This is part eight of The Cold Hard Truth. Hope you all enjoy it! (:
Paranoia can drive people crazy, but what if you already are crazy?
“Y-you were the last person to see I-isaac?”I asked with a stutter that I mentally cursed myself for having. Ruth’s face twisted into surprise. It was as if she didn’t mean for that little detail to slip out from between her lips. Maybe she really thought that I wasn’t paying attention.
“Yes, I guess I was. I mean, who else would’ve seen him after that?”She asked with worry coating her voice. Why was she so worried? Was she worried that I had found out her dirty little secret? Did she think that I thought that she killed my brother? Ruth bit her lip before more words started pouring from her mouth,”You don’t think that I killed Isaac? Do you? I wouldn’t kill him. I love him. Isabella, you have to believe that I love him, and that I would never kill him.” She grabbed me by my shoulders tightly. I winced in her grip before she continued with what she was saying,”Tell me that you believe that I would never kill him.”
“I believe that you would never kill him,”I said quietly with fear in my widened eyes. To my relief, she seemed to believe me and let go of her vice grip on my shoulders. She suddenly smiled at me as if nothing had happened.
“Good, because I don’t want you thinking that I caused this,”She said and started to leave my room before glancing back at me. “I’ll be talking to you later, Isabella,”She said before she walked out. She had voiced the words as if a threat was hidden in there somewhere.
“No,”I whispered to myself quietly,”Not a threat, a promise.” I shivered at the realization before standing from my bed. I stretched a little to wake up my limbs. I then walked to the bathroom before I stared at the closed door of my brother’s room. Crime scene tape was still on the door. I didn’t even read it as I opened the door slowly. I walked to my brother’s bed, and I suddenly shivered as a gust of wind flew into the room and looked to the open window. Why was it open? I walked slowly over to it and closed it before moving the latches so it was locked. I turned around only to be met face to face with my brother’s ghost.
“Look under the mattress,”Isaac told me in a deadpan voice. I was frozen in the spot that I was in. I couldn’t move at all. My brother seemed to notice this and hissed,”Do it!” I immediately started to walk over to the bed and looked to see that he was still there, watching me. I pushed the mattress aside and gasped softly at what was under it. A blood stained knife was lying there. I put my hand over my mouth and looked to my brother. His gaze was fixated on the knife. I looked back to it and reached out to touch it. I picked it up and held it in my hand.“Do you remember now?”My brother’s monotone voice snapped me out of my trance, and I looked to him.
“Remember what?”I asked with more confidence than I thought I had.
“Do you remember how you killed me?”He asked before he disappeared, leaving me to wonder why he kept thinking that I was the one to kill him.
