Copyright © 2020 Kaizer Wolf

Innocent Devil's Harem | Chapter 4-2: Hiding the Evidence

“Which!” Gabriella said forcefully. “Is why you are not a monster!”

I stared at her, blinking a few times as I examined her determined expression, realizing she knew exactly what was on my mind. “Oh,” I finally said. “I guess…maybe you’re right.” I looked away as I thought more about it, but she wasn’t done.

“You see that man? Look at him,” she demanded. She waited for me to comply before continuing, once I was grimacing at what I’d done. “That is a monster. A real monster, in human skin.” She then paused to let that sink in. “What you look like, or even what you need to eat, isn’t what makes you a monster. It’s what is in your heart…and you have a good heart.”

I was still grimacing as I glanced at her, prompting her to continue.

“Kai, you might look like some kind of devil to most people, but you have a good human heart. Whereas that man looks like a good human on the outside – a cop of all people – but there’s no doubt he has the heart of a devil.”

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “Thank you,” I whispered.

“For what?” she asked innocently.

I found it difficult to believe she needed clarification. “For…for saving me,” I realized. Because if I’d found this out about myself under different circumstances, discovering that I might need blood in certain situations, then it probably would have placed me at a crossroads where I would have been thrust into a world of self-loathing…

I mean, what if the first time I got hurt like this was when I was around Serenity?

And if it did happen around someone other than Gabriella, then this was the kind of thing that would have made me run away from home. It would have made me leave my lifelong friend, for fear that I might hurt her. To protect her from the monster parading around as her young roommate.

But Gabriella had just saved me from that fate, carefully guiding me toward the realization that I was a monster-killer, rather than a monster myself.

“I really wish I could touch you,” Gabriella unexpectedly whispered. “Do you think you could try to find the keys to these things? I think my hands are falling asleep.”

“Oh! I’m sorry!” I exclaimed, lifting her weight so that she was upright again. Once she was sitting and balanced, I crawled over to the cooling corpse and began searching the belt and pockets for the keys. Finding them, I scooted back over behind her and quickly freed her hands from their bonds.

As she rubbed her wrists, she smirked. “Jeez, at this rate, people are going to think you enjoy tying me up.”

“W-Why would they think that?” I asked, confused by the abrupt change of subject. My face was hot again, even despite everything.

She grinned at me. “You do, don’t you?!”

“Well, I umm…” Shit, she sure knew how to get my mind off things. I looked away, feeling like my face was going to explode from embarrassment as I considered telling her the truth. “It’s just…seeing you vulnerable,” I whispered.

“So, which is it then?” she asked playfully. “Seeing me tied up, or having me tell you what to do?”

I covered my eyes so quickly, that I almost slapped myself in the face. “Umm, both?” Were we really talking about this right now? I felt like I was going to die, I was so mortified to be admitting this to her. “Are we seriously talking about this right now?” I echoed out loud. “Shouldn’t we be figuring out what to do about…” My voice trailed off.

“Oh, sorry,” she replied. “I was just trying to lighten your mood.”

Well, shit. She certainly accomplished her mission, at least by making me more uncomfortable about revealing my secrets rather than my recent homicide.

“It’s alright,” I sighed, dropping my hand to look around as my thoughts began focusing on the task ahead of me. “I guess I’ll put him in the trunk of his car, and then drive it somewhere far away. I’m not sure what to do about the blood on the ground though.”

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Gabriella was pensive. “Do you think you could steal an arrow and kill a deer with it?”

I looked at her in surprise. “Well, yeah, I guess I could do that.”

She nodded. “Drop it off here, and make sure it bleeds in the same spot. Then Serenity will never suspect it’s anything different. And I doubt anyone knew this guy was here in the first place, since obviously he wasn’t really here to bring me in for questioning.”

“Right,” I agreed. Damn, she was something. “Gabriella, you really surprise me with how smart you are.”

She blushed. “Oh, well, I mean I’d like to think I’m at least of normal intelligence.”

I shook my head. “Your critical thinking skills are definitely above normal. You’re really impressive.”

She gave me an endearing look. “Thanks, Kai.” She sighed. “Is there anything I can do to help though? Because it sounds like you’ll have to do everything to clean this up.”

I sincerely considered the offer to help, before realizing she was right. “I guess just stay inside, lock all the doors, and don’t come out for any reason. Hopefully I’ll be done within an hour.”

She nodded in agreement, so I helped her get to her feet. I then went over and climbed into the still-running car, backing it up so I could load the body into the trunk. I also grabbed the gun, handcuffs, and bullet, deciding I’d just toss the bullet out of the window at some point along the drive. The distraction allowed me to fully revert to my human form, which was definitely necessary if I was going to be on the road.

Once I was ready, I focused on her, feeling awkward since I couldn’t touch her without transforming again. However, she seemed to understand, giving me a small wave to send me off. Climbing back into the cruiser, I turned it around and drove away.

I was careful to keep to the backroads to ensure I wasn’t caught on some random intersection camera or something. While I hadn’t watched a ton of crime shows, I knew the gist of how criminals got caught, though I knew movies and shows dramatized all that stuff.

Still, I couldn’t take any chances.

After driving for about thirty minutes away from the city, I finally stopped off on the side of an abandoned road, emptied the corpse’s pockets of all technology, and began dragging the body through the woods. Initially, I considered just leaving the bastard in the trunk, but decided it might be better to make the body more difficult to find. At the very least, I knew from my detective friend that generally no body meant no solid case.

Even the blood in the trunk wouldn’t necessarily be enough to prove anything.

I started by dragging the body in a straight line for probably about half a mile, but once it was obvious I wasn’t leaving a blood trail, I changed directions a few times, moving deeper and deeper into the trees.

Probably about five miles into my trek, I stumbled across a small pond covered in a film of scum and algae. Figuring it was as good of a spot as any, I dropped the legs and began gathering all the rocks I could find, sticking them in the man’s tucked shirt, as well as into his pants, before finally tossing him into the middle of the water.

The body sunk like a rock, as hoped, a ton of tiny bubbles floating to the top for about a minute. Satisfied with my handiwork, I walked back the way I’d come, following my own scent left behind in the air, while also making sure that there wasn’t any evidence that I came this way.

A little surprised by how far I’d walked, I began running, deciding to go back to the car and drive it to a different location. I figured I could leave it on a different abandoned road to really throw people off, but then I came across a much bigger pond. After taking off the license plate to bury, I chose to instead drive the car straight into the water, with me jumping out at the last second.

The cruiser sank quickly, disappearing beneath the murky mirror that reflected the sky. With my sharp eyes, I could just barely manage to still see the top almost four feet down, even despite the reflection, but I doubted a regular person would notice.

With that done, my next step was to bury the license plate at a third location, and then break into a few houses in search of an arrow to steal. I figured it was getting close to lunchtime, so I was extra cautious even though I doubted most people returned home for lunch unless they worked really close to where they lived.

Once I found an arrow, I ran the thirty or forty miles back toward my place, which took me just under an hour to do, since I was capable of running much faster than a normal person. I then tracked down a deer once I was closer to home.

I estimated that I’d probably been gone closer to two and a half hours by the time I was dragging the unconscious doe into my front yard, and then stabbing it just at the edge of its heart with the arrow to let it bleed out while the heart still pumped. I smirked briefly, though there was no humor in the expression, when I realized that impaling the heart really was my MO. Granted, it was one of the preferred shots on a deer and guaranteed that it would spill a ton of blood, so long as the wound didn’t make the heart stop right away.

Gabriella was immediately at the door once she saw me, revealing that she’d been waiting for me anxiously while I was gone. “How’d it go?” she wondered. “I really missed you.”

Focusing on her over my shoulder, I saw that she’d showered and changed clothes. She was now wearing faded jeans and a green fitted long-sleeve shirt that hid the bruising on her arms. I honestly couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed that she wasn’t wearing the silk anymore.

She was still arousing to be around, both visually and olfactorily, but seeing her in those pajamas had been especially enticing.

“Well, I got the job done,” I admitted, still facing away from her. “Although, I probably shouldn’t tell you anything about it, in case you’re ever questioned. It’s best if you don’t have to lie about knowing.”

“Oh.” She nodded, her expression serious as she walked closer. “Yeah, that makes sense.” She then abruptly stepped behind me and wrapped her arms around my still exposed torso. I shivered as I felt her hands run along my stomach and chest, forcing my skin to gray again. “Let’s go inside,” she whispered.

Copyright © 2020 Kaizer Wolf