Siren's Cove

by Cassie Sandwich

Accounts Payable

~ 2023 ~

“You disgusting pig”. Ronni comes right up against where I am, seated on the cliffside. Good. “I told you if you were going to do this, you need to do it behind my back! What the fuck do you think you’re playing at, sending me a photo of you with your whore?” 

Naia laughs, her smile huge. “Actually, I sent the photo!” She jumps up excitedly, walks to Ronni’s side.

She pivots, stares daggers at Naia. “Stay the fuck out of it, tramp. This doesn’t concern you.” 

I get up, walk behind Ronni. “And who does it concern? We’re together. So what. I’m a free agent after all, right?” 

She pivots to face me, as I pull Naia into me hard. Ronni looks shocked, scandalized. “If that’s what you tell yourself, Eddy.” She gets a harder look on her face. “I guess that means there’s no reason for you to be a part of the trust then, right? That’s ok. Enjoy your new life with your little waitress. I’m sure you two will be very happy alone, poor, on this shitty rock.” 

I curl my fists, shaking. She’s not going to intimidate me anymore. “I’m tired of being under your thumb, you wrech! You forced me to go along with your horrible plan, you wicked woman, and your stupid plan ruined my life! Your stupid quest for whatever it is, fame? It left me a joke to the entire world! You left me out to dry and yet you never let me go! I’m done with it, Ronni. I’m done with you.”

“Well then.” She huffs, steps back. “Well. Maybe this rock is too good for you. Maybe you should be rotting away in a prison cell.” I shock upright. Glare at her. “I mean, that’d make an excellent first episode, right? When the world hears how disgusting, reprehensible Edgar Penrose killed his own brother out of anger? Anger at his own failings? And then forced his way into my life to try and take everything he had? Survivor stories sell, honey. Maybe they’ll make a movie about my life. Ending with you in the electric chair.” 

I shake, violently. How dare she. Act like she’s the victim! Act like she’s better than me! She thinks she’s got the last laugh. Well, she has another thing coming. “Naia!” I shout, walking up to Ronni. “Do it, now!”

Naia stands up, leans into Ronni… and then bowls over. Starts chuckling to herself, then outright laughing, a full outburst. Hyena like. She looks up to me, tears in her eyes, her toothy grin wide and predatory. What. What’s going on? “I can’t believe it!” She starts laughing again, pointing at me. “You stupid bastard! I can’t believe that you would actually think that I was going to help you with this!” 

Ronni seems just as confused as I am. “What did he tell you?” 

She wipes the tears from her face, shrugging softly. “He wanted me to grab you so you’d be off balance, and he could throw you off the cliff.” 

“What!” She runs up to me, slapping against me repeatedly. “You no good lousy piece of shit!” She turns to Naia, walking up to her. She grabs my shirt, dragging me over to her too. I’m too dazed to stop myself from following. “And you! What are you here for then!” I find myself wondering the same thing. Why did she humor me so long if she was going to pull this?

She laughs again. “You two deserve each other. You’re two of the dumbest motherfuckers I’ve ever had the displeasure of knowing. You can’t even tell what’s happening right in front of your faces. You both just confessed to me that you’re murderers. Conspiracy, and committed.” 

“Goddamn it!” Ronni shouts from next to me. Sticking her finger directly into my face. Hisses at me. “Oh, you’ve really done it now, numbskull! You’ve really ruined things for yourself, you greedy, lecherous–” 

She cuts in, cackling. “Sorry Veronica, you’re in it as well. Little canary sang all about you.” 

Ronni walked up next to me, hands on her hips. “Ok miss thang, what do you think you’re going to do with that info then?” 

She shrugs, putting her phone in her back pocket. “I could go to the press with it. Ruin the both of you for life. The rumors would never end. Maybe the police will finally start digging into you a little more.” She laughs, crossing her hands behind her back. “Or, I could set up a little bank account, you could start filling it up, and you’d never have to hear about me or our little issue again.”

I step towards her, shock starting to leave me. “You know this was all out of my control! I was only trying to make right what she set wrong.”

She sneers at me. “Oh please. You’re still refusing to take any responsibility. Poor Edgar, everyone always does you wrong. You’re no saint.”

“But baby, what about you and me? Something more? You wouldn’t want to throw that away, right?” 

She looks back at me, finally, with disgust in her face. It was like I was an ant, a smear on her shoe. “Us?” she said, contempt in her voice. “What ever made you think there was an ‘Us’? Was it the disgusting preening you did in the literal two times you’ve seen me? Or that smug look on your face when you thought you found an easy lay? What would ever make you think I would stoop low enough to give myself to a pathetic, pseudo incestuos chaser?” 

“I.. I didn’t… You know I wouldn’t treat you like that. I’m a good man, if you got to know–”

She laughs again, cutting me off. “God damn, do you ever stop talking? You’re not the slick conman you think you are. Master storyteller, the only one who ever believed it was yourself.” She sneers, siddling right up in front of me. “You’re too stupid to know what a joke you are to everyone. First to your dad, then to your sister, then to the world. I see Veronica’s wearing your ring. Fitting for the real king. Does that make you her bitch?”

 I… I, I shook, fists clenched. I’m pathetic? I’m a joke to her? Fuck it. I still need my offer to the island. I turn my attention to Ronni for a second. Ronni nods to me. “How about option three. Someone else dies on this rock.” 

I grab Naia by the halter, throw her to the ground. Ronni sits on her, holding her still, slapping her in the face. She just cackles at us, mouth open wide, larger than the rest of her face toothy, horrible. She spits in my direction. “You’ve got nothing, Edgar! You’re a no one who has nothing, and you have no way to hurt me!” 

I scream, loudly, into the air. Run up to her. I know what will wipe that smile off her face. Pick up my boot, and stomp down right on her smile, hard. I stomp out on her arms, on her chest, over her awful predatory mouth over and over. 

“Eddy!” Ronni grabs me, pulling me back. “You did it, it’s over.” I look down at the… at the mess that was Naia. Her arm is twisted backwards, her chest is caved in. Her jaw is pressed at a different angle than the rest of her head. She stares lifelessly up into the air.

I turn to walk down the path, though the thick fog, when I hear a wheezing from behind me. I turn back around, the wheezing turning into a thin laugh, then a cackle. “No… How can…” 

Naia’s corpse sits up, cackling. Uses her non-twisted arm to grab the bottom of her jaw, and set it back to where it should be, tongue out, lapping at her own blood at her fingers. “That was rude.” I feel myself going pale, stepping backwards as she stands. Flesh rips away from where the break in her jaw once stood. “To be fair, I was just fucking with you before. I could care less about you two anymore. But this island, it’s not done with you. You have a debt to pay.”