Time Stands Still

Chapter 22

That thought caused more tears to pour over my face as I let my knees collapse underneath myself. With a loud thump, I fell onto the floor and broke down. My body shook from forceful tears.

I couldn't have said how long I was crying in that moment, but looking back at it now it probably didn't last more than two minutes. But right in that moment I could have been told that I had been crying for a solid thirty minutes.

I would have probably sat there for longer with Aria's blood on my hand and the tears flowing from my eyes if it hadn't been for a thump coming from downstairs.

My crying was forced to stop as my ears strained to hear any other sounds.

There weren't any other sounds.

But my mind had regained its capability to come up with more paranoid thoughts and in this case most likely very realistic scenarios. By the look of Aria's body, she had only just been killed. It also meant that the murderer could still be in the house.

My heart pounded as I started to wonder what I was supposed to do. If they found me, I would be dead too.

My bloody hand grabbed my phone smearing it red. Bile started to rise up, but I suppressed the urge. There was no time for being sick right now. That could always happen later. Right now I needed help.

Calling was not an option. I was worried that the murderer could hear me, even though he probably wouldn't considering that he hadn't heard that loud thump of me collapsing on the floor.

Texting was safer.

I'm at Aria's house. She has been murdered and I think that he is still there.

That was the message that I sent to Ryder. I made sure that my phone was on silent and not on vibrate. I didn't want to make any more unnecessary sounds.

My ears strained to hear any other noises while my eyes were focused on Aria's body again. The blood seemed to have stopped pouring. Her face had turned pale, paler than it usually was. Once again I had to swallow down my nausea and tears. There was no time to grieve. Not right now at least.

A loud scream was heard from downstairs. It was a frustrated type of scream. A scream where one usually grabbed their hair to pull at it. My body froze. There was no way that my mind could have made up that type of noise. That noise was real.

My heart pounded faster as blood started to pump furiously through my body. My eyes scanned the room for any hiding places.

As I scanned the room, I realised that the nightstands had been raided and pulled open. Various boxes were thrown out of her closet and plastic bins had been ripped out from underneath her bed.

How the hell had I not noticed this before?

I inwardly cursed when I realised that there were no good places to hide in the room. At least in my apartment, I had a wooden plank in my closet that could be moved if necessary. I was a very paranoid person after all.

I didn't want to take risk trying to find a hiding place in another room. Since he had already ransacked this room, the chance was small that he would try to look into the places that he had already gone through.

The closet wasn't safe enough. Even though it had already been ransacked, he could easily find me by simply opening the door. He might even do that if he realised that it was closed now and before it was opened.

So it had to be the bed.

I would have to hide under the body of Aria. I gagged at the thought but another loud thud downstairs reminded me of the urgency of the situation. I needed to hide right now.