Intimate Stranger (Editing)

Chapter 17: Steve

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Part Seventeen

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Steve

I stumbled away from the bed, breathing heavily with my heart pounding. She wasn't moving. Why wasn't she moving? Standing at the foot of the bed, I stared at the body. Because she's dead, Steve. You idiot. You killed her, I thought to myself.

I didn't mean to be a killer. It wasn't my fault. She wouldn't shut up, I tried to reassure myself.

She deserved it.

I closed my eyes, and tried to imagine myself with Katheryn by my side. We hadn't had a care in the world. I missed that.

I opened my eyes again and the body remained. Looking at her, I groaned, "Ugh," then reached for the blanket and swiftly pulled it over her. I didn't need to look at her. I had to focus. With her body out of sight, I rushed to the dresser, snatching the video camera and turned it off.

I unlocked the door and made my way downstairs to the living room, where I left my laptop and equipment. I sat down on the couch, setting the camera on the coffee table.

Soon, I had everything ready, and I was staring at the footage on the screen. I skipped to the scene with Katie and Trace. I wouldn't worry about Sabrina's footage yet. I sighed then, realizing that I now had one less family to get money from. Oh well. They didn't have to know she was dead.

Maybe I could even throw Trace's parents into the mix. I grinned. Hopefully I would gain a lot more than I might lose from this.

I let the tape play and it reached the moment where I shot Trace. Sitting on the couch, I jumped when I heard the gun shot. I had forgotten how fast it happened.

I cut and deleted the bad footage. Soon I had it burned onto a DVD, and I was ready to go. I had to do something about the body in the bed...

As I was about to head back upstairs, my cell phone on the coffee table started vibrating. I picked it up and answered.

"Dude, where are you?" I heard.

It was my partner. I promised him I would give him 20% of my earnings if he did some stuff for me.

"Ah, complications man," I answered. "I'll be out in like 15 minutes."

"Alright. Hurry up. I'm getting impatient," he replied.

"Yeah, yeah," I rolled my eyes. I was about to hang up when something occurred to me, "Hey, make sure the back of the van is cleared out."

"Wait, why?" I heard, confusion in his voice. And then he seemed to get it, "What the fuck did you do, man?"

I responded, "Don't worry about it," then quickly said, "Sit tight," and hung up.

Slightly rattled, I ran up the stairs to fetch the body. I picked her up, still wrapped in the bed sheet, and slung the deadweight body over my shoulder.

When I stepped out into the night, I saw my partner, Howard, with the van in the driveway, and I speed walked in that direction. Evidently he saw me coming because he jumped out of the passenger seat to meet me halfway. His face was a picture of shock when he saw what I had on my person, "Steve, is that a body?" He questioned, his mouth agape.