the blood I spilled

Victoria stood on the cold, dark, empty parking lot for around 10 minutes, shocked at her own actions, gun still in her hand. The man was laying on the ground, clutching his leg, trying to prevent the evident major blood loss he was experiencing, while screaming in pain. It was inaudible for her. The gunshot had momentarily messed her up her hearing. She could only hear a continuous bleep.

So when the police arrived she didn't ever hear the siren that preceded them. She turned around to face the officers who she assumed were yelling at her to drop her weapon. She complied. She let it fall to the ground, and kicked it.

The officers walked towards the scene concerned about the unknown guy bleeding out next to the front wheel of the black van, and the distraught young lady who apparently shot him. They called an ambulance for the man who was now pale and showing the classic sings of hypovolemic shock, they tried their best to keep him conscious but he succumbed to the gravity of his injuries and passed out.

They turned to Victoria to ask what had happened. She did her best to explain it to them, but her efforts were unsuccessful, she was too much of a mess to speak coherently. "Did I kill him?" Was the only sentence to come out of her mouth after a while. Her voice shaking with audible panic.

The lady officer, a woman in her mid forties, reassured her that everything would be okay, and insisted on her coming with them to the station, to formally take her statement. Victoria got in the back of the police car, watching the Cincinnati city lights glowing in the dark, still processing what happened. She also wondered about his boyfriend, who was nowhere to be found, and for a minute allowed herself to put a little bit of the blame of this circus on him. She pushed she selfish thought away quickly, thinking that had Joe been there, the story might have ended differently, since he wouldn't have hesitated to put his life in the line to protect hers. Yeah, it was better like this.

Joe woke up from his hibernation nap around half an hour later, unaware of the shit show that was going down a few miles away from his house, he didn't know that his girlfriend had just shot her godfather in the leg, that she had been taken to the police station, he didn't even know what time of the day it was. He panicked when he saw it was dark already, quickly reaching for his phone only to realize that it was dead.

"Fuck" he yelled, while desperately trying to turn it on. He was so groggy from his nap he didn't even remember where he had left his charger. He stormed through his nightstand, clumsily pulling every drawer out, dropping each of them to the ground, completely focused on his mission of getting in touch with Victoria. Once he was able to get a single digit percentage of battery power, he immediately called her. The call went straight to voicemail, the same way Victoria's calls from a few hours prior had never reached him.

He saw the multiple calls and messages she had left, in a desperate attempt to talk to him.

Victoria ❤️‍🩹:

Hey love, are you coming? 6:23 pm

I guess I'll wait for you to reply. You probably passed out on the couch. LOL 6:49pm

Joe I'm starting to worry about you, are you okay? 7:29 pm

Uhm I'm gonna Uber home. Why aren't you answering my calls? 7:47 pm

Then nothing. Absolutely no sign of hers. She never came home, she never got on the Uber she said she was gonna take.

Joe paced around his room pondering his options: he could either wait there in case she returned, there was no reason for him to believe that she was unable to get home, or he could drive to the University now, with the risk that she might already have left for home. "Fuck it", he grabbed his car keys and ran to his vehicle, he wasn't the type to stay in the comfort of his place while Victoria was M.I.A., specially with the potential risk of someone going after her. He was right to be scared.

He sped through the streets, jaw clenched, hands firmly grabbing the steering wheel, not saying a word out loud, but secretly praying to find her safe and sound.

A call from an unknown number came through the speaker of his car, that was connected to his phone. He pressed the green button on his car display.

"Hello?" He asked, with a dash of hope that the incoming call was somehow from Victoria.

"Joe?" She asked on the other side of the line, wondering how she would explain the events that took place a few minutes before.

"Victoria?!" He yelled, with a semi angry voice tone. He was so happy to finally learn that she was okay, but furious about her momentary disappearance.

"Joe... Well I don't know how else to say this so here it goes, I'm at the police station in broadway, I shot someone, the police let me call you from the phone, so it would be nice if you could uhm... come here"Victoria's face turned red with embarrassment to admit that she was in jail. She technically wasn't IN jail but to her it was the same thing.

"What the fuck?" Joe yelled while pulling his car to the side of the road, and bringing it to an abrupt halt.

"I'm sorry, I gotta go. I'm fine though, I just need you here.  Love you" she hung up the phone after those last few words.

For a minute Joe wondered if he wasn't still asleep, if this wasn't a very vivid and well structured nightmare, a joke his mind was playing on his sanity. He shook his head and turned around, heading to the address she had provided. The whole trip there he spent worried about her finally having enough of Sal and shooting the poor man dead.

"Victoria Marlowe? Do you know where they took her?" Joe asked the lady sitting at the front desk of the three story building that barely resembled a police station. The unfriendly woman looked up to him.

"Who is it that you're looking for again?" She asked.

"Victoria, Marlowe" he made a pause in between her name and last name.

"Ah, yes, she's currently giving her statement, we'll let you know when you can take her home. That young lady is something to be reckoned with. Remember not to piss her off" she joked. Joe didn't laugh at the comment. He turned around to take a seat in the waiting area, wishing for his girlfriend to come out of those crystal doors unscathed.

Detective Anderson arrived at the little square room Victoria was sitting in, all alone with her thoughts, reminiscing about the conversation she had with Arthur. He approached Victoria, his badge and ID was clearly visible. "Miss Marlowe, I'm Detective Anderson. We need to get your statement regarding the incident. It's important for our investigation." He muttered as he took a sit in the table directly across from her.

Victoria nodded, her heart still pounding from the confrontation with Arthur.

Officer Ramirez, the tall lady officer who had inspired so much trust in her, handed Victoria a bottle of water. "Take your time, Miss Marlowe. We're here to gather the facts. Whenever you're ready, we'll begin." She told her.

Victoria nodded, appreciating the consideration. She took a moment to compose herself, then began recounting the events, starting from her initial encounter with Arthur at the parking lot.

She described the conversation, his admission of involvement, and the final moments leading up to the confrontation. She included every detail she could recall, ensuring she didn't leave anything out.

Detective Anderson listened intently, occasionally asking for clarification or additional information. Officer Ramirez took notes, documenting Victoria's account.

"Why did you never approached the police department about the stalking?" Detective Anderson asked.

"I only had circumstantial evidence, nothing concrete" Victoria replied.

"Don't you think that's something for us to judge?"

Victoria nodded, feeling incredibly stupid for not reaching out before.

"That and the fact that I would've had to implicate my father" she admitted.

"The issue of your father it's not a concern to us, it's a different jurisdiction, a different country" he firmly told her, to ease her mind a bit about it. "This however" he paused "this is very much OUR jurisdiction, and will now be considered an active investigation"

Once she had finished, Detective Anderson thanked her for her cooperation. "Your statement will be crucial for our case, Miss Marlowe. We'll do everything we can to ensure your safety.""Is there anything else I can help you with?" She asked, still shaking.

"Not for now, just don't leave the city in the following days in case we need more information"

Victoria nodded, relieved that the process was over. She knew that her statement would contribute to bringing Arthur to justice.

She was escorted out, where she saw Joe sitting down on a bench that looked way too small for him, with his head between his hands, nervously shaking his leg.

"Hey" she said to him, once she had reached the bench where he was sitting.

"Oh thank God" he stood up and hugged her, squeezing her hard enough that she complained about being deprived of oxygen.

She smiled and rested her head against his chest.

"It's okay. I'm okay. Please let's go home" Joe nodded, walking out into the cold winter air, hand in hand with her, feeling like he could breathe for the first time in the night.

Once they reached his car, he could take a look at her, her light brown hair was a mess, her blouse was ripped, her arms had turned red with marks of hands on them, that would probably later turn into bruises, and she had a large blood stain in her left leg.

"Vi..." he pointed to the red circle in her jeans.

"It's not mine" she tried to reassure him.

"I was worried sick, I thought..." He couldn't finish the sentence.

"It's fine now. I'll tell you everything about it. But I need to take a shower first, I feel him still on my clothes" her clothes felt tainted by the smell of his cheap cologne and his blood.

"Let's get you there" he said as he picked her up and carried her up the stairs.

"Can you help me out a bit? My left arm hurts like a bitch" she shyly asked.

"Of course baby" she softly kissed her head.

Joe guided her to the bathtub, delicately wrapping his arms around her to help her lay down in it, after it was filled with warm water. She let herself be pampered by Joe's hands as he caressed her head, while distributing shampoo in her hair. Victoria's eyes were shutting down, the energy of the adrenaline's effect stared to wear off, leaving her drained, she was exhausted from not sleeping the night before. She had been awake for over 35 hours now.

"It was Arthur" she whispered in between shampoos, resting her head on the edge of the cold bathtub.

"Your godfather?" Joe asked, shocked.

"Yeah, he said my dad scammed him, and his wife Tonya let him. Melissa got depressed and put a gun in her mouth. He wanted payback for that and he felt that it was only fair for my dad to lose the only daughter he had left"

Joe tried to control the raging anger he felt, the idea of a crazy man hunting her down for her father's mistakes and trying to kill her was too infuriating.

"That crazy fuck. I'm gonna kill him"

Victoria smiled, with a sense of pride.

"You'll have to get in line" she softly muttered.

"I can't believe you shot the man" Joe finished scrubbing her body with her favorite vanilla cookie scented body wash.

"You know I can handle a gun" she half laughed.

"You are a menace miss Marlowe. I'm so glad you're okay"  Joe wrapped her up in a fuzzy towel.

"Do you think I killed him?" She asked him.

"I hope you did. One less scumbag walking this Earth" Joe angrily grunted.

"Joe..."

"Don't. I'm so fucking pissed off that the only thing stopping me from going to the hospital and killing him with my bare hands is that you need me right now" he helped her put his oversized hoodie on.

Joe tucked her in bed.

"I don't know how I would live with myself if he dies because of me. The man came to every single of my birthday parties, he watched me graduate high school and college. You don't forget that shit" she said, as she drifted off to sleep.

"Shh baby don't worry about that. We'll know more tomorrow. You need to sleep" Joe softly stroked her face, she looked as beautiful as always, even in this circumstances.

"I wish I had never agreed to meet him in the parking lot" her words slipped her mouth.

"You did what?"

"I'm sorry" she whispered.

"Sleep. We'll talk more tomorrow" Joe tried his best to hide the absolute rage in his voice.

Victoria fell asleep, finally feeling safe from the outside world. Joe on the other hand, couldn't wrap his head around Victoria's stupidity and carelessness with her life. It was as if she had no regard for her safety, always running towards dangerous situations. Meeting him alone in the fucking parking lot for fucks sake.

He was grateful that she had fallen asleep so quick, because he couldn't bear to look at her right now. She kept gambling on her life, and he was always left watching in the sidelines.

How long until her heedlessness costed her something she couldn't replace? Or him?

Hello, I'm sorry I've been a little absent. I hope you like the chapterOur girl is definitely going through it rnLove, phantomnarrator.