“Not bad,” Ben said. The clerk said, “How about another one?” Ben looked at his watch and said, “I guess I have time for a couple of more.” The clerk grinned creepily and said, “Okay.” He grabbed a video from a shelf, the cover of it was all brown, and showed a woman getting in a car crash. The clerk remarked, “This one is called “Used”.”

Title: Used

Mary Craig was driving away from the marketplace when it happened. She was driving a bit too fast to get home, when suddenly another car crashed right into the backside of her car. Her car swerved around in circles like a spinning top, and landed in a ditch. Quickly the driver of the other car, got out, and ran to her. He opened her car door, and saw that she was unconscious. He exclaimed, “Bloody Hell, she might be dead!” He got her out of the car, and put her in his car. He got out a cell phone, and called a hospital. He said, “ ‘Ello. Is this London Hospital? Send an ambulance to 099 Imagine Avenue right away. There’s been a car wreck.”

 Ten minutes later, an ambulance arrived at the scene of the wreck. They carried off Mary in an ambulance. Everybody agreed it wasn’t the man’s fault that he hit Mary’s car. She was driving way too fast, and ran a STOP sign.

  At the London Hospital, Mary lay in a hospital bed, still alive. “I can’t believe she made it,” said a doctor. Mary’s husband Edward Craig asked, “Will she be okay?”

“Well, she was paralyzed.”

“Where?”

“She was paralysed from her waist downward.”

“Will she ever walk again?”

“No, sorry mate, I think she’ll be paralysed for the rest of her life.”

“Can she still talk?”

“Yes, but you better let her rest for tonight. Tomorrow at eight ‘o’ clock or so you can come pick her up.”

“Okay, thanks mate.”

  The next day, Mary was brought back to her house in a wheelchair. Edward exclaimed, “Well, here we are Mary home sweet home.” Mary looked around her home, and saw her treadmill. She started crying realising that she would never be able to run on the treadmill again. Edward worriedly asked, “What’s wrong, Mary?” She replied, “The treadmill, Edward. I’ll never be able to walk on it again.” Edward realised why she was unhappy. He said, “Bloody treadmill.” He walked over to it, and dragged it outside. From a window in the house, Mary saw Edward destroy the treadmill with random objects. He came back inside the house. He said, “A treadmill was always a bloody stupid invention. Ha-Ha.”  Mary started crying. She realised this wasn’t going to work out. She didn’t want to be paralysed at all. She asked, “Edward?” He answered, “Yes, dear.”

“Edward, why didn’t you just kill me?”

“What do you mean, dear?”

“You knew I didn’t want to be like this. I would rather die.”

“Oh, come on Mary.”

“Have me killed, Edward. I don’t want to be paralysed. I would rather be fucking dead, then be paralysed!”

“Mary, don’t talk like that.”

“It’s true, Edward.”

She burst into tears. He walked up to her, and tried to calm her down.

“It’s going to be okay. Mary, calm down.”

  Mary cried throughout that whole night. The next morning, she was in the kitchen all by herself. She said to herself, “Why didn’t he just bloody kill me?” She opened a drawer, and pulled out a long, sharp knife. Maybe I should, she thought. Maybe I should just slam the knife in me chest, and go ahead and kill me self. What reason do I have to live to anymore? She raised the blade, only suddenly Edward entered the kitchen. He shouted, “Martha, don’t do it.” He rushed to her, and pulled the knife out of her hands. “What the bloody Hell were you thinking?” She replied, “Oh, bloody Hell go ahead and kill me Edward! Come on, FUCKING KILL ME EDWARD!”

“Stop it Mary.”

“I have nothing to lose. No reason to live any more.”

“Calm down, Mary.”

“No reason to live.”

Edward calmed her down, but she remained depressed throughout most of the day.

A couple of weeks later, Mary began to notice Edward was leaving a lot. She couldn’t kill herself during this time, since he kept away all dangerous items away from her. She mostly hung around inside the house, doing nothing. One day she was looking through some drawers looking at past photographs inside them. She found a note in one of the drawers. She put her hand over her mouth, and started becoming very angry. The note was a love letter to her husband from a woman named Linda. Mary continued looking, and found love letters from several women that were sent to her husband. That’s why he’s been gone a lot, thought Mary, She said to herself, “That bloody bastard.” She decided to make her move. She would kill Edward. She searched the house for any weapon, and discovered a revolver that Edward had forgotten to take with him. What’s the worst that could happen? I’ve got nothing to lose, Mary thought. Once I kill Edward, I’ll call the cops to come here and I’ll pretend to be hostile so they can shoot me, the perfect bloody plan ha-ha.

  A couple of hours later, Edward came home. He walked through the front door, and was shot twice in the chest. He fell to the ground, barely breathing. He was laughing. Mary threw the revolver on the floor and asked, “Why the bloody Hell are you laughing?” Edward managed to say, “You fell for it.”

“Fell for what?”

“Me plan. Ha-Ha.”

“What the bloody Hell are you talking about?”

“Those fake love letters.”

“They’re Fake!”

“Of course, that’s the reason I kept you alive.”

“WHAT?”

“I have lung cancer. The day before you got in the car wreck, I went to the hospital and discovered I had lung cancer. I knew it would be a slow and painful death so I decided to kill meself, but I just couldn’t force meself to do it. Once you were paralysed from the waist down I knew you wanted to die, but I let you live so you could kill me. I put up the fake love letters today, knowing that you would look through the house and find them.”

He was having difficulty breathing now. Mary said, “You bloody bastard.” Edward replied, “I know I am. Ha, ha, ha…” Edward closed his eyes, and died. He finally got his wish. Mary said to herself, “Bloody selfish bastard.” She picked up a phone on a counter, and called the police. “ ‘Ello, my name’s Mary Craig, I’ve called to report a murder at 909 Garden Avenue. Please hurry.” She hung up the phone, and picked up the revolver on the ground, waiting for the police to come. She said softly to herself, “It’s my turn to die.”

Author's Note:

Sadly, the inspiration for this came from me recently passed away dog, Snoopy. He was a great dog, but a car chaser. One day, he was hit, and he became paralysed. He struggled for a couple of weeks, but sadly died. After me family had a little funeral service for him, I came up with this story. Ironically, while Snoopy was paralysed the big headline in news world-wide was Terri Schiavo, the brain-dead woman who was put to sleep by her husband, who did not get her parent’s permission to do this. I thought what if a paralysed woman’s husband refused to have her killed, because he also had some sort of slow killing disease, and the only reason he kept her alive was for her to kill him. I think this is definitely a great story, with an excellent twist ending, but I do not include it in me list of favourites because whenever I read it, it depresses me because It reminds me of poor Snoopy’s unfortunate death. I love you Snoopy, and all the other animals that I’ve ever had in my life.