Queen Media Collective

“Looks like I got here just in time.”

  Johnathan shook his head in agreement.

  The mystery man stepped into the light and it was Eric. Johnathan had him in his back pocket all along in case he needed him.

“What else do you need Johnathan?”

  “Thank God for you being here. It was almost the end for me. Can you help me clean this mess up? We gotta get rid of all the bodies.”

  “That wasn’t part of my agreement to come back to town. You said you would clear my name in the death of Carolyn,” said Eric.

“And we will do that Eric, just help me get rid of the bodies.”

  Eric and Johnathan had to think quickly. Night had fell and there were the bodies of Cherry and Rasheeda. Eric started picking up things and putting them away in a black trash bag while Johnathan figured out how they were going to get rid of the bodies discreetly. Eric had picked up the entire room and all the evidence of any malicious things happening when Johnathan finally got it.

“There’s a trash chute right in the corner of this building of this floor. Let’s put them in trash bags and send them down the trash chute. After we get them down the trash chute, then we can go get the bodies down there and escape out the door as if we were taking things out with us. No one is in the lobby to even catch us at all.”

  Eric and Johnathan looked out the hallway to see if anyone was out there. Eric looked to the left and saw no one. At the same time, Johnathan looked to the right and saw no one. So both moved down the hallway, both shuffling while carrying the trash bags as quietly as they could to the trash chute. The good thing is Rasheeda’s apartment was only three apartments away from the trash chute. Finally, they made it and then dropped both bodies down the chute. As the final body went down, Eric and Johnathan began to celebrate, maybe too loudly. An older white man heard Eric and Johnathan and poked his head out in the hallway.

“Who are both of you!”

  When he yelled at them, Eric and Johnathan got nervous and ran. They both hit the stairs and left the building, not even trying to get the bodies they just dumped. The man, startled, called the police as soon as he saw them running out of the building.

  When the police arrived, Eric and Jonathan were long gone, but their impressions on the older gentleman weren’t and he described them perfectly to the police. Another thing the older gentleman told the police is he believed they came out of an apartment three doors down from the trash chute. The police, without a search warrant, would not be able to enter the premises, but they did contact their boss, who began to work on one for them.

  Meanwhile, Eric and Johnathan were on the run. They weren’t sure what the older gentleman saw, but they were sure he was scared and probably called the authorities.

“What do we do next? They are going to catch us. What are we going to do!!!!”

“Relax Eric. We will figure this out.”  

  Both ducked off into the subway heading back to Johnathan’s place, with Johnathan again assuring Eric things would work out.

  Back at Rasheeda’s apartment, the search warrant was finally processed and the police knocked on the door. One knock, two knocks, three knocks, four knocks. There was no answer at all. So after so many knocks, the police kicked in the door. They saw a broken window and an apartment that looked to be in good shape except for the living room area, sitting there with some things in it. As the police began to go through the bag, they noticed a bat and a gun. After dusting the weapons, they noticed fingerprints on both the gun and the bat. They also searched the trash chute and saw evidence of blood there. The police would go downstairs and discover the bodies of Cherry and Rasheeda. With both the bat and gun in their possession and the bodies found, the police headed back to the police department to analyze the evidence and the bodies.

  While the police were gathering up evidence, the twosome of Eric and Johnathan were back at his place finally, trying to get things together to get out of town. Eric, though, did not want to leave just yet. He had been promised something by Johnathan and he wanted his promise to come through.  

  “You promised me I would see my family Johnathan. I need to see my kids before we skip town. I haven’t seen them in a while since the night of Carolyn’s murder.”

  At that point, Johnathan was starting to get perturbed with Eric.

“Do you want to live or do you want to see your family?”

  Eric, frustrated but understanding, started telling him how they could see his family again before they left the city.

“She usually takes them to the park to play during the day. It’s literally a stone’s throw from my apartment. We could stop and have me see them from a distance while we exit the city for good.”

  Johnathan, although he knew it wasn’t a good idea, decided to let him have his way and as they began to head out the door, they began to discuss how they would handle everything. Begrudgingly, Johnathan hopped in his car and drove Eric to see his family.

  Back at the police department, they were examining the fingerprints and came back with four sets of fingerprints from the apartment belonging to Cherry, Johnathan, Rasheeda and Eric. And what was even more telling was the fingerprints Eric left on the bat and the gun. Unlike Johnathan, Eric did not have gloves on at all, leaving fingerprints all over everything including the murder weapons. The police officer then began to search the database for things on Eric and found his old place of residence. At that point, the police went out to his home to try and find him.

  Meanwhile back at Eric’s apartment, Eric’s wife, Jessica, and his kids Lyric and Element, were out in the park playing and having fun without a care in the world. And in the distance, there was Eric, watching his kids play. He missed them and tears rolled down his face as he knew this could be the last time he saw them.

“Are you ready to go?”

“Not yet Johnathan. Just a few more seconds watching them.”

  As Eric was gazing at his family and Johnathan was trying to pull him away, the police came flying into the neighborhood and went straight to the apartment of Eric.

  At that point, Eric was frozen in the moment. He saw his kids startled by the police and his wife startled as well while looking around. As soon as he turned around to get in the car with Johnathan to leave, he noticed one thing: Johnathan was gone. The car was peeling off and Eric was on his own. He came back to the city only to get left behind.

  Johnathan was in the wind, as no one was looking for his car and he wasn’t a guilty party in the eyes of the police. He knew Eric didn’t wear any gloves and had touched everything, so all things pointed back to Eric. This was Johnathan’s payback. He never forgot Johnathan was trying to kill him and he knew his time would come.

  The police spotted Eric trying to get away nearby and quickly surrounded him. Eric surrendered and the police put him in a car and hauled him away.

In the end, Johnathan was the last one standing.

“Eric chose with his heart and he chose wrong.”

  Where Johnathan landed next, no one knew. But on that day, he got out of town free and easy, leaving all his destruction behind. Eric was left to answer for all of it. What started as a crime for love ended up being a caper for power and payback for Johnathan.