Published in Runes ezine, first edition, 2004

Symbolic

I don't understand imagery. For instance, water is supposed to be a symbol of life and change. Like the tarot card, Death, it denotes the ending of one thing and the beginning of another. That's what Kevin says.

Water isn't anything but water in a swimming pool with a body floating in it. To me, dead is dead. Water is wet. What's so complicated about that? Look at Kevin's body, floating in the pool over there. Does it look reborn?

Of course my life will change now that Kevin's a corpse. I'll get the money because he drowned. Our life insurance pays double to the surviving spouse in case of accidental death. Kevin's camera was rolling when he slipped on the blood. He fell, smashed his head on the concrete, and then rolled unconscious into the pool.

I hate symbols and imagery. That's Kevin's gig. He's the film student, not me. Maybe that's why he set up the camera to tape this before he stabbed me.

As my blood seeps into the pool it makes a red stain in the water. I can feel the lancing agony in my gut. My arms and legs are useless. As I lie here at the poolside, like a discarded doll, Kevin drifts past me. He passes through the red cloud of my blood. I see a bit of crimson on his head, near his smashed temple, leaching out into the water to mingle with my own.

If he were still manning the camera he'd zoom in on that, focusing on the blood of killer and victim as they mingle in the blue water of the pool. "What a shot," he'd say. "How symbolic."

I wonder if the red stands for my pain or the hatred I feel for him right now. Is the blue of the water representative of the shivering cold in my body or the darkness that's closing in on me.

Maybe the water that surrounds his stupid corpse symbolizes fate, which seems to have tricked him. He thought he'd get the insurance money. Yet, there he floats and I'm the beneficiary. Too bad I won't live to collect it. I hear the camera motor and can't help but chuckle, even though it tears at my gut. That's right, Kevin, I get the last laugh.

Okay, Director, fade to black.