Obsessive ~ Noah Foster [1]

Chapter Nineteen// Will

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"The only ones who aren't afraid are the monsters."

--Zoe Vaughn

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I leaned into the kiss, and closed my eyes. But Noah pulled away all too soon. "Noah..." I whispered. "Why'd you do that?"

Noah sat back on his heels, and stared at me. "I--" He didn't finish his sentence, instead he looked past me. "Hey, what is that?" He got up slowly. "Stay where you are." He told me, walking towards another door. "Noah, what--"

"Sh." He told me immediately. He walked closer to it, and opened it. Fresh air blew in from outside. "Oh, my God! A way out." Noah cheered. He raced back to me, grabbing me by the waist, and pulled me up. "Come on."

"Wait, Noah, what about--" My leg stung as Noah tried to help me back up. I pushed him away, and slid back down. "I can't, Noah." I apologized. I looked down to my thigh, and slowly pulled the tape off, containing myself as I did. The blood was too much now. "Oh, that's a lot of blood."

"EMMA DUVAL! ARE YOU HERE!" Noah and I turned our heads immediately. We heard a deep voice bellow, "EMMA DUVAL," again. Noah looked back to me. He held his hands up. "Stay here." He rushed away from me, and back into the room we were in before. I didn't hear anything after that. And I felt my eyes getting heavy. I closed them, and lay my head against the wall. That's when I heard it. A SWOOSH! I opened my eyes quickly, and saw that the killer was running by me, their black coat, sweeping my legs. They ran fast, and out of the door that Noah had opened. "Oh, my God!" I cried out. He'd gotten away. Again. Again, while I could've done something. "Yeah, she's over here." I heard Noah's voice again.

I turned my head just in time to see Noah and two cops behind him. Noah nodded at me, and the lady cop leaned down in front of me. "Can you tell me your name?" She asked me. I moaned, and my eyes rolled into the back of my head, as I couldn't stay awake any longer. "Her name's Arielle." Noah piped up, sounding frantic. Poor Noah. If only I had the energy to tell him I was fine, and just tired. "Arielle? Can you stay awake? Arielle! Arielle!" The cop's voice was drowned out, as my eyes shut completely.

I really needed to stop passing out, it didn't feel healthy. I woke up in my bed, balled up. Everything felt better. Especially my leg. I sat up, and removed my blanket from my body, looking down at my leg, that was now stitched up perfectly. There was no dry blood, or anything.

If anything happens to these new stitches I'm gonna be pissed. "Hey." I looked up to see Noah, holding a bouquet of flowers, coming into my room. "Hey..." I said, but it came out in a rasp. I cleared my throat, and laid back. "What are you doing here?" I asked. "Well, friends tend to visit friends when they're nearly killed by a psychotic killer..." Noah rolled his eyes playfully, walking over to me. "Oh, pish-posh. I was just being dramatic last night." I laughed slightly. Noah's face fell, as he laid the flowers down on the end of my bed. "Last night? Arielle, it was a day ago." He whispered. "What?! I've been in my room for nearly two days?" I exclaimed. "Yeah, your mom told me that they have you on a lot of medication for the pain." Noah chuckled. "I don't think they have me on a whole lot, since I had a dream that you kissed me, but that couldn't be right, could it?" I raised an eyebrow at him, and he scratched the back of his neck. "Look... I--that was a very stressful night, and I'm sorry if I confused you by kissing you--"

"It wasn't confusing, Noah." I whispered. "W-what?"

"I said that it wasn't confusing. It was just a kiss. It's fine. You probably did it to shut me up." I giggled. "Yeah..." Noah trailed off. Oh, I did NOT wanna get into this. I changed the subject quickly. "Is everyone else okay? Did you find knife-stick?" I teased. "Uh..knife-stick is gone forever. Probably being taught that he was raised to be evil." Noah hummed, coming around the bed to sit in beside me. I laughed. "And... everyone else?" I whispered, fiddling with my fingers. "Uh, Arielle." Noah lowered his voice. "Noah, what is it?"

"Uhm, that night... Emma walked right into the killer's trap and uh.. There's no easy way to tell you this, but... Will is dead." My mind was fuzzy, and I couldn't digest his words. "No, no, no. Will was just--he was literally just here." I tried. "I know." Noah scooched up the bed, and grabbed my shoulders, pulling me into a hug. "Noah, he can't be dead." I whispered into his chest. "I'm sorry, Ari."

"Noah." I asked. He released me, and looked down at me. "Ho--how did he die?" I whispered, unsure. I wasn't quite sure I wanted to know the gory details.

Will wasn't perfect, but who is? He was nice to me. Even when I sided with Audrey. He'd wanted to protect me in that bowling alley, just like I wanted to protect him. The last time I'd seen him... he was guarding the door and letting Noah, Brooke, and I run free.

He was brave. And despite his flaws, Will ultimately was a good guy "Uh... I guess Emma went to his house, and when she got there, she got a call from the killer, telling her to go find Will... And when she found him, he was tied to a chair, sitting in front of big farming equipment." Noah sighed, and bit the inside of his cheek. "So, he didn't die at the bowling alley?" I asked, hopeful that maybe I didn't leave him for dead that night...

"No, but... Arielle. It was much worse. Emma went to go help him, when she tripped a wire." Noah stopped. "Noah... Noah, what was the wire attached to? You have to tell me." I begged. "Arielle--"

"Please." I pleaded. I had to know. Noah sighed, "the trip wire was attached to a lever in the machine, and the lever was forced downward, and I guess it sawed right down into him. From the top of his head, all the way through his body."

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After school the next day, I went to the hospital. I didn't have to go, I mean, I didn't even have to go to school, but it didn't matter to me. I had to use a tight cast. A cast that wrapped around my thigh, and didn't reveal my injury to anyone. Thank God for that, 'cause I didn't think I could stand to have my sutures come undone again. All because of that stupid coward. "Arielle, you don't have to be here." Maggie told me, as soon as I walked--limped into the morgue.

"I know. I wanna be. I was supposed to start the night at the bowling alley, and I guess I got held up." I joked, shrugging. Maggie stood above an open body. A body that I hadn't seen until that moment. When she noticed me looking, she cleared her throat. "Uh, Arielle, I don't think you should be here." I didn't listen to her. Instead, I walked over to her and the body. I nearly threw up. My mouth opened in disgust. It was Will.

His head was literally chopped down the middle. Oh, I just knew I was gonna have nightmares. I turned away. "That's..." I whispered, trying to find the words. "I know. Arielle, you shouldn't be here." Maggie touched my shoulder. "You're injured. Tell me you didn't go to school today." I turned back to Maggie, avoiding Will's body. "I only went for my homework." I lied. "Good." Maggie gave me a look. "Yeah..." I trailed off. "Arielle, what I want you to do is go home. Go home and stop worrying about all of this, and just recover." Maggie looked me in the eye. "No, no, I--I wanna stay." I asserted. "Arie--"

"Maggie, it's all right. Will was a good guy, but... everyone dies, right? I'm okay to help you out with stuff." I nodded at her. Maggie watched me for a while. "Okay." She said. I grinned. "What I want you to do is take that pen and notebook, and take notes over there." She pointed at a pen and a notebook on a metal table, and then over to a chair.

I nodded, and grabbed the stuff, and then went to sit down. I flipped through the notebook until I found a clean page. I spotted a name on one page, and I blanched. Riley Marra. I quickly flipped to a clean page, and pressed the end of the pen. I looked up at Maggie eagerly. She shook her head, and looked down at Will. She began to peel her gloves off, and then reached into her Lab coat. She grabbed a small device, and pressed a button. "Will Belmont's body was discovered by Emma Duval. The decedent was the only son of Carl and Adeline Belmont." Maggie paused, peaking over at me. I nodded, and began to jot some things down. "Though there was catastrophic physical trauma, the decedent's mother was able to identify him by the clothing he had been wearing." Maggie stopped again, and placed the device back into her pocket. I sighed. She wasn't gonna be able finish this... I just knew she wasn't going to be able to. I wouldn't have.

I stood up, and placed the pen and notebook on the chair. With tears in my eyes, I walked towards Ms. Duval. "It's okay to let down your tough act. Being a coroner is hard, and I don't think I could ever look at dead... children." I said. "And I think you're very brave for that." I shrugged, smiling at her. Maggie pulled her glasses off, and sighed. "Thank you, Arielle." Maggie had a small smile on her face.