How to hide a body

Phone call

In the last half an hour, the rain had worsened and thunder now growled from the skies. Curtains flicked open for a few seconds with a small face that followed, peaking out to see the puddles and splashes as the droplets of rain hit the floor, then closed when they were called off to do something, probably to have dinner. When cars passed by they sent a tidal wave of water towards her drenching her to the skin so that she looked like a drowned rat. She struggled to keep her eyes open as her head rung with pain and the rain sent little shocks along the cut at the back of her head. 

Coming to a halt, she rested her head against a lamp and breathed in as the rain battered onto her, increasing the already heavy weight on her shoulders. Her hair dripped in long tendrils and stuck to the sides of her face, occasionally leaking droplets down her cheeks. A metallic taste had now swarmed the insides of her mouth and made her grimace at the bitterness. She attempted to swipe her hair off her face as she barely raised her head before resting it back onto the lampost. She clenched her teeth when she pushed herself away from the post and glanced around whilst her vision swayed and the rain splattered into her eyes. 

She floundered towards the nearest house and leaned herself against the fence in the driveway and shakily took a few deep breaths as she attempted to inspect the house from afar. It seemed relatively normal. It was unified with the houses around it; same white paint, same windows, same roof, same fence. The driveway was covered in small pebbles and a few had been scattered across the road. As she made her way to the door, she tripped over a loose stone in the pathway and shot her hands in front of her to gain balance. She reached out for the door and instead of her being able to lean on it, it swung right open, sending her toppling to the ground. 

She hissed as she tried to push herself up from the ground and felt the all too familiar stinging in her right-hand increase. The fresh scabs on her knuckles slowly split apart when she strained and tried to ignore her muscles screaming out at her. Once she'd sat up, her eyes traced the frame of the door, faltering at the locks. Well, where the locks were meant to be. They had fallen next to the umbrella stand in the corner of the hallway. 

Sputtering in disbelief, she heaved herself up from the ground and peered around the corner into a room in the middle of the house. It was a basic living room: tv, sofas, coffee table, and rug. Nothing seemed to be disturbed but how could she tell? If she'd been there before things would be easier. She tutted as she moved into the kitchen and it was the same thing. A normal kitchen, nothing displaced at all. She opened the fridge: empty. Freezer: empty. Dishwasher: empty. Cupboards: empty.  

Slamming the cupboards shut, she bounded out of the room and up the stairs, turning into the nearest bedroom. It was the same. Nothing! Other bedroom... nothing! Bathroom... nothing! The tiled floor squeaked as she sunk against the door and collapsed in a heap on the floor. Her breathing shallowed as the rain pattered against the clouded window and a branch tapped every few seconds. Her heartbeat thundered as the rain went on and on she just laid there with her eyes clouded with desperate thoughts that dulled with each second.

Then she felt her phone buzzing in her jacket pocket.

"Jai?" She whispered as she tried to straighten herself up against the door and blinked rapidly.

"Yeah...? Are you ok? Why are you whispering?" He was in a quieter area than earlier, there weren't any talking or loud noises in the background anymore.

"I'm in Clay's house."

"What?! Are you mad Tyler?" Tyler nodded absentmindedly to his question as she heard shuffling from his side of the phone and hushed talking.

"What the hell are you doing Tyler? When I said that you should solve it I didn't mean break into houses," Quinn screeched with her voice crackling at the end probably because she had a sore throat. 

Tyler leaned the phone away from her ear for a few seconds and waited for the screaming to stop, "How are you feeling?"

"You've got to be kidding me," Quinn muttered underneath her breath, "I'm fine ok. Now tell me what you're doing because you're being pretty stupid."

"You told me I was smart."

"I'm rethinking that now."

"Hmmm, I'm at Clay's house."

"I know. Why?" Tyler pursed her lips as she tried to think of a reply, "You don't know do you?" 

"No. I don't know what I'm doing. I thought I did but obviously, I'm wrong. Everything is just leading me into a brick wall that I can't break through no matter how much I try. And I'm trying," Tyler gulped, "I'm trying so hard. I thought that by coming here I'll find something, even just a small thing to try and start things up again or to link something. But there's nothing. I'm doing nothing and you've been hurt because of this stupid game that I didn't even know we were playing," she massaged her fingers against her temples as she blinked rapidly to try to stop the tears from escaping her eyelids. 

"Then play the game your way instead of theirs," Quinn spoke softly, "I've told before you're so intelligent and I'm not lying, I've never doubted that you can't solve it. You always like the trickiest puzzles the most. Stop trying to be the girl you were in school who tried to hide that she understood everything so much more than it seemed and let it go, don't think of the consequences they'll be the same if we ever get caught than if we failed. But then you would've tried and not lived with the fact that you knew you didn't do it. Don't think of what will happen tomorrow, where we'll be at the end of the week or a month. It doesn't matter. It's just you and this puzzle. Like when we were younger."

Tyler glanced towards the stairs at the end of the landing, "What would I do without you?"

"Probably be better off," Quinn remarked.

"Yeah, right."

"You wouldn't have gotten into the amount of trouble you have because of me."

"I mean, it was fun."

"Do you remember the fight with Cassidy Blakeman?"

"How could I forget? I've never seen you look so angry," Tyler chuckled fondly.

"She was rude to you. Every day."

"Still could've ignored her."

"Maybe. But I'm glad I didn't. Who knew you could throw such a good punch? She was scared of you after that."

Tyler sighed and played with the strap of her backpack, "Who wasn't?"

"I'm keeping you up, aren't I?" Quinn commented, "I expect to have a whole story soon you know?" She could feel Quinn's smirk from here.

"Of course you do. You always want all the gossip," Tyler snickered and she could hear Quinn softly chuckled.

"Stay safe."

"You too," Tyler nibbled at the corner of her lip once she'd heard Quinn hang up and leaned her head back, resting it against the door again, "here we go again," she muttered to herself as she pulled herself with the door handle. 

She staggered back down the stairs, whilst holding herself up with the banister, and entered the kitchen again, standing in the doorway looking into the room. Dropping onto her knees, she reached her hand underneath to feel the space between the cabinets and the floor. Feeling nothing, she crawled along the floor and did the same along the whole kitchen floor then crawled underneath the table checking there but only found dust that covered the palms of her hands and a blue bottlecap. She chucked the bottlecap into the bin as she moved towards the living room and did the same in the other room, checking underneath the rug, the coffee table, and one of the sofas.

Then she came to the final sofa. 

At first glance, there was nothing underneath, the same dust and a few lost pencils but something was off about the right leg of the sofa at the back. She brought her phone out of her pocket and pressed the torch on then maneuvered herself so that she could fit her arm further in the space. Surely enough there was an object. Something small, the size of the width of a finger and gold.