Keanu

Chapter 25: Dirty Hands

****
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: DIRTY HANDS
****

Deliah's POV

I enter the cafeteria with shaking hands and my face hidden behind my extra large Adidas hoodie. I spot Damon sitting at Keanu's table as he waves me over. With a sigh and a fake smile I join them.

"You okay?" Keanu asks sliding his arm over my shoulder. I catch him staring at my shivering hands so I quickly hide them in the front pocket of my hoodie. "Yeah, just hungry" I say fake laughing but his frown makes it obvious that he sees through it.

"Duudes!" A redheaded football player yells as he runs to our table. "Dudes!" he shouts as he plops down next to Damon. "Have I got gossip for you!" he leans in and whispers out of breath which causes all of us to also lean in.

"Have any of you seen Chelsea?" he asks and before any of us can even think to answer he continues. "No! Wanna know why not? Because of this!" he takes out two A5 pictures of the alley I was at last night. My breath hitches when I notice all of the police cars and detectives at the scene.

"Chelsea's body was found last night in this alley." he says pointing to the pictures. I don't hear the rest of his sentences, everything's a blur and all I can see or hear are last night's occurrences.

"Chelsea?" I ask flabbergasted. Was she really the mystery stalker? How did she even know?

"Murderer." she spits out.

"I didn't kill her. You don't even have any evidence that I touched a hair on her body." I say crossing my arms. Even though I was as calm as a cucumber on the outside, it felt like my insides were burning up.

"You really think that? Why play innocent? I already know it was you." she says trying to control her rage. "Chelsea was on the phone with me that night. I called her after she left Keanu's to ask her if she was on her way to the party, and you know what happened? She screamed into my ear and I heard the sound of her car's breaks. She told me that psychopath-Delilah jumped into the middle of the road. I asked if she needed back up but she said she had it handled! She said she could take you! But all you did was take her life!" Chelsea shouted furiously wiping angry tears off her cheeks.

" Who-" I stutter." Who else knows? " I ask feeling my pulse rise as my body freezes up from the new information it absorbed.

"No one. I wanted to confront you myself before giving the recording of our call to the police, before sending it to Keanu! Yeah, I know all about your stalker-level obsession." she says glaring at me.

"And you want him all to yourself don't you, you slut! We all know how you betrayed Andreen, who's still alive by the way. We know how you slept with him even when they were dating. You were the obsessed one! You're. Not. Andreen's best friend. "

"Don't you dare say I'm not her best friend! Because I am! I always help her and constantly assist her! I would never betray her! It's NOT betrayal if Keanu wants to be with me!" she ends with a high pitched squeek. I noticed her phone in her left hand. If I can get and destroy it, no one would believe her.

" I... Um, I understand that you're upset. Of course she's your best friend, so almost losing her affected you badly. " I try to sound as sympathetic as possible as I move closer to her.

"We all know, you and Andreen were the perfect match. The ideal best friends." I smile at her as I lightly pat her shoulder but she throws my hand off and surprises me by wrapping her fingers around my neck.

"Are you trying to fool me, bitch?" she shouts as I gasp for breath, desperately clawing at her fingers. I quickly remove them from my neck and bend over trying to catch my breath.

"You think you can manipulate me that easy? I'm not Andreen, I'm smarter! So when I say there's no way that you wil ever, EVER, have Keanu, I mean it, and so it will be. Because you are just a low life, poor, sick stalker-freak! A nobody! No one wants you! Keanu will never want you! " She shouts hysterically.

I try to control my breathing and not because she choked me.

Calm down, Deliah. You can't let her have this much control over you. Don't lose it. Remember what happened last time?

With a sigh I close my eyes and clench my fists. If it weren't for the gloves, I'm pretty sure I would've sliced open my palms.

"Chelsea. " I start with a long breath. "Why don't we talk this out." I say smiling with clenched teeth.

"What's there to talk about? You murdered my best friend! You!... You unfuckable freak!" she shouts. And that was the trigger. All the anger, the ticking rage, it exploded. And there was no coming back. The grip of my fingers around her neck made both our veins show, almost popping. Her's on her lower face and mine covered my forearms. She wreathed and clawed and tried to escape but it was a sharp pain seeping through my ankle that made me lose my grip. She kicked me. Wrong move, Chelsea.

Before I could react we were both on the ground, her on top of me. My skull ached from the blow I got falling down and my sight went blurry. In my moment of weakness she choked me again, this time more deadly than before. My chest burned from the lack of oxygen and I felt weak. Not knowing what to do I lunged at her scarf, pulling at the ends. I wrap it around her neck two more times and pull. I pull even when I feel her grip losen around my neck. I pull even when she let's go completely. And I still keep pulling when she turns blue and begs for oxygen. When did I stop? When she finally slacked and closed her eyes.

I breath heavily as I push her body off me and feel her pulse. She's dead. I run my fingers through my hair. She's dead!

What did you do, Deliah!

I feel tears form in my eyes as reality sinks in. I'm a murderer. I murdered someone in cold blood. I look around for any witnesses and sigh when no one is in sight. Biting my lip I contemplate on what to do. I stare at the pale body laying in front of me. Her body temperature already started dropping and her once sparkling eyes are glassy and wide open. The veins now show clearly and dark blue against her snow white skin.

Should I leave her here?
Should I run?
Should I call the police?

I decide on what any other murderer would do. I take her phone out of her pocket and start dragging her corpse across the alley to a huge dumpster against the wall. Mentally thanking Damon for those gym session, I pick up her lifeless body and throw it in the dumpster.

It's obvious that the rest just involves a lot of running.

"So be careful, Deliah. You may be next." the redhead says snapping me back to reality.

"Nah man. Looks to me like they're targeting cheerleaders. I mean, weren't Chelsea and Andreen captains?" Damon says and my heart melts when I see the concern in his eyes for the possibility that I may be in danger. I look to Keanu who wears a complete pokerface with a tight jaw. I wanna say that he looks unaffected by Chelsea's death but I know I'd be lying. He has too big of a heart, even if he doesn't show it and even if not a single bone of his carried any love for her.

"I..um..I'm, I'm gonna go. Now." I say stupidly stuttering. My legs feel heavy as I stand up.

"Where you going, hun?" Damon asks.

"Bathroom.. To umm, freshen up. My hands feel... dirty." I say and leave the cafeteria.

*********

Poor poor Delilah. What have you done...