|Eight|

•Week One• (5)

I pulled out my phone and immediately called Ryan. The ringing seemed to go on for eternity. And the buzzing echoed in my head.

Ring, ring, ring, ring-

I sucked in a breath. He picked up, that meant he was still alive. Thank the stars above!

I put the phone to my ear and heard faint breathing on the other end. "Ryan?" I asked.

There was no answer for a long time, but then his voice crackled from the other end. "Adam?"

I let out a sigh of relief and Jack's eyes lit up.

"Thank goodness, Ryan. You scared us! Where are you?" I asked.

There was a pause. An achingly long pause. My heart began to sink and I gave Jack a nervous glance. His face fell.

But then Ryan's voice echoed through the phone. "I'm..... I'm on my way home."

I could tell something was obviously wrong. I mean, a lot of things were wrong at the moment, but Ryan was acting really weird.

"Okay..... Please talk to us when you get here."

A subtle "Okay" came from the other end before Ryan hung up.

I slowly put the phone down, turning to face Jack. There was hope in his eyes, and I knew I matched the look. Ryan was safe, at least.
Whoever killed the guy in Ryan's room was clearly going after Ryan, but they made the mistake of murdering whoever was in that room.

Also, how the hell did some random guy get into Ryan's room without us noticing? Maybe I was too sleep deprived to notice.

We patiently waited for an hour. The seconds ticked by, slowly.

Then, the front door creaked open, and Ryan walked in. His hair was a mess and there were bags under his eyes, but he smiled when he saw us. He quickly pulled us into a hug and gave a sigh of relief.

"I'm so glad to be home," he said, pulling away from the hug.

Ryan then turned back toward the door and dragged someone from the outside in.

"This is my new friend! His name is Jasper!" He said, introducing us to the guy he just pulled into the apartment.
"And Jasper, these are MY brothers, Jack and Adam."

There was something weird about the way he introduced us, but I didn't focus on that for too long. Instead, I shook Jasper's hand and quickly said "Hi."

Ryan's eyes glinted, and he seemed angry for a split second, but I blinked and he was perfectly happy again. I was imagining things, wasn't I?

Jack shook Jasper's hand and gave him a friendly smile.

"Jasper is staying with us for a couple of days if that's alright," Ryan said.

Jack gave me a worried look, and I opened my mouth to protest but Ryan interrupted me.

"Just for two days. Please. He needs somewhere to stay, and I don't want him being alone when there's a murderer on the loose!"

I sighed. "Yeah, okay."

There was a moment of silence before Jasper cleared his throat and asked where the bathroom was.

"Down the hall," Jack said. "And if you don't mine, Jasper, we need to talk to Ryan in private."

Jasper smiled. "Oh, yeah. That's no problem."

Jack dragged us into his room and quickly closed the door. He turned to Ryan, looking him up and down.

"What the hell happened?!" He said, and Ryan shied away.

"What do you mean?" Ryan asked, acting innocent.

I stepped in. "What does he mean?! There's blood ALL over your room, there was also a dead body in there, you're being accused of murder; and if the police find you you're going to be arrested! So what the hell is going on, Ryan?"

Ryan's eyes glinted again. "People think I'm the murderer?"

Jack gave a frustrated sigh. "Yes! Ry, you're in trouble. We know you're obviously innocent because you have no motive and your heart's WAY too big, but you still need to explain how a dead body got in your room."

Ryan sat down on Jack's bed. He refused to make eye contact. "Well... The killer threatened me. I thought they werent actually going to do it, but they kidnapped and killed someone and then placed them in my room." He looked up, but still wouldn't look at us.

"Jasper is the murderer. I know it," Ryan said. "He thinks I'm naive and gullible, so I invited him to stay here. If we could just keep him here and call the police, I can prove he's the murderer."

My mouth fell agape. "You did what?!"

"I invited a murderer to stay with us for the night."

"Do you have ANY idea how dangerous that is?!" Jack practically yelled.

Ryan slightly winced. "It's fine. We'll all sleep in the same room and keep each other safe, and when we wake up, we will have earned Jasper's trust and then we can call the police to arrest him."

Jack tilted his head, and grabbed me by the arm to take me to the far corner.

"We need to do this," he whispered.

"What?!" I harshly whispered back.

"We agreed that we were going to catch the murderer!" He glanced back to where Ryan was patiently waiting. "For Ryan, remember?"

I glanced back at Ryan, too.
"Fine. For Ryan."

Jack grinned, and we walked back.

"Okay, sounds like a plan. We'll let this murderer stay with us for tonight."