DEADLY ROMANCES

Peachy,My Love

2011-05-31T03:16:00.000-07:00

A peach rose-lying on top of her desk,was,of all roses in history, an indefinable and dainty rose tinged with deep,tangerine hues. The solitary peach rose lay

there,untouched and seeming imprisoned by the coldness of her room.

Little by little, she began to touch the peach rose with her fingertips and

when she noticed it had no thorns, she held it closer to her nostrils.But alas! The scent of the

flower was quite unlike any fresh rose she's inhaled before. It smelled a century old.

It was utterly cold,and felt like snow.Its petals were like tissue soft.

Where did the mysterious flower come from? She had no idea.

Perhaps her ever loving and sweet husband gave it to her as a present.

Maybe it was his surprise gift for her upcoming birthday.

It had to remain a secret. Lance detested it whenever one of his secrets

was spilled without his prior approval.

Sherry Lynne Carter was driving slowly and carefully along a deserted

neighborhood. Deciding to take another route gong to their cottage villa,she chose a less

trekked neighborhood and prayed to her guardians that she wouldn't meet a roving maniac

somewhere.Lance Thomas,her darling hubby, had always reminded he to be wary of unfa-

miliar routes.

It was dark and raining massively and of all things she forgot to carry a

raincoat,least a decent umbrella.

She parked momentarily alongside a house that looked medium and oldish

in style. There was a middle aged woman who approached her and knocked on her windshield.

"Excuse me, Miss, but maybe you need a cup of hot tea,"the woman soft-

spokenly invited."What are you doing out here on a stark,rainy night?".

"Oh, didn't mean to really. Heading for home now."

"You might want to come in the terrace for a minute.The rain will be even

more fierce later."

Lovingly defeated by the woman's touch of congeanility,Sherry stepped out of her fave VOLVO and joined the friendly woman on her terrace.

While walking under the woman's umbrella,Sherry suddenly spotted the rose

bush of the woman.

"Ma'am, may I know where you got all those peach roses? I've never seen anything so lovely and delicate,especially under the influence of rains,"she was raising her voice

above normal.

"Oh that! We have a rose garden both in our front and backyard. We have all kinds of roses,all colors,"she breathed hard."But the peach roses belonged to my daughter."

Lance tiptoed down the staircase, avoiding every bit of lapse lest he awakenened any of his sleeping kids. The moment he opened the door,Sherry materialized as if she had seen

a white ghost.

"Where on earth have you been hiding? It's way past midnight,"he almost yelled.

"I know. Got past by a lonely house with a rose bush."

"A rose bush!", he almost broke down in hysteria. "And Sally has been waiting for you to help her with her artwork. Had to make a rag doll, which I knew nothing about."

Sherry simply shrugged off what Lance muttered and she dropped down on the

love seat.

"Can you believe it Lance? Her daughter went to the same university that you're teaching.She must have been one of your students in Medieval History."

Lance took a swig of root beer."Really?And may I know the lucky name?".

"PEACH.She said her daughter's real name is Peachy Anne.But everybody called her Peach.I heard she was quite popular in school.Dean's List."

From the instant that Sherry voiced out the name Peach, Lance took a swift turn and ditched some of the beer in can. His wife failed to catch how ashen pale his face was.

From that day forward that Sherry encountered the woman with the rosebush,she has been seeing a peach rose every now and then. If not on her table,she found one on her pillowcase.Sometimes she saw one on her bathtub,even in her baby's crib.At first,she thought

Lance was playing tricks on her.

Then one afternoon, she got the biggest surprise of her life when a dozen peach roses

melted and dried before her agonizing sight all at once.She was still trying to digest what supernatural event has just transpired when the roses disappeared in split seconds.

Her voice trembled. "But I felt them-they were fresh...the why did they dry up...and now why are they gone? Dear Lord, what is happening to me?",she gave way to frightening sobs and when she could not longer help herself, rushed to phone Mrs. Terrence.

"My daughter has been missing for almost a year now Mrs. Carter,"the grieving woman

finally divulged to Sherry in an almost whispering tone."She was slated to graduate a magna cum laude in her degree and a few weeks before the graduation line up she disappeared."

"Haven't you informed the authorities?',Sherry curiously queried while sipping her tea.

"I did,to no avail."

"But she was pretty popular...how come nobody stepped in to help?".

"Everyone assumed she went away to heal a broken heart."

"Why?Who broke her heart?".

"Long story...but my daughter,no matter how smart she was, was downright stupid when

it came to love."

Sherry put down her cup of tea and embarked on a theory."Her boyfriend must have knocked her out."

"It's much more complicated than that Mrs. Carter.She got involved with a married man and got pregnant with his child."

By that sheer pronouncement, Sherry finally kept mum and locked her thoughts.

BURIED ALIVE

2010-07-19T00:02:00.000-07:00

N
Laura is bewildered by her husband's recent behavior-he seems
detached and physically out of reach. But she holds on to her faith that
Ronnie gets back to his old self and romantacize her just like the good times.
The boat is put back into question.The white, sailing boat, which is named
after her-LAURA-is being considered by her husband to be outdated and
forlorn.
"Why can't we just buy a new boat?," Ronnie reiterates everytime
they're having dinner.
"But it's not within our budget,"Laura pronounces,with her angst
written all over her face."Why can't you be contented with our old boat?"
she pleads in a half-hysteric and half-choleric mode.
End of bickering.
But to Ronnie, he plans to end it all.
So he seeks seclusion in the arms of her dimwitted, blondie mistress;
ROXIE.
"I told you so. Don't be so hardheaded. Go get rid of her.And we'll live
merrily ever after in some secluded island, along with our new luxurious
boat!".
Ronnie reclines to a side of their bed and lights a cigarrete. He fondles
Roxoe's golden hair. Getting rid of someone is easier said than done. Doing
the heartless act is far more convoluted.What if the authorities find out?
But still, Ronnie caresses the nefarious thought on his mind.He'll carry
out the move soon. In the meantime, he has Roxie all to himself tonight.
Together, he and Roxie roll over the bed in splendid and unrestrained
delight.
The perfect opportunity transpires when Ronnie invites her unassum-
ing wife to a private dinner in a cozy restaurant. They choose a fine,reclusive
spot in their place at Manitoba, Canada.
Laura is unexpectedly relieved because her husband evades the topic
on boat-selling. Rather, he spills unnecessary sweet things to her,which remind
her of their honeymoon days.
"Sweetheart, I don't want a new boat anymore. All I want is you!"Ronnie
serenades his wife stealthily.
"Oh honey, I never expected a better news other than that!". Laura
states in her usual, womanly whine.
While Ronnie fills his wife's wineglass with poison,she dizzily recounts their
love story-from the time they meet and make love for the first time.Before, she
finishes gobbling her wineglass, she drops on the carpeted floor, and she is
viewed mercifully by the other diners.
In no time at all, her untimely demise spreads in the community like
wildfire. Everyone seems remorseful of her sudden passing, especially her
coworkers at a salon.
Ronnie, however, deliriously blissful at his newfound freedom, instructs the
embalmer to embalm his wife thrice. Yes,EMBALM HIS WIFE THREE TIMES.
Unknown to Ronnie and his kitten of a mistress,the embalmer fails to
enact his job. The embalming machine malfunctions.And he is distracted.Instead
of having the machine fixed, he leaves Laura to her dead body.Anyway, there is
only one day mourning and she is to be buried on the very same day. No one will
notice.
After about a few days, Ronnie and Roxie buy their DREAM BOAT.They are
headed to a paradise where they can start a new life together.As they celebrate
in Laura's house, they are agitated by a severe, loud knock on the door.
"Do you mind of we interrupt?",the police officer divulged in a calm,suspicious
voice.
"No, not at all. What is it officer?".
"Your wife's corpse is not in her coffin. We tripled-checked it.She has vanished
myteriously.Did you change her tomb?".
Ronnie's mouth falls open. Beside him, Roxi's face drains of all its natural color.

Perfect Husband,Perfect Killer

2010-02-26T02:50:00.000-08:00

"Never marry a man who can't control his emotions,"

rang an old adage about marrying right.But for Cherryl

Keaton,the brilliant and talented attorney from Washing

ton University,such assumption was a bit hard to digest.

Especially so when it was a bit late to realize the dama-

ge done.

When Cherryl was found abandoned in her vehicle on

a busy day in Portland,Oregon,she was bludgeoned to

death.Her face was swollen and puffy.And her mass of

injuries consisted of lacerations,contusions,and abras-

ions.She had been brutally beaten that she looked unre-

cognizable.

It certainly would have taken a person so full of RAGE .

That he kept striking and hitting.Again and again and

again and again.

TWENTY FOUR TIMES.

Her family were baffled.How could a cherished friend

by dozens of people die despicably and in such a brazen,

bloody fashion.She was warmly received for her warmth

and vivacity. She was a very studious girl back in law school

and was a noted member of Gamma Phi Beta Sorority.In

no time at all, she became a full partner in the law firm of

Garvey,Schubert and Barer.

But somewhere along the way, she became madly,

insanely and irrationally in love with someone.The object of

maladjusted affection was Bradley Morris Cunningham,

a banker and a real estate developer.

Cherryl was deliriously quoted:"I was very much in love

with him,and I thought he was very much in love with me.

She had met very few men in her life who were not intimi-

dated by her intelligence and income.

And who was the lucky guy? Bradley Cunningham was

said to be a superb lover.An ex-wife nostalgically confes-

sed."When Bradley kissed you,it's as if you're the only

being living on earth." Indeed, his courtships were exqui-

sitely planned. In fact,he was a virile,marrying man. Un-

known to Cherryl,however, she was his fourth wife,and not

the second.And she had no inkling he would get himself a

fifth wife later.

There were to be five women who became Mrs.Bradley

Cunningham before he reached his 30th birthday.

Was Bradley indeed a compassionate lover or was it pos-

sible that he was not what he seemed,that he was a man

who had brutally murdered his wife?

Cherryl's brother,Jim Karr,was not fully convinced about

the car accident theory.He was a bit stoic when he said,

"HE DID IT!THAT BASTARD DID IT!".

It wasn't just the brother who was skeptical about his sis-

ter's death,the other women in Bradley's past unanimously

felt the same way,albeit in deep hesitation. Bradley scared

them to death in such a frightening ardor.They looked like

trembling kittens when Bradley was around.

His wives.

His sister.

His daughter.

His mother.

They believed that given Bradley's impeccable temper, he

was capable of REVENGE,VIOLENCE,AND MURDER.

His ex-wives all swore and testified How Bradley tortured

hit them profusely,and abused them constantly.He even

kicked his mother a couple of times,which drove her to fore-

warn her daugher-in-law,"Cherryl,you've got to be careful

around my son.You don't know him that well!".

He was never an ounce sorry for it.He was mean to his

only daughter too and often bullied his lone sister over a

petty argument.

Women in Brad's life were disposable,dispensable,

objects of derision and hatred-expendable.He once spat,

"A woman's place is in the kitchen,in the bedroom.

What she is good for is to be in the kitchen and be a whore

in bed. A known psychologist stated firmly that "WHAT WE ARE ,

WHEN WE ARE OLD IS ONLY A PROGRESSION.

OF WHAT WE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN.IF YOU WERE

A MEAN KID,YOU'LL PROBABLY BE A MEAN,OLD MAN.

Unfortunately,there was absolutely no physical evidence

to link Bradley with the crime.The blood hair,and finger scrapings

taken from him were not enough to convict him.It was futile to

file a case against him because there were no physical witnes-

ses to pinpoint him at the scene fo the crime.

So he was a free man...but not for long.

In due time, he was faced with a civil case. Easier to prove than

a criminal case,the jury in a civil case would only decide the

most compelling evidence.

The facts of the case involved three siblings from the Cunning-

ham marriage-Jess,Michael and Philip.Prior to the crime,

the couple had an acrimonious divorce proceeding and it

involved full custody fo the boys. Both Bradley and Cherryl

were fighting on the edge to be the primary parent.

Cherryl added fuel to the fire when she stripped Bradley to be

the inheritor of her estate.She drew out a new will,stating the

bulk of her assets to be divided equally among her boys,

leaving Bradley with nothing. She was dealing with a manipulator

and a master puppeeter.

And she was no longer willing to abide by him.

Through a series of tests, Bradley was labeled having a character

disaster.He was a NARCISSIST. It meant he could not relate

meaningfully with anyone.He had no conscience.A narcissist

cannot love in a genuine way.It's an incapacity.

Bardley was a sadist. He was comfortable with cruelty.He wan-

ted to dominate,to control.Individuals who believe that their mothers

are that bad almost instinctively reenact the same rage toward

in their lives.

In the end, Bradley got what he deserved in justice. He was convicted.

"Did you kill Cherryl?" ,The judge asked him for the final moment.

Bradley was as cold as a dead fish.

"How long does it take to strike a struggling adult, human being 24 times?" The jury insinuated.

In September 21,1986,Cherryl was about to pick her lovely boys from a weekly visit with their deranged

dad. She was vehemently shaking from hysteria, since she was not sure about the safety of her boys.Bradley

might take them forever away from her. So Cherryl told her mother randomly,"Mother,write this down. He told me he's at the Mobil Station by theIGA." Cherryl had no vision about the kind of devilish entrapment awaiting her.