tugged the stupid thing from her pocket with a sweating palm, staring at the scene she had just walked in on: Her guest—Emma's mother—lay slumped amid tossed cushions in her living room, the woman's eyes filmed-over, her tissue blue and bruised and bulging now. The scent of it matched the décor—a crawling linger of flowery death that spread into every crevice.

"Norman," she breathed.

He smiled above the body. "She caused Emma a lot of hurt, mother. I'm glad we did this."

Her phone rang again in her hand.

"We?" She registered her robe wrapped about her son.

"I think it's fitting, don't you, mother?" Norman stood. "Poor Emma could barely breathe all her life, and now... this woman who abandoned her really knows what that was like." Norman's eyes ran over the corpse in the living room. "You really have the best ideas, mother." His hand flew out of the pocket of Norma's robe to cover his lips as he giggled.

The phone rang again.

Norma managed a look down to see Alex's number. "Norman, honey," she whispered. "Please, just stay quiet a minute, okay?"

She answered the call.

"I'm outside," came Alex's voice.

Norma watched her son settle onto the couch beside the body, folding the robe over his leg.

"It's okay, Alex, forget I asked," she said.

"No," his voice cut back in. "No, we need to talk. And it's not a phone-type of conversation. And it has to be now. I'm pulling up."

Norman smiled up at her. "Is that sheriff Romero?"

Norma clung to the phone. "Okay, I'll be out in second," she said. She flicked her thumb over the screen, feeling the walls closing in, trapping the flower scent, magnifying it.

"Norman, honey?" She pleaded. "Can you please stay here for just a minute? I'll be right back."

Her boy, her beautiful boy smiled back at her. "That's what you keep promising, mother."

"Norman, please. I'll just be a minute, and then we'll—" she glanced at the body, "we'll fix everything. We'll figure it out. Remember, Norman?" She pulled a smile. "Two and two? Us against the world? We can go anywhere together. Just give me a second."

Norman smiled on the tussled couch, stroking her robe over his knee.

"Just give me a second, sweetheart," she whispered again, backing away.

She collided with Alex when she opened the door, and then she urged him out.

"Now is not a good time," she told him.

The man barely budged. They stood two inches apart on the porch, Norma near-pressed against the closed door. She stared between his eyes when he didn't say anything.

"How dare you?" he finally managed.

"Alex—" she played up a shaking smile.

"How dare you?" He pressed closer. "Marry me for insurance? Have sex with me even because you really don't care? How dare you say those things to me, Norma?"

"Alex—" The sun cut across them, painting the whole world in stark hues.

His chest pumped. "Do you even know, Norma?" he hissed. "Do you have any idea what I went through—for you? For you. And for you to cheapen what I had done—"

Norma steeled herself against the grasp of his fingers on his arm. "What?" she snapped. "You haven't done anything that you didn't want to."

Alex stood back. He tore his eyes away, releasing his grip to wipe his face. "I've killed for you, Norma," he muttered. "I've killed—for you."

Norma felt the solid door behind her. In there her son was waiting—waiting for everything to be alright. I've killed for you.

She looked between Alex's eyes.

"Please," she whispered. "Forget I asked you for help. Please just go."

Alex turned and moved closer, frowning. Norma felt her pulse quicken, shielding the door. His gaze ran over her and along the wall, along the house.

"Norma, what's going on?"