The Billboard

“Jesus, there you are. Do you know what time it is? Winston thought you were lying dead somewhere.” I heard Maria’s voice ringing through the trees pulling me out of my trance.

Maybe it was just me, but I could have sworn the birds stopped singing. I have nothing against Maria, she's just pushy. She means well, sure, but at one point ‘caring’ turns into being someone who needs to see other people's failures firsthand in order to feel better about themselves.  

“I’m here every day at this time ‘M’, I wish you wouldn’t freak Winnie out like that, he’s fragile.” I sighed, zipping my coat up again, finally shielding my chest from the piercing cold that was stinging my skin. I’m going to freeze out here one of these days but, it’s the only real way to distance myself from Maria’s constant nagging and Winston’s debilitating anxiety. Watching him overthink every little thing gives me a headache;  I wouldn’t be surprised if I saw grey hair peeking out from his roots.

“He’s fine. Pack up, it’s your turn to make dinner.”

“Ah, so I have the honor of peeling the corners of plastic from the frozen feast before placing it ever so delicately in the oven.” I forced a smile, my voice dripping with sarcasm.

Maria led the way over the snowy path back to the main road, and the apartment we all share, as she drilled me on today's events. I tried to avoid starting any real conversation because I know what it will end up becoming, some murder mystery with her as the main character. 

That girl is obsessed with what happened to Sophie and won’t leave it be, she needs to be careful or she’ll get herself hurt.

The walk wasn’t all that long, just long enough for some peace and quiet. When we got home, as I predicted, I was met with a nearly shaking Winston. That boy's mind is his own worst enemy.

“Winnie, I am fine, I just needed some air. No monster is going to snag me there, the people who own that land don’t even like going on it.” I sighed, putting my bag down and rubbing his back lightly attempting to soothe the worry I caused before heading into the kitchen to start dinner.

I took the slightly freezer burnt lasagna out of the packaging and lifted up the corner of the plastic before piercing the film with a fork. It’s not the most appetizing thing in the world but, it's all we have, Sophie was the chef. 

“-what was it?"

“It was a ring! They found a ring! They think it belonged to the killer, it’s a huge breakthrough Winnie-”

“A ring? So it’s a woman-”

“That’s sexist”

“M, how is that sexist? I'm not sexist.”

“April!"

“April!” 

I rolled my eyes before turning to them, usually, I can tune out the bickering. I swear they act like children now, every little thing is an argument, especially regarding Sophie. 

"What are you two on about?" I sighed, closing the oven and setting the timer for half an hour.

"They found a dug-up grave in the woods, the investigators think someone moved her body, they found two sets of DNA, one was Sophie's and the other was the killers,  it was all over the ring. "

Maria explained, I glanced at Winston and saw his chest rising and falling faster than usual. 

I could feel a migraine forming at the back of my head, slowly creeping around behind my eyes.

"This is horrible, someone is just out there with the body. What are they doing to her? What if it's a serial killer? What if we're next? It could be anyone, it could be someone we know-" he started panicking, Maria and I glanced at each other before trying to calm him down. 

"Win-" I didn't get a word out before he started panicking again, I just sighed pouring myself a cup of coffee, I didn't bother with the cream and sugar; nowadays I need something stronger. 

We let him go for a few minutes, if he didn't get some of it out we'd be listening to this in bursts all night. 

"It’s some sick creep salivating over some satanic cannibalistic-" 

"Winnie! Stop! I've told you a hundred times now, the only thing that could have done something like this is a monster, someone like that couldn't hide in this town. You're safe." Maria exclaimed trying to finally end it, he looked to me for reassurance. 

"Nobody's going to hurt you, Winston. I promise." 

He just nodded unsure before sitting down on the somewhat broken sofa in the corner of the room. I went back into the kitchen and glanced over at the oven before grabbing some plates for supper. 

"I don't understand, why would they dig up her body. Are you sure the man she was talking to didn't do it?" He asked after a few minutes, here we go. 

The only physical proof Sophie even lived in this town was an old bloody sweater, and a few journal entries going on and on about the simple thing someone did that she swore made her heart stop. She fell in love with the idea of too many people, and that was enough for everyone to decide my best friend wasn’t worth fighting for. 

"He was cleared, he had an alibi, his wife was with him. Besides, the 'love letters' they found were just a fantasy. Sophie barely talked to him, she liked him, that's it. She was naive and foolish." I dismissed, 

"April!" Maria gasped, I felt a rush of anger flash through me. 

"What? It was her daydreams on paper. That pig took her words and ran with them so he could feel good about himself. Next thing we know everyone is calling her a whore and doesn't care whether she's dead or not. It was all about him." I continued gripping the countertop, trying to control my anger, Winnie scurried up and made an excuse as to why he needed to go to his room; he doesn't like when I yell. She was my best friend, and she deserves attention, not him. I am allowed to be angry. 

It was silent for a while before Maria decided it was safe to speak again.

“Okay, so it wasn’t him” she went on slowly, she just keeps pushing and pushing. 

“Who else could it be?” she continued muttering under her breath,

“Well I spoke to the police captain, he's a-” 

“Family friend, yeah I know, you’ve said it a million times.” I cut her off before she could go on and on about it. 

“Well, I spoke to him and he said he would-” she began but stopped mid-sentence, I waited for her to go on but she didn't speak. I turned and saw her face drained of colour, eyes practically bulging out her sockets and a slight tremble in her bottom lip.

Fear.

“What?” I asked, shifting my weight from my left leg to my right.

“It’s yours.” she whispered, the typical ‘maria tone’ vanished from her voice entirely.

“The ring, it's yours,” she repeated louder, standing up and eying the door. I rolled my eyes and brought the drink to my lips taking another sip of coffee. 

“Don’t be stupid, Maria. I lost that ring weeks ago.”

Silence filled the apartment for a short while before I realized my mistake. 

“I-I never said which ring.” she stuttered, 

“GODDAMMIT, you can’t ever just leave things alone!” I screamed, throwing the mug at the wall behind her making it shatter to her feet, and a scream erupts from her lungs. The coffee exploded everywhere, staining the pretty white carpet where she stood.

I could hear Winston's door lock and a small voice say “police”. Jigs up.

“What did you do?” Maria asked in a hushed tone, her voice cracking at the end. 

“I helped her-” I began but she cut me off, finally gaining a little courage. 

“You killed her!” She spat, horrified. 

“Without me, she would have died a nobody just like everybody else here, I made her name appear on every newspaper, milk carton, tabloid, any surface big enough to fit it, there she was. I made her a star; our town's own Black Dahlia. It’s all she ever wanted.” I argued. If she saw it now, saw how many people knew her name and her face, she’d be over the moon.

“You’re sick and you took Sophie with you, Jesus, where is she? Where is the body?” Maria yelled up at me, all this yelling makes me regret throwing my only caffeine across the room.

“Oh come on super sleuth, I made that part easy. Right under her nose.” I sighed sitting down and tracing my finger over the patterns dancing across the wood of our kitchen table.

“Her nose?”

“Think M. Where is there a giant picture of Sophie? Where is the perfect place to hide something, you don’t want anyone to find until the exact right moment?” I pressed on, I could see the gears shifting in her mind, she was putting the pieces together now. She is so slow, I really am going to have to spell this next part out for her.

“Answer? In plain sight. Right. Under. Her. Nose.” I smiled standing up again, I needed to put on the show just right.

“You’re sick-“

“No, in this town, I am the farthest god damned thing from it..” I snapped, Maria looked nauseous at this point.  

“You told Winston a monster did it…” she trailed confused, dazed even. It is a lot of information, but if she wasn’t such a nosey little thing she wouldn’t be getting all this at once.

“Because a monster did do it. Wake up, sweetheart, every monster ever created came from the minds of humans; the only difference is I brought mine to life for my best friend's dreams to come true. Dracula, Frankenstein, Werewolves, you name it! They were all created to distract us from the fact that we are the problem. It’s people that stopped looking for her, I slipped up over and over and they could have caught me, but they stopped looking and just before they got to the good part. I mean do you see the problem, Maria? We are the monsters, and we will blame anything with a pulse for our issues, but it's all on us. Sophie was a stupid lovesick puppy, and I made her an angel.” I went on, my smile getting wider as I advanced towards her, stopping right before my toes hit the porcelain shards scattered around us. She flinched as I did so and fell a little too strategically towards her purse. 

Can't fool me.

“You need help,” she whispered after a few moments of scrambling trying to think of what to say, I always have to write a script for these people. 

“You’re right. This is where you come in, M. You get to play the hero. You take down the monster, and Sophie's story is told everywhere.-" I exclaimed before taking a deep breath, I needed to calm down.

"-so take the gun you have behind your back that you think I can’t see, and finish the story.” 

Relief was hitting me as the pieces were finally falling into place. 

“You want me to kill you?” she sputtered, I had to hold back a laugh.

“If you just stayed out of it maybe you wouldn’t have to. You see the original plan was to test my theory and see if the perfect little princess would find out who Sophie’s slayer was following all of my perfectly placed clues. Someone as self-absorbed as you would need to be the hero, so the question was how would your monster come out? How would you put me down?” I preached, she just kept shaking her head no.

“I know what you did, you’ll be put away, I’m not feeding into your game!” she exclaimed tears falling from her eyes now, I tsked and shook my head no, that is not how this is going to play out.

"Right, and years later after I lie my way out of that and come back to do it all again, what will you do then? I mean how hard would it be really? You basically had a murder board on the living room wall and you never caught on to who was really sleeping a few rooms over. I can turn myself into anything they want to see. There’s only one way out of this and you’re still clutching it behind your back in your right hand.” I pressed on, she shook her head violently. 

“Still need a little push? You want to hear how I did it? At first, I had no clue what the hell I was doing, the grave was so shallow, I went back a few weeks later and I saw parts of her poking up through the soil-” 

“Stop!” she snapped stepping up now, we’re getting closer. 

“So, I did what any good friend would do and I gave her a proper burial, flowers and all. You were there, you remember, we all planted the flowers together if only you knew then what was in the fertilizer-” 

“Stop it!” she screamed now, the walls were shaking once again.

“She was right under your nose too, what a friend you are.” I taunted, she pulled the gun from behind her and pointed it at me. A rush of adrenaline shot through me as she did so.

“Struck a nerve?” I smiled stepping closer to her, the shards from the mug piercing my feet, leaving bloody footprints behind me. 

“I...I...I” a horror-stricken Maria stammered before jumping at the timer in the kitchen going off. 

“Oh, that's just too good, times up,” I smirked, her chest was rising and falling at an alarming rate. I could see anger bubbling up inside of her at this joke. 

“The real kicker, it was you that gave me the idea for a billboard” 

I took a few steps closer, pressing my chest to the barrel of the gun.

“I was just going to let her rot in the woods.” 

Face to face, I saw something in her eyes change before a shot ripped through the thick silence the apartment sat in. 

“There she is.”