Chapter 11
"What the fuck…" Eddie muttered under his breath.
"Eddie, I'm so sorry but Mara's system—" Alice cried.
"—did you mean by—" He walked slowly towards her.
"—I told you to consider the abortion—"
"STILLBORN?" Eddie boomed furiously. Out of anger, his right arm swung, striking Dr. Alice Hanes in the face with the back of his hand, knocking her to the ground. A resounding crack made the nurses squeal. There wasn't enough space for them to reach the door, and had huddled in the corner.
Alice was on the floor, a big, red, bleeding gash appearing on the side of her cheek.
"Eddie," She cried, nursing her wound. "Mara couldn't make it…I tried to tell you that she had a small chance of making it out alive…I told you…"
"You told me that if Mara couldn't make it, the twins would," He glowered, trying not to kick her. "They didn't. And neither did Mara."
Eddie was angry—angry at Alice, angry at the nurses, he didn't know. But he knew—he just knew—that Mara could have lived. He looked at Alice, and all of a sudden, it came like a snap to his head, he remembered everything.
And then the realized it: Mara could have lived. He looked down at Alice, heavily breathing to contain himself.
"You killed her." He said in a quietly deadly voice. "And you did it on purpose."
"Eddie please," She cried. "I didn't plan this—"
"How many times did you try throwing yourself at me?" He yelled. "How many times have you scowled every time I chose to be faithful to my wife instead of going out with you?"
Alice got up on her feet. "I didn't hate Mara, Eddie." She said fearfully. "I talked to her while you were gone and we became friends—"
"She'd never be friends with a whore like you." Eddie growled, slapping her on the face once more. The nurses were cowering on a corner, beginning to cry—Eddie didn't care.
"You hated her," Eddie growled. "You hated how I loved her and paid no attention to your attempts. Did you really think killing her and taking my wife and children out of the picture would make me love you?"
"I didn't—"
"I'm surprised you didn't end up in the theatre—because you were one fucking hell of an actress. You were shit trying to tease Mara when she got here, but that acting of yours when you pulled me aside to tell me what was wrong with her and how sad you looked—fucking Oscar-worthy, Alice." Eddie said sarcastically, tears streaming back down. "You know, I don't even think there was anything wrong with my wife."
"There was!" She was angry now. "Nobody bothered to look at her childhood records and—"
"Oh don't give me that bullshit, you whore." Eddie sneered. "I see it now—you botched it on purpose…yeah. Tried to kill my children before I got here, did ya'?"
"She didn't!" Eddie turned to look at the nurse in pink scrubs, she was in tears. "Mr. Gluskin, Dr. Hanes didn't—"
"Shut up!" He yelled at her, turning back to Alice. "I just wanted a happy family. A wife, a couple of children, and the devil sent a harlot in a doctor's coat to fuck that up for me just to sate her own desires. Just to show me this—"
He shoved a hand down Alice's blouse, ripping it off to expose her large breasts squeezed into a small black bra. She screamed, looking at the insanity in Eddie's eyes. She thought he was just stressed and angry over his wife and children's deaths, but now she could see the delirious anger in his eyes, and she was truly scared.
Eddie turned to look at the bed, gazing at the bottom part where all the blood was along with the surgical tools and the corpses of his twin sons. Alice held her breath as she watched him walk to the end, stroking the face of one of the infants, his lips curled into a faint smile. He's fucking lost it, Alice thought.
She let out a sob, immediately regretting it as he turned back to her with glowering eyes. She couldn't contain herself as she saw him grasp a scalpel.
"Let me show you what a fucking C-Section looks like," He smiled widely, approaching her as he cornered her and the nurses.
He wrung his hand around her neck. Alice saw him looking at the scalpel one last time before she coughed and choked as his hand was crushing her windpipe, and felt a stab of pain through her abdomen…and then nothing.
Outside, Janitor Atkins passed by the room, listening to the screams of a woman inside. Poor girl, He thought, pushing his cleaning tools on a cart. Birthing them babies can be a pain.
Peter Hopkins entered the pediatric ward, careful not to make any noise as he pushed the doors open. He knew Mara was in the hospital about to give birth using Ed's employee privileges, but because of his work schedule and problems at home, Peter couldn't find time to see his best friend's wife—and possibly, their two baby boys, his own god children.
He made his way to the room number Eddie said Mara was in. To make sure, Peter looked at the name tag on the door, and when he saw "Gluskin, Marianna", he nodded in approval. It was nearly midnight and the window was blocked, but Eddie could see the light inside and knew that someone was awake. He knocked quietly, entered…
…and froze.
"Oh hello Peter," Eddie smiled serenely. "Has your shift just ended? Have you come to see my sons?"
Peter nearly did a double take, looking at his friend smiling despite all the blood, gore, and dead bodies on the floor. He had never screamed as loud as he had, calling security on the man who used to be his closest friend. He collapsed on the floor, taking in the sight of Dr. Alice Hane's body—her throat slit, her face black and blue, and her abdomen gutted all the way out—next to the three nurses whose necks were twisted grotesquely. One of the nurses' scrubs was ripped, and stabbed many times by a small object which Peter guessed was a scalpel. Peter couldn't stop screaming.
"Shut up, Pete," Eddie snapped. "Eddie Jr. just stopped crying. And Mara's resting from the birthing, you know—oh damn, she's awake, thanks a lot. Well, she is excited to be a mother, I suppose…"
Peter took one good look to know that Mara was not resting. Eternally resting, yes, but not a rest that screaming would ever wake her. Her eyes were staring blankly into nothing, her skin pale as the part of the bed that weren't soaked in her blood. He could see a staple wire on the side of Mara's lip, giving her a weird half-smile. Her arms were contorted to hold a bundle wrapped in a blue towel. Peter tried pulling himself up against the door frame, and puked when he saw the babies wrapped inside the two blue bundles Mara's corpse and Eddie were cradling.
They were covered in blood, as if to match half the room the St. Mary's staff lay dead. One's head was blue-ish and looked like it was half-liquid, while the other one was soaked in blood, its lips were contorted into a black 'O'.
"That's not very nice," Eddie said, offended. "Puking at the sight of your god-children. They're only babies. We wouldn't have asked you to be their god-father if we knew you hated children."
"Eddie…" Peter trembled but managed to find his voice, knowing Eddie lost it. But how?
Before he could continue, the security came running. They had paused, dead quiet trying to take in the image of Eddie Gluskin in a room with dead staff, his dead wife, and his two dead sons. Unlike Peter, they did not falter, and tackled Eddie to the bed.
Eddie was caught off-balance that his hand slipped, dropping his son to the ground. The baby's soft head smashed, a bomb of deformed skin, blood, and bones. Peter vomited again.
"YOU FUCKING MONSTERS," He screamed. "YOU MADE ME DROP MY SON."
Eddie was muscular enough to put up a fight, but one of the guards was bigger and pinned him down long enough for the other to call for medical security and the police. The next group of security came in shocked to see the horrid sight, but handed the syringe quickly.
"YOU MONSTERS," Eddie screamed. "IF MY SON IS HARMED IN ANY WAY, YOU CAN JUST...JUST…."
The guard has injected Eddie under his forearm. They had released Eddie as soon as the drugs began to kick in, allowing him to move. Eddie frantically reached for the bed, holding his wife's arm, but for the first time, she didn't place her hand on his.
"Darling…" He said drowsily. "My darling…"