Both of their heads snapped in my direction once they heard how loud I gasped. "Are you okay?" Emily asked with a slight laugh as she realized I was most likely fine. I quickly composed myself enough to simply smile and nod my head as a yes. The other voice I'd heard, just happened to belong to none other than Calum Hood, aka, the guy whose police report I'd just finished reading.
Calum, the practical stranger and possible kidnapper, repeatedly glanced back and forth between me and Emily, probably waiting for Emily to introduce us. Almost as if on cue, Emily also noticed Calum waiting for the introduction. "Oh, I'm sorry - I probably seem rude. Calum, this is Maddi, my best friend and roommate. Maddi, this is Calum, the guy from the diner."
Calum leaned forward from the mattress and held his hand out for a handshake. I did feel guilty for being so rude, but I refrained from even engaging in such a small physical interaction with him. For all I know, he could've actually kidnapped that girl and buried her under a pile of leaves or something.
He noticed I wasn't going to shake his hand, and he leaned back into his original position of causally lying down as he propped himself up on his elbow. Emily's brows knitted towards each other in confusion, seeing as I was always polite around guests, but especially ones that I'd just met. "Maddi, can I see you in the kitchen for a minute?" Emily asked as she rose from her spot on the bed and walked towards the door.
Once we reached the kitchen, she lifted herself onto the counter as I leaned against the refrigerator. "Why are you being all weird?" Her voice was laced with confusion due to the previous encounter with Calum. "I'm always weird," I nonchalantly joked. But apparently, Emily was still too dumbfounded to be in a joking mood.
She tilted her head to the side as she awaited my actual answer. "I'll have to tell you later, it's too much to unpack right now."
"You're making it sound like he's some kind of murderer or something," Emily finally joked. Except, now it was my turn to be unable to laugh. She noticed my serious expression as her face paled and lost all expression. "What?" She half yelled. I held my finger up to my lips to tell her to be quiet. "Are you saying there's a murderer in the apartment right now?" This time, she really did try to be quiet, but shock seemed to set in too quickly to allow her voice to be hushed.
"Emily please just be quiet," I said in a low voice, trying to get her to lower her voice so he wouldn't hear us. Unfortunately, it was far too late for hushed voices and quiet conspiracies. "So, who's a murderer?" Emily and I both jumped at the ever so nonchalant voice with a sly hint of sardonicism.
We turned around to find Calum casually leaning against the wall beside the counter where Emily sat. She quickly jumped off the countertop and subtly backed up against the drawer that held our knives, just in case something went drastically horrible. "Um," Emily started as she cleared her throat. She was about to continue speaking, until there was a knock at the door, serving as the ironic interruption.
"Sounds like there's company. Should I go get the door?" Calum asked in a menacing tone as he mockingly smiled. "No," Emily and I both yelled in sync. Neither of us really knew who was at the door, but on the chance that Calum could go absolutely insane, we didn't want to put anyone else in danger. "Why not?" He began. "Don't you think they'd also like to know about the murderer in the apartment?"
Emily and I both harshly gulped in fear as we glanced back and forth between each other. There was a second knock on the door, which provoked Calum to saunter towards the living room. He peered through the peephole as he kept his hand around the doorknob. He sarcastically awed in response before glancing at me and saying, "I'm sorry, what was your name again?"
"Maddi," I quietly said, just loud enough for him to hear. He held his hand up to his heart as he replied, "well, your boyfriend is outside. He must be waiting for you to answer the door. How adorable." He motioned for me to come towards him so I could answer the door. I pondered my options, but quickly realized they were very limited. I approached the door where Calum still stood.
As I put my hand on the doorknob and began twisting it, Calum stepped back and casually stood in the living room, making it seem like he was simply looking at a few of the magazines I had lying on the coffee table. I opened the door to see Harry standing on the other side, smiling brightly as he saw me. "Hey, beautiful" he greeted me with a light kiss on my forehead, entirely oblivious as to what was going on in my apartment.
"Can I come in?" He asked, slightly confused as to why I hadn't already invited him in. I knew I couldn't really say no, since I'd already opened the door and he clearly knew I was home. I nodded my head and hesitantly opened the door more to allow him in. He smiled down at me before walking into my apartment.
His eyes instantly landed on Calum, who was still acting as calm and casual as humanly possible. Calum turned around and Kindly smiled at Harry as he stuck his hands into his pockets. Harry's brows furrowed together as he glanced back and forth between me and Calum. Trust me, I don't want him here either.
"What's he doing here?" I knew he'd told me to stay far away from Calum, and now I see why. But, to my defense, this wasn't even my fault. Granted, I could've told Emily sooner, but I wanted to make sure he was actually crazy before I said anything. Calum was just about to open his mouth to speak, until he was interrupted by Emily nonchalantly walking into the living room. "We were just leaving, actually. Weren't we?" She looked at Calum, who brightly smiled at her response.
He nodded his head in response as he carefully slung his arm around Emily's shoulders. Harry's jaw instantly clenched - he was fully aware of exactly why it was a bad idea for Emily to be alone with Calum. "Actually, why don't you guys stay here? We can all watch a movie," Harry Kindly suggested, but the roughness and irritation was quite evident in his voice, and his jaw was still clearly clenched.
Calum politely smiled and shook his head before responding, "that sounds like fun, but we'll have to take a raincheck on that, won't we?" He looked down at Emily, who only nodded her head. Calum lightly waved goodbye to me and Harry as they started walking towards door. I looked at Emily with a hesitant expression. She simply smiled for assurance.
~ ~ ~
"Maddi, you need to call the cops," Harry demanded once I'd finished telling him what had happened just moments before he arrived. "I know, but I'm not doing anything until Emily gets back."
"What kind of backwards logic is that? She probably won't come back. She's all by herself with a psychopath. What makes you think she could even possibly defend herself if he tries to hurt her?"
"Emily's pretty tough."
"Maybe with her words, but that's exactly what'll end up getting her killed. She doesn't have a filter whatsoever, and she's way too little to protect herself from him." It had been two hours since Calum left with Emily by his side. I hadn't heard anything from her since then, and, although I was incredibly worried, I didn't want Harry to see.
I saw how he was worried for Emily's safety, but it'd send him over the edge if he saw how bad it was actually getting to me. It was already 11:00 PM, and usually, it'd be relatively normal for Emily to be out this late, at least back in America. There must've been some imaginary cue, since I heard the front door being unlocked from the outside.
The doorknob twisted as the door slowly opened to reveal the familiar face that belonged to Emily. She slowly walked in and sat her keys down on the nearby table. Harry and I both sprang to our feet, as if we were parents whose daughter had been out way past curfew with no explanation. Except, most parents would probably be angry in a situation like that. In our case, both of us were more relieved to see that she'd returned without a single scratch or bruise.
She casually approached us as if nothing had happened at all. "What happened with him?" Harry curiously asked as he crossed his arms over his chest, awaiting her answer. "Well, dad," she joked, but he didn't seem to fond of it. Admittedly, it would've been funny, if she had better comedic timing. "Okay, that one was my bad. Poor timing," she added.
She sat down in one of the living chairs I'd placed by the couch, and waited for us to take our own seats. Eager to hear every single detail, Harry and I rushed to sit on the couch so she could get on with her story. "Okay, so," she began.
"We actually didn't go anywhere, first of all. I mean, we left the building, obviously. But, he just drove around for two hours. He's actually really nice."
"What do you mean 'nice?' Emily, he could've easily killed you," Harry half yelled. "To be fair, you could also easily kill me if you wanted to," she replied. "I actually agree with Harry," I began. "You were here, Em. You saw how he was acting. Even you thought he was gonna hurt us or even kill us." She nodded and pursed her lips.
"You're right. Both of you are," she began. "But, just let me get to the point," she calmly added. Harry and I simply nodded our heads and sat further back into the couch to get comfortable. "He drove pretty silently for about 10 minutes, probably trying to calm down, I guess?" She paused for a moment before continuing.
"Then he apologized. Like, just a simple 'I'm sorry,' and I didn't really feel like dying tonight, so I just said it was okay,"
"Why would you say that was okay?" Harry asked, getting irritated. "Like I said, I didn't want to die. If I would've retaliated and called him insane, he could've drove into a brick wall or something. I wanted to call him crazy, but, shocker, I actually have slightly more common sense than that," Emily replied, slowly getting harsher with her tone. She must've noticed my uncomfortable expression, and quickly calmed herself down, rather than getting into an argument with Harry.
"Anyway," she continued. "After I said it was fine, he went on a whole 'no it's not' tangent. I would've felt more sympathetic for him at the time, since his voice was literally shaking, but I was still irritated over the whole episode where I thought Maddi and I were in danger."
"Because you were in danger," Harry interrupted again. "Oh my God I'm gonna stitch your lips together if you don't stop interrupting," Emily said with a huff of her breath before continuing her story.
"So, he's apologizing for like, at least 10 minutes, right? And I'm kinda freaked out at this point because in my mind, I'm thinking that he's probably a sociopath."
"You sound like a valley girl when you tell stories," Harry's voice cut her story short for the millionth time tonight. Instead of replying with a snarky remark like she's been doing, she just grabbed the nearest pillow and threw it at him as she rolled her eyes.
"Anyway, he started going on and on about how this one girl got kidnapped? I think? And he was like, a prime suspect. I'll tell you two in detail after I finish the main story."
"I actually already know all of it," now, it was my turn to interrupt her. "How do you know?" Emily curiously asked. "Harry told me to tell you to stay away from Calum, and Jace said the same thing, so I went to the police station and read the police report."
"Okay, first of all, look at you being Sherlock Holmes. Second of all, you're gonna have to get me that police report so I can make sure the stories line up." I nodded my head before she continued the story.
"Apparently, he was the big suspect because everyone is just biased and saw how he wasn't really the best kid to begin with, so they all just kinda pinned it on him." I was slowly realizing that Calum's story was lining up with exactly what Shannon said. Maybe they were actually telling the truth. "If he didn't do it, then why did he act the way he did tonight? And why didn't the girl ever return after she was with him?" Harry asked.
"He said he snapped tonight because everywhere he goes, people just stay away from him and whisper things about him. It irritated him because, since I didn't know about the missing girl, I didn't treat him like everyone else. Maddi would've even been nicer to him, if she didn't already find out about everything. And, according to him, the girl never returned because they got into an argument."
"Yeah, and then she got back into the car. There were witnesses for that," Harry added. "They had two arguments. One that the witnesses saw, and one when they were out of town. They were trying to run away, but Danielle was stressed and argumentative. She got out of the car and walked away when they got into the second fight. Calum went back to his house to get some bags, because he still wanted to run away with her. But that's when she was reported missing, and he was the suspect."
"Or," Harry began. "They got into the second argument and he killed her, dumped the body, and got away with murder."
"I actually kinda believe him," I told Harry. His brows furrowed and his eyes widened as his mouth fell slightly agape. "What? Why? Maddi, do you even hear yourself?"
"I believe him because his story matches up perfectly with what Shannon said."
"Who even is Shannon?"
"She's the officer that helped me out with reading his police report. She also drove me home. She pretty much grew up with Calum and Danielle, and she thinks he's innocent. Their stories line up perfectly, and she said his story has never changed."
"If he's a sociopath, he's probably really good at lying. Of course his story would never change," Harry argued. Emily shifted uncomfortably in her seat as she watched us argue over this. "Emily," Harry said as he turned to face Emily. "Please tell me you don't believe him too."
"I actually do. Why would he really even have a reason to lie? It's not like he's rotting away in prison and he's trying to get out."
"He still has charges on his name, Emily," Harry argued. "But charges are still better than being in prison, and, I don't know if you noticed, but he's not there. There's pretty much no reason for him to even lie about it at this point."
"Unless he's trying to get you to trust him so he can kill you."
"If he wanted to kill me, he would've done it by now. He's had multiple opportunities tonight, especially when we were alone in the car. You said it yourself; he could've easily killed me if he wanted to. But he didn't."
"Yet," Harry added to her sentence. "Well, I guess if I don't come back home tomorrow, then we'll know he's the one that killed me, right?"
"You're hanging out with him tomorrow?" Harry asked, shocked at the fact that she actually believed Calum. "Yes, actually." She responded matter-of-factly. Harry huffed his breath and rolled his eyes as he stood up from the couch. "You just can't reason with you two, can you?" He said as he stomped over towards the front door, slamming it as he exited.
Emily looked over at me sympathetically. "I'm sorry you two got in a fight - especially over that." I shook my head before responding, "we were gonna get into an argument eventually, anyway. It happens to everyone."
"Besides," I continued. "He's only worried for us. I mean, even though you believe Calum, and, I'm skeptical, but I pretty much believe him too, Harry's not sold on the idea. He's just trying to look out for us. He kinda has every right to be irritated, in case something actually would happen to us." Emily nodded her head understandingly.
"You and Harry will make up - that's pretty obvious. Especially since, like you said, he's just looking out for us. But, I won't talk about Calum around Harry, since that'll clearly put him in a bad mood," she said with a lighthearted laugh, which I returned. "Are you actually hanging out with Calum tomorrow?" I asked curiously.
She nodded her head in response. "Where at?"
"I'm not sure yet. I won't bring him here in case Harry comes over, though." She finished her sentence with a yawn, which prompted me to look at my phone to check the time. It was 11:45 PM, and we both had work tomorrow. I told her what time it was, and we both agreed that we should go to bed.
I quickly did my usual night routine before jumping into bed. Just as my head hit the plush pillow, I realized we'd forgotten to turn off the lights in the living room and kitchen. I sighed as I threw the covers off of me and got up.
As I was turning off the lamp beside the couch, I saw that Emily had left her phone on the chair. I knew she used her phone as her alarm, like most people - so I realized I should take her phone to her. I turned the lamp off and began walking to her room. I was just gonna hand her phone to her, but she was already fast asleep.
As I was setting it on her nightstand, I saw that she got a text. I hoped this couldn't be seen as an invasion of her privacy, but I quickly glanced at the message as I went to turn her phone on do not disturb. The text was from a contact named "Cal-pal," and I immediately figured he must've set that as his own contact name, since Emily typically wasn't a massive fan of corny nicknames.
The text read, "I actually had a good time tonight, aside from the whole psycho part (still sorry about that, btw.) I'll see you tomorrow around 7:30-ish, right? Sleep well."
Maybe he wasn't as crazy as he seemed. I mean, I suppose this could be some intricate plan like Harry said, but I really don't think it is. Shannon, who literally grew up with Calum and Danielle, even swears he's innocent. She wouldn't have any reason to lie, and, like Emily said, Calum doesn't really have a reason to lie anymore either.
I made my way back to my own room and quickly jumped back into bed. I fell asleep much faster than I'd even anticipated. But, I guess the fear of being murdered by a stranger in your own apartment, could probably drain your energy.