The Body

I love thriller stories, and I discovered flash fiction seven years ago. I decided to combine them and see what happens.

Her white t-shirt and jeans were covered in various shades of dark brown. “Aren’t you a little too old to be rolling around in the dirt?” I asked my best friend when she appeared on my doorstep.

Ignoring my attempt at humor she shoved her stocky frame through my front door into the hallway and turned to face me. She pushed her natural curls away from her face. “Debbie, I don’t know what to do. It happened so fast. I just reacted.”

Crossing my arms, I braced myself waiting to hear the drama she’d gotten herself into this time–that I was undoubtedly going to end up fixing. This was the nature of our relationship. She’d fly off the handle, screw something up, piss someone off and I was the voice of reason, the peacemaker who helped mend fences. Over the last twenty years, I’d become her personal therapist, life coach and fixer.

Now that she was standing in the light, those dirt stains, on closer inspection, looked to be blood stains.“What happened so fast? Are you okay? Are you bleeding? Where are you hurt?” I searched her up and down to see where the blood was coming from. After a few moments, her body started shaking as she cried. I held her close to me. “Julie, what the hell happened? Where's Cara?”

“She’s dead!”

“Who’s dead?” She buried her face in my shoulder and began confiding in me how she’d killed her girlfriend, Cara. "She was going to leave me! I couldn't let that happen." I slowly pulled away from her, and she started pacing back and forth. Lost in thought, while I digested what she’d told me, I completely zoned out until she grabbed both my shoulders, shaking me, “What do I do now?”

“You’re joking, right?” I’d always thought she was a little crazy, like last year when she decided she was Anne in Anne of Green Gables and could walk the ridgepole on the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum. Except she did it blindfolded. She too, like Anne, fell off but she broke her leg and got arrested for trespassing. I never dreamed she'd actually hurt someone. “Have you called the police?"

"No."

"You can explain what happened. It was an accident, right? You can claim self-defense!”

“No! I can’t call them! They’ll arrest me!”

“You have too! What are you going to do? You can’t leave her lying on the floor. ”

“She’s in the trunk of my car. That’s why I’m here. I need your help. We have to bury her!”

“We!” I put my hands up, releasing myself from her grip and took a step back from her. “WE, are not doing anything!” Her mouth dropped open as she looked at me like I’d unexpectedly thrown ice cold water in her face.

“You’re not going to help me?” She asked in disbelief, taking a step towards me. I’m sure she thought I was the type of friend who would help bury a body. We were quickly learning I was not.

“I’m sorry but I can’t help you fix this.” I leaned against the wall. “Burying a body is where I draw the line.”

“You always help me. You’re who I always turn to.”

“Yes, but this…I completely would not be able to live with myself. If you want me to go to the police with you, I will do that but…I’m not burying a body. Absolutely not!” I gripped the door handle, hoping she would take the hint. I wanted her out of my house.

“You’re going to have to find someone else to help you.” I opened the door wider, silently praying she didn’t see this as a betrayal, even though it was. “I won’t rat you out but if you get caught and tell anyone we had this conversation I’m going to flat out deny it.”

She stood there expressionless, her fists opening and closing, which she did when she was on the brink of having a tantrum. Waves of butterflies released in my stomach. I needed her to get out of my house that exact moment. Slowly, she walked back outside and stood on the porch.

“I’m really sorry, Julie.” I wished her luck as she went to ask her other best friend who was definitely crazy enough to help her.

Shutting the door, I leaned against it and took a deep breath in and a long, slow breath out.

On the other side of the door, I heard a car backfire and jumped in shock. Feeling a slight pain I placed my hand on my stomach and felt moisture. When I looked down, there was a deep red hole beginning in the middle of my shirt quickly growing bigger. More pain soon followed.

I guess she didn’t like that I wasn’t going to help her after all. Now she was going to have to call her other best friend help her bury two dead bodies, I thought as I slumped to the floor.

But that was no longer my problem.