“What? What are you saying?” Maria asked.
“God, you’re so goddamn braindead. I’ve given you every opportunity to prove you have more brains than heart, but you’re just too fucking stupid,” I screamed. “You never think. Who is this woman?”
She stutters, tears starting again. “No, no, no one. She’s nobody.”
I walk closer to her. “How did you find her? Where did you find her?”
“She’s just a random woman, I promise. I saw her at the mall a couple of weeks ago, and there was something about her. So, I followed her around for a bit and saw where she lived. Then I took my chance and grabbed her today,” she said.
“Holy shit! You could’ve been seen. How do you know you weren’t seen? We live in a world where every single person has a camera in their pocket, and you kidnapped a stranger off the street. How do you know you weren’t seen? You lack the foresight and the brain power to understand the consequences of your fucking actions.”
“Stop yelling at me. You're being mean. Why are you trying to hurt me?”
“Maria, she’s seen our faces. We can’t just let her go. I have to kill her now,” I explained.
“And what’s wrong with that? All of our problems have started because you haven’t been killing. I got you an outlet. I did this for you, for us,” she whined.
“God damn it, will you fucking listen to me? You don’t get it. There is no us,” I said aggressively. The haze in my head is only growing stronger the longer we talk.
“You don’t mean that.”
“Yes, I do. There never was an us. I was using you.”
I’m not planning or masking my intentions. I want her to hurt for all the trouble she’s caused. For the first time in our relationship, I’m being honest with her. I don’t have the patience to plot and scheme. She looks heartbroken, and reality is starting to set in. The illusions need to go away.
“Why couldn’t you just take the fucking hints I’ve given you. My plan was just to pull away from you slowly, and then I would just become a worse boyfriend over time once we were at college until you dumped me. Then, you would move on and be happy. But then you reveal you know about Marcus and Davis and basically threaten me. You tell me you’re going to Quinstin, and I watch as every plan I’ve made falls apart. And now you’re dumping this clusterfuck into my lap. Why the fuck can’t you stop screwing up?”
“I'm sorry,” she mumbled, tears falling down her cheeks.
“You are pathetic, but I bet even now, you still love me. Maria, I have never felt anything for you. I only dated you out of convenience and as a deterrent for the other girls. But your usefulness is completely gone, and you're a fucking shackle around me,” I screamed.
“Stop it. You don't mean that. You're angry. And I understand I made a mistake, but don't say things you don't mean,” Maria sniffled.
Every single inconvenience and annoyance she's caused is flashing through my head, every time I have had to placate and baby her. Eryk has no use for her. She is nothing but an obstacle for Nobody. Now I have to kill some random woman because of her. I pull the gun out of my hoodie pouch and shoot the bound woman in the head. She slumps over dead, blood gushing out of the hole in her skull. Maria jumps in fright, turning to look at the gun in my hands.
“A gun? Why do you have a gun? Eryk, where did you get a gun?”
There's a whining noise in my ears. It's all I can hear. Maria’s voice sounds distant and distorted. This girl is nothing but a gnat, a pest, a bother. My arm moves before I can register what I'm doing. The gun handle smacks against her cheek, knocking her into the gymnasium’s dirty floor. Blood is dribbling out from her lips, and I drop the gun. Her eyes look so fearful, reminiscent of the man I shot at the docks. Before she can stand, I climb on top of her and wrap my hands around her neck, squeezing tightly.
“You wretched waste of space, you pitiful moron. Our entire relationship is fake, and I refuse to continue the facade. How could you ever think I could love you? I'm not capable of love,” I shouted at her.
Her face is changing color as I asphyxiate her. The tears are fully pouring out of her now, and she's trying to say something. All that comes out is spittle and gurgling noises mixed with blood. The blood vessels in her eyes pop, making them bloodshot and panicked. She scrapes and claws at my arms, but my hoodie sleeves get in the way. My hands are turning bone white from how hard I'm choking her. I finally stop when her eyes roll back into her skull, her body still as a mannequin.
She's dead. My girlfriend is gone. I won't be tethered to her anymore. Even staring at her fresh corpse doesn't make me feel anything. Goodbye, Maria. I need to get rid of the bodies. I can't burn them; the whole place would catch. Looking at the tied-up stranger, an idea forms. I can leave her behind. She's covered in Maria's DNA and none of mine. Then, if I get rid of Maria, it will make it look like she fled after killing her. This can work.
I'm going to have to stop at Lowe's to grab a few things. I need a shovel, seeds, and fertilizer. If I'm going to bury her, I also need to create an alibi. The gym has a couple of tarps lying around, so I grab a few. Before I start wrapping, I go through Maria's pockets, taking her phone, wallet, and keys out. I carefully drag the bundled body to the door of the gym, dropping it to grab her SUV. I back the car up and pop the trunk open, putting her inside with her phone and wallet. I hide her keys underneath the front right tire.
I'm going to have to use Aubrey to corroborate the story I plan to tell. First thing I have to do is get my truck out of here. I hop into my truck and make my way to the closest Lowe's. I park my truck in a side lot and grab a cart on my way into the store. Making my way over to the garden center, I stop the first female employee walking by me. She’s around my age, slightly chubby, and gives off the same signs that Maria did before we were together. I can use her. Smile. Appear friendly and flirty. I need to set the backstory for my soon-to-be garden and establish a possible alibi for the woman’s murder.
“Hey, sorry, do you have a minute?” I asked, flashing a warm smile.
“Of course. Um, what exactly are you looking for today?” The employee asked.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“Thank you so much. I'm thinking about starting a little garden to grow some vegetables. I love cooking and I’d like to be able to say I grew the ingredients. Fair warning: I am terrible at keeping things alive, so it kind of needs to be idiotproof,” I laughed.
“Really? I used to be like that, too. It wasn’t until I worked here that I learned how to stop killing everything. I'll show you a couple of the beginner veggies we have,” she said, leading me through the aisles and toward the seed section.
The display is on a lifted platform so that it can spin around. The girl keeps mumbling to herself and tracing her finger over the packets of seeds. I let go of the cart I’m pushing and get closer to her. I see a picture of a jalapeno pepper and make my move. Leaning forward, I reach my arm out over her shoulder and point to it. I'm close enough that she can feel my breath on her neck. She doesn't flinch or try to move away. A little bit of light touching to really seal the deal.
“What about that one?” I asked softly in her ear.
“Jalapenos definitely fit the bill. They're pretty hot,” she said, turning around to face me.
We’re face-to-face and close enough to appear intimate.
“Life's better with spice. Wouldn't you agree?”
She blushes, flustering. “Yeah, I like some heat.”
I take a quick peek at her nametag. “You never know how good something is till you taste it, Jessica.”
Her face is a deep shade of red. It looks like I've definitely succeeded in making her remember me.
“D, d, do, do you already have some fertilizer, uhm?” She asked, her voice a higher pitch.
“Oh, forgive my rudeness. I’m Eryk. And no, I don't have any of the stuff. Do you mind helping me make sure I don't forget anything? I understand if you've got other things to do.”
“I'd love to!” Jessica said excitedly. “What I mean is, it's part of my job. Not that I wouldn't help you if it weren't. I'd be happy to do anything with you; I mean help you.”
This might be working too well. We continue chatting as Jessica leads me through the aisles, grabbing plenty of seeds, fertilizer, a spade, a handheld shovel, a watering pail, and a few other things. She can really talk when she gets going. I check my phone for the time. I must hurry in case someone discovers Maria.
“Well, thank you so much for your help, Jessica,” I said.
“It was my pleasure,” she said, clearly wanting to say more.
“I'll probably come by next week with some pictures. You can judge my progress and tell me whether I fucked it all up,” I laughed.
“I'd really like that. Make sure you take plenty,” Jessica said, smiling.
“I will.”
I walk away, pushing my cart toward the self-checkout section. I have all the items needed to make Maria disappear. I got wildflower seeds for her grave and several vegetable seeds for the house. Daniel can probably be persuaded to take care of this. It can give him a healthy hobby to do. It will make this alibi stronger over time. I pay for all my items and throw everything into the back of my truck, on to the next step of the plan.
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Back at the school, I put one of the shovels and half the fertilizer bags into Maria's SUV. I'm careful to make sure that the bags don't rip. Finding fertilizer in her car could eventually fuck me over. The rest of the stuff I bought goes into the bed of my truck and I move it into the nearby parking lot of the local 7/11. I swap my hoodie for the one I keep in my truck, grab a pair of gloves, and pull the hood up. A short casual walk back gets me to Maria's SUV. There's a train station two towns over that is very old school and is right near some woods. They don't have any workers and only a single kiosk to purchase tickets from. If no tickets are bought, then the Quickrail doesn't stop there. There aren’t conductors controlling them; they follow preplanned routes. There is an override that the onboard engineer can press if needed, but they are there as a government requirement more than anything. All of that works to my advantage. I put my gloves on before getting in her car and punching the address into the GPS. I take back roads to get out of New Farford so I can avoid anyone seeing me driving Maria's car without her. It's almost over, and then I just have to get home to start the garden.
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The train station parking lot is empty. Good. The station itself is nothing but a platform, a kiosk, and some slight cover from an overhang above a single bench. I don’t even see a trashcan. I reverse into a spot that's next to the trees. I open the trunk, grab my supplies, and leave both our phones in the car. The woods are densely packed with trees and shrubs to the point that you can’t see far. There are no trails or clearings; this is unclaimed nature in all its glory. My memory is excellent, so I'm not concerned with losing my way back. No matter how many twists and turns I take, I have the route engraved into my mind. I hear the sounds of moving water and follow it till I come across a small river that's a few feet wide and deep. Crossing moving water should make it even harder to find her body. I toss the shovel, seeds, and fertilizer over the stream one at a time, then jump across.
A few minutes later, I find the perfect spot. There are leaves everywhere, a toppled tree, and plenty of moss and bugs. I clear some of the leaves with my foot and get to digging. The grave doesn’t have to be too deep. It’s hard work when I’m using a three-foot-long hand shovel. The plan is to keep her closer to the surface to speed up the decomposition and have nature reclaim the area. Once the hole is around five feet, I make my back to the truck to grab Maria. She isn’t heavy, and I’m in exceptional shape, but carrying her through the forest’s uneven ground is a struggle. I hear rumbling above me and the clouds are getting darker—great, just what I needed: an accelerated timetable. Getting Maria over the river is tougher but I manage to toss her across. I don’t have to be gentle now; after all, she can’t feel it. Should I get rid of the tarps? That might help with destroying her body. I unroll the tarps and roll Maria into the hole. Her body thuds against the rock and dirt at the bottom.
I start the process of shoveling all the displaced dirt over her body, working up a sweat along my back and brow. I dab my forehead using my sleeve. I do not want any of my DNA here. When I only have a few more shovelfuls of dirt. I rip open the bags of fertilizer, mixing half of it into the remaining mounds of soil. I finish the burial process by scattering the rest of the fertilizer over her grave and also all around it, spreading it out everywhere. The goal is not just to have Maria’s grave overgrown but also to enrich the surroundings to hide this place further. Once that’s done, I start spreading the wildflower seeds everywhere, turning this ordinary part of the forest into a glade that will be a hub of activity for the denizens of this place. The wildflower’s bag says that insects will feast on the pollen, rodents will be attracted to the seeds, and reptiles can eat their leaves. Over time, the animals and bugs will eat and die here, attracting bigger predators and helping spread the seeds farther. All of this will help hide the truth of what is buried beneath them. I take one last look at the fresh grave before leaving. Good riddance.
I bring the two tarps with me, placing the fertilizer bag inside one tarp and the wildflower seed bag inside the other. Folding the tarps over and over into tight squares, I pull out the last item I bought: duct tape. I wrap the folded tarps in tape and then throw them into the river, watching the two start to float away. That should take care of those. I check my boots, inspecting the bottoms for any seeds. When I finally get home I can establish a reason for having muddy boots. Am I being paranoid? It’s a lot of steps to go through for the disposal of a body, but I’d rather be cautious than caught. Once I’m back at the station, I use Maria’s card to buy a Quickrail ticket. This particular Quickrail goes all the way to Maine; there are plenty of places for her to have gone after murdering a woman and abandoning her boyfriend. The kiosk’s expected arrival is twenty minutes. It’s a bit longer than I’d like, but it gives me some time to get the final piece of the puzzle into place.
Maria’s car has her possessions: her wallet, her phone, and her keys. I grab my phone and her stuff before locking the SUV. I rip off more of the tape and make a few cylinders with the sticky part facing out. All of them are of different lengths and amounts by design. Each one of Maria’s items gets a separate tape cylinder. I jump down from the platform and walk across the tracks to where there are trees I can hide behind. Quickrail tracks are made of three parallel t-shaped steel beams that the Quickrail is magnetized to instead of using wheels. I crouch low behind a tree and begin to wait. The rumbling above is louder now, and a spattering of raindrops is starting to fall. After ten minutes, I give a call to Aubrey.
“Hello, Aubrey.”
“Hey, Eryk, how did your talk with Maria go? Did you get the closure you wanted?” Aubrey asked.
“Kind of? She was acting very, very erratic. And she told me she had to go away for a bit before leaving me stranded at Strivington Crossing. I hate to ask, but do you mind coming to get me?”
“Yeah, Mom’s shift isn’t over till midnight, so I still have her car until then. I can be there in like twenty-five thirty, give or take.” Aubrey said. “And wait, she just left you?”
“It’s a pain to explain over the phone. I’ll tell you all about it when you’re here,” I said.
I hear the boom of thunder starting and then a flash a few seconds later. The drops are turning to a steady drizzle as the Quickrail finally comes sliding in to the station. The white metal cab is rounded to maximize its aerodynamics. I run over to the side of it, soaking up the wetness with my sleeve. I space all three of the taped items out by five or so feet. Smoothing out the tape, I make sure that they’re stuck on tight. But not too tight. Each of them will eventually slip off somewhere along the route, completing my obfuscation. If they tie the dead woman to Maria, the police will see this for what it is: a girl who panicked after murdering someone and ran away to escape prosecution. I run back to my hiding spot until it starts to leave. The Quickrail takes off out of the station, slowly gaining speed until I can’t see the sleek white form anymore. Standing up, I walk over to the bench and wait for my friend, Aubrey. Now, there’s nothing to interfere with my plans anymore.