The Killer Among Us

Chapter 6

One day before the abduction

Jacob

The next morning, I woke up to my head spinning and my vision blurred. A faint hammering drummed in my ears and confusion slithered through my veins. I vigorously shook my head, trying to remember where I was or what had happened.

After a while my vision finally returned back to normal and with it came the wish to disappear.

I looked around and realised that I wasn't in my bed. Instead I was lying on the floor of my motel shower. "How did I get here?" I wondered.

Quickly, I rose and stumbled over what looked like different bottles of pills. My breathing was uneven, my throat was painfully sore. When I walked up to the sink, there was a syringe lying inside - empty.

Immediately I started crying, screaming even. I lost to myself once again.

When I looked in the mirror, I felt disgusted. Looking back at me wasn't the person I wanted to be, the person I fought so hard to be again. Instead, I was the screw up that I could not run from, no matter what I did.

"Why?" I cried. My body was freezing and I wondered how long I had been laying there.

Suddenly, I remembered a glimpse of last night's events - Aria. Slow and steady, it was all coming back to me: the graveyard, Aria, the picture. The picture.

My mind was practically screaming with worry. Just like that, I reset my focus, away from me and my issues and on my little sister.

Needing to know that she was okay, I instantly went to my car and drove. Speeding my way there, the adrenaline was pumping through my veins, reminding me of the strength I carried in myself. "Please," I begged God, "Please, just let her be okay."

It felt like hours before I finally reached her house, no matter how fast I was going over the speed limit. All kinds of different scenarios spooked their way around my mind.

From the outside, everything seemed normal. I was hoping that there was nothing terrible awaiting me inside either.

I analysed her neighborhood whilst approaching the house. With an urgency I rang the doorbell - no answer. At that point, I didn't even care how crazy I must have looked. I started pounding on the door and calling out for her. Still no answer.

Not even knowing what time of day it was, I ran around the house trying to see her through the windows.

Everything looked normal but why wasn't she answering then?

The backdoor was locked. I felt the start of a panic attack creeping its way in. There was no way to shake it off but there were more important things at hand. I would not lose to myself again, I decided. Not whilst Aria might be in danger.

Feeling like a complete idiot for not thinking of that earlier, I retrieved my phone from my pocket and called her.

The dialing sound taunted me, it went on for what felt like an eternity.

The steady noise echoed in my mind and my entire body felt like it was on fire. I paced back and forth on her front porch. "Come on, Aria. Answer the phone," I pleaded through clenched teeth. My breath was visible, indicating just how cold this winter was getting.

I could feel my heart beating, unsteady and fast. At that point, I didn't know what I would do if something had happened to Aria. It would have definitely been my fault, that much was for sure.

Then just before I chose to hang up, a voice sounded through from the other end.

"Jacob? I can't talk right now, I am at work. Can this wait?"

I instantly fell to my knees. Relief wouldn't even begin to describe what I felt in that moment. My lungs filled with air once again and the throbbing pain in my chest turned to joy. I truly felt like God answered my prayers.

"Jacob?" she asked again after a second of silence.

"Oh, Aria. I was just checking in to see if you were alright. Is everything okay?" I asked, worried for a split second that I might have celebrated too early.

But when she responded, I truly rejoiced, "Yeah, I'm okay. I'll call you later, okay?"

And without giving me room to respond, she hung up the phone. That didn't phase me one bit, however. Aria was alive and well and that was all that mattered to me in that moment.

After gathering my bearings for a short minute, I walked back to my car and drove to my motel. I was determined to clean up the mess I left behind. More than that, I was determined to finally clean up my life.

However, my newfound joy and determination was overshadowed by one thing.

One thing I could not let go. It haunted me and I vividly saw it every time I closed my eyes: that damn picture.

"Better safe than sorry," I thought to myself as I pulled into the motel parking lot.

Even though Aria didn't want me to poke around that, I chose to ignore her pleading and call a couple different friends, just to hear if they knew anything about it.

Luckily, I had a couple connections to people from all different sorts of backgrounds.

A part of me did this to make sure Aria was safe, obviously. But there was an ever so small part of me that flourished in the adrenaline, that enjoyed feeling the danger. I felt like I was finally useful for something.