A LONG NIGHT (2)

Hailee averted her gaze from the lifeless body in front of her and casted the broken flower vase piece in her hand away.

Her fear overcame all the pain from the deep cuts in her hands, her body trembled violently and fell repeatedly as she tried to get up and reach the wall. She wanted to use it as a support to lean over for now, because her legs had long turned jelly.

Her heartbeat was so fast and it seemed that her heart was trying to escape from her chest with the way it was pounding heavily against her breastbone, which did not help Hailee in this condition either.

After what seemed like an eternity, the girl regained some energy and the first thing she did was walk into the bathroom. She did it while still staggering and once she successfully arrived inside, she vomited her guts down the toilet before she repeatedly flushed what had come out.

Still shaking just like a leaf in the cold wind, Hailee stepped toward the sink and stared at her own reflection in the mirror perched there.

A young woman with an extremely pale face and matted black hair framing her thin face, was the visual that greeted her. It seemed that in just a few hours of time, Hailee was feeling like she had aged and became a woman in her forties.

On the left side of her head, Hailee could notice the reddish scars she received by hitting the edge of the table and the broken flower vase, were turning into purplish bruises. Hailee could clearly see the tiny, bleeding incisions there.

With trembling hands, Hailee opened the water faucet and washed her face which was covered in sweat and blood, whether it was hers or the blood of the man in the next room. Hailee doesn't want to think about that now.

The stream of cold water that washed onto her face calmed the roaring of her heart and made her hands shake less.

The pain in her left temple also felt much better now that the blood had stopped flowing, or indeed Hailee no longer felt the pain because her brain was spinning to think of a way out so she didn't have time to complain about these wounds.

It took about half an hour for Hailee to cool off and leave the luxurious bathroom with a new determination.

She had considered the various options she was left with; first, she could turn herself to the police for her actions, but the idea was soon scratched by Hailee as there was no guarantee she would win the trial.

This old ruffian man was one of the top brass in T city, he was the district attorney there, with his influence and high position, there was no way Hailee could walk away clean after killing him.

Moreover, the son of that man was also from the same profession.

Hailee could imagine she would rot in prison for the rest of her life and of course, the chances of herself not being tormented again after going to jail were close to zero.

For people like them, hiring someone to torture their targets behind bars is as easy as turning a palm.

Hailee shuddered and immediately dismissed the idea, which left her with the last option, namely; escape.

Get as far as possible from the T city, hide in a remote place that is completely unknown to many people and stay there until the case dies down.

Maybe ten or twenty years later, Hailee will be able to regain her freedom only after they forgot about this case.

But, it is better when compared to the first option. With a renewed determination, Hailee stepped out of the bathroom.

Hailee deliberately didn't turn her gaze to the blood-stained body on the floor as she walked past it and went to examine the jacket and bag of Roland Dimatrio, the man she had killed, which were now lying on the floor.

Roland had kept all the important documents in his bag as well as some amount of cash in his jacket pocket and wallet.

Hailee immediately took all of it without leaving a single penny because she knew that she was in such a state where she needed every bill she could find.

It wasn't enough though, Hailee exhaled slowly and closed her eyes before she turned around and faced Roland Dimatrio's cold body once again.

Hailee quickly scanned his body when she caught sight of an expensive gold-plated watch, that the old man was wearing. The price of the watch was far more higher than all the cash Hailee could find in the room.

She felt like a robber when she removed the watch from Roland's fleshy arm and also took hold of the two rings from his finger.

Without realizing it, Hailee's survival instinct overcame her fear and she was grateful for it. Now is not the time to be spoiled and timid.

Even though her body was still trembling a little and her heart was racing, Hailee was much better than when she first saw Roland's corpse.

The next thing she got concerned about was; how she could get out of this hotel room without being noticed by the bodyguards of Roland who were waiting for him behind the door.

Luckily, before Roland died in her hands, the man had warned Alex not to disturb him regardless of whatever he would hear later. Therefore Hailee had quite a long time before the bodyguards realized that something was wrong and unnatural with the room.

There is one idea that Hailee could think of now, which was so tricky, yet it was worth a try. What else can she do? In a crazy state like this, it takes a crazy solution too, right?

Hailee knows that every luxury hotel room like this must be equipped with a microwave, therefore, she took the perfume bottle she had found earlier and put it in the microwave, previously Hailee had noticed the smoke detector adjacent to the sprinkler and pulled the cable to turn it on.

This is indeed the craziest experiment she had ever conducted. After setting the microwave to the highest temperature and longest period of time, Hailee immediately hid behind the curtain near the exit.

Those who would later hear the alarm from the smoke detector or the sound of an explosion from the microwave, wouldn't be able to realize that Hailee is not in the room in the middle of all this chaos.

Hailee hopes that her plan will go the way she wanted it to.

Wearing the large jacket of Roland's which bled her to cover half of her thighs because she was wearing nothing underneath and couldn't find her clothes anywhere, Hailee hid her small body behind the curtain, beside the door.

It felt like the seconds had turned into hours while Hailee's heartbeat would increase with each passing second with no sign of subsiding at all.

When a snapping sound could be heard, Hailee knew what she was waiting for was about to happen, therefore, she got ready by covering her ears with her palms tightly as a loud booming sound followed by a warning alarm blaring interrupted the silence of the room.