The Damn Red Spot

There was a body in the boot of Sarah’s car.

Hours earlier, Mallory had retreated to the bathroom to clean the blood off her shaking hands while Sarah stayed in the lounge room and wrapped him in an old blue tarp. Mallory couldn’t face his corpse. She scrubbed her hands raw trying to get rid of his blood.

They carried him out to Sarah’s hatchback in the dark, heads snapping left and right at every sound in the street. The boot was such a tight fit they had to fold him in half. Mallory hadn’t spoken since.

Sarah’s hands hadn’t relaxed on the steering wheel since leaving Newcastle. Her shoulders were pulled back; eyes focused on the dark empty highway lit up only by the car’s headlights. “We’re not going to get caught,” she said as she nodded to herself. “Even if the cops pull us over they won’t check the boot.”

Mallory nodded. She leant forward to put the radio on. Choosing a playlist felt too casual. The only station she could find out here was staticky and played an old, slow song. When Mallory pulled her hand back from the stereo, she could see the clumps of blood that still lingered underneath her fingernails. Even after all that soap, it stuck to her like bits of old glue.

Mallory let her head fall against the seat. “I stabbed him,” she said.

“You did,” Sarah replied.

Mallory closed her eyes. A headache was starting to form, or maybe it had always been there, pounding behind her eyes and she was just too shocked to notice. “I don’t think I should be this calm.”

“You’re not calm.”

She supposed Sarah was right, but there should’ve been more panicking after something like this, even if that guy in boot had it coming. She should be in shambles. “I didn’t even scream.”

“You stood there and cried for twenty minutes,” Sarah said.

Did she? The skin on her cheeks felt tight and dry. It was probably true. Mallory didn’t really remember what happened right after she stabbed him. When she tried to recall what she did next, she could only see the bright white light of the bathroom and the red swirl of her crime running down the drain.