My eyes dropped to the gorgeous diamond bracelet circling Talia’s wrist. It that looked painfully out of place given her current circumstances.
I crouched beside her and lifted her hand.
“Don’t mind if I do,” I murmured, carefully unclasping it. “And before you start judging me, this is not stealing; it’s recycling. Besides, where you’re going, the dress code is probably flames and regrets. Diamonds would be a little overdressed.” I paused. “Take that back… you were a good girl, so nine times out of ten, you’ll end up in heavenly paradise. And up there, you’ll have streets of gold, pearly gates, and a complimentary halo. You won’t even miss this.”
I slipped the bracelet onto my wrist and admired the way it sparkled.
“It looks better on me anyway.”
Afterward, I folded her arms across her chest with a tenderness that felt strange considering what I’d just done.
The voices had finally gone quiet. All that remained was the sound of my breathing and the harsh rip of tape cutting through the silence.
For onebriefsecond, an ounce of remorse returned.
I stared down at Talia’s lifeless face, waiting for my hands to stop moving.
They didn’t.
I continued to work with an unsettling calm, wrapping the body until she slowly disappeared beneath layers of black plastic. Every strip of tape made the truth feel farther away, as though covering her body could somehow bury the part of me responsible for what happened.
When I finished, Talia’s blood was still warm on the floor, a twisted reminder of what I’d done.
Clean it all and make it like she never existed.
With determination, I gathered bleach, gloves, a mop bucket that I had on standby for “emergencies.”
As I tied a disposable mask around my face, a bitter laugh escaped my lips.
“Guess I’m housekeeping now,” I mumbled under my breath, stuffing a cleaning rag into a large black trash bag.
A voice returned, softer that time, a whisper in my mind.
She’s at peace. You just need to finish.No loose ends.
“Yeah. No loose ends,” I replied to the silence, feeling a strange comfort in the words.
I scrubbed and wiped until the areaalmostresembled what it had been before.
Anything too stained or suspicious had been removed or packed away with the rest of the evidence. The old towels, ruined comforter, and discarded cleaning supplies sat stuffed inside heavy garbage bags near the wall, waiting to disappear alongside Talia.
The sharp chemical smell of bleach saturated the room, burning my nostrils with every breath. Damp patches remained across the concrete where I had scrubbed too hard, and faint streaks of pinkish water gathered near the drain, refusing to vanish completely no matter how many times I rinsed the floor.
I stood there quietly for a moment, staring at the floor to make sure I hadn’t missed anything obvious.
No visible blood remained.
No fingerprints that could betray me.
No jewelry or other personal effects lingered.
No signs Talia had ever been down there at all.
Sighing heavily, I braced myself for the arduous task of hauling the body upstairs.
As I moved up the stairs, my body protested with every movement. My arms ached, my lower back throbbed from the strain, and my stomach clenched uncomfortably, reminding me to pause and breathe before continuing again. A sheen of sweat clung stubbornly to my skin, mixing with the chill from the basement.
To my advantage, Talia was petite, probably around one hundred and thirty pounds.
