Betrayal

Bang! The shot rang out, the sound piercing the stillness of the surrounding woods. Flocks of birds rushed from their homes, shocked by the intrusion their angry caws permeating the air around them. Her heart was beating out of her chest as she ran towards it. Please be okay, please be okay, please be okay. Her mind was racing, she should have apologized to Eric. This is not how this weekend was supposed to happen. They were supposed to be engaged, not on the verge of killing one another.

Crimson blanketed the ground. The bed of leaves, and surrounding trees splattered with blood, it was slowly seeping into the ground around him. She could barely hold herself together, as she looked upon macabre scene before her. She raced toward him her footing became unstable. The forest had targeted them both, she thought, as she plummeted to the ground her hand hitting something firm. It was a gun, was it the gun? She didn’t have time to think. “Eric” she screamed as she crawled those last few feet towards him. Tears rained down muddying with the sanguine colored earth around them.

“Don’t leave me, I’m sorry. I’m sorry” She couldn’t stop apologizing. The guilt from their prior argument was invading her every thought, she was blaming herself. She was so consumed she hardly even noticed their friends and family had slowly gathered around gasping at the sight before them. “Somebody call 911 now” someone shouted, “Sarah, why...how” another said frantically. Their words running together into a verbal puzzle she couldn’t fathom to piece together.

Everything was a blur after that. The police arrived they took everyone’s statements, but Sarah could not find the ability to speak. She sat at the end of the ambulance wrapped in a blanket smothered in Eric's blood, only the odd sound here and there mumbled from her lips. The shock was slowly wearing off when Officer Hart approached her. “Ma’am, we’re going to need yer statement. Now we can do this here or down at the station”. She slowly lifted her eyes to the voice that was directed at her, but nothing escaped her lips. “Ma’am” Officer Hart repeated, “I know yer in shock, but honestly this is not looking good for you we are going to need to hear your side of the story”. She couldn’t quite seem to find the words only an utterance of nonsense seemed to escape. “Higgins” Hart called out; we are going to need to take her in can you help me out here.

She set in the dimly lit interrogation room and had finally felt like she was coming to her senses. They had let her change into some clean clothing which seemed to help. Things did not look good for her. So far she had learned that only her fingerprints were found on the gun, the gun was registered to her father who wasn’t at the lake house, and she was the only one according to their friends and family that had any sort of motive that night.

The scene and the events of earlier that evening kept replaying in her mind. She had confronted Eric about a rumor of his unfaithfulness. 5 years, she had though, 5 years and he just threw it all away. She felt the anger rising in herself again but quelled it quickly.  She should have let him speak; she should have trusted him. The list of things she should have done was a continuous and monotonous track in her head. How would anyone even believe her, she barely believed herself.

She looked up as the door closed behind officer Hart. “You ready to talk now” he said, the country slur in his voice registering to her now. Looking to meet his gaze she finally took in the sight of him. He had a chiseled jaw, and the kind of body that looked like it was once muscular but had been softened by age and heavy drinking. Though he had a sort of calming attractiveness about him, she slowly realized she was still in her head. “I’m sorry, I just… I just, I’m in shock”. “It’s understandable, considering yer situation an’ all, now you wanna tell me exactly what happened here. This is on the record so if you wanna wait for yer Lawyer just give me the word”.

After telling him everything, it all lined up with what he had heard from everyone else. She could see the skepticism hiding behind his baby blue eyes as she claimed her innocence. She was screwed and she knew it. She couldn’t believe her friends and family had been able to find her capable of this. It wasn’t making the situation easier. Not only had she lost the love of her life, but the trust and companionship of her friends and family now seemed to dissipate before her eyes. The police weren’t going to hold her until a more thorough investigation, but she didn’t have hope for a better outcome.  She was told she could return home, but not to skip town and as Hart put it “cancel any of yer travel plans unless it’s a trip to the prison”.

It was nearly 3 am by the time she got home, and she was exhausted. She would have to think of her next steps in the morning. There had to be something else since she knew she didn’t do it, but where to start. Her eyes felt heavy and she drifted off to sleep quicker than she anticipated. When she awoke it was in a cold sweat, and it was merely 7 in the morning. She had barely slept due to images of Eric’s corpse haunting her dreams. Might as well make a cup of coffee, she thought to herself.

               Sitting at the table she heard a phone buzz and instinctively went to answer her cell. “This is Sarah speaking”, but the buzz rang out again. Realizing it was not her phone buzzing, she was confused, at first, as the police had Eric’s phone. Then she remembered the tablet she had gotten him for Christmas. She knew the password maybe this could help her find some answers. She knew the police would look at it, but it couldn’t hurt, she kept telling herself. Maybe she’d find something.

               The call had come from Eric’s boss, Sylvia, she must not have heard the news yet. Sarah wasn’t sure she was in the right headspace or legal space to discuss so she ignored it. Looking at the call log now she noticed there were a lot of calls between Eric and J&E and associates. Was this a law firm? Eric was a night nurse why would he be going to a law firm. Sarah decided to look them up to see what their specialty was, but she couldn’t seem to find any sort of web page or anything.

How could Eric even use or go to someone so insignificant she thought to herself. Though his love of small local business, and kind heart is what drew her to him in the first place, it was also the same thing that frustrated her to no end.  Nothing else seemed to be off, maybe she should give them a call just to inform them of his passing and to find out some more information. She called the line, and while waiting for the answer she heard buzzing from upstairs. She ended the call to head towards the buzzing upstairs, as she ended the call the buzzing stopped. “This can’t be right” she mumbled to herself and dialed again. Again, the buzzing rang out from upstairs.

She raced towards the sound and started dismantling the room looking for the phone. It had to be here somewhere she had heard it. She stripped the sheets off their guest bed and there it was. She could not believe her eyes. What did this mean. She stood There transfixed for a moment. Enraptured by the device laying the she didn’t even hear the movement behind her as she bent down to pick up the phone. She stared at the phone now held in her hand as a clothed hand covered her nose and mouth. Her heart pumped faster as she struggled against the invading hand, and she began to feel dizzy and nauseous as the world around her began to blur.

When she came to, she was bound to a chair by what felt like rope, and there was duct tape covering her mouth. The world around her was still foggy so she could barely make out the person standing before her. “Well, well, well” the voice rang out, “you have finally decided to wake up sleepy head” there was something so familiar about the voice and the person before her. Why couldn’t her foggy mind put it all together.

“You almost got lucky Sarah…. I cannot believe I left that phone here. It is too bad you had to go and find it immediately. I had to get it back before anything could be traced back to me. You know its not fair that you met him first Sarah. You always got everything first. I am so tired of getting your hand-me-downs. Not this time, when he said he would not leave you for me I just couldn’t take it. Not this time. I can’t believe you fell for that rumor I fed you on a silver spoon.” As her monologue dragged on, Sarah’s head had begun to clear. She could now make out that it was her sister Jessica who had bound her to the chair. She was slowly beginning to piece this all together. “That’s right.” Jessica said “You’re finally putting it together. All that shopping I told you was for a ring, Eric was seeing me. He tried to call it off last night, he tried to put me second again. Can you believe that Sarah? Don’t I deserve better” As she said this Sara realized she had been tying a noose. “You know, it didn’t have to end this way Sarah. I always loved you, but I can’t go down for this. I am already heartbroken that you’re going to commit suicide because you just couldn’t deal with the guilt and pain of killing Eric.”

Sarah couldn’t believe her ears, or that her own flesh and blood would do such a thing. They had fought in the past, but it was the sort of fighting that was normal between sisters. This was how it was all going to end and no one would be the wiser. Jessica was always methodical and intelligent so she knew she had thought through everything. Then she noticed the blood on her leg and a thought sprung into her mind. She might die here today but maybe she could write a message while Jessica was distracted.

As Jessica continued to ramble on as she set up the noose from the other room, Sarah realized this was her chance. Luckily her arms were bound in the front so her hands could just barely reach the small pool of blood from where Jessica had dragged her down the stairs. Now where to write this that Jessica may not see or clean. She wriggled free the slightest bit and was able hike her skirt up the tiniest bit and with what little room she had wrote the name of her sister, but it was all she was able to muster before Jessica returned.

“Well, Sarah I guess this is goodbye. You may have been my only sister, but you were my favorite sister.” She said as she slowly dragged the chair into the living room. “There finally won’t be any competition” she laughed, while tightening the noose around Jessica’s throat. “At least this way you and Eric get to be together forever sis. I’m going to take off the duct tape, so you better not scream. I just wanted to give you the chance for any last words.” As she removed the duct tape only a sob escaped Sarah’s lips and all she could say was “sorry”. “Well its too late now” Jessica scoffed, “We are both in too deep”.

Tears fell from her eyes as she struggled to breath while Jessica walked away. She heard Jessica’s Panicked screaming. “Help, I came to check on my sister but she’s hung herself send someone now please” At least she knew her message had gone unnoticed. Maybe they would believe her now. It was her only hope as she clung to those final moments of life before everything went dark.