I told my boyfriend my parents weren't home. Now his body is under my bed. (Part 1)

The scent of my boyfriend's corpse was overwhelming. The cool, storm blown air moving through my open window did almost nothing to let out the sickly smell of iron-rich blood. The spatterings of it on my face burned my eyes. Smears of it were right by my fingertips, faint stains soaked through my comforter to the sheets roughly into the shape of his hands. They led over to the edge of the abyss. At least the booming thunder helped cover the gnawing and cracking of his bones.

I suppose I should have been grateful he thought the sound of rainfall added to the romantic atmosphere of the evening. Otherwise the only ventilation to the terrible stench would've been the small crack under my bedroom door. Clover's shadow reached under the crack before she began pawing at the wood, whimpering lightly as the thunder rolled again and my bedframe shuddered beneath me. I mouthed that I was sorry, unable to give her any comfort. I really should have let her out before the rain started, but at least she was safe out there.

With as little movement and as slowly as possible, I turned my head to look at my alarm clock. 3:00 A.M flashed dimly, but I didn’t know if the power surges had reset the time. The sun probably wouldn't rise for hours, not that the thunderheads above would let through much light, and Mom and Dad wouldn't be back until the following day.

Clover stopped scratching at my door and I heard small thumps as she made her way down the staircase. Thunder had always frightened her since she was a pup and I hoped it was quieter for her downstairs. She usually slept on my bed, her fluffy Corgi butt always managing to push my head off my pillow in the middle of the night, and she had been upset I brought someone else in instead of her. Now, the only one in my bed was me.

Lightning cracked again outside my window. I felt the lump of Logan's body, the same one that I had wanted to lie on me and next to me just hours ago, as it was jolted against metal bedframe bars and hit the bottom of my mattress with a wet thud. There was the sound of strained squeezing, then thunder, then a snap, then just the rain.

"I'm sorry" I cried inaudibly in my mind, not daring to make a sound. "I love you. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. God, please. I’m sorry."

Logan had come over earlier that afternoon around 5, about an hour after my parents had left. I’m sure part of him wanted to do what all college boys wanted to do with their girlfriends. Put on a scary movie, hope their girlfriend would get tired of the movie a few minutes in, and then recreate the opening scene of two young lovers sneaking off to the abandoned cabin.

Unfortunately for him, this particular sequel didn’t start with one of those scenes and he didn’t make a move during the first one that did. We had agreed to a marathon until one of us passed out, the winner owing the other one lunch tomorrow. Barely one and a half movies in and he was already downing his third Dr. Pepper for the night ahead. To be fair, he was tired from the drive and had no chance of winning, but it was cute of him to try.

"They look like they're having fun," he said as two counselors snuck off from their friends swimming by the lake's edge. "You may want to cover Clover's eyes for this next part though."

"She's a brave girl," I said, scarfing down a handful of popcorn. "Definitely braver than you. You wouldn't swim out there above waist deep water if someone paid you."

"I'd do it for, like, $20."

"Probably not the first time you've said that."

Logan laughed as I stretched out along the couch, my head resting on his shoulder. He tried to fake a yawn and put his arm around me until Clover perked her head up from across the room and bounded toward the couch. I barely got the popcorn bowl out of the way before she squirmed her way between us.

"By all means, make yourself comfortable," he said, his voice tinged with some annoyance, but he still scratched my dog's head and smiled as she maximized the distance between us. Clover had always been protective of me, almost as protective as Dad, and the fact that she allowed Logan so close to me at all was a miracle. He scratched behind her pointed ears with one hand and placed his other over the back of the couch.

As stealthily as possible, Logan reached his hand along the cushion toward me. His fingers brushed against the back of my neck on the way to my shoulder, goosebumps rising across my skin while a shiver ran throughout my body. He smiled at me and I smiled back.

Logan was my first boyfriend. His family attended the same church where my Dad preached and we had technically known each other since we started grade school, though he was in the year above me. There were pictures of us together in Christmas pageants, our friend groups occasionally overlapped, and we had the same homeroom during my Junior year.

Eventually, out of the blue, he asked me out, and I said yes.

"I told Soph this part would be scary for you, girl.” He covered Clover’s eyes with his spare hand to block her from seeing the image on screen. She just barked and knocked his hand back, demanding he keep petting her so she could see. “Alright. You’d probably do better than Muffin in this scene anyway.”

“Isn’t she alive at the end though?”

“I guess?” he said with an exacerbated look. “It bothers way more than it should.”

“It doesn’t matter anyway because she’s my ferocious guard dog,” I said, scratching Clover behind her ears where she liked it. “Aren’t you, girl? You’d scare off any creepy murderer guy in the woods for me, wouldn’t you?” Clover responded with a triumphant yip and tried to wedge Logan and I even further apart.

“Hey, Clover,” he said with a devious smile. “Do you want a treat?” I didn’t have time to brace myself before my dog pounced off the couch and zoomed up the staircase as fast as her little legs could carry her. She stood up in the doorway pounding her front paws down and letting out a high-pitched yap that echoed down into our basement loud enough to almost hurt my ears.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Logan stood up, paused the movie, and stretched a bit, brushing his hand on my neck as he did so. “Can I get you anything?”

“Yes,” I said with as sultry a voice as I could make. His eyes perked up and I motioned my finger for him to come closer. He stood in front of me and leaned down while I wrapped one arm around his neck and placed the other over his chest. His body tensed when I slowly pulled him in and let out hot breaths against his ear. “What I want is …”

“What?” he asked quickly as I trailed off my request. His heart rate increased against my palm as I lightly trailed my fingernails through his hair.

“What I need you to give me is …”

“Y-yes?”

“... another Baja Blast.”

I pulled back to look at his annoyed face. With narrowed eyes and a scowl, he gritted teeth and asked “Is that all?”

“And some more popcorn.” I shook the near empty bowl with a smile and Clover let out another impatient bark. He grunted, but I could see the smile he was fighting start to form at the corner of his lips.

“You’re lucky you’re cute.”

“I know.” I reached up and gave him a soft kiss on the cheek and I could feel his smile break free. “Thank you,” I added. We locked eyes and I thanked God for the person standing in front of me.

I had never planned to date in high school. Last week was graduation and it still hadn’t fully dawned on me that part of my life was over. For the last four years, I had seen friends torn apart by petty drama and barely had time to myself between band, track, and AP courses. Psychiatry school wasn’t gonna give me any scholarships on its own. It seemed like every moment was spent getting ready for the next meet or test or whatever it was that week. Besides, my parents were the kind who dreamed about the day they'd see me happily married, but hated that I would actually have to be left alone with a boy at some point for that to happen.

That's not to say my parents were super controlling, especially Mom. We were free to go out wherever we wanted, no phone call needed, so long as I got dropped off back by 10 and we weren't home alone. We always made the most of our time together when we could scrape it up, but Logan made it a point to always get me back by then. I even pressured him to stay out just a bit longer, confident that Mom would cover for us. He told me he didn't want to be the reason my Dad's next sermon was about Commandment #5, but I think he just enjoyed getting along with my parents. Though he’d never say it directly, Dad definitely loved him, even if he still felt over protective of his little girl.

The first and only time I ever convinced Logan to break that rule was that very night.

I leaned in to give him a kiss when my phone started ringing on the side table. Logan moved to the staircase and I gave him a thumbs up and a shushing finger before answering.

“Sophia?” came the voice on the other end.

“Hey, mom. Did you guys make it up there?”

“Yeah, we just got checked into our room a few minutes ago. There’s a great view of the lake. I’ll send you a picture later when it’s not so dark. Are you doing okay?”

“Yeah, just watching some movies downstairs on the big TV.”

“Sounds like fun,” she said. “Is Clover keeping you company?”

“Yeah, you know her. She’s jumping at the top of the stairs now for a treat.”

“Well, I won’t keep you long so you can do that.” She laughed a bit before tapering off into a slightly more serious tone. “Are you still going into town tomorrow with Logan?”

My heart sank a bit.

“Ye-yeah,” I stammered. “He’s gonna pick me up in the morning. Around 11. I think he said something about mini-golfing. Then we’re gonna walk around the campus.”

“Oh, sweetie,” Mom said. I could hear a bit of a crack in her voice.

“Mom, are you okay?”

“I am. It’s just-” she sniffled. “It’s just gonna be hard to get used to.”

“I’m not moving into the dorms for another few weeks, and it’s only an hour away,” I reassured her. “I’ll still be here, Mom.”

“I know, it’s just- oh, Dad wants to talk to you.” I waited a second until a deeper, familiar voice came across the line.

“Sophie, did you break anything yet?”

“I actually just got jumpscared by this movie and threw Grandma’s vase at the TV,” I told him. “There’s glass everywhere. And it started an electrical fire. I tried to stop, drop, and roll, but it didn’t work because of the glass. There’s blood everywhere and I think I’m gonna die.”

“Is Clover okay?”

“Yeah, she’s fine.”

“Oh, that’s okay then,” he said nonchalantly.

“Really? Is there anything or anyone else you might be concerned with?”

“Nope,” he said. “God and insurance will take care of the rest.”

I heard Mom say something to Dad in the background. Something about me getting my sense of humor from him. He let out a quick sound that resembled a chuckle and continued.

“I won’t keep you long. Just wanted to check in. Be careful tonight and tomorrow. Looks like there’s a chance of some weather coming in. Be safe.”

“I’ll watch it, Dad. I love you.”

“Same. Here’s your Mom. And no boys. Bye.”

I heard the ding of the microwave upstairs and Clover’s excited footsteps while she waited for her treat. Logan looked down the stairs but stopped when I gestured to the phone. He gave an okay sign and went back into the kitchen.

“Alright,” said Mom. “Tell Clover we love her, and tell Logan ‘Hi’ for us. In the morning, that is. Don’t have too much fun.”

I gulped a little bit. That didn’t sound like just parental teasing. Mom was definitely more lax than Dad, but family rules were still family rules. No boys in the house alone. Up until this point I had never broken that rule. A few more weeks and I would be living on the same campus as Logan and that rule wouldn’t apply anymore, but as long as I lived under their roof, I was expected to listen.

“I-I will, Mom.”

There was no way she could have known.

“I know, baby. I love you so much.”

“Love you too, Mom. Bye.” I clicked the end call button when Clover zoomed down the steps, her oversized peanut butter bone sticking out on both sides of her mouth. She leaped into her bed and started gnawing away at the bone while Logan walked down the stairs.

“Here is your popcorn,” he said, handing me the bowl while standing behind me. “Here is your Baja Blast. And here…” He leaned over the back of the couch, his head upside down to mine, and kissed me before I could react. My eyes were wide for a moment before I sunk into it, enjoying the feeling of his lips on mine.

We had never really been alone. Sure, we had been on plenty of dates by ourselves, mostly thanks to Mom’s insistence that we didn’t need a chaperone, but this was different. Even our first kiss in his car after prom was still in a school parking lot where anyone could have driven by and there was a curfew closing in. This was the first time I ever had him to myself. Really, completely to myself.

And I was going to use it.

Logan started to pull away, but I pulled him in closer. He shifted his neck, trying to get a better angle. I flipped around so my knees were on the couch cushion facing him, the bowl and can falling onto the floor, but I didn’t care. He grabbed me with one arm around my back and ran his other hand through my hair, kissing me deeply and repeatedly. My hands slid around his back, clawing against the fabric of his shirt. Only a desperate need for gasps of air kept us apart.

“Do … do you …” I said, unable to form the words with his lips on mine.

“Do what?” He looked at me with the most intense gaze I’d ever seen him wear. His breaths were like mine, shallow and animalistic. He knew what I was going to say, but wanted me to say it.

“Do you … No …” I looked up at him, gripped the back of his hair, and met his hungry look with my own. “Take me to my room. Now.”

I didn’t need to say another word. He reached down and I jumped into his arms, my legs circling around his waist. He carried me up the basement steps to the main level of the house while I kissed his neck with every step. Clover followed along and barked, but I didn’t care. I held onto him until we reached my door. Logan let me down to open it, moving impatiently and breathing heavily, when Clover charged her and jumped on my bed.

“One second,” I said with frustration. Walking over to the bed, I scooped up my dog and set her outside the door. “I’ll let you out in a bit, girl. I promise.” She whined for a bit, but that wasn’t my concern.

A cool breeze surrounded me before I could turn around. The scent of ozone filled my lungs with each heavy breath. Around me was my childhood room, a cluttered mess with sorted boxes of old toys, clothes, and other parts of me I had collected. In that moment, however, none of them mattered.

In the dim light, I turned to see Logan with his hands next to my open window. It was nearly dusk, the sky made darker by the storm clouds overhead. The dried, outstretched fields separating the house from our nearest neighbors would appreciate the rain quickly moving in from the distance.

“You should really put in a new window screen,” he said jokingly. “Don’t want bugs to get in.”

He walked over and pulled me into his arms.

“I know you love stormy weather,” he said, and he was right. “Do you not like the mood?”

“If any water gets on my floor, I’m blaming you.”

Logan smiled and lifted me up again, walking me over to my bed. The unmade king-sized comforter and pillows cushioned my fall as he threw me onto the fabric. My mouth met his as he climbed over me. Without a thought or a word, I pulled his shirt up over him and threw it in the corner while he pulled the sheets over us. I ran my hands across his chest and back and he kissed me again and again and again.

We laid like that for I don’t know how long. I barely noticed the patter of rain growing stronger outside my window. My attention was on the feeling of his lips on my neck and his hand slowly finding its way under my shirt. Both the cool air and his touch gave me goosebumps.

I wanted this, I kept thinking, I needed him. I wanted him to be mine. I wanted to be his. I wanted to be with him and marry him and share my life with him and-

A blinding flash filled my eyes and the whole house shook with the deafening crack. Logan and I both tensed as the light from the hall and my alarm clock flickered off. Another flash of lightning struck and the house shook again. I thought it must have hit right outside because the whole room was shaking. I heard my lamp tip over, books fell off the shelves, and the whole bed felt like it got lifted off the ground. Logan tried to move, but I kept holding onto him, this time out of fear instead of desire. He pulled my head into his bare chest and whispered to me while I started to sob.

“It’s okay, Soph. It’s okay. Everything’s okay. You’re safe.”

We laid there together waiting for the worst to pass. I wrapped myself around Logan while trembling and crying softly. He ran his fingers through my hair and kept whispering soothing words until both I and the storm finally calmed down.

“The front must have been a lot stronger than we thought,” he said, still laying over me. “I think it’s just raining now.”

“R-right,” I said. I was a bit embarrassed by how I had reacted, but, in my defense, it did just feel like the sky fell down on us. “Do… do you want to-”

“Soph,” he said, cutting me off. “I think we should stop.”

“W-what? Why?” I asked, confused what he meant. “Is it because of the storm? I think it’s easing up too.”

“No, Soph, I-.” He paused. “I love you. You know that right?”

“I know. I love you too.” My hand rested on his cheek. “That’s why I want to do this with you.” I ran my hand lower. I knew he wanted to do this too.

“Soph, please.” I could hear the desperation in his voice and my heart started to ache.

“Did I do something wrong?”

“No.” He leaned down and kissed my forehead. “Sophie, we both know I shouldn’t have come here tonight.”

“We’re adults,” I protested. “We don’t need permission to do what we want.”

“It’s more than that. Do you remember what I told you after prom?”

I’d never forget that night. After leaving the crowded gym, we sat together under the parking lot lights for an hour talking about everything that came to mind. It ranged from trading random trivia facts to how many kindergartners we thought we could take in a fight to the corny Lord of the Rings allegories Dad always managed to fit in his sermons. We talked about the future, and what we wanted out of our lives.

The most personal thing that dork told me is that he always wanted his first time to be with his wife. I kissed him first and asked if he thought she could be me. He kissed me back and said he hoped so.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I should have controlled myself better.”

“You’re not the only one.” He smiled at me and put a hand on my cheek. “Soon. Not too soon, but soon. I promise.”

“Do you mean-?” I felt the heat rising in my cheeks.

“We’ll just have to wait and see.” He kissed me again. “Now, I’d better shut your window before this place floods. Poor Clover is probably scared to death too.”

Logan gently got off of me and moved to the edge of the bed. I probably had the biggest smile of my life so far on my face, but his face scrunched into confusion.

“Your mattress feels kinda lumpy.” Logan shifted his legs over the edge of the bed. He got up and started to take a few steps over to the window. The first step creaked against the floorboard, but the next had a light, audible splash. His figure moved around in the low light, trying and failing to avoid the puddles that had formed on my floor.

“Oh, crap,” said the man I loved. “I think a lot of rain got in. There’s a whole trail over here. I’m sorry, So-”

With no warning, Logan fell to the ground with a wet slam. My eyes were still adjusting to the light and at first I thought he had just slipped in the water. He rolled closer to the bed on his back and let out a dull moan of pain.

“Logan, are you okay?!” I started to move to help him when the bed violently shook beneath me. My hands grasped at the fitted sheets to find some kind of stability when another slam lifted me completely off the bed. I braced myself and held onto what little grip I had before landing close to the edge on the side facing my door, just a few inches from falling off. There was no time to collect myself before I heard the worst sounds I will ever hear.

The first started as a deep, low hum that instantly skyrocketed into an eardrum breaking screech. The sound like broken sirens blasted from beneath me. It echoed through my skull and it repeated again and again and again, up and down, up and down, every few seconds until a wave of nausea racked my body. My vision blurred and every noise sounded like I was being drowned. Even with that, I could still hear the cries of pain and panic that filled the room.

“Oh my God!” Logan screamed, his cries of agony muted but audible. “Oh, fuck! Soph! God, help me!”

I rolled back over to face Logan, separated by over half the bed and a few feet of open floor. The bed shook again and I braced for the impact, holding on for dear life. A brief flash of lightning showed my spiralling vision a mass of dark limbs flailing. Too many limbs for one person. The sound rose and fell and rose and fell. My angle, the nausea, and the shaking of the bed kept me from seeing below his torso. He was slammed chest first into the side of the mattress, both his arms flinging forward onto the sheets. Wet drops of liquid hit my face and dark streaks followed his hands as he sunk lower and lower to the ground.

“Soph…,” he cried, struggling through blood and vomit, while I tried to make out the words. “Love… you… God… please…”

I tried to reach out. I should have reached harder. Logan tried to smile at me before he was whipped backwards to the ground. Despite all the spinning and noise and the confusion, I’ll never forget the moment when I saw the back of his head smack the wood.

Crack.

The ringing started to disappear and, for a few moments, the world fell into a near perfect silence. Lighting flashed a spotlight on him. Dark liquid painted the wall under my window and leaked into the puddles on the floor. Thunder lightly boomed outside the window and Logan’s body shifted slightly. I prayed he was alive.

“Logan,” I whispered.

He didn’t respond. All I heard was the rain. Something beneath me stirred and Logan was slowly pulled completely under my bed.