Murder On Worthy Hill

Someone Was Listening

Abby took a bite of her apple. The apple seemed freshly culled from the trees in an orchard. The crunch was perfect, and the taste was sweet. She took a bite, and with her mouth full, she said, "Aaron hasn't said anything for thirty minutes, is he still talking to the receptionist?" she grabbed her radio, and sat in a chair in the living room. "Aaron? Hello? Are you there?" she said whilst twiddling her thumbs and playing with her long, brown hair. "Earth to Aaron... pick up your radio!" she started to become anxious. "Ugh. Where are you?... At the hospital?" she said to herself. Aaron was still not replying. "Fine, I'll go over there myself and see what's going on." Abby got up from her seat and began walking to her car.

Aaron's vision was finally clearing from the bash on the head, and was waking up again. He opened his eyes slowly and saw the darkness of the room. He tried to stand up, but his hands were bound together to the chair that he was sitting in.

"Where... where am I?" he said, looking around the vastness of the dark room. He had his eyes closed for a long time, that when he opened his eyes in the darkness, he had a slight bit of night vision. He looked around the room and found some tools on shelves.

"Aaron. I'm on my way to the hospital. Pick up your radio already." she said in the car. "Did you mute me or something. Oh my gosh." Aaron tried to reach the radio from his back pocket, but his hands were still restrained to the chair. He looked around for any keen-edged objects to cut the ties around his hands. He got up in a squatting position, and tried swinging one side of the chair to the toolbox on the bottom shelf of a cabinet. He did this multiple times and finally reached it. His back was facing the toolbox and he reached for a pair of pliers that were inside of it. He pushed his feet against the floor and lifted his seat to grasp hold of the pliers. He was close enough to grab them. Aaron held the pliers and cleaved the ties. He was free.

"I need to talk to Abby, now." he grabbed the radio from the back pocket of his fainted blue jeans. He spoke into the radio, "Abby, you there?"

Abby was parked in the parking lot of the hospital, and was about to exit when he called her.

"Finally!" she seemed angry "Where were you this whole time, I tried getting your attention for an hour!"

"I was attacked!"

"What do you mean?"

"The receptionist was talking to me about Jerry, and said we should speak in a quieter room. Then I was punched in the face. It still hurts a bit."

"Oh my God!" she was utterly shocked by this. "Where are you now?"

"I don't really know. In a room with the lights off."

"Can you turn them on?"

"Well yeah, but I don't want the people that attacked me, who may be observing the room I'm in, to notice the lights turned on. They would know that I'm awake-" there was speaking in the halls, and footsteps grew louder. "Shoot! Someone's coming."

"Hurry, hide."

Aaron sat back in the chair and impersonated himself being knocked out, with his hands behind his back. The person from the hall opened the door, and walked inside. A man wearing a ski mask looked at him, then walked back out to the hall.

"Phew... he left! I gotta get out of here."

"I'm in the parking lot."

"Okay."

Aaron was eagerly searching the room for any other doors to exit from, but didn't find one. He looked up above the cabinets and found a vent. He lifted the vent cover, and ascended. While he was crawling inside the vent, it made reverberations like bending sheets of metal. He crawled through and saw light at the end. There was another vent cover. He removed it and it revealed the outside. The vent was about six feet above the ground. Aaron dangled his legs over the end of the vent, and dropped down. After landing, he noticed a door leading back into the hospital, but was blocked by a load of crates. He walked up to a railing, and placed his hands on them. He grabbed the radio and spoke into it.

"Hey, Abby... I'm on the roof." he peered over the balcony he was standing on and stared at the big drop back to the earth.

"Well done... Well, done." someone said in a deep and stridulous voice. They spoke with a Russian accent.

"Who is this?" Aaron shouted into the radio. They didn't say anything. Suddenly, a stridency came out of nowhere. People were sprinting up the stairs to the roof, and were impelled to shove crates out of the way of the door. It was time for Aaron to be prudent. He looked at the pond water that was a hundred feet below him.

"I'm gonna have to jump." he said, but not into the radio. The crates were being pushed out of the way of the door, and Aaron was growing weary. Time was running out. The door had burst open, and three muscular men with ski masks were now on the roof with him. A woman walked slowly in her high heels in front of the men; it was the receptionist from before.

She roared, "Aaron, stop!" her eyes represented horror in the world, "Get over here, now!"

"No!"

"Aaron-"

"No!" Aaron looked over the balcony, and balanced on the railing.

"Aaron, you don't need to do this-"

"But I will!" Aaron retorted. He looked at the water again, and aimed for it. He jumped.