The Things We Couldn't Forget

Chapter 18.

I don't have to throw them away...

I just can't take any more.

I sit there and rock until the buzzing in my head and the numbness from my hands and feet start to reside.

I steel myself to stand again.

I will not let this stop me.

I need to call the police about the break in and what someone wrote on the wall.

Murderer.

I shove the word away and go into the living room to look for my phone. I'll have to walk, find the closest neighbor, though it'll be a long walk, and borrow a charger.

I have my ID and my debit card now, and I can get my car back. I need to get the hell out of this town and away from everything happening here. I can't be here anymore.

When I stop at the recliner where my bag is, I stall.

My phone is sitting on the arm of the chair closest to the wall and attached to it is my yellow charging cord, plugged into the wall beside it.

I press a button and my screen lights up.

No, no, no.

It wasn't here. I'm not crazy. I'm not making this up. I'd searched for that charger and it wasn't there.

I spin around, looking everywhere. Any clue at who has been in the house and why? But I can't find anything. I can't make sense of why someone would be doing this stuff to me.

I snatch my phone off of the charger and walk to the front door making sure it's still locked and it is, the back door as well.

I unlock my phone to dial the police but I have hundreds of missed calls and voicemails and texts.

Most come from numbers I don't have saved. A few from Mrs. Statham. A couple of texts from Kelsea. A message from Aries.

I click that voicemail button and listen to his voice come over the speaker.

"I know you're mad at me, Miss, and I don't blame you." He sighs into the phone. "I just want to make sure you're ok. Despite how you feel, please just call me if you need anything." I think the message has ended but then softly. "I'm sorry."

The message ends.

It came before he was arrested.

I dial the number back but it goes straight to voicemail and I hang up before the beep.

I click out of the voicemails and pull up the call screen, my fingers dancing slowly over 9-1-1. I get the first two numbers typed with shaking fingers but then my thumb hovers over the call button.

What would I even say?

I can't have the police here snooping around in that room especially. Not with the things I have hidden in there. If they find my stuff, I'm done with. Being present at the scene of one body is suspicious. But being at the second as well? They'd never believe I don't have something to do with all of this.

Fear and doubts cripple my mind and I call Kelsea's number instead.

"Missy?" She answers on the second ring.

"Hey," I say weakly, trying to keep the fear out of my voice. "I'm...I'm really scared." I admit and I hear her moving things around in the background.

"So am I." She says back and I hold the phone tighter to my ear.

"Why are you scared?"

"I got..." she pauses, collecting herself. "I got another note on my car this morning."