Snack Bag

“Let’s get married!” He exclaimed as I choked on my water, almost spitting it out. Staring into his crystal blue eyes, with a strand of his brown hair skimming his eyebrow, I ask, “Wait what?” Smirking, he repeats, “Let’s get married!” Not being able to even say a word, he takes the opportunity to finish his speech, “I know, I know, it sounds crazy, but who cares? We never intended this to happen and we both know this feels right.” Taking a deep breath in before speaking, “I’ve only been divorced for like 6-months, so this literally seems so unreal! But you’re right though, I’ve never been happier!” Before grabbing my hand, he waves the waiter over. Reaching into his pocket, he pulls out a small, black box and I ask shockingly, “So you actually planned this?” Nodding, he takes the ring out of the box and places the princess cut diamond on my left ring finger. As the 6’3,’ blonde-haired waiter approaches, pulling out his notepad, he asks, “Hi, did you guys decide what you would like?” Jake turns his gaze to the waiter, “We would like some champagne, she said yes!”

That was two months ago, when everything seemed like pure bliss and a fairytale with the romance, moving into his four bedroom house with a wrap-around porch, and just the daily sweet gestures. But how did I let myself get caught up in the manipulation? How could things have gone completely wrong again? Picking up my cell phone, I text Dani, “Hey girl hey! Do you want to have a horror movie marathon tonight?” Putting my phone back down, I squat next to Jake’s body in the downstairs office and start to wrap him in the blue and green patterned rug that normally sits in the middle of the room. Buzzzzz. Flipping my phone over, I check the text from Dani, “I’ll be there in 20-minutes with snacks.” Walking over to the kitchen, I turn on the facet. Running my hands under the warm water, I remove blood from each finger and from the back of my phone, since I ended up getting blood on it too. Closing my eyes, I try to remind myself that I did the right thing and he can no longer hurt anyone.

Ding dong. Drying off my hands, I walk over to the front door with a piece of paper. Opening it, I feel instant relief as I see Dani, with her brown hair flowing over her shoulders and eyes widen displaying a saddened expression. Standing there innocently with her bag of snacks she says, “Hi!” Holding up the sign, she reads it slowly, “It happened again,” then tilts her head to the right before hugging me tightly. Dani throws the bag of snacks on the ground and walks over to the office. Standing over Jake’s body, shaking her head. Closing the door, I walk over to the bag, open it and instantly yell, “You always know the best snacks to bring!” Thankfully we established our code words during the first cover-up.

Bending down, I take out and unravel a clear plastic sheet. Laying it over the body, I cocoon it around Jake. Dani walks over to the bag and pulls out some duct tape. Enclosing the open ends of the plastic sheet, she uses the duct tape to conceal the head. Dani finishes and then moves toward his feet to repeat the same movements. After Jake is sealed completely, I turn to write on the other side of the paper, “We need to leave our phones here. Ready to bring him to my car?” Dani places her phone on the table and nods yes.

Walking back to the bag, I take out two pairs of gloves and throw one to Dani. Taking my keys out of my pocket, I use the trunk button to pop it open before putting on my gloves. Placing the keys back in my pocket, I put my gloves on before bending down by Jake’s head and Dani moves to his feet. Counting to three, we lift his body and shuffle him outside.

Throwing him in the trunk, we take off our gloves, putting them on top of the body, and shut it just in time for us to hear my neighbor, “Hey Gina! What are you ladies doing?” Watching her briskly walk across the the street, waving aggressively to make sure we wait for her. Luckily, I already backed into the driveway, so she couldn’t see what was in the trunk. Dani and I slowly make our way to the end of the driveway, “Hi Jan! We’re about to make a quick run to the store before we come back for our horror movie marathon. What are you up to?” Jan looks Dani up and down, then replies, “Oh, I’m just going inside to make some cookies.” Dani smiles, “That sounds delicious! What kind?” Jan responds, “Just chocolate chip.” Dani nods and replies quickly, “Sounds amazing! We’re going to head to the store, but we’ll be back soon. Have a great evening!” Jan takes that as her cue to return home. Dani and I turn around to walk back toward the house. Opening up the front door, I grab my purse and Dani picks up the bag from the ground. Scanning the room, I double check to ensure no evidence is left behind and that our phones are on the table.

Feeling confident that we have finally made it to the car, we both plop down, sighing in relief. Starting the car, I take a deep breath and Dani finally speaks, “I kind of feel like we’re pros now. So what the hell happened this time?” Turning right out of the driveway, I start explaining, “Remember how we eloped like two months ago?” Dani nods and stares at me, waiting for me to continue, “Well, that was the highlight of our relationship. About a month ago, things started to go downhill. He became really controlling. He started questioning where I was and what I was doing, then actually started to show up at those places.” Dani interrupts, “What the hell?” I nod as I turn left onto Broadway, “Yeah, it was a bit much. He wanted me to stop working, so I cut back my days at the hospital. One day while he was at work, I took the opportunity to snoop around his office because something just felt off.” Dani giggles, “Damn, I wish I brought actual snacks!” Laughing at her response, I continue, “So at first, his desk drawers were all locked and I had to try to find a key to open them. When I finally figured out the right key, that was on a keychain he left near the phone, I found pictures.” Dani shook her head, “Holy shit, what kind of pictures?” Rolling my eyes, “Girl, are you going to comment after every statement?” Dani smirked, “It’s called active listening.”

Throwing my head back against the seat smiling, I reply, “Well, that’s true! ANYWAY, the pictures were of younger women and each one had a number in the top corner. Of course my mind went to all sorts of conspiracies about sex-trafficking, buying women or murder, but I tried to calm my mind and decided to look him up online.” Dani shouted, “You didn’t do that before you went out with him!?!” Taking my eyes off the road for a second, I turn to look at her, “Clearly not! You know I tend to trust people way too easily!” Returning my attention back to the road, I make a right, “I think we will be in the forest soon.” Dani nods, “Perfect, I’m kind of in the mood to watch horror movies now.” Shaking my head as I continue to drive, “Yesss, I agree actually! So the internet search. I found out that he’s a registered sexual predator, has to register for life and it was a felony. I did a deep dive and discovered that he also violated his probation twice, but it was from like 10-years ago and the pictures looked more recent.” Looking over at Dani, her mouth is fully open, “Oh wow! I couldn’t even imagine how I would respond!” Pulling over to the side of the road, I turn down a small dirt road, with trees looming over us. Parking the car about half a mile off the main road, I finish my story, “So basically, the pictures ended up being current. I decided I needed to plan an escape, since I knew he would continue to do this to other women.” Feeling a little relieved, I continue, “Ya know, he was so charming, until he wasn’t, I just couldn’t believe this was happening. So thinking about options, I realized that I would probably need to hit him first, since he’s bigger than me and then figure out a way to end him. I took my gardening shovel out of the garage and kept it in a hidden space near the kitchen. And since he is a diabetic, I grabbed his insulin and filled it into a syringe.” Dani takes off her seatbelt and turns to face me, seeming intrigued, “So today, he was sitting at his desk and I grabbed the gardening shovel and swung it at the back of his head. Jake threw his hand to the spot I hit, then spun around in his chair as I hit him again in his face. Retracting the shovel as quickly as I could, I swung three more times before he fell completely on the floor. Then I ran to the kitchen and found the syringe I pre-drew with insulin. Scrambling to his feet, I stabbed the syringe between his toes. Injecting the insulin, he started to moan a little bit. Knowing he was still alive, I ran back to the kitchen, snatching the knife out of the butcher block. Moving back to his body, I started stabbing him.” Putting her hand over her mouth again, Dani yelps, “Oh wow, how was he still alive?” Ignoring her question, I finish the story, “I stabbed him once in the chest and then a second time near his groin. After that, I wrapped the rug around him and texted you before washing my hands.” She asked, “Wasn’t there blood on your phone then?” Chuckling, “Yeah, I had to wash my phone too!” Cracking open the car door, I turn my head to ask, “Ready?” Dani opens her door and we both move to the trunk of the car.

Popping the trunk open, we pick up our gloves again. Reaching back into the trunk, I reach for the shovel. Dani holds out her hand, “I didn’t even think about shovels this time! Good thing you remembered!” Taking out a second shovel, I smirk, “Well, it still feels like the first time, since it’s been almost a year since we buried Shawn.” Walking over to the spot next to Shawn’s grave, we rest our shovels on the ground or a moment before we quickly dig up the dirt. Once the hole is big enough, we throw down our shovels and walk back to the car. Dani starts pulling Jake’s legs out of the trunk, “We need a better digging system next time. It just takes us way too long to dig the hole!” While Jake’s body is being dragged from the car, I pick up the head, “Well, hopefully there won’t be a next time.” Shuffling over to the hole, we throw him on the ground, then both kick him over the edge.

Grabbing the shovels, we fill the grave back up with dirt. Returning to the car, I glide my shovel back and forth over our tracks, so no one can trace them. Getting into the car, we return to the main road. Stopping abruptly, I park and jump out quickly, grabbing the shovel to cover up the car tracks that you can see from the road. Running back to the car, I hop in and start our departure back home, “Time for our horror movie marathon and I guess no more dating for a while.” Dani throws her head back laughing, “Well, if you do, at least now we have a system.”