When you truly like someone, you’ll do anything to get their attention.
Even murder.
Blood squirted out of the wound. “I hit something!” Vera said excitedly. “You see how dark the blood is? That’s from a vein.” The person screamed, clawing at the knife. Vera didn’t alter her grip, looking with delight at her student.
How did we even get here? Where were the police? Anyone? Please, I’ll do the time, just help me get this person to safety. Help me get away from this woman.
“Don’t you want to try, Ekki?”
I shook my head. All I could do was shake my head and try not to throw up. “This isn’t right, V.” My words were practically air, so soft I wasn’t sure they were audible. But I know I said them. I will testify at every court, I said those words.
Vera smiled, that beautiful smile that drew me to her in the first place. “Okay,” she said softly. I couldn’t help but sigh in relief. This was a mistake, but we were going to do the right thing. We were going to fix our mistakes. And it would be alright. And we were going to move past this and be fine.
All air was robbed from me as I gasped when she yanked the knife out of the body.
The person’s voice was raw, but the pain slapped me in the face. “What the hell?” I said, running over and pushing her. “Now they’re gonna bleed out.”
“Isn’t that the point?”
“No!”
The body slumped to the ground without the knife (and Vera’s hand when she felt like it) to prop it up. Blood was still squirting out. I would say it was comical if it wasn’t so real. If I wasn’t seeing it with my own eyes.
“Help me.” It came out as a whisper. I went to the body, trying to pick it up and drag it to the entrance of the alley, to the hospital, to somewhere that wasn’t real. “Help me,” I screamed. “Somebody please. Help me.”
Vera had gotten up. I hadn’t noticed. She was leaning against the alley wall, watching me struggle like a cat does a mouse. I didn’t care. I didn’t care. I don’t care.
If she had any problem with me, they weren’t voiced. All she did was watch. Watch me sluggishly move the body. Watch my crying turn to sobs. Watch. Watch.
My voice had gone hoarse. I shouldn’t have trusted her. She said she wanted to show me something interesting, and my idolization of someone who used to be my friend blinded me. How could I have been so stupid? Yeah, making the mental jump from something cool to murder wasn’t natural, but I just stood there and let it happen.
I did nothing.
The streetlights flooded our bodies. The person had to be dead at this point. Too much blood had been lost. But I couldn’t stop. Nothing would erase what has been done.
The knife was cold.
It was a rather quick thing. In and out. Vera walked around me, an easy thing since I had frozen to look at the blood gushing out of me. It was gushing. Gushing! Oh, I was going to die and there was nothing anyone was going to do about it!
“I really liked you,” Vera said tilting my chin to meet her gaze. I sank to my knees. Yesterday, I would say that I would willingly die to be in this position. How stupid is that? “I really really liked you. Why didn’t you just do as you were told?”
I couldn’t help but fight her grip in an attempt to look around. Nothing. No one. This was the end. There was truly nothing I could do. I could say that over and over again, and each time would feel like the first. I was going to die like this.
“It wasn’t right,” I heard myself say. I was too far from my body to hear it right.
“No. You weren’t right.”
I’m sorry for forgetting the rest. It’s all my fault, really. She’s to blame, but I’m the one who didn’t move fast enough. I’m sorry for everything.
