A snitch

As Rebecca walked out of the house, Wendy tried as much as possible to stop her but all to no avail.

“Mr Eric would get angry if you leave without telling me your whereabouts. By the way, it’s getting late and he’ll return soon.” She had tried all she could to persuade her but Rebecca was stubborn.

She needed answers and she would get it.

She took a taxi to Ella’s apartment and fortunately the sitting room door was opened slightly, indicating Ella was home.

As she was about to enter the living room, she heard familiar voices chatting, more like an argument. She wanted to go inside and see what was making them raise their voice at each other, but her steps halted when she heard these words, “You can’t lie to me! I know you called Axel.”

Her heart skipped a beat at the mention of his name. What were they talking about? And who called him?

Unable to suppress her curiosity, she walked into the house and the two girls were shocked to see her.

“Rebecca?” Whitney called, flabbergasted by her sudden presence.

Rebecca ignored their surprise stares and stopped walking when she got to their middle.

“Who called Axel? How? Why?” She questioned.

She could see the frustration and fear on their faces when she asked the question, but none of them was ready to answer her.

She clutched the edge of her floral gown tightly, trying to control the heat and anger surging through her. She didn’t want to do or say anything stupid to her friends, not now nor never.

She took deep breaths, calming her self down. Her gaze moved from Whitney to Ella, resting on her face which had an expression Rebecca couldn’t read. Was she worried? Was she scared?

“You know something I don’t know, right?” She asked them and the way guilt washed over their face couldn’t be unseen.

“Rebecca, I…” Whitney and Ella spoke at once. They exchanged glares before looking back at her.

“One at a time.” Rebecca mumbled.

None of them immediately said a word. When Ella noticed Whitney was waiting for her to speak first, she decided to take the lead.

“Remember the day you came back home after your abduction?” Whitney paused. When Rebecca nodded, she continued, “While arranging your room, I found an envelope under your pillow. I was curious, so I opened it and found a written letter in it...”

“What letter?” Rebecca cuts in quickly.

“It says,

It’s not too late to work things out, Becca. The butterfly tattoo engraved on your wrist proved that you didn’t move on, not for once. When you’re done processing what happened lately, call me.

“Then he wrote his number under it.” Ella concluded.

Rebecca scoffed, her heart burning in anger. “Then why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because you were happy after you returned, you accepted to go back to Eric and we couldn’t ruin that. So we decided to keep it as a secret.” Whitney replied on Ella’s behalf.

“However, Whitney decided to snitch.” Ella muttered, glaring at Whitney.

“What did she do?”

“I gave her the letter and I’m sure she reached out to Axel, because she’s been acting secretive and strange… Last night, we were gisting over the phone, and she brought the topic of Mrs Olivia up, asking me if I knew her recent place of residence. Then today, the woman was killed. Isn’t it strange?” Ella pointed out.

“And then Axel showed up and left a note for me to watch the news.” Rebecca mumbled, trying to fix the puzzle.

“It was just a coincidence!” Whitney defended herself.

Rebecca shook her head, trying to shake off the thoughts in her head. “Don’t tell me…” She couldn’t bring herself to believe the thoughts in her head.

“Look how Rebecca is stressing over this issue. If you know something just say it!” Ella snapped, already losing her cool.

Whitney took a deep breath and took a step closer to Rebecca. “I’m sorry,” She apologized, because she knew what she was about to say would annoy Rebecca and there might be consequences.

“I did call the number written on the letter, and I spoke to Axel. He wanted me to keep an eye on you and report back to him, but I swear I wasn’t the one that told him your house address, I don’t even know where you live now.” She confessed.

Rebecca felt betrayed. It wasn’t a big deal but she felt pain in her heart. Why would Whitney be in contact with the boy that hurt her badly, the boy she badly wanted to see in pain and tears.

“About Mrs olivia…” Whitney paused, contemplating on whether to say it or not. What worse could happen? It was better she spill out everything now.

“He asked if I knew mrs Olivia’s whereabouts and that was why I asked Ella. I told him her address.”

Rebecca felt a bang on her head. The dots, they were finally connecting. Axel asked for mrs Olivia’s address and then she died the next day, it wasn’t a coincidence. The letter she found in the bouquet proved it wasn’t.

“Does that mean Axel has something to do with her death?” Ella asked, she was confused. Because Axel had no connection with Mrs Olivia, he had no reason to kill her.

“I don’t know, I swear to God!” Whitney raised her hands up.

The whole time, Rebecca was quiet. She had a lot going through her mind that words would be able to express.

“Put him on the line.” She said all of a sudden.

“You wanna speak to him?” Whitney asked to be sure.

“Fucking put that motherfucker on the line!”

Whitney and Ella flinched, they weren’t expecting her sudden outburst.

Whitney took out her phone from her pocket and dialed a number, it rang and there was no answer. She dialed the number again and the call was answered at the second ring.

He didn’t say a word, neither did Whitney.

Rebecca grabbed the phone from Whitney and placed it on loud speaker.

“Do you have anything to do with Mrs Olivia’s death?” Rebecca wasn’t the type of girl that liked long talk, she liked going straight to the point.

She didn’t immediately hear a reply. After for like what took forever to Rebecca, his voice was suddenly heard.

“Do I need to kill more people just to hear your voice?”

Rebecca’s brows dropped, a deep frown appeared on her face. “Why do you mean by that?”

“Did you like the flowers?“ He sounded less concerned and it infuriated Rebecca.

“Do you have something to do with her death?!” She asked again, raising her voice this time around.

Silence. He didn’t reply.

“Axel.” She called cooly, more of a reminder that she was awaiting his reply.

“Yes.” He replied her in same tone.

The phone almost slipped from her hand, but she was able to tighten her grip on it.

Axel, a killer?

Tears threatened to fall from her eyes but she held it back. She wouldn’t cry because of him, never!

“Why? Why did you do it?” The question escaped her lips in form of a whisper.

“Take off your shirt.” He instructed through the phone. “Look at the scars on your back through the mirror, you’ll know why.” With that being said, the call went disconnected. Axel had hung up.

The phone finally fell from Rebecca’s hand, crashing to the floor.

“Are you okay?” Whitney asked in concern.

Rebecca opened her mouth to reply, but her lips suddenly became too heavy to lift. Her legs stayed glued to the ground and her vision became blur. It didn’t take up to twenty seconds before she gave in to the darkness, and crashed to the floor, loosing consciousness.