Chapter Two

                                    

                                          
I couldn't just leave her there - lying on the cold concrete to slowly decompose until somebody stumbled upon her body. 
                          
No. She had meant too much to me for that to happen. Alyssa wasn't just another kill to me. She was a reckoning. She brought me to a strong realisation of my ignorance to those around me. I'd been too trusting, and I'd let her long history with me get in the way of my rational mind. Never again.
                          
Focussing on the task ahead of me, I take my time with my usual measures to clean up my tracks, bleaching the floor and checking around on the walls. Searching high and low for any evidence that could possibly be left behind. Then I head outside to my car and bring it to the front of the ragged, old structure. I drag Alyssa's body by her ankles to the front entry, leaving an unsightly smear of blood behind where I'd dragged her out. I then heft her body up into my arms and carry her to the boot of my car where I place her down gently to finish dealing with later. 
                          
Catching my breath, I sigh heavily and thank my foresight to work on my weight lifting before I head back inside the warehouse to clean up the remaining bloody mess. I want to leave the place as clean as possible. My plan won't work if I leave anything even slightly suspicious behind. If only I'd had a clear mind earlier, I would have removed her from the building before I'd cleaned up and wasted all of that bleach. Oh well, what's done is done and I can't rewind time. 
                          
Due to my shaky and scattered mind about what had happened with Alyssa, I hadn't been thinking clearly which had in turn resulted in simple things being missed when I had used some of my supplies earlier. I mustn't be so sloppy when I do leave this place for good. 
                          
After another once over with more glorious bleach, I step back to survey my work, taking another stroll around the building to ensure I had not missed anything and finally feel certain that nothing will be found were anyone to look for anything here.
                          
As I make my way back out to my car, I glance briefly at Alyssa's car parked proudly in the drive and decide its best to leave it behind. If I move her car, it will only give reason to believe someone else was involved, and that's the last thing I need. Plus, this will be her last known whereabouts, as her phone is still in the centre console where she had left it earlier.
                          
Getting back in the drivers seat of my car, I check my phone before I start the engine. Alex has called once and left me a message asking where I am. I didn't think I'd have to worry about Alex tonight. When I left home, he had still been at his favorite sports bar with Dex, and I thought he would stay out late like usual, but that hasn't gone to plan. I can't say that I've been with Alyssa, that will only cause more trouble later, so I tell him that I went for a drive to get something to eat and that I'd be back shortly. 
                          
Unfortunately, this means I'll have to speed things up. 
                          
I take a direct route toward Gould Mesa Trail, intending to drive out as far as I can to finish off the job. It seems insensitive, that I think of what I'm doing as a 'job', but how else should I think of it? Alyssa became every bit the psychotic, sick, demented being as the rest of my victims, so she will be classed in the same way as them. A means to an end. A life destroyed to save countless others. I can't play favorite's just because she was once my closest friend. I feel as though it may have all been a ruse. Up to a certain point in Alyssa's mind at least. Especially after the way she treated me back there, like I wasn't someone she had known since childhood, like I was nothing to her. I suppress a thick sob deep in my throat, trying with all my might not to let a tear fall again for her. For all that is lost.
                          
Sniffling, I find I've driven all the way to the trail without awareness. That's a little scary, I don't remember much of the drive, it's almost as though I was on autopilot.