"Are you okay?"
Sarah McGee barely acknowledged the voice of the cab driver in the seat in front of her. She was looking at her hands. They were slick with a red substance. Blood. How did blood get on her hands?
Sarah looked down. Blood. How did blood get on her arms?
Sarah moved her arms. Blood! How did blood get on her clothes?
She glanced at the seat beside her and saw a glint of moonlight reflect off a knife. A knife! What was a knife doing in a cab? With her?!
Sarah began to hyperventilate. In between short, quick breaths the cab driver once again asked "Are you okay?" but this time there was a touch of concern in his voice. Since the girl had climbed into the backseat of his car, she was hidden in darkness. He didn't see the blood.
She had yet to give him directions. "Miss?" he asked. "Do I need to call someone?"
This time Sarah heard him. "N-no. Just, t-take me to my br-brother...please." She couldn't think of anyone who she would feel safer with.
"Your brother." The driver put his key into the ignition. "What's his address?"
Sarah managed to calm herself down enough to tell him the address. But sobs were just below the surface, ready to break free at any moment.
Worried, the driver started on his way. He could still hear short gasps of breath coming from the girl. He wondered if he should pull over and call 911. But he kept going.
When he pulled up at the apartment, the girl stumbled out of the cab and began staggering towards the building.
"Wait!" The driver started to roll down his window to inform the girl she needed to pay. But then he caught a glimpse of the blood running down her arms. Afraid he was imagining things, but more afraid he wasn't, he chose to let it go.
Sarah hurried into the lobby of the apartment building. She attempted to take deep breaths, but tears threatened to take over. She leaned against the wall trying to compose herself, knowing her brother wasn't far.
She pressed her fingers against her temples, trying to remember which apartment her big brother occupied. In an attempt to clear her mind, a thought came to her, something that she couldn't believe hadn't occurred to her before when she saw the blood.
Sarah had murdered someone.
She gasped and the barrier that was keeping her tears away broke.
Sobs burst from Sarah's chest. She covered her mouth, knowing people in the building were sleeping. Hoping that her brother wasn't, she wandered the empty hall, softly crying as her eyes raked the numbers on the walls, trying to find 3, her brother's apartment number.
It wouldn't have taken so long if she could think clearly. Finding it, she stumbled up to the door and knocked, tears running down her cheeks.
"I'm sorry," Sarah heard the muffled voice of her brother from behind the door. Thank God he's not asleep! she thought with relief.
The door swung open. "It was an accident. It won't happen again," he was saying. He stopped, speechless to see his sister.
Looking up into the green eyes of her big brother, Sarah whimpered. He looked at her, bewildered, confused, and concerned by the blood all over his little sister.
She controlled her tears long enough to cry, "I think I killed someone, Tim!"