If I Died

                           ***

Arriving home that day, Aybel was finally ready to confront Aria about the situation.

However, as he loosened his tie, opening the front door, he came face to face with an image that would forever leave its imprint on his young mind...

Broken glass scattered across the carpet...

Overturned and shredded furniture...

Piles of broken wood...

A smashed television...

But the worst thing of all...

Blood... 

Large pools of it, everywhere.

In puddles on the carpet, dripping from the ceiling, smeared on the walls, splattered on whatever was left of the furniture.

It was as if someone had been brutally murdered... And for a single second, just for a fleeting moment... Aybel felt his heart stop.

Slowly, he stepped further into the apartment, walking over to his room wondering what state it was in...

CREAK!

The door pushed open.

Aybel found his room in not much of a better shape than the rest of the apartment.

It was full of bloodstains and glass shards from the broken window, impossible to move around without stepping on something sharp.

His bookshelf, surprisingly untouched, but the dresser was toppled over onto the floor and his triple arch bed was on its side.

And then, he saw it.

On the wall where his bed used to be - a message written in blood...

Aria's signature scribbles...

"Dear brother," the message read.

"Why the stunned face? You're home now, too! We can finally spend time together like we used to, right? Right?! Anyway, forgive me but I didn't have any paint, so my blood has to do. My favorite game, you see... it's called Cut and Seek. Get it, Hide and Seek, 'Cut and Seek.' Clever, right...!?"

"How it works, you wonder? It's simple really..."

"First, I cut open my skin to leave behind a trail of bloody clues that will lead you directly to me."

"That's it... See? Simple."

"Will you succeed in finding me before I die? Or am I already dead...?"

"It's all up to you brother~                       - Love your dearest little sister, Aria."

Aybel stared at the wall in silence before letting out a heavy sigh as he took in the sight of the destroyed room.

...Here I am... riding the high of my own little thrill seeker adventure, only to be rudely slapped in the face with this pitiful sight...

A game...

At the time, I truly had no idea why Aria asked me about the game. I thought it was a little random, but I didn't think too much about it. I was just... genuinely happy to spend time with her.

Picking up a piece of a ruined halo jigsaw puzzle, he held it up in front of him.

"So much time and effort..." He muttered aloud. "Just last night, I completed this one hundred and three piece puzzle... And now, it's useless..."

He sighed once more, disappointed.

Figures, it's not like I thought we'd be playing a board game or anything. She's clearly not right in the head. I know that...

In a way, it makes me wonder if she was already planning on committing suicide by that point. Or perhaps it was even before that...

Is this her way of wanting to spend a little time with me before she kills herself... her final legacy to me...? A game of life and death… how reckless of you.

Very well, Aria. A game I never wanted to play, but one I most certainly WILL NOT LOSE.

Returning to the hallway, Aybel took note of the several blood trails snaking their way and zigzagging across various rooms.

As disturbing as it is, fortunately, Aria has been generous enough with her clues.

Even so, this is going to be much harder than I thought... there are plenty of rooms, closets and places where she could hide.

She's making me work for it. So many twists and turns... it's almost impossible to tell where she could be...

Almost.

Aybel wrinkled his nose, balancing his glasses on the tip.

Stale blood. It's quite nauseating.

He walked through the hallway, very calmly.

Going by the darker color, the blood in my bedroom is the most dried... the first room she bled in.

While walking, he avoided stepping on the bloodstains.

The blood here is starting to dry...

Tracing a finger along the wall, he inspected the blood on it carefully.

This particular trail is still fairly fresh though.

He looked at the bright trail of blood. It zigzagged from the walls to the floor leading to a room at the end of the hall.

The bathroom...

So that's where she's hiding. Hmm... When I think carefully about it, she could simply be hiding in her own room just as well.

No... I don't have time to debate. Aria's not so simple minded that she would do something like that.

I'll have to be quick about this, she might already be dead by now...

Following the blood trail, Aybel arrived at the entrance of the room. He took a deep breath, ready to witness a gruesome sight...

Upon entering, he noticed several bloody knives sticking out of the wall.  But what immediately caught his eye - the hand sticking out of the huge pool of blood that filled the bathtub...

Pinned to the bathtub by a knife, was a small piece of paper. Aybel reached out and detached it.

There was a short message written on it in Aria's handwriting:

"You found me! Good job, you win!"

To Be Continued...