I'll go ahead and post the first official chapter.
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Chapter One
Things were quiet within the small deep city apartment as a young man wandered through his kitchen with his shoulders slumped forward, his head hung between them. Outside, light rain was sprinkling against the busy streets, matching the dismal news he had received this morning once his wife had returned from her doctor’s appointment. Anytime she came back from the doctor, it was never good news. He hated it.
“You don’t want coffee this morning,” he thought to himself, glancing towards the living room where he could see the screen flashing with various news reports. She hadn’t gotten off the couch since getting home, in too much of an emotional wreck to do much of anything. She had called off from work on this day weeks ago, not just because of the appointment, but because she figured it would be bad news. Michael Johns fixed himself a strong cup of coffee, having requested some extra hours at work today to make up for her absence.
Curled up on the long sofa, his young, red headed wife snuggled into the arm of the couch with a blank expression wrapped around her small features. Her brown eyes scanned the television, but she wasn’t soaking in a single thing that was being said. Just pictures flashing about some kind of out of country destruction in another continent. The local news would be on soon.
She swallowed when she felt her husband take a seat against the couch, snuggling into his far corner. She pulled her feet up towards herself, but he reached out and gently coursed his hand against her leg. The touch was brief, almost empty, but she appreciated the gesture anyway. “You want to go to bed, Leslie?” he questioned before taking a thick slurp of his coffee, giving himself a moments relaxation before he was out the door and off to another busy day at the office.
Leslie sighed briefly and shook her head, remaining lying against the cushion instead of sitting up to cuddle with him. She was in a state where she really didn’t want to be touched or even comforted. The first time this happened, sure. She wanted nothing more than to be held and told that everything was going to be okay. But after a fifth time of going to the doctor and being reminding that having children was going to be difficult… she didn’t want any comfort for this miscarriage.
“How about dinner tonight? I should be out by eight…” Michael continued to mutter before taking another long sip, humming as the warm liquid fled down his throat. “I could swing by and pick you up…”
“Maybe we shouldn’t… you’re working overtime tonight, and going out to eat would be like… wasting your hours working,” Leslie mumbled with a low, depressed tone and he shifted uncomfortably in his seat, staring at her for a moment. He understood her feeling this way, but he hated it when she wouldn’t even give his attempts to cheer her up a shot. There was just no consoling her when she was acting like this and part of him felt pretty useless just sitting there.
The young man licked his lips and nodded in silent understanding, staring at the television as the local news began to flash by, his eyes going wide at the images before him.
Last night, just before nine-thirty, a young woman was found… Leslie perked her head up briefly, her hand creeping towards her mouth as she finally began paying attention to the report.
… with a gunshot wound through her right eye. The woman was found out to be…“Carly,” Michael thought to himself as Leslie sat up, her brown eyes wider than saucers as her hand began to tremble. “That’s Carly…”
… Carly Smithson. She was found within the run down building and had said to be missing for days by her family and coworkers. On top of the gunshot, an autopsy showed a trace of poison from inhalation. Michael stared as Leslie reached out, gently patting his knee before clenching her hands around his black pants, shaking her head in disbelief. The news story was over quicker than it began.
The young man stared at the television blankly, unable to believe his nearly watering brown eyes. Carly was dead? His once girlfriend was dead? His now secretary was dead? She hadn’t been showing up to work recently and when he tried calling her, she never answered her phone. He had never gotten close to her family, so he didn’t think to call them, either. “Are you okay?” Leslie questioned, suddenly shaking him from his thoughts and he shook his head, staring down at her. “I know… she was… close.”
Michael stared down at his loving wife and for the first time that morning, she slipped her arms around his chest, pressing her cheek against him in a small embrace. She didn’t want comfort for her problems, but she wasn’t going to hesitate to mend his. Somehow, though, in the pit of his stomach, he felt himself getting sick from her touch. He needed a second.
“I’ll… be fine,” he murmured, gently squirming away from her before standing completely from the couch. He felt himself growing dizzy, and although he had seen her picture with his own eyes and heard her name, he couldn’t tell himself that she was gone. It certainly explained her absence from work, but why would someone shoot her? Who in the hell was cruel enough to murder Carly?
Michael wandered into the kitchen, slamming his coffee cup against the counter, the brown liquid splattered against the top. Leslie jumped in her spot from the sound, craning her neck over her shoulder. She noticed the look of remorse wrapped in his handsome features as he juts stared at the mess he had made. Suddenly, all the problems they had previously been enduring seemed meaningless compared to this.
Taking a deep breath, he finally outstretched his hand for a paper towel, jerking it from the holder and cleaning up the spilt coffee. It had been over four years since he had been with Carly, but the two were still good friends… extremely good friends since they worked together. It was because of work they had been together to begin with. But once he was promoted and she became his secretary, they had to end things. But her touch was still prevalent against his skin.
For a moment, he closed his eyes, remembering the sound of her sweet Irish accent cooing his name into his ear as he laid her back against his small office desk, the two of them spending brief moments of overtime enjoying one another instead of slaving over boring paper work. It was a normal routine for a while until he forced himself to stop. “Michael?” Leslie questioned, appearing behind him as she wrapped her slender arms around his frame, pressing her cheek against his back. “When they have a funeral… would you like to go? I know what she meant to you…”
The woman’s voice came out faint, as if disappointed by this statement. In all honesty, she hated hearing about his ex-girlfriend. Leslie had come into Michael’s life only weeks after his break up with Carly, and he would do nothing but talk about her. All the time they spent together, about how they never fought, how perfect she seemed for him… and how unfair it was that his job was what ripped her from his world. He didn’t talk like that these days, but sometimes she felt that he thought about his ex. It had been four years, though. He and Leslie had been together for four years, so she hoped Carly was nothing more than a brief blip in his history… just a memory, like she was meant to be.
His secretary who was a constant reminder of the perfect relationship that just slipped through his fingers. But Leslie wasn’t going to hold him back from a fallen woman’s funeral. “I’ll go with you…” she hummed against his back and she felt him squirm uneasily in her grasp, turning around to place his hands against her shoulders.
Michael leaned down and pressed his seemingly cold lips against her forehead before swallowing hard, staring towards the door. “I couldn’t stomach it,” he stated, pushing away from her lightly as he swept his keys from a hook against the wall. “I’ll see you after work,” Michael continued before completely sweeping out of the front door, leaving Leslie standing against the kitchen counter. With Carly dead, work was surely going to be hell.
Somewhere across the city, a young woman slowly wandered up the deserted steps of her run down, crummy, mid-city apartment, her free hand pressed against her currently aching stomach. It was such a small procedure that took so much out of her, and she had a feeling that this kind of pain wasn’t going to leave her for years. Guilt was a dangerous thing, but it had to be done.
Kelly swallowed as she finally got to the top, silent cursing the broken elevator. It had been busted for years, but of course her land lord would never pay to get it fixed. She wouldn’t be surprised if he used all the money for crack or hookers, because Lord knows he never bothered to give back to the residents of the building.
Shuffling down the hallway, she nearly tripped on a snag in the carpet, narrowing her eyes as she huffed, and dug through her purse. She pushed aside a bag of pain medication given to her by her doctor once the procedure was finished and she knew she would be downing a few before crashing for the rest of the night. She was just such a mess at the moment and she hated herself for being so stupid. This wouldn’t have happened if she hadn’t have been more careful. But stupid little Kelly… had to let herself go.
She drug out her keys, immediately finding the right one before jamming it into her door. With a quick twist of the handle, she found it was actually already open, so she slipped inside. Jerking her keys from the lock, she wandered into her home, easily kicking off her shoes as she shuffled towards the kitchen.
From the dining room table, David glanced up from an algebra book, Allison doing the same as she scribbled down the end of her latest problem. “Just a second,” David stated as he pulled away from his baby sister, watching Kelly rummage through the cabinets for a glass, her shaking hand snatching up a plastic one just in case she dropped it out of frustration. Heading into the kitchen, David rested his hand against the counter, watching her run the cup beneath the faucet. “Everything go okay?”
“Everything went fine,” Kelly grunted with a heavy huff, slamming her cup against the counter. Water splashed from it, but she didn’t even bother to notice, instead digging through her purse for her medicine. She needed to take those pills now and fall asleep for the rest of the damn week until everyone forgot about her brief stupidity. She should have paid more attention. She should have been smarter.
David frowned, reading the dismay all over her face as she fished out the small, orange bottle of her pain medication. She fumbled with the top, growling once she couldn’t get it open. “Let me see that,” he offered, taking the capsule from her before she had an aneurism attempting to open it. “Everything really went okay? You’re feeling alright?”
“No, David,” Kelly grunted, pounding her fist briefly against the counter, a few of the utensils shaking against the top. The young man finally popped open the bottle, staring at the description on it before handing her an appropriate dose. He didn’t want her getting out of hand, so he would put them in a hidden place until she asked for some on her own. He was kind of like the unofficial father of the family, since he lived with both his cousin and baby sister. “I’m not alright… I just… just…!”
She thrust her hand towards the dining room, her hazel eyes going wide for a moment while she attempted to find words. David knew exactly what she had just done and it wasn’t something he wanted to drag up in front of his sixteen year old baby sister. Kelly’s lifestyle wasn’t exactly one that he wanted Allison to adopt. He didn’t want her developing one like his own, either. “It just hurts… physically, yes, but… my heart hurts right now,” Kelly stated, patting her chest a bit before reaching out for the pills.
Shoving them into her mouth, she quickly chugged them down with a good sweep of water, staring down into the bottom of the cup once she was finished. “But it wasn’t my fault!” the brunette suddenly roared in anger, startling poor Allison from the front room as she glanced up again from her homework. Really, she had been listening to the conversation the entire time with her head hung down, waiting on her brother to return to aid her with the next problem. She was terrible at algebra.
“He took advantage of me that night at the bar,” Kelly continued to mutter, keeping her voice down in a sharp whisper as she leaned towards her close cousin. They had been friends since childhood, but had recently drifted apart during an unfortunate time in his life. Just months ago, though, she approached him, asking to live together so that she could watch over him and his little sister. Apparently it may have been her who needed his guidance more, for she was often highly careless. “I told him, I told him that he needed protection and he told me he did! The bastard!”
“Kelly,” David murmured, reaching out and shaking her by the shoulder to remind her once more that she needed to stay quiet. He already understood the entirety of this situation, as well. It was a little less than a month ago when Kelly had gone out partying for a friend’s birthday, and in a bad habit of hers, the alcohol got the best of her small frame.
The young woman was too drunk to realize she was heading to a hotel with some man she hardly knew. One thing led to another and the two enjoyed a nice rumble beneath the covers, and she woke up thinking that she had caught herself a good man. The two had kept in touch only slightly, but had never seen each other face to face again. It was just about a week ago when she discovered that she was pregnant, and although some pleaded otherwise, she just couldn’t handle a child and unfortunately went through an abortion this morning.
David stared at her for a long while, and where as he understood where she was coming from by getting the procedure, he knew it was really her fault that it happened. Partially the man she left with, but a good deal being her fault. Not that it was all her fault considering it takes two to tango, but she certainly should have had a better head on her shoulders about it. Kelly had gotten into a similar mess before by trusting a man she randomly met at a bar, but never had she suffered an accidental pregnancy. “Just try to stay calm about it,” David stated, reaching out again to pat her against the shoulder, wanting this whole thing to be a great lesson to her. Not that he had any room to talk. Not like he ever learned from his mistakes. He only knew to keep his family from his own wrongs.
Kelly licked her lips cautiously, narrowing her eyes when she noticed an odd mark across his arm. “What is that?” she questioned, reaching out to brush her finger against it, but he immediately drew back, rubbing his hand against that. “Did you cut yourself? That looks bad…”
David stared at it for a moment, running his finger over the slightly irritated mark against his skin, right above the crook of his elbow. “Bug bite,” he stated as he tugged down his jacket sleeve, licking his lips briefly. Kelly shrugged it off, tossing the bag from the pharmacy into the trash can, hoping that this pain wouldn’t last her long. The physical pain, at least. It was going to take quite a bit to get over the anger. If she ever saw that man again… oh, he better watch out.
“Would you mind staying home with Allison tonight for a little bit?” he suddenly questioned and for a moment she could see a glimmer of worry wrapped in his grey eyes. A secretive glimmer, but she could see it none the less. “I have to go out tonight for a work thing… it shouldn’t take long,” he stated, bunching up his shoulders awkwardly.
“Davey?” Allison called from the kitchen table, tapping her pencil against her text book. “I need help.”
Without hesitation, or even a response from his cousin, David quickly exited the room, assuming his brunette relative was going to stay in tonight. She was in far too much pain to go out, and he would hope she wouldn’t pull another bar trip after what she had gone through. Plus, he didn’t want to leave her a second to delve into his own problems.
Much later that night, another young woman busied herself within her small apartment, cleaning up the living room in nothing but her slinky white nightgown. It was too early to get to bed, only about seven thirty, but she was tired. Brooke had worked her nine to five shift as a nurse, and although she was just a trainee at that moment, it was still stressful. Just clean wiped her out.
She rang her fingers through her thick hair before leaning down to straighten a stack of magazines she had been flipping through once she had gotten home. The second she walked through her front door, she checked her answering machine at home to make sure her boyfriend hadn’t called. They didn’t often get calls because he wasn’t close to his family and her own family didn’t appreciate her much for dating him. At first she couldn’t understand their reasoning, but then she quickly discovered the secret. And still, she couldn’t detach herself from him.
“Chris, it’s getting late,” she thought with a loud sigh, collapsing against the couch for a moment, propping her feet up against the coffee table. He had been out all day, and she knew exactly where he had been. It was no wonder they lived so deep inside this nasty city. It was the only place where Chris was going to find his clients so easily. “You haven’t called…”
She leaned forward, picking up her cell phone, which she kept desperately by her side anytime he was away from her. Her beloved boyfriend was unfortunately a drug dealer, and where as he thought he had kept his secret hidden well, she found out thanks to a few helpful clues from her family. But Brooke just loved him so much. He had never done anything to hurt her. He was a loving, beautiful man and she couldn’t imagine being without him. So of course, she just couldn’t leave him when her family turned their back on her.
Brooke sat in a moment of silence within her small apartment, despite the police sirens wailing outside. She was in a bad part of town, a seriously bad part of town, but it was all they could afford. Brooke received nothing but financial aid during college, and now that she was finished and moved on towards training, she was struggling paying it all off. And although Chris was very good at what he did, that only brought them so much money. It was difficult making ends meet.
“Please call me,” she muttered, staring at her phone, her own worried reflection cast right back at her. Chris job worried her to no end. He always lied and said he worked at a shipping factory, organizing and moving boxes. He constantly told her there was nothing to worry about, but she knew otherwise. There were so many dangers in what he did. He wasn’t an addict himself, but he obviously dealt with plenty of them. What if he got arrested? What if he got shot and killed?
Biting down against her lip, she finally let her phone drop into her lap, staring towards the open window that was letting a cool breeze in. The world was seriously a dangerous place. Why, just this morning before work, she had caught the conclusion to a news report she saw last night about finding the dead body of a woman who lived within the area. The poor thing. A bullet through her brain… it was just so sad. Brooke had seen many things in her experience being a nurse… but she wasn’t sure she could stomach seeing something like that.
Suddenly, her phone buzzed within her lap and she whipped it into her hand, finding that she had a text message, of course from her boy. “I’ll be home soon. Go relax,” he said and she pressed her hand against her chest with a brief sigh of relief, although knowing that he still had to get home. The streets were dangerous, especially at night. Brooke always drove, using the car she had since high school, despite the difficulty of doing so in this city. She felt safer in her car than she did a subway.
“I’ll… go… take a shower,” Brooke thought to herself before tossing her phone against the coffee table. She stood up, taking a second glance towards her front door, seeing that all the locks were fastened securely. Nodding towards herself, she quickly made her way down the hallway, intent on being done with her shower by the time her boyfriend got home so they could cuddle a little bit. She had been getting awfully lonely recently… and she really wanted him to know that she loved him.
The young woman slipped into the bathroom and shed herself of her thin slip, letting it drop down onto the floor before relieving herself of her undergarments. Within moments, she was in her shower, standing before the warm water raining down against her skin. Aside from the pattering of the water, not another sound escaped the apartment.
Her mind raced around as she attempted to relax beneath the water, but any second that she wasn’t with him, she worried. She worried about his health, worried about him being picked up by the police. She hated the thought that he could easily get addicted to what he was selling and it was actually a wonder to her that he was able to pull from an addiction he once had. It was also odd to her that he could continue to sell the substances even after understanding how something like that could destroy a person.
But they needed the money… and she needed him, so she never brought it up. She wouldn’t dare confront Chris about what he did because she was afraid it would break his heart. He was so nice to her and wanted nothing but the best in her little life, even if that meant desperately hiding his terrible secret. She would never… ever talk to him about it. Just like she wouldn’t talk to him about… that night.
With a heavy sigh, she ran her fingers through her long locks as they were soaked with the warm water, dribbling all the way down her body. No, she could never tell him about that because then surely she would give him a reason to leave her. Brooke needed him so much. She was such a clingy person and hated to be left alone. Not to mention, without him, she wouldn’t have a place to live. Her parents wouldn’t take her back after she knowingly dated a drug dealer. That was just against everything she had ever been raised to believe.
But Chris had confided in her things he never could anyone else. He had openly admitted his previous addiction and how through meeting her, he had conquered it. And that was the truth. He fought his addiction and hasn’t done drugs in years. He had just been selling them. Brooke could never confront him.
Suddenly there was a loud thud within her home, as if the door or the window had shut. It was then that she remembered she left the window open. “Home already?” she thought to herself, immediately shutting off the water despite being no where near finished with her shower. She snuck out from behind the curtain, sweeping up at least her panties from the floor and sliding them on. She nabbed the towel from the nearby rack, wrapping it firmly around her body before heading from the bathroom. “Christopher?” she questioned, peering out into the empty hallway.
Things were dead silent and for a moment she waited for his voice, but nothing came. “Chris, are you home?” she continued to pry, further clutching the soft white towel around her body, fully stepping into the hallway. Again, she received no response. Licking her lips, she wondered what the sound could have been. From where she was, she could tell that the window had shut. That stupid window, it was constantly falling down. Most likely the wind, but she swept herself down the hallway to check anyway.
She stood just before the window, as to not expose her nearly naked form to the outside, pushing it down until it was fastened against the window sill. Her fingers danced over the lock, firmly keeping it in place before she stared out onto the darkened city streets. Her car was parked against the side of the road and everything was empty. She knew that somewhere within those shadows were hiding the decay of this dismal city. The prostitutes, thugs, and drug dealers… her boyfriend was somewhere in those darkened spaces.
“Come home, baby,” she sighed, pressing her hand against the window as the remaining drops of rain spattered against it. It had been an absolutely miserable day. Closing her eyes, she sighed once more before fluttering open her beautiful blues, suddenly aware of the reflection in the window. For a second, she thought that maybe it was Chris, but within seconds, she found that she was sadly mistaken.
The person behind her lunged forward, quickly wrapping an arm around her thin waist, the other hand pressing hard against her mouth. Brooke screamed, reaching out for the curtains in front of her as she desperately tried to pull away. How did they get in? They probably got in through the window. Where was Chris? Why couldn’t he have been home sooner?
Brooke attempted to kick away from the wall, trying to force herself and the other person to the ground to escape his clutches, but her body was suddenly becoming weak. Her nose filled up with the heavy scent of alcohol and she felt herself grow woozy until eventually she just lost control of her limbs, succumbing to a terrible darkness.
Then I read your author's note. Obsessed with Saw? 
After reading the first part, your attention to detail is quite impressive. I thought the chapter moved well, and gave some great visual cues at the start. There was a real sense of feeling. Definitely got my attention and I will come back to see who meets their demise next. 
Holy crap, that was really good! Scary to! I am hooked. When do I get to read more? 
