The Thrill of It All | ✓

(5) Two Survivors

After that, it all goes silent. Jonah dies right in front of us, and I have no need for a second use of the knife. Taking a deep breath, I relax my muscles and lower the weapon, looking away from Jonah and back to Ellie, who hasn't budged in a short while.

"What now?" I ask her about a minute later, softly. The somber yet present noises of the city outside suddenly become real to my senses again. "What are we supposed to do with him?"

She ponders for a moment, then nods to herself. "Fortunately, Jonah lives alone, which makes our lives easier. What we could do is make his death appear self-inflicted."

"Police would easily be able to differentiate between a murder and a suicide, Ellie," I remind her, carefully returning to a standing position above Jonah's body. "Plus, if one was to take his own life, it's very unlikely he would do it by stabbing himself in the chest."

"Enright, unless you have a better and more convincing idea, I'd say this is our best bet. There are no remnants of our DNA in this place, which also helps our case. Even if they were to figure it out, Decadent survives on staying hidden. We'd never be caught."

There's a lot of unsettling gaps left in her explanation, but I understand that our options are limited. Though I'm almost certain the police would eventually rule out the possibility of a suicide, perhaps Ellie is right. Eric hasn't gotten caught, and he's three times as dense as Ellie or me. I may just be slightly flustered from the hecticness of it all, and who can blame me? I single-handedly killed a man. I killed a man.

"Okay," I finally say. My tone is no longer wavering, to my surprise, and I seem to be speaking as if there isn't a dead man inches away from my feet. "I reckon we should carry him to his bedroom, then? Would that be the most common place for a man to end his life?"

"Such an uncommon sentence being made to sound normal," Ellie remarks, shaking her head in disbelief. "But yes, I think that would be the best idea. Let's hurry, too. You know, just in case."

I nod in agreement, realizing that she's right. If anyone happened to see us enter Jonah's house, we definitely don't want to overstay our welcome. Glancing once more at the lifeless body of Jonah Reiley beneath us, I take another deep breath before bending down and tentatively grabbing hold of the right side of his body. Ellie, in turn, grabs the left side, and it's at that moment that we realize how much heavier he is than we anticipated. However, we make do. It's a struggle, and an awkward one at that, but after several minutes we finally manage to transport him to his bedroom a few rooms down. Thank God he has a ranch house, because stairs would have been an utter nightmare.

I literally just murdered a man in cold blood, yet I consider stairs the real hardship, here?

Ellie and I unanimously lay him down beside his bed, attempting as realistically as possible to maneuver his limbs in a manner that looks self-inflicted. Though I'm slightly disturbed, I'm also fascinated. I'm fascinated that Jonah is dead, and that no matter what, his chest will never again rise and fall. I'm fascinated that it was me, Lionel Enright, who conjured his demise into a reality. With my own two hands, I claimed Jonah Reiley's life. The knife I'm holding, its blade covered in scarlet blood, will be a long-lasting reminder. Fortunately, my clothes remain clean and bloodless. One less suspicion for which I'll have to account.

At this point, it seems that Ellie and I are communicating psychically. In order to make the situation appear more lifelike, the two of us have begun to cover the floor around us in Jonah's own blood, the process of doing so a tad gruesome, I'll admit, but much indeed necessary. The grueling process results in moistened-red gloves for the both of us, though we we're smart enough to know we must properly dispose of them afterwards. The longer this goes on, the less I begin to worry about the after effects. I begin to rationalize my scattered thoughts and prioritize them, which I find is a quite successful coping method on my end.