It was late at night and the workday had finished. When we arrived at the company van Emily gave me a look. I tried to ignore her but I knew that she would ask me something.

“W-why do you have rope and chloroform in your house?”

“Don’t judge me okay. This entire situation is your mess, may I remind you. You’re the one that wants Daniel so much you couldn’t give him to Clare.”

“You are right…but…”Another moment of silence followed until we stopped at the next light. “But are you sure about kidnapping her?” she asked.

“Yes, we have to do this.”

“We could go to jail.”

“Don’t worry about that, we’ll talk to her a little and she’ll give up as soon as she sees you acting crazy.”

“Right…”

“And I can’t be seen as part of it because she would think to be scared of me, not you. She needs to be scared of you.”

“Yea…”

I stopped the car in front of her parent's house. The lights were all out. “Get the car and meet up where I told you.”

“Okay.”

When she walked out I took the van to First Islands dorm. It was important that we traveled in separate cars, once we were finished with Clare we would have to take her back to the dorm and it wouldn’t make sense if she saw me taking her back. I needed to be the silent ghost in this partnership. And the one that she wouldn’t see as part of it.

I opened the door to silence. They were all asleep. Clare was asleep on her bed, completely knocked out.

I jumped on top of her and covered her eyes while putting the chloroform cloth against her mouth and nose. It was important to get her nose.

Like Leslie she was light. I barely even felt her on my back as I carried her into the company van. The drive to the abandoned factory was uneventful. Emily was there when I arrived. She paced back and forth while talking to herself. I tied Clare down to a chair, put tape around her eyes, and slapped her awake.

When it looked like she began to wake up I pushed Emily forward. I hid behind the chair, around 20ft back. It was close enough for me to hear everything they were saying while also not being heard. I could see Emily's face too. Nervous, scared, and a little unsure of what to do, it didn’t matter what she did as long as she went to jail for this.

“Ugh…where, where am I?” Clare moved her head around drowsily.

“Y-you’re in an abandoned factory that I kidnapped you to.” That was too nervous for someone who kidnapped her band member.

“What? Emily?”

“Yes, now give me that picture you took!”

“You…you kidnapped me for the picture? That's insane.”

“I don’t care! delete it!

“I can’t. I have my phone hidden away in the dorm…why would I carry that around? Aren’t you there when the manager checks us for phones every morning?”

“Yes! I don’t care! Delete it!”

“Okay, I will…”

Emily looked up at me, satisfied. I gave her an angry look and she looked back down at Clare. “I don’t believe you! Prove it!”

“How? You have me tied up to this….very uncomfortable chair. Please. Let's go home and then we can talk about this there.”

Again she looked at me. This time I told her to come to me. “Wait! Where are you going!” Clare yelled.

I tried to keep my voice as low as possible. “You have to scare her. You have to make her afraid of you.”

“But I don’t want to hurt her…It's not like she deserves something like that….”

“Maybe she does!” I whispered. “Have you thought of that?! break her finger or something and tell her not to go against you, I don’t know what women are afraid of!” I said softly enough not to be heard but angrily enough to express my displeasure

“Let me talk to her…”

She had to do something extreme so she would go to prison otherwise Clare would pass this off as a bad time. “You have to-“

She began to walk back….I didn’t know it would be this hard to convince an idiot like her to do something bad.

“You came back!” Clare yelled. “Please, don’t scare me like that. Just…get this rope off me already!”

“Why were you flirting with Daniel!?”

“Huh?”

“When we went that day to the park you were flirting with him, and you were also telling him I had...plastic surgery, why?”

“I tried to see how he would react! This might surprise you but I do care for the group more than some random guy. I don’t know why you thought that I was trying to go for him, but I wanted him to stop going after you! The group is more important than the random guys you keep trying to go after…”

“Really? But…why do you always ignore me then? Why do you always exclude me?”

“I’m…sorry. I thought that you would understand if we all punished you. You kept going for one guy or another, and if anyone got a photo of you and them the group would be over! I thought I was doing the right thing, but…I guess I wasn’t I’m sorry about that.”

She looked back at me. Don’t. Her face told me that she was sorry. Was she going to let her go?!

“I’m sorry...” Emily started to untie her. I hid. Fuck.

Then I heard a scream, I quickly peeked back in. Clare was on top of Emily. Her pink hair scrapped Emilie's face, it looked like she managed to get on top of her. “You fucking bitch! Did you kidnap me for a photo?”

“S-sorry, I jus-“

“You thought that you could get away with this?! Sorry, but there is no way you thought that I would let this go, right? I’m going to make your life a living hell. And trust me, if you thought the worst thing I could do was ignore you then you are wrong.” She stood up slowly and cautiously, making sure that Emily was in front of her. “Now, come on! Let's go back. Where the hell are w-“

I pulled out the chloroformed rag and covered her face. This time she crumbled in seconds. The big surprise made her gulp in a huge breath of air.

It was great that the girl was angry, but I didn’t need revenge, I needed her to call the cops.

“Did you see what I was telling you?!”

“Yes.” Emily looked away from me. “I see…I thought…that maybe, maybe she would at least be honest with me, I mean it was us two, I th-thought she was telling the truth.”

“It’s because she isn’t scared of you!” I need her to go to jail, not get bullied harder. “Look at you, on the floor. All she had to do was talk to you a little bit and then she could jump you the moment she got an opportunity! She didn’t care, and chances are she was never going to delete that photo because she knew that you wouldn’t do anything. To her you’re weak, pathetic, and stupid.”

“…”

“That's what she thinks you are Emily, and apparently she's right, now come on!”

I put Clare back unto the seat and tied her up one more time.

Good. Emily looked mad. I slapped Clare one more time and walked back to my safe spot when she looked to be waking.

“Wa..what happened? Am…how…”

“I managed to chloroform you again while you were trying to leave.”

“huh?”

“Don’t you remember?”

“I think...I think I do.”

“Good.” She walked up to Clare and grabbed one of her fingers.

“What are you doing?” the drowsiness replaced by fear. *kwak* “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

Holy shit did she break her finger? What's that? 3~5 years in prison?

“Did that hurt?”

“What, what are you doing!” spit slathered out of her mouth.

“Do you think I’m easy? Do you think you can get away with being a horrible person to me because I'm stupid? Because I’m pathetic? You’re pathetic!” Emily gripped the broken finger.

“AHhhhhhhhhhh”

“Does it hurt!”

“Yes! You stupid cunt, it hurts! You're so fucking stupid I’m going to fucking ruin you, I’m going to fucking break you!”

“No, that didn’t hurt enough.” She grabbed a second finger and pulled it back.

“AHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh”

“I don’t even think I gave you a tenth of what I felt. What about you?”

“Hahahaha” Clare's voice was starting to break from all the screaming, it came out like rocks scraping against the road. “Once we get back I’m going to tell everybody about how pathetic you are, I’m going to make sure that Daniel, and any other guy you try to seduce, hates you, I’m going to fucking ruin you. You're such a little person. So small. The most insignificant person to ever exist. That's why you try to get every guy that shows you even an ounce of attention? That's why you are always jumping from guy to guy? Ha.”

Emily straddled Clare. It looked like she whispered something in her ear, but all I could see was Emily's face wrinkled with anger as the words came out, slowly, silently. Then she took her hands and started to strangle her.

It looked like she was killing her. No. I ran as fast as I could and tried to push her off. “What are you doing!” Clares' face was a deep dark blue. She looked dead. The smell of piss penetrated my nose, but I couldn’t stop looking at the dead girl in front of me.

“She...She wasn’t scared of me…no matter what I did…”

“That doesn’t mean you should kill her!” I tried to check for her pulse but I didn’t know what I was doing. I shoved my fingers against her neck but felt nothing.

“I didn’t…is she…what happen..is she okay?” Her words came out slow and muddled as if she was talking in a dream.

What would happen? Murder is ten levels above kidnapping. I could get caught for this, no this isn’t good, this isn’t good. We have to bury her. We have to get rid of her. “You have to get a shovel, go buy a shovel!”

“Okay..” She responded but she stayed looking at Clare, she was stuck on that dirt floor. What a useless idiot.

“Get up! Go to the store and buy a shovel!” I yelled

She stood up and walked to her car. There was a slowness to her walking that I didn’t like. How could she murder someone? Did she not know what she was doing? If I got caught how would I ever see Abby again?

I looked down at Clare her face blue and disgusting. I didn’t want to look at it anymore, but something kept me looking, maybe it was hope that she was still alive.

Her chest. It was moving.

“Thank god!” I straddled myself over her and tried to open her eyes. If she was alive...I mean Clare could always apologize and things would be fine! Maybe she would be so scared she wouldn’t even try to get back at us!

She gave out a silent moan as she opened her eyes. I could see a lost look on her face. Tears welled in her eyes. “S..orr..y.” her voice barely able to get out of her mouth. “Pl..e..a..se…..st..o..p”

“Don’t worry, everything is fine, Emily went out to get some stuff once she comes back she’ll clean you up and we can go home!“ There was a moment of safety in her eyes, of happiness?

We would get her back up, deliver her to her dorm, and then everything will be fine tomorrow.

I stopped. My head raced with thoughts.

‘She saw my face….’

Desperation spread through her face. She started to struggle with her arms but I put both my knees on them and they barely moved. I put my hands around her throat. I didn’t want to look in her eyes. But I couldn’t look away. Tears flowed through them and then there was nothing.