When Corpses Lie

One Rises, Another Falls

He was sitting on the floor, legs stretched and his head on the wall. He had a towel behind me so he wouldn't mark the wall with his blood.

- Rise and shine, Robert. - I said. - How are you felling?

- Sore... In real pain... But at least I'm alive. - He smiled. - Where're the others?

- They are sleeping. Long day we had.

- And Stan? - I tried to answer but the words wouldn't come off my mouth.

- He's down by the beach. - Louise was the one that answered.

- Can someone go call him? - The three of us loooked at each other, with guilt written on our faces.

- Don't you... remember what happened?  - Danielle had the guts to say.

- What happened? - The smile was gone in a matter of seconds.

- He's dead, Robert. - I said. - We both found him dead in the office. - The smile came back.

- No, that was just a... - His eyes became even bigger and he stared at me. He continued in another tone: - Wait... Is he really dead? - I nodded. He started tearing up. I hugged him. Danielle and Louise just stood there, looking at us. He was the one to "let go". He got up, towel still on his head, and said that he was going to sleep. I said no.

- If you fall asleep you might go unconscious. It would be better if you would stay awake and under the surveillance of one of them.

- I can do it. - Louise said. - I have an alibi... I didn't do it and I have no reason to kill him.

- Sure... - I said. - Danielle, can you help me with something? - She nodded. We went down by the beach.

I asked her to examined the corpse. She wasn't an autopsy expert, but it was definitely better than nothing. She told me basically what I thought: besides the massive bleeding from the trophy-shaped bruise, he had nothing. Clearly the cause of death was the trophy to the head. I also asked her to carry the body with me to the house, since I didn't want the waves carrying the body away. We took it to the back of the house. We didn't have a good place to put him in, since every room in that house was  "public", but, again, I didn't want the waves eating him. We figured that in the back would be the best of the worst... (or is it worst of the worst? Worst is being bad so being bad at being bad is good?)

Robert saw the body pass by him and teared up even more. I was like him in the inside, and he knew that perfectly. But he and Hannah were the only ones that knew. After we putted the body down, I went down to the beach again just to bring the coat and the pair of gloves upstairs. Then, I sat down next to Robert, to talk to him:

- I know that this is hard, but you wanna catch the son of a bitch that did this as much as I do, don't you? - He didn't open his mouth. His red eyes shook while he nodded. - For that I need to ask you what happened...

- You told me to wake everybody up... I was gonna do that, but I wanted to check if he wasn't just unconscious, you know, like me. I was going to the office but Thomas got out of the bathroom and he asked me if everything was okay. I made him swear he wouldn't go inside the office without you. Then, I took off upstairs. I went to call everyone that was asleep, but halfway through the stairs I realized that I still hadn't checked the body. I went into the office, checked if he had a pulse, which he didn't, and then I just saw black... I probably passed out. The next thing that I remember was me waking up. - He sobbed... - Why would anyone do this to him? Why? - He was desperate... His hands grasping my shirt firmly.

My hand was on his shoulder. I was trying to comfort but I myself didn't hear my words. All I saw was black, all I heard was distorced, all I touched was deformed. I got up, only to immediately fall into the floor. I blacked out due to exhaustion.