Jack the Ripper
Joana D'Arezzo

To J.B.

Jack the Ripper, naked and drenched in blood, jumps out of a prostitute’s room into the darkness of London. He spins, arms open wide, teeth dirty with torn guts. He runs and shouts: “I do what I want! I do what I want!” Lights remain off, the city sleeps undisturbed. Nobody notices him; he’s a part of the landscape, like the fog.

Then he comes home and I lick the blood off him. He’s so beautiful, smooth and pale, drunk with happiness after a good killing. I kiss him, clean his mouth with mine.

I stroke his palm lines with my short fingernails. His hands are soft like mine, but bigger. The hands of a writer, I tell him. He should write more, I tell him. I’ll read it. “Where have you been all my life?” Jack the Ripper asks, stretched out in my bed. His eyes are closed.

I run my hands through his hair and find a piece of soft pink flesh stuck in the brown curls. I flick it away and try not to think about what it is, what part of a woman’s body it used to be before it became something to be flicked away.

“We’re friends,” I say and climb on top of him.

“I think so,” Jack the Ripper answers.

We fall asleep together, Jack the Ripper and I, his right arm under my neck. Just before he slips into unconsciousness, he whispers in my ear: “You have a warm soul.” My insides turn to mush. I’m like one of his victims, cut up and exposed.

I do what I want. I feel him breathe, his chest moves unevenly against my back. I snuggle closer, his skin is dry with brown blood. Does Jack the Ripper dream? I don’t want to know.

In his sleep, he bends his arm into a choke-hold. My throat hurts every time I have to swallow saliva. I wonder if I should move but decide not to. I can still breathe, he’s not doing it on purpose. This is just his way of hugging me.

Joana D’Arezzo was born and raised in São Paulo, Brazil. She attended Pontifical Catholic University in São Paulo, where she started writing in English, claiming that her native language, Portuguese, made her feel too self-conscious. After getting an MFA in Creative Writing in California, she returned to São Paulo, where she is currently working on a dystopian novel and a book of short stories.