Page 107 of The Ripper

“I can…” the firefighter looked me in the face again, and something in my eyes must have spooked him, because he shut his mouth, stepped aside and let us through.

The lobby was empty.

All five elevators had their doors open.

Ominous silence filled the space.

~ Knock. Knock. Knock.

Every step I took felt like a bullet, while each flight of stairs seemed to slowly kill me as my lungs burned.

Cold sweat coated my skin as I climbed three steps at a time, keeping my eyes up, hoping to see her.

I prayed.

My ears rang loudly, and my heart seemed to stop beating because its life support was nowhere in sight.

I kicked open the door that led to the corridor of the last floor.

Hope started to slither away.

My heart sank when I saw that my door had been forced open, and I drew my gun and ran toward it as I heard Damiano’s panting behind me.

I pushed it open with my foot and stepped into a pool of blood.

The blood of all seven of the guards I had on watch, who now lay in a pile of bleeding flesh on the floor, their throats slit.

~ Knock, knock and fucking knock. Let me in. Let me in.

“Arella,” I shouted.

No one answered.

“She’s not here,” Damiano said behind me when he finally caught up to me, his rasping breath making me even angrier.

~ Kill him.

“Don’t fucking say that.”

I shoved him against the wall and pressed my forearm to his trachea.

The bastard seemed unfazed.

“I found this on the stairs,” he said, raising his right arm, which held a pink, fluffy slipper.

I let go of him and took the slipper out of his hand, looking at it as if it were Satan incarnate.

The realization slowly crept in as I searched the apartment. I opened every door and every cupboard. I looked under every bed. I saw with my own eyes that she wasn’t there.

My prayers had been in vain.

~ Knock.

Hope died.

~ Knock.

I found her phone on the couch, lost between her colorful pillows.

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