With a jerk he woke up, rubbed his eyes and sniffed. The smell almost choked him, his eyes became instantly red. Alarmed, he rushed out of his bed covering his nose with a shirt and made it for the door. By this time, the room was already clouded with smoke and it was hard for him to see the door.
He struggled for a while and then eventually squeezed the door knob and pushed the door open. Hot smoke welcomed him with a sharp embrace, the heat rivalled hell. He slowly made his way down the stairs, coughing and almost tripping. His throat was already taking in so much smoke and it was threatening to shutdown.
Finally at the bottom of the stairs, Jack caught a glimpse of his once beautiful house that now resembled a satan's palace. The kitchen was flaming with fire, it had made it's way to the living room and was now making it's way through the front door all the way to the roof. Jack thought for a split second instantly realizing that there was no way he was going to make it out through the front door.
He was too young to die, he'd barely finished college and secured himself a good paying job. There was no way he was dying now!, No way in hell. He made for the window that ran down the corridor, he barely used it but it was his only way out of this house. Luckily for him, the window was not locked, which was odd. He didn't have any time to think, he just pulled up the window and and jumped outside the house.
The street was already filled with worried neighbors and he could hear sirens getting closer. An old lady ran towards him and with a concerned voice she asked,
"Are you ok son???, I noticed the smoke from my window and immediately called 911", she said as she cleaned up his already decorated dark face.
He wanted to tell her he was alright but the words just didn't come out. He was terrified tired and a lot of thoughts ran through his mind especially one,
How the hell did his house catch fire??!!
Jack was having the worse time of his life, the Sheriff had informed him that it was a clear case of attempted murder. The main cause of the fire wasn't known yet, but it was certain that it wasn't started by any short circuits in the house or any other household mistakes. The fire had clearly been started with the intention to kill.
The big question was, who would want Jack dead?, How did the killer break into his house without raising any alarms?, and why did the killer not just walk up to his room and shoot him dead?.
There were a lot of questions and non had answers. He'd been interrogate for hours, recollecting who and who he'd offended. He made sure not to leave out any details of his thoughts but he still couldn't picture who the killer was. Mrs Kate couldn't go as far as trying to kill him because he always made the mistake of walking on her lawn when he was late for work. His boss Gary also had no motive even though he'd always threatened to kill Jack. Jack was his most hard earning staff and it'll be a shame to lose him.
There was no body else he could think of. Everyone else loved him, he was very friendly and didn't have any enemies, non that he could think of. He felt really heart broken thinking about it. What could he have done to make anyone try to kill him.
Months had passed and there was still no lead except a tiny piece of red scarf that had been almost burnt to bits. It was found just attached to one of his windows. Forensics weren't able to get prints from the scarf and there was no way to trace who it belonged to, anyone could own a red scarf.
" I think this case is a closed one, we're wasting our time!", the scrawny looking guy with broad giant shoulders who wore a badge "deputy sheriff" blurted out looking at Jack with a disgusted look. Jack wondered why he was so hostile and for a second there there was something familiar about this face.
I'm afraid Mr Donovan, there's really nothing we can do at this point, the case is beyond us. I hope you understand and try to be very careful from now on, the killer might still be out there", the Sheriff finally said with genuine pity in his eyes.
" No problem, I understand" was the last thing Jack said as he left. He could feel a ting of pain, not frustration, but pain, one he couldn't control, he hated feeling helpless and he certainly couldn't help feeling the urge to get to the end of this case, even if it'll cost him his life.
Nothing had interested him anymore, he just stayed at his parents place watching horror movies. Those was the only things that stirred up his interests. His parents had even suggested he go see a therapist, and try to get his life back on track. Jack hesitated, he certainly wasnt crazy.
On one perfect evening while he was watching another of his classic horror movies, a feeling of dejavu hit him. He'd done this before, the scene of this murder was something he'd seen before. It was almost exact, the way a young girl had been killed in the same gruesome way by a scary looking guy with a weird grin and red scarf!
He pushed back his chair and tried to think. Where have I seen this happen?, Where? Where!. He watched the scene all over again trying to recollect, then he got the answer. It was something he couldn't have ever imagined.
He'd found an old tape in the house he'd been living in, that was around the time he just moved in. A lot of people had been adamant to purchase the house because of the way the owner, a young lady had been gruesomely murdered. No one knew who did it, but she was found lying lifeless, with her head lying miles away from her body and it had been marked.
They had to remodel the house and make some changes to it but they didn't dispose of some of her things. There Jack was, excited to finally move in to a house of his own, he didn't care about such stuffs. He was cleaning through and disposing of some stuffs when he saw the tape. He didn't know what made him keep it and on one bored evening he decided to play it.
He heard screams, followed by pleas and then a lady was seen begging for her life on the floor. It was dark , not enough to see who the person standing in front of her was. What followed was a horrible killing, where the lady's head was cut off and the killer walked towards the camera and destroyed it.
Jack couldn't breathe when he remembered that the killer was tying a red scarf around his neck. He rushed to the attic in his parents house where he'd kept some of his old and unwanted stuff. He rummaged through it and found his old box with his name labelled on it. He opened it and found that the tape was still there, in one piece.
He went to his room, locked the door and played the tape. This time he watched with more rapt attention, taking note of small detail and when he found the killer's face a little clearly shown. He paused it, and zoomed it in. The face looked so familiar!, the features were unmistakable. Where had he seen such a face and physic before.
At that moment it dawned on him, the red scarf tied around the neck and the broad shoulders. This same face had knocked on his door some months ago asking to thoroughly search his house, because there was report of him doing drugs. This same face had spoken to him rudely when he was at the police station on countless occasions. This same face also had at the side of his pocket, a red scarf hanging almost invisible the last time they spoke, and he had noticed it.
It was the deputy sheriff!! The deputy sheriff was the killer!!
Thank you for reading this, if you enjoyed it or it connected to you in a way, I invite you to drop a comment I'll be glad to reply❤️