Obsessive ~ Noah Foster [1]

Chapter Nine// Hospital Time pt. 2

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"Stay the hell away from me, or I'll break something you love."

--Gustavo Acosta

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"Oh, my God!" I cried, running towards him. "Noah? Arielle? What the hell!" Audrey and Emma stood before us, Audrey with a crowbar in hand, and Emma with a small tazer. Noah groaned, as he laid in the dried up blood-stained floor. Noah lifted his head up. "Did you just try to taze my man parts?!" Noah yelled in disbelief. "Get up." Audrey and Emma both grabbed Noah's arms, and pulled him up.

"What are you doing here?" Emma asked us softly. "Does that really require an explanation? You know I wanna make this guy pay just as much as you do." Noah huffed, dusting his pants off. "I can't believe you guys wouldn't take us with you!" I frowned at the two girls. "This person killed my cousin--he killed Nina." I raged. "Look, Arielle, I am sorry, but you just got out of the hospital, and I couldn't just let you be thrown back into this." Emma explained, truth in her pretty green eyes. "If you guys want someone to blame, it should be me." Audrey said, touching Noah's arm. "Guys, we have bigger problems." Emma said. She gestured for us to follow her through the tarp, and into a small room... I didn't quite understand what was wrong with it... "Holy Christmas!" Noah exclaimed. "I knew it."

"What?" I asked, following after him. He shined the light on his phone at the room. There was a mattress on the ground, and... I couldn't see past the blood. Everything had blood on it. "Oh, it's a genuine killer's lair!" Noah said, excitedly. "That's a thing?" Emma sputtered. "Oh, please don't get him started." Audrey sighed. "A lair is an extension of the killer's psychosis. The root cellar in Psycho, Kevin Spacey's apartment in Se7en, Hannibal Lecter's kitchen. I mean, every fictional killer has one." Noah said, getting more and more excited. "So he's been living here?" I wondered aloud, crossing my arms. "I highly doubt it." Noah whispered. I frowned at him. "No, this looks staged. I mean, you see lairs on TV, not in real life. Take Pretty Little Liars--"

"Ooh, A's lair!" I raised my hand, and jumped up. Noah smiled at me. "Exactly. They're always chock-full of bloody clues and creepy, unrealistics icons. I mean, seriously, how would A get her hands on four Victorian dolls that look just like the main characters. Where do you shop for that?" Noah scoffed. "Uhm, because she went and got them made. I mean, it's not that hard. She could've easily gone to a doll-making-store, and showed the person the pictures of the girls, and boom!" Audrey focused the camera on me. "Four Victorian dolls." I finished. "Okay, but how would that work. Where is there a "Doll-making-store"?" Noah furrowed his eyebrows at me. "Evil American Girl Store?" Audrey suggested. Noah scoffed, then went silent. He turned back to Audrey and Emma. "I can't believe you two came here without me." Noah shook his head. "Yeah, you're right." Emma said suddenly. We all looked at her, as she stood in the corner. "After you." I squinted my eyes, and walked closer to see what she was gesturing to.

Turns out, there was another pathway. Noah sighed, but led the way. I stayed in the back, looking around. That's when I bumped into Emma's back. "Sorry." I whispered. Noah, Audrey, and Emma stared at a table, that looked like it had three things on it. "That was Rachel's." Audrey pointed to a mini figurine. "That's Nina's necklace." I whispered, looking at the beautiful red necklace. "That's Riley's keychain." Noah said. "Bastard took souvenirs." Audrey focused the camera on the items. "I got that for her on her birthday." I murmured. "Jesus." Emma touched my shoulder. "Guys." Audrey whispered. They focused their lights on the ceiling, where black and white pictures hung. "The missing yearbook pictures." Emma said. "It's you." Audrey whispered to Emma. "What?" I looked closer to see a picture of Emma hanging in the middle of all the pictures. "What is this?" I whispered in horror. "I think we should go." Audrey said, putting her camera down. "Yeah, the charm's wearing off." Noah gulped. Emma suddenly put her light down, and walked towards one of the shelves. "Emma, what are you doing?"

"Oh, my God, that's Nina's laptop." Emma told us. She reached down on the shelf, and grabbed two blue gloves. "The police have been looking for this." Emma announced, grabbing the laptop, and plopping it down on a small table that was there. "I bet." Audrey lifted her camera back up, and pointed it at Emma and the laptop. Emma opened the laptop, and was in immediately. "Whoa. Folders of all her friends? Maybe photos?" Emma shrugged. "Was she friends with the mayor? Principal Showalter?" Noah read the names. "The sheriff?" Audrey chimed in. "Nina, what the hell were you doing?" Emma asked. Emma clicked on one of the folders, but they wouldn't open. "They're encrypted. I could get 'em open, but I'd need some time." Noah assured. "Arielle?" Emma uttered. "Yeah?" I whispered. "There's a file of you..." I rolled my eyes. "Of course there is. She couldn't forget about me, now could she?"

"I got it." Audrey went to grab the laptop, but was blocked off by Emma. "Wait."

"Emma, we gotta take this." Audrey declared. "This is evidence." Emma chided. "We should let the police deal with this."

"Because they handled the Riley situation so well." Noah said facetiously. "Emma, there's a file with your name on it, Arielle's too. Aren't you the least bit curious?" Audrey snorted. "I just feel like this is all a test and when I fail, people die." Emma argued. "You didn't come here to do nothing." Audrey hissed. Suddenly there was the sound of metal clattering. "Hey... uh, guys... someone's coming." I whispered. "Wait, does your camera have an SD card?"

"Yeah, hang on." Audrey told her. I grabbed Noah's arm, and pulled him towards the doorway of the small pathway. "Guys, hurry up." Noah said. "Hang on. Five seconds." Emma shushed Noah. "Perimeter alert!" Noah sucked his teeth in. Audrey ran her fingers through her hair stressfully. "Seriously, guys. We gotta go!" I shook. The door opened and closed. The same door, we all came in through. "Guys! Come on. Let's go. Hurry up." Audrey hounded Emma. "Emma, we have to go." I pleaded. "Okay, alright. We're done!" Emma shut us up, as she took the SD card out of the laptop, and shut the laptop. "We got it, we got it, we got it. Okay, okay. Let's go!" Emma handed Audrey the card, and put the laptop back safely where it was before.

Then she shoved us all out of the small area. "Hey, what's that?" Emma asked suddenly, pointing above. On a top shelf, there was a mask. The same mask that the person wore... when he killed Riley. "Oh, it's Brandon's mask." Noah told us. "Leave it." Audrey and I said in unison. "We have to go."

But Emma didn't listen. "There might be DNA on it!" She grabbed the mask, and as soon as she did, something behind it fell off the shelf. It looked like a head. "AHHHHHH!" We all screamed in unison, for what seemed like two whole minutes.

I was the first to start running. "Oh, my GOD!" Emma screeched. "Oh, man, that is wrong!" I cried. They all followed behind me as I ran. "That is Tyler's head!" Emma revealed. I almost puked as we ran. That was Tyler... The cut on my thigh burned, as I used all my energy to run, my friends behind me. "There is no way he killed ANYBODY!" Audrey shouted. "Come on, he's coming!" Emma cried. "Shit, we gotta go!" Noah yelled. We went back through those double doors, and raced down the hallway with the thick, thick blood. Suddenly I stopped, when I heard someone coming from that way. "This way!" Audrey panted. We all slid, and then turned to the right, running. Emma grunted, as she pushed through another double door. "Back exit!" Audrey screamed. She shone the light over our heads. But Emma stopped. There was a bunch of tables there. "Oh, my God!" I cried. "This way!" Noah yelled, pulling me with him. We were stopped again, as lights were shined in our faces. I covered my face, but looked past it to see Sheriff Hudson. "Oh, shit..." I uttered. "You four, with me. Now."