Hell

Chapter 12: Just Another Body

CHAPTER 12: JUST ANOTHER BODY

CONNER'S POV

We drive towards Zack's house. Silently in the beginning. Paco stares at the road ahead.

"Maybe we should let this all go. It's too much trouble for us," I say, breaking the silence.

"Keep driving," he mumbles. We reach Zack's house and pull onto the opposite side of the street.

"No one's home," I say. Paco doesn't respond and stares at the empty house. 

"He doesn't have an alarm," mumbles Paco. We both get out the car and walk towards his house. The front door is locked. Paco makes his way to the back yard with me following. He checks the first window on the side and slowly lifts it up. He pulls himself up and into the window with me following. The house is dark with the little bit of light shining through the curtains. We're in the living room. After a look around, we make our way up stairs. There was two bedrooms and a small bathroom. At the end of the hallway, we entered into his room. The color of the walls are an ocean blue. A twin size bed laid in the far corner of the room with a small desk in front of it. There was a frame with his family in it. Poor kid didn't know what he had gotten into when he involved himself with Paco. He truly had made a deal with the devil and the poor kid has no idea.

"He must be at school. It's only three o'clock," Paco says as he opens up the first drawer of the desk. I watch him dig around for a bit, but he stops after he finds a small notebook. He opens it to the first page and begins reading. Afterwards, he looks up at me.

"He wrote a suicide letter. He confesses into killing her in this," he pauses, "He thinks she's actually dead. We could work with this." The kid must've taken the task pretty hard. A small smile quickly arrives on his face. Outside, there's a noise. I peak out behind the curtains, not making myself visible. 

"It's a school bus, he's about to come in," I mumble softly.

"Just follow my lead," he replies. Paco makes his way behind the door to hide while I sit calmly on his bed. If he sees me, he won't panic. Everyone knows that when Paco comes to see you alone, it's not good news. Even the newbies know this.

We wait patiently for a couple of minutes. Steps can be heard walking up the stairs and towards the room. Zack steps into his doorway and stops when he sees me. I stand to greet him.

"How did you get in here?" he asks, frightened. He drops his book-bag slowly and begins to step back.

"It's cool. I didn't know you were still at school," I say calmly. He lets out a soft sigh and I can see his shoulders relax slowly. He enters his room enough for Paco to close the door behind him. He turns around to see Paco's cold eyes looking back at  him. Zack backs away from him as Paco makes his way off the wall and near the desk. Paco grabs the chair out from under the desk and almost slams it in between himself and Zack.

"Take a seat," Paco demands. Zack calmly sits in front of Paco, looking at the ground. Paco makes his way towards the window and stares out onto the neighborhood before speaking again. I sit back down on the bed.

"How was the look on her face when you killed her?" he asks turning around to see Zack's face.

"She was scared," Zack speaks up. I can tell that he believes we're here to congratulate him or something. He sits up with pride and beams a smile towards Paco. Paco glances over at me, letting his glare ease up just a bit.

"I remember when I first shot someone," Paco says, playing with the dark curtains, "He had this grim look on his face like he knew what would happen next. Just as if he was accepting his death sentence as I raised the gun to his forehead. There was a twinkle in his eye that almost seemed to dare me to pull that trigger and take his life. As if I couldn't do it. I was only 13 years old." Paco turned towards him.

"What did you say to her?" I ask as if I didn't already know. Paco turns his focus to the outside again, looking over the street for any one that might witness whatever he decides next.

"I called out her name. She was shocked. She knew I had found her," He laughed a little, "I told her she had fucked up." The room got silent for a few minutes.

"So did you," whispered Paco. His eyes, as sharp as knifes, pointed towards Zack. Hearing this, Zack looked up at him shocked and confused. He began to rise up out of his seat, but only to be slammed back down by Paco's death grip.

"I KILLED HER," yelled out Zack. Paco saw this as a challenge. I could feel the room getting tense. Paco gave me a quick glance. This was my cue to pull out a gun towards Zack. At sight of my gun, tears began streaming down his face. He kept his head down.

"You only shot her twice and not to do any fatal damage. She's in the hospital recovering steadily and the police are looking everywhere for you. From fucking here to France," Paco yells back as he grabs a handful of hair to make him look up at him, "I told you not to mess up. What if they find the warehouse while looking for you? What if they find everything? Not even I could clean up that fucked situation." He lets go of his hair. I press the cold barrel to the back of his head. He shivers and begins to cry out words that neither of us can understand with his head back down. Paco recollects himself and crouches in front of him as I remove my gun from his head. I walk over to the window and stare out. No one is walking on the street. I nod at Paco to let him know it's all clear.

"I'll give you two choices," Paco whispers to him, "I'll let you take my gun and let you take your own life, or me and Conner can forcibly take you somewhere far away and kill you there. It won't be a quick death and I promise I'll make a big mess out of you for your family to find. Your choice." Paco pulls out his gun from his jacket and shows it to Zack. I stand behind him gun drawn just in case Zack tries to be a hero. Zack looks up at the gun and slowly takes it. He slowly looks it over, weighing out his options in his head. He slowly takes the gun and puts it on his temple. He clenches his eyes shut and lets out one last cry before he pulls the trigger. I flinch a little. Paco pulls out a piece of cloth and wipes some blood off his face that had splattered a bit. I check his pulse to make sure. Zack's body lumps over the chair, blood covering his once blue walls and carpet. Paco pulls out the suicide letter that Zack had already wrote and laid it on his desk. We leave through the same window and make our way to the car. We drive off silently.