Where it all began ("Bend or Break" Book 1)

Chapter 10

I slept for a couple hours to recuperate the hours of sleep I had lost the night earlier. I awoke to police sirens. "Were being arrested?" I thought "Were being sent to jail". But I realized soon enough that those weren't real police sirens I heard, but the ringtone on Chris's phone. "Jesus Chris" I sighed. I checked the caller.

The phone read No Caller ID. I declined the phone call. I shut off the phone and lay in bed again. A quarter of past and I heard on a knock on the door.

"Ali, it's me" I heard Andrea's soft and muffled voice call out through the door.

I jumped out of bed and opened the door. Lab rushed in the room and slouched on the bed.

"Did he call you?" she asked on edge

"The writer?"

"No, the murder?"

"An unknown number called Chris's phone," I said "I guess it could have been the writer, I didn't answer it though"

"he called the hospital phone" she sighed

"I couldn't hear, there was a bad connection for some reason" "But he taped a photograph to my shower wall" she murmured

"What photograph?!"

"Well, were not main suspects anymore because of it "

"The police caught the murderer?" I asked, holding onto the little hope I had left.

"No, I mean they're not just suspecting we killed Ko" "The police have now enough evidence to prove we're responsible"

"We're screwed"

"We're screwed" she echoed

"Is the photo that bad?"

"Pretty much" "See for yourself, he may have sent the photo to your brother's phone" "It's likely if he called it"

I grabbed Chris's phone from the dresser and checked Messages. Sure enough, one new message had arrived. I opened it. A video appeared of me and Andrea on the screen. I checked the time length of the video - one hour and 17 minutes. He had filmed us from when we walked out the hospital's sliding glass doors and into the parking lot, right up to when we were burying the murder evidence.

"He filmed all of it" I declared "Were toast"

"No, No, No" I shrieked

"What is it, Ali?"

"I posted the video on Instagram. Well, the murderer posted it for me. He hacked the account" I breathed "The video's out"

"Jail is our inevitable end"

"No, Drea, remember that only you can change your life and no one can do it for you"

"Oh, yea? It looks like from where I'm standing now, "Only I can't change my life. Everyone can do it for me". "The world's unjust. All we can do is accept that". "All we are is the fruit of the author's imagination".

"No, we are not that. Not at all. The writer doesn't define us. It may seem that way now but It won't last. Andrea, please just believe me on that?"

"If we are sent to jail, which will be, we'll spend the rest of our lives in there"

"No, we won't" I denied "The writer will get us out"

"What?! Are you insane?"

"If you think about it, it makes sense. If we spent the rest of our lives in jail, there would be no "juice" to write about. He couldn't even keep track of us if we're in there. Get it?"

"It's jail Ali, he won't be able to free two convicted murders"

"Well, it's all the hope we have left"

She gave a week, irritated laugh "You're relying on a complete psychopath to get us out of this mess?! When he got us into this mess in the first place?!" "Your logic is a bit crooked".

"Andrea, what is up with you? Take on the world, remember? We're supposed to take on the world together"

"Sorry to disappoint. I'm not as strong is you think I am". "And it's a lot harder to take on the world when you're all alone in it"

"Andrea, it's part of the writer's plan to make you vulnerable and desperate. He wants to break you and you're letting him" I explained

"You just don't understand, do you? You know, the writer's right, you are oblivious to the real world!" she raged, bursting into tears. Her ocean blue eyes now seemed frigid and daunting. For the first time in my life, I had seen and met a side of Drea I had only glimpsed at. "Even the most beautiful rose has its thorns," I thought. Today, I had been pricked by one of Andrea's thorns.

"Andrea-"

"I can't now" "I can't with this, I can't with life" "Not now" she sobbed and ran out of the room.

I grabbed Chri's phone, which lay on the bed and unlocked it. I opened Messages and began to type.

"Will you bail us out of jail?"

the writer messaged back in minutes:

"You'll see"

"I know you'll bail us out for your book' sake" I texted "Tell me how you'll get us out" I demanded

A text arrived seconds later. One that sent shivers down my back:

"Wherever you go, death will follow".

"Aaagh!" I yelled and threw the phone against the wall. It shattered on impact. Only then I realized what I'd just done. I ran to the phone and turned it over. A fragment of glass cut me as it broke off the phone and fell to the floor. It left a vertical cut on my right wrist and blood gushed out of it and an uncontrollable speed. I ignored the blood and stared at the broken phone in distress. How would I be able to message the writer now?!.

What the hell was he planning? Would he bail us out? Who would he kill to bail us out? Who would he have to sacrifice? How long would we be stuck in jail for? How long before it would change us? We were his experiments. Lab Rats. Would we fail or pass his tests? Time would tell.