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“Princess, we’re killing Duke next, yeah?” JD said as he looked down at Veronica. She was nestled in his lap, reading a book.
She glanced up at him, putting a finger in the book to keep her page, “What do you mean, love?” An uncomfortable silence passed for a couple of minutes as she continued to stare at him. JD was uncertain what he should say next as her eyes lost their usual expressive tells. Sometimes, he couldn’t figure what went on inside her head. She was like a kaleidoscope of different thoughts and emotions. It was as lovely as it was confusing, and currently, he didn’t know if he had messed up or not. Veronica’s silence was telling, doubt slowly started to creep in, JD hunched his shoulders and pulled his face into the spot between her neck and shoulder, an attempt to hide. A hand came up and started running its fingers through his hair, scratching his scalp gently, just the way he liked it.
“You know we can’t kill all my friends one after the other, right love?” She said after her silence, “Too many coincidences and it becomes a pattern, suicide of all the popular girls at our school and I'm the only connecting link left?” She paused, letting her words wash over him, shame colored his face as he pressed deeper into her neck, not knowing if he was trying to hide or placate her. “I think it’s best to wait. We need to let our latest murder die down a bit before we continue.” Veronica reasoned quietly. She always knew what to do, she was the brains of this operation and JD would gladly follow her off the edge of a cliff, even to the pits of hell, if it meant he had a chance to be with her.
He was so happy that she had taken him back after his little stunt at her house earlier. Threatening suicide and blowing up the whole school wasn’t the best course of action, clearly. He was lucky that she had sorted him out before he did anything he regretted. A break up and a little bit of cooling off led him right back to her arms. He wanted to be hers even if he had to wait patiently for the next murder. Maybe they’d even follow through with the plan of killing the whole school, roasting marshmallows while it burned. The school didn’t deserve to have Veronica, it only hurt and disregarded her, it was time some one paid it back. Though it would not be tonight, or the coming days, or the coming weeks, he needed to be patient, for her.
They cuddled together for a while longer, Veronica now back to reading her book and JD just dozing off lightly with his arms wrapped around her. The soft turning of pages and little hums Veronica made, calmed him down, easing him to sleep. She was a safe haven, he couldn’t sleep well without her, a fact he’d found out once they had broken up. He had frequented her room or her his during their time dating and once they ended things he realized how much he had come to rely on her.
Eventually the pages stopped turning, “Maybe we should start planting seeds of another suicide? Make it more believable and less hasty?” She spoke into the warm air. A nod was the only response she received, he wanted to do more, say more, but it was so nice to just drift off, trusting her judgement. She had confirmed that she agreed with killing Duke, he had still been worried about offending her as she had brushed that bit off but he could clearly see now that she cared. She spoke some of her plan out loud, “Maybe some notes and highlights in a copy of Moby Dick should do the trick?” A small smile placed itself on her lips and he confirmed her choice with a little noise.
They were 2 souls forever linked together, not to be separated by the material or nonmaterial world. Veronica leaned back, getting closer to JD, and placed a delicate kiss on his cheek. She continued to place gentle kisses on his face, neck, and hair leaving him all warm and fuzzy on the inside. She would often do this when the time was nearing to when he had to leave, they both knew that he couldn’t stay the night and would leave in the early hours of the morning. But, it was just them in these quiet moments, hidden away from the prying eyes of the sun and under the grin of the moon.
The next couple of months were spent gathering the correct materials and planting them around Duke. Veronica shared her copy of Moby Dick with her, highlighted with some notes sprinkled on the pages. Duke had taken it flipped through the first couple of pages and then discarded it in her dresser, never to be pulled out again. The second addition was empty pill bottles, they were a lot harder to place but a lie here and there with a little bag full of them eventually found itself in her locker. The last thing was the post-it notes. They had to be placed in both her room and locker in places she wouldn’t think to pull them out, throwing them away. They decided it was best to wait until the day that they would kill her, sneaking them in after she left school for school in the morning and when the day was over.
D-day finally arrived, a common nickname now as it sort of fit with the whole situation, doom being replaced with Duke, obviously. The plan was simple, JD would lure Duke out and Veronica would kill her. Unbeknownst to JD but very much known to Veronica, Duke had developed a bit of a crush on him. Something Veronica had the unpleasant experience of finding out one night at a party through some alcohol and some truth or dare. It was poetic really, the guy she liked luring her out and his petty girlfriend killing her in cold blood. However, JD just wanted revenge for her hurting Veronica, a very simple motive, really.
A card was slipped into her locker early in the morning, asking her to meet him in the cemetery that evening around 8 pm. Duke was stupid enough to come, not that Veronica hadn’t planned for her not to but it was funny enough that she knew what went on in her head. JD stood next to a grave with an angel headstone placed above it while she was hidden behind a row of flower bushes nearby. The plan was for JD to maneuver Duke close enough to the bushes that Veronica could get a clean headshot off and when she pulled the trigger. She also had a note to plant once she killed her, simply declaring she was unfit to be in this world for similar reasons to Heather Chandler, a copycat most would assume. All that was left now was for her to arrive.
A couple of minutes passed before her car was heard pulling into the parking lot of the cemetery. JD watched as she turned off her car, checking to see if his motorcycle was there. When she finally spotted what appeared to be his motorcycle, she made her way down to the grave designated on the card. They had planned in advance for a motorcycle to be parked there so as to not throw Duke off but to also hide the fact that Veronica and JD were her murderers, his bike was safely tucked into the tree line, ready to be driven off once the deed was done. She walked towards JD, unaware that she was now walking to face her end. Duke pressed forward, pulling JD towards her, he positioned them next to the bushes Veronica was hidden in and she pulled the trigger. Duke’s eyes widened and she fell to the ground, dead.
Now it was time to reposition her body, setting the evidence of a suicide up. The note was soaked into her pooling blood and placed into her right hand. The gun was next, placed in her left, at an awkward angle to show how she killed herself. Some empty bottles of alcohol and pills were discarded around her too before the couple took off into the trees. They jumped on the motorcycle and drove off into the night, a place already in mind for a celebration.
They arrived at a 7-11, Veronica insisted that she go inside as she didn’t have any blood splattered on her. JD, unfortunately, had some on him when the shot was fired and during the staging of the scene. She hopped off the bike and kissed JD quickly on the lips before heading inside. It made him feel amazing, his girl was proud of him, pleased with him too, he could not be happier. She returned moments later, 2 blue slushies in her hands with straws already placed in them. They shared them, laughing and enjoying the highs of the night. Eventually they returned home and went to sleep, ready for the next day.
Duke’s body was found about 4 days later, her parents only filing a missing person’s report 3 days after her death. She was in quite the public place and was found pretty easily but there was little motivation to actually find her. Her funeral was held a week later, the death being deemed a suicide. Not many people showed up and those that did weren’t too sad about her passing. No one really wanted to pay their respects to a girl like Duke. Veronica kept up appearances and made sure to show up, crying a little and earning empathetic glances from those in attendance. She had a facade to keep up after all.
After Duke’s death, their murders continued through their schooling years and ended with one final murder, a grand end to their killing spree. Veronica had decided that JD’s plan of blowing up the whole school and having them sign their own death note was the way to go. The school had gone to shit and they were the only ones who could clean the stain up. It was all too easy to plant the thermals and bombs, to have them sign the note, and to push the button, watching the school go up in flames, roasting marshmallows in the embers of the aftermath. They were the only ones left of their graduating class, Veronica was home with a high fever, never leaving her house according to the testimony of her mother, and JD being severely injured a couple days prior, a metal spike going through his leg making anything but limping around difficult according to his father. The school’s bombing was declared a suicide, Veronica and JD were let off the hook and people grieved their dead, life moved on.
The both of them went off to college and after a few years they graduated with their respective degrees and joined the workforce. Their murderous tendencies left in the past now that they had grown some, for now at the very least. They settled down together, moving away from Ohio to somewhere busier, more suburban. A large house, a cat, and a car made up their lives and soon a baby would enter their lives. Everything was how it should be and nothing could change that.