My nose takes in the metallic smell of the gore.

Blood. Warm blood. It is overing the white ceramic floor with a deep crimson. The body laying in it was the source of the mess. His body is in a horrible, unrecognized state like he had been mauled by a wild animal. Meters away from the body is a bloody knife that I recognize at first glance —the fruit cutting knife.

Annie’s sorrowful sobbing pierces into my senses. I frantically reach out to touch his wrist and check for a pulse. Wildly hoping there would be a faint pulse even though I also know there wouldn’t. The cold from the body that seems to be transferring to mine deathly confirms what I already know. I instantly scramble away like it was something hot and burning. No, it would have been better if it was something hot and burning like a pot on a hot stove.

This man has been dead like this for over an hour. I throw Annie a scrutinizing look. I feel the fear written on my face. "Tell me it isn’t you." I ask in a croak voice that still carries disbelief along with the ton weight of the situation.

Her cries only deepens. Telling me what I already know but refuse to believe because it is so unbelievable. Never did I expect to come home to this. All I wanted was to rest and tell her about what had happened at the wedding.

"What do I do Gwen? I don’t want to go to jail!"

"Then you should not have done this in the first place!

What happened? How did you do something like this?" I half-yell in a whisper. I still cannot believe that she did this. There is not just one stab wound, they are numerous. Scattered all over his body; from his neck to his chest, to his abdomen. He had been stabbed again and again and again in a fit of rage like one who held a deep grudge against someone. Each of the wounds are not superficial. They are too deep to be, which says that they have been inflicted with the precision to not just cause harm but to kill.

"I.... honestly don’t know what came over me." She says. "He came by to see me two hours ago.

He said he came to tell me that he could not be with me. And that he would be returning to New Jersey to his family tomorrow. But I have been eagerly looking forward to him divorcing Briar to be with me because he had told me he would.

He had said he would. Hearing him retract his statement like that and telling me that we were never meant to be anything hurt me so much that I did not know when I stabbed him with the fruit knife I had been using to cut the apples. I must have been possessed by a ghost or something because I. . . . . I loved him. So much. You know it too right? But for some strange reason, I could not stop. I stabbed him again and again. It wasn’t me. By the time I came to myself, he was lying on the floor. His life draining out him."

I sigh. This is the example of a forbidden love turning deadly. On news, what would the headline be like? This is a huge trouble. There is a ringing sound. Before I could ask Annie what it is and where it is coming from. She says it was his phone. She crouches close to the body to take the phone from his pocket. The dread and panic on her face deepens. "It’s Briar! She has been calling him for a while now."

"Why didn’t you turn it off? What if it has a tracker that she can use to track his location?" I harshly scold, making her flinch.

"I did not think of that. I should go to the police right? I can get a reduced sentence if I turn myself in right?"

I sigh again and drag at my hair so hard. I don’t feel the scalp pain like I am supposed to. I am too numb for that. I am thinking about it and I don’t see a favorable outcome for her if she turns herself in. She a murderer and me the accomplice. I mean, it would be a natural thought because we are best friends. I don’t want to be remotely tied to this sort of crime. A few minutes of silent thought is enough for me to try considering the other option. I know it is a crime. But that is what I would like to do right now. My stepfather, Anthony Calloway is a department cheif in the LAPD. He has been since I was a kid. He still is now.

And from that, I have learnt more than a thing or two about the law and crime to know that without evidence, a claim and a suspicion remains void and alleged no matter how hugely obvious it might be.

Criminals are able to get away with crime because the laws of justice sometimes favors them more. They are acquitted due to lack of evidence no matter how strong the claim is.

So the first thing a person does once they have committed a crime is to get rid of the evidence that will tie them to it. In this circumstance, this corpse is the evidence. Annie would not have to go to jail. I won’t be involved and I will not lose the only friend I have.

It happened in here. It is highly unlikely that anyone else got a hint of it. Thanks to the fact that there are only three occupants on this particular floor. The other tenant is hardly ever home because he likes touring the world to get photos of people and remarkable places.

"This won’t do. I have to call the police now. I cannot delay it any longer."

That springs me out of my thought. I drag the phone away from her.

"Can you cope with being known as a crazy bitch who was jealous of her sister’s marriage and ended up killing her husband? You are having your first ever art showcase next week. You are kissing that goodbye if this gets out!"

"What do we do then?"

"Does anyone else knows about this?"

She shakes her head, "No."

"Have you called and told anyone else?" I probe further to be sure.

"No. You are my only friend. Who else would I tell?"

That makes me breathe out in relief. "Good."

"Good. . . .what?"

"You won’t be going to jail. Unless of course you really want to. And if so, swear on your life and your art talent that you will keep my name out of it." I warn.

"I don’t want to go to jail too. But what other way is there? It would be worse for me if I get caught! This is manslaughter. There is no possible way that I can argue self-defense because we are close." She reasons.

"There is a way. But we have to be smart and do all we can so we don’t get caught."

I know that this will now really make me an accomplice. But that will only be if I get caught. Moving a body of six foot one is not an easy task. It would be difficult to try and fit him into a luggage. Annie and I breathing hard near the tub after we place the body in it. No one visits but we have to keep the body out of sight for now and think about how to go about getting rid of it later.

Cleaning the blood off the floor is not an easy task. It is gross and dirty. I feel so nauseous because of the smell that I run to the bathroom to retch three times. By the time we are done, the entire place smells of bleach and chlorine. It is just as sickening as the smell of the blood itself. I can still smell it somehow through the bleach. I can smell it on myself. I had to shower myself in Annie’s chanel no 5 perfume to be comfortable.

I had a serious bath after that. I spent close to an hour washing myself like I wanted to wash away the memory and the fact that it ever happened. Annie and I successfully got rid of Nate’s car that he had parked in the apartment building. Benefits of living in a quiet neighborhood and on the third floor of a house that a person is said to have committed suicide in. The other tenants hardly ever come up to the third floor—Annie and I could not have been more thankful for that.

Annie made advantage of the fact that the CCTV cameras outside the apartment are just there for show as they have been faulty for a while now. The building owner, who is a cheapskate is putting off replacing them. Driving the car to a place that no one would easily find was too risky for us, especially at that time of the night. Instead we opted to take it for a paint and a plate number change right after we erased every trace of what had been carried in it.

As for the body, I do not think you would want to know what we did with it to get rid of it. You would find it difficult to believe anyway. Even I am still having trouble believing it that I mostly came up with all that idea. It is eerily unsettling. And I have to remind myself that it was for the best. That I did it to protect Annie and myself.