The Suspect

Chapter 3

Smoke fills the dark room. It gently sweeps across the floor and makes its way towards me. Looking around, I see nothing but emptiness; like a void, longing to be filled.

"It was all your fault."

I freeze and the hair on the back of my neck rises as I hear the voice coming from behind me.

It can't be.

Slowly turning, I see a hooded figure dressed in all black, perfectly blending in with the walls of the room.

"Br-Brandon is that you?" my voice shakes and my throat hurts.

"You killed me," he says in a cold voice.

"Wh-what are you talking about? Brandon, it's me," my voice slightly trembles.

"No, you can't be Willow. You killed me." He takes a few steps towards me.

I let out a shaky breath before I speak, "Hey, Bran. No one killed you. You're safe with me, okay? It's me," my lip quivers as I find the strength to finish, "It's Willow. Remember how I was the only one to call you Bran?" I try reminding him of the name only I used to call him.

"NO!" he yells and I flinch at his deep, stern voice. He advances at me and grips my shoulders before violently shoving me back into the wall. "YOU KILLED ME. IT WAS YOU," he continues repeating the same phrases over and over.

A loud sob escapes my mouth and the pain courses through me. I cover my ears with my hands, praying for it to stop.

Make it stop. Please.

Suddenly, the black fades away and light takes its place. But the shaking doesn't stop.

"Willow, wake up. You're scaring me, please wake up," my eyes dart open as I hear Kiara's pleading voice.

"Kie? Wh-what are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here?" she looks at me as I'm out of my mind. "I got home and not even ten minutes passed before I heard your voice screeching through the apartment." her eyes are filled with concern as she continues, "God, I thought something happened to you and I saw you shaking, and covered in so much sweat." She inhales and cuts me off before I even open my mouth to explain, "How long?"

I know exactly what she's asking me. How long have the deadly nightmares been going on?

"A few months."

Her eyes widened at my answer, "A few months?" she repeats, her voice going up a few octaves, "You've been having these horrid nightmares for months and you didn't care to tell me?"

"I'm sorry okay," I pinch the bridge of my nose with one hand and take hers in the other, "With all the important cases we had it didn't seem relevant at the time. You were doing so good I didn't want to ruin that streak for you."

"Fuck the streak," she retorts. "I'm nothing without you, yeah? We're in this together so I don't care about my job if anything happens to you. Please don't hide the pain from me and let me help you."

I smile and give her a soft hug. "I won't hide anything from you. I promise."

We stay like that for a few minutes before she sniffles and pulls away, "You better not," she glances at the alarm clock and curses, "Oh fuck I'm late for work."

I stare at her in confusion, "We are late for work."

"Oh like hell you're coming today. You need to take a day off. Rest for a bit." She heads out of the room without saying anything else and I follow her.

"No, I'm perfectly fine. I'm used to it and believe me, work is the only thing keeping me sane, and today's case is going to be an interesting one," my eyebrows arch and I give her a slight smirk, "There's no way I'm missing out on that."