Rule 2 - Tanis

KEEP A CLEANING KIT ON YOU IF YOU'RE PRONE TO MESSES.

T he knife fell to the floor, right into the giant blood puddle.

"A bit of an overkill, don't you think, Tanis?" Craven smirked.

I looked up at the bear sitting in the cuck-chair. "You got blood on your clothes."

" I got blood on my clothes?" The bear shifted, moving his little fuzzy arm to point to his chest. He scooted off his seat and waddled over to me. " I got blood on my clothes? I did not do shit. I sat back and watched you hack this dude into pieces! All for what?"

"He had a wife!" I exclaimed, standing from the bed. "He spent all night flirting with me. We made out in the car." My lips trembled, and the tears came again. "I thought for sure he was the one. He was perfect."

"Perfect? The guy looked nothing like me!" Craven snapped. "That was the one thing I asked for."

I huffed, glaring at the stuffed bear two feet off the ground. "That's all? Really?" I put my hand on my hip.

His chestnut brown face shifted into an angry scowl. "You owe me a body. I don't think wanting to be comfortable in it is too much to ask."

He was right. He always was. If our situation was reversed, and it was him who had messed up the ritual, he would have found me a body so close to the one I'd lost within weeks. It'd been three years, and still, my boyfriend, Craven, Cravey-boo, was stuck in the nearest thing his soul could find, a teddy bear.

"I'm sorry, boo. Come here." I sat in the chair and extended my arms. He didn't come to me, instead he walked around the bed, sloshing his little black hi-tops in the blood. He bent and popped back up, my date's beautiful penis in his little furry grip.

"I know why you wanted that body." He snickered and tossed the severed appendage on the bed. "I could have gotten on board with that. I'm not saying I wouldn't have taken it, just that it should have been a conversation is all." He climbed onto the bed and tossed his little body back.

I hurried over, scooping him into my arms. "And it will be. The next body I bring back will be the one. I promise. It'll be a good one. He'll be handsome, rich, lonely, and look just like the old you."

"And a big dick."

I laughed. "The biggest."

We worked through the night and into the morning cleaning up the mess I'd made.

"I hate when I lose my temper." I frowned as I dropped another toe into the trash bag.

"I found a farm we can take all this too, at least. Drop it off tomorrow night after the convention," Craven said, using one of the dead guy's fingers to work his phone.

"What about his wife? Should we do something about her?" I went to the bathroom with the ice bucket I'd grabbed from the hotel desk, and filled it with hot water and hand soap. We'd have to clean up with what we had here. I couldn't be caught shopping for cleaning supplies at a store at two in the morning. I wouldn't be able to explain that away.

"What do you mean? Her husband was a philanderer. That and a gambler, apparently,"Craven snickered.

I returned and poured the water all over the carpet, then tossed a hotel toothbrush in Craven's direction, and dropped down with the other one and began scrubbing the soap into the stained floor. "He had a lot of people threatening to burn his house down if he didn't pay them. Let's hope his wife knew about it, and she assumes his bookies ended him."

"Let's hope," I muttered. He was right; we shouldn't kill innocent people. As a rule, I really tried not to. I'd never killed a grandma or a child or someone who didn't have it coming. This guy deserved it.

"I bet she's home, tossing in bed, wondering where he is." I scrubbed the rug harder. "She probably is a homemaker; with beautiful dresses she wears to lounge around the house. I bet she made him a giant spread for dinner. Beef Wellington, roasted potatoes, bread from scratch, and a chocolate cake all made with no boxes or anything. Expensive red wine that'd been aired out for hours before he got home." The image of the woman in my imagination got my emotions ramped up again. Tears fell into the soapy, bloody mixture I was scrubbing on the floor.

"Tanis…" Craven sighed. "Sweetie, don't do this."

I smacked my legs, still covered in the guy's blood and gore. "I wonder how long she waited for him to return before she tossed his dinner in the garbage. I bet they have two trash cans too. One for trash, and the other for recycling." With that, I covered my hands over my eyes and broke into sobs. How could he have cheated on a person like that?

I felt a familiar small, soft paw on my shoulder. Craven attempted to comfort me, but even as a human, he'd been shit at stopping me from crying.

"Tanis, you're getting yourself worked up again. You don't know who this girl was. You don't know if that was the case. Maybe they really were separated."

I glared at him. "Where they?"

His black eyes shifted away. "No."

"Did she text him tonight?" I demanded.

"She did."

"Give me the phone," I said through gritted teeth. I needed to know just how much of a bastard he was. How could he lie like that? What had I done to deserve to be lied to? What had his wife, his partner in life, done to be cheated on?

Grumbling, Craven waddled back to the chair and grabbed the finger and the phone. I took both and unlocked it.

"What's her name?" I asked. There were a lot of women's names in his inbox, and based on the messages, any of these could be a romantic partner. Many of them were romantic partners. Just which one was his legal one?

"Caroline. I found it written on the back of that photo in his wallet."

I looked for Caroline and found it. The last message was from today. I scanned the full conversation, and with each text, my heart cracked, shattered, and screamed for her.

Caroline: Fred, please call me. I'm bleeding.

Caroline: I really need you here. I'm scared.

Caroline: Fred, I'm going to the hospital. I can't wait for you. I'm afraid I'm going to lose the baby.

Caroline: Why aren't you answering the phone? I need you here!!!!!

Fred: Any update?

I looked at the times. Each of those had happened before the club. He knew his wife was in the hospital and still went out?

Caroline: Please come to the hospital. I don't want to be alone tonight. We lost our baby.

Caroline: Fred, if you don't come tonight, don't come home. I'm calling my dad and changing the locks.

That last message had come through about the time we'd arrived at my room.

"That bastard." I tossed the phone away, as if it had been the monster and not the person who owned the device.

"I shouldn't have shown you." Craven went to retrieve it. "We need to get rid of this."

"We'll just toss it in the dumpster behind the club." I sniffled. "Motherfucker. She lost her baby and he was in bed, naked with me."

"I mean, I get the temptation. I'd do anything to be inside you." Craven cackled. "I think out of all the human things, I miss sex the most. The orgasms my little mound produces when I rub it fast don't hit the spot."

I stared at the mess I'd made for myself. Craven, Freddy, all of it. I was a walking temper tantrum who left unfixable messes wherever I went.

"This is not getting clean enough." I sighed, tossing my brush down.

"Let's just burn this place down," Craven quipped, and I perked up.

"Could we? I mean, would it be easier?" My eyes lit up, picturing the flames. It was a small hotel, only six rooms and most people rented by the hour. I wasn't even sure the other rooms had patrons. Our car was the only one in the parking lot. Not even one from the worker at the front desk.

"No, Tanis, it wouldn't." Craven shook his head. "Come on now. Just go shower, I'll change clothes, and then before we go, we'll off the front desk guy and toss him in here. Stop cleaning. We'll make it look like a murder suicide. No biggie. How much time do we have before the convention?"

I looked at the alarm clock on the side table. Craven always knew how to clean up my messes. "Six hours; that's enough time for a nap."