It's been three hours since I was locked away in an interrogation room. I wouldn't say anything, wouldn't admit to what really happened to me. To my belief, someone was coming to kill me.

I didn't feel safe in the police station, no matter how many officers stood guarding the door outside.
I still couldn't believe Ruth could do this to me. She hasn't spoken to me since the apartment.
I've only been praying to see her, because even if I felt so betrayed, I still don't want her to die because of me. I needed to get her somewhere safe.

The door opened, and the female detective who's been visiting me for thrice now entered, a look of dismay plastered on her face.

She took a seat opposite me.

I didn't look at her face. I stared at my cuffed hands on the table, thinking how I wouldn't have imagined myself to be in this position.

The Detective cleared her throat. I forgot her name, was it Rose? Or Rosie?

"Let's try this again one more time, shall we Christina?"

"I already told you. I didn't kill the body." I said.

"That body has a name. Mariel Armas. She's a Spanish transfer student who's been missing for two months now. Her family are depressed because she was supposed to finish her degree this month." She said.

"You're a fresh-grad, Christina. How would you feel if it was your family?" She added.

I didn't say anything.

For a while we spent an awkward silence until she finally gave up .

"You're not going anywhere until you tell us the truth, Christina. For now you're a suspect and honestly, I don't think you killed that woman." She stood. "Call when you're ready."

She walked away and disappeared behind the door.
Seconds later it opened again, and to both my relief and disappointment, it was finally Ruth.

She stood near the door and looked at me like I'm a stranger. I felt so lost.

"Ruth, you need to..." I started to say.

Ruth held a hand to silence me. She slowly made her way to the chair opposite me and sat down.

"You're not a murderer, Chris."

"Then let me go, we're not safe..."

"Let me talk." She snapped.

Ruth laid a file across the table. She opened it for me to see, and inside were documents and pictures of me from weeks, months ago .

"Y-you were stalking me?" I said, taken by surprise.

"For two months. I visited you then, and when I found out that you weren't at your apartment, which took me a bit some time to locate, I plead to file an open investigation at you ." She said.

"What?"

I couldn't believe her . I couldn't believe it.

"Listen, you weren't returning any of my calls. You didn't leave a message at all. We were worried. We thought you were dead. One year without calling your family, that's worrying for anyone. So I went here, and I found this."

She picked up a photograph from the file. It was a photo of a gun placed in one of my closet.

Ruth continued her story. I stared at the gun hard, trying to remember if I had it with me at the apartment at all. I started to panic. I could not remember, but I can't be sure at the same time. How would you react after knowing you've been distant for a year? I thought it was only a week. Turns out it was indeed a year.

A whole year.

"I couldn't...