Chapter 4 4- The Boy Outside My Window
Like a trapped bird, I felt my heart palpating inside me. His words increased the fog in my mind. He suddenly sounded like I was the bad guy in the scenario before my conversation with Tracy and Sarah reverberated inside me.
Tracy had told it to me.
The entire school knew.
But it was too late when I realized it because Julian had left me in the courtyard and vanished in the crowd. The school dragged on as usual with nothing new happening. Except for the sympathetic stares and grave silence, everything was normal.
Mom and Dad were out at work when I reached home. I threw my bag on the sofa and removed a painkiller from the drawer of the kitchen and swallowed it with water. My head kept pounding from all the overthinking and stories I was told at school.
My phone rang, pulling me out of my thoughts. It was Mom.
"Honey, can you send me a picture of your hospital bills? I need to submit them for procedures. They must be in your room." She said, and I let out a sigh.
Climbing up to my room, I pulled open the drawer and sent the images of the hospital bills to my mother before my gaze fell on the wooden box that I always kept. It was a box of memories. Every gift, every message I ever received was collected there.
That's when my brain worked.
If I lost my last six months, I must have some records of it with me.
And just like that, I started digging into everything.
My perfectly folded clothes piled on the floor; my perfectly arranged drawers were now a mess, but I found nothing worth the trouble. But that's when my eyes fell on the crumpled paper under my sweater.
Curiously, I removed the paper and tried straightening it.
A gasp escaped my mouth when I saw brown, almost red smears on the edges. Blood. It was blood. And then I saw the handwriting on the paper. I could never mistake it for anyone else. It belonged to Rachel, my childhood best friend.
Chloe, save me. Julian will kill me. Only you can save me now. Please.
Julian is the prime suspect in Rachel's murder. Dad's voice echoed inside me, and the paper fell from my trembling fingers. I had just argued with a murderer. A supposed murderer just saved me from malicious journalists.
How can a person have two personalities?
My windows rattled when the thunder hit outside, startling me. The rain started pouring relentlessly, and my curtains started getting drenched from the open window. Rubbing my temples, I walked over to my windows to shut them and change the now damp curtains when I saw somebody standing outside my house, directly below my window.
Julian Sinclair.
His chin lifted upwards; he was looking straight at me. His eyes held a storm that was deadlier than the thunder rolling outside. My breath hitched when he didn't move or shift, but just kept staring my way. Despite getting drenched in the rain, he didn't look any less intimidating or scary.
Gulping, I closed the windows and walked downstairs.
It was stupid of me to go outside when the boy had killed Rachel brutally, but I wanted answers. So, clutching the note Rachel left me, I walked down after grabbing a knife with me. The moment I opened the door to confront him, the rain soaked me.
"What the fuck are you doing outside my house?" I asked him, surprised at my newfound confidence, and I saw his eyes narrowing at the note in my hand. His jaw clenched and a cold smirk formed on his face.
"Playing detective now, are we, little Bennet?" He mocked me, taking a step forward, towards the house, and my eyes widened in alarm.
Holding the knife in my shaky hands, I pointed it at him threateningly, and an amused smile formed on his face.
"Stay away from me!" I shouted at him, and his smile widened.
"Why? I thought you wanted answers to why I am in your head all the time. But ever since you woke up from the coma, you have been running in my mind too, Chloe." His words were low but mocking, and I felt my heart almost giving away my support when he took another step towards me.
"I said stay away from me, Julian!" I cried out desperately, and his lips curled up in a twisted amusement.
"Your hands are trembling, Chloe. Are you sure you can swing that knife at me?" He teased me, taking another step, and I felt my heart drop to my stomach.
Before he could enter my house, the police siren wailed in the rain. Tires screeched as they stopped right behind Julian. Two cops walked out with weapons in their hands, pointed towards Julian, who looked unbothered. His eyes were dead set on mine.
"Julian Sinclair, hands down! Right where we can see them! Now." The cops ordered, but Julian kept staring at me.
"Yes, I stabbed Rachel five times, Bennet." Julian suddenly said, referring to our last conversation, making me furrow my eyebrows.
"On the ground. Now." The cops roared again, but Julian, being Julian, ignored them without a flinch.
"The sixth time won't be hard for me if you keep digging around." He completed, making my breath hitch.
The boy was threatening me openly in front of the cops.
And then, without warning, he walked closer to me and grabbed me by my waist. One hand held me while the other one uncurled my fist and took the crumpled paper out of my hold, the very last evidence I found getting smudged by the rain.
His touch made me shiver in sheer terror, and he loosened his hold on me when one of the officers grabbed him from behind, and the other one forced him to the ground.
Even with his body pressed to the muddy ground and his hands cuffed behind his back, he managed to look way more dangerous than before.
"Don't dig, Bennet." He mouthed to me when the cops dragged him away.
