Snippet from "The Vault": Trust

A random scene I wrote...

Photo by Mateus Souza

Introduction

I wrote this snippet on a whim one day…I had been reading a book where something somewhat similar happened…and it inspired me…I won’t name the book…because that might spoil it…I have reviewed one of the books by the same author before though…anyway…if you’ve read it and/or you have a guess…feel free to PM me…I plan on maybe using this snippet in a book one day in the very distant future…I literally just added the names…they’re temporary…Now…on to the snippet…

Trust Snippet…

She was shaking. Not because it was cold. It wasn’t cold. It was a warm southern summer night. But she was shaking as if it were freezing. She tried taking a few slow breaths as she pulled out her cell phone. Her fingers shook as she pressed “call”. She listened to her phone ring. Then it picked up. “Hello?”

She breathed a sigh of relief. “Hey. I didn’t wake you did I?”

“Of course not!” Her cousin replied “You know I’m a night owl”

“Um,” she sighed pinching the bridge of her nose What do I say? “You aren’t busy are you?”

“It’s 11:30,” her cousin laughed “What would I be busy doing?”

“No,” she sighed again “like for the next couple of days maybe”

Her cousin’s tone turned serious “No. What’s going on?”

“Um. Nothing. Um. Could you just come to my house and watch the kids? Asher is there but he’ll leave when you get there. They should already be asleep. I'm not sure I haven’t called him yet.”

“Of course! Anything for my favorite cousin…” she trailed off “How long are you gonna be gone?”

“Um. I’m not sure. Hopefully not too long. Um. We need to leave town for a few days.”

“Alexandria. You’re scaring me. This isn’t about—”

“It’s nothing!” She cut her cousin off

“It’s definitely something!” Her cousin said with a forced laugh

“I just can’t have you asking questions.” She sighed

“Okay” her cousin relented “I’ll be there in a few minutes

After thanking her cousin, exchanging goodbyes, and hanging up the phone she looked up into the starry sky. Now for the hard call. She looked at her phone again and found his name and called him. He picked up on the first ring. “Hey!” He said urgently “I’ve been calling you! Is the line at the store extra long or something? Where are you?”

“Hey,” she said then she was silent just listening to his breathing on the other line.

“What’s wrong, Alexandria?” He said gravely

“Are the kids asleep?” She asked

“Yes, of course. What’s wrong?” He asked again

“My cousin is coming over to watch them. I need you to… um, I need you to pick me up…”

“What is wrong?” He asked a third time worry creeping into his voice

“I, uh, I killed someone, just now” Her voice slowly faded into a whisper

“Alexandria,” he said her name softly then stopped

“I’m at the warehouse on Wolf Street” she whispered

“Have you called the police?” He asked but it seemed he already knew the answer

“That’s out of the question” she ran her fingers through her hair “Please hurry”

“I’ll be on my way as soon as Rachel shows up”

“Okay,” she sighed and hung up. Then she waited. She hugged herself and paced. Then she reentered the warehouse and sat on the floor staring at the body and then at her bloodied hands. It was a fairly clean kill. The mess of blood limited to her hands and the body.

After a few minutes of waiting she heard a car drive up outside the large door. She got up and peeked out the door to see her husband’s black pickup truck. He climbed out of the car but instead of walking straight up to the door he went to the bed of the truck and grabbed something long out of it. He then walked up to the door. She stepped back so he could open it and walk in.

When he turned around to look at her she noticed he had a shovel in one hand. “What’s that for?” She asked

“No hi or nothing?” He asked his words light but his face lined with worry. She just looked at him, hugging herself scared to approach. This was the first time she’d killed someone since they’d been married since they had started dating. She hadn’t killed in a very long time. What must he think of me?

“Nothing?” He asked shaking he out of her thoughts, he sighed “What do you think it’s for? We’ve got to put the body somewhere.”

“Are you serious?” She whispered looking down

“Well, I also have gasoline and a lighter in the car if you’d like to do it that way. Seems a bit too messy to me though.” He trailed off as he saw tears tuning down her face. He set the shovel down and took her into his arms. “Hey, hey.” He said softly, stroking her back “What’s wrong?”

“You aren’t mad?” She sniffed

“Mad?” He asked surprised “I’m not mad!” He tilted her chin up so that she looked into his eyes “I trust you, Alexandria. I know that for you to kill someone you’d have the most justifiable reason. I know that when you’re ready you’ll explain everything to me. So I’m ready with a shovel and some bleach. I’m ready to do whatever we need to to keep you safe. If not, what did those vows we made five years ago mean?”

In response, she threw her arms around his neck and sobbed. Why did God give her a man like this? One she never deserved.

“I’ll explain everything in the car I promise.” She said after kissing him “We need to take the body out of town. Maybe out of state. Get rid of it and stay away for a couple of days. Nothing will connect me with him. We didn’t even really know each other.”

“Okay,” he said reluctantly letting her go “We better get a move on.”

“I promise” she began firmly “he was a horrible person who would have done horrible things. He was going to hurt me. He would have hurt others if I hadn’t killed him”

“I believe you,” he said as he picked up the body and began to drag it outside.

In Conclusion…

Well…I hope y’all enjoyed…please let me know any thoughts you may have in the comments…this is one of my favorite snippets I’ve written and it makes me happy to share it with y’all…