SHH! There's a Killer in the House

“What happened to Landon?” I asked as Jace and I sat on the floor, eating popcorn and watch a rerun of Will and Grace. I looked over at Jace, the happy expression on his face faded away. He just kept watching the episode until a commercial came up.

“Why do you care? It’s not like he was helping you,” Jace looked at me. “He tried to kill your father. Why would you want to know where that asshole is?” Jace got up and started pacing the room. “You don’t know anything about Landon,” he said after a few minutes. I just watched him pacing along the wall with the windows on them.

I stood up and faced him. “Because he saved my life!” I ran to the bathroom, locking the door. Jace was banging on the door, saying something but I couldn’t hear him, I was busy turning on the water for the tub and turning the CD player on, blaring “Don’t Trust Me” by 3 oh! 3.
*****
They finally unchained him from the wall. Now they were dragging him to the back of a car. They tossed him into the truck of the little car. Concrete blocks sat in the backseat with thick rope with a map to a disclosed place on the river. The two men got into the front seats, talking about the strippers they’re going to get after they dump the body off. “That bastard is going to be sleeping with the fish for a long ass time!” The passenger laughed, slapping his knee.
*****
The couple swam in the water, enjoying the new property they just bought with all the money they could pull together. “Ben, this is so beautiful, they moon is so bright tonight!” The woman said, kissing her new husband on the forehead. His hands began feeling up and down his wife’s sides.

“You’re beautiful, honey,” he said, kissing her on the lips, forcing her mouth open with his tongue. The sounds of a car made them stop. They were to the side of their little wooden dock across the river from where the car pulled to a stop.

“Maybe we should-” she started to say when her husband stopped her. His eyes were on the car. He watched as two figures pulled stuff out of the back seat the pulled something out of the trunk.

“Shit,” he muttered as he pulled his wife deeper into the shadows. As quiet as possible, he pulled his cell phone out of his pants that lay on the deck. One of the figures pulled the body onto the platform over the water. The other carried two rectangular things behind the other figure on the platform. They messed around with something.

Then they dropped the square things in the water, the limp body followed. The two figures on the platform walked back to the car laughing. The car disappeared in seconds. “Baby,” the husband said, handing her his phone, “call the cops!”

As she dialed, he swam as fast as he could to where the body fell into the water. At first he couldn’t find it then he felt a hand gaze across his foot when he was coming back up for air. He grabbed the hand and pulled, grabbing down the arm until he found the shoulder. The years as a life guard when he was in high school paid off, he thought as he pulled the person up.

He got the body up on the platform. He couldn’t get the concrete bricks off the guy’s feet so he pushed them up on the platform next to the body. “They’re on their way, Ben!” The wife called.

“Get dressed and meet them at the driveway, Stella!” He heard her get out of the water as he looked at the man he hopefully saved. He wasn’t breathing but there was still a faint heartbeat. “Don’t die on me, buddy, I’m going to save you,” he whispered as he began pressing down on the man’s chest.
*****
Once again I have to see my father. Every day at two I’m forced to see my father against my will. Jace has to drag me to his room, promising me the moon and the sun just to get me to move into the room. “Come on, Heather! You’re making my job harder then what it is,” he whined, pulling on my hand. “How about if I make dinner for us tonight and it will be better than any of this nasty shit we’re forced to eat! Come on, please?!”

I gave up, after all, he could just throw me over his shoulder and carry me into the room. “Fine, but I want something good and unhealthy!”

“Deal,” he shook my hand and I walked through the door he was holding open. Jace would be back for me in about forty-five minutes, hopefully.

My father was on the phone when I walked in, talking very quietly in a different language. I walked to the chair on the other side of my father’s bed. I picked up the magazine on his nightstand and flipped through the pages, looking at the pictures. “...Ok, bye,” he set the phone back in the cradle. “Hello, Heather, how are you today? I heard you and Jace got into a little feud this morning, I hope it’s nothing serious.”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” I hissed, not taking my eyes off the picture of a girl wearing only a huge diamond and grease all over her body. An advertising slogan was written under her.

My father sighed. “What do you want to talk about, Heather?” I could hear the anger build up in him. “You don’t want to talk about anything anymore, Heather. What can I do? Just tell me!”

I threw the magazine down on the floor and got up. “I don’t want to be here anymore. I want my life back! I want to go back home and eat all the unhealthy food I can get my hands on! I want to sit on my bed and watch TV while surfing the web! I want to go outside whenever I want! That’s what I want!” I yelled. Once again he just sat there like I didn’t yell at him.

“Sit down, Heather, stop acting like a child,” he said folding his hands over his lap. “We’re going to talk about this as adults and if you want to act like a child, I’ll treat you like a child. Now sit down.”

Grunting, I sat down, crossing my arms. “Fine, talk.”

“You don’t get to get to leave here just yet, so we’re not going to talk about that. Also you are not going to start eating that crap you ate before so that is also out,” he informed me. “But we will talk about you using a computer, with supervision of course. And we will talk about you being able to go outside a few times.”

“Why supervision? That’s not fair; you never cared what I did before on the computer.”

He looked at me like I’m crazy. “Everything has changed from what it used to be, Heather. Or would you like to go back to your little cell?”

“Fine, you win.”

We talked things over. Jace will let me get on his laptop everyday for one hour, him sitting there, of course. Also, he will have to take me at least three times a week. We also talked about the food situation. If I found some healthy recipes that I would like, then he would have the cook make it and once a week, I could have one unhealthy thing I want. “Is that better?”

“Yes, thanks dad.”

Jace knocked on the door. That was my que. For the first time sense all of this happened, I kissed my dad on the cheek before I left. Jace was leaning against the wall, talking to my father’s nurse when I walked out. He laughed at something she said, I just rolled my eyes. I didn’t like her that much. Jace laughed when he heard that, he teased me, saying I was jealous that he was looking at another girl. That’s so not true. I just hated her; she gave off the aura of the prom queen in high school that always played horrible tricks on people like me.

“Come on, Heather,” Jace stuck out his elbow towards me. I took it and he walked me to my room. “I’ll be back with some dinner in a few hours, be good,” he kissed my nose before leaving. I waved bye before he locked the door behind him.