"Veronica, where have you been?" asks a female voice when Janis picks up the phone.
"It's a long story," Janis says. She sloppily parks the car on the empty dirt road and then gets out. Her legs shake so much that she needs to lean against the vehicle so she doesn't end up on the ground.
"Did you meet Edith? I can't get a hold of her." Janis turns her head to look at the car, where Edith's dead body lays. She shuts her eyes tight, but every time she does that, the image of the bullet hitting Edith's head appears, she can still picture every detail as if it had happened in slow motion.
"She's dead," she says, her voice falters and the last word barely comes out.
"What?" the woman asks in disbelief.
"Someone shot her right in front of me!"
"Jesus!" the woman gasps. "Are you alright?"
"No, I'm not alright!" Janis screams, adrenaline and panic still rushing through her. "She's in the back of my car, t-there's blood everywhere..."
"Oh my god," the woman says. She repeats it three more times, each louder than the one before as if she doesn't know what else to say. "So it's true..." she whispers.
"What is?" At this point, Janis is reluctant to ask but does it anyway.
"That someone is killing us," the person responds. She sounds alarmingly calm. Janis on the other hand is not. She kicks the front of the car with the heels she got from Veronica's closet and curses, albeit that doesn't do much to calm her down.
"Did you get the briefcase?" the woman says. "Never mind, we can worry about that later. You have to get rid of the body."
"What?" Janis says. "How?"
"I-I don't know!" she exclaims. "You're the cop, like, buy a shovel. Just remember to get her samples."
"Samples?" Janis repeats.
"Hair and blood," the woman says softly like she fears Janis will crack if she speaks too harshly. "You can do this."
"Why don't you help me?"
"You know that I would if I could," the woman tells her. "Look, one step at a time, ok? I'll call you back at midnight."
The woman hangs up the phone, leaving Janis alone with her rambling thoughts and yet another dead woman who looks exactly like her.
"You can do this," Janis mutters to herself, echoing the words the woman said to her like a mantra. She takes a deep breath to steady herself and then opens the car door; the urge to vomit floods over her as she looks at Edith's body.
Who the hell are you? she thinks. It takes a lot of effort but Janis manages to put the corpse in the trunk of the car, then she covers the bloody seats with a blanket she finds.
She follows the anonymous woman's advice and buys a shovel. On her way back, she returns to the lake, finds Edith's car, and gets a hold of the briefcase. Janis wonders what the hell is inside; she hopes is cash.
She decides to wait until dark to start. Just like the perky newscaster had announced on the local news, the weather gets worse; the temperature drops quickly and the winds start picking up, leaves and dirt flying everywhere as Janis plunges the shovel into the ground over and over. Even as she shakes —from the cold and from the fact that she's burying someone— sweat runs down her forehead. She barely notices the tears streaming down her cheeks, tracing lines on her dirt-stained face.
YOU ARE READING
Endless Forms Most Beautiful
FanfictionJanis opens her mouth but nothing comes out of it. The other woman doesn't share the same reaction as her. She doesn't look surprised. Doesn't look confused. She just looks tired. Minutes could have passed as they stood there, the two faces -the sa...
