Adam/Eve – Love Ain’t Here (Chapter Eight)

Dina Caliente could remember her daughter’s funeral as though it was happening around her at that very moment. Davina’s minimalist ceremony had taken place on a cold yet sunny day in Spring – one of those annoying juxtaposing days that could only occur to tick Dina off.

She had taken Fatima to the ceremony in her arms.

Eve, however, was taken by her new mother. The mother who had to replace Davina. The mother who had been looking for a child for years. Dina had offered to take Eve as well, but they didn’t want a more ‘mature’ lady to be looking after two young, demanding girls.

The funeral was quiet and solemn. Davina hadn’t wanted a fuss, and Dina couldn’t afford a fuss. They each paid their respects and left quietly, yet all Dina could think about was whether or not the girls knew what was happening. Did they know their mother had died? Did they know who had murdered her?

Adam shivered as he awoke from his nap. He’d been dreaming again – no, not dreaming: he’d been having the nightmare again. He hadn’t had it for a while, but it was haunting his sleep once more.

But could he call it a nightmare? It wasn’t a figment of his imagination. Whenever he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep he saw her, he saw Davina. The woman he had loved.

Ithad been many years since he’d felt her lips upon his. Her skin grazing against his chest, her hair tickling the nape of his neck. He hadn’t heard her chiming laughs, her angellic tears, her soft gasps.

She had moved in with him a few months after she left Fatima at her mother’s home up the road. Dina had no idea she was living a stone’s throw away from her, and Davina preferred it that way. She couldn’t handle her mother, her constant worrying, her pathetic concerns, her senile mind. She wanted to be free, to be loved, to be young again.

Ever since having two children in her teens she hadn’t experienced youth: she hadn’t had a life since their birth. They were her life. But now she only had one, and that was fine by her. Dina wanted to keep Fatima – one less problem as far as Davina was concerned.

“I love it!” Davina squealed as she swished through the hallway in the gown Adam had bought her, its details shimmering in its newly bought glory. “It’s perfect!”

“You’re perfect,” Adam smiled as he walked over to her. She was practically shining with happiness, something that enriched his life.

Their kiss sealed the deal: completed the shared enjoyment floating through the air like a thick gas.

She didn’t see what was coming next. She didn’t expect him to get down on one knee.

Her heart shuddered inside her chest and she suddenly felt very cold and very exposed. Why was she standing there in that dress? She looked a fool: she looked like a woman in love. She’d done this: it was her fault.

“Don’t do this,” she said without thinking. It fell from her lips like vomit. She should have said something else – anything else.

“There’s someone else…” he said as though it was to be expected, as though it was stupid to even consider that she might love him.

“No, not at all!” She blurted. “I just don’t think i’m ready for…that, that’s all.”

“Well what more do i need to do? I’ve done everything i can! You’ve moved in here, you told me you loved me! I spent a killing on that dress – i’ve even put up with your bloody kid! What more do you want Davina?”

“There’s nothing you can do Adam! You’re lovely i’m just not…there yet – surely you understand that?”

“No i don’t – i don’t see what else there could be? Why aren’t you ready? There has to be someone else!”

“That’s totally unfair Adam, you know i’d never cheat on you – how dare you even suggest such a thing!” Davina’s voice was thickening, her eyes were blurring. Was she crying? Was she shedding tears over him?

He was bubbling inside, his blood was growing hotter and hotter by the second. His veins felt like they were melting, cracking, popping under the pressure of his rising anger. He needed to control himself. He needed to calm down.

“If this is how mature you are then perhaps i’m doing the right thing anyway!” Davina said stubbornly as though she was a princess throwing a tantrum and stamping her feet.

That’s when Eve, who was sitting at the top of the stairs patiently awaiting her mother as the sun began to rise over the town, heard the slap as Adam’s hand met her mother’s face.

That’s when Adam lost control.

She ran upstairs and he ran in to the kitchen. He needed to get something. Something stupid. Something that would change everything.

She stared at the balcony which stood outside their bedroom. She could get out there, she could jump off maybe? She could lower herself down and go for help…but what about Eve?

Adam had the knife. He had the power.

Something inside him was rupturing and eating him out. Something was taking over, he couldn’t see or think straight. He couldn’t even remember her name.

She put Eve down on the balcony and smiled at her reassuringly – everything would be okay in the end. Adam would come to his senses. Everything was going to be fine.

Yet she still screamed for help as Adam got closer. She yelled and howled with all her might until her lungs were burning.

She begged him to stop – to reconsider. To think about Eve, about Fatima. They needed their mother.

And yet he still put the knife in to her belly eighteen times. He even watched Eve as he did so.

Eve didn’t understand.

Someone had heard Davina’s screams. Someone had heard them. But it was too late. The only justice would be in Adam’s incarceration – twenty years in an institute, of which he served fifteen.

Eve didn’t understand. She just wanted her mummy to wake up and cuddle her like she used to.