An evil man

I just stood there, right in the middle of an awful fight and a terrible abuse. I wanted to help so badly, but how? My movements were paralyzed by the evil man that I thought I knew.

The words that came through his lips hit her like a slap in the face. He walked towards her. She could see the enlarged pupils in his eyes while he came against her. There were anger in his entire attitude, she was scared. And she wouldn’t doubt it for a second that he would have killed her, if it wasn’t for Liza.

They had started early that afternoon shopping all the ingredients together. It was Friday and they were both happy with that they had finally reached the weekend. They carried the groceries home to Liza’s place, where they were going to cook. The two girlfriends had decided earlier this week that they had to do something together this weekend. And, as usual, they decided to eat good food and try some new wines together.
They chopped onions and sliced chicken in Liza's kitchen and, in the meantime, while the food was in the oven, they both sat down to chat in Liza’s comfortable couch.
“White meat means white wine” said Liza and reached for a bottle of wine in her holder made of wrought-iron goods.
“Right, let’s see if we can get the cork out of it” Maria laughed. Thinking of troubles they’ve had at other dinners. A wine screw is a good thing to have around if you are going to drink corked wine.
With delicious food, good wine and lots to talk and laugh about their “girly” dinner turned out to be a great Friday night. So far.

For hours they just sat there in Liza’s living room and uncorked another bottle of wine. After a while they both became pretty drunk, and were just as silly as drunken young ladies can be, giggling a lot.
But also, Maria told Liza that she and Peter were considering trying for a baby during their vacation in Thailand.
“How great” exclaimed Liza. “I have to wish you good luck. You must let me be the first to know if you succeed.”
“Sure, I always tell you everything. Don’t I?”
“Yeah, as far as I know” said Liza and laughed.

After finishing wine bottle number two, they both decided to “do the city”. They called for a cab, and half an hour later they were right in the middle of the crowd at the local bar.
Liza ordered a beer and Maria a Cosmopolitan. They were giggling and chatting for a while in the bar until Liza met a friend from work, who she got in to a deep conversation with. Maria left for the dance floor.
It was crowded at the bar that night, probably because of payday for most people. Liza couldn’t find Maria anywhere in the crowd when she started to look for her. But still, Liza had a good time. As drunk, she was very talkative and got in to conversations with a lot of people, mostly men for a reason.

When the bar closed and Liza was in the line to get her coat, she saw Peter, Maria’s boyfriend.
“Hi, so you’re out tonight?” yelled Liza at him in the loud crowd.
“Yes, how are you?” said Peter and gave her a hug.
She told Peter all about the dinner.
“Me and Maria came here together, but I don’t know where she went.”
“Oh, she went home. Told me she was tired, and didn’t have fun any longer” said Peter. “If you’d like you can join me for a walk home, and come up for a cup of tea and talk to her.”
“Why not, but do you think she’s still awake?”
“We can wake her or, just the two of us can drink tea together.”
Liza thought for a moment that it sounded kind of strange, that she would drink tea in the middle of the night with her best friend’s boyfriend. But, he probably didn’t mean anything about it and by the way, Maria was at home.

It was dark in the apartment when they entered it. Only a soft sound streamed out from the speakers. She liked the music, even if she could barely hear it.
“Maria? Are you awake?” yelled Peter.
No answer.
“C’mon, do you want some tea? Or beer?”
“I should probably go home” whispered Liza.
“No, don’t be silly now. You stay, sit down and I’ll make you some tea”
She did as he said. But she didn’t like the tone in his voice, it was changed a bit.


She could tell there had been a party. There were glasses and empty beer cans all over the coffee table. Another thing she saw on the table was a squared brown piece of something and beside it, a smoking pipe and a pack of tobacco. Liza could only imagine what kind of party it had been.
Peter appeared from the kitchen with two cups of tea and suddenly Liza started to feel uncomfortable in his company.
“Here you go” he put down the cup right in the middle of the mess on the table.
“Thanks, so you had a party here tonight?”
Peter stretched out on the couch.
“Yea, I had a few friends over. We had fun.” he said.
They both sat quietly for a while and drank their tea.
After a while Peter said.
“Come over here and lay down on the couch with me, you must be tired.”

After that, the apartment turned into a battle field. I was right in the middle of it.

It all started with Maria flying up from bed with no clothes on, ran into Peter and slapped him in his face. Of course she’d heard the conversation and understood what Peter was up to.
I just stood there, watching my naked friend flying from one wall to another. It was loud in there. I was screaming, Liza and Peter were arguing. He hit her, again and again. I was in the same apartment as a very dangerous man, trying to figure out how I could help my best friend out of it. Everything, the entire situation was hysterical. The man was hitting, destroying and yelling. Maria was crying, I tried to think how I could stop it. I closed my eyes, couldn’t stand it any longer.
Suddenly, I heard somebody slammed the door.

There I was. Alone with an evil man. He was staring at me. I was scared to death. Paralyzed, wondering if he were going to start hitting me now. He didn’t say anything, neither did I.
I could hear Maria banging the door, she was out there, naked in the staircase.
I had to do something, but how, was I supposed to get out of this mess.

~written by Victoria Olsson, fall 2006~