This story is pure fiction. It is an outlet to explore ridiculous fantasies. Nothing about it is rooted in reality.
Picking Up The Pieces
Absolute disbelief filled the room, thickening the air and making it hard to breathe. The surreal moment demanded pause from each witness. No one moved. No one even blinked.
Emotions had been running high-- sure, but the intensity of the situation hadn't yet crossed the threshold of requiring violence. It could have been settled peacefully. That was the most prevalent opinion in the room, at least.
Evidently, Lily saw it differently, and since she held the knife, her opinion was the only one that mattered.
There Michael stood.. with a giant kitchen knife piercing his back, placed there, impaled there, by his loving and seemingly psychotic girlfriend, Lily.
Lily of all people. Michael's longtime partner. The sweetest fucking couple around. The nerdiest love birds in the whole streaming industry. Josh had come in and corrupted their relationship, but the immediate aftermath surpassed all exaggerated expectations. It was real life hyperbole. It was absurd. It didn't make sense.
Imane's hand shot up to cover her open mouth. Kyedae had two hands on hers and her eyes were as wide as saucers.
But somehow, Lily appeared to be the most stunned person in the room. She looked at her right hand as if it wasn't her own; as if it didn't just turn a kitchen utensil into a potential murder weapon.
These reactions all happened within seconds. Shock paralyzed the women in the room, but someone had to act. Luckily for them, Josh had too much on the line not to.
Without hesitation, he stepped forward to grab Michael's body, which had just begun to collapse onto the floor. Josh gently placed him on his stomach as blood began to flood from the wound.
He quickly analyzed the gash and the knife, doing his best to keep Michael's body steady. The incision was deep. Too deep to pull the knife out. It was likely stemming some of the bleeding, and that would work in their favor.
They would need as many advantages and as much luck as possible.. because Michael's bleeding was worsening by the second.
As Josh decided to keep the knife in place, he put pressure on both sides of the wound and looked up.
With urgency, he ordered Imane to fetch two belts. "Fucking now, okay? I need them yesterday. First two you can find."
Poki jumped at first. Josh's voice was as blunt as always, but in a much different way this time. The adrenaline in his words was clear. Perhaps there was fear in there, too. It wasn't something she could analyze for long though, so she nodded meekly and ran off.
Josh then turned to Kyedae and said, "I need you to open the front door, keep it propped open, and uh, start whatever car is parked out front. Needs.. needs to be an SUV. And open that fucking gate, got it?"
Kyedae shook out of her frozen state. The alarm in Josh's tone was sobering. She nodded before heading to the front door, barefooted and still wearing her skimpy bikini. If someone's life hadn't been on the line, Josh would've taken a moment to appreciate her ass as it bounced away.
It was an unaffordable luxury though. Josh remained focused as he turned to Lily and gave her the most important task yet.
"I need you to call 911," he demanded in a straightforward manner.
Lily's face was clearly still horrified from her own actions. "911? Me? No.. no. I can't.. how could I? Michael! I'm so sorry.."
"Lily, there's no time, okay? I need you to call 911. Now."
"No," she whispered as she watched the blood pool on the floor. "It's too late. They'll.. they'll arrest me.. they'll arrest all of us! I killed him! Everything.. everything is ruined! I didn't mean to do it.. please! Michael, please be okay!"
Lily's heart swelled with deep regret as she stared at her dying boyfriend.
"Lily, look at me," Josh managed to say without yelling. She was clearly frazzled. Her whole body was shaking, and yelling wouldn't help her see reason. "No one is going to get arrested, okay? Everything.. is going to be fine. I'm going to fix this. Michael is going to be okay, and everything will go back to normal, but you have to listen to me. You have to."
His assurance that things would work out was all Lily needed. She looked Josh in the eyes as her uncertainty visibly dissipated and nodded slowly.
Realizing that she might need exact instructions, Josh explained her responsibilities step by step. "Go grab your phone and dial 911. I think you left it out in the backyard.. by the hot tub, okay? Tell them exactly what happened. Michael, your boyfriend, has been stabbed. He needs an ambulance right away. Give them our address."
Lily continued nodding and mumbled the directions back. "Ambulance right away.. give address.."
"They're going to ask you how he was stabbed," Josh continued, swallowing hard before he spoke his next words. "You're going to be honest. He was out of control. He was mad, tensions were high, and I stabbed him."
Lily's eyes shot open. "You.. you stabbed him?"
"Yes, damn it, Lily," Josh replied as blood gushed around his hands. "I stabbed him. I.. I didn't know what he was going to do. He was yelling at you guys, and.. fuck, that sounds so pathetic. Oh man, this is screwed. Whatever-- there's no way around it now. Just.. I stabbed him, and you watched, okay? That's all you did."
"But.. you didn't! It was me. I fucked up! You can't--"
"There's no more time," Josh interrupted her as blood continued flowing onto the floor. He thought for a moment and added, "After you ask for an ambulance, tell them that we're driving to the hospital instead. They.. they won't get here in time to help him. No more questions.. just do it, okay? You got this."
With those final words, he quickly stood up and scanned the living room. He could see Lily run outside to grab her phone with his peripheral vision, but she wasn't his current focus. Thinking on his feet, he inspected the coffee table and removed the large glass top from its frame. It was rectangular and perfectly long enough for Michael's body. He placed it next to Michael and carefully transferred his unconscious body until he was squarely on top of the makeshift stretcher.
The knife stared back at him, as daunting as ever. One stupid fucking knife was about to ruin all of his plans.
Imane showed up a moment later with an armful of belts, more than Josh asked for, and they hastily fastened them around Michael's lower abdomen to maintain pressure on the wound. Josh used two longer belts to secure him onto the glass, and that was when Valkyrae walked downstairs.
Wearing nothing but a towel to cover her body, she stumbled onto a horrifying scene. "Hey, what's with all the shouting? I'm trying to take a bath up here. A peaceful bath! And-- and.. oh my god.. what the.. oh my god!"
Her face immediately shot from Michael's bloody body to Josh. "What did you do? What the fuck did you do? What happened?" she shouted as she ran down the rest of the stairs and into the living room.
The hasty insinuation was telling. It revealed the distrust that was hidden within their complex relationship, all of which flew over Josh's head. Of all the people in the home, Rae was really the only one to recognize what harm could come from their degenerate decline in morality.
But even she couldn't have predicted something like this, and Josh couldn't give Rae the explanations she was looking for. His focus was on Michael. After he tugged on the belts to ensure they would hold, Josh lifted the glass panel to waist level, raising Michael's body along with it, and briefly paused to look at Rae.
"No time to explain. Throw some clothes on and get clothes for all the girls," he said as he looked to Imane and realized everyone was still in their bikinis. "If you're not in the car in thirty seconds, meet us at the nearest hospital."
His voice was urgent and intentional. He said what he needed to and immediately rushed out the propped open front door. Imane rushed behind him to help with anything she could, and Lily followed shortly after hanging up with emergency services.
Rae stuttered as if she had more to say, but there was no one there to say it to. She had no idea what was going on, and she was terrified for her friend's well-being. Despite all that, she did exactly as Josh asked. She ran back up the stairs, stumbling along the way, and tore four hoodies off of their hangers, breaking a few in the process. Reaching further up in her walk-in closet, she snatched a stack of neatly folded sweatpants and bolted back down the stairs.
Her mind was racing, and her heart was beating even faster. She didn't want to be left behind. Skipping steps as she ran down the stairs, she jumped off at the bottom and used that momentum to boost herself out the front door and towards the stalled vehicle, not wasting a moment to turn off any lights or close any doors. Her towel was just barely hanging onto her body.
The SUV was chaotic with Josh instructing Lily to keep pressure on the wound, Kyedae shouting out directions for the closest emergency room, and Imane doing her best to secure the seatbelts on the glass panel. Rae didn't bother to ask the questions that were plaguing her head. She just opened up the back, threw in the pile of clothes, and rolled in like it was an action movie.
The car began moving just as she managed to close the door, which forced her body to press against the window pane until she steadied herself. If she was a second slower with shutting the rear door, she likely would've fallen out, and she wondered if anyone would have even noticed.
Poki looked back a moment later, peering over the backseat and reached out to hold her hand. A small gesture, but an affectionate one.
Imane would have noticed for sure.
They shared somber glances that eased the tension a little bit. Regardless of the circumstances, they were all in it together.
Josh maneuvered through traffic like a madman. It was dark out, making the impromptu ambulance ride even more dangerous. He had his hazard lights on and was honking at anyone who wouldn't move out of the way. He passed cars on the shoulder, flew through red lights as cautiously as one could with oncoming traffic, and at one point, drove over the curb and onto a sidewalk to avoid a mess of traffic that was slowing them down at an intersection. Pedestrians scattered out of the way, unaware of the medical emergency in the vehicle they were barrel rolling to avoid.
Kyedae was riding shotgun, feeding Josh exact instructions to make sure he knew what turns he needed to make well in advance.
