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“What!?” he yelled, his body starting to shake. He couldn't believe what the man was saying; that monster was in the same city as his baby while Will was across the country. His insides churned in fear as he thought about Aria all alone out there.
“I have one of my men following him. He checked into a hotel yesterday morning, and hasn't left it since then.”
“Okay. I'll be on my way as soon as possible. Do not let him out of your sight!” Will growled and hung up the phone. It looked like he was going to go back home sooner than he had expected.
~
Will checked the time for the fiftieth time in the last ten minutes and gritted his teeth. He was currently on his plane, flying back to New York and he couldn't shake the restlessness that had gripped him from the moment he found out about David. He wanted to call Aria right away, but he changed his mind at the last minute since he didn't want to worry her, especially when he was not around to assure her that everything was going to be alright.
He tapped his leg against the carpeted floor as his hands gripped the armrests of his seat tightly. He could see Maria casting worried glances towards him every few seconds, but he chose to ignore it since she would just try to talk to him and spew around how everything was going to be alright and he didn't have the patience for that.
“How much longer?” he asked the flight attendant, just as the pilot announced that they will be landing in twenty minutes. He sighed in relief, and laid his head against the headrest, trying to slow down his racing heart.
As soon as they landed, he was out of the door and in his car, not spearing a second before pulling out of the parking lot and rushing to Aria's apartment. It was the middle of the night and the traffic wasn't so bad so Will was able to get there in half an hour.
He rushed inside, cursing his luck when he saw that the elevator was broken, and then proceeded to run up the six flights of stairs. By the time he was in front of Aria's door, Will was out of breath and he could feel sweat rolling down his spine.
He knocked a couple of times but there was no answer so he tried calling Aria’s phone, thinking that she was in his apartment, but his calls kept going to voicemail.
He was getting frustrated and not a little bit worried, so he tried the knob in one last desperate attempt and in the next second the doors flew open. Will rushed into the dark apartment, shouting for Aria, but he was met with complete silence.
He saw the light was on in the living room and went there, thinking that Aria was asleep and just hadn’t heard him, but there was no one there. He started to turn around when something on the wall caught his eye so he came closer and once he saw what it was, his heart skipped a beat.
She is mine.
J.
The ominous words were written across the white wall, in what appeared to be blood, but Will prayed that he was mistaken.
His hands started to shake, his mind screaming with several gruesome scenarios as he fell to his knees. He had failed Aria again. He had promised her that no one was ever going to hurt her again and he had failed.
Will quickly got his phone out of the pocket, and saw ten missed calls from Fabian, so he quickly called him back.
“Mr. Jacobs!”
“Where the fuck is he!?”
“He went out this afternoon and went to an apartment complex. He stayed there for a couple of hours and then came out with a large suitcase. My guy tracked him down to some house in the Brooklyn and he is still there.”
“Send me the address right now and meet me there! That son of a bitch has Aria. And Fabian don't forget the gun.”
The rescue
Aria was walking through a dark hallway, looking at the beautifully carved maroon doors stretched out on each side as far as her eyes could see.
She deliberated in opening the first one, scared of what was waiting for her on the other side since her dreams rarely held good things. Making a quick decision she threw one open and stood at the doorway, watching the scene unfold.
A memory, she thought, watching as her younger self sat on the swing alone, in the almost deserted schoolyard. Aria knew what was coming next, and she wanted to turn around and close the door but something held her in place.
The older girls came after a while, shouting insults and barbs at her as soon as they saw her, just like they did so many years ago.
“Little Ari, scared little pussy! Are you going to cry!? Look, guys, she is going to cry! Quick someone call her mommy!” the biggest of them taunted, pulling on her hair, while her younger version drew in on herself and silently wept.
The door closed with a soft click and the one across it opened.
This memory was a more recent one, Aria’s last year of high school. She saw herself standing by her locker and holding a picture of her dad and her, the last one they took before the man died.
She saw Mindy and her gang coming closer and started shouting at her younger self to hide the picture and run away, but her cries fell on deaf ears.
