The ride up the lift was as uneventful as it always was, but Levi had a weird feeling. For some reason the building’s atmosphere felt a little off. Quieter than usual. He couldn’t shake this weird sense of dread that was creeping up until he reached his floor.

He closed the lift’s gate behind him and peered down the corridor. Someone was standing outside his apartment. Even though the dim light made her hair blend in with the shadows, he still recognized Eloise. She hadn’t gone to class and for some reason had returned. Did something happen?

“Eloise?”

He didn’t get a response. Not even an acknowledgement that she heard him. Eloise swayed listlessly, staring at a blank spot on the wall. Something was definitely wrong.

Levi moved closer. He grabbed her shoulders and turned her to face him. “Is everything okay?” 

His hands touched something cold and wet. It was all over her clothes. Levi brought his hands under the fluorescent light so that he could see. They were stained a deep red. Blood. A lot of blood. 

“Levi..” The girl cooed and rolled her head back, looking up at him sightlessly. 

She was dissociative, barely aware of her surroundings. The blood wasn’t just on her clothes. She was covered in crimson. Matting her hair, crawling down her neck, even a few droplets sprinkled across her face.

“Eloise! Eloise, what happened?!” 

The color drained from his face as Levi was doused with panic. He felt like he was dunked into a frozen lake. Was she hurt? Where was all this blood coming from? 

He hurriedly started checking the girl all over for cuts and injuries, but he didn’t find any. The blood wasn’t hers. Levi was relieved that she wasn’t in danger. He clutched the girl to his chest and brushed a hand over her hair to comfort her. His fingers caught in the tangled strands sticking together. 

“You’re alright, don’t worry. I’m here..”

Levi was relieved, but he was also confused. If the blood wasn’t Eloise’s, then where did it come from? Eloise gave him a happy smile and eagerly snuggled into his chest, getting him just as smeared as her. She wasn’t as blank as before, but still didn’t seem to understand what was going on.

“Levi, I did it.” 

For some reason that innocuous phrase made Levi’s pupils shrink. What did she do exactly?

“She won’t bother us anymore.”

He swallowed his saliva and thought carefully about the words, parsing them one at a time. Individually, he understood their meaning. But in this context it almost made it sound like…

His pulse quickened. Adrenaline flooded his veins. Levi’s body had decided to go into a fight or flight type of response, but he did neither. He froze completely still. His eyes fixed straight ahead, shaking. Refusing to drift downwards to the girl in his arms. Eloise rubbed her cheek against him like a cat that wanted attention.

Levi instinctively took a step backwards. His shoe squelched in something sticky. Bloody footprints tracked across the corridor leading to one of the doors. Mrs. Bernard’s. The door was left partially ajar. 

Finally, he had begun to realize. Something happened. Something horrible. A.. a terrible accident occurred. He should call emergency services… But before he did that, maybe he should take a look.

“Eloise, stay right here, okay? Don’t move.”

“Okay..”

Levi untangled himself from Eloise and placed her in front of his apartment. His gaze fixed towards Mrs. Bernard’s door. He tried to get his erratic breath under control and very slowly started to step towards it. His taunt nerves made his hand shake as he reached out for the handle.

The door pushed open easily with a creak. Inside, what had once been an ordinary apartment was now a nightmare. The first thing that drew Levi’s attention was the massive pool of blood in the center of the room. That had been the site of the first impact and where the majority of the blood was spilt. The victim must have been surprised and toppled over onto the floor, but they didn’t die. 

Bloody streaks skid across the hardwood and led deeper into the apartment. Levi found two separate sets of bloody handprints. One of them had elongated fingers as the owner desperately clawed and struggled, fighting so hard that they left behind their fingernails. The others were calm, made by a smaller pair of hands. More like a creative child’s fingerpainting.

Levi’s eyes followed the trail until it disappeared around a corner that led into the kitchen. He could see an ankle peeking out along with another scarlet pool. There was no reason for Levi to look further when he already knew what he would find. It was impossible for someone to lose so much blood and still be alive. There was no reason to look. 

His legs drew him further on their own. Each step methodical and carefully avoiding any blood. The wall of the kitchen was speckled and streaked. Mrs. Bernard had suffered over a dozen wounds to the stomach. Each time its wielder pulled the blade back, it left splatter patterns on the wall behind them. Somehow, Mrs. Bernard had lived through all of this, as there were more signs of struggle.

The killing blow was obvious to see, as was the weapon used. A knife was inserted under Mrs. Bernard’s chin embedded all the way to the hilt. Levi could see the blade through her open mouth, frozen in an everlasting scream.

Levi observed everything calmly without a word. He quietly backed out of the apartment the same way he came and pulled the door shut. Then he heaved and spilled his lunch, covering the wall beside Mrs. Bernard’s door with vomit.

“Levi!”

Eloise was still waiting where he left her. She clutched her hands together when she saw him turn sick. Her limpid eyes were sparkling with worry.

Levi didn’t say anything, instead reaching into his pocket and pulling out his phone. He typed in the number to contact the police, but stopped short of entering the call. His finger hovered over his phone with hesitation. If he pressed this button, Eloise’s life was over. 

His gaze rose again to look at the girl in front of him. She felt the intensity of his gaze and it made her blush. Both her hands played with the ends of her hair as she avoided his eyes. Eloise gave him a shy smile and kept glancing at him while fidgeting. 

Could someone so gentle really have done this? Could he really bare to resign Eloise to a life in prison? There.. there must be a misunderstanding. Right? She couldn’t have done something so terrible.

It didn’t have anything to do with him. He wasn’t responsible. He wasn’t responsible. All he needed to do was call the police and they would sort out the truth. 

But it looked bad. Really bad. If he called the police now and they arrived with the scene like this.. They would get the wrong idea about Eloise. So he hesitated, frozen for a long time. Weighing every possible outcome back and forth. Eventually, he made a decision.

Levi couldn’t let that happen. He would still call and report what happened to Mrs. Bernard, but first he would clean up a few things. Just a few minor details that might make someone misconstrue what happened.. There wasn’t anything wrong with doing that. If anything he was helping the police not waste their time on a red herring. 

“Eloise.. Wait in my apartment for a while. I’ll deal with things here.”

“Okay..”

He let the girl into his apartment and closed the door behind her. Levi started to work quickly. Who knew if someone might wander up here and see something they shouldn’t.

The first thing he did was find a pair of gloves and wipe away any of the smaller set of bloody handprints in Mrs. Bernard’s apartment. He carefully searched for any strands of long black hair left on the floor or the body.

When Levi removed the knife, whitish brainmatter spilled out from the roof of the corpse’s mouth and dribbled down its chin. It might have prints, so he would take the knife away to be safe.

After searching under Mrs. Bernard’s sink, he found some strong hydrogen peroxide cleaner. Levi scrubbed over any shoe tracks and other suspicious spots that didn’t belong. There was nothing he could do about the big pools of blood, but he could at least make sure there wasn’t anything belonging to Eloise or him there. He even poured a little cleaning solution in a bowl and soaked Mrs. Bernard’s fingers so there was nothing under her nails. Those nails that she still had left that is.

He took the money from Mrs. Bernard’s purse and rummaged through a few places. His goal was to try to make it look more like a robbery gone wrong, but who knew if it would have much of an effect.

After all of that, he returned to his apartment to check on Eloise. He helped her slip out of his hoodie. Luckily, it had taken the worst of it and mostly shielded her school uniform underneath. Her uniform might still be able to be salvaged if it was cleaned.

Levi took Eloise’s hands and pulled her into the bathroom. She needed to shower and get everything out of her hair. He didn’t trust her in her current half-lucid state to be thorough. The girl became filled with nervous excitement when he started to strip her out of her clothes. 

“Levi, you’re so bad.. You haven’t even taken me on a proper date yet..”

“You’re just taking a shower, that’s it.”

Eloise whined and wiggled, but she didn’t try to stop him from taking her clothes off her. Levi left her in her bra and panties to at least preserve her last bit of modesty. He placed her in the shower and turned the water on, keeping close watch.

“Wash your hair.. Eloise, listen. Wash your hair.”

“You’re watching meeee~.”

It became clear pretty quickly that this wasn’t getting anywhere, so Levi took matters into his own hands. He took off his shirt and joined her in the shower. 

Levi set about helping Eloise clean off, but the silly girl kept pressing too close and trying to kiss him. She was under the impression that this was a steamy moment with her boyfriend, but sex was the last thing on his mind. Finally, he got fed up with her squirming and playing. He took her by the waist and forcibly spun her around to face away from him, then brought her wrists together and held them against the shower’s wall.

“Be good.”

Eloise’s face burned bright red, but she obediently let him wash her after that without making any more fuss. Blood rolled down both their legs and disappeared into the drain, never to be seen again.

After their shower, the two of them got dressed in fresh clothes. Levi threw the bloody clothes, the knife, the gloves, and anything else that needed to be disposed of in a duffel bag. He checked that he hadn’t missed anything that could point to her and him being involved. Then he double-checked. Then he triple-checked. Finally, he was satisfied that there were no mistakes. By the time all of this had been finished, it was already a couple hours into the afternoon. 

Levi led Eloise out of his apartment building and flagged down a taxi for her.

“Eloise, I’m sending you to a motel not far away. Get a room and wait, alright? Don’t go anywhere else. Don’t talk to anyone. Don’t do anything except wait there.”

“Can’t I stay with you..? I don’t want to stay in a motel.”

“I’ll meet you there later tonight.”

“You promise?”

“I promise.”

She playfully swayed and fluttered her eyes up at him with her hands behind her back. 

“It’s a date, then. Don’t keep me waiting too long~♪.”

Levi gave her the money he’d taken from Mrs. Bernard before he sent her off. He silently watched the taxi pull away until it was completely out of view. The last thing he did was find a spot under a dumpster several blocks away to temporarily stash the duffel bag. 

His heart was racing as he dialed in the number on his phone once more. Gradually, he settled into a cold calm. Only then did he press the button.

“911, what’s your emergency?”

“I’d like to report a murder…”