Attached to the text was a picture of the body I saw. He was dead on the ground and the flash from the picture made him look even worse. My ears started ringing like a bomb went off. The disassociation threatened to take me again.

“Good riddance! Let’s party!” The crowd in the room cheered and the music thumped even louder. Laughs and smiles were all around.

It was like I witnessed a scene from a horror movie, and I might be a main character. What would a character in my position do?

She wouldn’t be flailing and disassociating. She’d be doing her damnedest to keep her shit together. To fit in.

Kelly looked uncomfortable for the first time tonight like the bad news finally hit her. She rubbed her arm and forced herself to not fidget with the news. She took most things in stride, but I didn’t take her for having a flippant attitude like the rest of these rich assholes. Brent slinked off in some direction.

“Don’t worry,” Alexander patted my head and stroked my hair. “We have no connection to any of that. All I have to do is hand over my card and we’ll be left alone. Why don’t we blow off some steam and do some dancing to loosen you up?” He showed no emotion about a dead person at a party he was just at. No conscience, either.

I needed to get rid of this guy. He struck me as the type to not ask for consent. “I’ll be with Kelly for a bit.” I tried to keep my tone sweet, smiling at him.

As expected, he brushed off my objection like a seasoned used car salesman. “Baby, give me just a few minutes of your time. I promise I’ll make them worth it–I want to get to know the future Mrs. Fitzgerald better.” He raised my hand to his nasty lips to place a kiss on it.

Gross. “I didn’t think I’d get a marriage proposal right off the bat.”

Kelly pretended like she didn’t hear a single thing and interjected that she was taking me to the bar to get me loose first and that I’d be better in a bit.

“That dude is a fucking freak,” she murmured in my ear as she pulled me away from him.

“Observation or experience?”

“Both. come on.”

Conversations and eerie laughter swirled around us as we moved through the crowd. No one cared about the tragic ending to someone’s life. It’s like they were celebrating it.

“Think we should send flowers? Or would a gift card be better?”

“...and you know how it works. Money talks and dead men don’t...”

“...hope no one else opens their mouth. Don’t they know better than...”