Maggie Fern

 What would you do if you were sucked into an alternate reality that seemed to be made up of all your worst nightmares? Fight? Run? Scream? Die? I tried all of those things before he found me. He looked like salvation. He was salvation until he wasn’t. We’re the only ones alive in this world of horrors, he made sure of it. He and I against it all. How did he survive this hell for so long? Thriving amongst the ghouls, monsters, and things I can’t even begin to classify. Easy, he just needed to be every bit as screwed up as the shit trying to kill him. I want a way out more than I want the miasma thick air in my lungs or the mysterious, dark-haired, green-eyed man stuck here with me. What does he want? I couldn’t tell you. All I know is the monster that was once my salvation doesn’t seem too keen on letting me go. 

 It’s crazy how quickly things can change. One day, I had the perfect marriage, the perfect husband, the perfect house. A perfect life in a perfectly safe suburbia neighborhood. Only thing is Oliver wasn’t perfect, nothing was. Not beyond its shiny, attractive surface anyway. I hated him with every ounce of my being. In my mind, my options were limited…at least that’s what I told myself. How I justified the carnage when faced with the things I’d done.

Oliver Neilson has been missing for five months now. Five months of peace I hadn’t known for years. They say I did it. I hear their whispers, see their judgmental stares. The police hear it too. It’s only a matter of time before I have to atone for every lie, every misdeed. That was until he showed up. Those honey-colored eyes, the small freckle on the left side of his nose near the tip. He’s a perfect replica of my husband. I should be happy, relieved even, but I’m not. I’m horrified. Because that could not possibly be Oliver Neilson.