"Azra, I can explain" his wavering voice said. He took deep breaths like he was trying to calm himself.
The thick blood in his fist dripped onto the floor like tar.

"We need to clean this before my mother gets home." Is all I could manage.

Nothing else went through my mind. It was all too much. I felt numb and like my mind had an override and went into some incognito mode that thought of the practicality of everything.

I realise what I'm seeing. It's a crime scene.
The look on Mrs Elm's face of horror makes me blink my dry eyes.
The blood is everywhere. All over the floor, it leaks onto a corner of the rug and it's all over Romeo too.

"Stay here." Is what comes out my mouth before I dart to the kitchen, searching through all the cupboards until the one under the sink holds all the cleaning materials. I grab the bottles of bleach and soap along with sponges.
I run to get towels from the cupboard under the stairs thinking that it would be the quickest most efficient way of cleaning it all up before my mother comes home.

If she comes home early and sees what has happened. God knows what's going to happen to me. I've already crossed the line by bringing someone over without letting her know, let alone that person being a boy, then going into the study (even though it was unlocked, I'm still not allowed in), and then Mrs Elm's lifeless body stuck to the floor by her own sticky blood.

I take all the cleaning supplies in my hands back to the study, closing the door behind me with my foot and stepping over the broken glass.
I slide on oversized yellow gloves over my hands and open up a black bin bag before Romeo's wife eyes that follow me. His mouth is parted open like he is lost for words but he lets go of the fistful of Mrs Elm's heart and it plummets down into the black bin bag. I tie a knot and set it down before turning back to him.

His hand is still covered in her blood and I notice a splatter on his cheek. I throw a towel at him and he catches it to his chest.
"Come on, my mother will be home any minute." I say and take a sponge getting on my knees that are now covered in the lukewarm red liquid. The yellow sponge is now a dark brown as I soak up all the blood around her body, squeezing it back into a soapy bucket.

Romeo does the same, and we do this in silence. The only sound is the sloshing of the blood and my gasped breaths.
"Can you lift her body onto there?" I ask quietly pointing to the patterned rug that was soaked in her blood. The rug was never going to be restored to its original form.

He nods and lifts her body like it weighed nothing. I push her body over the carpet, rolling her with some struggle until Romeo takes over. He meets my eyes that are glazed over and I turn away, bleaching the floor until it is spotless and holds no mount of blood at all or any dust or grime.

I clean the desks and Romeo gets the broken glass which was my fault. This heavy feeling over comes my chest as the room begins to thicken. My breathing becomes more fast paced as the stinging scent of the bleach clouds my nose.
"She's gonna smell it." I say, my voice more soft and high pitched than I thought. I take off the gloves and put them in the black bin bag, running my hands through my hair.
"Hey hey, no she won't. We can fix that." Romeo says and puts his bloody hands at my side.
"Do you have candles or anything?" He asks.
I think hard and shut my eyes shaking my head. "Wait, I have incense." I say and push past him.

I come back and try to light the incense but I can't seem to get the lighter to light. I try and try again in frustration but a hand bloody hand covers mine. He takes the lighter from me and lights it in an instant like it was magic.

"Thanks." I sigh but then realise the blood he left on me and the blood all over our clothes. "We need to shower." I say looking at the floor. My eyes dart to he floor and the body.
"No no, we need to get rid of the body first." He says and takes my sides again. He bends down to my eye level. His green orbs make my heart flutter but at the same time, they are the eyes of a murderer. "How are we gonna do that?" I whisper and he answers immediately with "The forest. We'll burn her."

And so that was that. We found ourselves in the middle of the forest. It's much darker now, the trees taller than ever making it hard for anything to be made out and we were certain no one noticed us as Romeo showed me a hidden route to the forest. He carried her body with no difficulty or even a slight shortage of breath.
We laid the rolled up Mrs Elm on the forest floor along with the black bin bags. And Roman takes a lighter from his pocket. I spray my hairspray all over the body as we couldn't find any alcohol in the house. After using a whole can, we meet eye contact before he throws the flame into the sticky Mrs Elm. It immediately bursts into flames and he puts an arm in front of me so that I step back.

The cackling sound of her body screams like no fire that I had ever heard of. I place my hands over my ears and wince while Romeo does the same. "Lets go" he shouts over the noise before I follow him and we find ourselves walking in the dark with our ears still covered from the screeching. It sounded like a hundred souls being crushed and tortured for the rest of eternity.

I'm relieved to find no car in the driveway when we get back. I type in the keycode with my sleeve over my finger just in case I leave any traces of blood.
"We need to shower." I say "You go first, you're more..." covered in blood? It was as if he heard my voice and nodded before he followed me upstairs. I open the door to my room and point to the white door on the left.
"Towels are in the cupboard" I say before he nods and grabs my wrist before I turn to leave. All the numbness I had felt was shaken from me by his touch. "Thank you Azra." He says with his eyebrows tilted like he really meant it.

"You're welcome." I reply.

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authors note:

my updating times have been a few hours later than usual because i recently have been so busy during the day.

i'm going to be super busy for the next three days so please hang on if i don't upload!

thank you for your patience and thank you for reading.

please vote/comment !

-kiim