|Eight|

•Week One• (4)

I decided to look around Ryan's room more to try and find anything that would give us hints to what happened. Jack refused to come with me, so I was by myself.

I examined the blood on the wall, and though I felt queasy, I touched it to see if it was all the way dry or not. It wasn't. The crimson liquid stained my fingertips, making my insides turn. The blood was definitely fresh.

I threw my gaze across the floor and ceiling. The room was actually very neat despite it being covered in blood. There was absolutely no signs of a struggle at all.

Another thing that was strange was that there wasn't a single speck of blood on the ground. There was blood on the ceiling, walls, bed, etc. But nothing on the floor. I figured that must mean it wasn't an accident that caused this.

I was about to leave when I noticed something shining in the corner of my eye, I turned around and followed the gleam to a small blanket that was wrapped around something big. The blanket was soaked in blood and had rips and scratches in it. Next to it was a sparkling golden pocket watch. I picked it up, opening it. The glass inside was broken off, and the hands were purposefully pointed to 8:00, someone had tampered with it. I briefly wondered why. Why would someone break a perfectly good pocket watch just to set it at 8:00?

I got up to leave again, but my foot got tangled with the ends of the bloodied blanket and I tripped and fell. My shirt was now smeared with blood, and it made me want to throw up.

I quickly unraveled the blanket from my feet, and in doing so, it fell off of whatever it was covering.

I put a hand to my mouth to try and suppress my scream. It didn't work, and Jack ran into the room, rushing over to me.

"What's wro-" he started to ask before he saw it, too

I blood soaked body, gagged, bruised, and tied in rope.

Jack turned away, obviously sick. I forced myself to look at the dead body.

It wasn't Ryan, thank God. But who was this? And where was Ryan?

"It's not Ryan."

Jack sighed in relief, but still whimpered.

"What's a dead body doing in Ryan's room?" Jack asked, shaking slightly.

I shook my head. "I don't know. I don't even know who this guy is."

"Okay, we DEFINITELY need to find Ryan," Jack said, walking out of the room. I followed.

~

We walked out of the apartment and out onto the street. I didn't know where we were going, so I just followed Jack. He seemed to have a place in mind, or he was just walking aimlessly. It was hard to tell.

He stopped in front of the police station and started to walk in.
I grabbed his shoulder, pulling him back. "What are you doing?! We can't go to the police!"

Jack shot me a glare. "Ryan's in danger. I was fine with not going to the police before, but now....." He stopped, looked around, then continued. "Adam, you saw his room.... And the dead body in there.."

I sighed. "You're right. We need to get help."

We walked into the police station and Jack immediately found someone to talk to. He told them our situation, and they told us they'd send someone to investigate the apartment.

The lady at the desk typed something down on her computer. "How long has your brother been missing?" She asked, not looking up from her keyboard.

Jack and I exchanged glances, before Jack spoke up again. "We don't know."

She raised an eyebrow, but said nothing for a while.

Silence quickly passed over the room.

~

An hour later, we walked into the apartment with two detectives.
I felt incredibly nervous, but they seemed polite and not too nosy. They were just there to look around Ryan's room.

They wouldn't find the report file Jack stole, right? I hoped they wouldn't.

Jack took them to Ryan's room and the taller detective let out a low whistle. "This is quite a mess your brother got into, fellas," he said, walking into the blood soaked area.

He adjusted his gloves and began looking around. His partner began examining the blood.

I turned to Jack. "Where's the report?" I whispered to him.

Jack shrugged. "I can't remember." He whispered back.

I frowned. We were in so much trouble.

The head detective walked over to us and pulled out a notepad. "So, do you guys know the dead guy over there?"

I looked at Jack before shaking my head no.

The detective pursed his lips and wrote something down. "Okay, when did you discover him?"

"About an hour ago," I said.

"Uh huh.... And when did your brother go missing?"

"We don't know exactly when he went missing, but we discovered he wasn't there about an hour and a half ago," I said, my pulse skittering.

The detective clicked his tongue and wrote something down. "Anything we should know about your brother relating to the murder that happened a few days ago? You know there's a killer on the loose, and this murder is similar.... So, is there any way your brother could be linked?"

I was about to lie and say no, but Jack spoke up. "Yeah! He was there when the other dude died!"

The detective raised an eyebrow. "He was, was he?"

"And the killer saw him!" Jack added.

"Hmmm... That's very interesting."

His partner walked into the room, holding a folder. My heart stopped, and Jack appeared to have the same reaction as me.

"I found this in their Living Room," she said, handing him the report file.
The head detective took it and flipped through the pages before closing it again.

He turned to us.

"Now.... Why would you guys have that in your living room?"

I was frozen in place, and Jack shied away.

"You know.... It's pretty odd how your brother has a murder victim in his room and he's no where in sight, and how there's a stolen case file, and it's also strange how he was there when the first victim got killed, even though nobody else was," She said, her sharp gaze darting between Jack and I.

"Are you calling my brother a murderer?!?!" Jack said, obviously angry.

The head detective had a smug look. "Well, he's definitely the best suspect we've got."

They started to walk out of Ryan's room. "But don't worry, once we find him we'll put him in a nice cozy jail cell until he's proven innocent."

"Have a nice day." And with that, they were gone.

I gave a frustrated sigh. "We need to find Ryan before they do."