What Went Wrong After I Killed Him

Chapter Two: An Accident, again

Ava's POV

Maya Alvarez's face filled the screen, blotchy from crying. A police officer stood beside her.

"I saw her," she said. "I saw the girl who did it."

My stomach dropped straight through the floor.

The remote slipped from my fingers.

The house was very quiet that day, I screamed and shouted for help but no one came.

Even when I was leaving, the house was completely empty.

Or maybe she came after I was gone.

Then how did she see me, unless someone had told her exactly what to say.

I couldn't think straight anymore.

My hand shook as I turned the volume up.

The reporter pressed her. "Can you describe her?"

The maid hesitated.

"Dark hair." She paused again.

“Tall..she ran out through the back door” she finally said.

Dark hair. Tall. That described half the women in New York.

She wasn’t saying everything.

I’d been to that house a hundred times, and she's seen me before, we've had conversations before.

If she’d really seen someone, she wouldn’t be hiding it from the police.

But if this was all a plan, then,

How did they realise, the murderer was a girl.

How did they know she was tall.

My head was spinning, this case was getting more complicated.

Going to Ethan's house right now wasn't an option, not with Mr. Cole's men probably crawling all over the Upper East Side by now, watching the block, waiting for me to be stupid enough to show my face there again.

Maya was the only one who could help, and I really had to see her.

She lived up in Washington Heights, almost forty-five minutes away if traffic cooperated. It was too far to walk, too risky to sit in a cab the whole way, because of cameras, drivers who remember faces, GPS logs. I had the driver drop me a dozen blocks short, near the George Washington Bridge bus station, and walked the rest of the way through streets that got quieter and darker the further north I went.

I was dressed in a complete black outfit. A black trousers and black hoodie big enough to swallow my face.

I didn't know if the police or Mr. Cole were watching Maya's building. Maybe that was the plan, let her draw me out. But whatever it was, I was ready to take the risk.

I got to Maya’s building around 11pm, but I didn’t go in.

I sat in the stairwell for an hour, watching, for any cops. But no one, at least, no one suspicious.

When the hallway cleared, I moved.

Maya lived alone and she wasn't home, her door was also locked.

Waiting in the hallway wasn't a good idea.

So I did something stupid.

I pulled the bobby pin from my hoodie and worked the lock until it clicked. She wasn't home so I had too wait.

She came home ten minutes later, but froze at the doorway when she saw me. Her hand went to her phone.

I pulled my hood down before she could dial.

“Ava?” Her shoulders dropped. A shaky breath of relief.

“What are you doing here” she asked, relieved but still alert.

“I have something to say to you” I said trying to get her to listen.

“I was–”

“You killed Ethan” She interrupted, I wanted to ask how she knew, but i had more important things to say

“Maya listen” I stepped forward, with my hands up like that would make me look less dangerous.

“I killed him out of self defense…he tried to force himself on me, I screamed at the top of my voice but no one came, I know you weren't there that day” I said looking at Maya, who just kept on shaking her head.

“Maya, I know everything you said on the news was staged” I said stepping forward, and Maya moving away from me.

“Maya please listen”

“The police are looking for you,” she whispered. “You should turn yourself in.”

“Haven't you be listening to everything I said, I was also a victim,why don't you understand” I snapped, raising my voice a little.

“Forget about me, Ava, there's no one who can help you escape the Coles” Maya also raised her voice a little.

“Just turn yourself in, and safe us all the stress” Maya finally said.

“Turn myself in?” I laughed, but it came out broken. “To what? A lie? Did you see me, Maya?”

“Yes, Ava it was all staged, the only thing we knew from the investigation was the murderer was a girl” Maya paused.

“But I'm sure they will find you very soon” Maya said.

“Maya, why don't we sit and talk” I said trying to go closer to her. All I wanted was too have a peaceful conversation with her, but she kept moving away.

Maya and I weren't friends, exactly, but we'd been close. Whenever I went to Ethan's house, we always chatted like old friends.

“I don't care what situation you were in, killing anybody wasn't an option, and even I can't save you. Mr Cole is determined to find his son's killer” Maya said.

"I don't care," I snapped again. It wasn't hard to understand my situation, she was a woman too. "I don't care what you think of what I did. Whatever happened was an accident, and I did it to survive. I'm not getting caught. No matter what.”

Then her hand moved towards her phone.

Panic shot through me.

“No!”

I lunged. Swatted it out of her hand before she could grab it.

The phone clattered to the floor. The screen cracked.

Maya dropped to her knees for it.

I grabbed her arm. “Don’t. Don’t you dare—”

She twisted away, hard, and shoved past me toward the counter, reaching for the landline mounted on the wall. I caught her wrist and yanked her back. She stumbled, throwing an arm out to catch herself against the kitchen counter.

There was an open knife block there, one blade sticking out.

I heard the sound before I saw it.

A dull and awful thud.

Maya gasped, and her eyes went wide, then her Legs gave out.

She slid down the wall, slowly, and she didn't get back up.

The apartment went silent, a really deafening silence.

I stood there, my chest heaving,Staring at the lifeless Maya.

Staring at the blood, at the knife.

Staring at Maya, who's eyes were wide open but couldn't see anything.

She was dead.

I just killed Maya.

My hands started shaking.

“No, no, no—” I whispered. “Maya? Maya, get up. That was an accident. That was—”

She didn't move.

I had come here for answers.

But things just got worse.

I slid down the wall next to her.

“Maya? Please. Please wake up.”

I was crying now, holding her hand, that was already cold.

I stood up, ready to run for, but then,my phone buzzed in my pocket.

I didn't check because I didn't have the time too.

I just ran out, making sure to be extra careful and quiet.