Dark Lies (House of Sin 2)

I go inside and walk up the familiar staircase until I get to my door. But I realize I don’t have a key. Eli took it, along with all my other belongings, even my phone. And I never got a chance to take any of it back.

Taking in a big breath, I turn around and make my way to my landlord, who lives just one story up. Maybe he can help me out. I know I haven’t been here for a very long time, and that rent has probably been due many times, but if I explain my situation …

He’s going to call the police … Who will come and check my apartment for the body of a missing guy.

Chills run down my spine.

I don’t want to go to jail.

Still, I have to try for the sake of my own sanity. To truly get all of my memories back, I have to see straight into my own past.

I sigh out loud as my hand hovers near his door. Then I knock.

The guy opens up within a minute, and the look on his face speaks volumes.

“Amelia?”

“Hi,” I reply awkwardly.

“I thought you were—Oh my God, where’ve you been?” he asks.

I blush. “Um … it’s hard to explain.”

“Ahh … of course,” he says, clutching the door.

“Sorry, I just … is my apartment still available?”

He frowns. “Well, it was, but you didn’t pay the last few times I asked for rent, and you were never there, so I put it up online as available for renting.”

My lips part. “Oh …”

Of course, why didn’t I think of that?

He clears his throat. “But if you pay me tomorrow, I can give the apartment back to you.”

I look away briefly, ashamed of not being able to pay him what he’s due. “No, I’m sorry, I can’t.”

“I understand,” he says, nodding.

“But I will pay you back,” I quickly say. “I promise, I will pay back what I owe you.”

He nods a few times, and the conversation grows stale.

“I just … wish I could visit the apartment one last time. You know, for old time’s sake,” I say, adding a gentle smile. “I never actually got to say goodbye.”

He narrows his eyes. “Something bad happen to you?”

I look down at my feet, unsure of how to answer. I wish I could tell someone what happened to me, but to do so would put my own safety at risk. And that’s just not worth it.

“I was just a little lost. That’s all,” I lie.

He just throws me this look but then sighs and releases the doorjamb. He fishes a key from his pocket and throws it at me. I barely manage to catch it in time.

“I’ll need that back within three days,” he says.

“Thanks,” I reply, with a big smile on my face.

“Just don’t make a mess of the place. I still need to get it refurbished.”

“Of course,” I reply, and I quickly take off before he changes his mind.

I go back to my apartment and stuff the key into the lock, but before I push open the door, I pause, lean in with my forehead against the wood, and breathe out.

You can do this, Amelia. You can face your own worst nightmares.

With a final breath, I go inside and close the door behind me.

The silence is murderous to the point that it makes me choke on my own oxygen. When I look into the kitchen, at the spot where I killed Chris, vivid images of his death flood my mind, and I can see my hand swinging that knife straight into his body.

My pulse begins to race.

I go to where his body is. Or where it should be.

Because it isn’t there.

Along with all the blood … of which every speck has disappeared.

Chapter 6

Amelia

The day my whole life changed, I immediately went back home after I woke in a field in the middle of nowhere. But I didn’t know back then what I know now.

I didn’t know there was supposed to be a dead body on the floor, which somehow magically disappeared.

The whole thing still feels like such a blur. But the more time I spend here, the more the memories begin to seep back in.

I go to my knees and touch the floor where Chris’s body once lay, but it’s completely empty. The entire place is squeaky clean. As if he was never there to begin with.

And the knife … the knife that I stabbed him with is gone too.

The last time I saw it, Eli thrust it into the chair, and I used it to threaten him. I remember hearing the blade clatter to the ground. My hand rises to cover my mouth. If that was really the knife, my knife, then Eli must’ve taken it from this apartment.

Which means he was here.

Is that why Chris’s body is gone?