Chapter 7
981 Words
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I dashed out of the bedroom. I quickly picked up my phone from where I had left it on the couch and walked out of the apartment.
"What are you doing?" Stefano was by my side in no time.
"Calling 911." I looked at him with my eyes wide.
"I mean, I know you killed him but I am sure they will understand that he was the assailant and what you did was just self-defense gone too far." I nodded to myself as I frantically typed in the numbers.
"No one's calling anyone." Stefano stated, effortlessly prying my phone off my hands.
"What are you doing?" I anything but screamed.
My thoughts were all over the place. What the hell had just happened? One moment I was doing my grocery shopping and flirting with some random Indian dude and then conversing with my classy neighbor in the elevator and the next thing I know, I had found the said classy neighbor on my bedroom floor, having strangled a man to death.
"I will deal with this." He said as if it was an everyday incidence to him. Was it?
My eyes must have been as wide as saucers because it was starting to water like crazy and I could not find my voice to ask him what he was going to do.
"Go to my apartment and stay there until I come to get you." He instructed, pointing at his door while fishing out his own phone from his coat pocket and tapping away without sparing me another glance. I bit my tongue and turned on my heels, feeling my heart thump against my rib cage. Forget that, I could feel it in my ears.
What had happened?
Why had it happened?
More importantly, who the hell was this guy?
He was not some ordinary dude.
My hand trembled as I reached forward for the door knob. I was going to walk into the apartment of a man who had killed another human as if it was nothing. Did I really want to go in there? What if I was to meet with the same fate? But wouldn't I be testing my own luck if I dared to disobey him at this point?
Mommy!!! I wanna go home! Mein toh India main hi theek thi. Yaha kyun aaya mein? (I was fine in India itself. Why did I come here?)
"Go. Inside."
I felt my body involuntarily turn the knob and walk in as soon as I heard his cold, annoyed voice. I shut the door behind me, instantly locking it for good measure. It was always better to have some kind of a wall between me and a murderer. But I wondered if the door would stand a chance if that burly man wanted to knock it off its hinges.
I brought my trembling hands towards my face, pressing my cold palms onto my sweaty skin. "What. Had. Just. Happened?" I asked myself, my words coming out in whispers.
Was that man really there to kill me? That could not be right, right? Was he some friend of that Vikrant scum who had threatened my niece? But he seemed like a brainless asshole to me. He could not have had someone willing to kill someone for him.
Maybe Mr. Greco had it all wrong? Maybe he was just a burglar? I mean, there was no shortage of them in New York City. And especially in the part of the neighborhood I lived in.
I had no idea how long I just stood there in the same spot staring at nothing in particular. I jumped when I heard the knock on the door. It was slow and civilized but that did not help my heart. It was sprinting at a speed as if it was trying to burst out of my chest and run as far away as it can from the mess I had gotten myself in.
"Ms. Gill, open the door." His voice was calm. Too calm. Calm like that of the serial killers in the documentaries Ananya and I loved watching. These psychopaths talked so calmly and sometimes even merrily as if they were not chopping up pieces of human flesh and stuffing it in garbage bags! "Ms. Gill, are we really going to do this now?"
Annoyance seeped through his voice and at that moment, I knew that I would be playing with death if I didn't listen to him. I quickly unlatched the door and stepped back, putting a safe distance between the both of us, just in case he decided to reach out and throttle me.
He looked at me with his blazing eyes as he pushed the door open. "You can go back to your apartment." He said.
My forehead furrowed in confusion. No way in hell was I going into the room with a dead body in it.
"The place has been clean and sanitized." He stated, as if reading my thoughts. "You can go back there like nothing happened."
I blinked. I could feel my stomach churning. I had no idea how to react in a situation such as this. Was I supposed to question him or just scramble out of his vicinity and stay far far away from him? I thought the latter was the more intelligent choice considering the consequences that could follow if I went ahead and asked him questions that might make him think that it was better to silence me forever.
"Uhhhh..." I had to say something, didn't I? But what the hell was I supposed to say to the guy who just killed a guy in my bedroom less than an hour ago? Thank you? Can I have my shawl back? Because I had just noticed that he had it twisted around his fist.
"Forget this ever happened."
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- Writer
