Dirty Dark Secrets

00:01 - Secrets

I couldn't move, run, or anything to save myself as Ralph wanted.

I was frozen, shivering, tears flowing down my face. 

At that moment, I knew I was a dead person. I didn't care for anything else in this world, my friends, my parents, including the tears that stirred with my mascara and came staining what should be Eugene's birthday dress. 

Then the boy's intense blue eyes meet my blurred ones. 

He held a frown that resembled satisfaction.

Now run! I ordered myself. And I did, but it was late.

The young boy was fast enough to stop me with just his words.  

"You take another step. I push the alarm button and let them know an invader in white dress killed my father."

His father? What the actual f**k?

Does that mean I could be the person of interest? And he could frame me without anyone suspecting a s**t.

Of course, I walked into a crime scene. 

Now I can panic even more.

"You killed Ralph Phillips!" I stammered, trembling when I slowly turned back. 

"No, you did!" The boy smirked, predatory advancing towards me. 

I shouldn't pay attention to all details, but unfortunately, I did. For the boy wasn't one you just flashes a glance and pass over. 

No, he was an excellent creation of God, craved in the finest quality of men. He was tall, but you could tell the youthfulness in his features. He has a long neck that exhibits two thin wires disappearing into his black signature shirt and a bulged Adam apple pointing at me from the upper middle of his throat. 

He had the rich boy, born-from-money resume, that anyone could tell he was brought up in an old-money surrounding. 

There's something tidy and wild, calm and chilly about him. His blonde hair was full and healthy. 

The boy was too handsome and gracious for a murderer, yet he killed Ralph's Phillips in front of me. 

"A child never kills their parent. But the daughter of an associate could." He accused, smiling malevolently, towards me. 

Afraid, I withdraw until my back collides with the hard door behind me. "No! No! No!"

His head c**k to the side. He shrugged, staring down at the weapon he used on his father, if I was correct.

"And then you and your family will sink so low; everyone will be disgusted by your selfishness." He condemned, his eyes spiking with distaste. 

He was framing me.  

"Do you want that?" He asked, with a frown on his face. 

"You are a monster." I squeaked, suppressing the contents, trying to bust out of my mouth. With the stained dagger in his hand and a dead body in the room, all I wanted to do was to throw up. "What are you going to do? Drop a murder on me?" I laugh-sobbed.

I was just here to wish my boyfriend a happy birthday, and I got trapped in this. 

Oh my... Did he get to Eugene? Did he hurt him? 

I couldn't bring myself to portray my boyfriend's dead body on his birthday. 

"That's if you didn't comply with my rules." He looked up, certainly meaning his words. I could tell from his stare. 

Oh my God.

"You will confess in a twisted plot. About the murderer running through the deck when they notice a movement." He glances at the open door. Spend a quality period studying the angle before he stepped closer, Instinctively causing me to press against the door, with no space to run: "It is hard to identify the person because they had masks and gloves on." His voice was resonant, deep, and full as he whispered in my ear. He had his eyes sexually examining my hair in detail. "The table is scattered, so they took some files and escaped." He completed. 

"It will seem like his colleagues, and the investigation will start from there."  He confidentially confirmed while tracing the tip of his nose along my jaw. I could feel the heat of his breath as he sniffed my skin until his eyes lock with mine. 

"What is wrong with you? Who kills their parents?" I spat, nudging his chest with all the strength I had, hoping I could escape. He stumbled and lost balance from the unexpected assault. 

And I was able to pull the doorknob. 

The door was quarter way open when he firmly clasps my neck and strangles me, slamming the door shut with his other hand. 

My back to his front as he pressed me against the door.

"You see, I have another option." He growls, sounding out of patience. "Is either you take that generous option, or I kill you too." I felt the coldness and wetness of metal against my throat. 

The murder weapon.

I quiver quietly, crying in his grip. 

"Will this get out?" He questioned, tightening his clutch to my neck. 

My lungs shut down.

I choked, sought air, but he denied me.

"No!" My head shook instantly. 

All I needed was oxygen and my parents.

"Who killed Ralph Phillips?" His edgy voice echoed in my ear like an ancient foggy forest. 

"An anonymous... Man wearing a mask... And gloves... Who stole some f-files and fled through the deck." I croaked, trembling between his body and the door. 

I felt his fierce smile on his breath, albeit I couldn't see his face.

Who's he? 

"Pinky swear." He holds up his little finger in my face.

What? Who does that? 

Worst in this situation? 

Not reciprocating could lead to my death, I remember. 

"Pinky swear." I cracked into a heart-aching sob, locking my little finger with his. 

It was then I knew I had sinned, and I was going to live with it forever until karma found its way to me.

"Good. My dirty dark secret." He whispered, finally letting go of my neck.

Air! I draw in desperately. 

He quietly watches me sputter coughs for half a minute before he orders. "Now scream!"

***

Funerals and mourning were foreign to me because I've never buried a loved one.

Don't get me wrong, I lost my grandparents, but that's before I even got to know them and connect with them.

But Ralph Phillips's death was different. 

For one, I knew the man. I've had some dinners with him and his nephew. He was kind of a boss to my father, and he was my neighbor. He had relaxed at my father's place and played golf in my family's golf course. 

And for two, I watched the man got killed. I do know exactly who his murderer is, but I didn't let the law avenge his death and have him rest in peace as people had been wishing. I'd led everyone through the wrong path. 

And it was all on me. 

Haunting began at the graveyard as I watched the man who counts on me for his justice get buried in front of me yet appears to be every face at the burial.

I left before the funeral was completed, hiding in my parent's Limousine, where Ralph appears opposite me, reminding me of the weight on my shoulders. 

I closed my eyes and blocked my hearing, with both my palms to my ears, reciting a silly poem my dad used to sing for me when I was little before I went to sleep. 

"Mary had a little lamb, Little lamb, little lamb, Mary had a little lamb, Its fleece was white as snow, And everywhere that Mary went, Mary went, Mary went, Everywhere that Mary went, The lamb was sure to go; He followed her to school one day, School one day, school one day,

He followed her to school one day, Which was against the rule; It made the children laugh and play, Laugh and play, laugh and play, It made the children laugh and play, To see a lamb at school, And so the teacher turned him out, Turned him out, turned him out, So the teacher turned him out, But still he lingered near, And waited patiently about, Patiently about, patiently about, Waited patiently about, Till Mary did appear; Why does the lamb love Mary so? Mary so, Mary so, Why does the lamb love Mary so? The eager children cried; Why Mary loves the lamb, you know, Lamb you know, lamb you know, Why Mary loves the lamb, you know, The teacher did reply; Mary had a little lamb, Little lamb, little lamb, Mary had a little lamb, Its fleece was white as snow."

Until the day was over. 

That night of the murder, after my screams that woke every attention: I had told the wrong information to police officers, Ralph securities, my boyfriend, who held me in his arms and promised the image in my eyes with fade with time. 

I had manipulated my parent into believing the lies too. 

When that boy: the actual son of Ralph Phillips, who stood unaffected as he watched the burial of his father, had made sure of what I spoke or my family kiss life goodbye. 

And so, while I ran crazy, losing all those titles I had in school, I kept that dirty dark secret with me that night, the next day, the next month, and subsequent years.