The Killer Among Us

Chapter 19

Twelve days left

Jacob

The night was ice cold, the adrenaline that was pumping through my veins barely warmed me. As I was approaching the police station in the middle of the night, I had to continuously push down my anxiety. My body was shaking, aware of the danger that laid ahead.

There were barely any cars in the parking lot, which was only lit by a few street lights.

Unnatural light had a way of alarming me, warning me.

I stopped for a split second, catching in the corner of my eye a picture of Aria.

A missing person's flyer was hung on one of the street lights, reminding me of the reality of this situation. Staring back at me was her graduation picture and regret bubbled in my belly. "I'm sorry," I whispered to her, knowing no apology could ever make up for my mistakes.

With a heavy hand I tore off the missing person's flyer carefully, folding it and keeping it in my jacket pocket as a token, a reminder of what I am fighting for. A symbol I hoped would bring me determination to never give up, no matter what.

Eddie dropped me off about twenty minutes ago, just to make sure no one would recognize my car. If he would stick to the plan, he would pick me up in thirty minutes.

With the memory of the sawn off finger in my mind and the numbing worry that it might be Aria's, I stalked my way up to the back door. Judging by the schedule Eddie managed to hack into, there were two police officers working in the station during the night shift.

I gave myself a not so encouraging pep-talk before I glanced over my shoulder one last time. The metal clinking as I retrieved my lock picking tools startled me slightly.

Whilst still somewhat crouching on the concrete floor, I inserted the cold metal tool, a tension wrench, into the lock. Then, like Eddie thoroughly explained to me, I pressed it along the bottom of the lock, constantly applying pressure to it. That proved to be quite difficult for me since my hands were shaking in panic.

"Come on, Jacob," I spurred myself with a shaky voice.

As if I had done it before, I skillfully inserted the filigree pick above the wrench, using the leg of the pick to push back each of the pins in order to unlock the door. That took a lot of instinctive feeling but after a few minutes I succeeded - the lock clicked and the door opened.

I threw my head back in celebration and let out a hushed, "Thank you, Eddie."

Inside, my guts were twisted. Having no more time to celebrate that small victory, I took a deep breath of the chilly air and crawled my way inside, the rubber floor causing friction to burn my skin. Being this close to the ground made it hard for me to see my surroundings but I couldn't have risked walking down the hallway and being seen.

The hallway I entered was merely lit in a faint green glow, no audible noise indicating that there was anyone near me.

Eddie also hacked into the blueprint of the police station and I memorized as much of it as possible. The file room was towards the end of this long hallway but in order to get to it, I would have to walk by the office of Detective Burke.

"Here goes nothing," I thought as I made my way down the narrow hallway.

Everything was going well until I passed Detective Burke's office.

"Hello?" He suddenly said in a stern voice.

Sweat instantly formed on my forehead, the cold of the night completely forgotten. That was it, he caught me and Aria would die because of my stupidity. All of these thoughts instantly rushed through my mind.

"Have you talked to him today?" He finally went on. Then I realised he wasn't actually talking to me. Relief washed over me and I relaxed slightly. Suddenly I started to wonder who he was talking to then.

A mixture of panic and curiosity took over reason and I rose a little off the floor, trying to see who he was with. When I saw him through the slit of the shutters that hung before his office window, I realised that he was talking to someone on the phone.

Burke was leaning back in his leather chair, exhaustion evident on his young face.

Something in me admired him. Maybe it was that he managed to accomplish such a high position at such a young age.

It took a while before he spoke again but when he did, it instantly filled me with horror.

"I know, Eddie. But you need to keep him in order. I can't have him mess up the whole investigation," he said, completely unaware of my presence.

I almost couldn't believe it. Eddie. He was talking to Eddie and it sounded like they were talking about me. Why would Eddie talk to the police about me behind my back?

As anger was threatening to blow off the lid of my makeshift composure, I hurried my way down the hallway. In a way, the anger motivated me. It made my blood boil and my senses sharpen.

When I finally reached the door of the file room, I picked the lock like I did the first one. Only this time my hands weren't shaking. They were skilled, precise but most importantly they were aching to collide with Eddie's face.

The file room was eerily quiet. Rows and rows of paper boxes with case numbers filled the shelves like a maze - a maze built on tragedy and pain. The smell of ink and paper gave the false impression of innocence.

I scoured for the right box for a little too long because the second I found the right one, I heard someone unlocking the door.

In a heartbeat, I hid behind a shelf. Crouched down on the floor, I held my breath.

Slow footsteps hit the floor, coming closer to where I cowered.

The shuffling of paper was the only indication of where the person was located. To my dismay, they were sorting through the shelf behind which I was hiding. Their boots faintly visible in the shadows.

I was shaking in panic, the oxygen in my lungs was running out, blurring my vision and almost forcing me to audible gasp for air.

The footsteps echoed through the file room once more. This time they were departing and finally, the slam of the door closing caused me to breathe again.

Sucking in as much air as possible, I approached the exit once more and held my ear up against the cold metal of the door to listen for any sign of life.

When I didn't hear anything, I ran back to the right shelf and grabbed as many files of The Solemn Serpent case as possible, hiding them on the inside of my jacket.

Then, I slowly opened the door. A low creak causing me to curse inwardly. I crouched down to the floor and made my way to the back door as fast as possible.

Just as I reached it, I suddenly heard Burke yell from behind me, "Hey! Who is this?"

Heavy boots hitting the ground followed me and panic enabled my feet to bolt.

My feet practically ate up the distance between Burke and safety.

I pushed through the back door and welcomed the sensation of the cold air drying my sweat, sticking my clothes to my body.

Just like planned, Eddie was already waiting for me down the block.

Sirens were wailing in the distance, making me run even faster.

To be honest, the mixture of adrenaline and panic made me feel alive but when I got in the car and Eddie drove off into the night, it wore off all too quickly.

Leaving me with the incurable hurt of betrayal, the fear of losing my sister and the screaming questions of who was behind all of this. Inside of me there was a battle, a fight for life and death, and I was just the mere vessel - unable to change my own destiny.

***********************************************************************************************

Thank you so much for reading this chapter. Leave your reaction to Eddie's betrayal in the comments! I'd like to give a special shoutout to Shashathemeaow for being such a loyal reader :)