A Sad Man

A Sad Man
By Geoffrey Wilkins

Every night before bed Martin W. Saucer takes the trash out to the building door. He lives in an apartment block.
Tonight, however, he can't find the energy to get out of his bed. He has been there almost every minute since she left him. It's like he has lost the will to be alive.
He listens to music, “Yesterday”, by The Beatles. He cries. He waits.
Nothing happens.

“Why did she leave?” He asks himself “What did I do?”

He takes some pills. He falls asleep.
Hours later he wakes up He has blood on his hands.
She is dead on the floor. She has been dead for days. She never left, he killed her. He killed her out of jealousy. He thought she was going to leave him so he killed her before she could.

“Why did you leave me?” he asks her

Her decaying corpse offers no answer. It remains impassive, challenging him. It mocks him with it's silence.

“How dare you?” He screams at her, furious.

He stabs her again. He takes out her eyes, so they will stop looking at him. He wants to keep them. He sets fire to the rest, he uses some gasoline he has for the car and a kitchen match.

“That'll teach her, for leaving me!”

The fire spreads to the rooms and burns his house.

“It's hot here” he thinks before he dies asphyxiated by the smoke along with a family of four who live in the flat next door.
The firemen are called in and put the fire out a few hours later.

The Bloody End