One Step At a Time

Chapter 32: I need her

"Yes, of course." I continue to attempt to open her door as she calls 911.

"They'll be here soon." She tells me.

My hands shake as I become more frantic. "Arabelle, please if you can here me say something." I hear nothing and I feel tears well up in my eyes.

"Do you have a hair clip or something that might help me pick the lock." I ask the kind women.

"Let me check." She enters her home and a minute later comes out with a small hair pin. "Will this work?"

"I don't know, but all we can do is try." I'm praying that I know Arabelle enough, to know that she only uses one lock during the day and uses the latch up top at night. If she has the latch on picking the lock will do nothing,

I crouch down onto my knees and squint into the key hole. I slide the pin into the lock and twist it. It takes a few attempts before I finally hear a small and quiet click.

"Yes." I pull the pin from the lock, and take a deep breath before I turn the doorknob. It turns all the way and I'm able to open the door all the way.

I enter her apartment and nothing looks out of place, but something feels off.

"Arabelle! I run through the downstairs part of her apartment but there no sign of her. Her purse and camera bag are on her couch so I know she made it home from her photo shoot today safely. A YouTube video is playing on the t.v as well.

I run up the steps, taking two at a time. "Arabelle." I glance around her room seeing her makeup all over her vanity, and her clothes strewn across the floor and her bed. Her phone sits on the top of her vanity.

I hear sirens approaching as I take a closer look throughout her room. I notice her closet light is on, seeping through the small crack.

I push on the door lightly, and I'm met with a sight I never wanted to see. Something I would only see in a nightmare.

"Arabelle! Oh my god." I fall to the ground beside her, taking her head in my hands, "wake up, Beautiful. Please."

I lean down and put my ear to her chest, a sigh of relief leaves me when I hear the slow sound of her heart. It's slow but it's there. I push a strand of hair out of her face, and it's now that I notice tears are streaming down my face.

"Wake up, please." I catch a tear before it is able to fall onto her face. "You can't leave me, I need you." I sob into her as I pull her closer to me, breathing in the comforting smell of her perfume and shampoo.

"They're in here." I hear feet coming up the steps as I hold her tightly.

"Sir." I feel someone enter the small closet. "Sir, I need you to move away from her."

Arms are gripping me and pulling me away from Arabelle, "no, no, no. She needs me. I need her."

"I understand that, but I need to get her out of here and into the ambulance."

I nod, barely registering what is going on around me. Everything is fuzzy as I follow the paramedics, who hold Arabelles motionless body on the stretcher. If it weren't for the steady motion of her rising chest I would think she was dead.

I'm snapped back into reality when I come upon a group of policemen circled around something on her carpet. I walk towards them but come to halt at what I see.

"Oh God." I cover my mouth to stop the vomit threatening to come out. The sight of Junes dead body lays on the carpet. I know she's dead because she would be up and clawing at the paramedics who carry her owner. If she were alive I would have found her curled up to Arabelles unconscious body.