Chapter 8
1006 Words
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"Forget this ever happened." He took a step towards me, his eyes held an emotion that I could not clearly decipher, but something told me I really didn't need to know what it was because if I do, I will be in more danger. Life-threatening danger.
I just nodded, feeling like my tongue refuse to move. I could not speak, I could not utter a single word.
I just wordlessly left his apartment and stood in the corridor. I could feel his eyes on me but I did not dare look back. I stared at my door and swallowed the lump in my throat.
No way in hell was I sleeping there tonight.
I looked at the spot where I had left all my shopping bags and other stuff when I had come home and found the door unlocked. It didn't take much to guess that all of that stuff must have been brought inside by the murderer who lived in the apartment just opposite mine and standing right behind me at the moment.
I could feel my heart pick up speed just at that thought, flashes of the dead man with my scarf around his neck crossing my mind, robbing me of my oxygen.
I did not need anything inside right? I just needed my phone and my car keys and then I will be out of there.
I patted my pockets to find that my car key was securely in the right one. Alright, let's get out of here.
And then I realized - I didn't have my phone on me.
I turned back to look at him. He was leaning on the doorframe passively, as if he had already predicted that.
"Yes?" He asked, his voice impassive.
"Where's my phone?" I asked... whispered. I hated how weak I sounded.
I was weak, wasn't I?
It was such a bummer to realize all the courage that you once thought you had were all just your own imagination. In reality, you are just an ordinary woman who would just about faint at the sight of a dead body. But honestly, no one should have had to see scenes like that in their lives. It's just not fair to their mental health. It is just as unfair as killing someone.
"It's on the coffee table." He said plainly.
I closed my eyes and took in deep breaths.
"I don't want to go in there."
I had expected him to threaten me as I said it because that's what usually happens in movies and stuff, but what he did was grab my hand and drag me to my apartment.
"I don't have time for your bullshit woman." He muttered. He really did look annoyed and I had some idea that I was really starting to annoy him.
But.
My bullshit?
I was not the person who killed a random dude without blinking an eye! I was so scared to call the police now, but that didn't mean that I was okay with this. I WAS going to call the police as soon as I put a safe distance between me and this dude.
He let go of my arm when we were in my living room. He took a step too close to me. His breath fanned my face. "You will not tell anyone what happened here."
Oh there it is, he really is going to threaten me into keeping quiet, isn't he?
"Or else you and your little niece will face the consequences."
My eyes widened as soon as he mentioned my niece. How did he even know I had a niece?
"Please keep Kriti out of this." I mumbled, unable to raise my voice any higher. It felt as if there was a lump of thorns in my throat. I did not want any member of my family to be in any kind of danger because of me. I didn't know what I was supposed to do.
I was a middle school English teacher for god's sake. I had such a mundane life – just school and my novel. How did something so awful happen to me? And what is happening to me?
"Prakriti will be safe as long as you keep your mouth shut." He said, his voice emotionless and his face poker. I couldn't figure out what was going on in his mind and I decided that I really didn't want to know.
"I won't." I said. I promised. I was going to keep quiet, at least until I made sure that no harm came to Kriti because she was my little baby. She was as important to me as my sister Ananya was, and I was not going to let anything happen to either of them as long as I lived and breathed.
"Good." He said and turned on his heels, leaving the apartment and closing the front door behind him.
I looked around my apartment and then at my bedroom door. I felt a shock go up my spine. I was not going in there.
I gulped as I thought back to what I had seen. He had just killed that guy. Killed him like it was okay, like he was not a living breathing human being.
I quickly grabbed my bag, phone, and keys. I was not staying in this place. At least not today.
I grabbed the knob and swung it open, stopping in my tracks when I found Stefano Greco in front of me, leaning against his door while going through his phone. "Go back inside." He said.
"Look, I can't-"
"Don't make me say it again." He said, finally putting his phone in his pocket and looking up at me. "I have lost way too much of my time because of you today. So it would be better for you to just cooperate so that I don't have to take any extreme steps." He sounded so cold that it made my head spin.
"But-"
"Get. Back. In." He said.
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- Writer
