Revenge

Chapter 7 - It was real

Jessica's POV

Maybe I should've gone home. I'm hearing words coming from my husband's mouth that he clearly did not say. The mayor is dead? Absurd.

Well he definitely said something because I saw his lips moving. "I'm losing my mind" I declared lifting my hands and throwing them down again out of pure frustration. "I thought you just said, "the Mayor is dead", I continued sighing at how crazy the words sounded. Mark pulled out a chair and flopped down next to me holding his head in his hands. I looked at him confused and watched him run his hands through his hair as if he had the biggest weight on his shoulder. He suddenly looked up at me. He looked out of his mind with concern. I lifted my hand to rub his shoulder to comfort him when he suddenly spoke. "Jess, you're not losing your mind. You heard right. The Mayor is dead", he said running his hands through his hair again grabbing a bunch in his hands and slightly pulling them. He's hair was almost completely wet. So was the back of his suit. He looked like his been running a marathon. "What?!" was all that I could manage to stutter out. "I almost fell over his body" he muttered in a crazed manner to himself. "I'm...I..." he continued while frantically starting to pat his chest, looking down and checking his clothes for God knows what. "Where... where's the blood? There was blood!" he shouted desperately searching my face for answers. "Mark, what are you talking about?" I asked completely confused now. I took his hand and dragged him out of the ballroom and into the corridors where we could talk privately. "Where did you see blood and why do you keep saying the mayor's dead?" I asked him lightly taking his face in my hands to try to get him to look at me. He kept looking behind me so I glanced back to see what he was looking at but there was nothing except darkness at the end of the corridor. He looked at me and I could see that he was starting to calm down.

"Jess" he started, "I know you were lying about what happened to you. I wanted to find out what really happened, so I thought I would find something in the room we found you in, but I saw someone leaving the room and tried to follow. The person was wearing what appeared to be a dress. I think it was a woman" he explained, saying the last sentence more to himself than to me, like he had some sort of epiphany. "She went in to that room", he declared pointing at the 6th door on the right side of the corridor. "I went inside using my phone's flashlight to establish who the person was, but there was no one. I saw a file cabinet and tried to open it, but it was locked and then I heard a door shut behind me. I turned around to walk towards the door and I tripped over something. When I tried to get up I saw the blood and the mayor lying face down in the blood. Jess, you have to believe me. I was covered in blood!" he said starting to get more and more frantic all over again. "Mark, calm down. I believe you" I said but he wasn't listening. "You have to believe me. I saw the blood" he continued whispering and growing hopeless as he continued saying it. I grabbed his face in my hands again but more firmly forcing him to look at me. "I believe you" I said and this time he heard me. His shoulders slumped, and he let out a long breath clearly very relieved at my words. "And you're right. I didn't tell you the truth about what happened. I just... I didn't want you to think I'm crazy. I'm sorry" I said guiltily dropping my hands from his face and looking down at my feet unable to look him in the eye. He grabbed my hands in his with a small smile on his face "It's okay. For a minute there I thought I was crazy too, but just know that I would never doubt your sanity" he said sincerely, rapping his arms around my waist to comfort me. "I'm just so relieved you don't think that I'm the crazy one", he joked but I could tell there was some truth in his joke.

"Take me to the room", I said determined to find out what the hell is going on. He turned around leaving my one hand, still holding the other, leading me down to the door he pointed at. It was closed which wasn't anything out of the ordinary until he said, "I don't remember closing the door". I lost all my determination right then and there, but I stayed glued to my husband's side. I wasn't going to let him do this alone. He grabbed the handle of the door and opened it. We instinctively both took out our phones and turned on our flashlights when the door opened, and we noticed that the whole room was consumed by darkness. Mark moved his phone from side to side trying, I presume, to find something familiar that can guide him to where he saw the body on the floor. "He pointed to a light brown metallic file cabinet near the entrance of the room and said "That's the cabinet I told you about" while moving in that direction. When he reached the cabinet, he turned around and started walking in the opposite direction of the cabinet which lead to the back of the room saying, "I heard the door shut behind me and went in this direction". He stopped abruptly and turned the phone so the light shone on the floor. "The body should be here", he said turning around to face me looking puzzled. I had followed him to the cabinet but stayed there as he searched the floors. I could clearly see where the light of his phone shone. There was nothing on the floor.

"There isn't a single trace of blood or the body. Where did it go?" he asked in disbelief. "Mark, I don't think we should be here" I said starting to get really nervous. "I'm sorry Jess. We should go back to the party. I'm sorry I brought you here" he said looking sad and confused. "No. I mean I don't think we should be at this party" I said looking at him swinging my hands in circles gesturing to the entire building. "Earlier when you found me... Mark, someone was with me in that room. I was walking hoping I'd find you or Riley, when it suddenly became quiet. I stretched out my arms thinking I would definitely touch someone, I mean the room was crowded a second ago, but there was no one. No one except the presence of someone I could feel staring at me. I thought it was all in my head, but then I heard a woman speak. She told me to get out." I told Mark truthfully. He was watching me intently, concern overshadowing his entire face. He looked afraid. Not because my truth sounded crazy, but because he believed every word I said. "Mark, I think she was warning me", I stated now sure that it was indeed a warning.

"We have to find Riley and get out of here" he stated, the urgency clear in his voice. We both turned around to leave, but I was in so much of a rush that I ran straight into the cabinet, the force causing me to stumble backwards almost losing my balance and landing on the floor. Mark managed to catch me just in time and helped me up. "Thanks" I said rubbing my chest where it hit the cabinet. "It's open" Mark suddenly said pointing to the drawer. "It was locked earlier" he continued walking towards the cabinet, pulling out the file in the top drawer. I followed him and stood beside him looking at the file he was holding in his hand. When he opened it, the first thing that came into view was a photo of a young girl about 18 years of age. She had beautiful long brown silky straight hair and big brown eyes. She was smiling in the photo wearing what seemed to be a red prom dress. The photo was very old and blurry starting to fade from dust and time. I took the picture out of the file and inspected the words written at the top of the photo. It read 'River Leah Yarnold'.

Mark and I just looked at each other. Unable to speak. Silenced with shock. It's just not possible...