Thank you: UndRestimated42, SolitudeMyLove, .stars, HarrylovesGinny09, HandswithRoses, KK, lalala17, iloveu, .BeyondConfused, msbookworm93, MzPink4, crazyatbest, .dreamers, and Television Lover.
This chapter is unlike anything I've ever written. It was really hard for me to write and it's kind of… gruesome. So if it's awful, that's why haha.
I took hold of Ezra's hand as we made our way up to Jackie's apartment. I had Ezra's hand interlocked with one of mine, while my other hand held Jackie's journal. When we reached the door, I knocked twice. I glanced at Ezra, who had a fearful look in his eyes. We waited a moment before I knocked again.
No answer.
"Aria, she's not here. Let's just go back home." Ezra sighed, as he let go of my hand.
Jackie probably was home, but just was not answering the door. It was completely possibly that she had realized that I found her journal, meaning I knew the truth about Maria.
A wave of anger washed over me as I thought about what a cowardly thing to do by not answering the door, would be. How could Jackie be scared of me? She made it clear when she kissed Ezra a few months ago, that she obviously did not care that Ezra was already dating someone else.
As we started walking away from the door, I reached for Ezra's hand. As he was about to take my hand in his, I heard a crash come from inside of Jackie's apartment. I sprinted back towards the door and knocked again.
"Aria, what are you doing? She's not here." Ezra said.
"Didn't you just hear that?" I pressed my ear against the door again listening for any more noise.
"Hear what?" Ezra walked back over to me, very confused.
"Th-that crash." I slowly turned towards Ezra.
"Where's that key Jackie gave you to her apartment?" I asked him frantically.
Ezra stuck his hand in his pocket and pulled out a lone silver key. I snatched it from his hands and quickly shoved it into the keyhole.
I burst into the apartment, with Jackie's journal in my hand, ready to destroy her for hurting Ezra and for hiding from me. Ezra quietly closed the door behind us, as I was welcomed by an empty living room. As I looked around, nothing seemed out of place. On top of the table, sat a plate of brownies and two glasses of milk, both glasses half drunken. It was very odd that there was food on the table when no one appeared to be home. I turned to Ezra, who had a confused look on his face. Jackie had told us her plans for the day earlier, when she was at our house: take Maria to see Ezra, go grocery shopping, and then go home. It was impossible that she was still out grocery shopping because she had left our house over four hours ago. Ezra and I walked around the apartment, looking for any sign of Jackie or Maria. I knew that someone had to be here; because of the crash I had heard before we walked inside. As I walked into the bathroom, I saw something black moving through my peripheral vision. However, before I could get a clear view of whatever or whoever it was, it was gone.
As I walked into the bedroom, a bloodcurdling scream left my lips.
"ARIA!" Ezra was by my side in an instant and gasped at the sight in front of him.
I let out a whimper as I buried my face in Ezra's chest. He wrapped his arms tightly around me, as tears streamed down both of our faces. I clung onto him and kept envisioning his face as I tried to erase the image I had just seen from my mind. However, my trick was not working at all.
Jackie was lying down on the floor of her bedroom surrounded by her own puddle of blood. Her body was all cut up and as soon as I saw her, I immediately knew she was dead. Maria was lying face down on Jackie's bed, also surrounded by blood.
Ezra let go of me and rushed over to Maria. He flipped her body over so that her back was on the bed. All the color was drained from his face and I saw some tears escape his eyes. I felt so bad for Ezra, because Maria was like his own daughter. I let out another loud sob as I looked at Jackie again. Even though I was mad at her for lying to Ezra, she didn't deserve to be killed! Who in the world would have killed Jackie and why?
I watched Ezra as he placed two fingers on Maria's neck, as he tried to detect a pulse.
"There's barely a pulse!" Ezra gasped as he turned towards me.
"Call 911!" He ordered me as he begun CPR on Maria. I frantically pulled my phone out of my pocket and quickly dialed the numbers.
"911. What's your emergency?" A lady on the other end answered.
I spent the next three minutes quickly explaining the situation at hand.
"Paramedics and the police are on their way." I told Ezra, as I rushed back over to him. I saw something bright red on the wall from the corner of my eye.
As I slowly walked towards the wall, tears begun to rapidly fall from my eyes as I registered what was in front of me.
Written in bright red paint, were the words, "You owe me bitch."
As I ran my fingers over the message on the wall, some of the excess paint coated my finger. The overwhelming smell of it filled my nostrils. I gasped as I realized what the so-called 'paint' was. It was not paint at all.
"Blood." I said, in barely a whisper. As I glanced back over to Jackie, my mind quickly made the connection. Whoever had did this had written this message in Jackie's blood.
"Ezra…" I whispered, as I reread the words. As he turned towards me, I pointed to the far wall, directing him where to look.
"Oh my God." Ezra froze as soon as he read the words written on the wall. A look of immense fear was etched on both of our faces. As I looked at the message again, everything suddenly clicked.
"A did this." I managed to say, in between sobs. There was no other explanation. My mind raced as I put all the pieces of the puzzle together. What was written on the wall was clearly an A message. I gasped as I realized that flash of black I had seen a moment ago in the bathroom was A. A was here. A had done this and it had not happened that long ago.
Ezra stayed quiet for a moment as everything begun to sink in, before he exploded with anger.
"How the hell do we explain this to the police?" Ezra asked angrily, as he begun chest compressions on Maria. "Oh, hey, some stalker who calls themselves by a single letter did all this." He said sarcastically, gesturing to Jackie and Maria. "That will go down well."
Both Ezra and I jumped as we heard a door slam. As Ezra jumped off of the bed away from Maria, I ran into his arms and he put them around me protectively.
A moment of silence passed as we waited for another noise, before I shoved Ezra's muscular arms off of my body and I ran from the apartment.
"Aria!" I heard Ezra exclaim. I ignored his cry for me as I sprinted into the hallway, in search of the person who had slammed the door. I saw a glimpse of someone in black clothes and a black mask turn the corner. I immediately knew it was A. However, upon spotting A, as soon as I blinked my eyes, the person was gone.
I tore down the hallway, desperate to catch them, but the corridor was completely empty. A was already gone. My legs burned from all the power I was exerting on them in so little time.
I ran back into the apartment to see Ezra kneeling next to Maria with tears rolling down his face.
A moment later, paramedics burst through the door to Jackie's apartment with a stretcher in hand. Ezra and I watched as Maria and Jackie were loaded onto stretchers.
Both Ezra and I had tears rolling down our faces as we watched the scene in front of us unfold.
A Rosewood policeman that I did not recognize entered the apartment a moment later and started bombarding us with questions. Ezra held me in his arms as I continued to cry, while he answered all the questions.
How could A be so evil? What kind of malicious person could do everything A has done to us and not feel any remorse about it at all? Another sob escaped my throat as my thoughts went crazy. Ezra tightened his hold on me, while I continued to cry, staining his shirt with my tears.
"Do you want us to take you to the hospital?" A paramedic asked me, eying my pregnant belly.
I shook my head, unable to speak because I was crying so hard.
"Are you sure you don't want to go, Aria? They can just check on you and make sure everything's okay. All this stress can't be good for the baby." Ezra whispered in my ear.
I shook my head, not wanting to go. Thankfully, the overprotective side of Ezra did not pester me about it.
We were told to leave the apartment so the police could start searching around for clues for their new murder investigation.
The car ride back to our house was silent. Ezra held my hand in his as I curled up in the front seat and cried.
What scared me the most was how much power A had over everyone I knew and me. I wrapped my arms around my waist in a protective manner. I remembered a text A had sent me a few months ago, about A hurting my baby.
A shrill ringing interrupted my train of thought. I wiped away some of the tears on my face with my hand as I picked up Ezra's cell phone out of the cup holder it was sitting in. My heart skipped a beat as I read the caller ID. It portrayed an unknown number. I was about to answer it, before I stopped myself. What if it was A? A only sends us messages through an unknown number. I suddenly realized that if A talked to me, then I might be able to recognize their voice, helping me to figure out who A actually was! I flipped open the phone and was greeted by the same policeman that had come to Jackie's apartment.
He informed me that Maria had passed away in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. We conversed for a moment more before I hung up the phone in a state of complete shock.
"Maria's dead." I whispered to Ezra, as I begun crying even harder than before. As I thought about the text A had sent me months ago about hurting my baby, I realized that A's message was completely true, however, it was not meant for me. It was meant for Ezra and Jackie. Maria was Ezra's little girl, well, kind of, and A committed an unforgivable crime towards her. A took Maria away from Ezra… forever.
Tears fell harder and quicker down my cheeks as the reality of what was happening around me finally begun to completely sink in.
The police had no evidence of who committed the murder. We had no idea who was posing to be A. As I wracked my brain for some person to come to mind who would do something so horrific, no one in particular came to mind. Sure, the girls and I had done some mean things back when Alison was alive, but we never did anything that made us deserve to have a malicious stalker trail us and murder people we knew, did we?
Even though Ezra and I knew exactly who the offender of the crime was, I knew that if either of us told the police about A, A would strike again, possibly in a more gruesome way than the last.
So… I don't know how I feel about this chapter. I've already planned most of the next chapter though, and so far, it looks much better than this one. What did you guys think? Was it too evil of me to kill off Jackie and Maria? REVIEW PLEASE! Love you all!
If you guys think that it was wayy too mean of me to have A murder Jackie and Maria, then if it really is bothering any of you, I can delete this one and give you guys an alternate chapter instead that involves Jackie's reaction and no deaths. Let me know if you want me to change this chapter or not. I've already planned out the storyline for the rest of the story for either way you guys want me to do it. So I don't mind if you guys want me to change this. Thanks!