The scream startled Tess, as Darla let it out and scrambled to the top of the dressing table, kicking at a laughing Lucille who danced around her and pawed at her. Darla kicked and yelled. Lucille laughed and menaced until Darla whipped off her belt and started hitting her attacker with it.
After several very adept thwacks with the buckle, Lucille finally backed off, but only a little. “Okay, ya little bitch. Keep it. Didn’t want it anyway.”
Darla caught her breath, but didn’t dare leave her perch from the dresser top. She looked around the room. “What are all these…” She whipped her head to Lucille. “You’ve been screwing in my bed.”
“Jealous?” Lucille had to be quick to put her hands up in defense as the belt snapped in the air just an inch from her face. “You crazy bitch!”
“You’ve been screwing…in my bed! Haven’t you!”
“Yeah.” Lucille glared at her. “It’s not like you were using it. Hell, we haven’t seen you since the night you ran screaming “They’re trying to kill me” out the front door leaving that disgusting trail of whatever it was when you’re water broke.”
“You are trying to kill me, me and my baby.”
“You’re still breathing aren’t you bitch?”
“But you want me dead!”
“I could care less.” Lucille calmly smoothed the silky front of her lingerie. “I just want the threats and the paranoia and the general nightmare of insanity you create gone.”
From her steadfast perch on the dresser Darla looked down. “You just want to keep me quiet.”
“Doesn’t seem any one is able to do a good job with that. Quiet is hardly a word in anyone’s vocabulary when you’re around, these days anyway.”
Darla pointed a finger at Lucille. “I know what’s been going on, Lucille. I know what all three of you have been doing. I’m not stupid.”
“Darla, you barely know what your name is…”
“You want me out of the way so I won’t tell anybody. You want me dead so no one will ever find out. There’s a word for want you all have done. I don’t know what it is, but there’s a word for it.”
Lucille laughed again. “You just keep proving me right.”
“…And I don’t think it’s legal. You’d have an awful lot of explaining to do if I died.”
“Honey, I keep having to explain things when you’re alive.” Lucille rolled her eyes and looked at her fingernails. “Alive…dead…it don’t seem to make much of a difference.”
“You’re just upset because I’m in control now.” Darla mocked her.
“Darla, you can’t even control your bowels.”
Darla kicked out and caught Lucille in the jaw sending her reeling out of Tess’s sight. In seconds Lucille came back into view howling like a wounded animal on attack. Darla jumped from Lucille’s lunge and landed on a chair between the dresser and the draperies.
“Stay away from me, Lucille!” She warned. “Stay away from me or I’ll…”
“You’ll what?” Lucille growled, hunched over like a linebacker ready for defense.
“I’ll…I’ll…” Darla looked up at the ceiling. She smiled and looked back down at the huffing Lucille. “Or…I’ll…do this…” In the bat of an eye, Darla whipped one end of the cloth belt around the thick wood brace that ran the length of the ceiling and tied the other end around her neck.
“I see we’ve been hiding our past as a calf roper.” Lucille giggled uncharacteristically.
Tess could see Darla’s face clearly. It was full of rage and vengeance. “I’ll do it. I swear, Lucille. You come one step closer and I’ll kill myself.”
“Oh do it, bitch.” Lucille sat on the bed and crossed her legs. “Get it over with. We’re all tired of the threats. Do us all the favor and just get it the fuck over with.”
“You’ll never find my baby.” She threatened.
“Like anyone cares, Darla. You’ve done us all a favor and gotten rid of the thing. One less mess I have to clean up.”
“Think of the scandal, Lucille. You hate scandal.”
Lucille leaned back on the bed, casually sighing. “Actually, Darla. I love scandal. It’s what I make my living off of. If there ain’t one hovering around. I got nothin’ to do, so I create one. Those are the best. Those I can always make in my favor.”
“They’ll find out the truth!” Darla hissed. “Everyone will know what I’ve known all along.”
Tess couldn’t help but notice Lucille tighten her body language just a bit. She tried to remain nonchalant, but the slight crack in her voice gave her away. “And exactly what is it that you think you’ve known all along Darla?”
“Darla…hah!” The woman with the make shift noose around her head snorted. “Darla Hutton doesn’t exist!”
“Of course she exists, you idiot!” Lucille spit. “You’re Darla Hutton…”
“If I kill myself, they’ll investigate. It’ll be all over the papers! Everyone will know!”
Lucille stood but went back to examining her fingernails. She sighed. “Everyone will know what, Darla?”
“Don’t come any closer!” Darla wailed. “I’ll do it. I swear!”
“Everyone will know what?”
“That I’m not Darla Hutton.” The woman seemed to be relieved to admit that fact. Tess couldn’t help but notice the pleasure in her face giving her the courage to go further. “If I die, they’ll know that truth. I’m not Darla Hutton and I never really have been!”
Lucille laughed, never taking her eyes off her cuticles. “Oh honey. You are insane.”
“You’ll never be able to explain your way out if I kill myself.”
“Actually, Darla Not Darla Never Really Have Been Darla, suicide is not my first option, but one I can so easily deal with. It easily explains so much…”
Before Tess had a chance to gasp, Lucille turned her back, kicking behind her and knocking the chair from beneath Darla’s feet. Stunned, she watched Darla struggling to find solid ground beneath her.
“Most of it would be a lie, but most everything about everything these days has nothing to do with the truth.” Lucille spoke, back to Darla as her feet did a horrifying dance in the air.
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