Murder

3

I woke up shaking in the middle of the night. I immediately sat up and turned on the light. I was in my room. It looked like always. I was safe.

With a sigh I grabbed my phone and dialed Reece's number. It rang a few times, but I ended up being sent to voice mail. He was probably sleeping. I smiled when I imagined that so I decided to shoot him a quick text, knowing he'd only see it next morning.

But I didn't mind. I just wanted him to see what was going on inside of me, because he was the one who was able to comfort me. Thinking of him calmed me, and I soon fell asleep again just to be woken up by my alarm clock. To me, it felt like I had just fallen asleep again, but it must've been about 3 hours.

I reached for my phone, seeing Reece had read my text and told me to call him this morning. I decided to take a shower first, and when I had gotten dressed I called him.

He picked up after only a few seconds, making me smile. "Hi love. You didn't feel well last night?", he asked.

"Hm, yeah. I don't really remember now anymore, but I can't think I low-key had a nightmare", I explained while walking my way to the kitchen where I grabbed a bowl for my everyday cereal.

"That sucks, baby. Listen, I don't have time to come over tonight, I have to work the afternoon and evening." He sighed. "Are you okay on your own? I'm so sorry."

"No, no it's fine. Don't worry about me. Stay safe at work today", I said and started eating.

"I'll text you when I'm home tonight, okay? We could call again", he suggested.

"Yeah. That sounds great", I smiled.

"Okay love. Also, tomorrow I'm only in for the early afternoon. Can I take you out in the evening?", he asked, his voice flirty and cheeky.

"Obviously", I answered. "I love you."

"I love you too", he chuckled. "Man, work is so weird now. It's really strange to not be at the academy. I'm doing what I always wanted, you know. But it's all new now, so it's just crazy."

I stared down at my cereal. I always worried about him. It wasn't a safe job, something could always happen to him. "Yeah, I guess."

"I'm so glad I got you", Reece admitted. "Didn't think I'd meet my favourite person by spilling coffee all over them, but I guess that's what fate worked out."

I joined him in his laughter and continued to him telling me more about his day yesterday, of course after what happened right in the morning. It was hanging above us like a dark cloud, keeping the bright sun out of our lives.

I had to say bye after a while as I had to leave for work. It had been crazy how much Reece was part of my morning routine. We always called and talked for a bit in the mornings. Just because it lightened up both our moods. Better start to the day. I kept texting him while on the underground as he still had a lot of time working the afternoon and evening shift today.

The whole day passed rather quickly. People didn't bother me too much at work, they had heard about me leaving early because of bad news. They didn't know what happened, and noone dared to ask. They just avoided me, unless they really needed me to do a job. Therefore I was rather free and could do some things that I usually didn't have enough time for.

During my lunch break Reece texted me. I knew he had started working an hour ago now too so I was a little confused. He barely texted me during work, except for when he was at the office. Then he was constantly complaining about colleagues, the boring work, and the people coming in.

"I really need to talk to you tonight. Please make sure you're free when I get home from work."

It sounded so serious that I started worrying. I sent back a short reply, asking if something had happened. He didn't text back.

I continued working, but I was a whole lot more nervous than before. Reece never texted me like that, not that serious. He was making jokes, flirting. Like this morning, on our call, when he asked about the date. That was Reece.

I was more than glad when I could leave work. I knew it would take another few hours until Reece's shift would end, so I decided to watch some episodes of a show to distract me. Also, I really needed to catch up because Reece was a season ahead of me. We wanted to watch the last season together. I ate, checked my phone, watched another episode. I kept checking my phone until finally Reece's shift ended. He texted me back, saying he'd call me as soon as he was home. It took him another few minutes until my phone rang.

"Hello", I said, dragging on the 'o'.

"Hi love", Reece answered. "How was your day?"

"Oh, it was alright, really. Noone bothered me at work."

"That's good." He cleared his throat.

"Now, what's so important? You sounded damn serious", I stated.

Reece sighed at the other end of the line. "Someone killed Charlie's boyfriend too."

A dark and uncomfortable silence took over. I couldn't believe what I had just heard. It couldn't be true. First Charlie, now Alec?

"At least we have a connection between the two cases now. Means we have more hints. We're gonna find whoever did this to them", Reece said, somehow it comforted me. It was just some sort of hope.

"Both of them gone", I whispered. "We only hung out with them like, last week?"

"Yeah. I wish I'd known them better", he admitted. "It's just heartbreaking."

"Mhm", I made. I closed my eyes, trying to keep in my tears.

We kept talking for a little while longer, but it just wasn't nice. The dark news were destroying the usual good mood of Reece and I, therefore he excused himself pretty quickly. He also had just come from work. He probably really needed a shower. I just sat and stared at the tv for a while. The paused episode seemed to mock me as the characters were currently shown with big smiles, laughing uncontrollably. I turned it off and decided to head straight for bed. It was late anyway, and with this heavy heart there was nothing else to do.