BLOOD SOAKED ROSES

CHAPTER 1: MURDER ON DELL STREET

"YOU ARE FIRED!" screamed my boss. I tried my best to explain to him how it was not my fault that I was one hour and a half late, but he did not care about what I had to say. I always knew my boss did not like me. He was always complaining about every little thing I did and would yell at me for the tiniest mistakes. So, him firing me was no surprise. I knew it was coming. I sighed as I opened my car door. "FUCK!" I yelled, hitting my steering wheel, and accidentally pressing the horn. Now that I was jobless, looking for a job was going to be another thing I had to worry about. I had therapy to go to right after my shift, but since I got fired, I decided to call Mr. Donabel if I could come in early. He of course agreed, so I drove straight there. Mr. Donabel is my therapist. He has been my therapist for 5 years, and he has been helping a lot with my mental health and my trauma. It has not been easy for me at all, so he has been the one helping me out. "So, what brings you here so early"? he asked. "Well... Umm... I got fired," I said in a stuttering matter. He looked at me with disappointment. "Now what did you do to get fired this time"? he asked with such disappointment. "Well, I might've gotten there a little too late, and my boss got mad and fired me." I spoke. Mr. Donabel pulled his glasses down slightly and looked at me for a few seconds. "There is no way your boss could have fired you if you were extremely late only one time." he said. "Well, it's not my fault my alarm clock always goes off late, and my boss never liked me. He is always finding ways to pick on me. It's like he is waiting for me to make a mistake so he can yell at me." I went on and on. "Well, was that how it was at your other job?" Mr. Donabel asked, interrupting me. I looked at him and then looked down because I knew what he was saying was true. I used to work two jobs back-to-back, but I got fired from one of my jobs because I didn't take my work seriously, and I always had issues with my coworkers and boss. "No," I murmured. I had nothing to say mostly because I knew that it was mostly my fault that I got fired from my first job. "See, you can't blame other people for the mistakes you make." Mr. Donabel said. I understood what he said, and I do not blame my boss for everything, but I still strongly believed he did not like me. I stayed at Mr. Donabel's office longer than I would usually stay. We talked about a lot of other things, and he even offered to help me find another job. After I was done with my therapy session, I went home. As I was about to walk into my apartment, I could hear music blasting from inside, so I knew David was home. David is my roommate. We have been living together for three years. Ever since he came out of jail, he has been staying with me since he had nowhere else to go. As I walked in, I went to the living room to turn the volume of the television down. "I'm back," I yelled. I went to the kitchen to see David cooking lunch. "Oh, you're back early," David said. "Yea. I got fired," I said depressingly. I grabbed an orange juice from the fridge and went to my room. I threw my backpack on the floor, by my desk, and threw myself unto the bed. I sighed as I thought about the struggle, I would have to go through to find another job. David walked into the room with two bowls of food he cooked. He sat down on the floor, right next to me. "Here you go," he said handing me a bowl. I took the bowl and thanked him. We ate in silence for a little while, so I decided to break the silence. I asked him how his day was, but he just shrugged his shoulders and kept eating his soup, while looking at his phone. David finished his soup and left the room. As I was eating my soup, I remembered that I had class assignments that I didn't start on, and it was due in a few hours. I was already tired, but now I had to do a major grade report in six hours. I put my soup down on the floor and went to my desk to start my assignment. As I was doing my report, David called me to the living room. I told him that I was busy, but he said it was important. I took a deep in-breath as I got up from my chair, then exhaled loudly. I walked to the living room. David was sitting on the couch watching the news. "What do you want," I asked him with a nonchalant tone. He pointed at the television. I looked at the television to see what was on the news... The news said "The killer has struck again. A rich businessperson was found dead in his office. He was cut almost in half, and once again, the only clue that was left at the scene of the crime was a red rose. Police are trying their best to find the killer." "Bullshit!" David yelled, punching the couch. They have been saying that for the past six years, and still, they haven't found anything. Nothing." I strongly agreed with David. There have been a lot of murders going on in our city. It has been going on for years, and every year the cases get worse. It was almost impossible to believe that the murders were caused by only one person. Whenever I hear about these murders, my mind goes back to what happened to my family. Five years ago, my family was victims of that stone-cold killer. It happened on the day that I was coming back home from school. I will never forget that atrocity I saw, entering my house. I will never forget how I saw my mom and dad's headless bodies lying on the floor, while my sister hung from the fan by her neck, while blood dripped down her legs due to the multiple stab wounds all over her body. There was blood all over the floor, and walls. It was a horrific mess. Due to the trauma, I faced, I was placed on medication and had to go to therapy almost every day. The events of that day play repeatedly in my head. Every day, I've always had hope that the police would catch that criminal, but as the years go by, and as the cases grow bigger and worse, I begin to lose hope, and my hatred grows stronger. I went back to my room to finish my report. As I was doing my report, I couldn't focus, so I decided to take a break, and take a little nap. I closed my laptop and left my desk. As soon as I got on my bed, I went straight to sleep. But there was one mistake I made. I forgot to set my damn alarm. As I was sleeping away my time, David started tapping me on the shoulders. "What," I said feeling very tired. "I'm going to head out now," he said. David worked at night, so I was always alone in the apartment at night. I don't like being alone at night, especially with all the murders happening, but I got used to it. "What time is it," I asked with a cranky voice. As soon as David told me the time I quickly jumped out of the bed. "8:43!" I yelled, checking the time on my phone. David looked at me confused and asked me what was wrong. I told him that I had a report I had to turn in by 9 pm, and I barely did anything. David laughed. "Good luck," he said as he walked out the door. I ran to my desk and quickly opened my laptop. As I tried to go back to my assignment, my laptop glitched and froze. "Come on!" I yelled while hitting the screen. I was getting frustrated. Why did it have to be now my laptop freezes? Time was going by extremely fast. I only had a few minutes to do my report and send it. "At this point, I should just forget about the report, and take the bad grade," I turned off my laptop and turned it back on. By the time it turned on, and I got to my assignment, it was already a few minutes past 9 pm. "Forget it," I said closing my laptop. It was already too late to finish my report and send it. I got up from my seat and went back to my bed to go to sleep. I usually don't go to sleep early but I was so stressed and exhausted, so I decided to sleep early tonight. I went to the kitchen to make a sandwich before I went to sleep. As I opened the fridge to grab some ingredients, I noticed that we didn't have ham or mayonnaise. We barely even had food in our fridge. "Looks like we need to stock up on some groceries again," I said closing the fridge door. I went back to my room and went straight to sleep. A few hours later, I was woken up by the sound of a dog barking. I put my pillow over my head and tried to go back to sleep, but the dog was barking too loud. I started to get pissed because the dog would not stop barking. I grabbed my phone from the nightstand to check the time. "Who the fuck has their dog barking at one in the morning," I murmured as I got up from my bed. I walked to my window to see why the dog was barking. I opened the window and poked my head out. It was quite chilly, and the air smelled like cigars and other bullshit. The dog was still barking so I looked down to see why the dog was barking and what I saw made me nearly vomit. There was a man dead near the apartment building that was in front of my apartment building. It looked like he fell from his apartment because of the state his body was in, but I wasn't sure. But what shocked me was the red rose that was next to the body. I slammed my window shut so fast and went to sit on my bed. I was breathing heavily, and I started to feel sick in my stomach. My hands were shaking, and I felt a little sweat drip down my face. I don't know why, but I was feeling scared. There were so many thoughts going through my mind. I didn't know if I should call the police and report what I saw, or if I should just pretend, I didn't see anything. I couldn't get the picture of the red rose out of my head. I didn't want to believe that the killer would come around Dell Street. It was sort of like a deserted neighborhood and really ghetto. I don't know what made me go back to the window to take another look, but I did it anyway. I looked out my window hoping that I was only seeing things, but I wasn't seeing things. The body was still lying on the ground with the red rose beside it. I quickly ran to the restroom and vomited in the toilet. After I was done, I rinsed my mouth off and rinsed my face. I was shocked by what I saw. It was like 5 years ago all over again for me. I went back to my room and laid on my bed. My body was still shaking, and I still didn't know if I should call the police. I didn't want to go back to sleep because I was still scared, so I decided to stay up. I couldn't get what I saw out of my head. No matter how much I tried I couldn't get that site out of my head. I don't remember when I fell asleep, but David was tapping my shoulders, waking me up. I leaned up and stretched. "What time is it?" I asked, still feeling very tired. "It's 11 am", he said. I looked to grab my phone, but it wasn't on the table stand. I asked David if he had seen my phone, but he said he hadn't seen it. "I'm surprised you didn't hear all those police sirens", David said while unpacking his bag. As soon as he said that I froze. "What are you talking about?" I asked. "Well, there was a murder that occurred last night right across the street from us. A man was thrown out of his own apartment, so there were a lot of police around the area this morning. I wanted to wake you up, but you were knocked out". David said. I stayed silent as David was still talking about the murder. I was still scared of what I saw last night. I didn't want to remember but it was hard to forget that somebody was murdered in my street by the red rose serial killer. Right across from my apartment. It left chills on my body every time I thought about it. "Are you ok?" David asked with a concerned look on his face. I didn't know if I should tell David that I was the first person who saw the dead man last night, so I decided to just keep quiet. "Yea I'm fine. Just a little shaken by the news, that's all", I said in a stuttering manner as I continued to look for my phone. "I'm heading out", David said putting his backpack back on. "Already. Where are you going?" I asked feeling nervous. "I'm going to hang out with Jeramie" David said as he was about to walk out the door. Jeramie was David's close friend. I didn't really like Jeramie because I felt like he was a bad influence on David. He was part of the reason David went to jail in the first place. I don't know why David still hangs out with him, but it's his decision "Ok well have fun", I said. David saw the nervous look I had on my face. "Are you sure you are, ok?" David asked with a confused look on his face. "I'm fine. Go hang out with Jeramie", I said sounding defensive. David looked at me. I looked at him and put a fake smile on my face so he would stop suspecting me. He smiled back and walked out the door. I flipped my covers up and my phone fell and hit my foot. "Ouch", I said grabbing my foot. I put my foot down and picked my phone up. I tried to turn it on, but it was dead. I grabbed my charger from my desk and plugged up my phone. I went to take a shower and get ready to start my day. While I was eating my cereal, I heard a ding on my phone. It was my therapist. He said that he had found another job that might suit me and that they were hiring. I quickly replied to him thanking him and told him I will be on my way.