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 contact you then. So I went to the police and had it examined. There was blood on the gun. It traced to a man who was reported missing a year ago in Mexico. " She started to get teary-eyed. "I know you are not behind this. I told them that my sister wasn't a killer . So instead of arresting you then, I pleaded to investigate you. I couldn't let them take my sister away, that was ridiculous. We installed cameras in your apartment, and observed you for two months. " Ruth was crying now. "Chris, what's wrong?"

Pieces of fragments from my memory started to resurface. I couldn't understand what she was saying next. Except one thought kept ringing inside my head.

I'm dead. They will kill me now for sure.

Yet I still don't understand why I wasn't killed then . It was impossible for them to not figure out I was being investigated by the polive. That was against the rules.
Maybe it's because they know I wasn't behind it, but now I am.

Ruth played a video on her phone. It was a footage from inside the apartment. The time was early morning.

I held my breath. I was nervous because I know any second into the video, the creepy men will appear. Yet even a haunting thought hit me. They'd already seen this.

They'd seen the creepy men.

I was holding my breath, which was strating to get ragged now. I waited for the creepy men to appear.

Except they didn't.

I was shocked.

"What?" I muttered under my breath.

I was watching myself talking to no one outside my door. I dropped some cash on the ground and closed the door . The video showed another footage of me just circling around the living room, scratching my head and screaming .

"I-I don't understand..." I stared dumbly at the phone screen. It can't be. I can't be imagining it. It was real. I started to think maybe they did this. Maybe they fabricated the footage, make it look like I'm crazy.

"They couldn't find a footage that could explain why the recent body of that woman ended up at your bedroom, but now they know it wasn't you. They just don't believe it." Ruth said.

"I can't tell you..." I said, after finding my voice. "But what I can tell you is you are not safe. I am not safe."

Ruth scoffed, as if she couldn't believe that was all what I had to say after her ultimate revelation.
"What are you talking about? Chris, mom and dad wants you transferred to a pysch ward immediately." She said impatiently, choking back tears at the words, 'psych ward' .

I shook my head. "I am not crazy."

"Chris..."

"No, I am not crazy. You just have to believe me, but I cannot tell you exactly why. We are going to die." I said panic rising in my chest. "Where's my phone?"

"They confiscated it."

"I need my phone!" I shouted.

Ruth was startled. She stood nervously from the seat and stormed out of the room. I heard her call for some officers in the room.

I couldn't contain my panic. I was shaking, and my head hurt. I know I've missed a lot of tasks by now.

I thought of what it would feel like to die. I suddenly thought of the woman who called me from the beginning of this all. I now understood why she wanted to die. why she chose it, so she can protect the others.

I knew what I have to do. No one deserves to suffer like I have.

I need to destroy the phone. It was the only thing that linked me to the killers or whoever the creepy they are.

Two officers suddenly barged in.

"Officers, get me my phone!" I said.

They hoisted me up from my seat, the metal scratching the concrete with an irritating noise.

"Please, it's important!"I insisted .

The officers dragged me out of the room and into an empty hallway. It was oddly dead-quiet.
I was surprised no other officer was there. Ruth wasn't also there.

I started to panic. Something's not right.

Then I noticed one of the officers had my phone in one of his pockets. I eyed on it hard. I have to find a way to get it.

I looked up at the two officers holding me for the first time, and that's when I noticed it.

Their eyes.

Their dead, emotionless eyes.

I gasped and screamed.

"Where are you taking her?" Ruth's voice suddenly echoed throughout the hallway. Noise started to sound in the station from the dead quiet as if life was resurrecting from a spell.

The officers continued walking and didn't respond. I was tightly sandwiched between them so I couldn't turn my head.

Ruth was all I could think of. I tried to find my voice. To speak.

"Officer, where are you taking my sister?" I heard Ruth said a little louder .

I wanted to shout but I couldn't scream anymore or else they'd hurt Ruth.

"Hey!" Ruth shouted.

"Ruth, be safe!" I managed to say, struggling to look behind me. But I couldn't.

I was struggling to break free. Then suddenly I was out.

Once outside, the officers started to lift me and they ran to a black car. I couldn't imagine the unusual strength they have to lift me at once and run like I was nothing but a lightweight paper.


I was still light-headed from all the events. My head was spinning like crazy. They pushed me in the car and they closed the door and disappeared.

The driver started to drive. I noticed a woman beside me, eyes on me like I'm a prey. I tried to sit still, but I was nervous.

I was still hand-cuffed, but miraculously, just hidden beneath my big palms, was my phone I managed to steal from them.

The driver was focused on the road. The woman was focused on me. How am I going to do this? Nevertheless their eyes were as dead as the others.

I tried to act normal. I was running out of time. I needed to destroy the phone before they kill me.

I heard sirens in the distance and muffled a cry. They wouldn't find me in this dark tinted vehicle. It'll be too late once they do.

I looked at the window and realized we were heading for a bridge.

I heard a phone ring. It was the woman's. She answered it without taking her eyes off me.

I couldn't hear what was said on the other end, but I know it was bad news.
The woman didn't move.
Then, her eyes traveled from my face, down to my cuffed hands.

Shit. They figured it out.

They found out I have the phone with me.

The woman tried to take it from my hands but I was quick to use my feet and try to push her away.

She tried to take my phone. I kept kicking her in the face, grunting and shouting.

I realized we were going at a high speed. I suddenly felt dizzy .

The woman punched me in the face, which forced me to look into the driver's seat .

Except the driver was no longer there.

We were travelling at high speed.

So this was how they plan to kill me. They were going to run this car over the bridge and sink it into the dark water of the river.

The woman got hold of the phone, and she was about to jump out of the car.

But with what's left of my strength I grabbed hold of her waist so she was unable to leave.

"Oh no, you don't get to escape!I die, you die!" I shouted.

Then I felt the car lift into the air as it jumped out of the bridge. Objects flew around.

My stomached hurled.

I held my breath and never let go of the woman. She was still trying hard to break away from my leg's grasp. Although even with the struggle, her eyes remained dead to me.

The car plunged into the water hard, shattering windows and the water flowed in immediately.

The woman dropped the phone and I took hold of it and threw it in the water.

The woman didn't seem like a swimmer considering she immediately lost her breath in the water and drifted. That was weird, how quick she died.

I tried to swim out of the car, still holding my breath, but the car was in too deep now. It was sinking fast.

I was sinking fast.

I tried to swim. The light at the top of the water became my finish line, but I was falling and falling deeper. Swimming upwards with your hands cuffed is impossible.

I couldn't find air. It grew thinner and thinner.

The light grew dim, and everything went black.

•••

Christina was rescued minutes later. Luckily she didn't die, but she fell into a deep coma.

The officers tried to find an answer to everything. The officers that took Christina out of the police station were arrested but after the incident, they suddenly couldn't remember what happened. Drugs was found in their system. A powerful one that yet had to be a name. It was named highly dangerous and illegal.

As for the phone, it was recovered from the water but was destroyed as well.

From that incident, several missing persons resurfaced and was found.
They claim to not know what happened to them. Most of them were men and all of them were put into a psych ward. They too had the similar dangerous drug found in their system.

Ruth believed Christina had something to do with it. But the true reason story of it all, she'll never know.

"It's mad. I know only one person or the same persons are behind all this. It has to be connected." Detective Rose said to Ruth one day while visiting Christina in the hospital.

"You think?" Ruth said.

"I won't rest until I find them." Detective Rose said.

"What if they're ghosts?" Ruth asked.

Detective Rose smiled awkwardly at Ruth. "I don't believe in ghosts." She said.

Detective Rose started to walk away. Then something fell from her pocket.

Ruth picked it up.

It was a two dollar bill.

A crumpled and dirty two dollar bill.

"You dropped this." Ruth said and handed it to her.

Detective Rose quickly took it from Ruth's hands.

"Thanks."

Ruth looked after Detective Rose as she walked away and left .

She swears the detective turned to look back at her.

An unsettling pair of eyes staring back.


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