Wreckless Read online

  Standing at five-foot-three inches, Saundra paced back and forth, nibbling on one of her thumbs. Her hair hung in a ponytail to the middle of her back. She looked up, noticing Jasmine was in need of a first aid kit. She grabbed the water and took a quick sip from the straw.

  “Is she here?” Saundra asked.

  “Yes. Why don’t you have a seat? She will be in here in a minute.”

  Saundra sat down and continued to sip from the straw. Jasmine checked Teresa’s door to make sure it was locked. She went into her bedroom and into the master bathroom. Picking up a washcloth, she ran the water, letting the temperature warm up before rinsing it out.

  What was she going to do with Saundra? She had to get in touch with Maurice. An alibi was necessary. After washing her face, she took off the Looney Tunes nighty and put on some jeans and a black t-shirt. She kneeled down and opened a toolbox, picking up a roll of duct tape and a thin black piece of rope. She walked back in the living room and stood over Saundra, now unconscious on the floor from the pills. A small puddle lay beside the bottle.

  Jasmine kneeled down and taped Saundra’s legs together. In another world she worked diligently to get the job done and, didn’t see how she could keep her alive after knocking her out.

  What was she thinking? This was not her; something changed. She killed her roommate and drugged Teresa’s friend, and for what? Because she let her emotions get the best of her over a man she had never been formerly introduced to? There was only one way out of this.

  Once she finished tying Saundra up, she dragged her to the closet and stuffed her in. She then went into Teresa’s room. The air in the room was stale and Jasmine almost couldn’t stand being in there.

  “Focus,” she told herself.

  She retrieved Teresa’s cell phone and flipped it open. She looked through her list of contacts and stopped when she got to “Mr. M”. Jasmine used her own cell to make the call. She shut Teresa’s phone and closed her bedroom door. The wall held her steady as she leaned against it, waiting for Maurice to answer on the other end. When he didn’t answer, she hung up and called him back.

  “Hello?” he answered.

  “Can I speak with Maurice, please?”

  “Speaking,” he said.

  “This is Jasmine. We have a problem.”

  “How do WE have a problem? I don’t even know you. What was that all about back at the house? And where is Teresa?”

  “Teresa is dead and you need to help me get rid of her body or we are both going to have big problems.”

  The silence on the other end of the phone was such that she thought he hung up on her. She looked at the phone, still seeing the timing tick. She spoke again.

  “Hello?” she said.

  “You killed her?” he responded, shocked.

  “We killed her by mistake,” Jasmine replied.

  “When I left, she was still alive. So it sounds like YOU have a problem, not me.” He hung up and her bottom lip trembled as she redialed his number. He didn’t answer, so she left a message:

  “Since you want to play games, I’ll give you thirty minutes to get back over here and help me clean up our mess. It would be a shame if the police got a sample of what you left inside of her and made you their number one suspect.”

  She hung up and decided to clean the house. She wanted to make sure everything was spotless, but not too spotless. Her nerves were getting the best of her. Jasmine was a military brat. Her father spent most of her childhood moving their family around from base to base. She picked up a few of his weapons before leaving to go to college. He didn’t seem to mind, and she was glad she had them. But right now, she needed to get them out of dodge. If an investigation just happened to take place, she didn’t want them to find guns in the house.

  She worked around the living room and moved to the kitchen. Her room stayed clean, so she bypassed it and stepped back into Teresa’s room. She cleaned up her bed, floor, and wiped blood spatter off the wall and nightstand. She looked at the clock on the wall. Thirty minutes had gone by, so she started to call Maurice back when there was a knock at the door. Jasmine’s nerves shot to the roof. She walked quietly to the door and looked through the peephole to see Maurice standing on the other side. She unlocked the door and opened it. He stepped in and looked at her. He was upset that she dragged him into this. She could tell, but didn’t care.

  “Okay,” he said. “Let’s do this.”

  Part 2

  Saundra’s eyes fluttered open. Darkness surrounded her. At most, she could tell she was moving, but she wasn’t using her own power to do it. Trying to remember what happened wasn’t so easy, but it was imperative that she’d try.

  Who turned out the lights? she wondered.

  Saundra tried to move. There were objects all around her, but she couldn’t make any of them out. Then she noticed her hands and feet were tied. She tried to open her mouth to speak, but it was taped closed. Nervousness hit her hard. Why was she tied up? While she fought to remember, panic swept over her.

  “Mmm . . . mmmm . . . ” she moaned, trying desperately to make noise.

  Whatever was carrying her came to a sudden stop, making her roll to the side. Could I be in a car? she wondered. Her eyes adjusted to the dark. In front of her appeared to be someone else, but she couldn’t make out who. The car started up again and the person driving was in a hurry. Saundra rolled again to the opposite side from the speed. Whoever was behind her was now on her back and would’ve been breathing down her neck; except, they felt cold.

  “Oh, my God! Help me,” she mumbled, chills running through her body. The tape on her mouth was wet and sticky now. Thinking she may be able to free her mouth if she licked it, she stuck her tongue out and went at it. Using her hips and elbows, she forced herself to turn over. It took her about five full minutes to complete the process. When she finally got a look at the person’s face, a muffled screech left her gut.

  “Mmmmmmm! Mmmmmmmm!” she screeched.

  Tears fell from her eyes as she shook and hyperventilated. Her jaws blew out and in as she inhaled and exhaled. Her best friend, Teresa, stared coldly back at her. Saundra was face-to-face with her now. Teresa’s forehead leaned into Saundra’s as the car continue to speed. Even though they were friends, Saundra scrambled frantically to get away from the corpse. It was too much to see her friend like this. That’s when everything came clambering back.

  None of it made sense. She was at Teresa’s house waiting for her to come out so she could get her to sign a petition and start their annual fundraiser for breast cancer awareness. That is the last thing she remembered. Before that, she was at the university. Saundra felt overwhelmed. Who could be doing this, and why? It didn’t really matter because, if they killed Teresa, they more than likely would kill her. The last time she had spoken to Jesus was at lunch. She made sure to pray over her food every time she ate. Unfortunately, that was the only time she sought prayer lately. Not because she didn’t want to, but because she didn’t know what else to say. Right now, Saundra could think of a million things to say; like, “Lord, please help me!”

  Would God hear her prayers? She didn’t know for sure. It wouldn’t hurt to try, so she did.

  “Lord, I know we haven’t had a real conversation in a long time, and I’m sorry. Please forgive me. If you help me out of this situation alive, I promise to make it my business to do better. Please, please, please, please! In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

  Tears stained her face. Saundra attempted to moisten the tape around her mouth a little bit more by licking it once again. The taste of sticky glue sat on her tongue, but the tape loosened. Doses of cold air hit her lips, giving Saundra some hope to get her mouth freed. After a few more minutes, the tape hung like it would fall and hit the bottom of her chin. It was still stuck to the bottom part of her lip. The tape no longer covering her face, she took in her first breaths of cool air.

  Resting for only a second, she laid her head to the side. As Saundra worked on the tape, she remembered
feeling something hanging from the trunk. Looking up, there was a latch sticking out at her. Suddenly, a sense of renewed strength surged through her.

  Her legs stretched out, Saundra rolled to her back and lifted her torso to align herself with the latch. In gym class, she was good at running, jumping, and even push-ups, which most girls had a hard time with. The sit-ups -- not so much, and crunches were the absolute worst. They burned the midsection and she struggled to complete them every time. Never in her life had she realized she would need them in a real-life scenario. Her nose touched the tip of the latch; it was like dangling candy in front of a baby.

  “Come on . . . come on,” she repeated.

  Using everything in her power, she thrust forward, her head hanging back. Finally, she was there. Her mouth opened, and in one snap, she grabbed the latch with her teeth. It scraped across the top of her gums, causing blood to run in her mouth. She pulled down hard and fell backward, popping the trunk open. Gusts of wind swirled around her.

  “Hellllllp, Hellllllp!” she yelled.

  It was dark outside. Saundra couldn’t tell where she was; the area was unfamiliar to her. Suddenly, the car swerved violently and came to a stop. Car doors slammed. Her capturer walked to the trunk and Saundra’s eyes widened with fear.

  “Jasmine?” she said.

  Jasmine opened a switchblade and held it up to Saundra’s throat.

  “Don’t say my name again or I’ll gut you like a fish!”

  Jasmine was out of her mind; her eyes were wild and crazed. An eerie look of hatred displayed on her face. Saundra wanted to talk her out of what she was doing, but wondered if she was unstoppable. Jasmine reached for the tape at Saundra’s foot.

  Realizing she was about to tape her mouth shut again, Saundra fell back and kicked Jasmine in the face forcefully. She gave it all she could to her tied-up legs. Jasmine screamed, dropping the blade and falling backwards and holding her now bloody nose. Saundra opened her mouth, biting down on the handle of the blade with her teeth. She tossed it behind her and it fell close to her tied-up hands. With her fingers, she searched desperately for it, finally feeling it in her grasp.

  Working quickly, she cut through the tape that held her hands together. The top of the tape ripped, but the bottom was still together. Saundra was unable to contort her hand in a way that would cut the rest of the tape. She watched Jasmine try to get back to her feet while trying to free herself. Letting the blade drop, Saundra stretched in an attempt to rip the remaining tape with her strength. It worked as her hands became free. She reached for the tape dangling at her mouth and ripped it off. Grabbing the blade, she went to work on the tape around her legs. She was almost done when Jasmine hit her across her face. The impact was so fierce, Saundra saw stars.

  They were now on the side of the highway. Jasmine closed the trunk without tying Saundra back up. She had to get off the road. How Saundra got the trunk open in the first place was beyond her, but she couldn’t let it happen again. She needed rope or handcuffs. There was no escaping out of those.

  In a daze, Jasmine drove until she got to a dark desolate exit. She needed to go in a store, but not with her nose bleeding. The blood hadn’t stopped yet. She cursed. The medicine she’d put in Saundra’s water lasted most of the day. It must have been like a Seroquel the way it put her to sleep so fast.

  Jasmine pulled into a gas station, seemingly in need of customers. The pumps were old-fashioned and there was obviously no cleanup crew because the ground and sidewalk were dusty. Trash lay right next to the garbage can, almost as if someone tossed it toward the trash but missed and just left it. On a good day, Jasmine would’ve never stopped here. But this was not one of her good days.

  She put Teresa’s car in park and got out to get the necessary items. Now that Saundra had seen her face, she would have to take her out. The plan she and Maurice came up with was to drop her in the middle of nowhere and let her find her way back, especially since she probably wouldn’t remember what happened. Those plans were busted now, since Saundra saw her. Jasmine would toss her right over into the same grave as Teresa.

  “Now, let her find her way out of that,” Jasmine said out loud.

  “Excuse me . . . can I help you?” the cashier asked.

  “Do you have a bathroom?” Jasmine asked.

  The lady pulled out a hubcap with a key chain holding two rusty keys on it. “It’s a dollar,” the woman said.

  “You’re charging me?”

  “I said it’s a dollar, didn’t I?”

  Jasmine reached in her pocket and searched for a dollar. She slapped the money on the counter and snatched the hubcap.

  “Around back,” the woman said.

  Who uses a hubcap anyway? She thought they only did this in the movies. Now outside, she walked around the back and unlocked the bathroom door. The stale smell almost made her run out, but she pushed forward. The mirror was rusty around the edges and she almost couldn’t get a good look at herself. The toilet looked as if it hadn’t been cleaned since the place opened. She knew the natural color of the seat was not supposed to be brown.

  “Gross,” she said.

  How would she clean herself up? She didn’t want to touch anything in there. For a moment, Jasmine thought about going down the road to the BP gas station, but that was too risky. If there was anything she wanted in life, it was her freedom. Those thoughts made her continue. Jasmine pulled the hard, edgy tissue from the roll on the wall. She couldn’t wait to get back to her normal life -- and back to Maurice.

  After cleaning up, Jasmine walked back to the front. At the door, she glanced at Teresa’s car and saw the trunk open. Alarm went through her; she dropped the hubcap and ran to the car.

  Saundra was gone. Teresa’s still corpse was the only thing that remained. Jasmine cursed and spun to her left, then to her right, looking for the direction Saundra had run in. There was no sight of her. Jasmine let out a stream of profanity, cursing Saundra to hell. The sign to her left read “BP 12 miles”. To her right was the freeway. She closed the trunk and ran to the driver’s side, jumped in, and pulled out of the gas station like a lightning bolt headed toward the BP. If Saundra had any sense, she would go that way. Jasmine picked up her phone and called Maurice.

  “Hello,” he answered, already knowing it was Jasmine.

  She could hear what sounded like music in the background. “What are you doing?”

  “I’m at a frat party; are you on your way back?”

  “No . . . we’ve got a problem.”

  For some reason, Maurice knew Jasmine would not be able to handle this on her own. He needed people to see him so he would have an alibi, but his gut told him Jasmine would screw this up. This was the second time she called him with a problem and Maurice still felt like it was her problem.

  “What happened?” he asked.

  “Saundra escaped.”

  Maurice walked out the front door to the sidewalk.

  “What do you mean she escaped? How is that possible?”

  Jasmine relayed to Maurice the events that took place from the moment the trunk popped open on the freeway. Maurice’s head fell back; he looked at the stars and thought, for a moment, of what place in Hell was prepared for them because of the evil they were into.

  “So, you don’t see any signs of her now?”

  “No, but I believe she’s going to the BP. It’s the only place with life at this exit.”

  “Does Teresa have a trunk release? It’s a little latch in the trunk that makes it pop open from the inside.”

  “I don’t know. Why would the manufacturer put that there?”

  “You really have to ask? Where are you?”