I was seconds away from turning to leave the monster in its grotesque glow of candlelight when it said,
“Hello, Arthur.”
I knew that voice.
I knew that voice.
Oh, dear god, I knew that voice.
I tried to say her name but all that came out was a low mmmm noise.
Lady Alligator drummed its sharp nails along the porcelain edge of the tub again. I felt the sound in the depths of my soul.
“I suppose I knew you’d find me someday,” it sighed, stretching luxuriously. “After all, I’m sure it’s all you’ve been doing. Looking for me.”
I thought of when I’d burned her clothes in the backyard and said nothing.
Lady Alligator cocked its head, surveying me with the same bored impatience I remembered so well from my few young years as a husband. Its eyes above that slitted, inhuman nose… they were Miranda’s, there was no mistaking that, and I think perhaps it was the worst part, that though the rest of her had become a monster the eyes hadn’t changed at all.
“Say something, Arthur.” Not a suggestion. A demand.
“What – what happened to you?” I finally managed. It sounded monumentally stupid even as it left my lips but I could think of nothing else. “Who did this? Who did this to you?”
Lady Alligator rolled Miranda’s eyes.
“Oh, Arthur,” she said, disappointed in me as always. “You’re so naïve.”
I took my suit jacket off and held it towards her. To cover her up, you see, because it didn’t matter that 10 years had passed, it didn’t matter all the time I spent convinced she’d left me in the streets of Manhattan, it didn’t matter that I thought I had changed because I hadn’t, I still loved her and I thought I could save her.
“Stand up, Miranda, put this on, I’m getting you out of here.”
Lady Alligator stared at me. She didn’t move.
“Come on, Miranda, we’re leaving.”
“What, like this is one of your dreadfully boring cocktail parties and you’ve had your fill?” it said with a barking little laugh. “I’m still the pretty wife on your arm and you can shoo me out the door because you’ve decided it’s time to go?”
“This – this place—“ I could barely get the words out. “God damn it, Miranda, someone mutilated you! They turned you into a – a—“
“A freak?” Lady Alligator tossed its head back and laughed again, louder this time. It was not a pleasant sound; it was the cackle of a witch in a fairy tale. “Oh, dear sweet Arthur. You of all people should know I’ve always been a freak. Different. You could read it on the faces of every person in that shithole town, I belonged there no more than a tiger belongs as a housecat.”
I stood there, holding my jacket towards her like an idiot.
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