Dear Diary

40. OUT WITH A BANG

C H A C E

Sidney gagged, her blood spilling onto my arms. I recoiled and she collapsed onto the floor, a pool of crimson soaked into the white carpet.

"C-Cassie, what did you do?" I stuttered as I looked up at her.

Cass looked horrified as the bloody knife dripped in her hand.

Sidney didn't struggle to breathe anymore. The gash in her neck allowed for a continuous stream of blood to seep out of her body, and her glazed over eyes were pointed toward the ceiling.

She was dead. Undeniably dead.

Cass dropped the knife and took a step back. "I . . . I killed her."

"No shit! We have to call the cops," I said, trying to remain reasonable when I was at the brink of losing my shit. My body was a tremor and I found it hard to breathe.

"No, nobody can know!" Cass said, her tone sharp.

"You're not serious."

"I've never been more serious." She picked the knife up. "I have to get rid of this, and we need to burn these clothes we're wearing."

"She's dead!" I shouted. The words didn't feel real, and yet it was definitely Sidney's corpse I stared down at. My insides twisted and I had to swallow the bile rising in my throat.

"We can get away. We can make a run for it, nobody knows we came here," Cass said. "You didn't touch anything. I have gloves on. We have a chance."

Sidney's dead body was sprawled on the floor, utterly undignified. This was a girl who had only ever made me miserable, and I still couldn't find it in me to leave her like that. I took a deep breath, mustered up some courage and picked up her body, bridal style. I grimaced and tried not to focus on the disturbing fact that I was literally carrying dead weight.

Cass watched me like I was crazy. Like I was the one who'd slit a girl's throat.

"I couldn't leave her like that," I said, placing Sidney in her bed and covering her with the blankets. It didn't make me feel any better. She was still dead. But somehow leaving her on the floor would've been worse.

I turned back to Cass who grabbed the diary off of Sidney's desk again. "You're taking that? Killing her wasn't enough?"

"Our names are in this," she hissed. "If the cops read it, it'll give them reason to come knocking at our doors, and something tells me you wouldn't be able to hold it together." She grabbed me by the arm. "Let's go."

We dashed down the steps and out of the front door, but stopped short when we saw someone slugging down the sidewalk, just outside of the house. We ducked behind a couple of patio chairs.

"Shit," I whispered. "We're gonna get caught."

Cass peeked from behind the chair. "It's her brother."

"Derek? Did he see us?"

"I don't know."

I dared to take a look for myself, peeking over the chair to get a glimpse of him. He was holding a bottle of something. It was only when he started talking nonsense that I concluded it was a bottle of liquor.

"S-Sidney, get your ass out here," he slurred, yelling at the house. "We're not finished with our conversation." His words ran together and he swayed, struggling to keep balance. "Why are you soooo against me having fun? Come outside. I know you hear me, you brat! I walked all this way, so you better come out right now."