Zack and I walk away from the crime scene after giving the police our phone numbers in case they need to contact us with any questions. I tried to tell them that it was the guy who tried to shoot Alex. But they blew me off as some sort of mental case, blaming the world on the attempted assassination of my friend. Though Zack and I considered it, we didn’t give the police the backpack.
‘16’ said it would help us and it’s pretty clear what his end of the game is now.
The drive back to the hospital is silent and the backpack remains shut. Neither Zack or I want to open it yet. Not without Rian. Maybe Alex, depending on how much he knows. The image of the shaking girl stays in my head though. It’s our fault she’s dead. We could have done more for her.
“I don’t know what to do Jack.” Zack says, his voice shaking slightly showing the fear he must be experiencing. The fear both of us are.
“I don’t either.” I say and look over at him. His cheeks are wet and his eyes are red.
“I can’t get her out of my head. The image of her body there… her crying and saying the terrible words of her killer. Jack if we hadn’t have come she’d probably be alive. She wouldn’t be dead. This whole thing would be over and he wouldn’t have been able to do anything to us because we wouldn’t be playing his game.” Zack starts rambling and tears start forming thicker in his eyes and rolling down his cheeks.
“I’m scared of what happens when we forfeit though.” I look over at Zack, “My best guess is he wants us to play for lives.” I can feel my cheeks get hot and myself start to cry. “I don’t know if we should play the game or risk the consequences of quitting.”
Zack pulls into the hospital parking lot and looks over at me with an expression of pain.
“What if it’s a warning?” he chokes, “That we’re next?” My heart falls in my chest and I hold back the tears that Zack can’t.
“I love you Jack. You’ve been one of my best friends for so fucking long.” He chokes out another sob. I reach over and rub his back slowly in circles.
“I love you too Zack. We’re going to be fine though.” I nod and try to smile at him. Even though I know this is the wrong time for smiling. “Come on. We have to go inside and talk to Alex and Rian. They’re waiting for us.” I watch as he nods and takes a deep breath calming himself.
“Okay.” Zack rubs his eyes and starts to get out of the car. I follow him, one of my hands on his shoulder in my pathetic attempt at comforting him. We make our way up to Alex’s room, Rian and him sit staring up at the wall mounted flat screen. Zack and I take a seat on the cushion on the windowsill.
“So.” Rian turns the TV off and looks over at us when he sees Zack and my red puffy eyes his expression softens. “What happened?”
“We were sitting in the coffee shop Alex directed to us. A girl was sitting in the corner wearing one of our T-shirts. She walked over and said something like ‘I’m glad you’re listening to me. This case will help you in the next part of our game.’” I swallow and look over at Alex’s expression before continuing. Hie eyebrows are furrowed in concentration as he stares at me absorbing every word I say. “’I feel so reckless and brave Ha. Ha.’” Alex swallows and looks down at his hands in his lap. “She gave us this backpack then walked out. We couldn’t stop her. Zack went to follow her.” I look over at him, his cheeks start to turn pale.
“That’s when we heard her scream.” Zack starts, “Then a gunshot. I got there just in time to see someone in a black hoodie run down the alley and watch her body fall back limp against the wall.” Zack swallows hard.
“She shot her brains out.” I groan and lean forward putting my face in my hands feeling like I’m going to vomit.
“Oh god.” Rian groans and does the same as me, I look up at him to see him dragging his nails along his neck.
“We can’t do this anymore.” Alex pipes in. “We aren’t going to respond to him. We’re not going to play what he calls a game. You can’t play a game without another player.” We all look up at him.
“What happens when we stop playing though?” I raise an eyebrow at him.
“I…. I don’t know.” He says and swallows hard.
“What if he has other girls? Other people captive ready for him to kill if we don’t obey him?” I look at my best friend my chest tightening.
“What if he doesn’t and that girl was just a warning. What if that was supposed to be what he did to Alex?” Zack groans and shakes his head in his hands.
“We also don’t know who of us is a target. Maybe he’s just going after the front man?” Rian blurts. “He already got Alex.”
“In that case that would leave me.” I swallow and shake my head.
“I don’t think that makes sense. You guys know how I watch those crime shows on Netflix and stuff?” Zack nods and thinks. “The killer always wants to get close to being caught. They point all the arrows at them, but then they make it look like it’s not them to the cops.”
“Where are you going with this?” Rian raises an eyebrow.
“I think we just need to take in all he gives us to figure out who he is. Evidence and stuff.” Zack looks up at all of us hopefully.
“I guess that could work” I shrug, “But we don’t know how good we all are at collecting evidence.”
“We could start with the backpack.” Rian looks at the red backpack in between my knees.
“Stop!” Alex practically shouts. “We’re just indulging him. We can’t feed into this and how do we know this is some psychopath killer?”
“Well he shot you and killed a teenage girl after delivering his little death package.” I mutter. Rian sighs and stands up picking the back pack up from between my knees. He sets it on the counter in the corner and unzips it pulling out a small briefcase with a code lock on it.
“Great.” Rian grumbles