1 - Witnessing Murder

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I woke up after my roommate shook my shoulder. His name was Trevor, and we had both just moved in a month ago.  I rubbed my eyes. "What?" I asked, still half-asleep.

He was quiet. He shushed me, and then sat down on the bed beside me. "I think there's someone in the apartment." He whispered as quietly as he could. I sat up and raised an eyebrow, although he couldn't see it in the darkness of the room.

"What do you mean? We locked the door before we went to bed." I said, and he shushed me again.

"No, the window was open in my room." He whispered. "And, my door was open, even though I remember closing it."

It was a little strange that his window was opened, especially since he never opened windows, afraid of increasing our AC bill. But if someone had opened the window, they would've made noise and woken him up. "You're a light sleeper." I reminded him. "They would've made a noise and woken you up. You probably just forgot to close your door."

"And the window?" He asked. "You know I hate when we have the windows open."

I shrugged. "Maybe someone thought about breaking in, but they saw you and ran. Usually robbers try to steal stuff when there's no one home."

"Yeah. Maybe." He muttered. "Just... I'm really paranoid. Can you come with me to check out the place, and make sure no one's here?" I didn't want to, but he looked desperate and afraid.

"Fine." I instantly agreed, sure that we wouldn't find anyone. If I had known what I was getting us into, I would've made a run for it. We both could've made it out that night if I had trusted him and called the police.

"Thanks, Y/N." He said, standing up and turning on a flashlight. We checked out my room first, then the hallway and hall closet. We looked in kitchen too. So far, there was nothing out of place, no strange noises, and nobody hanging around.

Now, we had only two places left to check.The living room, and his room. We went into his room and looked around. There was no one in plain sight. I head towards the closet, and opened it up, while he looked under the bed. It was a walk-in closet, so I head in and pushed some clothes aside. There was no one there. I was about to head out of the closet, but when I turned around, I saw two people standing out there. 

Trevor was shutting the window and locking it, while a guy in a white hoodie snuck up behind him. I wanted to call out, but I was too afraid. I cursed myself as I slowly went further into the closet. I hid behind the clothing, watching through a small opening.

The man raised a knife, and slashed downwards. Tears fell down my face as I watched and heard Trevor shouting out. He didn't call out for me, but he looked towards the closet when he turned around.

I clamped a hand over my mouth to prevent myself from screaming as his body hit the floor. He looked like he was still alive, because he was hyperventilating and gasping out in pain.

"Go to sleep." The figure whispered, then raised his knife, stabbing Trevor repeatedly. I shut my eyes tightly and felt tears rolling down my face. Over and over again, I heard a nasty squishing sound. It was the sound of Trevor being stabbed. He was already dead by now, by the man kept on going.

I sat on the ground and instantly regretted it. I made a small noise right as the stabbing stopped.

Through the clothing, I could see the man's head shoot up, looking straight at me. But there was no way he could see me in the darkness of the closet.

I felt a little unsure as he stood and head for the closet. He stopped right in front of where I was hiding. I held my breath. His shoes were caked in mud and dried blood, and he pulled apart the clothes violently.

I looked up, and saw his face. It looked like he had a painted on smile, but after my eyes adjusted, I saw that it was carved into his face...

He huffed and let the clothing fall back into place. I wanted to sob and laugh at the same time. Trevor was dead, but I was lucky enough to survive. He must not have seen me.

I moved a shirt out of my way, watching as the guy in the white hood opened and climbed out of the window. He shut it behind him.

I waited five minutes to make sure he was gone, then brought my knees up to my chest and started to cry. What had I just seen? I've never seen Trevor hang out with someone like that, and it looked like Trevor was just killed for no reason. Were there really people like that in the world?

I wiped away my tears, but more soon replaced them. I made my way over to Trevor, but didn't call out to him or touch him. I knew he was dead. There was too much blood for him to have made it.

I pulled out my phone, ready to call the police, but I quickly realized that was a bad idea. The man hadn't left a knife, footprints, or any sort of evidence. I picked up Trevor's flashlight and turned it back on, shining it down on him. The light reflected off of the fresh blood. The police would know I was the only one home, and they'd arrest me. After all, my DNA was probably all over the body, and Trevor's room, since I had helped him finish unpacking the other day.

I shivered. The only way for me to get out of this without a life sentence in prison, or execution, was to track down the killer myself.

I had seen his face, and I remembered his shoes were covered in mud. That meant he lived or hung out somewhere it had rained recently, and probably near a lot of dirt, like a forest or something. I glanced out the window, but there was no evidence of him being there either.

I shined the flashlight around, and found that next to Trevor's head, there was a leaf of some sort. I bent down and quickly grabbed it, not wanting to get any closer to the corpse of my roommate.

My only option was to leave and avoid the police. They could try to track me down for questioning, but once I caught the killer, I could bring him to the police. Then, hopefully, I'd at least stand a chance in court. After all, if they gave that guy a psychological evaluation, I'm sure they'd find something was amiss. After all, who just murders like that without a reason?

I studied the leaf I had picked up. It had a bit of blood on it, but it had probably fallen of that guy's clothing. If I could find out what kind of leaf it was, I would have my first lead. I hated to leave Trevor like this, but I couldn't do anything for him.

"I'm sorry." I whispered.

I shut his room door behind me and head for my room.

I got changed into (Choose an outfit for yourself), then packed a bag with  few small things in it. My wallet, some water bottles, and food. I grabbed Trevor's cash out of his wallet in the kitchen. It felt wrong to take from a dead guy, but I needed the money since I couldn't hold a job while searching for a murderer.

I left the apartment and found a paper on the ground outside. I unfolded it and found a note written sloppily, as if in a hurry.

'I saw you'

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