Chapter 3

The lights were flicked off by trembling fingers, my skin growing cold as I stepped out the door. Palms rubbing together, weary feet made their way towards the meeting room. Christopher seems to have already left, considering his work room is right outside my door like Jolene's is. I blew out a breath, trying to keep my exhale light. Although in my chest the air felt downbreaking. All the doors were wide open per usual, except there was a dreadful chill this day. I kept my eyes focused in front of me, noting everyone's cool yet distraught expressions as I walked in the room. I was the last one to enter, due to all my nerves. After all, today marks one exact week since Tara was murdered… by one of us. I was the only one who was too busy with my workload to write a journal entry. That's probably the reason for their shifty gazes lingering on me.

The window was open, but the wind heard rattling the shutters outside seemed much more preferable than breathing in this suffocating air inside. After I stood around like a startled deer for a moment, Ashley had cleared her throat and offered me an open seat at the table. The rest of the chairs were filled, and Tara's usual spot remained as vacant as the mood in this desolate room. As if her empty seat was taunting everybody here. I held back a shudder as William piped up. "Shall we get started, then?" Christopher opened his mouth to speak next, a puzzled gaze wandering around the table. "Hold on a moment… where's Lucinda?" Jolene's eyes widened as she perked up, giving the room a second look around. A kindred voice broke the tense silence following Jolene's and Christopher's perplexed faces, including my own. "She said that she was going to put the cleaning supplies back into the closet, since someone had left them out in the hallway. She should be joining us soon." Seemingly all at once, everyone's hearts had begun pattering slower, shaken souls thrumming more softly at Ashley's reassuring words.

I hummed in acknowledgement, nodding my head once. As if that quiet sound would act as a barrier-breaker rather than a mere wordless answer, that meant nothing at all to anyone or the situation at hand here. The lights everyone had previously carried in their eyes had dimmed to hollow pools of dark thoughts. Darkening even more so as time passed. My line of vision flickered to the clock hands ticking. Before my mind could process it, I had blinked and somehow ten minutes had gone by. The supply closet was in the delivery room where Lucinda works, right next door to the meeting room where we all currently sat waiting. I glanced up at the others and spoke through bitten lips and a numb tongue. "Should I go next door and check up on her?" William must have noticed my growing apprehension, for he sighed and nodded. "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Can't wait forever." Ashley glanced at him, with a look that I couldn't quite place, as he mentioned that last part. I blinked a couple times, standing up from my chair and telling myself that any strange reactions were most likely the cause of paranoia. Just because people say I'm observant doesn't mean there's something going on from a quick look.

I walked past the open door and stepped into the delivery room just a few feet across. There was no trace of movement or sound, not even a hint of a page slipping from the one of the paper stacks piled up on a corner table. Afternoon light reflected another snow storm in the window pane. The navy curtains were swaying from the heater being turned on full blast due to the frigid temperature. A sense of timelessness was caught in my lungs as the sound of my worn boots squeaked on the recently mopped floorboards. The wood was chestnut, although it took on a mahogany hue in some areas. I brushed it off, assuming the fading sunlight to be the cause. The door to the supply closet in the back was shut. Curiosity and bubbling dread clouded my sight, mind in a fog as sharp pangs started in my chest. Forcing myself to breathe, I reached out with a pale, shaking hand to grasp the smudged doorknob. In the moment that creaking white-wood door opened, I failed to decipher whether or not the knob was silver or gold. My arm dropped to my side as I took a wavering step back. A clenched hand was gripping the edge of the ashen-colored plastic shelf. Locks of dark hair fell over blue-toned skin, hovering above parted lips as it splayed outwards to the side and partially covered a bruise-covered neck. Casting the hidden eyes in an endless, lifeless shadow.

My heart pounded mercilessly, breath hitching as a distant ringing hummed dully in my ears. "No…" I hadn't realized my lips were moving to let the dry croak in my throat out. "Why…" Her name barely escaped my heaving lungs as I reeled back in realization of the freezing truth, forcing shudders down my spine. I bolted out of the delivery room and away from that wretched closet. Was it the same murderer? Everyone's eyes snapped to my presence as I stumbled into the room. Jolene narrowed her eyes with an emotion that was too complex for my state of mind to handle at the moment. Ashley frowned, chin tilted at my fragile composure. William blinked at me in a silent question, one that made my head hurt when jostled thoughts tried to unravel it's meaning. I struggled to breathe. Christopher let the shivers racking my form and the desperation in my eyes sink in before he spoke. My nerve-ridden heart wouldn't allow me to suppress a flinch at his worried, yet firm tone. "What happened?" I barely felt my lips parting or my tongue-tied mouth moving to speak. "Lucinda." Everyone stiffened at my one word response, the answer being clear enough with the situation we were trapped in. "She's… dead?" Ashley's voice was frail, lips quivering as she asked the rhetorical question.

My senses barely registered Christopher standing up and moving towards me slowly. Tear tracks stained my paled face. He drew closer, expression unreadable to my burning lungs. I stared at nothing, unable to do anything else. The fuzzy black spots that danced around the edges of my sight took that moment to move towards center stage. Everything became dark and blank.