Chapter One: A Super Cute Murder Buddy
My initial thought was to run and get away from this fellow murderer, but then I thought why can't we just be friends? We could share body-hiding secrets! Ah yes, I like this idea. Ahh, insanity.
"Ummm…" the other person hums, the shadows from the trees combined with the darkness of the night makes it difficult to see their face and features. "Well, that's a dead body you've got there."
I snort. "No shit." I look the figure up and down, trying to find a distinguishing feature just in case I need to rat them out eventually. From the sound of the voice and body structure, they seem male, but you never know. "You also are dragging a dead corpse through the woods late at night." I continue.
"Early in the morning, depending on how you see time." The figure laughs out.
Panic suddenly shakes throughout my body. "M-morning?" I stutter, almost dropping my corpse. "Is it already past one yet?"
The other killer laughs yet again. "No, not quite. Why? Got somewhere to be?"
"I've got another corpse to hang if you don't watch it." I shoot back halfheartedly. I want this guy to be my friend, I'm not going to make my comebacks serious. Not yet, at least.
A laugh escapes his lips yet again. "You sure are fond of laughing for a murderer," I say, questioning.
"Makes it less obvious, don't you think?" He whispers in a low voice and I can feel the grin on his face, whatever that might look like. Just his voice brought a light blush to my cheeks. Oh no.
"Well," I state sternly, "if you'll excuse me, I've got a corpse to hang." I turn. "Possibly just leave for the animals."
You idiot! I think. Murder friends, dude! You can be murder buddies! Okay, no that sounds stu-
"Well, I've got a corpse. Let's hide them together. Less chance of both of us getting caught." The other voice says sweetly, which catches me off guard. I have decided he is male until further notice.
"You wearing gloves?" I say, possibly stalling. Okay, I'm stalling.
"You think I'm an idiot? Of course I am. I wore a different cologne than usual and different sized shoes than what I wear." Share murdering tips: check. "Do you think I'm new at this?"
"Okay, I gue-"
"Actually, I am new at this." The other murderer interrupts. "I just started out and this is my first kill and I didn't think I'd do it at first but when I did it felt so good and I-" I stop listening and instead pay attention to how loud his voice is getting.
I place my hand over his mouth area to stop his nervous rambling. "Do you want to get us both caught and put in prison?" I hiss. "Quiet, newbie. Let's just hide these corpses quick. I've got an essay to write for an eight A.M. class that I really want to pass so if you don't want to be murdered in the woods where I will make sure no one will find you, I suggest you hurry up."
I lazily drop the corpse from my sweaty hands and pull my backpack off so I can still keep mysterious-murder-man in my peripheral vision. I reach into my backpack and pull out the school supplies, careful to place it all in a neat stack so I don't forget anything. Very important; leave nothing at the crime scene but the body and evidence to place blame on someone else.
I almost gasp as my gloved fingers brush against a knotted rope.
"Gotcha." My Italian accent slipping out as I pull a noose from my bag and turn to my fellow murderer, who seemed to also be pulling things out of his bag.
I couldn't help but realize he's much taller than me, probably six-foot at least. My five-foot two self would cower from him if I wasn't someone who could kill you with a paperclip and hide you in a lake.
"Hey, titan man." I whisper. He glances over and weakly points to himself. "Yes you, who else?"
"I don't know, I'm just not used to being called 'titan man'." He shrugs. "Whatchu what?" He's southern, I mentally note. Hot.
"Help me with this noose." I raise my hands as if to show him the rope, but he most likely only saw a ghost of a shadow, the shape of a string in small hands.
"Why? Aren't you just going to leave the body?" he asks curiously, cocking his head to the side.
"I'm going to make it look like a suicide." I pull a note from my bag and wave it in the air that I, surprisingly, didn't have to forge. "He was suicidal anyway, so the police won't look into it that much. Now help me."
He strides over, temporarily forgetting his own corpse. He's quiet for a short while, looking as if he wants to say something. "So was she," he eventually mutters, focusing now on getting the rope over a somewhat low branch.
Confused, I looked at him. "What? Who?" He stands in a patch of moonlight, and I can see his unruly blonde hair and strikingly blue eyes.
He flicks his beautiful curls over to the motionless body on the forest floor. "The girl I killed. She was suicidal. Practically begged me to kill 'er." The rope catches the branch and he turns to me and smiles. Oh, such an innocent grin. "I assume you can tie the rest?"
I nod and watch him walk over to his friend and kneel in front of her, pulling more small shadows out of his backpack. Was she his girlfriend, maybe? Sister? It looked like she had the same blonde curls but her eyes-
Oh.
She's not some random girl, no. Oh, everything makes so much more sense.
"Annabeth…" I whisper and the boy snaps his head around at me.
"You- you know, er, knew her?" He turns his entire body towards me and I see him holding flowers and I recognize them immediately. Calla lilies, white calla lilies. For death. They're braided in her hair, and cover her white dress and I see he specifically placed her in the light. Red seeps into the flowers on her chest, where her heart had once beaten, still bleeding but now more slowly.
"Yeah," I mumble, shakingly motioning to the body behind me, "Percy's girlfriend."
"O-oh." He says and turns back slowly to face Annabeth's lifeless body.
It's silent for a long while after that. In that silence, I have time to hang an already dead person, leave the pre written suicide letter on the forest floor, and pay my last respects to Perseus Jackson.
My best friend.
