Canal Bridge

Chapter Eight: Whispers In The Wind

The day of the three murders:

Lunchtime for myself was at 1:00pm and every lunch time I went home to grab something and speak to Tabitha. Today was no different. When I got home I heard screams coming from my room. Instantly I ran to the room and saw Tabitha being pinned to the bed by a man and a woman while the other man hovered over her. They all turned to face me in a synchronised manner. My heart jumped out of my chest and my brain cells seemed to melt out of my skull in the form of sweat. All of my knowledge on how to handle aggressive situations flew out of the window. The woman let go of Tabitha's arms and cowered in the corner of the room. She was scared and she had every right to be scared. Tabitha's arms were now free so she pushed away the man who hovered over her.

"What are you doing? Sort that one out and you get up and get me something to tie this ___ up"

The man who just got pushed yelled, his voice deep and jagged like a dog growling. The other man let go of Tabitha's legs and she began kicking about trying to get off the bed but the man who seemed to be in charge grabbed her by the neck and told her to shut up and stop moving. I believe she stopped out of fear. With the smaller man running towards me, I gripped my front door key that I only just remembered was in my hand and put it between my knuckles facing out. With a swift movement I caught the man on his jaw and blood spurred out. He yelped in pain and the woman screamed no, she was shaking and crying. As the man hit the floor holding onto his jaw, I straddled over him and punched him repeatedly in the stomach, chest and face. Little punctures in his skin leaked out blood and filled the floor. Without realising, I had punched him over 20 times but the exact amount is unclear. His face was unrecognisable by the time I had stopped punching him and he was no longer moving. Being dragged to my feet by strong hands brought me out of my trance and I attempted to fight my way out of the hold. It was very difficult, so we ended up tumbling about a bit until I managed to manoeuvre my way into the kitchen. I stumbled for a knife in the draw and faced the man I deemed to be in charge. We both eyed each other, waiting for one another to make a move. Finally, I launched forwards and swiped the knife out at him. It scratched down his stomach and tore his shirt but since he'd jumped back, it was only a scratch. He hissed in pain and touched his stomach, wet with blood. Cat like screeches were heard from the bedroom along with thumps and shuffling about. Tabitha must be in trouble. Worry for her brought my strength back once again and I charged at the man in front of me. His muscles were pulsing and his anger began pumping through his blood vessels. He may be bigger and stronger than me but he is no where near as speedy as I am. I dodged his fists and his kicks. I threw my fist into his stomach which was still dribbling out blood. It winded him but before I noticed what happened, the knife had transferred into his free hand and I was slammed onto the tiled floor. I coughed and spluttered, trying to regain the breath that was just stolen. The man shuffled to better his position so he could stab me. I tripped him up and he came tumbling onto me. As he fell, I thrust my hand out and his hand twisted against mine, pushing the knife deep into his chest. Blood filled his mouth and spluttered out onto my face. I winced. Such a metallic smell, it took hold of my senses and churned my stomach rotten. When I arrived back in the bedroom after shoving the mans corpse off of me, Tabitha was stood over the woman. She was also lying lifeless on the floor like the other two men. Tabitha looked up at me, her eyes wild with fear. Her body began to shake and I could see as she began to hyperventilate.

"Calm down and help me move the bodies! We need to get clean too." I said in a rushed manner. Tabitha stood there shaking her head and whimpering. I ran over and held her close. Tears dropped onto my blood soaked shirt as she buried her face into my shoulder. I could stay like this forever but I needed to sort everything out.

After a shower, cleaning the kitchen and moving the bodies onto the bed, I decided it would be best to finish up after work. Tabitha sat in the corner of the room the whole time shaking and crying. I tried giving her a bath but she wasn't too cooperative. Once she was dry, she began to come around. Her lip still quivered but she turned to me and whispered something into my ear. Her wet hair brushed against my face and stuck to me, so cold.

"We need to tell the police. I killed someone. YOU killed people.. I can't believe you killed people.. I can't believe I killed people." She began spiralling again so I cupped her cheeks in my hands and held her face towards mine. Her eyes were wide in front of mine. They glistened with remnants of tears. Our foreheads touched and it was as if a spark flew between us. As my heart fluttered, my eyes closed. This wouldn't do. Tabitha wouldn't calm down and I had to get to work. I told Tabitha that I'd be back to see her after work but she said she wanted me to take her to the police station. Instead, we went to the canal bridge, I thought it would help calm her as this was the only thing that worked of recent. When we got there, we huddled under the bridge and she began ranting about how evil we were for what we did. Obviously this wasn't working. I told her to leave me out of it because I didn't want my future ruined. We began to argue.

"I can't believe you would be so immoral as to not go to the police! What's wrong with you?" Tabitha yelled at me.

"Just let it go, they're dead. Maybe it was self defence but that doesn't make us above the law. If you want to ruin your life and your family's life- you know what? I'm shocked you'd even think about this. I mean, your brother and mom will have lost two people to the law" Tabitha looked hurt and lowered her eyes. "Think about it! Don't mess your life up for some horrible people."

I was done with arguing so I stormed off to my car. Tabitha followed and shoved me once I got to the top of the bridge. Whipping around, I yelled horrid things to her and said things that I shall never be able to take back.

The last thing I said was something along the lines of "I hate you, I hate that you always bring me down with your problems. You never care about my issues. I wish you'd just succeed in your suicide attempts for once instead of dragging everyone into it."

With that, I shoved her back and she flipped over the edge of the bridge. You know those moments in movies where time slows, it was like that. Her hair flew forwards, as did her dress. Her dress wrapped around her as though it was trying to hug her and protect her. She tried to scream but only a desperate yelp sounded, not loud enough to hear as her voice was taken by the force of my shove and the shock of falling. Slowly, she descended to the ground. Wham! I heard a loud slam as if something had hit the cobbled path next to the canal water. I ran to see if she was okay but at the bottom I saw blood on the edge of the canal path and her body was bobbing up and down in the water. I watched as she was carried away down the canal. You'd think I'd be sobbing or shocked or something. Nothing. All that happened is that I turned away, got into my car and went off to work.

Before long, work was over. The events of the day had been a blur as they whirred around in my brain. End of my shift: 4pm...