This Can't Be Love

Chapter 11: To Clean Up

"What if you were right...?"

Aaron is alone, in the chair he once used to sit in front of his tied up victim. His shirt, a wrinkled mess, is riddled with dried smears and fresh blood. He sits leaned back but with his head slightly hunched over, looking at his hands. The ceiling light intermittently giving out, due to Sosa having destroyed the ceiling. The light bulb hangs from its electrical wiring and slowly swings back and forth over Aaron's head. The shadow from his brow and nose, unaffected by where the light swings to, don't allow a clear view of his eyes or mouth. Sosa's body is on the floor next to him, motionless, surrounded by broken wood, saw dust, and a puddle of blood.

"... What if I really did give up on myself?"

He turns his hands over and looks at the blood stains on his fingers and the bruises on his wrists.

"You know, detective... I never intended for any of this to happen. I'm a good person, I... This is all Mike's fault, you know that? He should have never..."

Aaron grunts and lets out a sigh of frustration as he leans forward and runs his blood covered hands through his hair.

"I walked in and he was there! Looking at me with that cocky grin, and... I was just so taken by the moment, it was almost like he was begging me to do it, don't you understand?! The smile he... Gave me... As I walked in was... He was mocking me! His face just screamed "I'm taking her from you!" Then he... tries to be funny by giving me his hand to shake... I'm not stupid, I knew he didn't wash his hands, and besides, I had already greeted him earlier that night... what am I a joke?!"

He takes in a deep breath and lets out a forced exhale that almost sounds like a growl as he runs his hand down his unshaven face.

"But it didn't take much... His belt was still undone from when he used the bathroom... What a pig... I simply bypassed his rude joke of a handshake and grabbed his belt buckle. I remember him laughing and asking what I was doing as I swiped it out of his pants' belt loops. I wrapped the belt around his throat and went around him. I carried him on my back like a knapsack as he began to swing his arms and kick his legs out..."

Aaron licks his lips and shakes his head as his index finger and thumb rub the bridge of his nose.

"... I thought for sure someone had heard us when one of his kicks made contact with the bathroom wall, so I brought him into the stall. Now all I had to do was get up there with the belt in my hand and wrap it around the pipe... He was very heavy... But you'll be surprised how much strength the adrenaline rush of wanting to kill someone can provide..."

Aaron gets up from his chair and crouches down by the body of Carrie Sosa. He gently caresses her lifeless face and hair.

"Then I just climbed down and took some toilet paper, some hand soap, and cleaned the minor scuffs of struggle from the wall and floor... I flushed it, and ran to get Samantha, so... to answer your question, detective... Yes I saw him as he did this, and no he wasn't dead when I got there... I saw him as he brought this upon himself."

Aaron gets a quick flashback of sitting at the table in the ballroom with Michael and Samantha. But in his distorted flashback, he sees Michael's arm around Samantha and Michael looking at him with a big smile, chewing bubblegum, and winking at him. Aaron pictures Michael saying "You want the girl Aaron? You'll need to kill me," even though this never happened. In Aaron's mind, the phrase is repeated, and he watches Michael's specific lip movements over and over again. The words "You need to kill me" resonate in his thoughts with the image of Michael's smile. That imagery he paints in his mind flashes forth into the image of Michael's oxygen-deprived purple face hanging from the bathroom pipe.