18th August 2012,

My eyes went dry as I unblinkingly stared at the crumpled body that lay lifelessly on the floor. I gulped and slowly moved towards it, too sedately to be noticed. When I reached the body, I looked down and used my foot to turn the body, making the dead stare at me.

As I looked into those fixed eyeballs, my legs buckled and I sat down on the ground, not crying, not laughing, just staring at the face I had met just some time ago. My phone rang and I mechanically flipped it open and accepted the caller, not looking at the screen, not caring to read the name.

"Hello" I heard my dry raspy voice say as I put the phone on my ear. My earphone had dropped from my ear and was lying on the floor somewhere but I didn't care about it right now. Nothing mattered anymore, or at least for that moment.

"Are-are you okay?" Coe asked, his voice shivering with panic.

"Hmm," I said, not sure if any word in my vocabulary could describe how I was feeling right now. I guess DEAD would be close, just touching the perimeter of my current emotion.

"Wh-who died?" He asked in a stammer.

I sipped down the saliva that had come to wet my dry mouth and looked at the sobbing person who sat in front of me, crying at the death of the loved one. I stayed silent and simply listened to the sobs and wails of the person.

"Joseph? Wh-who killed who?" Coe stammered, this time choosing his words carefully and cautiously before speaking.

"Ella," I replied in a monotone voice.

"Wh-What do you mean? Is she? Is she dead?" I heard him ask, gasping at the mention of her name.

I didn't say anything, my throat was feeling too raspy and dry to answer. I disconnected the call and let go of my phone which fell down and perhaps crashed and broke.
I didn't know. I didn't care.

Slowly, I stood up, my legs still weak with the shock of all I had seen in a brief moment of time. I slowly went all around the body and stopped when I reached the back of the sobbing figure. I rested my hand on the person's shoulder and carefully knelt beside.
Hesitantly, I patted the killer's back.

She slowly turned towards me and grabbing my t-shirt, hugged me and cried loudly, letting go of all her guilt and sadness as I slowly caressed her hair.

"H-how did it hap-happen?" I stammered, my eyes now moist.

She looked up at me and sniffled, wiping her tears with the edge of her palm. As she looked at me, tears once again began forming in her eyes but this time she wiped them off before they could fall. Then wiping her nose, she cleared her throat.
" He-He was paranoid. He th-thought I was having an affair with someone. T-today when I returned from my jog, he stood there, h-holding my phone which I had for-forgotten to take with me. He frantically waved it at me, demanding an explanation. I could only make out that he was furious over some texts I had sent to someone. I-I tried to calm him down. J-just then he p-pulled a gun at me. That's when you arrived a-and I lunged at him to snatch his gun, b-but he tried to push me and in that tussle, the trigger got pressed and, and he..." She broke down and wept loudly, cursing herself.

"What text?" I asked in a dead voice that betrayed no emotion.

She took out her phone and handed it to me, still crying.

My eyes went wide as I saw that the texts she was talking about were the friendly flirting texts that we used to send each other. I gulped loudly and looked at her.

"Ella", I whispered, but she didn't hear me.

After a few minutes of listening to her cry, I firmly grabbed her shoulder and turning her to face me, shook her hard until her tears turned to sob.

"Listen, Ella, I know James was special to you. Heck, you loved him but you see these texts." I said, waving it at her before handing it back, "these are the texts we used to send each other. You see, you and I know that his death was an accident. None but us. If the police arrive and investigate, they will find out about these texts and do you know what will happen then?"

She shook her head, sniffing loudly.

"They will arrest us for murder!" I exclaimed.

"B-but why? You were here when it happened, you would be my witness. A-and why would the cops arrest you? You didn't do anything!"

" Are you naive ?!" I almost shouted and then dropped my voice to a whisper to prevent any eavesdropping. "These texts are false proofs that we might as well be having an affair and decided to remove James from our path. So we conspired together and killed him in cold blood and then to protect ourselves, we decided to devise this story. Even Coe wouldn't be able to help us for he only heard us and saw nothing. The jury will think we cleverly called Coe and made him an alibi for our innocence! We will be done for Ella! We will be done for!"

Ella finally calmed down and processed my words. After some time she looked at me and asked-"So now?"

I looked around and pointed at her garbage bag. "We need to put his body in  that bag and wipe off all the blood from the floorboard and then, later on, dump his body."

"Dump his body?!" She shouted in shock. I quickly put a finger on her lips and motioned to drop down her voice.

"Dump his body?" She whispered, still not believing my words.

I nodded. "We are in a deep mess, Ella. This guy— I pointed towards Jame's limp body— is dead but we have a full life ahead of us. We cannot ruin our thriving future for someone's dead present."

She nodded trustingly and I went to get the bag.

After a few moments of turmoil, we finally succeeded in putting his body in the black plastic and left it at the corner of the room. Then, bringing the cleaning tools we began to clean away the blood.

After some time I looked at Ella scrubbing the floor earnestly and smiled.
"Isn't it like when we had to clean the cat's blood?" I asked, trying to lighten the mood.

"Sorry?" She looked at me questioningly.

"N-Nothing", I stammered and continued my work. From the corner of my eye, I could see her look at me questioningly before resuming her work.

After fifteen minutes, we finally ended up cleaning the whole floor. We sat there, taking deep breaths before standing and heading towards the sink.

"Do you want some water?" She asked me and I nodded. She then took a glass and filled it up for me. Giving it to me, she waited patiently until I had emptied the contents.
"Do you want some more?"

I shook my head and she smilingly took the glass from my hand, rinsing it before filling it for herself. When she had drunk her fill, she turned about and stared at her reflection. After some time, she carefully brought her thumb near her chin and wiped off the blood under her lips before once again facing me.

"Now what?" She asked.

"Now we would..." but before I could finish my sentence, somebody opened the door and shouted, "Joe!"

I turned around in shock and horror only to find Coe looking at me breathlessly. He sighed in relief and ran to hug me.

"I was so worried!" He complained as he gave me a bear hug which I didn't mind at that time.

"If you are done with the brotherly bond, can you please tell me what we will do next?" Ella said, interrupting our rendezvous.

I nodded at her. "I will go and get rid of the body."

"Body?" Coe asked in confusion.

"Yes, body," I said, confirming his suspicion by pointing at the black figure near the door. "Long story short, our friend James who we met in the bar was Ella's boyfriend who got killed when he confronted her over some silly texts."

Coe still looked at me suspiciously but nodded. "I will come with you." He finally said.

"No, you stay here and use some old clothes of Ella to wipe off any prints- finger, foot, any."

He nodded hesitantly. I gave him a confident smile and putting the heavy body on my shoulder, cautiously made my way down the stairs. To my luck, nobody was around.

I quickly went to the park from a hidden, neglected gate almost nobody knew about and tying some rocks, drowned the body in the pond. I silently stood there, breathlessly staring as it slowly sunk, deeper and deeper.

As the first bubbles rose to the surface, indicating his arrival at the bottom of the pond, I sat down. The realization of what I had done struck me and I cried to heaven, praying for forgiveness. After a few seconds, I wiped away my tears and made my way back to Ella's apartment.

Silence greeted me as I entered her living space. I looked around but couldn't see anyone.

"Coe?" I called. "Ella?"

Just then Coe rushed at me and said in a frantic voice." Joe, Ella! Ella is dead! She-she was killed yesternight!"

"What are you talking about?" I exclaimed, "We both saw Ella alive today!"

"She- she isn't Ella, she is..." But before he could complete his sentence, a knife plunged into his chest from behind and his pupils dilated.

"Isabella", Ella finished his sentence, letting his body fall on my shoulder. "Her twin."

"Coe?" I tried to shake him and his body fell on the floor, limp and dead, the knife still in his body.

I looked towards Isabella just in time to see her stab me in my stomach. I cried in pain and staggered back, trying to maintain my balance.

"Why are you doing this?" I asked breathlessly.

"Because the bitch Ella always got the best of everything while I was left with either nothing or her leftovers! I wanted to live her life, be her and for that, I needed to kill her. When she found out about my intentions, she escaped to this city to protect herself from me. But last night? Last night I found her and stabbed her as soon as she opened the door. I then put her body in the closet and resumed my work with her identity. When James found out today, he threatened me with a gun but you, you my pathetic friend, saved me."

"And Coe?"

She laughed a maniacal laugh and came towards me. I backed away as fast as I could.

"I told that stupid guy to wait outside but he followed me all the way into the closet and saw her body. I tried to explain to him, even offered him money to keep quiet but he was too adamant. So I had to silence him."

"You- You won't get away with this!"

"Don't you get it, Joe? You will help me escape. You and your dead friend, Coe, right? You both will help me.
The story is simple. You couldn't see me with another man so you and Coe barged into my house and killed James. But after that, an argument broke out between you two on what should be done with me. In the heat of the argument, Coe stabbed you and pushed you out of the window. Taking the opportunity I stabbed Coe.
And Ella's body? That I will dispose of on my way to the police station."

I laughed at her but it was difficult as the pain was becoming unbearable.
'I have to keep her busy talking to find an escape.'

"What if the police think what I first told you? They could further up the story saying that Coe came to surprise me and found the body. Panicked, you stabbed him for which I confronted you. Then you took another knife and stabbed me, before pushing me out of the window." I said.

She smiled and came closer to me, "If you are lucky you will survive the fall but go into a coma. If that happens, I will allow you to live for five years hoping that you would wake up and 'accept your crimes' and I would 'finally get justice'. If my luck won't run out and you would hopefully remain comatose, then as the five years run out, I will declare myself financially unstable to support you. The police will then believe my sob story for who will keep her own victim alive to testimonies against her? Thus I would be free and you will be the culprit."

My mouth was now filling with blood but I still managed to say, "What if I wake up?"

"Nobody will believe you."

"What if they do?"

"Well that's a risk I am willing to take, " she said and with a hard shove, pushed me out of the floor.

Just as my head hit the hard concrete, I looked up to see Isabella smirk before turning away from the window. Slowly my eyes closed and blackness enveloped me.