V

September 28, 2020. The girls left the beach with sand in their toes and smiles plastered across their faces. Rebecca's was surely genuine. Kennedy knew hers was not.

"Hey, I can drive back. You've been driving this whole time." Kennedy offered, keeping her voice steady and upbeat as she took the keys from Rebecca's hands.

"Alright."

Kennedy started the car, taking a few deep breaths as she went. She replayed every plan over in her head. Hank would be at the speed limit sign on that little back road off of Westview at 8:00 PM. It was the road Kennedy had driven on to get to Hank's house without his wife noticing. It had seemed like a good spot to meet.

Everything in Kennedy's head made sense. She would drive down the road until she saw him and act like she was going to run him over. Slowly, only enough to hurt him. He would get freaked out, run off, and realize she wasn't to be messed with.

Unless she screwed up and actually hurt him. That's what Rebecca was for. Or, to be more accurate, that's what Rebecca's car was for.

"I can pull the Airbnb up on my GPS—"

"It's fine." Kennedy interrupted Rebecca, shaking her head slightly. She hoped Rebecca wasn't catching the worry that she felt was leaking from her voice, "I can figure it out."

"Alright."

Kennedy started driving, her mind on overdrive in reminding her of the directions she was supposed to be taking. She hoped Rebecca didn't realize that they were going in the complete opposite direction of their Airbnb. They had only been to the place once, so the other girl most likely wouldn't be aware of the exact directions.

The last words Hank said to Kennedy hung in the back of her mind, reminding her of why she had to do what she was doing.

"Everything about you belongs to me, Kennedy Abrams. Everything. I paid for your college. I paid for everything you bought in the past year. I know so much more about you than you could ever dream. You can't get away from me without ruining everything else in your life in the process."

He stomped off before the police could be called.

Kennedy turned onto Westview, not speaking as Rebecca hummed along to the music playing from the stereo. She kept driving, her eyes glued to the road as she turned off onto the side road where she knew Hank would be. Only a few more minutes until everything was over.

"Can I turn on my GPS now?" Rebecca stopped humming to ask the question, "We're very clearly lost."

"I'm just taking the scenic route, Rebecca. Chill out." Kennedy snapped.

"Chill out? You're acting like a stereotypical dad at the beginning of a movie where the car breaks down and the serial killer finds them on the side of the road."

"Don't you think that's a little bit dramatic? Your car isn't going to break down." Kennedy rolled her eyes as the car started to pick up speed, her heart pounding as she knew Hank was getting nearer.

As if the car had heard Kennedy's words and decided to disobey, the left headlight went out from in front of the girls, leaving one dim headlight as their only source of illumination on a road that Kennedy had never driven when it was quite this dark out.

"You jinxed it." Rebecca muttered out of the corner of her mouth, just loud enough for Kennedy to hear.

"Oh, are we in middle school now?"

"Are you really trying to pick a fight with me after I spent the majority of my day taking pictures of you?" Rebecca's voice was raised a bit and the car continued to speed up, Kennedy's brain unable to take the duality of her knowledge of what she was trying to do and Rebecca's constant nagging.

"You said you liked doing that!" She replied, trying to slow down but not doing much in that department.

"I liked it for the first hour, not the last seven."

"Why are you being so dramatic today? I picked you because you didn't seem dramatic." Kennedy huffed as she saw the speed limit sign come into view, but no Hank around it. She sped up more, trying to find where he was. In her chaotic state, she didn't even realize that she had accidentally told Rebecca she had 'picked' her.

"Picked me?" Rebecca repeated Kennedy's words. Kennedy didn't even hear her, because as the speed limit sign grew closer, the one remaining headlight showed a person venturing out into the middle of the road, ready to meet Kennedy.

She should have slowed down. She should have slowed down, but everything was happening so fast and a part of her knew that nothing was going to change unless this man was dead. Or paralyzed. Or something.

Rebecca was still talking as Kennedy kept her foot on the gas and closed her eyes.

"What do you mean you—"

A man's yell echoed through the empty road as Rebecca's sentence was cut off. A loud crack sounded as the man hit the windshield with violent force and flew over the top of the car, thudding to the ground as Kennedy slammed on her brakes, her eyes opening finally.

She opened her car door without saying a word to Rebecca as the other girl sat still and silent in the passenger's seat. Kennedy walked around the car slowly, her hands shaking and her eyes flooding with tears that she struggled to keep in. She turned on her phone flashlight and directed it down at the shape below her feet.

Hank Wilcox's body lay limp and lifeless, broken in too many places. His eyes were open and his mouth slightly ajar, as if the scream had only half left his lips before it was silenced. Something inside Kennedy's head didn't register that she had been the one to take this man's life. Something inside of her refused to let her believe it.

"Was it a deer?" Rebecca's voice coming from the front of the vehicle shook Kennedy back into remembering that she had to act as if this were all a freak accident. She didn't respond, just staring down at Hank's body as if she had never known the man in the first place.

"Kennedy?" Rebecca called out, "Was it a deer?"

Kennedy took a deep breath and looked up at Rebecca's eyes watching her from the side mirror. She paused for a second before slowly shaking her head, 'no.'

Rebecca got out of the car at that point, walking over to join Kennedy at the rear. She stared at Hank's body for around a minute before leaning down to stop the blood flow coming from a large gash in the man's head.

Kennedy whacked Rebecca in the chest before she could get down far enough, forcing her to stand back up.

"Ow. We need to help him live, Kenne—"

"He's already dead." Kennedy snapped, "He's dead and we need to get out of here."

Her mind was already turning from registering the enormity of what she had done to remembering that she had included the other girl in this little crime for this exact reason.

"Stop breathing so heavily." Kennedy ordered Rebecca, grabbing her arm and trying to force her back into the passenger's seat, "We need to get out of here."

Rebecca yanked her arm out of Kennedy's grip and stayed where she was, her wide, horrified eyes still locked on Hank.

"We have to call the cops. We have to tell them what you did, we have to—"

"What I did?" Kennedy repeated, her conscious screaming at her as she did so. She had become rather gifted at ignoring her conscious as of late, "Are you delusional? This is your car, Rebecca. Even if I confess, the cops are going to believe it was you who hit him. You're not going to get away with this just because I was the one driving—it was your car, so you're going to be in the most trouble."

Rebecca was silent, nodding her head slowly. Kennedy could practically see the gears turning inside of her brain, trying to force Kennedy's logic to make sense. She had, after all, spent the past few weeks treating everything Kennedy said as gospel.

"What if we called the cops and told them about the man and then we just run? So they can come and maybe save him?" Rebecca finally spoke.

"Rebecca, he is dead." Kennedy sighed in annoyance. They weren't supposed to have been standing there over the body for this long. "There isn't going to be anyone to save him. And if we call the cops, they're going to come here and see that we're not here, and trace our phone numbers and call us back and ask why we were even here to begin with, and that will expose out account and expose what we've been working on and everything will be ruined. Do you understand?"

Rebecca nodded slowly as she started to move towards the front of the car again.

"Okay," She nodded as she slid into the passenger's seat, "Okay."

Kennedy got into the driver's side and started the car, a bit incredulous at her ability to manipulate this girl.

"Can I use the GPS now?" Rebecca asked quietly, pulling out her phone.

Kennedy sighed.

"Yes."

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"It was sort of easy from there," Kennedy said as she sat in her own living room, wishing that she could go back to that night months before, "You started referring to the crime as something 'we' had done. You took ownership of it as well, all because...I manipulated you into doing so."

Rebecca was silent, and Kennedy couldn't quite tell what that silence meant. It continued on, until ten minutes had passed and neither girl had said a word. Kennedy supposed it was alright for Rebecca to sit there with her thoughts, but as the minutes dragged on, her anxiety mounted as she wondered if the other girl was about to absolutely explode on her.

"Alright." Rebecca finally said after thirteen minutes of silence had come and gone, "I'll help you."

Kennedy raised her eyebrows slightly, her gaze resting deep into Rebecca's eyes.

"You will? You're sure?"

"Just don't tell my lawyer." Rebecca replied, and Kennedy felt the surprising surge of excitement that she had forgotten accompanied making plans with Rebecca, "How do we start?"