Only You (Greyson #1)

Perfectly Dead

Chapter 72

Claire

I froze wide-eyed at the crunch of Nina's neck. Tristan dropped her body like she was nothing more than a rag doll. I felt my body shake but it had nothing to do with the cold, my heart felt like it had stopped beating as tears swelled in my eyes,"O my god... O my god!"

Tristan carefully approached me as if I were seconds from falling apart. I was. Because I couldn't believe what I said! Nina was my best friend! I grew up with her I...I...I

"Claire?"

I couldn't even focus on Tristan. I kept staring at Nina. She may have done some awful things but she didn't deserve to die! What was wrong with me!? "We have to take her to the hospital!"

I was in a complete panic as Tristan tried to block me from getting to Nina,"Claire, she's dead. There's nothing that can be done for her".

"But, she was...How...Can't we try?"

"No", he stated firmly. Tristan roughly cupped my face making me look at him," Claire you don't have to worry about Nina. I've done this hundreds of times before. All you need to do is go back to Dripping Springs. You did a hard thing today and you just need some rest. Yeah?"

Tears came bursting from my eyes,"I didn't mean too! I was mad and hurt. O god what have I done!"

Tristan

Made the world a better place.

I couldn't say that obviously. But, it was true. Now wasn't the time, I needed to calm Claire down before she made herself sick. "You haven't done anything. I had a plan and acted on it".

"I'm going to jail! No I'm going to hell!!"

"No, no, no", there is no afterlife only now.  I've killed enough people to know when you take a life, when you hold it in the palm of your hands you are the only god. Again, not the time or place. I didn't know how to approach Claire in this moment. So I took her hands in mine,"You are not going to jail or hell. This is going to look like an unfortunate tragic accident".

"But, we---"

"I",  I really needed Claire to listen to me and understand every word I was about to say. I didn't like treating her like prey but that was the only way I was going to get my point across.  I spoke in  absolute only walking forward baking Claire back away until her back was against the wall,"I broken into this house. I squeezed Nina's neck until she couldn't breathe. And I alone broke her neck and killed her".

Claire bumped against the wall still not fully listening to me but not panicking anymore," Okay", she whispered.

"I want you to listen very carefully to me. Can you do that?"

"Yes", she said wiping away her tears.

"You're going to walk at least a block away and call an Uber to take you back to the airport. You going to go visit your your father in the hospital. And when she'll and you're going to call your job and tell them an emergency has come up. You'll stay with your parents for two days and then come back to Dripping Springs. Do you understand?"

She nodded her head yes.

I told Claire to repeat back what I had just told her and she did perfectly.

At least I hadn't completely broken her. Just as quickly as Claire showed up I rushed her out the door. Taking care of Nina's dead body would be nothing. But I couldn't have Claire walking around carrying the guilt of her death. It wouldn't only eat away at her mind but our marriage as well. And I refuse to let a corpse come between Claire and I.

I went to work happily but they were still a nagging feeling in my heart like I had done everlasting damage to Claire. In the wipe down the house so many fingerprints Claire and I could have left. I finished my wife down and pulled a thick brown rope for my backpack. I finishing the Rope into a noose doubling the holes what would cover where I had choked Nina. What's the news was complete I dragged her body up the curved staircase to the second floor.

I kept thinking over how did I paint Nina has someone not deserving of Claire's sympathy. Britney, Jamie and Nina were Claire's core friend group. Each one of them gave her something she didn't have in herself. Britney was good to call if you needed your self-esteem reinforced. Jamie was always sympathetic and offered a good advice. As much as a bitch Nina was she gave Claire something Britney and Jamie just couldn't do --- inclusion and time. Since grade school Nina has always made sure to include Claire if only for her betterment. And the time Factor was something I couldn't compete with. Most people find it hard to abandon the familiar. They sent over what they know and over time you just grow to accept this person is what they are because you put in so much time and effort. It'd be a waste to walk away. I didn't understand it myself. But Claire was living proof of that.

I made it to the top of the stairs and tie the rope on to the banister and tossed Nina's body like a sack of flour over the rail. There she hung perfectly dead. That was one problem taken care of now I needed to solve the problem I had created. I shouldn't have killed her in front of Claire. That was too much in hindsight. I calmly walked down the stairs until I stood in the fourier looking up at Nian hanging.

I knew she was no good for Claire but I needed something concrete to convince Claire of that. I needed to show her not tell her.

That's it.

I wasted no time rushing back upstairs to the master bedroom. Nina had made herself quite comfortable in her professors second home. I could tell she had decorated this room from the white bedding, to the fake fur rug, to the live, laugh, love poster just above her king bed. She was a basic girl with basic needs right down to the Christmas lights that decorated a wall Polaroid pictures that had been hung with laundry clips. But I wasn't here to critique a dead woman's fashion sense. I went over to the bedroom nightstand and found Nina's laptop and a... journal?

I flipped through the leathered book and saw:

Sunday, August 25, 2019

Breakfast
-One everything bagel with cream cheese.
- Ten cotton candy grapes.
-One cup of black coffee.

Lunch
-Grilled turkey sandwich
-Water

Dinner
- Salmon
- Caesar salad
- One glass of red wine

I rolled my eyes. How narcissistic do you have to be to keep a food journal? I tossed the book back into the nightstand only to have a piece paper fall out. I put Nina's Mac laptop on her bed and picked up a piece of paper. It wasn't paper it was a picture.

A picture of Claire that made my dick hard.

How young was she in this photo?

I couldn't place the setting but Claire was laying on a twin bed smiling at the camera with a coy smile in a red two piece bikini that left nothing to the imagination. I would remember this but it was the first time I was seeing Claire in so little... at least in highschool.

I was keeping it... for posterity.

So why did Nina have this? I really wanted to go through her laptop but I couldn't risk staying in the house for too long. I took off my backpack and found a rubber ducky thumb drive that would copy everything on Nina's hard drive. That way I could go over it in my own time.

Maybe there was more to Nina than I gave her credit for. Maybe everything I needed for Claire to turn on Nina was on this thumb drive. And if it wasn't, I'd make sure it found its way on here.