THUD.

A dull thud woke Ethan up, as if something heavy had dropped onto the carpet. Huh? Looking around, he turned to his alarm clock and saw that it was two in the morning. What's going on out there? Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he stepped out into the hallway. Peeking around the corner into the living room, he saw his girlfriend standing above the fallen body of a stranger. He felt a feeling of Déjà vu.

Am I dreaming? He rubbed his eyes again, but the scene in front of him didn’t change. His eyes darted to the dead body, watching as the pool of blood continued to expand. Yep, I’m definitely dreaming.

Hearing footsteps, his girlfriend turned around and froze, staring at him in surprise.

“It’s not what it looks like. I-it was an accident, I swear!” The bloody knife fell from her hand. “What do I do, what do I do? Everything’s going to be okay, right? Ethan, please say something.” She paced back and forth, freaking out. “I didn’t mean to hurt anyone. I heard noises coming from the living room, and it was dark and I-”

Ethan walked up to his girlfriend, grabbing her by the hand to stop her pacing “Calm down Bella, I know you didn’t mean to do it. Right now, we need to think of what we’re going to do.”

“What do you mean ‘what we’re going to do.’ obviously we have to call somebody. The police or an ambulance I don’t know. We have to do something.” she started panicking again.

“And what will we tell them when they show up? That you just stabbed the man to death?” Ethan shouted.

“I don’t know, Okay!” She shouted back, now crying.

Ethan sighed, wiping the tears off her cheeks. “I’m sorry baby, I didn’t mean to shout. I just don’t want to lose you.”

She nodded, trying to stop the tears from flowing. “If we aren’t going to call someone, what are we going to do?”

Why do I have to experience this again? I guess they do say that you dream about what you think about during the day. “I’ll tell you what we’re going to do. We’re going to clean this whole place up and get rid of the body.” Luckily, I already know what I need to do.

“What?” She looked confused.

“Nobody else knows what happened here, if we get rid of the traces, this won’t be linked back to us, and you’ll be safe.” Ethan said before walking into the kitchen. “We need to find something to clean up the blood.” Bending down to check under the sink, he failed to notice the change in his girlfriend’s emotions, as she looked at him maliciously.

Setting a bottle of dish soap and a box of disposable gloves on the counter, he looked over at his girlfriend, whose expression changed back instantly. “I’m gonna go get a blanket, can you go find the rubbing alcohol?”

“Mhm.” She nodded before searching for it.

Putting on a pair of gloves, Ethan made his way to the laundry, searching through the linen closet for a blanket. This should do. Pulling out an old picnic blanket, he closed the linen closet.

“Good morning, Ethan. You have lived a happy and peaceful life with your girlfriend. You’re career prospects were on the rise, and yet, here you are. Disposing of a body. Why are you so willing to help a murderer? You have seen what she’s done, you could be next. And yet here you are, helping to clean up the mess without hesitation. Don’t think you can hide what has happened. People know, and now you will be punished for it. This is your chance to redeem yourself. Turn back and admit to the world what you’ve done. Good luck.”

Huh? Is this my subconscious speaking to me? It has to be. I definitely don’t remember this happening in real life. Can I still come back from what I’ve done. It’s been weeks since it happened, I don’t think I can be forgiven for that.

Grabbing the blanket, he went back to the living room, laying it down flat next to the body.

“What are you doing?” Bella asked, looking at him from the kitchen.

“Come help me move the body.” He said while squatting down at the person’s head. The two worked together to shift the body onto the blanket. God that was heavy. Why is this dream so realistic? Damn. Looking down at his body, he found some blood on his shirt. “We’re gonna have to throw out these clothes.”

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Grabbing the dish soap, he added a dash of it to some cold water, leaving a rag to soak in the solution. “Okay, you go clean the knife, I’ll get started on this.” Taking the solution to the blood-soaked carpet, he used the rag to apply the solution, removing the blood bit by bit.

While he was doing that, Bella ran the knife under hot water before cleaning it thoroughly with a solution of water and rubbing alcohol.

After everything was finally cleaned up, they removed their gloves and tossed everything they used into a garbage bag. Bella went to move the car closer to the front door, while Ethan went to find a pair of shovels and change his clothes. Putting everything in the car, they met back up in front of the body.

“What do we do now?” She asked, exhausted.

“Help me wrap him up, then we’ll take it to the car.” They wrapped the side of the blanket over the corpse, then worked together, giving it a big push to roll it up. Without taking a break, they carefully dragged it to the car.

“I don’t think this’ll fit in the trunk.” Bella said, looking between the blanket and the car.

“We’ll just have to put it in the back.” Ethan said, already opening the door.

Heading to the other side, Bella got in the car, helping to pull the body up onto the seats. Closing the doors, they finally took a breath to relax and think about their next move.

“Where do we go from here?” Bella asked, tired and uncertain.

“I don’t know. Let’s just drive out of town and find a quiet place to dump the body.” He said.

“That’s not what I meant. Are we going to have to move? Will we have to change jobs? Skip the country?” Now that she was having a brief respite, she began to panic again.

Taking her hand, Ethan soothed her. “It’s okay, we can work this out. Nothing will change, I promise.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Come on. Once we’ve sorted this out, we can go back to bed and put this whole thing behind us.” Getting into the car, they drove off. Looking around, the entire town seemed to be asleep aside from them, leaving them alone with their thoughts.

Merging out onto the highway, it felt just as barren and quiet as the rest of the town. Shit! I have to stop for gas. “Babe, keep an eye out for a gas station, we’re gonna need to make a stop.”

They both scanned far and wide for a gas station that was open, eventually finding one just before they ran out.

“You stay here and fill up the car, I’ll go in to pay for it.” Getting out of the car, he took a moment to calm himself down before stepping inside.

Hearing footsteps, the clerk shook himself awake, rubbing his eyes.

“Fuck man, what time is it?” He said while yawning.

Ethan gave him a tired smirk. “I feel you man, it’s almost three in the morning. How long until you’re off?”

“Just a few more hours to go. You’re the first person I’ve seen all night. What are you even doing driving this late?” The clerk asked.

He’s right. What am I even doing here? Maybe I should tell someone? It’s a dream, so it’s not like anything will actually happen, and maybe it’ll make me feel less guilty... He looked out to his girlfriend ...No, I can’t just do that. I’ve already made the mistake, there’s no going back on it now. “There was an emergency, so my girlfriend and I have to leave town.”

“That sucks man. Stay safe out there, things haven’t been that safe recently.”

“Thanks, I’ll make sure to keep an ear out.” I think that’s the least of my worries. Paying for the gas, he walked back out to the car and hopped in the driver’s seat.

“How did things go in there; he didn’t suspect anything right?” She asked nervously.

“It’s fine, he didn’t suspect anything. He was barely even awake for the conversation. It’ll all be okay.” Starting the car back up, they drove back onto the highway, driving out of the town.

Should I have said something? It wouldn’t have made a difference anyway, so why didn’t I do it?

After driving for a while, they turned off road, driving into an old forest several kilometres out of town. Seeing that they couldn’t drive any further, he had no choice but to stop the car.

“I’ll get started on digging; you go find somewhere to dump the rubbish.”

Grabbing the garbage bag, Bella walked off into the forest with her shovel, while Ethan started digging a hole.

Hours passed, even with Bella coming back to help, it wasn’t until the sun was well and truly in the sky that they finished digging. Exhausted and sweating all over, they sat down for a moment to catch their breath.

“Let’s get this done.” Pulling the body out of the car, Ethan started to drag the carpet to the grave.

THUD.

Ethan was immediately knocked when Bella swung her shovel into his head.

... What was that? Waking up with a searing pain in the back of his head, he looked up to see the trees towering above him. Despite the pain, he turned his head to look around, coming face to face with the corpse. “MMM!” His screams were muffled by some tape stuck over his mouth.

He could hear the sound of shovelling as dirt started to fill in the hole. Looking up, he made eye contact with his girlfriend as she was shovelling.

“MMM!” What’s going on? He tried to struggle, but his hands and feet were bound with rope. He couldn’t escape as he was slowly buried alive.

“You should have listened to me Ethan. I tried to warn you that she couldn’t be trusted, but you didn’t believe me. You had plenty of times to make up for what you’ve done, but now you have paid the price. Enjoy Hell Ethan, Goodbye.”