Chainsaw

This is an entry in the

750 Word Project 2022

. If that's not your cup of tea, please move on. Only the text between the stars counts.

*****

The sound of the chainsaw biting into the cushions of the antique sofa were amplified by the enclosed living room. Even though it was but a minute before the sofa collapsed in half, that was enough time for the irate, nearly nude woman to come screaming into the room from where she had been sleeping in her bedroom when he started.

"What the fuck are you doing?"

"I'm just working on the future. I figure we're about to start fighting, so I may as well get started." He calmly braked the chainsaw, and then placed it down. Grabbing one half of the sofa, he pulled it to the front door.

"I loved that sofa! It was a wedding gift to us from my grandmother!"

"To us. Both of us. It's half mine. That's your half," he pointed. "This is mine."

"Why the hell did you destroy it? It's not worth a damn now, and we can't use it."

"I wanted my half," he stated dragging it to the door. "I want half of those chairs, too." He continued his task, dragging the destroyed sofa to the waiting van.

He had been expecting what he saw when he reentered the house; she was now holding his chainsaw, trying desperately to get it started again. "You get the fuck out and calm down!" she threatened, waiving the chainsaw towards him.

"Or what? You don't know how to use that, you don't have the strength to start it, and I'm within my rights. I own half of everything in this house, and there's only one thing in it I don't want."

Calming slightly, but still with a bit of wildness and anger in her eyes, she flipped the starter, and pulled the cord again. "Oh, and what is that?" she asked.

"You. I have no use for a lying, cheating slut. Oh, you're beautiful on the outside. You're beautiful the way a coral snake is beautiful. Still wouldn't want it near me. And on the inside... I'm not sure how or why I ever fell in love with you. I only asked you out the first time as a favor to Beth."

The chainsaw finally roared to life. "You bastard. I gave everything I had to you. I gave all my love to you. I can't help..."

"Being a slut?" he helpfully interrupted. "Being an unfaithful bitch? Being an adulterous?"

"But it was just..."

"Sex?" he again interrupted. "A mistake? Neither of those is true. You did it deliberately, you did it with planning." He shouted over the running chainsaw, loudly echoing in the room of a house, no longer a home.

"I never meant for this to happen."

"You meant for everything that made this happen to happen, even if you didn't think I'd ever found out. But Beth is more my friend than she ever was of yours. That's your mistake. Just because she was your best friend didn't make you hers. And she loved me enough, respected me enough, to tell me." He could see she was crying as his words bit home, the sofa fight now becoming a memory, less painful than the present.

"I love you. I never stopped loving you." she pleaded, the chainsaw drooping dangerously low, towards her nude leg.

"You've destroyed that love for me. I don't need your love anymore." He paused for a moment before continuing. "If you had ever truly loved me, you could never have done what you did. I get it was naughty. I get it was exciting. I understand all of that, from the outside. But I'm not on the outside. I'm the one you've hurt. I'm the one you betrayed."

She raised the chainsaw in his direction, not thinking. "I've said I was sorry!"

Stepping one step towards her, and pushing his chest forward, he screamed, "And it's not enough! You've cut out my heart once, sure as hell looks like you want to do it again!"

Her tears clouding her eyes, the chainsaw blade dropped down to the coffee table which had stood in front of the once grand sofa. Her voice was muted, compared to the chainsaw, but he heard it clearly, even as he heard the distant sounds of a police car siren; one of the neighbors must have called the police.

"No, not yours, mine!" she cried out one last time as she pulled the chainsaw back up.

*****

For those who say "Finish the damn story!" I'm pretty sure there's an end there.