Split [ONC 2024]

6. Similar

I winced. That hadn't even crossed my mind.

"Do you have any clue regarding that?" Detective Trevor prods.

I shake my head. "This other man... You said he murdered his family."

"That's what I suspect." He heaves a sigh.

"But even if he claims to have been somewhere else, murder is not similar to whatever this thing with Steve is."

He glances at me as if I'm trying to fool him. As if I know more when he's the one who does. The one whose face morphed. Like mine.

"What...?" I don't know what to ask. What if it's inside my head and he'll think I'm crazy? Though being clinically insane could keep me out of prison. The only issue is I don't want to be clinically insane.

This is crazy. Nothing is happening and everyone is just gaslighting me. I didn't hurt anyone. Why am I even a suspect in this thing?

"You need to be careful," Detective Trevor says.

"Careful with what?" I almost yell the words. "Nothing happened, I'm a victim, not a suspect, and all everyone does is try to make me feel guilty when I didn't do anything. Do you think I like having blood on my car? That I enjoy not knowing why anyone would do such a gruesome thing?" The frustration bubbles up inside me and it stitches with my fear morphing into a monster of a feeling.

The bloody windshield flashes before my eyes. The taste of it on my tongue almost makes me want to wretch. Somehow, I'm back in the forest, running the trails, feeling so frustrated that my life is going to shit. I was so happy that morning. When did everything spiral out of control again?

The sudden twitch of a muscle on the detective's handsome face draws my attention to him. Reality flickers. I must be imagining things, but it seems like the room darkened, even if it's sunny outside. I can see the rays splayed on the maroon carpet, and yet the colors are dusty, muted. The weird shuddering murmur fills the room, hisses in my ears like so many disembodied voices. Like the final, rattling breaths of the dead or dying. They're spewing words I can't understand. They sound like promises. They sound like threats. The hairs on my arms stand on end, and I'm suddenly so very cold.

I raise wild eyes to the ceiling, expecting to see the shadows dancing on its surface again. There's nothing. The breath I let slip is filled with all the hope I'm still capable of. 

When I lower my gaze, my heart stutters. 

There's a shadow on Detective Trevor's face, blurring his features, turning his eyes the deepest, darkest of black. It's bubbling, like tar, so thick one could get stuck in it. His features gain sharp, unnatural edges, his cheekbones looking ready to puncture his skin, his cheeks sunken.

He opens his mouth, but only a shuddering moan comes out, rattling me to the very core. His teeth are sharp, uneven, jagged. Darkness dances around him, like a swarm of bees. 

I'm no longer looking in the mirror. This can't be a trick of the light. I'm looking straight at him, and he's coming closer. The air around him hits me, and it's like shards of ice cutting into my skin.

"No," I whimper, scooting back. My back is already pressed against the wall, and I can't get any further, no matter how hard I try. My pulse its so loud, it whistles in my ears. The pressure on my eardrums makes me faint. "No, no, no." I close my eyes. 

That monstrous thing can't be the last thing I ever see.

The fear is smothering me, and yet I can't dive into the blessing of darkness. My mind refuses to shut down and protect me from the horror. 

There's a touch on my shoulder, soft but firm.

"Eva, open your eyes."

Despite my better judgment, I do, lifting one eyelid. The eyes staring back at me are blue again, filled with worry.

"What happened?" he whispers.

I blink. There is no warping skin, no fangs and no darkness. The sunlight also filters back inside the room. The normalcy of it doesn't fit with my thundering hard or how taunt my nerves are. My body still trembles as if I've been stuffed inside a refrigerator. I couldn't have imagined all that. I don't think my mind has enough resources to conjure that horror.

"What did you see?" he insists. His voice is still warm and clear and my heart calms down the tiniest bit as my brain takes over and tries to rationalize everything.

The question is odd, but I shouldn't be surprised. After all, he followed the shadow on the ceiling of the police station with his gaze. He seemed to see the monsters inside my mirror just now.

"Did you feel the cold?" I ask instead of providing an answer.

He hesitates, but the answer is clear on his face. He won't call me insane. He knows what I'm talking about.

"Did you see the darkness?"

This time, he shifts his weight, even if it's hard since he's crouching before me. My eyes are drawn to his dark blue tie, swinging like a pendulum between us. I expect to see blood stains on it, but it's clean. I'm not sure why I expect that. I'm not even sure of what I'm seeing anymore. But one thing suddenly becomes crystal clear.

"Similar," I mutter before raising my eyes to the detective. "That man who allegedly killed his family... Did you see shadows swarming around him, too?"

The detective gives a very slow nod. "Darkness. Cold, rattling breaths..."

"What are those? What do you think they mean?"

He shakes his head and glances at his tie as well. After a few seconds of watching it swing, he pats it against his chest, stopping its movement. "I don't know. All I know is that a woman and two children are dead. All I know is that there was human blood on your windshield this morning."

So much blood. So much death. And no answers.

The questions would have sounded so stupid if we hadn't just witnessed the strange phenomenon. "Do you think it's the shadows?"

When he glances at me, his eyes are hard as steel. "Shadows can't kill people, Eva. Only other people can."

👥

Chapter WC: 1,629

Total WC: 10,723

So I guess I got the inspo to work on this a little today. It appears that the detective has seen these weird things before. But what are this pesky shadows and what can Eva believe? Is the detective trustworthy? Does Steve know anything about this? And whose blood was on Eva's car?

Stick around to find out! I hope you get enough creepy vibes from these chapters.

Thanks so much for your support!