Chapter 32:
"Do you ever wonder what it would be like to live away from here?" Katrina asked him. "Have your own house, a real job, things like that?"
Vincent froze, his heart running cold. "So that's what she's been thinking of." His thoughts turned to all the times he had went to look for her, but she had been away with Bo. He couldn't take it any more. "You want Bo, don't you? You keep thinking of a life away from here, with a normal husband and a normal life. No killing. No wax. Just peace, without me."
She stared at him. "What the hell are you talking about?"
He glared at her as he put the mask back on. "This is what you love, isn't it? Just the artist. Not me. You want Bo in your bed."
Katrina's eyebrow rose as she scrutinized him. "I don't understand."
"You don't want me."
"Are you crazy? What's the matter with you?"
His hands gripped his hair and he began to pace the room. "You don't want me. You never did."
"Vincent, what the fuck?"
Vincent gripped her arms painfully. Her eyes widened in shock for a single moment before she glared at him.
"I don't know what brought this on, Vincent," Katrina said coldly, "but I suggest you shut up before something bad happens."
"You want to kill me so you can be with Bo. Both of you want to leave! You're only here because of me! Because I'm too much of a freak to face others!"
"That's not true and you know it!" she shouted, shoving him away. "What the fuck brought all this on? Do you need medication or something?"
"How dare you lie to me?"
"I'm not lying!"
"You won't leave me. I won't let you."
"If I wanted to leave, Vincent, you sure as hell wouldn't be able to stop me."
"Why did you pretend to love me? Why make me so happy just to do this?" Vincent began to pace again, squeezing his hands into fists so hard his fingernails dug into the skin. "It's because you and Bo are so alike, isn't it?"
"What do you mean, alike?" She glared at him, her eyes darkening with rage.
"Alike. You like to torture people! You take your time to kill them!"
"So what? You kill people too!"
"For art! Not just for pleasure! You and Bo, you love to kill! That's what you see in each other! That's why you and him . . . make love."
Her eyes narrowed. "Yes. Fine. Bo and I fuck all the time. We go to Lester's house, and I fuck him too. The three of us fuck each other while we kill people! It's our fetish!" Katrina's voice rose to a scream.
"I knew it . . ." Vincent rasped, trying to hold back the pain in his throat from speaking so much.
"That was sarcasm you big dumbass!"
"You're going to leave me. You and Bo. He's your lover." Vincent's eye bulged from its socket.
Katrina shook her head slowly, beginning to look a little frightened. "Vincent, I would never leave you. How can you think that?"
"Because I've seen you just gazing off into space! You spend hours doing it! You're thinking of what life would be like without me! And I know you and Bo leave for hours at a time, at least once a week, sometimes more! Where do you go? Why would you go somewhere for that long, alone, if you weren't letting him have you!" He reached back, his hurt and rage getting the most of him, and punched her in the cheekbone.
She let out a gasp . . . sent him a look of shock and pain that tore his heart in two.
"Vincent . . ." she whimpered as she fell back onto the floor.
He drew his knife, the one she had given him. "You'll never leave me," he growled in her ear.
Katrina let out a cry of rage and kneed him in the groin. She pulled herself up quickly and kicked the knife from his hand. He stood to face her, still wincing in pain.
"I'm going to kill you!" Vincent snarled.
"I hate you, Vincent! I hate you!" she screamed at him. "You're the one that's insane! Bo might be a sadistic asshole pig, but you . . . you are crazy! How can you believe, even for a second, that I don't want you? That I don't love you? Are we going to do this for the rest of our lives? Have everything going so good for a while, and then have you go nuts over nothing and act like I don't want you?"
"You don't want me, I know it."
She laughed cruelly. "You're right. I don't want you. I hate you! That's what you want to hear, isn't it? So I'm telling it to you!" Katrina's lips contorted into a sneer as she thought up the worst spear and let it loose. "God, your mother sure fucked up in raising you! She was a stupid, ugly whore who didn't know how to do anything but play with wax! That's what you want, though, isn't it? You want a mommy, don't you? Want me to help you with the mask, sweetie?" The last was a perfect imitation of his mother.
Vincent let out a roar and lunged for her. Katrina stepped out of the way and reached back. In a flash, her hand shot through the air and slapped the deformed side of his face. Vincent's head snapped to the side painfully. His wax mask fell to the floor.
Katrina stepped back, wide eyed, and cried out as he drew a knife from his boot and pointed it at her.