The Killer Among Us

Chapter 23

Ten days left

Jacob

Being back in my motel room felt wrong, strange even. I couldn't quite put my finger on it but something about it felt out of place. Maybe it was me.

I read somewhere that going through a traumatic experience, a calamity like this, can fundamentally change a person. With confidence I can say that since the abduction, nothing was the same anymore. Not even me.

All night I lay awake, wrecking my brain on the events of the last couple of disastrous days.

Was there truly a way to unfold this mystery? Thirteen families before me tried and failed.

Disheartened, I wondered if I, a complete failure, would succeed at what many before me failed. How was I any different, any better, than those before me? Counting on that would just be pure arrogance, delusion even.

I wasted half the day away by feeling unqualified and overwhelmed. Adderall was the only crutch I had left, now that I had to stay away from Eddie.

Having the police looking for me sadly wasn't a new experience for me, so I took preventative measures when I first arrived in Carlisle. There was no way they could have found me, not if they were looking for Jacob Thomson.

You see, when renting my motel room, I gave the alias Jesse Todd. Frankly, I didn't know why exactly that alias. I read somewhere that people pick aliases that are subconsciously derivative of their original name as a way of not completely letting go of their former self. Maybe that's why I kept my initials, maybe I was hoping that I could become someone new, an improved version of myself.

Late in the afternoon, I decided to call Eddie on my new burner phone, just like he advised me.

"Yes?" he asked, unsure if it was me on the other end.

"Eddie, it's me," I reassured him, "I bought a burner phone."

"Good, man. How are you doin'?"

Small talk was the last thing that I wanted to do. Time was slipping through my fingers and I didn't even know how to begin to explain my emotions to him.

So I didn't. "Look, I don't know what to do next," I tried to avoid this topic for way too long and I began to realise that there was no way around it anymore, "Eddie, why did you mention Ava?"

There was a long, outstretched pause before Eddie spoke again, "I dunno, man. I guess, since you've been dreaming about her, I thought she might be relevant."

That response made it clear to be that Eddie remembered much more about Ava than I did. Frankly, I barely recalled anything. The nightmares lead me to assume the worst, something brutal and traumatic must have happened and that something was most likely my own fault.

"I just don't remember a whole lot, to be honest," I admitted to him. This conversation must have been incredibly uncomfortable for Eddie. He hated talking about anything related to High School.

A heavy sigh sounded through the phone, "Man, I dunno," he started listing things he remembered about Ava, clearly avoiding a key point, "I remember that you dated her. I remember that you kept it a secret and that no one really knew, except me. I remember that you were obsessed with her. And -"

The hesitation made me nervous, "And what, Eddie?"

He didn't immediately respond, "And - I remember that one day everyone said she was dead and no one really knew what happened to her."

"Dead?" I exclaimed, "How do I not remember this?" I swallowed hard, suppressing the sob that was forming in the back of my throat.

"Why do I not remember this?" I repeated, confusion lazing my voice.

"I dunno, man. After the rumor went around, you never talked about her again. I just assumed it was too, I dunno, painful for you to talk about her," Eddie tried to reason.

Reason was the last thing that was on my mind. Instead it was full of uncertainty, blame and anxiety. I glanced upward, my neck aching in the motion.

"What - What do you remember of her, Jace?" Eddie asked after a while.

I searched my mind for any fragment memories but trying to piece them together seemed futile. The synapses of my brain worked overtime. How do you complete a puzzle if you hardly have any of the pieces?

"Uh," I stumbled over my words, my voice trembling, "I remember that she was beautiful."

Silence grew between us before I finally added, "I remember that I loved her."

Soft tears were running down my cheeks now, dripping down my neck, reminding me once again that I am not just a shell, somewhere deep inside of me I still had feelings. I blinked, trying to refocus my sight and not get lost in blurry memories.

Eddie suddenly cleared his throat, sensing my sorrow, "Listen, man. Just - Just try to remember, yeah? I'll try to find out more, okay?"

Words escaped me, I barely listened to what Eddie said. All that I could think about was her, walking down the hallway of Carlisle High, books in her hands and a beautiful smile painted on her flawless face.

"Uh- If you don't need anything else, I'll hang up now, Jace," Eddie finally said.

"Thank you. I will try to keep you updated," I stated, not really putting a lot of thought into my words.

My trance faded slowly but surely and suddenly my body was freezing. The withdrawal of drugs hardly helped. Popping a few extra pills, I decided to take a quick shower to rinse off Eddie's blood from earlier and ease the pain in my sore muscles.

I let the water heat up for quite some time, glancing over the files once more before hiding them under the lumpy motel mattress. The steam in the bathroom was thick and the mirror was hardly reflective, stained from the hot vapor in the room.

I wiped my cold hand over it to properly assess the desperation that must have been evident on my face. My lazy focus wandered from the old and new scars of my face to my cold, lifeless eyes.

Suddenly, in the corner of my eye, I saw a black silhouette standing behind me. Without having any time to react or even turn around, the silhouette bolted in my direction, grabbing my neck from behind.

With all the might I had left in me, I tried to loosen his grip on me but I soon had to realise that I was powerless. Before I even knew it, he pierced my thigh with a sharp object, the feeling of hot blood running down my leg warming my ice cold body. It all happened so fast and yet it felt like we were frozen in time.

With incredible strength and speed, he rapidly pushed me to the ground, making me scream in pain. My screams only seemed to motivate him as he started to move even quicker.

With incredible ease, his tall statue hovered over me, grabbing me by the hair and repeatedly hitting my head against the solid tiled floor. With each thud, my vision fainted.

Eventually, it didn't hurt anymore and once I stopped fighting it, the darkness carried me away and like a long lost friend, I embraced it. So I laid on the floor, my blood escaping me and puddling on the tiles. My consciousness faded steadily, a chill creeped into my bones, and as if my attacker simply turned a switch, it all turned pitch black.