Act 3 | Chapter 9

It was quite the next day. Not a single sound was coming from Riley's room. No music, no sound of swords clashing from her computer, nothing. Maybe she was just sleeping in really late because of the long drive? That's what I want to believe, but a part of me wondered if maybe she was just feeling depressed now. I mean, she just found out that her girlfriend has killed people before. I'm sure if I was in her shoes, I'd feel the same way. To help me pass the time, I hunched over the kitchen table and doodled into my sketchbook. I was drawing wings onto the back of a human, posing in a sitting position, with the wings outstretched high into the sky, and with the girl looking down at whatever was below her. The drawing was a good way to help distract me from the problems of my day to day life, even now. For a brief moment, I could forget about all the problems that transpired last week. But I just couldn't forget them completely. I couldn't forget that Riley isn't feeling good now because of me. By killing that man, I must have done something to her, whether that be scaring, or traumatizing her. I hope it's neither of the two.

It didn't feel right, for it to be this quiet in Riley's apartment. She hadn't come out to eat breakfast or even greet her mother when she woke up. I couldn't take the feeling anymore and stand up. Riley's room was just down the hall, and slowly, I approached the door. After gently knocking on it, I waited for a response and only got one after a couple of seconds of silence.

"Yeah?" Riley said from the other side in a low tone of voice.

"M- May I come in?" I heard Riley take a deep breath on the other side of the door before opening it a crack and looking out at me. After another moment of silent staring, she looked down and opened the door a little wider for me to enter.

"How are you feeling?" I asked her, stepping into her room. The bedsheets where carelessly leaning over the side of the bed, with some of Riley's things having been moved around slightly.

"I'm fine, Zoey." She grunted in response.

"Are you sure? I feel like your mad at me. Or... disappointed."

Riley looked at me and sat down on her bed. She shuddered and fell onto her back, staring blankly up at the white ceiling above her.

"I don't know Zoe."

"I know it can be hard at first."

"It's not exactly easy coping with the fact my girlfriend is fucking murder." She lowered the tone of her voice.

"I- I'm... I only..." I couldn't think of the right way to phrase it. Every time I tried thinking of a way in my head it just didn't come out right. "I can't... fuck." I sat down on the bed beside her.

"I'm sorry Zoey. I love you, I really do." She paused for a brief moment, "But I don't know what to think about your murders." Riley went quiet again. She stayed like this for some time, and I don't know if it was because she didn't know what to say, or she was just afraid to say them. But I waited for her patiently to finish speaking, and once she turned her head to look at me, Riley let out a long, and deep breath before responding.

"J- Just... we have to keep this a secret. No one can know you did any of that."

"No. No one can. Y- Your not mad at me?"

"I'm conflicted." She replied, and sat up to lean against my shoulder.

"I know." My arm wrapped around Riley's shoulders and I pulled her a bit closer into an almost half-hug. She didn't move and just went quiet again. It didn't take long for me to notice that she was tearing up and sniffling. Seeing it only filled me with more guilt. I don't want Riley to feel bad because of this. She shouldn't have had to know any of this. For someone who was really into horror movies and death, I never expected her to react like this to this kind of situation. I guess Riley wasn't the kind of person I thought she was. Someone who was caring, who had a bit of a dark side, but still had boundaries. Like one of those people who are alright watching horror films, but once they see an accident like that in real life they panic.

"Do you maybe wanna just relax for a bit?" I asked her. Riley gave me a slow and tired nod, before breaking away and laying down onto the bed again. I chose to lay beside her, and wrapped my arm around her torso, holding her close. All I could do was try to comfort her and apologize. "I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry too," she replied, after another long pause.

"I don't know what to say... or what to do to make you feel better?" I whispered into her ear.

"I'll be fine, Zoe." Riley whipped the tears from her eyes, "I just want to forget it even happened." After a moment of thinking about it, I nodded my head in agreement with her.

"Yeah. Me too." If I could go back in time and prevent myself from killing that man, I would. Not Maria and Hannah though. It was because of this stupid fucking stranger that my secret got out. That and I got drunk too. So it's... all our faults. Riley offered me a beer, I drank it, got drunk, and killed someone. IF only I was more responsible. I can't tell Riley about this."

"Zoey," Riley started, "Promise me you won't go killing anyone again... please?"

"I don't plan on it. I promise." This was a promise I had to keep no matter what. At this point, if I were to break that promise, I don't know what it would do to Riley. And I definitely don't want to find out.