Driving for more than four hours while listening to music, Jake reached El Paso Texas. He noticed a young but very beautiful girl hiking in the torrential rain. Feeling compassionate, he stopped and offered her a lift and a towel. The only possession she had was a small bag. Her long blonde hair and fair skin pulled at the strings of his heart. Immediately Jake was beginning to feel infatuated with her.

“Thanks so much,” she said as she opened up her shirt in an effort to dry herself. Jake looked in the corner of his eyes at her cleavage which was a tempting sight.

“Where you going?” enquired the nervous Jake who tried in vain to not show how awkward he felt.

“I’m actually going to Wyoming, I hope it’s no inconvenience for you,” humbly said the blonde headed beauty.

“No believe it or not, I’m on my way to Utah so it’s no problem at all. Oh and by the way I’m Jake and you are?” said Jake while he stretched his left hand offering her a hand shake.

“I’m Francine, pleasure to meet you,” said Francine as she shook his hand. Jake was (by standards to the judgements of society) a nerd. He wore spectacle glasses, formal clothes and loved books. However, Francine who remained staring out the passenger window had a mysterious vibe about her. This fascinated and at the same time pried on Jake’s mind.

He formulated thousands of theories in trying to understand who Francine was. There was only one way though for him to have verified any assumption he had, it required him to talk to her. Jake, however, had no experience or understanding of how to proceed let alone start a conversation with a girl.

“Uhmm Francine are you a model?” he said after which he regretted upon reflection of how rude his question sounded.

“No I’ve been asked that many times. I’ve even been approached by a few agencies,” she replied. He felt relieved as he had thought Francine would have been offended by his question. The drive to their intended destinations was long and Jake was now feeling the first signs of being fatigued.

“Hey Francine, I’ve got a few extra dollars to spend, I think we need to stop and spend the night at a motel. Of course we’ll have separate rooms,” said Jake nervously.

“Well if you want that then I think Death Valley should have some wonderful motels for us to spend the night,” said Francine who held no objections to what he requested. After the long hours spent in the rain a warm bath and room was the ideal remedy she desired to cure the first symptoms of the flu she had.

“But having different rooms is no option, we’ll share the same room,” continued Francine.

In a few minutes time they would soon be reaching Death Valley.

“So Francine, why really were you standing all alone in the rain?” asked Jake who tried to gather as much information regarding a person he knew for only a couple of hours.

“Well I got dumped by my boyfriend after he cheated on me,” said Francine while she smirked in the process.

“It’s hard to imagine a guy cheating one someone as perfect as you. I guess some guys don’t have common sense in their heads,” mentioned Jake.

“You’re right, my ex-boyfriend was an idiot well… Let me just say he didn’t have his head screwed on tight,” she said nonchalantly this time.

“There it is Death Valley,” said Jake much to his relief after he drove for over 8 hours. The rain still continued in a torrential downpour.

He drove into the parking lot of the motel. A few cars were parked so Jake naturally assumed not many people attended the motel.

“Are you a couple?” asked the receptionist who sat over the counter engaged in filling in some registers.

“Yes,” said Francine who didn’t give Jake a chance to reply. They received their key to room 222, and they made their way to the room.

“Well why did you lie?” enquired Jake who felt Francine to have mocked him. Jake knowing full well that he stood no chance in dating her.

“Had you said we were single they would have given us different rooms paid separately. This is just one of the many get rich tactics of those greedy motel mangers,” replied Francine as to why she lied.

They entered their room but realised that the motel was self-catering. Jake offered to go buy food at a nearby supermarket they had seen.

He arrived back at the motel and noticed that Francine was showering. Curiosity plagued his mind as he now began looking in Francine’s bag. Jake though stared in utter shock at what was found in her bag.

“It’s rude to look into people’s belongings without their permission,” said Francine who now stood behind Jake. He trembled at the malevolent feeling that came from her lifeless voice. Her body dripped water as she had just come out the shower naked.

Jake closed her bag before he turned slowly to look at her. Fear dominated over lust though she was naked what he saw in her bag could terrify any man.

“Aren’t you going to say anything Jake?” she asked.

“I’m…” he said as he gulped down the fear lodged in his throat. “I’m… sorry,” was all he mustered to say. “Tell me please just who that is in your bag?” questioned Jake who avoided eye contact with Francine. Her beautiful image cloaked a vile monster in disguise of a human-being.

“That is my ex-boyfriend and let’s just say I stole his heart and that’s no figure of speech,” said Francine as she laughed a sardonic laughter.

“Francine now isn’t the time for jokes, please I need an explanation and I need it now,” demanded Jake.

“Well if you insist, that what you saw is my ex-boyfriend’s decapitated head and shoved in his mouth is his heart. I told him that if he broke my heart I’d feed him his own,” she said as she approached the horrified Jake. He believed the same fate awaited him as he closed his eyes. Instead Francine began to lay on top of him and expressed that he was her next boyfriend to which she said, “If you dare break my heart Jake, I will feed you your own heart.”

***

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