Chapter 9

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18th August 2012,

My eyes went dry as I unblinkingly stared at the crumpled body that lay lifelessly on the floor. I gulped and slowly moved towards it, too sedately to be noticed. When I reached the body, I looked down and used my foot to turn the body, making the dead stare at me.

As I looked into those fixed eyeballs, my legs buckled and I sat down on the ground, not crying, not laughing, just staring at the face I had met just some time ago. My phone rang and I mechanically flipped it open and accepted the caller, not looking at the screen, not caring to read the name.

"Hello" I heard my dry raspy voice say as I put the phone on my ear. My earphone had dropped from my ear and was lying on the floor somewhere but I didn't care about it right now. Nothing mattered anymore, or at least for that moment.

"Are-are you okay?" Coe asked, his voice shivering with panic.

"Hmm," I said, not sure if any word in my vocabulary could describe how I was feeling right now. I guess DEAD would be close, just touching the perimeter of my current emotion.

"Wh-who died?" He asked in a stammer.

I sipped down the saliva that had come to wet my dry mouth and looked at the sobbing person who sat in front of me, crying at the death of the loved one. I stayed silent and simply listened to the sobs and wails of the person.

"Joseph? Wh-who killed who?" Coe stammered, this time choosing his words carefully and cautiously before speaking.

"Ella," I replied in a monotone voice.

"Wh-What do you mean? Is she? Is she dead?" I heard him ask, gasping at the mention of her name.

I didn't say anything, my throat was feeling too raspy and dry to answer. I disconnected the call and let go of my phone which fell down and perhaps crashed and broke.
I didn't know. I didn't care.

Slowly, I stood up, my legs still weak with the shock of all I had seen in a brief moment of time. I slowly went all around the body and stopped when I reached the back of the sobbing figure. I rested my hand on the person's shoulder and carefully knelt beside.
Hesitantly, I patted the killer's back.

She slowly turned towards me and grabbing my t-shirt, hugged me and cried loudly, letting go of all her guilt and sadness as I slowly caressed her hair.

"H-how did it hap-happen?" I stammered, my eyes now moist.

She looked up at me and sniffled, wiping her tears with the edge of her palm. As she looked at me, tears once again began forming in her eyes but this time she wiped them off before they could fall. Then wiping her nose, she cleared her throat.
" He-He was paranoid. He th-thought I was having an affair with someone. T-today when I returned from my jog, he stood there, h-holding my phone which I had for-forgotten to take with me. He frantically waved it at me, demanding an explanation. I could only make out that he was furious over some texts I had sent to someone. I-I tried to calm him down. J-just then he p-pulled a gun at me. That's when you arrived a-and I lunged at him to snatch his gun, b-but he tried to push me and in that tussle, the trigger got pressed and, and he..." She broke down and wept loudly, cursing herself.

"What text?" I asked in a dead voice that betrayed no emotion.

She took out her phone and handed it to me, still crying.

My eyes went wide as I saw that the texts she was talking about were the friendly flirting texts that we used to send each other. I gulped loudly and looked at her.

"Ella", I whispered, but she didn't hear me.

After a few minutes of listening to her cry, I firmly grabbed her shoulder and turning her to face me, shook her hard until her tears turned to sob.

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