What happened after the events we discussed about was fairly obvious. But if you'd like to have your memory jogged, it involved a tiny bit of gore here and there. If that didn't jump start your dead brain cells, I don't know what will.

Blaine theorizes that the possibility of the woman entering his house originally had little to do with assault – that she was there for something specific, although we still haven't placed what that might be. I cannot back his theory because of something she had said to me, moments before departing for good from the land of the living.

They should have told me you were a fucking boneheaded bitch.

They.

Those probably weren't her exact words, but sometimes you got to fill in the blanks for things that even a ruthless killer might be too humble to spell out to their soon to be victim, although it wasn't how it played out in the end.

I decide it would be best if I keep the others in the dark about what she had said, at least until we get rid of the corpse that is rotting downstairs. I don't want the impending threat of us being hunted down by a villainous mob to throw us off our game.

'Did she demand anything at all when she tied you two up?' Luca questioned Sloane and Blaine. 'If she came for something specific, she must have tortured you for information, yes?'

'No... she did none of that, she was focussed on finding Isla first. Like I said before, she said she'd deal with us afterwards, so that probably meant interrogating us, and having us killed later,' Sloane adds.

I could feel my eyes pulsating. It's probably a side effect of the pain meds from earlier. They did warn me I had to rest.

'Enough of all this, it's bumming me out. Let's clean up before the blood dries up,' I announce.

'B-but we don't have a plan!' exclaims Sloane.

'Planning is for screen writers and pyramid schemers,' I reply, raising my good arm as a signal to help me get on my feet.

Mouth agape for a second, she goes 'I'm not even going to complain, that was a good one,' while Luca helps me up.

'I know,' I mouth.

'So... bleach?' asks Blaine without dropping a beat. I nod. Speaking of, Blaine appeared to have manned up, now that his childhood bully joined our little party. Regardless, they seemed to be on good terms now, though probably not the best of it.

We walk downstairs, and I stop in right in front of the lifeless figure at my feet. The others tread behind me and I hear Sloane gag.

'Still think we don't need a plan?' Sloane asks with a weak, mocking tone. Let me give you some insight about her obsession with having a plan - she's the type that has their whole life planned out all the way until their funeral, while I played roulette with my life eating expired food because I forgot to get the groceries.

Ignoring her simply because I don't want her to have the satisfaction of having been correct, I direct a question at Blaine. 'Blaine, do you have any garbage bags? And gloves too.'

'I think I've got some bags around, but I'm not so sure about gloves,' he replied.

'That's fine, we'll make do. Also, a fresh bedsheet too.' I add the latter, just in case we need it. I guess things would have been easier if we had plotted this out before.

'Sponges too,' adds Luca. He then goes in search of the items we asked him to bring. Sloane too goes in search of the spilsh-splosh cleaner that I forgot the name of that we bought loads of earlier today.

Oh yes, bleach, that's the name.

Sloane returns and asks what I planned to do with the bed sheets. You know, that boring and overly technical yada-yada that we should have schemed out and gone through a long time ago.

I pretend to have everything sorted out, yet my words betray me. 'Do I look like I've done gigs like this before?'

'Well, you said you had it under control,' she says with her signature criticizing glare and smirk.

'I think it's best you tell us what's next.' Luca supports her statement.

Well, shit. I need to come up with something, and soon!

'I'm waiting for Blaine to come back so I don't have to repeat anything,' I say smugly. 'I haven't planned all the way through to the end, because it can get unpredictable, you know, but right now its very well under control.'

Control, my ass. I need to come up with some twaddle.

The sound of Blaine's footsteps approaching broke the long silence that followed. He returned with everything, including a box of disposable nitrile gloves. 'I found some gloves I got for gardening a while back,' he says.

'Would have sounded better if he said they were bought during the great plague of twenty,' I mutter under my breath to Sloane and Luca.

'So...' Sloane prompts. She won't give up, will she?

I clear my throat. Hoping my sorry excuse for a "plan" doesn't turn out to be a complete flop. I say, 'The next step should be easy, but it comes with the price of being mentally scarred for eternity. Wear your gloves, lay the bags, then the bedsheet, and then the body on top of that. Clean up afterwards and wrap it up last.'

I could almost hear crickets chirp when I finished. I am quite surprised too, to have put all of that in a single sentence.

'But why do you need a sheet and plastic?' she questioned further.

Think, think, think! 'Good question, actually... Well, for one, the cloth might leak the blood out, and, well, the plastic will keep it out.'

She extends her hand – I don't know what for. 'If this is part of some corny "we're in this together" bullshit, count me out.'

'No, give me the gloves, let's get this over with.'

Blaine hands out the gloves to us, and I pull them over both my hands, even though my left wouldn't be of any use. We lay the black polythene on the floor, close to the body. When I asked Blaine to bring fresh sheets, he had brought one in its original packaging. All the better for us, as long as we can avoid loose ends.

'You had unused sheets with you? Neat,' I say.

'Yeah, I did. It was a gift from my grandmother a few years ago. Uh, she's colour blind,' Blaine answered.

'Oh.' That explains why the sheets were hot pink. He's probably been waiting for quite some time to get rid of it.

Apparently it was obvious that I was falling asleep. I try to help, but they insisted that I take some rest. They lay the sheet on top of the polythene. I observe from the sofa in a corner, where I was supposed to be "resting".

'I'll get the hands, you get the legs,' Luca tells Blaine.

They lift Goldilocks – excuse me, I'm trying out names for the otherwise nameless woman, and start to place her over the bedsheet. I think I'm going to stick to Goldilocks. Suits her.

'A shame this isn't aluminium foil. Would've been a heck of a barbeque,' I yammered.

'Too soon!' Luca huffed and yet burst out laughing, dropping the body on the sheet, while all the others had to offer were guilty snickers. We don't wrap her up just yet, we keep it for last. They start cleaning, and although deep down I didn't want to, I drift off to sleep.

***

Someone pokes my bad shoulder hard and I awoke in a jolt.

'What in snot covered snow balls is wrong with you?' I holler.

Luca apologises saying, 'I'm sorry, we tried other ways to wake you up but you wouldn't budge.'

'Like hell, I didn't. That was the best damn sleep I've had in fucking forever. Why was I so rudely summoned in the first place?' I'. usually quite grouchy when I wake up most times, but right now, my heart is thumping so wild that it might burst any second, giving me a weird burst of energy that made me want to hop back in on reality, back to where I left off.

'We're done cleaning, and we're about wrap it up. Just checking if we're doing it right.'

I get on my feet. 'Why would I know? Do I look like I dispose bodies for a living?' he gives me a dubious look. 'I don't, by the way.'

We walk back to where the body was. Blaine asks, 'So... do we wrap it up now, or what?'

I click my tongue – I have no idea why I did that. 'I feel like something's missing. Should we keep flowers or something before we wrap her up? That's what they do in the films, right?'

'We're trying to get away with murder here, not throw a bloody funeral,' adds Sloane.

'Gee, you don't say... I guess we're good to go, then!' At that same moment, something grabs my attention. 'No, wait!'

'What's wrong?' asked Luca.

'Uh... she is... those are... she used my t-shirts as bandage. I can't have them traced back to me.'

I hear fingers snap and Sloane go, 'I knew it looked familiar!'

'Can someone pass me a bag?' Blaine hands one over. Sloane continues to gag at my attempts to pick the fabric out. I put them inside the bag, so we could get rid of it later.

'All done?' Luca, who stayed by me the entire time I went through that horrible ordeal, helped me up. I nod yes.

Sloane and Blaine had moved away from the scene into the living room – no pun intended, probably to keep themselves from throwing up, and I hadn't even noticed. I too felt sick doing it, but it was what had to be done for all our sakes.

No loose ends. I owe that much to myself for coping up with all the torture I put me through. To everyone else here too for sticking with me, given the circumstances.

I get rid of the gloves, now covered in blood. I'm not certain if the material will burn or not, but I guess we'll see when the time comes. I pocket a fresh pair for later use.

Luca starts to tie her up for good. I move into the kitchen, where what will now be considered a murder weapon was. At the sight of water, my parched tongue begged for it, and I obliged.

It's inside the sink. I had no idea what to do with it.

Sloane enters the kitchen. 'You okay?'

'Yeah,' I manage to whisper, looking away. She peeks inside the sink and her eyes widen.

'Is that...?' she trails off. I choose not to answer. 'How do we get rid of that?'

I would have shrugged to that, but right now I could not, so I say, 'Imagine I shrugged without saying this.'

'We can wash it, I guess... and wipe it down with some bleach. I'm not sure where to hide it.'

'I'd hide it in plain sight – on a knife block where it's expected to be.'

'Do I wash it, then?'

'Sure. Have Blaine hold it later, it would make it less suspicious if has his prints.'

I open the door of the freezer. 'This is where you hid the gun?'

'Uh, yeah,' she looks at my direction. 'It's wrapped in a hand towel I got from that drawer. Hold on, I'll take it out for you if you want it.'

Clever, with the towel bit, I'll give her that.

'Take your time, I'll take a seat here.' She returns to cleaning the knife.

I hear a siren ring. Shoot.

Making my way out of the kitchen, I try to trace the source of the sound. Blaine and Luca were panicking, and I couldn't help but flash a grin.

'Quick, go to the kitchen, Sloane's there,' I say, playing along. And quick, they were.

I pick up my phone from the coffee table and answer the call.

'Wassup, baby brosky.'

'Where are you now?' Such pleasantries. Shit, I'm supposed to meet him for dinner aren't I? What time is it even? I look down at the phone to check the time. A solid seven post meridiem.

'I'm about ten minutes away from La Salle Des Grenouilles, ' I answer.

'What? I told you to come to La nourriture de Bordeaux!' Honestly, I had no idea where he wanted to meet at, although I could remember that it had a French name. I was going to ask Drew just before I leave.

'Oh no!' I keep up my act. 'That's about two hours away from the place you said! I blame it on the French and their stupid unpronounceable names,' I continue to rant.

I can hear him sigh from the other end of the call. 'Fine. I'll be waiting.'

'Hold on, don't hang up. It's a party of five tonight.'

'I-I'm sorry, what?'

'A party of five,' I repeat. 'My homies are joining.'

'And you couldn't have told me this before?'

'It kinda-sorta just happened. I didn't know about it either.' I was at the entrance to the kitchen and everyone inside looked out at me, as if I was crazy.

'I don't thin-'

'Bye! Can't wait to see you too, you mushy-wushy squiggly pwig!' I cut him off and hang up.

'Who the bloody hell was that?' Luca asked, a funny look on his face.

'My brother. He wanted to know where we were at. I bought some time saying we were headed to the wrong place.'

'We legit thought we heard sirens,' Blaine says with a hand over where his heart would be, releasing a breath of relief.

'We're actually going?' Sloane asks.

Luca answers her, 'If we do, we will have an alibi. So yes, I think we better go.'

Sloane wordlessly walks to the freezer and takes out the gun, still wrapped in a towel. She places it on the table and unwraps it, for all of us to see.

'I'm tempted to keep this, but I want to get rid of it at the same time.' I didn't mean to say it out loud.

'I think you better keep it. There might be more people after you – it only makes sense,' Sloane says.

Now wait a fudging second, I didn't tell them about the They!

'You know about Them?'

'There's an actual gang involved? I only assumed to prepare for the worst! Let me tell you, I'm the exact opposite of prepared for this!' She starts to freak out.

'Chillax, I don't know much about it. It was something to do with her last words is all. I didn't want to tell you this earlier, we've already got a lot to work on.'

'Doesn't surprise me,' Luca joins in smugly. 'I knew the moment I saw her little kit upstairs. Ammunition like that, must be hard to get your hands on.'

A few seconds of silence reigned.

'Okay, back to work, chop chop. We're stepping out pronto,' I say.

I rush to the front door and step out. Blaine's other neighbours are outside. People need to appreciate the fact that they own a place to stay and remain indoors more. It would have made all our lives convenient.

'I hate the people in this neighbourhood, they're always outside!' I complain, while going back inside.

'How do we get it in the car then?' Blaine asked.

'Do you have any suitcases lying around?' Luca questioned.

I like where this was going.

'I can empty one of mine. I've got a fairly big one,' I offer. 'It's it that room, just dump everything inside it on the bed, it's mostly clothes.'

'I'll get it,' says Sloane, already on her heels.

When she returns with it, we wipe it down completely, including the insides using bleach.

Blaine and Luca lift the now-wrapped body and carefully place it inside the suitcase.

Sealing it shut with the zipper, I go into the kitchen to retrieve the gun. I place it inside my back pack with the towel still clutching it. I get Sloane to fetch Goldilocks' kit for me from where we found it upstairs. We pack that too inside my backpack.

We prepare to step out by packing a few other things that might come handy, including some cleaning aids and gloves.

'Ready?' prompts Luca.

'Let's do this,' backs Sloane.

Blaine goes out, waves at his neighbours and unlocked the SUV. Luca follows suit with the suitcase on it's wheels. Together, they load it into the boot.

Sloane and I walk out together, except she took the extra supplies and load it inside, while I stood near the door.

I made a grave mistake, when all I had to do was stand at the door and stare into the distance.

I look at the neighbours, who offer kind smiles and send a wave in my direction. I, naturally, oblige.

One of the neighbours, let's name her Karen, walks to me and introduces herself. She seems to be more like an anti-Karen, so I'm going to call her Sharon.

I ignore her introduction for the most part, but I smile and say that 'I'm Isla, a friend of Blaine's.'

'Are you alright dear? What happened to your neck?'

'Oh, that old thing! My clumsiness is something else entirely. I manage to hurt myself even when things are baby-proofed. It's a curse, I tell you.' She laughs along with me.

Pointing to the vehicle, she asks, 'Holiday with friends, I'm guessing.'

I laugh and say out loud, hoping the others would hear me, 'Yes, we're going on a road trip!'

'That sounds really nice. I know a few places worth visiting, if you're interested. So where exactly do you plan to visit?'

Now, lady, there is a thin line between nice and nosy, and you're treading on dangerous waters.