Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew it was going to come to this. Tanya and I are just not the same, and one of us won’t survive the other. I’ve heard a saying that there’s room for us all. Well, that’s a lie, at least as far as she and I are concerned. The world is NOT big enough for both of us. The universe must choose.

Years ago, I would have agreed, though. As a teen who was an outsider, she was able to see past what made me “weird”, and made me her friend. Not in a charitable way, but really befriended me, sleepovers and all. But as we transitioned to adulthood, she became americas sweetheart: married, two children, stay at home mom etc. I became forgotten. That is, until I happened upon some social media posts speaking my name. Such cruel and vile words used to describe and defile me. And she agreed. Didn’t even defend me. I could have let it go. But it brought forth so much suppressed rage that I can’t put back in Pandora’s box. It’s her or me.

I was able to get into her apartment through a window with a broken latch. And I sat and waited for her to come home. My stomach was bouncing around, so I thought about getting a snack, then the knob turned. She came in, all glammed up and a little tipsy. This should be easy.

She noticed me and asked the usual questions: what are you doing here? How did you get in? What do you want? Blah blah blah. I put my syrupy sweet voice on and convinced her to sit down and try to relax. Even offered to pour her a drink. Said I just wanted to talk. She rwlaxed a little. I went behind her, aimed and pulled the trigger. Right through the heart. I moved her quickly so she wouldn’t bleed all over the place. There was a thin rug on the floor that I ended up wrapping her up in. I knew that building had a furnace room down in the basement- she told me she sometimes would take flings in there to fool around. I decided to push her down the garbage chute, which led to the incinerator. On the way down, I thought maybe I should have made her into smaller pieces, but it’s too late now. I snuck down to the basement, made sure she was in the contraption, then turned it on. The smell was horrible, but since it was so late, I didn’t think anyone wouldn’t notice. I made my way outside and walked home.