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Aleksander does not consider himself a man of faith. But even he must admit that the amount of luck he possesses is quite extraordinary. At times, he truly thinks there exists a Saint somewhere who must have favored him so much for everything in his life to go as swimmingly as it does.
After all, he has a wonderful sister in Ulla. An amazing job as an English teacher at the local high school with lovely students and not too nosy colleagues. And most of all, the most beautiful, wonderful, loving wife in the world in Alina.
Their love story is the stuff of fairytales and something Aleksander knows he will tell over and over to their future children and grandchildren and even great-grandchildren if they are lucky enough.
In fact, although his darling wife will blush and beg him to stop, Aleksander never wastes a moment telling hapless strangers the story of their relationship and how much they are meant for each other.
“I’m telling you, the universe wants us together.” He says to the man sitting next to him in the basement as he fixes up the shackles on the man’s ankles.
“You see, my lovely wife is the most virtuous woman you will ever find. Her sense of morality is impeccable. Her friends even jokingly call her ‘Sankta Alina.’ So regrettably, I had to hide this part of myself from her. Killing people isn’t exactly a fun hobby to reveal to people, you know? Certainly cannot reveal it on a first date or the third date. Hell, I thought about telling her the truth on our wedding night but ended up chickening out. It’s never the right time, you know? And eventually, it becomes this cancerous secret that I hid from Alina. I love her so much and yet, I was living a lie, keeping such a huge part of myself from her.”
He stops for a moment, waiting for some words of commiseration from his conversation partner. Alas, he is disappointed when all the man offers is some pathetic muffled cry for Aleksander to let him go.
Urgh. People nowadays are such terrible listeners.
“The secret almost destroyed our marriage.” Aleksander begins laying out his tools and smiles once he hears a fearful squeak from the man. Finally some reaction to his story! Only to deflate when he realizes it’s the sight of the hammer, chainsaw, drill, and scalpel that evoke the reaction from the man and not the heartbreaking fact that his marriage almost ended.
Aleksander can’t help but scoff. That man knows nothing of fear. Aleksander has known true terror. Even now, he is still haunted by that moment. When Alina caught him red-handed (quite literally). Her shock. Her screams. The look of fear and disgust on her face.
Alina did not want to give him a chance to explain. She fled their house for days and would not pick up his calls.
Aleksander thought he had lost her forever.
He would have ended his life if that happened for his life has no meaning without her. Even now, just thinking about it caused a painful sensation in his heart. And Aleksander has to remind himself that he still has her. That Alina is still his wife.
“I almost lost my wife. The experience almost killed me. I don’t wish that on anyone.” Aleksander confesses. “That’s why I no longer hunt married men. Nobody deserves losing their loved ones.”
The man continued his futile, muffled screaming. Honestly, Aleksander can’t imagine why he continues trying when the screaming hasn’t worked for the last 8 hours. For once, he wishes he could have a decent listener for a victim. As it stands however, this guy is all he has. And so, Aleksander backhands the man to shut him up and tells him the rest of his story.
“I wish I could say that our love is strong enough on its own to survive the discovery. But that would be a lie. And you deserve better than a lie, right Mr. Oretsev? The truth is, Alina was probably going to leave me. She was kind enough not to report me to the cops but in the end, I don’t think she would have been able to bear being married to a killer. Now, I know you probably think that I hurt her or forced her to stay married to me. But I can never. Alina’s my soul. She’s the only one in this world who understands me. Had she gone through with the divorce, I still wouldn’t have hurt her. These hands will sooner strangle myself to death than hurt Alina.
But, like I mentioned, the universe wants us together.
I know, I know. Any sappy romantic will say that. But trust me.
Have you ever heard of the Keramzin mud clams? It’s a delicacy from where my wife grew up. Now, the thing about the mud clams is that you have to make sure to cook them properly. If you don’t boil the water enough, then not all bacterias would be killed. And some of those bacterias from Keramzin are quite dangerous.
As it were, some idiots at her work went to Keramzin and brought back the mud clams and Alina had some the day after our… falling out. The clams were not properly cooked and Alina fell ill. I rushed to the hospital and was there when the bacterial infection caused a fever that stopped her heart.
But the universe works in mysterious ways. She did not die that day, Mr. Oretsev.
In some twisted ways, though the bacteria stopped her heart, my Alina was still alive and as beautiful as ever. And when she woke from her fever, our marriage was born anew. Because my beautiful darling wife suddenly had this craving, you see. Of human flesh.
Oh calm down, Oretsev. My Alina isn’t going to kill you. No, she cannot bring herself to do it even when it’s a necessity.
But that’s okay. Because I will do it. I will be her monster.” He smiles then, enjoying the way his victim’s eyes widened as the realization sinks in.
“My love, dinner’s ready.” Aleksander calls out. And before Oretsev could let out his final muffled scream, Aleksander snapped his neck. He used to cut and bled out his victims. That was his MO. But his wife needs sustenance and he cannot be so selfish as to waste valuable nutritious blood just for his own sadism.
A good marriage needs compromise.
The universe has already been kind enough to give them this chance to be bound together, Aleksander can make some sacrifice to make sure their love story will work out happily.