Hillary_Flesh and Blood (18 page)

Hillary looked puzzled. Why wasn
’
t her sister fighting back? Why wasn
’
t she struggling for her life? Had she given up that easily? Was she bleeding too much from her injuries? Maybe she was almost unconscious.

“
Caleigh...
”
Hillary called to her in a deceptively sweet voice.

Caleigh didn
’
t answer. She continued to whimper and moan.

“
Answer me, Caleigh!
”
Hillary demanded, rapidly growing incensed.

She
’
s not listening to you,
the voice taunted.

“
Listen to me!
”
she shouted,
“W
hy doesn
’
t anyone ever listen to me?
”

The bloodied knife was still within her hand.

You know how to make her listen....

“
I
’
m not a whore,
”
Hillary shouted as she tightened her grip on the knife.

Breathing heavily, she s
t
ooped down to her sister
’
s motionless body and began slashing at her calves, then up to her thighs, her abdomen, across her rib cage and just under her shoulder. Caleigh didn
’
t budge. Her sobbing maintained its steady rhythm and tempo.

Her hand stained with Caleigh
’
s blood, Hillary rose and stepped back to look quizzically at Caleigh. She could not understand how her sister could just lie there. Didn
’
t she feel the pain? Then it dawned on her. She
couldn
’
t
feel the pain. She must have been
rendered
paralyzed by the incision on her neck. That
’
s why she had moved so spastically. She could only move her head now.

Hillary began to laugh maniacally. She had reduced her sister to a worthless mass...a blob, a lump of clay. Like a sack of laundry, her sister remained still except for slight movements of her head and her trembling lips.

“
Do you even know how much you
’
re bleeding?
”
she asked her devastated sister.

Caleigh heard Hillary, but more muffled than clearly. She felt groggy as if suddenly waking from a dream. It took a great deal of effort to understand Hillary
’
s words. Her head hurt too much to open her eyes, so she kept them closed. She could not feel anything else, just the severe pain within her head. Her head felt too heavy to lift, as if someone had somehow filled her skull with rocks. She heard a faint humming sound, unaware that it was her own whimpering and moaning. Her lips parted as if to say something, but no words came out, only her doleful sobs.

“
You look so pale, Caleigh, I think you need some makeup.
”

Hillary dropped the knife to the floor beside her. She rubbed her hands along the gushing wounds on Caleigh
’
s body. She smeared them all over Caleigh
’
s face, painting her sister
’
s face with her own blood. Caleigh moaned softly but did not resist. She kept her eyes closed, unaware of what was happening to her. She was in a state of stock. Her breathing was shallow and she was growing weaker.

Don
’
t let the fun end just yet....

Hillary knew what the voice meant. She couldn
’
t let her sister die yet. She knew what she had to do. She had to stop the bleeding. She turned and abruptly left the room. She walked into the bathroom and searched through the cabinet where h
er mother kept a huge first aid
kit. She opened it and pulled out bandages,
the few remaining pieces of
gauze and tape. She placed the kit back in the cabinet and returned to her room.

As expected, Caleigh was still slumped on the floor where Hillary had left her. She was still bleeding from most of her wounds. Without bothering to clean them first, Hillary covered the small ones with bandages and the larger ones with the gauze, which she taped in place. She hoped she had done enough to keep Caleigh alive. She already ha
d one smelly body to dispose of
she didn
’
t need another adding to the stench and drawing attention to her room. It was bad enough
that
she
would
now ha
ve
to figure out how to explain Caleigh
’
s absence.

Caleigh was silent except for an occasional moan. Her skin felt cool and clammy. Hillary pulled the sheet off her bed and used it to cover Caleigh
’
s body. She picked the knife up and carried it over to the closet. She placed it o
n
the far left, jamming it just behind one of the bags.

Returning to Caleigh, she leaned over and grabbed her sister
’
s bound feet. She dragged her slowly to the closet. She kicked at the garbage bags in an attempt to make room for
her sister’s
body. When the bags barely budged, she struggled to lift Caleigh
’
s lifeless body over one of the bags.

Feeling her head jerk about, Caleigh slowly opened her eyes. She could see blood all over Hillary
’
s shirt. She knew it was her own blood. She began remembering bits and pieces of what had happened. She began whimpering again at the thought of being paralyzed. Hillary was cursing under her breath as she kept trying to position Caleigh
’
s body over the bag. She kept slipping down and slumping forward.

Caleigh could see that she was in Hillary
’
s closet. She could see the garbage bags that contained her father
’
s body parts. Equally unappealing, she could smell them. She shook her head frantically, re
p
ulsed by the thought of being placed
so close to
the body parts.

“
No...
”
she panted breathlessly,
“
no...no....
”

A surge of excitement gave Hillary the strength she needed to complete her task. With a smile plastered to her face, she hoisted Caleigh
’
s body upright then quickly turned and positioned herself beneath her. When Caleigh slumped forward, Hillary was able to bear her weight using her back and shoulders. It reminded Hillary of all the times she had given Caleigh piggy-back rides when they were little. For a brief moment, her smile faded.

Do it
, the voice beckoned.

Hillary slowly struggled to stand up and place Caleigh
’
s dead weight across two of the garbage bags. Caleigh shook her head feverishly back and forth while she cried out
“
no
”
repeatedly, but she was utterly powerless to do anything about her situation. Her head throbbed. It felt as if it were about to split open. She could feel her right cheek wet with tears, her upper lip wet from snot which made its way down into her mouth and her chin wet from drool. Yet the way she must have looked was the least of her concerns.

“
Please,
”
she begged Hillary at last,
“
please don
’
t leave me here....
”

Hillary laughed briefly before her eyes glazed over.

“
Do you know how long I had to deal with him? You deal with him now! At least he can
’
t hurt you like he hurt me.
”

“
Please...please,
”
Caleigh begged.

“
I used to beg too,
”
Hillary said angrily, glaring malignantly into Caleigh
’
s frightened eyes.

“
No, Hillary...please,
”
Caleigh continued her futile pleas for mercy.

“
Have fun spending time with Daddy,
”
Hillary mocked as she took a step back and started closing the closet door. The closet was packed too full for the door to shut all the way.

“
NO, HILLARY!
”
Caleigh screamed out loud.
“
NOOOOOOOOOOO....
”

Hillary left the door open as she walked over to her dresser and picked up the duct tape. She tore off a long piece, walked back to the closet and placed it over Caleigh
’
s dampened mouth, hoping it would stay put. Caleigh
’
s cries were subdued to a muffled whimper. She could barely hear her.

As Hillary turned to walk away, she muttered a few curses. Though she had tried to be careful about keeping the garbage bag under Caleigh
’
s body, it had apparently slipped out from under her when she was being dragged over go the closet. As a result there was a long streak of blood soaking into her carpet. She let out a long, exaggerated sigh and turned back to the closet where she had stashed the cleaning supplies earlier that morning.

Caleigh
’
s muffled cries grew louder and more frantic as she craned her head to look pleadingly at Hillary. Hillary ignored her as she pushed her way into the closet. She climbed over Caleigh
’
s body to reach behind the bag. She grabbed the nearly-empty bottle of carpet cleaner and the sponge and tossed them on the carpet behind her. As she slid back along the bag, Caleigh
’
s body followed her down and fell upon her feet. Caleigh
’
s head hit the small exposed patch of hardwood flooring between the carpeted room and the filled closet. It made a loud sickening smack as it struck the floor.

“
Shit!
”
Hillary yelled, quickly pulling her feet out from beneath Caleigh
’
s body. She could hear Caleigh moaning.

Everything had gone white when Caleigh hit the floor. She had previously thought that her head couldn
’
t possibly feel any worse. She now realized how wrong she was. She wanted to close her eyes, fall asleep and never wake up.

Hillary fought to lift Caleigh off the floor but could not muster enough strength. Angry and exasperated, she kicked Caleigh
’
s body to the closet, shoving her violently with her feet as far into the closet as the remaining space permitted.
She
kicked Caleigh
’
s head hard enough to make her face the back of the closet. Caleigh
’
s whimpering increased as she turned her head back feebly to face Hillary.

When it appeared that Caleigh
’
s body would budge no further, Hillary slammed the closet door. It nearly closed all the way but bumped into Caleigh
’
s shoulder. Hillary continued to violently slam the closet door against Caleigh
’
s body over and over until at last she managed to force it shut. She wiped the sweat from her brow, picked up the sponge and swiftly left her room. She walked to the bathroom where she rinsed her father
’
s blood from the sponge then returned to her room. She used the remainder of the carpet cleaner removing C
a
leigh
’
s blood from her already-stained carpet. It lifted much easier and quicker than her father
’
s blood since it didn
’
t have a chance to settle into the carpet.

By the time Hillary was done cleaning up, Caleigh
’
s whimpering had ceased considerably. She was crammed so tightly between the garbage bags and the closet door that she could no longer move her head
—
the one part of her body that she had left to control. She failed to turn her head away when Hillary had slammed the door the first time. Consequently, it banged violently into her nose. Caleigh heard the sound of her nasal bone shatter before she felt the pain, before she felt the warm flow of blood running down to her neck. The pain was bad, but the swelling was worse. Within seconds she could feel her nose and the skin surrounding it
,
widen and swell. She was sure her nose had doubled in size. It became increasingly harder for her to breathe. She blew as hard as she could from her nostrils, attempting to expel the blood and clear the passageways. She could feel the stream of blood and snot oozing slowly down her chin. It had helped just a bit, but hurt immensely. She was congested again less than a minute later.