Writing in Reverse

For this assignment we chose a photo from Bill Sullivan’s Turnstile Photography Project and wrote a short story about what that person had done before or after passing through the turnstile. This is the story of Tenique Mist and her husband Robert.

Tenique Mist and Her Corkscrew

Tenique Mist has just finished killing her husband with a corkscrew. Late last night, Robert had his wife pour him his usual glass of Mortlach, but little did he know, there was nothing usual about this night. Tenique had discreetly slipped some rohypnol into his drink. While he was semiconscious, she used the small knife blade attached to the corkscrew to slit his throat. She then sat back on the couch to watch her husband take his last few breaths and bleed out onto the plastic tarp covering the chair he was sitting on.

Robert is Tenique’s fourth husband, and fourth murder. Robert had no idea of her history before they got married. He only knew her the kind woman who had lived next door to him for three years. When he heard of her previous husband’s death, he had befriended her, as he had lost his wife just a few years before and thought he could be of some comfort to her. Now, one year and three months after their first encounter, he was facing the same fate as her previous husband.

After he had thoroughly bled out, and Tenique was certain of his fate, she went to work with the blade of the corkscrew once again. Slowly and meticulously, she cut his limbs off his body one by one. She was sure to not let one drop of blood fall onto the carpet below the plastic tarp, as that was her one mistake seventeen years ago.

Jonas was Tenique’s first husband. He had met the same fate as Robert, Michael and George, but one thing had been different. A small drop of blood had fallen from his arm onto the carpet beside him. When the police received reports that Jonas was missing, they first searched the home where he and Tenique had lived for just over a year. When they found the blood spot on the carpet, they were quick to question Tenique, but after years of training, she passed the polygraph with ease. To the dismay of the police, she was let back onto the streets where she would inevitably kill again.

Now that Robert’s body was dismembered into easy to handle chunks, she was able to put them into small black trash bags and take them to the city dump. Unfortunately, Tenique’s car had been impounded the previous day, so she was forced to take the subway there. But Tenique was certain that with her careful planning and her ability not to show emotion, no one would be any the wiser as to what was in her bags. But the one thing she was not counting on was the camera as she walked through the turnstile into the subway station.