CHAPTER 5
1028 Words
THIRD PERSON'S POV
Suddenly she had a flashback to the day her family was wiped out. Anika really didn't know how her legs lifted off the ground, but they were racing out of their house, and it appeared to her like there was blood everywhere, splattered on the wall and everything in sight.
The metallic smell of blood strangely touched her nose. She hurried towards the kitchen but was stopped dead in her tracks by the body of someone, a bodyguard; she was drenched in her blood, her eyes wide open and glaring.
Suddenly, that was when Anika sneezed, aware that she was shaking from head to toe, that her lips were quivering, and that she was crying.
It was like blood had exploded in her brain, and her body became really numb; she couldn't feel anything; she could only register the loud thumping of her heart.
"Relax Anika, it's just a very bad dream." She muttered amidst her heavy breathing. She burst into a full-blown loud cry. She shivered at the cold stillness of the bodyguard's eyes.
The bodyguard was one of their oldest workers. Derrick had grown up seeing him, and the bodyguard felt like a brother to everyone.
Her body shook tremendously as she turned and hurried upstairs."Derrick?" Her voice came as a loud, desperate screech. "Stephanie!"
"Stephanie!" She ran upstairs like a mad woman, as she flung all the doors open but met no one—just an empty, cold house filled with dead bodies.
Anika rushed to her room and banged the door behind her. She ran to her drawer and picked out a letter knife.
"This is a dream, Anika; it has to be." She muttered wildly to herself. She immediately hit her finger, which let out a queer sound from her lips. It was painful; it hurt so bad. Anika forced herself to believe this was some crazy dream, she was right after all.
"Oh no!" She screamed and bursted into another sob as she dipped herself wearily into the ground. She picked up her phone, which she had thrown carelessly earlier when she entered, and it was the least of her worries; huge cracks were all over the screen.
She swiped her phone open and dialed her bodyguard's number despite shaky hands. Never in her life did she ever desperately pray that he would pick up his phone.
"Hello, leave a message." His robotic voice said over the phone, sending shatters to her heart. After several tries, she gave up. She tried her best friend's line, but it went straight to voicemail.
"Oh! Goodness! What am I going to do!" She rocked back and forth in anguish. There was no sign of anyone anywhere, and she was simply too afraid to even move around the house or run out of it; who knew if the killer was waiting outside or something? Who could she call? She thought.
Who? They'd faint over the phone from the news alone, talking less about coming to her rescue. Who? No, Anika, you have to act fast!
She quickly got the numbers of her numerous friends, but all calls were sent via voicemail. "Damn! What's wrong with everyone not being with their phones?" She angrily threw the phone at her door and landed with a crashing sound.
In annoyance, she glared at the phone, but something else caught her eye. Lying beneath the shards of her phone was a plain and roughly cut-out piece of paper.
She rose to her knees and crawled to the door, sliding the shards of the phone away and peering into the paper.
A neat handwriting scribbled over the paper as if written in a rush. There was only one person who had this handwriting, and there was only another person but her who referred to her in that manner. What the hell was happening?
Anika's shoulders slumped in defeat. What was she going to do with this? The fear that grappled her chest made her feel constricted, so she ran into her bathroom and emptied her stomach into her sink.
Rinsing her mouth and face, Ava staggered away from her room, creeping into the hallway and making her way to study, which was coincidentally open. It was never open; Derrick was always discreet with his Study.
She shut her eyes and opened it, hot tears of fear still streaming down her cheeks. Her day was not going according to plan, and she questioned her sanity. This could be a nightmare.
As she pushed the study door open, something told her it wasn't a nightmare but her new reality. Anika sat still and drained on the floor in the large study.
She was right inside the secret room behind the shelf; only she and her family knew about this place but she was questioning why.
She searched and searched the room for the following minutes; there was really nothing to search for since the room was just a nice open space with a very simple arrangement.
After a lot of brain cracking and racking, Anika touched every wall and surface in the room, hoping a clue would miraculously pop out.
She had binge-watched a lot of mystery and thriller movies, and though this situation was not funny at all, what harm was it to play by the rules of the movies?
She went towards the table and tried imagining her family in this room; she felt it might be too small for them.
She sat on the chair meant for Derrick because it was built like a throne. She sat on the seat and drummed her hand on the table. Her chest was still thumping really loud.
She really wanted to call the emergency or the police, but she had seen another note under her door earlier warning her not to call the police.
She suspected that maybe someone had mimicked her friend's handwriting, but she was too afraid to call anyone.
Thinking more articulately, everyone in the house was dead except her; who would believe it? What would she do? She asked herself. A hand tapped her on her shoulder, "Wake up, sleepy head" she heard a voice say.
- Writer
