Chapter Four: Wide Awake and Still Pretending Seeing is Believing.
Time passed and life carried on as normal as normal could be. Stacey got a new jock boy toy. Jennifer still never threw Melody into a blizzard and they kept play fight-flirting over yogurt. James and that Law professor had caught a coincidentally well-timed flu. Mario convinced Holly to keep tutoring Vinny and George while James stayed at Mario's home ill. Jonathan kept cordial relations with Holly though both barely spoke to one another only as needed.
A couple of days before Halloween when every building was truly in the throes of putting on a silly-spooky air with cheap tricks and cheaper booze, another wild house party with a kitty sluts and bunny babes theme took place. Holly wore a tacky bunny suit at the constant pestering of Stacey that she didn't have a costume, even so, she'd covered up with a pair of shorts once the blonde was too busy to care. There were neon colored hard liquors, lame bat shaped edibles, Micky Miers masks around every corner and sputtering fog machines filled the house. It all was just another excuse to drink and fuck until it turned sour when Kitten-Beth showed up, Hacksaw killer-Kevin in tow. Kevin dumped Beth on the spot embarrassing her in front of everyone, tried to get back together with Bunny-Stacey, then fought Stacey's new football jock guy having the cops called on them by someone not as drunk as the rest. Stacey lost her shit and swore if she ever saw any of them again she'd make them wish they were never born. Holly stayed in the corner with Kitty-Melody passing between them a bottle of cheap vodka, smoking and telling off guys hitting on them.
It was five days after this party Holly found herself looking at Beth's fairly fresh corpse in their cellar. Beth had probably been alive for some time, chained by what looked like quality handcuffs to the plumbing and gagged by a pair of pink panties along with a patch of peeling duck tape. There was a lot of dried blood on her, likely from the wound on her inner arm that when reaching the floor mixed with water from a leaking pipe. She probably nicked herself on something while struggling and bled to death. The pipe itself must have come loose from her dead weight or tugging frantically on it. Whichever the case she was still bound to it. Water was trickling out causing the house to lose pressure sporadically which is what prompted Holly to check on it in the first place.
She stared for a long time not knowing what to say or do. There was nothing to say to a corpse obviously. The smell had not gotten bad yet, there was this weird heavy-duty scent of cleaning chemicals masking it from where they stored spring cleaning products. Beth was still in her kitten-slut party outfit that showed off rainbow colored bruises that'd never heal now. Her shoes were missing and one of her ankles looked broken, something about the angle was too off to be anatomically correct. Holly leaned with morbid curiosity to the woman's slumped over head. The makeup she'd had on had run from tears and snot and was smudged all over her face, her eyes had not been closed. A milky film was covering the once brown irises and they had long begun to dry out. How horrified, Holly thought, would she have been if they moved to look at her just then like a zombie from a B-rated film?
Holly turned around and went back up the stairs calmly - numbly, to Jennifer who waited at the top.
"Well? Do we need an expensive plumber?" Jennifer asked trying not to bite her nails in a nervous habit, having sent Holly down instead because she thought the basement was dark and creepy normally.
"... No," Holly spoke after a moment finally looking at Jennifer, "no, I know a guy that can fix it," she looked back down furring her brows in thought. Holly didn't want Jennifer to freak out, go downstairs and see the corpse. It was a traumatic experience she did not want to thrust upon others, better to see Beth in a body bag rolled out by police.
"Cool, cool. Call him over soon. Stacey gets super fucking angry when she can't take a shower at home after a bad fuck. You know she's at that frat today too. Like, you haven't seen her bitch fit about it, it's sooooo bad." Jennifer took another look down the stairs unable to see the horror that was further in before pulling on the cord to the stair's lightbulb and closing the door.
Once Jennifer was gone Holly picked up the landline about to dial 911. However, got lost after pressing the nine button... when she was a teen she'd once found a dead deer in a ditch. It was out in the woods where her not-friends were partying with peyote. The same hollow feelings that she had then, were there in her now. Why was she not panicked? Her heart hammered at the thought of not being scared. She was terrified of getting hit on by a drunk James for zero reason to the point of throwing up hours later but not by an actual dead body in her basement!
She clicked the phone down and picked it back up. Dialing the frat house Stacey was at instead.
"Hey," she kept her voice as level as she could, "I'm looking for Stacey. Blonde bimbo. Holly. Yeah... Hollywood," her eyes rolled at the nickname, "She's busy with the team? Okay... well please tell her I found her lost pink panties in the cellar when she's sober. She'll understand." Holly hung up, got a pot of coffee on to brew then waited in the kitchen. Keeping an eye on the basement door.
Sometime around two am when none of the girls should have been awake Stacey came home, looking suspiciously around before catching sight of Holly staring at her from the kitchen like a visage of a mother waiting on their teen that did not come home on time. "H-hey girl, rough night too? Oh my god my throat hurts, haha you know cause," her hands expressed the size of something before going back to her sides quickly as the gesture was scowled at, "is there honey in the cupboards?" She was sheepishly moving over into the kitchen and strangely polite, the nervousness was dripping off her.
"I bet there's some in the cellar, wanna check with me?" Holly stood and pointed demandingly to the door making Stacey go first.
Once both women were down in the cellar Stacey dropped the facade and went over to Beth speaking in a hurried voice that lent to an accent from upstate, she must have not been from Gotham either, "Listen, I'll let her go but you gotta help me make her promise not to tell anyone. Especially Jenny upstairs. I fucked up and was just... so fucking pissed."
It hit Holly, "Beth's dead... Stacey." Had she been out getting laid and sucking dick when Beth bled to death? Had it been longer than that? Stacey looked down and when she realized Holly wasn't joking she started to panic. "I..." Jesus, Holly could not comprehend it, "why the fuck are you so stupid Stacey?" Holly deadpanned going unheard by the amount of swearing and 'oh my god's' coming from Stacey's mouth.
"Oh my god, oh my god, what the fuck... how, she was fucking fine I swear! All I did was kick her a few times. I fucking swear I didn't beat her like this, and I wouldn't kill someone. Holly please," Stacey turned to Holly with crocodile tears in her eyes, "You believe me right? You didn't call the cops, come on. Please, please. I wouldn't. I'm a bitch, a fucking whore even, not a murderer. I was gonna let her go when she swore to never tell anyone. I even fed the dumb bitch your stupid bat biscuits."
"Those were Melody's..." Holly spoke unable to really say anything else in response to Stacey's blubbering, "the stupid bat biscuits." Beth was probably high as a kite when she died.
"What the fuck ever! I didn't do this... Holly. I- I cannot," she suddenly gained conviction in her words no longer just blubbering, "I cannot. Get kicked out of another uni let alone go to fucking jail. Dad already cut me off with less than fifty grand and I've got to find a good fucking job or I'm literally going to be a gross homeless person." The sense of entitlement was astonishing, Holly had maybe three dollars at the end of any given week, fifty grand was a pipe dream to her. Stacey moved towards Beth taking the small key to the cuffs from around her neck, "No one's looking for the skank, not even her own mother. Help me get her out of here."
"Uh... no." Holly was confused, what were they going to do once they got Beth out? Dig a grave in the backyard? Dump her body in the river like every cliché? Fifty grand could get them some acid but two college women that had nothing to do with science majors would be plainly suspicious. What were they doing now even? Holly should have called the cops. She regretted her decision to wait for Stacey. What had she expected out of the other woman, some kind of truly heartfelt and sad confession? One that would shed light on her own empty feelings and she could piggyback ethical emotion from? Holly had been the stupid one.
"Bitch what do you mean No? You're an accomplice now, you fucked up," Stacey turned her head to look Holly in the eyes. A brand of seriousness replaced her normal carefree glow, "If you don't help me I'll tell whoever you call you're the fucking psycho that did it," Stacey took off her jacket and uncuffed Beth using the sleeves to not touch the corpse directly, "Even if they figure it out, I'll make sure to drag you and this whole fucking house down with me, do you fucking get it?" She threw her jacket on the ground when Beth slumped over. Stacey meant to spread the blame to all the women in the house. She was right though, who doesn't notice a body in the basement for days? Apparently, it was easy enough to not.
'You wouldn't.' Holly mentally called the bluff but knew all too well by now Stacey was a loose bolt. One left turn and she'd probably try and beat Holly worse than Beth looked. Rather she spoke slowly, looking down at Beth's flopped-over cadaver. "I think... I know a guy." Repeating the same words to Stacey as she had Jennifer with an entirely different context this time.
"Okay, who?" Stacey wasn't missing a beat right now, even placing her hands on her hips and giving Holly an expecting look.
Holly tilted her head up at the basement ceiling and for one fleeting moment she considered calling the cops again... breathing out a breath she didn't know she was holding she looked at Stacey with her face emotionless, "Do you still have Vinny's number?" Time to get more involved than she ever wanted.
They kept the body throughout the wee morning hours and into the next day. Guarding it from their housemates was a breeze between the two women. Lame excuses, distractions, and Stacey's particular brand of bitch-theatrics came into use. Holly was beginning to realize how they actually had things in common with one another and the mere thought left a sour taste in her mouth.
Later in the day Vinny and his uncle Matthew came to look at the plumbing along with what had caused such damage. Matthew actually fixed the pipe too. Holly understood now why Vinny didn't seem so interested in classes, let alone math, he had done this sort of morbid work before. Knowing all too well how to lay out the dark sheets and even darker plastic, move the body without leaving his prints, and haul Beth into the sedan's trunk... only problem was Beth didn't fit. She was past rigor mortis and they had too many tools for Matthew's on-the-book job in the back. Holly concluded Vinny was probably too squeamish to break Beth into a pretzel, she'd be too.
So instead she leaned on the porch railing and watched as a neighbor walked past eyeing the plastic roll on the ground as Vinny moved tools around in the trunk, "One of those blow-up props? Where'd you get it, seems they've been sold out for weeks and I was kind of wanting one next year." None the wiser, nor the most clever in the first place.
Holly fiddled with the plastic on the pack of cigarettes she kept with her, clicking a nail against the edge of the box. Every crinkle made her think of Beth being rolled up. A heavy hand fell on her shoulder making her look up quickly, "Come on boy..." Matthew rolled his eyes at Vinny and took his hand off Holly making a gesture for her to follow. She didn't. His hands kept going though as if when he spoke verbally he spoke with them physically too, "Non vengo pagato abbastanza per insegnarti a stronzare. Mettila sul sedile posteriore." She nor the neighbor could not understand a word, and that was probably the point.
Vinny, however, stopped trying to move the tools and slammed the trunk shut. Holly knew the look on Vinny's face, she used to wear it as a defiant teen wanting to make a scene. He didn't. The nosy neighbor while none the wiser to what was held in that plastic rollup did sense the awkward tension and kept walking when Matthew slapped Vinny on the side of the head then opened the backseat door for him to stuff Beth inside.
Stacey had not been too far behind Matthew she stopped next to Holly watching the men get rolled Beth into the backseat, "She was always kind of fat."
"... Yeah." Holly slipped away the pack of cigarettes into her jacket pocket. She made her way down the porch watching the men finish buckling dead Beth into the middle seat because safety first. Matthew went back for Stacey and Holly could hear her protest about not going anywhere with gangsters. Stacey's pleas got quieter when Holly got into the back next to Beth. She propped her elbow on the sill of the sedan's door then put her chin upon her hand. Watching Stacey get picked up like a sack of flour over Matthew's shoulder and go dead silent was the funniest thing she'd seen all year. It brought a smile to her face but at least it felt like real happiness. Nothing any of the bullshit parties that they've hosted ever gave her.
Look Both Ways
Jonathan had just gotten off the bus for groceries, despite his lanky scarecrow demeanor even he ate, and he was watching the road to cross the street. Like time had slowed down a brown sedan passed in front of him... in the driver's seat a large burly man, next to him sulking Vinny, in the back some nervous terrified of a wreck blonde, a large plastic-wrapped package, and Holly Kingsley. The latter woman had been staring out the window at the darkening skyline with the same smile he saw on her when they shared cigarettes.
Jonathan blinked. The beeping of the crosswalk snatched him from falling into deep thought. Walking across he recalled when Holly mentioned her roommate sucking off Vinny to get that tutoring position she had and he knew very well if not from the rumors alone that Vinny's bear-like uncle worked in the cleaning business for the Falcone's. He wondered briefly if he'd ever see Holly again or if the two women would only be another set of bodies on the news once the police dredged the river. An inconvenience and a shame he'd have to find another human being he could manipulate easily to write a thesis on.
He did warn her not to get involved.
