Blood On Your Hands

Yet another package had been delivered and this time Elle was nowhere to be found. This was the first time when I had touched any of her deliveries. I placed the box on the drossy coffee table and kept staring at it. A simple box. I turned off the tv so it wouldn’t distract me. She received the same package every week, but yet I didn’t see anything different neither about her nor about this apartment. What could possibly be in it?

My fingers were itching, and my leg started shaking impatiently. Just one look, I promised myself. As soon as my fingers touched the cardboard surface something inside me twitched. I couldn’t do it.

I turned on the tv yet again and tried to calm myself down. That would be interfering her private life. I couldn’t. My eyes were locked on the tv, but, frankly, I didn’t see anything. I could care less about some guy’s face being harshly violated. Probably deserved it. The box was right in front of me, standing there. Too tempting to ignore it. I didn’t know why, but I needed to know what was in there. I needed to know something about her.

I arched my head back, sighing heavily.

“I need a smoke…” I really didn’t, but I hoped that at least hearing myself, hearing my own voice would make me wake up from the temporary insanity I was experiencing. I walked outside, taking a seat on the porch and trying to forget about the package.

My lips closed around the cigarette while my hand was eagerly searching for the lighter in every pocket I had on me. Where the hell was it? If I went back inside without calming myself down with my hourly dose of nicotine, I would’ve definitely ripped it up not just gently opened it. False alarm. The lighter was in my back pocket.

I took a deep drag, seeing a car stopping right in front of me. Jimmy and Zacky stepped out of the car. Thank you god, maybe they could take my attention away the delivery.

“Hey Syn…” Jimmy greeted me. He looked funny beside Zacky. Kind of tall. And his goofy smile, always had cracked me up. I blew out a cloud of smoke.

“Is your lady in?” Zacky made me arch my eyebrow as a reply to the question. “Elle, Gates… You know… The chick you’ve been living with...”

“Oh… Nah… Left early in the morning.” Jimmy flunked himself beside me and wrapped his arm around my shoulder, grinning devilishly. What was his problem?

“Party?” His eyebrows were wiggling at me and it seriously freaked me out. And then it sunk in. I widened my eyes looking from Zacky to Jimmy and then again at Zacky. He had the same grin on his face as the Rev. “Oh come on, Syn…” Jimmy whined in my ear.

“Dude it will be fun…” Zacky took the half smoked cigarette from my fingers and inhaled it deeply. Now why were they always trying to get me killed? “We’ll call some beautiful ladies… and,-”

“No, Vengeance, just … no.” I sighed seeing his smile turn upside down. “Let’s just go to Johnny’s instead.”

“Yeah, haven’t been there in ages…” Jimmy braced his elbows on his thighs, cupping each side of his pale face with his hands. It didn’t matter that I knew the guy for my whole life, his smile did creep me out. He looked stoned though I knew he wasn’t.

“You were there yesterday,” Incredulous Zacky threw what was left of the cigarette on the pavement.

“Well this is a good example we set for kids…” I stood up, rolling my eyes.

“What kids?” He wrinkled his eyebrows as I opened the door.

“Jimmy kid…”

“What did I do?” He ran around me, landing himself on the couch. In my place. In front of the sand color box. I had already forgotten it existed. Why didn’t I just bring it to her room? Yeah, it would be wise.

“Hey, what’s in the box?” Before I managed to even get closer to it just by an inch, the package was in Zack’s hands. I think my heart stopped for a moment there. Why didn’t I see this coming? Zacky was about to rip the scotch tape off, but he lost the package. Now it had been taken by the Rev.

“Zack, it’s not right,” Thank you, finally he’s becoming more mature and making the right decisions. “You have to shake it before open!” Rev started jumping around the room, shaking the box like there was no tomorrow. What was there about Jimmy and maturity? Never in one sentence.

“Oh you got to be kidding me…” I whispered, absolutely stunned by what they were doing. Now they were playing- fetch. My fingers nervously ran through my raven hair, trying to figure if I needed to leave the country now or wait another five minutes. Whatever was in there, by now it had to be broken. I was too unlucky to think otherwise. I shot an anxious stare on the door behind me, hoping that Elle wouldn’t come in right then and there.

Maybe they will just play with it and leave it alone? No. Jimmy was already holding a kitchen knife and then he did it, he dug it deep in the box.

“What the hell?” He sounded surprised, “I hit something…”

“Yeah, cause actually there are things inside deliveries…” Finally I got myself together and walked to them, pulling out the box of his clasps with a freaking knife sticking out of it. Fine… I was glad he stabbed the box, otherwise I… we would’ve never found out what’s in there.

“Just open it…” Zacky encouraged me. I placed it back on the coffee table and pulled the knife out.

“Give me…” I slapped Jimmy’s hand when he reached for the knife. A deep breath before I signed my death penalty. I cut through the scotch tape and opened it. I would not had lied if I said we all were taken aback by what we saw in there.

“Underwear?” With the help of my trustful tool- the kitchen knife, I managed to pick out a bra. A pink bra. The next thing I know, Jimmy is running around the room joy filling his body and a red bra covering his chest while he does an interpretation of Elle. A darn good I may say.

“I don’t eat junk food, cause junk food makes me fat…” He placed his arm on his hip while he posed for us. I was just seconds away from crying on the floor, when Zacky was already doing it. My hand let go of the knife and it fell on the floor along with the pink bra. I just couldn’t take it anymore, my guts were hurting too badly. The high voice he did it was just priceless, “I order underwear cause I’m too shy to buy it…”

“Mind telling me what else I do before I blow your head off?” Okay, that freaked me out, it sounded too realistic. I rubbed my eyes from tears and saw her… standing in the doorway. Laughter disappeared. This was one of the rare times when with Jimmy’s puppy eyes it was just not enough. I gulped loudly. Yeah, it’s fun and games until Elle Morrison threatens to put you in a body bag.

Notes