The Killer Among Us

Chapter 4

Two days before the abduction

Jacob

My emotions were spinning out of control since the previous night. The taste of bile in the back of my throat was a constant reminder of how I ruined yet another opportunity.

My expectations for this day were especially hopeless. This day, ten years ago, my dad got shot by enemy rebels. All my life and dreams were still ahead of me but still, I gave it all up. For her. For Aria. This day not only reminded me of the aching loss of my Dad but also of the loss of myself.

The sun was already setting outside and I wasted the whole day away brooding in all the emotions I finally felt: regret, anger but most painfully loss. I felt it like a void in my heart that would suck up all that is good. It was forever taunting me with images of what my life could have looked like. At the same time, there was no way to escape it.

But I embraced the hurt, I hadn't felt it in a while. Somehow, it showed me that I was still alive, still a person.

Having avoided the graveyard all day in fear I might run into my mother, I pushed myself to go once the day drew to a close.

I picked out a bouquet of flowers at the florist earlier that day and it had been sitting in a vase on the windowsill of my motel room since, staring down on me, torturing me as a symbol of the significance this day held for me.

After getting ready and putting the flowers in my car, I made my way to the graveyard, praying that I wouldn't run into my mother. I had no idea what I would say to her.

Once there, a wave of sorrow washed over me. This place had always been my refuge. Some days, when everything got too difficult to bear, I would visit my Dad's grave and seek advice from him. It's funny, because I knew exactly what he would say in every situation and I could always sense him close to me.

Grief overtook my life and there were some days when I fought back successfully, conquering my emotions and being the ruler over my own thoughts. But like most days, that day was not one of those.

I allowed myself to cry and be in my Dad's presence for a while before I felt the sudden urge to go see Aria. The one and only thing I knew my father must have been proud of me for was the way I cared for Aria. Not having been there for her on this day felt incredibly wrong.

I took it all in one last time, placed the flowers in the vase that stood there from other times I had visited and then I left. I didn't dare to look back in fear that I would be drawn into the grief once again.

My body felt weak and I hadn't eaten since last night but that didn't matter now. All I wanted to do was to make sure Aria was okay. So I drove to her new house, laughing to myself that my twenty year old baby sister already had one and all I had was my car.

When I got there, the house intimidated me. It stood in front of me, tall and triumphant.

But in it lived the most considerate and strong woman I had ever known.

I breathed in the chilly evening air and made my way up the porch. "I really don't want tonight to end like last night," I told myself. Finally, I rang the doorbell carefully and heard it echo inside, bouncing off the freshly painted walls.

The neighborhood she lived in seemed quiet and secluded. I noticed there were few people outside and most houses had their curtains drawn. Apparently it wasn't the richest of neighborhoods, hence why she was able to afford a house here.

After a suspiciously long while, Aria opened the door. Immediately I sensed that something was odd. She opened it only a tiny bit, carefully and with fearful eyes. I wrote it off to the sorrow of that day. When she saw me, her body relaxed and she opened the door fully.

Hastily, she fabricated a smile and welcomed me inside.

"Good to see you, J," she said, uncertainty evident in her voice. It confused me a little but I didn't think too much of it. Surely she was just odd because of last night or because there was no good way to act on the anniversary of your father's death.

"I was just coming to see how you were doing, Ari," I smiled at her genuinely.

She relaxed a little and pointed to the kitchen, where a single cup of coffee was already sitting on the small, wooden dining table. Approaching it, I took small and careful steps while taking in my surroundings.

Her kitchen was nicely decorated and felt homey but there was stuff everywhere. Usually Aria wasn't the messy type and worry crept up inside of me, preoccupying my mind steadily.

"Can I get you anything? Coffee? Beer?" she asked while wrapping her light blue robe tightly around herself. Her voice was quiet and unsteady.

I noticed she was avoiding my eyes and her cheeks were red, presumably from crying. Yet I felt there was something else that was off. She seemed jumpy, nervous even. Not the confident and snappy Aria that I raised.

"A coffee would be great. Thank you," the hesitation in my voice must have been clear because she instantly took in a deep breath and tried to steady herself.

However, I decided not to poke too much because I knew how she didn't like me getting all protective on her. She liked to do things by herself and I wanted to respect that.

With a small nod, she made her way to the cabinet, grabbed a coffee cup and poured me one. The steam rose high and the pouring sound was the only thing audible in the house. She placed the cup in front of me and I only used it to warm up my cold hands since I wasn't really a coffee drinker. I wondered how she forgot about that.

She sat down on the chair opposite me but her body was turned away from me. With a small sigh, she pulled up her knee and rested her head on it. In that moment, she looked exactly like teenage Aria when something was bothering her, something she didn't want to talk about. The memory took me back to past days.

Weirdly, the seconds stretched and the silence became uncomfortable to bear. We weren't usually like this. Normally, Aria wouldn't shut up when I visited her after a while, catching me up on all the details of her life.

Finally I broke the silence and simply asked, "Are you okay? You seem a little... worried?"

Scared. She seemed scared like a cornered deer with her wide eyes and slim figure.

"It's nothing, really. No need to worry," she tried to sound confident but I wasn't convinced.

As I was trying to respond and get her to tell me what was wrong the telephone started ringing behind me. Instantly, her eyes shot up and widened. She seemed frozen in time - not moving, not breathing.

The ringing blasted through the room and seemed to pierce through all of her senses. She knew who was calling, she must have. Her reaction gave her away.