"I don't know what's going on, but I'm going to give you guys some time alone. Tess, I hope this all works out for you. If I don't see you have a safe flight home." Lena said as she grabbed her jacket and keys.
"Wait, Lena, if I'm right it's probably not safe for you to stay here. Please please please pack a bag and go somewhere you know you'll be safe. It'll give me peace of mind to know you're safe."
Lena could tell that Tess was serious and she should be fearful. She nodded, "Okay, let me put together a bag real quick." She went into her bedroom.
"We should leave too," Chris said with urgency.
"Yeah, let me pack my stuff. I think we should call the police too, but what do I tell them? I don't exactly have proof that she's the Paper Heart Killer."
"You can at least tell them you think she is and they can do their own investigation."
As Tess stuffed her suitcase with her clothes and grabbed her shoes, she had the chilling reminder that Becky knows where she lives. She knows so much about her - where she lives, where she's going to be working, her routine and habits, she's met her family and closest friends. Even when she runs back across the country, Becky could get to her. Hell, she somehow flew to New Jersey early this morning to try to kill Chris!
"Chris..." Tess paused in her packing. He was helping her pack her suitcase with his one good arm. "She knows everything about me. About us. She knows where we live. Even if we rush out of here on the next flight, she can still get to us." Sheer terror ran through her veins and was evident in her quivering voice.
Chris put his arm around Tess and pulled her in close. "We can't think about that right now. We've got to just get out of here. We'll call the police and hopefully they can locate her and give us some peace of mind." He kissed her on the top of her head and urged her to continue to collect all her things.
"I'm worried about Lena too," Tess said as she packed all her toiletries and makeup. "We can go to the other side of the country, but she's still here."
"You told her she should get out of here and we'll tell her to get in touch with the cops too. That's all we can do right now. You finish getting your stuff and I'm going to call the airline and see if we can get on the next flight."
Tess nodded and went to the bathroom to make sure she didn't forget anything in there.
When she ran back to the room to put her toothbrush in her bag, Chris was ending his conversation on the phone.
"Okay, they had seats available for us for this evening's flight so we're good to go."
"It must've cost you a fortune for last minute tickets," Tess looked apologetically at her boyfriend. Her boyfriend who had bruises and scrapes on his face, arms, and legs, a dislocated shoulder, and had just spent an arm and a leg for cross-country plane tickets.
"I think coming to get you and flying home to save our lives will be worth the high credit card bill."
"I shouldn't have trusted her so easily." Tess was furious with herself. "You haven't just paid for my mistake with your wallet," she put her hand gently on his cheek, careful not to press too hard on his injuries.
Chris covered her hand with his own, "I'd sacrifice everything, money, my safety, anything, to keep you safe." He took her hand off his cheek and gave it a kiss. "Maybe let's just wait a while before I have to sacrifice my limbs again," he winked at her to make her laugh.
Tess gave him a kiss and then looked down at her suitcase and carry-on. "Okay, I think I've got everything." She double checked that she had all her chargers, her laptop, her wallet.
"Alright, let's go. Our Uber is 2 minutes out."
They left the bedroom and Tess ran over to Lena's room and knocked on the partially opened door. "Lena?"
"Yeah?"
She could see Lena inside her room packing a duffel bag.
"I'm about to head out. Please be careful. I mean it. If I'm right, Becky is really dangerous. I know we don't know each other well and you don't have any reason to believe me when I say that Becky could be a killer, but please just take my word for it."
Lena locked eyes with Tess and said, "I believe you."
Lena grabbed everything she would need for the foreseeable future and called a friend to ask if she could crash at her place. Tess and Brian grabbed all her things and they were all heading to the apartment door at the same time when Tess double backed. "Oh! I forgot my notebook! I put it down when I was packing my stuff and left it behind."
Lena turned back to listen to what Tess was saying. "You go on ahead Lena. Stay safe. Please call or text me - anything to let me know you're okay and what the police say after they investigate.' Tess felt weird saying that, but she was genuinely concerned. She wanted to make sure Lena was safe after previously thinking she was such a strange person and possibly the serial killer.
"I will. Thank you for looking out for me. I might've stayed a lot longer and not know she's the Paper Heart Killer. You probably just saved my life." A quiver was evident in her voice, a crack in that frosty exterior that Tess had observed earlier in her trip. Now she knew that Lena was only acting standoffish before because she didn't want to get close to Becky.
Tess gave her a brief hug. A little awkward, but it felt like the right thing to do at the moment. They said their goodbyes and Tess and Chris went back inside the apartment. Tess ran to the bedroom and picked up her notebook she left behind. As she was about to leave the room a glint of silver caught her eye. She stopped in her tracks and saw one of her earrings laying on the floor right by the bed. She must've dropped it in her hasty packing. She bent down to pick it up when she saw something underneath the bed.
Laying innocently under the bed was a simple, lone, paper heart. She hesitated to pull it out from under the bed. Afraid to touch it. She mustered up the courage to grab it. There was nothing on it. No blood, no writing. Just a simple origami heart, yet her blood ran cold envisioning what could possibly be in store for her. Had Becky dropped it one day long ago and it found its way under the bed and stayed there? Had Becky made it specifically for Tess almost like a voodoo doll?
She didn't have time to think about it further. She tucked it into her pocket and got up to go.
Chris was nowhere to be seen when she came out into the living room, she looked around wildly, afraid to call his name. Even though they were alone in the apartment something inside her told her to be as quiet and cautious as possible.
She was about to whisper his name for the second time when she heard the toilet flush. She breathed a sigh of relief. She heard the sound of the water in the sink and then he opened the door. "Ready?"
"Yeah, let's go." They went over to the entry table where Tess had haphazardly threw her purse when she came back in to get her notebook. Above the black table was a decorative mirror in the shape of a sunburst. Tess had made note of how much she liked it when she first saw it 2 weeks ago. Chris was standing next to her with the extended handle of her suitcase in his good hand. In the few seconds she was looking in the mirror she caught a glimpse of blonde.
"Look out!" Tess screamed and grabbed onto Chris' arm to push or to pull him, she wasn't sure, she just wanted him to move. Everything inside her was screaming that Becky was behind them and about to attack.
A crash sounded as the long black umbrella that Becky was wielding smashed the vase on the table. She screamed and continued swinging the umbrella left and right. Tess ran from the exploding glass and saw that Chris had ducked just in time to avoid the blow.
Tess held her hands up, "Stop!!"
Becky paused, umbrella held up like a baseball bat. She was breathing heavily and looked like a crazed animal that was about to attack.
"Why are you doing this?" Tess desperately asked, trying to keep calm and hopefully de-escalate the situation.
"Ha, you're asking me why?" She lifted the umbrella again, tensing her arms like she was preparing herself for her next swing.
"Yes!" She yelled to stop Becky and keep her focus on her instead of focusing on her target, Chris. "Please. Just talk to me. Why did you become the Paper Heart Killer?"
"Do you really want to know?" Becky's question biting with sarcasm and disbelief that her friend, Tess, could possibly want to know the truth about her life.
"Yes. I'm listening." Tess lowered her hands. She knew this would make her look less defensive and more open and caring.
They stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity. Tess could hear the kitchen clock ticking away the seconds. Finally, Becky slowly lowered the umbrella, but threw a menacing look at Chris as if to telepathically say "Don't you dare move."
"I suppose you want to hear the whole story from the beginning?" She started swinging the umbrella around in circles like in one of those old-timey Charlie Chaplin movies. "I guess you assume I had some horrible childhood where I suffered from physical and emotional abuse and all of that drove me to killing," she said in a mocking voice.
"Sorry to disappoint, but I had a great childhood. My parents were loving and I had a happy home. I did all the normal things kids do - rode my bike with neighborhood friends, went to dance class, did Girl Scouts for a little bit. I had an older sister who was my best friend. I wanted to be just like her," Becky's eyes twinkled when she thought of her sister. "I thought she was the coolest girl in the world," she chuckled. "There was a 2 year age difference between us and she could've easily brushed me off as her annoying little sister, but she let me hang out with her. It was because of her that I learned origami if you can believe it," she pointed the umbrella at Tess.
"Then, when she was 18 she got into a huge fight with our parents. She wanted to backpack around Europe with her boyfriend and take a gap year before college. That was a no-no for my parents.They would not support their brilliant daughter going off to galavant across Europe with her boyfriend. I could care less if she took a gap year or not, but I couldn't believe she would just leave me behind in her fallout with our parents. She went to Europe. She left without saying goodbye. A proper goodbye, anyway. She left me a note," she laughed, "in an origami heart that she tucked under my pillow. That was her goodbye to me. We still heard from her once in a while over the years, but we were never a tight-knit family ever again. It hurt that she could separate from me so easily." She sighed and tapped the tip of the umbrella on the wood floor, rhythmically, over and over again.
Tess cleared her throat, "That must've hurt a lot." She saw enough crime shows to know that if you try to sympathize with serial killers they might think you understand them and not harm you.
The tapping of the umbrella stopped. "It taught me that true, loyal, friends are hard to come by. Sometimes your own flesh and blood can betray you. I've been searching for a best friend that will last a lifetime since then."
"And all the others - Maggie, Samantha, Rachel, Jennifer....they all let you down. They put their significant others before you. So they had to go."
Tess raised her umbrella and again to point at Tess, "Exactly."
She laughed, "See, you understand me. I really thought we were going to be life-long best friends." She sucked her teeth, "I was wrong. Again."
Becky started to walk towards Chris with purpose.
"We can still be friends!" Tess shouted. "Can't you give me another chance? Now that I know just how important our friendship is to you, I can make sure to be as devoted as you. I won't let you down again." Tess was hoping the desperation was not evident in her voice.
"Hon, you had so many chances and all you could do yesterday was cry your sad little eyes out that you weren't going to get home in time to see this dumbass," she pointed to Chris with the umbrella.
"Do you know how hard it was to slash my tires before you got out of the car yesterday? You didn't even appreciate the lengths I went to to keep you here."
Chris shifted his weight and inched his way towards the ceramic bowl on the table by him.
"Uh-uh" Tess said and tsked as she wagged her finger at Chris. "I wouldn't if I were you."
"What are you going to do? Kill me with an umbrella?" Tess wished she could tell him not to taunt Becky.
"You're a special kind of stupid aren't you? Do you know nothing about me and my 'M.O' as the people call it?" She looked at him but didn't wait long enough for him to answer, "The umbrella is just to beat you over the head until you're unconscious and then I stab you to death. I've always wondered whether the stabbing is less painful since you're unconscious."
Chris didn't say anything. He just gave her a cold, hard, stare.
"You know you caused me a lot of problems, mister. We had to convince you it was a good idea for Tess to come to California. Then, you wanted to talk to her all the time. I had to hack her phone to block your calls. Then, you guys started emailing and I had to get into her email to block some of those. Tess, sweetie, you shouldn't leave your laptop open so much."
Tess glared at her, done with pretending to want to be friends with her. She was too deranged to try to manipulate.
"I thought maybe if Tess just broke up with you after hardly talking to you while she was here, you'd finally let go. But no, you had to email back saying you needed to talk to her and you wouldn't allow her to just throw away your whole relationship without speaking or seeing each other first. I had to fly all the way to New Jersey to try to get rid of you. I freakin' spent so much money on that last minute flight and they only had first class seats available. And then when I tried to run you down, you wouldn't even die. I mean, honestly, what the f-" she stopped when she saw Tess trying to reach for her phone, no doubt to stealthily dial 911.
She scoffed, "Un-be-lievable. Even now, you can't help but betray me."
She reached into the inside pocket of her coat and pulled out a knife. The knife. Just seeing it made chills of terror run through Tess.
"Usually, there's an order to this," she said this so nonchalantly like she was describing the steps to baking cookies. "I knock out the boyfriend, my former friend cries and begs for her life, I then stab them both to death. Finally, I leave behind the origami heart since it reminds me of how this all started - my sister's betrayal - I clean up, and I leave. But I can see that neither of you are going to make this easy for me so I'm going to just have to start."
Becky dropped the umbrella and turned the knife over in her hands, gently running her callused fingers against the blade. She looked deep in thought. Had she changed her mind? She looked up and smiled at Tess and then turned to smile at Chris. And then out of nowhere, she started charging at Chris, knife up in midair, poised to stab Chris right in the chest. Tess' life flashed before her eyes and all she could hear was screaming, unaware that it was her that was screaming.
With the blade just inches from reaching Chris, his arms up in a defensive stance, the door burst open. Becky turned to face the front door and was met with police, their weapons drawn.
"Police, drop your weapon!" The police officers yelled at Becky. She stood frozen for a second and then smiled, turned back towards Chris and drew her arm back to drive down her knife with all of her force.
Shots rang out. One. Two. Three.
Becky's arm dropped and the knife fell from her hand. She spun around and collapsed on the floor. She was shot three times in her side and chest. She laid in the growing pool of her own blood, eyes open, dead.
Tess ran over to Chris who took her in his arms and they both shuddered with fear and relief. The police crowded around Becky's body, kicking the knife away just in case, and checking for a pulse though they were all sure she was gone.
"Are you okay?" Chris asked Tess, his cheek resting on the top of her head, her cheek buried in his chest, wrapped up in his good arm and nestled inside his arm that was in the sling.
"No." She whispered, closing her eyes and finding comfort in the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed and the beating of his heart that reverberated in her ear. "But I will be."
Chris held her a little tighter and kissed the top of her head. She looked up at him, "As long as we're together, I'll always be okay." They kissed and stayed in each other's arms for minutes more.
"How do you think the police knew to come?" Tess asked.
"I don't know. Maybe a neighbor heard the shouting and called?"
"Are you guys okay?" A timid voice said from the doorway.
Tess and Chris separated and looked towards the door. It was Lena.
"Yeah, we're okay. I thought you were long gone." Tess said, thankful that Lena seemed unharmed.
"I was on my way out of the building when I saw Becky walk in. I hid so she wouldn't see me when she got in the elevator. I had a bad feeling so I came back up and I heard her threatening you guys. I called the cops right away and hoped they'd get here in time." She was wringing her hands, clearly still agitated and distraught over everything that had happened.
Tess walked over to Lena and hugged her. "Thank you so much, Lena. You saved our lives," a few tears fell.
After a moment of surprise at the hug, Lena hugged her back. "Thank you for warning me."
The girls separated and wiped the tears from their cheeks. "Have a safe flight home, finally, Tess."
"Thank you. I don't think I'm going anywhere anytime soon. I'm sure the police want to talk to me," she looked over at the police who had now started to document the crime scene. "But, if you're ever on the east coast please let us know. We'd love to see you."
"I'll do that," Lena gave a small smile.
Chris walked over and gave her a hug, "We owe you."
"Ah you guys saved me too. Let's call it even." The three lightly chuckled, needing that release from all the tension they'd endured the past 20 minutes.
The police gave them their instructions about heading down to the station to give their statements.
Tess and Chris headed down to the street with one of the officers so they could catch a ride to the station. As they walked hand in hand, Tess said, "Let's not travel without each other for a while, okay? Or ever again."
"Deal. As long as you stop befriending serial killers."
"Ouch, too soon." She slapped his arm playfully.
He laughed, "Sorry babe. But I'm just happy you're okay."
"You can't get rid of me that easily," she winked.
"Nor you me. Your friend literally tried to run me over and I'm still here."
"That's true." She squeezed his hand. "Together forever?"
"Together forever."
As they walked down the sidewalk, Tess couldn't help but think about how much had happened in just the past 24 hours. She'd probably spend days, weeks, months thinking about this whole crazy thing and how she could've missed the signs that the Paper Heart Killer was right under her nose the whole time. Not only that but someone she thought was her friend.
"What are you thinking about?" Chris asked his girlfriend who looked like she had about a million things on her mind.
"Just everything. And how I'm probably going to need to spend all my pay on a psychiatrist for therapy sessions for the foreseeable future," she half-joked.
"You and me both. Just promise me one thing?" Chris turned to Tess before they got into the squad car.
"What?"
"Never ever make me a paper heart."
Tess chuckled, "Let's never give each other anything heart shaped."
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Thanks for reading! Did it end the way you expected?
Epilogue coming up momentarily!