Sarah Lou managed to steady her shaky breath, the feel of her chest wheezing loudly as she looked at Callum's lifeless body beside her, blood oozing from a large gash on the back of his head. As she turned her body completely, her eyes fell upon the person who saved her from what Callum was bound to do to her next and as she took in who was in front of her and the wrench they were clutching whilst breathing manically, their eyes fuelled with venom, Sarah felt the urge to throw up. She could hardly believe who was stood here having battered Callum.
Sarah knew she wasn't imagining things.
Callum lying on the ground.
A blood stain on the floor.
His yell of pain before he fell against the cold kitchen tiles.
The weapon in their hand.
Soaked in blood.
Callum's blood.
The wrench was still grasped tight in her shaking hands.
In her hands.
In Kylie's hands.
It was Kylie. Kylie.
The fireworks outside the pub continued to burst into explosions of colours, amazing the children and adults alike. Nick had his arm around Leanne's shoulder, pulling her closer to his chest whilst Simon pulled a face at the two of them, disgusted when they shared a quick kiss.
"Eurgh...you two are proper gross." Simon said, pulling a face.
Nick and Leanne laughed. "Would you rather we split up?" Nick asked, poking Simon's shoulder.
Simon turned around properly to his step-father and Leanne. "Well no, I couldn't be bothered having to move 'Ouse again- all that movin' has done me head in."
"Simon!" Leanne laughed.
"No offence but it's just... well if you two are together..."
"Which we are." Nick added. "And happier than ever."
"Then make it for good," Simon finished. "Don't split up again."
Simon turned around again to watch the fireworks as Leanne resumed her position in Nick's arms before he planted a kiss on her head, a thought filling his brain.
Kylie's breathing was still erratic, her chest racing up and down and her hands shaking so much she had dropped the wrench she had hit Callum over the head with. It was now lying on the carpet in the Platt's living room, a bloodstain starting to form on the carpet.
Sarah's teary eyes steadied and she managed to properly focus on Kylie. "Wha...What the hell have...ya done?!" She asked, completely panicked.
Kylie, still shaking, backed away from Callum's body and took a deep breath. "I...I...is he breathin?"
Sarah gawped at Kylie before shakily reaching for Callum's lifeless hand that she once held and had caressed her body; feeling for any sign of life. She squeezed his veins again and again. No pulse. No beat. Nothing. Dead.
"He's dead..." Sarah whispered quietly, hoping that the quieter she said it, the more untrue the sentence would become.
"He's what?" Kylie gulped down what she was sure was her own vomit.
"He's..."
"Kylie?" David called, rushing into the house through the open front door. "What the hell is...oh god."
Carla and Peter were up on the balcony of her Victoria Court flat still; Carla was knocking back glass after glass of Merlot whilst Peter took sips of his orange juice, watching as the woman he loved drowned herself in wine again.
He reached out for her hand that wasn't wrapped tightly around the wine glass and was resting on the balcony. "Carla, is something bothering you?"
"No." She lied, taking another large sip.
"Are you sure? That's your fifth glass and I don't see ya stoppin anytime soon."
Carla rolled her deep brown eyes at Peter. "I'm fine Peter."
"Is it work? Is it something with us? Are you having doubts?"
"Are you going to stop asking questions?"
"Will you tell me what's going on with you?"
"No," Carla said, watching the fireworks overhead.
"Then I'll keep asking questions."
Carla fell silent, bored of arguing back whilst Peter's mind went into overdrive, thinking through what could have been bothering her.
Suddenly, Peter felt he'd made a breakthrough.
"It's Aidan, isn't it? You're pissed because he's lied about Johnny."
"Pissed I am Peter." Carla chuckled to herself.
"It's Johnny, isn't it?"
Carla's knuckles tightened and went white as she was grasping to the cold metal bar of the balcony. Even the name made her stomach churn.
"Carla?"
"Fuck off Peter."
"What?"
"You heard. Fuck off and go home."
"Carla!?" Peter repeated her name, angrier than before. Now she was being stubborn and it was doing his head in.
Carla pushed him back inside her flat towards the front door, grabbing his leather jacket from her shoulders and shoving it in his hands before slamming the front door in his face. Carla rested her body against the oak door of her chic flat before feeling a familiar sensation of tears rolling down her cheeks. She slid down the door to the floor in a heap of her own tears, broken by what she knew and what would soon become public knowledge.
David crouched down beside the body of his nemesis, checking his pulse again and managing to stay as calm as possible as his wife and sister clung to one and other tightly, shaking and crying as David shook his head at them both. He didn't need to use words. They knew it. Dead. Murdered. Battered. Killed. Kylie was a murderer.
David eased himself up slowly, reaching for the chest of drawers to help himself up and keep steady. He glanced at the pictures on the chest as he stood, his head in his hands. He saw Max on his seventh birthday, smiling as he blew out his seven candles on his football cake, Lily with her favourite bear in her little hands, a baby toothy smile on her face. And then one of the four of them together.
"We need to hide his body." David said coldly. "Somewhere. Anywhere. We need something to wrap it up in."
Sarah nodded shakily. "Michael left his old dressing gown...could we put him in that?"
David held his mouth open. "Oh yeah, get him Michael's fuzzy slippers and a paper and we can prop him up on't sofa next to Gail. She'd be well chuffed, great idea Sarah!"
"David!" Kylie barked.
David shook his head. "Sorry." And with that, David rushed upstairs and rummaged around whilst Kylie and Sarah dragged Callum's body towards the back door and the pair started to clean up the bloodied trail his body had left behind.
David came back downstairs, armed with Max's duvet set with pirates on. If it wasn't a murder, he'd of chuckled. After all, Callum was the biggest crook and pirate he knew of.
"Ere," David threw the duvet set at Kylie and Sarah. They both pulled a face.
"It doesn't seem right burying him in pirate bedding," Sarah said.
Kylie frowned. "Won't Gail notice they've gone?"
David buried his face in his hands again. "Sarah, I hate to break it to you but Max had no pyjamas with drug dealers on so its pirates or nothin and Kylie, we'll have to distract her next time she's doing her weekly turn down. Besides, it's not like we're gonna wrap up his body and shove him in the cupboard next to Gail's bedding, tell her to make Max's bed with his Dad's corpse in it!"
"That's enough!" Kylie shouted. "David, wrap up his body quickly before any one comes home!"
David opened up the pirate duvet and with the help of Kylie, lifted Callum into the bed sheets. Kylie looked to David for what to do next.
"Er," David began, shifting on his feet nervously. "His car! We can put him in the canal!"
Sarah whimpered. "David what if we get caught?! What if... What if we just call the police and say...and say he attacked me and it was self defence... They'd believe that!"
David grabbed Sarah's shoulders tightly in the same way Callum had done and for that short minute, she had to remind herself that it wasn't Callum who was holding her shoulders. "Sarah, he's dead. If we phone the police one of us will end up behind bars."
Sarah shook her head. "Not if we..."
David shook his older sister hard and sharp. "No!" He yelled in her face. "Do you not understand what will happen to us if the police find out? We'll go to prison. We'll have our kids taken off us and shoved into care. Do you really wanna do that to yer own family?"
"But..." Sarah pleaded, her teary eyes flickering down at Callum's corpse in the bedding. "No...I...No I don't."
"Right, then let's tuck him in." David said with a half chuckle. Kylie stared at him. "Just hope the bedbugs don't nip him."
"David!" Kylie gritted her teeth. "Not right now!"
"I could erm...find Nick, ask if we can borrow the van." David suggested.
"No, no," Kylie began, checking Callum's pulse again. Nothing. "Don't drag anyone else into this mess."
"So what the hell do we do then?" David asked, his hand clenched into a tight fist. "Prop him up at the dinner table and act like nowts happened?"
Kylie flung her arms in the air. "David this isn't funneh! We're just gonna have to put him in his car and drive him off somewhere. We aren't gonna pull the others into this mess."
"What are you going to do with him?" Sarah timidly asked, her eyes still focused on Callum.
"Make it look like an accident...somehow," David remarked and gestured down at the sheet with Callum's body inside, held like a butterfly inside a cocoon. "Let's drag this outside to his car...I might be able to...I dunno... do somethin' with him."
Kylie and a still quivering Sarah nodded obediently and Sarah held her ex's legs whilst Callum's other ex heaved his torso out to the perfectly manicured lawn in the back garden of No.8.
"Right, you two stay here one second and I'll unlock his car." David whispered, his breath forming white rings in the cold of the night. He rushed inside and grabbed the car keys and hurried out through the back gate to Callum's car, unlocking it as discreetly as humanly possible. David eased his way back through the gate, wondering how the hell he found himself disposing of Callum's body.
"Ready?" Kylie asked quietly, gaining a serious nod from her husband. "Right...we lift him in 3, 2...," Kylie's whispers were interrupted by the roar of Callum's white corsa screaming to life and as David quickly darted out the gate, he saw Callum's car speeding off.
"Shit..." David whispered. "Shit."
Thank you for your great reviews last time and sorry for such a long wait on the next chapter! I know this one is short but hopefully I will start to update more regularly!
