How to hide a body

Coffee over murder

She pushed open the door and chuckled at the tinkering noise from the bell above the door. She walked towards the counter at the back of the cafe and watched in amusement at the young girl in front of her who was talked to a young barista.

"So you're on a gap year?" She heard him asked to her, "where are you going?"

"Japan. To visit my family," her hoarse voice replied as her fist clenched and unclenched.

"When do you go? Hopefully not soon. I'd like to get to know you more," he kept on pushing at her for conversation.

Tyler clicked her tongue against her teeth and cleared her throat, "Hey Quinn. Did you get our order?" She slipped her hand into Quinn's and smiled tightly at the boy in front of her.

Quinn's narrow eyes widened and brushed the tendrils of black ink that laid in a curtain on her forehead away, "Yeah I was just about to call you."

Tyler nodded and picked up the coffees from the counter, "thanks," she nodded to the barista and hooked her arm into Quinn's, guiding her out of the shop.

"Thanks," Tyler nodded to her unhooking her arm, and handed her the coffee.

Tyler looked down at her with her eyebrows raised, "he seemed. Eager."

Quinn rolled her eyes, "tell me about it. He didn't give me a chance to tell him I wasn't interested," she sipped her coffee and winced, "how did the check-up go?" She coughed.

"Same as normal. They see I'm not doing anything shady and then they go. It was Officer Gray again."

Quinn cleared her throat and gulped, "isn't that the third time this week?" She glanced over to Tyler who nodded," Poor guy, he must have nothing to do."

"He might just be working lots of overtime."

"I heard from a friend that lives near him that he's been tight on money recently."

Tyler pursed her lips, "he asked me out to dinner."

Quinn spat out her coffee dribbling a trail down her chin slightly, "why would he do that? He's married isn't he."

"He said that his daughter wants to meet me or whatever," Tyler waved her hand and watched as a bus sped past.

"Why don't you? You need to go on a date sometime or just talk to people."

"I'm not interested in that," Tyler scoffed, "I'm fine with being on my own my whole life."

"But you want children," Quinn stated.

"I'll adopt one. Someone who was brought up like me, so I can give them a better life. Besides people just get in your way," she swung the door to the apartment block open, slamming it into the wall with a loud clang.

Quinn winced as she watched the door spring back from the wall, "I think you mess things up for yourself just fine on your own."

"I'm not talking about this again," Tyler turned her back to Quinn and walked up the stairs by herself.

"You could be at Cambridge right now if you didn't fail them on purpose," Quinn shouted up the stairs and skidded through the puddle on the middle of the landing leaving a dark patch on the toe of her boots, "you could've had such a better life than the one you've decided for yourself."

"Going for straight A's would've brought attention to myself and everyone would think that I'm going to be the next big serial killer of the century," she stopped Quinn as she went to speak, "you know it's true. After all the stuff we did as children they're just looking for me to mess up again," she reached down to slip the key out from underneath the doormat turning her head slightly as she unlocked the door, "I'll put dinner on if you want to unpack more of your things."

Quinn sighed and hung her bucket hat on the hock. She touched Tyler's shoulder who flinched away slightly, "call me if you need any help."

Tyler nodded before she untied the knots to her trainers, leaving them by the door, and wandered towards the kitchen at the end of the corridor. She shoved her cup into the bin and massaged her head as she pattered to the sink, stopping just before she touched the tap. She tilted her head as she peered at the glass pot of sugar cubes to the left of the sink.

"3...6...12...15...18...21?" Glancing around the kitchen she sputtered to herself, "21?" She picked up the pot and peered into it, "Am I going mad?"She slid the pot back onto the countertop and blinked quickly, "it's just sugar. Nothing to worry about Tyler," she backed away towards the corridor, hurrying past the living room and towards Quinn's room by the front door, "Quinn, did you have any of the sugar?"

"AAAAAAHHHH!!" She slammed the door to Quinn's room open and shrunk back at the object in the middle of the room. Well, the person in the middle of the room. His arms were stained with red marks like ones you'd get when you'd give someone a Chinese burn and the grey dress shirt he wore was now darker towards his stomach in a disturbing ombre of colour. The shirt was ripped at the stomach in one place, where the shirt was the darkest, and crimson liquid painted the skin that was underneath. Tyler rushed forward and placed two fingers on his neck.  When she felt no pulse, she drew back taking a breath in whilst raising her shaking hands, the ends of her fingers barely visible under the coating death on her fingers. She grazed her cheek leaving a trail of red from the top of her cheek to her nose and watched with a distant look in her eyes as a drop trailed down the tip of her finger and splashed onto the floorboards, leaving a few drops on her shoes that could only be seen if you looked closely.

"Are you...are you okay?" She peered over to Quinn who was huddled in the corner of the room with her knees up to her chest whispering things to herself. Tyler ignored the weird acidic taste that was building up in the back of her throat and crawled over to Quinn, perching in front of her on the balls of her feet, "Quinn?" She whispered softly, receiving no reply again, "c'mon let's get you out of here," she helped Quinn onto her feet and let her against her as they walked towards the living room. Tyler opened the door and ushered Quinn over to the middle sofa; wrapping her in a cocoon of blankets before walking back over to the door as she felt a churning in her stomach, "I'll get you something to drink."

Once she'd closed the door, she sprinted towards the bathroom; spilling the contents of her stomach into the toilet. She scrunched her nose up at the smell as she reached over and flushed. Sinking towards the ground, she gulped at the dried-up blood that was stuck underneath her fingernails and hid them behind her back as if someone would come round the corner and barge into the room.

"Just one moment," she shakily muttered under her breath as a single tear rolled down her cheek through the dried blood leaving a clear mark and dripped onto her lap, "one moment where the world doesn't hate me. Please."