Equilibrium

JEFF

Ted decided it would be a good idea if we left everything till the morning, so I dozed off on the couch.

Sounds of grunting woke me up out of my slumber and I opened my eyes to see Ted coming into the kitchen with the blue drum propped on a dolly. He was groaning, breathing heavily and he made a sudden stop in the kitchen. He had on one of my bandanas around half his face and he was in a his slacks with just a wife beater on.

"What is happening? Do you need help?" I shot up off the couch and walked towards him but stopped seeing him put his hands out.

"Jeff I'm almost done it's fucking 11 pm" He spat pulling off the bandana and haunching over to catch his breath. "It's almost done and then we can be out of here"

I looked around and noticed the cops were gone from last night and wondered how he managed that. Also, where did he get the Dolly?

"This morning, I wrapped them up in your old stained sheets and took your car to the dump" he informed, as if he knew I was wondering.

My eyes shot up "what?"

"Don't worry, I took your information out and the plates yeah, I kept them I used rubbing alcohol to get rid of the serial number inside the car there's no possible trace "

I blinked rubbing my eyes with the back of my hands.
"You did all that?" I said in disbelief.

"A thank you would be nice" he firmly said with a smirk and bent back down to prop the barrel on the dolly.

"Thank you! Yeah I mean you didn't have too"
"We're in this now so, I cleaned out the human bones that were in your closet I'm shocked you didn't wake up to the sounds of me smashing them in the bath tub"

"I- I don't know what to say"

"Just discard the human head you have in the freezer also, this drum is just filled with acid I need to discard it"

I nodded, feeling an unfamiliar feeling of warmness in my gut as I watched him headed towards front door with the blue drum.

"I'm gonna go drop this off where the homeless just a couple blocks down cops won't suspect a thing" he whispered pulling up the bandana to hide his face and he shut the door to my apartment.

Just like that, I was alone again which felt scary but I knew Ted would come back. He said he would. What if someone sees him? I felt paranoid so I distracted myself with the freezer.

Like Ted wanted me to do.

With everything out of the apartment, it already smelled ten times better but once I opened the freezer, the stench from the human head filled the air.

"Hey Buddy" I whispered, grabbing ahold of the head. It burned my fingers as it was so frozen, it was freezer burnt.

"I'm going to have to say goodbye to you now" I whispered, cradling the head in my arms like a baby.

"Jeffrey! Oh my god for Christ Sakes" I was so distracted I didn't even see Ted come back inside.

"Jeff put the head down" he said slowly, inching towards me.
"But-"
"Put the head down! Now!" Ted warned and I sighed, handing him over the head.

"This is fucking cold fuck okay I'm out of ideas what do we do?"

"Let's eat it" I teased and looked up to see no reaction from Ted.
"No" he said flatly.
"Aww come on I thought that was funny"
"It's not funny you're disgusting, with everything I saw as I was cleaning up"

My jaw tightened as I realized he was teasing anymore and I snarled. "Whatever, Man"

"You're not careful Jeff, you don't care" Ted degraded, I could tell he was getting riled up it reminded me a lot of my dad.

"Stop yelling" I whispered feeling small again.

"You're so sloppy about it" Ted joked shaking his head like he was disappointed. I went to walk away but he grabbed me, sending the head flying to the floor with a thump.

"We're not fucking done here, the cops are going to come here any moment now and I'm out of ideas" he seethed so hard, he spit on my face. We glared at each other, with the human head resting on the floor next to us.

"Well?" Ted hissed looking around the apartment while still having his hand on my arm.

"Let's bring it with us oh wait, you trashed my car" I hissed snarling at him.

"Let's steal a new one yeah? We can bury it"

My shoulders un stiffened and I nodded, liking the plan we've come up with.

Within seconds, we packed up necessities and stuffed them into a duffle bag. While I wrapped the human head, Ted went along the surfaces and door knobs to clear any finger prints.

As I finished wrapping the head, I watched as he wiped up the rest of the kitchen putting the used towels in a bag to burn later.

"Take off your shoes, we will buy more"

I froze looking down at my boots. "Take em off, they can trace those" Ted warned. He grabbed the bag with the human head lugging it over his shoulder. We packed the bare minimum, I had some waters and canned goods that were still good. Ted had gone through my clothes, packing the best stuff for the both of us.

He paraded around like he knew how to get away, un traced like this was second nature while, I had no idea what to do. Once I left the apartment, I looked down to see Ted unraveling his boots. I did the same thing, with a bag slung over my shoulder.

"Where are you off to?" I heard my annoying neighbor ask which made us both freeze to look down the hallway.

"Visiting home for the week it's my dads birthday so"
"It doesn't smell anymore" she commented in a  skeptical way, glancing down at our socks. "Where are your shoes?"

"Ma'am" I heard Ted said from behind me and I turned around. "We have to go, it was nice meeting with you" he said quickly and motioned for me to follow. I glanced back at my neighbor, she gave me an odd look before going back inside her apartment.

"Your neighbor is annoying we should fucking steal her car" Ted said under his breath and I laughed, loudly.
"Wouldn't that be something?"

Ted grunted and I followed him out of my apartment complex towards the street. "Have to find a parking garage"

How did he know what to do? He was so smart.

"There's one a couple of blocks away"
"Too far" he said dismissively.

"Stop" Ted said suddenly and I froze with belongings in hand. I watched as Ted, in an erratic motion handed me off his belongings and broke the nearest car window.

I stumbled back, in fear looking around. My eyes averted back to him to see he quickly opened the passenger side door. Tossing his stuff inside and bent down under the drivers side seat to most likely, turn off the car alarm that was Blaring loudly.

He did that almost like it was his second job, the way he just did that all smooth and swift like. I couldn't help but wonder how many times he's done that before.